Corporate Internal Cricket matches

In 2007, when the tournament started for the first time, it was a disaster for our (Technology) team. We entered the tournament with a lot of hype (as we have many corporate players) but were eliminated in the first round. 2008 was not that cruel for us. We won the league match with Data In puts but lost to Financials (eventual winners) in the Semis.

In the league stage we played with Securities which is a good team in their own right. They won the toss decided to bat first. In a 12 overs match you want all your big-hitters to have a go in the middle for the most part of the innings. They made a mistake of saving their hitters for last, and promptly paid for their mistake. We got the 2 of their (supposed to be) best batsmen, one for run-out and another for a dreadful half tracker which was missed completely by the bats man only to get bowled. Final few overs flourish took the score to 60+, which was reasonable but not competitive. We had a good opening stand between Vinay and Raghu Vamshi, followed by Rajesh and Srivatsav. How can there be a Tech team's match without drama, there were few jitters towards the end where we lost couple of wickets in quick succession and the required scoring rate was floating around 7.5. At the end of the day, Vatsav's composure saw us through the final hurdle rather easily. Raghu vamshi was the star with the bat. As we got BYE in the next match we entered into semis.

In Semis, it was a repeat of last year tie(then it was a league match), Data Inputs. We knew batting was not their strength and we wanted to fold them out rather cheaply by bowling first and chase a relatively small total. In this match as well they won the toss and decided to bat first. But we were unable to take early wickets that started proving costly. We have been bowling at least one bad ball per over which they capitalized. Scoring was soaring at 9 per over in the first 6 overs. We slowly clawed back and managed to restrict them for 90+ in 12 overs. We started disastrously with Vinay getting out in the 1st over. Wickets kept on tumbling and the required rate soared to around 10 with 5 overs to spare. Vatsav and my self batted for a while to keep the chase alive. I got out soon. When we were pushed to wall by the Req.rate, DP joined Vatsav and then it was purely magical. Vatsav scored 40+ in 20+ balls and DP scored around 20 in 10 balls and we were in finals. Thats what I call a comeback.

The win in the semis kept the spirits up for us and we are ready for BI-GP team who trounced defending champions - Financials in their semis match. This time as well, I asked Satish (opp captain) to call the toss and he won and they decided to bat first. So that made a 3rd consecutive chase for us. Per me this final match belongs to Santosh, who opened their innings and played beautifully at the top of the order, scoring 20+ in quick time. We leaked runs with few bad balls in the power play but few quick wickets pegged them back. Subbu played sensibly and last overs flourish took the total to a competitive 110 in 15 overs. BI-GP had good bowling unit and we were confident of our batting, which made it anybody's match. We started rather well this time with Both Vinay and Venkat started to look good. Again it was Santosh who bowled well and kept the run rate in check, with sensible support from the other end. We managed stay afloat for a while with runs coming steadily. When Vatsav and I were at the crease, we were confident that we could see it through. But when Vatsav nicked one to the WK for a not so good delivery the hopes were fading fast. I started connecting the ball well and Raja Sekhar and I were doing reasonably OK. We needed 22 from the last 2 overs. We both got out in quick succession which put a lot pressure on the next batsmen to hit boundaries and we eventually fell short by 15 runs. But it was a good match.

We are hoping to continue the trend next year as well, which should make us winners of Internal tournament.