Match against SDCricInfo on 09/13/2008

We won the toss and elected to bat in the 20 over game against SDCricInfo at Spring Canyon Ground (Small).

Openers Vinay and Naman were dismissed in the 2nd over being bowled by Srinivas. Parag, Amit and Mudit followed pretty soon to cause quite some uneasiness in the pavilion. Naman, Parag and Amit edged to the keeper but Mudit was run-out when he went for a run having hit the ball hard towards mid-wicket. Samir coming in at the fall of Amit's wicket played a face saving knock having started well with a boundary towards point. A couple of boundaries were to follow towards cover and backward point. It was a sticky wicket resulting in balls moving off the pitch at times coming slow on other occasions rising fast. Boundaries were to follow towards third man, square leg and between mid-off and mid-on. Yoga was hit for a straight six resulting in the ball crashing on the fence. Samir scored a brilliant 56 *(58 b, 7*4, 1*6) to take the team to 136/6 in 20 overs. Hari coming in at the fall of Gopal's wicket made his intentions clear when he hit a boundary on the very first ball. Hari played a aggressive quickfire knock of 22* (18b, 2*4) . Together Samir and Hari more than doubled the score in the last 7 overs. 71 runs were added in the last 7 overs and our situation looked more than strong half way into the game. SDCricInfo conceded as many as 41 extras to make things easier for us.

The first four overs being bowled by Abhi and Nitin B produced 31 runs without a wicket and SDCricInfo would have fancied their chances with that kind of start. It was time for Amit to come in and stabilise things by bowling a maiden. An obvious run-out on a direct hit at the keeper's was turned down in the next over bowled by Hari. However, the same batsmen was caught by the same fielder (Parag) in the same over within the next few balls.

At the 10 over mark SDCricInfo were at 57/1 and had half a chance of victory. The batsmen had to go for big hits which resulted in the next four wickets in the form of batsmen being bowled. Mudit and Gopal rolled their arms over towards the end. SDCricInfo however managed to score 115/7 in 20 overs giving us a 21 run victory.

Amit was the pick of the bowlers on either side with figures of 3-1-3-1. Samir had figures of 1-0-6-1 picking up an important wicket of Yoga. The knock of 56* by Samir, characterized by periods of caution and aggression deserves the MoM award in this game.

It's time to now win the three game series against Sony starting tomorrow.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcponrduZOp_cUg&hl=en