Match 9 against SDCricInfo on 01042009

We won the toss and elected to field in the 20 over game played at Cypress Canyon Ground (Big) on Jan 4th, 09. Conditions were wet and hazy and the ball was skidding a whole lot.

Vijay S and Srinivas exploited the conditions well and kept the batsmen quiet in the first couple of overs. Suresh (slips), Parag (keeper), Srini (square leg) dropped catches in the early overs to the dismay of Vijay S and Srinivas. Raj and Rajendra were the batsmen to benefit. Saran bowling the 6th over finally produced the wicket of Raj who was caught at long on at the edge of the inner circle. Anil coming in one down started with a boundary early on and seemed to be the batsman eager to score runs fast but Rajendra at the other end was defensive. Parag, Suresh, Narasaiah dropped catches to give lives to other batsmen of SDCricInfo. Spandan misjudged a hard hit to long and barely got a hand to the catch.

With Nitin B dropping out of the game on match day we had to include Srini from SDCricInfo team into our squad. After bowling two good overs Saran went for runs is his final two overs. Vijay S and Srinivas were impressive on the day giving away 25 runs between them in 8 overs and producing 3 wickets. Hari went for about 7 an over. Srini (SDCricInfo) did a good job for us in the final overs restricting the runs to less than run a ball.

SDCricInfo ended up with 95/6 in 20 overs. Anil top scored having contributed 24 (31b, 3*4).

We started the chase well with Parag and Shekhar as the opening batsmen. 8 runs came of the first over but Shekhar edged one to the keeper in the second over having faced only 3 balls in his inning. Suresh and Parag then played cautiously for a few overs and afer 7 overs the score was 29/0. Parag played the first aggressive shot square of the wicket but Sushmit held the high catch at the boundary holding on to the ball on the second attempt. Suresh was then dismissed in the 9th over being bowled by Rajendra. At the 10 over mark we were 40/3 and the second half seemed like one where acceleration was required.

Vijay S started with a boundary after the break but soon edged one to the keeper down the leg side. With most top order batsmen dismised the team was now under pressure. Hari however, kept his cool and played some aggressive shots after a few tentative shots at the start. Hari hit a massive six towards mid-wicket helped by the fielder Naveen, who popped the ball over the fence. Ravi M, Narasaiah were dismissed but Hari held fort. Helped by extras, runs of the bat from Hari and few runs from each batman coming in we inched closer towards the target.

With about 10/12 runs required for a win and 2 wickets in hand Hari was dismissed. Hari played a captain's inning of 25 (27b, 1*6, 1*4) but returned having not quite seen the side through. Saran and Srini then took the side closer but Saran was caught behind. Spandan was unable to bat due to an injury but Srini hung around for singles and helped by extras we finally won the game with 6 balls to spare.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcpqP16ZfUPA0MQ&hl=en