Result: TITANS won by 3 wickets.

Pre quarter final big game meeting one of the good teams from Pool A against whom we have had 1-3 record till now, but a new season and the confidence of a win during the practice games against the same opponent. Pretty much we were all aware of what they would throw at us. Saturday was cloudy and under overcast conditions with rain pouring down in installments was all a reminder of what happened last year. Abhay who has emulated Ricky Pointing in terms of loosing the toss maintained the stream But the start of some brilliant fast bowling by Krishna and Bhaskar dispelled all doubts if ever that this game was out of our reach. Bhaskar, it would be injustice if I do not mention this about him at the start of the season we all used to say if he bowled on the stumps he would be lethal when he used to bowl wides an no balls. He has got into such a nice rhythm that when he is bowling these days the only anticipation when people field is whether it would be a bowled or wicket keeper dismissal. Krishna on the other hand not only puts a strangle hold on the opposition but casts doubts on the rest of their batting order as to what do I need to do to survive this spell. Day one on Saturday saw a very good display of bowling and some resilience from Evergreen�s to set the TITANS a target of 82 for their first quarter final in 3 years. Highlight of TITANS fielding was Chetan�s catch at midoff and Bhaskar�s mockery of the way to take deep catches. Bhaskar and Stalin started in promising fashion and Bhaskar took the Arial route against Muthu to set the tone of the run chase. If TITANS were to make sure that they win if it rained they had to make sure they score 65/2 in 12 overs. But the loss of Bhaskar brought in Lakshman and with 5 dot balls you could say sanity was restored in the Evergreens camp. A short one from Sriram saw the first boundary from Lakshman�s bat and Vinay all pumped up. At the end of 5 overs TITANS were coasting along at 22/1 when heavens opened and the relief in the Evergreens camp was understandable. Game was scheduled to be played the next day at Avondale park.

Day 2 as it happened
Early start at the request of the opponent team and the game was decided to be started at 8:30 A.M. Evergreens won the toss and elected to bat. Evergreens had brought in an extra batsman to bolster their line up.

Evergreens Innings:
Once again a brilliant spell of fast bowling by Bhaskar and Krishna set the tone of the day. With the batting change working Evergreens were looking to build a solid start after consolidating the first 4 overs. Abhay immediately made the bowling change seeing the intent of the opponent in just seeing of the overs of Bhaskar and Krishna a very shrewd piece of captaincy. Abhay and Vinay took the reigns over and Vinay was finally rewarded for some brilliant piece of bowling and a sharp catch by Stalin saw the back of Sudhi. Vinay was not only picking wickets he also had a strangle hold on the batsmen in terms of their scoring. Suddenly Evergreens lost the plot and started defending and were not even thinking of rotating the strike. In came Naveen who just bowled beautifully and was rewarded in first over thanks to a sharp catch by Vinay at short midoff of a full blooded drive still the TITANS were in search of the wicket of Minal Santhosh. Some tight bowling Vinay made sure that he was not on strike for 3 overs and Naveen in his second over had his man this time at point into the safe hands of the skipper. Minal back in the pavilion and in the space of 3 balls Naveen again got a wicket a very good catch at point by the skipper and we had Evergreeens at 24/4. Enter Sumit and we had our best catching fielders in the deep. Evergreens played very cautiously to see thru the 1st session of the day and at the end of 12 overs they were 31/4. Vinay and Naveen continued the good work but it was the old war horse that did the trick again I cannot stop myself in praising Abhay on this for making sure the bowling changes were spot on he did not bring Bhaskar/Krishna but decided to take the responsibility on himself to get the prized scalp of the danger man Sumit a classic catch by Krishna at the edge of the boundary line which would have made Richie Benaud proud and on reflection would remind one of the phrase Catches win Matches. TITANS had a strangle hold on Evergreens and they were on the rocks at 40/8 after 18 overs with 6 more overs of Bhaskar and Krishna to come the writing of their batting failure was on the wall. Sriram along with Sai tried to undo the initial damage done to post 62 runs on the board.

TITANS Innings:
With 63 runs to win and secure a place in the quarter final the plan was simple play the ball on merit with no risks. Stalin and Bhaskar started the innings and Bhaskar falling to a peach of a delivery that move a shade outside the offstump and the score was 1/1. Lakshman took a single of the first ball he faced and the faced the next 3 balls of Kiran an unorthodox Leg Spinner and played forward to a ball that took the shoulder of the bat and was caught at silly point. The ball on retrospection should have been played on the backfoot. Cometh the Hour Cometh the man �Saurav �. Stalin and Saurav batted beautifully dispatching the loose balls for 2�s and with no sense of urgency in their batting and steadied the ship to 34/2 at the break. Stalin was then bowled a loose shot but a very well played innings. In came the most prolific batsman of the season Vijay and started his innings with a lot of promise but a loose cut shot saw his back and at 39/4 walked in Krishna and along with Saurav milked the bowling to take the score to 49/4 when Krishna shouldered his arms to a ball outside the off stump and a loud shout for lbw saw his back a decision which would have made only Shakoor Rana proud, but a word of advice to Krishna it is always better to use bat because of the lack of LBW knowledge on the part of the umpires. Walked in Abhay and his innings was short lived thanks to a direct hit by Kiran. With 6 wickets down Naveen was sent and the pressure took the better of him and he edged a straight catch to the keeper with 7 wickets down and with the pressure of scoring the required runs within 12 balls to make sure the 6th spot was a possibility there were a few flutters in the TITANS camp. The only task was to make sure Saurav got the strike but Vinay had other plans and decided to show the long handle to the Evergreens that this match was with TITANS and stroked a 5 ball 7 runs to make sure TITANS won the game and made sure TITANS secured their quarter final birth. Great captaincy , spirited players and team work is the new TTIANS formulae for success.

Winning is sweet but what makes it even better is when the sacrifice commitment hardwork and sincerity of the individuals bear fruits. Special thanks to Sriram, Sreeraj for their commitment and hats off to Vinay who postponed his surgery to make sure that he could offer everything to the team in terms of experience, bowling and batting. Last but not the least Vijay you have been the architect of this team�s success this year despite your marriage plans you made sure that the team was always ahead and have been a trouper when the reigns was taken over by Abhay. Great win guys it was a pleasure to be part of the win let�s make sure we move on and make it count again in the quarter final.
Match Report by Srinivas Lakshman

Sporting moment of the match : "Stalin had a bad day catching on Saturday. Today when the match was replayed, scorer made a comment about his catching. He took a beautiful catch soon after behind the wicket to shut him up."