The last day of the inaugural Masters Cricket championship has interesting double-headers.  If West won, they would be the unbeaten champions.  However if East Central and the South won their respective games, the championship would be decided not he basis of NRR.  It was with this backdrop that the first of the two games got underway at the main Moosa stadium. And it was precisely these calculations that led East Central to field on winning the toss.

West opened with Janak Patel their skipper and Raju Badadare as their batsmen and East Central attacked with Naveed Ahmed and Srikanth Satya.  Raju seemed in fluent touch right from the outset, however Janak got stuck on nought for 18 balls when he was cleaned up by Milroy in his very first over and the 5th of the innings.  Sohail Khan and #3 seemed to be in fluent touch with 2 boundaries, however he to succumbed to Milroy in the 7th over.  West 2-40.  Ozair is next in and he settles in for the long haul only to be out lbw to Hemal Shah against the run of play in the 16th over. West 3-79. Sanjeewa who struck a fine 50 in the first game is next in and seems unusually subdued and is next out bowled by Rizwan for 4 – West 4-98 in the 22nd over.  In the meantime, Raju seemed to be batting on a different pitch in a different game and had already made 50+ off 60 odd balls with 6 boundaries. Balbir Singh at #6 seems to be determined to play a long game and stitches together a 41 run partership with Raju before he’s struck in front by Mathew for 19 off 41 balls. West 5-139 in the 33rd over. In walks Parak Ananta at #7 who had struck a gorgeous 50 win the same ground the day before – he makes a better than a run a ball 14 before Srikanth gets him out lbw in the 39th over. West 6-171.  With less than 7 overs to go and a 220-230 target in mind, East Central strikes a big blow by getting rid of mainstay Raju in the 40th over for a superb 98 off 111 balls with 12 boundaries.  He was unlucky to be decided by a goodly by Charlie that struck right in front. The West finally finish at 202 for 9 in 45 overs thanks to the lower order of Hamza, Dashrath and Zanher.

East Central would need North to win against the South as well as win in less than 30 overs to emerge as the champions – so their intent and approach was always going to be positive.

They opened with Anthony and Mahammad who both made a quick 35 and 19 at almost a run a ball and wt a run rate between 6.5 and 7 and over.  Mahammad gets out with the score at 42 and Anthony at 70.  The next pair Naveed and Hammad try to continue in the same fashion, but run into the wall of spinners that West has and Naveed gets out for 20 and Hammad for 12.  East Central 4-99 in 18 overs.  The next 3 overs brings 2 more wickets of Raj and Hemal and suddenly East Central is reeling at 6-105 in 21 overs.  Enter Milroy and Charlie.  With Milroy striking the ball cleanly all round the park and Charlie providing solidity they take the score to 161 when Charlie is lbw to Chetan.  East Central 7-161 inn 33.1 overs.  Mathew joins Milroy and with the latter in no mood to stop attacking the game is finished in the next 5.3 overs.  Milroy remains unbeaten on 71 oof 57 balls with 7 4s and 2 6s.  Mathew is unbeaten own 8.

East Central wins by 3 wickets and the Man of the match is  Milroy Don for his unbeaten 71 and bowling of 2-19.