Match 10 against Doyle Devils on 10/19/2008

Doyle Devils won the toss and elected to field at Cypress Canyon Ground (Small).

Siva and Hari opened the batting. Kartik started the first over with a few wides but then bowled Hari on a ball that stayed relatively low. Siva was bowled by Pankaj in the third over with a delivery that came in and was well pitched. Parag and Shekhar steadied the batting for a while and the score at the end of 5 overs was 22. Shekhar was run out by Venkat running to square leg from mid-wicket. Santosh walked in to join Parag and together they took the score to 48/3 in 10 overs. Early morning conditions saw the ball come with good pace and high bounce making scoring not all that easy.

Santosh lofted one to long on where Sriram held a good catch running in towards his right. Samir walked in and within a few balls struck a boundary towards long with a firm drive. Prashant had been bowling well throughout on the day. He bowled Samir with a good delivery that was almost a yorker and was also angling in. Parag was run out when the firm uppish shot was stopped by Kartik at short cover. The ball rolled towards the bowler and Abhi began running towards the batsman's end. Parag had scored a steady 34 (50b) but was dismissed just at a time when the acceleration had begun. The score at the end of 15 overs was 78/6 and a target of 110 seemed a possibility. Abhi and Vijay S scored a few quick runs and were dismissed going for shots. Abhi scored 13(23b) and Vijay S played a good brisk knock of 13 (11b). We eventually scored 104/9 which was about 6 runs short of what we could have reached.

The conditions for batting in the second half are much easier at this ground but 105 was a good target to defend. Tushnim and Kartik opened the batting. Tushnim hit one over the infield towards cover and got a boundary on the very first ball bowled by Abhi. Suresh at the other end began with a few wides and DD (Doyle Devils) reached 13/0 in 2 overs. Abhi bowled a good third over and dismissed Tushnim caught by Santosh behind the wicket. Venkat came in one down and started with a flurry of fours in the 4th over bowled by Suresh. At 26/1 in 4 overs DD were well placed to chase the target. Kartik and Venkat continued to play the bowling with ease and maintained the scoring rate at or below the required rate. Venkat in particular was playing excellent shots over the infield on the off side and was also picking up the gaps well. Kartik at the other end played steadily and provided good support from one end. Rajesh threw one from deep cover to Parag at short cover who then passed on to Santosh to dismiss Venkat just before the 10 over break. DD were placed at 48/2 at the half way stage and the game was thus in balance with DD having the advantage of knowing the target with batting conditions also in their favor.

Vijay S and Siva had done well to pull down the scoring rate prior to the 10 over break. Samir and Hari continued from there and did extremely well to keep the game in balance until the end of 17 overs. Kartik and Joy were run-out going for the second run. Vijays/Abhi did well in the field to send the ball in sharp to Santosh from behind the wicket. Prashant was caught behind in the 17th over bowled by Samir. Overs 11 to 17 with the Samir/Hari bowling combination had yielded just 28 runs for 3 wickets. 29 runs were required in the final three overs and we seemed to be in control of proceedings and the favorites to win. Pavel had other ideas and had decided to not leave things until the final over. Pavel struck two huge shots towards wide mid-on and then over extra cover. The 18th over from Siva produced 11 runs and 18 runs were required in 2 overs. Vijay S bowled a fantastic 19th over yielding just 5 runs which meant that 13 runs were required in the final over. Pavel and Pankaj were the batsmen at the crease and Pavel had strike on the first ball. The first ball from Hari was hit towards long on and the batsmen scampered for a quick two. The second ball was struck for a huge six over long on and the balance quickly shifted in favor of the DD side. Hari came back well and conceded a single in the next two balls leaving just 4 to get in the final two balls. Hari then bowled a wide at a very crucial point and then conceded a two leaving the scores tied, with Pavel on strike and one ball to go. The game was up for grabs for DD mainly due to the heroics of Pavel. The fielders on the off side were brought in and there was cover on the leg side with three fielders in the deep. Hari pitched the ball up and Pavel decided to not go for the slog but just drive the ball towards the fielder at long on. The ball caught the very bottom of the bat and popped up right towards the bowler. Hari having had come in as he bowled held the catch with ease. The game ended as a tie bringing satisfaction / disappointment to either side at different points in the final three overs.

In the end we were glad to not lose a game that we should have ideally won. The game also brought some excitement with display of good batting skills by a few of the DD side and some signs of a fight back by our bowling/fielding side.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcpoUMRtYYEkUKw&hl=en