Vs ***Ridge team - Nizam College grounds - 14th NOV
By the way we have a new captain for this year Vinay. We lost the toss and were asked to field first. Big DP opened the bowling and i shared the new ball with him. DP as usual was very good with the ball with good pace and length. I started my over with a short ball well outside the off stump. Luckily for me the batsman went after it and hit it straight down the throat of Bhaskar (Sweeper cover position) who held on to a good catch. It would have been a definite wide. Though i did not give many runs away that was not the best over with almost all the balls pitching well short of good length. Slowly settled into good rhythm and bowled another 2 overs economically. On other end, DP bowled well and runs have dried up. At the end of 8 overs they scored 28+ runs with the loss of 4 wickets. But they picked up the pace from there with shots all round the ground. It was pretty much one man show for the opponent. I can't recall the name of the guy, but he scored 89 runs out of a total of 141. I gave 14 runs in the 4th over i bowled and ended up with a tally of 4-1-23-1.
The chase began very well for us, with Vinay and Subbu giving us best of the starts. We raced to 30 in 3 overs before hitting a lean patch. Subbu got run out and Bhaskar did not last long. Srivatsav and Vinay settled the nerves for a quite period and then upped the tempo. Requiring 9 per over in the last 8 overs, both cut loose. Srivatsav fell for a well compiled 36 with the team needing 35+ runs in the last 5 overs. Vinay and Satish made a short work of it and we won with around 2 overs to spare. Vinay was unbeaten on 70+ score and Satish on 20. I must say Vinay played a high quality innings to see the side through, keeping cool head in difficult times and making a merry when going got easy. We will definitely remember this match for some time.
Vs GE Money - PG College Grounds, Sec'bad - 15th NOV
We lost the toss again but this time we were asked to bat. Even though we were helped by a wayward bowling, start is not as good as it was in the previous match. Vinay departed early and the we scored @8+ rate in the first 4 overs but we lost 3 wickets. Again it is the time for consolidation for Srivatsav and Subbu. They batted well, finding boundaries every now and then and kept the scoreboard ticking at a good pace. By the end of 14th over the score was around 90, then suddenly we lost wickets in a heap. We lost Srivatsav (hitting a short and wide ball firmly but staright into the hands of point fielder), Subbu and BigDP in no time. I went in at that moment and concentrated mostly on giving strike to Santosh who has been hitting the ball really well. He played a cameo of quick 30+ before getting out. Fireworks did not stop there, Prasad took over from Santosh and continued the hitting. I perished after scoring 10 of 13 balls with 2 overs to spare. Vasanth and Prasad finished the innings at 148.
We were reasonably happy with our performance and went into the field. First 3 overs are like any other match. BigDP bowling well with pace at good length and with me bowling (too)short pitch balls but getting away luckily. Again I got a wicket for a dreadful ball short and wide, this time Prasad took a good running catch. But my luck ran out in my 2nd over. I leaked 21 runs in that over conceding 5 consecutive boundaries. It just happened so that whatever i tried went for the boundary, i was either too full, or too short or on the legs or too wide. The pressure is relieved and batsman got into their groove. Scoring never stopped from that moment. They got stuck into every one and started scoring at a frantic rate. At one point i thought match would be over 13-14 overs. Hitting was clean and precise. When they wanted to hit a six they cleared the boundary fielder easily and when the wanted to hit a four they hit into the gaps. Our pace further eased their cause with ball coming nicely onto the bat. Though they did not hit spinners as badly as the medium pacers, they weren't kind to the spinners either. But spinner definitely slowed the pace of the scoring and brought some respectability for final analysis. Vasanth took the wicket of the big hitter. They finally folded the match in 18th over, leaving us with the hope of reaching next phase subject to NRR. my figures in this match are forgetful numbers 2-0-24-1.
I don't know what could we have done differently, we definitely missed Satish though I cant say the result would different, looking at their clean hitting. Perhaps after seeing their batting style in first few overs, we could have slowed the pace and shortened length a wee bit.
So the weekend which started as good as it can, ended badly. I will remember both the matches for good batting; one on happy note for Vinay's quality innings another on not so happy note but for very good batting by opponents.
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