Aman and Manas opened the innings and immediately felt the pressure. As
balls zipped past the bat and stumps, few edges were all that could amount
to runs. Sundeep was the first to strike with his trademark sinking fully
pitched delivery right on the off which caught the ouside edge on a drive
and flew staright into Shiva's hands at point. Early breakthrough meant
more pressure on the visitors - and it showed again. Sundeep struck again
as he got raghav to edge a ball which stayed low and towards first slip who
was standing fairly wide; but not wide enough for the keepers hands. Nikunj
took an absolute blinder, lunging outstretched to his right and scooping
the ball only a few inches from the ground. Manas on the other end kept the
scoreboard ticking with some good strokeplay and sensible batting. Outside
of extras, which were plenty, there was no support for Manas in the
batting. Kuljeet and lokesh took care of the next two bats again with edges
safely taken by the "little Patel master" behind the stumps. Then it was
time for the older Patel brother to shine as Hiren pretty much cleared the
rest of the lineup with some clever bowling - including an excellent
stumping on Manas by none other that Nikunj himself. In the end, akron was
all out for 124 in 30.2 overs. Hiren ended up 4/21 in 5 overs and Nikunj
had been involved in 4 dismissals. The Patels were on a mission.

Cleveland took over the batting confident in their ability to chase the
target - Sameer and Nikhil opened the innings. Sameer looked good early,
watching the balls closely but unfortunately was c&b to a full toss that
had him in two minds - swing for the fences or defend?? Nikunj was the
next man in and from the get go he lokked superb - immediately dominating
the bowlers with pulls / cuts / flicks behind square. On the other end,
nikhil was also looking solid as ever with a couple of his classic pulls
over square to the boundry. It looked as if the game would be finished
pretty soon at the rate the two batmen were playing - but confidence got
the best of Nikhil in the end. He went for a soli hit over midwicket,
ended up loosing his balance on the follow through of his shot (which
ended up mis-timed) and took of his OWN bail - HIT WICKET! Can't say that
many of us have seen that in a while. Either way, 20 quick runs from
nikhil was still an excellent innings. Shiva was the next man and soon
after the next man OUT! Again a full toss, a loose slow one, right on the
hips, but mistimed and easily snatched by the fielder at deep square. All
of a sudden, the tone of the game changed - and the pressure was back on
cleveland. Akron was bowling a tight line. Sai came in next and
immediately dispatched a boundary to long on - unfortunately he was run
out for 6 on a mix up with Nikunj. At this point, the captain decided
enough is enough. Lokesh went in and supported Nikunj who on the other end
was as stable as a rock. Nikunj took the came ome for the home town boys
and on his way he scored his first 50 in his midwest career. A big
congratulations to Patel-Sahib from all. Cleveland scored the required
runs in 25+ overs and move on to 2-0 in the Midwest tourney.