The game nearly didn’t start at all.

With a ten o’clock start time, not all of the Patriots‘ team was at Sandpiper Park for the Saturday clash. Eventually, the team did show up and play got soon underway. But already there was some controversy.

The Valley Eagles won the toss and elected to bat. While the Patriots were walking out to the middle, the asked the Valley Eagles if they can get deducted just two overs instead of four since it was 10:29. The home side said no and there was a little discussion with the umpire, but eventually play did get underway with the Patriots having to bat with just 36 overs instead of the original 40.

After a wide filled first over, Dhruv Chopra quickly got into his groove and hit two 4’s. But the momentum ended as Raviteja Veerubhotla lobbed a soft shot over to gully for the first wicket of the game. Another wicket came, this time in the form of Rajesh Kumar Kota who again was caught in the field.

The next man up to the crease was Ramana Kumar Pothamsettiwho’s patient batting helped Dhruv reach his 40 before being bowled.

Ramana had a good partnership going with new man Bhargava Rambabu Poludasu but even that was cut short as Bhargava was adjudged to be LBW much to the chagrin of the batsman.

While the wickets kept falling, Ramana stayed in consistent form, getting the home side into the 200 run territory in classy form with a 6 to long off.

Entering the last over, Ramana was sitting on 96 runs with just six deliveries left. Any fears of playing defensive cricket were soon abided as Ramana hit for an outstanding 22 more runs in the final over, leaving him with a very well played 118*. After scoring two runs on the second delivery of the over, thereby brining his total up to 100, Ramana celebrated his patient yet aggressive century by imitating Carolina Panthers Quarterback Cam Newton by doing his own impression of Superman.

The Valley Eagles ended their innings at 259 for 7, leaving the Patriots with a hefty target of 260.

The Patriots response wasn’t the one they had hoped for as they ended the fourth over at just 18 runs having dropped already 4 wickets.

However, the Patriots still had some fight in them and did not turn over and quit as Pranay Reddy and Pradeep Reddy hit for 28 and 29 runs going into the 16th over. Just as the two men when getting settling in, their wickets fell with Pradeep in the 16th over and Pranay falling in the next.

Leela Lakshman Gurram was also having a decent innings before being run out at 27 runs, his aggressive play being rewarded with the runs but also the wicket.

The four over penalty was irrelevant as the Patriots were all out at 157, 102 runs shy of the target at the 33.4 over mark.

Although Ramana’s Man of the Match performance is what most observers would see as what clinched the victory for the Valley Eagles, it was really what happened before he came to the crease that made the task too big for Patriots.

The real stat of the game is comparing the first three overs of each team.

After three overs, the Valley Eagles were 23 for naught, an impressive RR 7.67 per over.

Compare that to the Patriots’ 12 for 4, or 4 runs an over, and the more demoralizing 1.33 wickets per over average, the first few overs of each teams’ innings really laid the foundations for how they were to play that day.

Up next for the Patriots is a home game against Phoenix Cricket Club on Sunday, January 31st while the Valley Eagles travel to Gilbert to play the ACC – Vipers.