Memorable match

On the last Sunday (26th), we played against RK Puram team in our home ground and it proved to be the easiest of our wins and its full of fond memories.

After winning the toss we batted first with Ravi and Sreedhar opening the innings. We lost both the openers cheaply; Ravi getting out for a very good catch in the short covers where as Sreedhar holed out when he attempted a rather ambitious loft over mid-on. So the time for repair work again. Chaitanya and Sarma played well and propelled the scoring between 5 and 6 runs per over. They were consistent in punishing the bad balls and offered no chances. The duo just went on and on to agony of both fielders and Vatsav (who is padded up and waiting for his turn). At one stage they both seemed to play full 45 overs themselves. Chaitanya got out after playing superbly for his 70+. What do they say, you take one wicket in the partnership, you get the other one for free. Same thing happened here as well, Sarma got out immediately after a fine score 60+. Vatsav and Susheel continued and in a bid to improve the scoring they both perished after scoring 20's. By that time we reached 200 and wanted to score as many as possible. Shot of the match did not come from either Sarma or Sreedhar, but it came from Mukesh, a very good six right over the bowlers head, off a ball that is right in the slot. But to tell the truth we struggled in the last overs for acceleration and had to settle for 253. By the way, in this match i score my highest score of the season so far, 7 run out of last ball trying to steal a single from keeper gloves.

Moinder started the bowling in his usual aggressive style and Vatsav grassed a sharp chance in the slips in the very first over. My first over is a mix of both good and bad balls. There is this heavy breeze flowing across the pitch taking the ball away from the right handed batsman from my end. Bowled 3 wides (all of them on the offside..with the breeze) and went for 3 boundaries (2 very good shots and 1 very bad ball short and wide outside the off-stump). Moinder on the other hand bowled very well as usual and started looked like picking wickets almost every ball. There was only one batsman on the other side, who offered some resistance with good shots of all the bad balls. There was constant chirping in the ears from slip cordon especially from Sarma, he lost his concentration, misjudged the length and went for a pull of good length ball from Moinder and trapped in front. That's the end of resistance. Later wickets fell almost in every over. There was some swing for me in the air, which helped me beat the bat than to produce a nick. Though i was not consistent, i was happy that i bowled more good balls than i did in all 3 matches. No 10 and 11 frustrated us for more than 30 minutes. We went on and on with the opening spell for 17 overs in which we took 9 wickets, 6 for Moinder from 9 overs and 3 for me. in 8 overs. Finally when gas in the tank is emptied we were rested and 4 balls from Ravi produced the wicket we needed and concluded the comprehensive victory by a margin of around 150 runs. Moinder had spectacular figures of 9-2-35-6.

This is the match where everyone in the team has thoroughly enjoyed, constant noise, having all 9 players in the slips-point positions. This match is even better for i scored my top score with bat (not much though) and took most wickets in a match this season (8-1-42-3).

Now there is a gap and we will play our next match on Aug 23rd...that is also doubtful as Ganesh Chaturdhi is around the corner. Can't wait to play the next match and see what's in store for us.

Won against Agarwal Sr.s team

Yesterday's match was with Agrawal Sr.s team in Acharya NG Ranga University grounds. We reached there in time but umpire did not turn up. We waited for a while and decided to play a 40 over a side match with our team players as umpires. Again they won the toss and elected to bat first. Moinder this time somehow did not find his rhythm and started scratchily. I on the other hand started reasonably well for my standards but did not find any wicket until the 3rd over when batsman played on to the stumps. With their players acting as umpires we did not get any close LBW calls in our favour. Our first change bowlers did well and Moinder's second spell of 2 wickets in the same over kept them under checks as the score card read 65+ for 6. We thought we are in for early finish. Then there was a partnership, those 2 blokes played really well all the shots along the ground and they managed a lot of boundaries, thanks to small boundaries and scratchy outfield. Finally they managed a competitive total of 203 in 40 overs. My figures are 6-0-34-1.

We started off aggressively with Satyoday and Sridhar opening the innings. We breezed of to 50+ for no loss in 6 overs. But then there was a twist, we lost both the openers and Chaitanya in quick succession and scorecard reads 55/3 in around 9 overs. With we desperately needing a partnership, Sarma and Susheel did just what we needed. Their partnership was a mammoth and match winning one . It's like watching two pro's batting together. Susheel wanted to occupy the crease and Sarma playing his natural stroke play. Susheel joined him later matching stroke to stroke and duo just batted on and on. They offered no chances to the opposition with all the shots, except one or two, along the ground, playing the ball on its merit...playing the good balls defensively and not missing out on any of the bad balls. Two of their shots will be remembered for a long time, one very good pull from Sarma for 6 over the deep mid-wicket and one very good sweep all along the ground by Susheel. They brought us with in 12 runs of the victory with 9+overs to spare. Then there was a hiccup, we lost another 3 quick wickets in a heap and suddenly everyone in the camp are nervous. But it is too late for the opposition to stage a comeback as we snatched the victory with good 6 overs to spare. I remained n.o. on 4 with the winning shot to the boundary (which i am not used to).

I remember this match for 2 reasons. One for the outstanding partnership between Sarma and Susheel, secondly this is the match where i bowled most number of overs, 6, in a match.

All that is gold does not glitter

All that is gold does not glitter,
Not all those who wander are lost;
The old that is strong does not wither,
Deep roots are not reached by the frost.
From the ashes a fire shall be woken,
A light from the shadows shall spring;
Renewed shall be blade that was broken,
The crownless again shall be king.

Unluckiest dismissal

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/cricket/8145070.stm

We won

We all knew that we are too good a team to lose 3 straight matches and we finally broke the jinx and won the match quite comprehensively.

Going into the details, opponents United XI won the toss and elected to bat. This is a 45 over a side match. Only 11 of the our teammates made it to the ground so no selection hassles for our captain. I again shared new ball with Mohinder and this match will be remembered for his efforts. He sacrificed pace for the accuracy and full length and it paid off beautifully. He bagged 6 wickets and literally unplayable throughout the match. I think he has a long way to go as a cricketer, all he need is some nurturing.

Coming back to my efforts with the ball, bowled 4 overs, not much to write/talk about. Normally i don't bowl on the leg side, but this time i did and i must say they did not take full advantage of it. Lack of practice is clearly showing. In this match as well i bowled short but luckily i got a wicket with such ball only. Batsman tried to pull the one which is reasonably short but hit it right into the hands of the only fielder on the leg side. Lucky break i must say...finished with the figures of 4-0-25-1. With the wickets falling regularly, they were on the back foot throughout the match and finished with 143 in 27+ overs.

I personally had no bad experiences in the field and i contributed to a run out indirectly :), but the credit completely go to the Chaitanya. I hit the stumps directly from short square leg, batsmen wanted to steal a single off the rebound. Chaitnya was quick and good underarm throw at the runners end finished the job.

We experimented with Ravi as opener and he did not let the team down. Both the openers Sridhar and Ravi scored 48 and 43 respectively. You can clearly make out the difference between these 2 batsman, Sridhar being regular opener played freely and fearlessly while Ravi took his time to get going. After settling in he also played few good shots. Especially Sridhar was a joy to watch on with good flicks on the leg side.When these two got out eventually with match firmly on our hands, Sarma(captain) and Chaitanya played well and finished it off. I always wondered how good a batsman Sarma really is because Vatsav always rated him very high. Well i got a glimpse of his class in this match, sweep of the left arm spinner of the 2nd ball he faced is the shot of the match for me. We reached the target in 23 overs and headed home early and happily.

Another match another disappointment

We played Tarakarama XI this week and nothing changed with the result from the last week. We lost again. We won the toss and elected to bat and we failed again in posting a good total. If not for Vatsav's (went in at no.8) late good knock of 40+ in quick time our scorecard would have read must worst than final reading: 142 all out in well before the stipulated 40 overs. Well not much changed with my batting fortunes either, i went in at no.10 and scored 4 runs. Though i wanted not to loft the spinner (as i promised myself, i did it again, this time i think i have a reason to do so...) as i am left with no.11, i had to go for slog and i connected it reasonably but it got more altitude than the distance and holed out this time in deep mid wicket. That concludes my batting misery.

We needed early wickets to put them under pressure as the score is not big enough to defend if they play through 40 overs. I shared the new ball with Moinder...boy...he bowls fast and the amount of bounce he get...ball just whistles past not only over the batsman's head but also the keepers'. With my gentle medium pacers, i was just trying to put the ball in the right area and i must say i pitched them short more often but i got away. Thanks to the small total we were defending, the opposition was not in a hurry. In a spell of 3 overs i managed to bag a wicket thanks to Sridhar's very good catch behind the stumps. I ended up with the figures of 3-0-14-1.

One more notable thing about me in this match is my pathetic fielding. I could not reach to a reasonably difficult catch and opened the Howrah bridge to let the ball sneak under my legs through to the boundary.

Lets see how i do next time... i had a feeling this time our team's fortunes definitely change for good.