Scorecard

Written by  Haris Imtiaz

On a very hot day Villa Park faced Stallions on a beautiful Glendale Heights 1 field. Stallions won the toss and decided to test under-performing VPCC batting line-up minus their regular opener Mujtaba Baqir. Imtiaz brothers reunited to open the innings against above average Stallions bowling attack. Seasoned veteran Andy Dadlani (1) shared the new ball with potent ex-VPCC camper Kamal Baloch (0). Young Kamal bowled with pace and aggression, but let the nerves take over best of him, as he bowled short consistently. Zeyad Imtiaz (44) showed some sign of form by dispatching some short balls to square boundaries. Haris Imtiaz (29) joined the party with couple of slashes of his own. Both Batsmen provided much needed stability to the Villa Park’s opening position but with the presence of the two most fluent run getters at the crease; run rate was still trickling around five runs an over. Eventually Haris Imtiaz was caught at the long-on boundary by Shafi Baig off the bowling of impressive Nadeem Syed (2) but only after providing the good platform of 74 runs. Zeyad and Fawad Agha (2) soon followed as VPCC stumble at 94 for 3. Hassan Bakhshi (24) played his vintage innings by putting the ball in the gap and taking the single and doubles when available. Unlike his last few innings, Hassan’s strike rate was in 90s during his innings. Uzair Ali (17) who is another VPCC batsman struggling for some form, got the start but couldn’t capitalize. VPCC kept loosing wickets and failed to establish more than run a ball target.

After 30 over Stallions were required to chase 171 runs with the likes of Hassan Hashmi and Sajid Ali. Stallion’s openers did not survive for long against the strong VPCC bowling line-up. But with the heat getting extreme every minute, bowlers failed to keep their rhythm and grip on the game; which led to some frequent bowling changes. Hassan Hashmi showed some flare but was sent packing by ever-reliable Zeyad Imtiaz (2). Sajid Ali (38) paired with unknown Omar Aziz (41) to stabilize the innings and put Villa Park team under some fitness test in the temperature reaching well past 90s. VPCC middle bowlers once again failed to take wickets and leaked some runs as well. At one point Stallions had upper hand with wickets in hand and runs in getable range. Then Uzair turned to his main bowlers and they responded as Haris Imtiaz (3) and Ahmad Bakhshi (2) killed the hope by taking regular wickets with out giving too many runs. Fielding was the weak point once again as 5 catches went down begging. In the end Villa Park contained Stallions to 155 runs but failed to get them all out.
Zeyad Imtiaz was named MOM for his all-round performance but this win came as an alarm to struggling Villa Park; with season going into June, competition will get stiff and runs will be at the premium, VPCC needs to find some ways to score runs.