After a crushing victory in the first game of the Vanuatu T10 Blast against the Bulls, the Panthers, this time around, bowled first and picked from right where they left off in the first game as off-spinner SH Obed got them off to the perfect start, dismissing Sharks opener N Nipiko on just the fourth ball of the innings. Nipiko, in an ambitious attempt to get his team off to a flyer, ended up skying one straight to the hands of the fielder. The Sharks, however, were not bogged down by the dismissal of Nipiko, and responded with a boundary on the very next ball, but that, much to their dismay, turned out to be a false klaxon as the Blues, post the deceptive boundary, lost three wickets in the span of 9 balls to feel the pressure at 10/4. Offie Obed, who opened the floodgates in the first over, in fact, accounted for three of the first four wickets to fall.

With the score 10/4, a thumping six from the bat of MJ Avok seemed to give a glimmer of hope for the Sharks but that, too, turned out to be a smokescreen for yet another mini collapse as Obed’s partner-in-crime J Rasu knocked over Avok and Stephen in back-to-back deliveries to reduce the Sharks to 18/6. Funnily enough, this very same pattern - a flurry of wickets after a boundary - turned out to be the order of the day as in the fifth over, too, staggeringly, the Sharks lost a couple of more wickets after hitting a boundary to find themselves reduced to 22/8, threatening to get bowled out for an embarrassingly low score. The Sharks then had their highest partnership of the match - 10 runs - for the ninth wicket, but the discipline of the Panthers’ bowlers were too good for the batting side as the Blues were knocked over for a hideous total of 35.

Having pummelled 128 in the first first game against the Bulls, the Panthers batsmen walked into the pursuit of 36 with their confidence at its zenith. However, that was dented instantly by left-arm spinner O Yoseph, who sent J Rasu packing on the final ball of the first over to give the perfect start to the Blues. One brought two as Rasu’s partner, Carlot, was sent back to the hut after a colossal mix-up, after which off-spinner S Sandy struck just two balls later to reduce the chasing side to 2-3. What threatened to look like an embarrassingly one-sided game, suddenly, came to life, thanks to the impeccable self-belief of the Sharks unit. However, the joy for the Sharks turned out to be transitory as Obed, who was the wrecker-in-chief with the ball, punished the Blues with the bat, striking two thumping boundaries to quickly push the chasing side out of harm’s way, edging them towards the meagre target of 36.