Match with Blasters on 06/22/08

Blasters won the toss and elected to field in the 16 over game played at Spring Canyon Ground.

Parag and Abhi opened the inning against the bowling of Ibrar and Nitin. Both teams fielded 10 players with one player on both sides not showing up despite having confirmed earlier. The opening pair put on a partnership of 73 runs at the end on 10 overs. Abhishek was the first to be dismissed having scored a well made 17 (28 b, 2*4). Abhishek displayed a couple of ingenious strokes hitting full toss balls on or outside leg stump towards third man. One of these hits fetched him a boundary against the bowling of Harish. Parag was dismissed soon after in the11th having scored 45 (38b, 2*6, 4*4) with a team score of 76 in 10.4 overs. The score at the end of 11 overs was 80/2 with Vijay S hitting one straight boundary off the bowling of Nitin.

We seemed to be in complete control and one would expect Blasters to be on the way down. Scoring 4/5 singles an over with the ocasional two or boundary could easily have fetched 25-30 runs in the next 5 overs which would have given us a score of 105/110 in 16 overs. This would have been a formidable chase in the heat. Instead what followed was was something that one cannot fathom and accept. The next 5 overs saw the team lose 6 wickets for a paltry 12 runs and we ended up with 92/8 in 16 overs.

This was a target we have defended in the past. However, the current Blasters batting strength is potent. Vijay S and Saran started badly and before we realized 38 runs were conceded in a mere 4 overs. Rajesh and Ashish put our bowling to test and put on 55 in 8 overs. The opening pair was helped by mediocre catching in the outfield. Rajesh hits powerful shots straight into the outfield but these catches were dropped by a team that just a week back had displyed maturity beyond expectations. Rajesh hit two huge sixes towards long on and long off. Ashish was the first to be dismissed with Abhi getting him caught at short mid-wicket. Ashish scored 27 (32b, 2*4). Rajesh went on make a match winning score of 37 (29b, 2*4, 2*6). Tathaghat and Nitin were dismissed to offer us a slight ray of hope but the damage had been done by the opening pair early on and the asking rate was never high after the first 8 overs.


Blasters, blasted their way to a easy 6 wicket victory with 13 balls to spare. One team managed to dig themselves out of a hole and another team caved the way for the opposition ....

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