Star Field elite players’ all-round performance worked to a good effect to help them to a first win post lockdown against Sikh Union under-19 squad at the latter’s ground on Saturday afternoon.

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Captain Tirth Babariya won the toss and chose to bat first however, the start that he had hoped for did not materialize as expected. Sikh Union’s under-19 hopefuls Aum Patel (1/10) and Gurleen Singh (1/19) accounted for the dismissal of two of Star Field’s top three batters for paltry scores of 5 (Zack Smith) and 2 (Pravin Kannah) inside the first three overs to reduce the visitors to 14 for two.

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Skipper Babariya then set out to repair the earlier damage together with Anudeep Sharma (11 off 19 balls) whom they combined with to put together 31 runs for the third wicket. Sharma fell to a sharp catch taken by Singh off the bowling of Raj Manji. Babariya stayed on to bring up his run-a-ball quarter-century of runs before becoming Modi’s only victim caught by Bobby Singh with scores at 56 for four from 9.3 overs.

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Babariya’s dismissal induced a mini-collapse where Star Field lost the next four wickets for just 22 runs before the coming together of the lively Jiyan Patel (21 off 21 balls) and Aarnav Patel (7 off 14 balls) stemmed the fall of wickets and steered the Desai road based side to 95 runs at the conclusion of 20 overs.

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In response Sikh Union’s chase never got going as speedsters Kevin Mutembei (3/12) and William Ngare (2/15) combined to a devastating effect and reduced the home side to 14 for three at the conclusion of the powerplay overs.

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Former Kenya under-19 batsman Dilan Shah (22 off 29) and Jeet Amin (13 off 20) briefly held Star Field at bay with their contributions with the bat, but as soon as slow left arm orthodox spinner Yash Talati was introduced into the fray, Sikh Union runs dried up and the pressure told as wickets followed soon. 32 for four became 62 for seven, within a span of seven and a half overs, Amin being one of them having been caught and bowled off Babariya’s only scalp. 

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Shah later found support in Gurleen (10 off 9 balls) and Ashdeep Singh (15 off 10 balls) to bring the game close however Star Field slammed the door shut with an-eight run difference to claim an important win against a strong Sikh Union team.