Match 18 against RBCC on 04042009

We were asked to bat first in the 20 over game played at Cypress Canyon Ground against RBCC. Satheesh thumped two boundaries in the very first over bowled by Nikhil to provide a good start. Srinivas was needlessly run-out in the same over. Satheesh followed immediately in the second over when an inside edge went on to hit the stumps to give Ram his first wicket on the day. Nikhil bowled Naman in the third over and Rahul B edged one to the keper in the sixth with just 25 on board.

Samir and Vijay S then stitched a partnership by initially fosussing on singles and twos. In the 9th over bowled by Hari, Samir hit one mighty hit to square leg for a six. The 10th over from Srinivas was rather erratic with a flurry of wides and a no-ball taking the score to a healthy 57/4 in 10 overs. Vijay S hit a well timed, good looking boundary to cover/mid-off region in the 11th over being bowled by Amit. A lack of an early call resulted in Vijay S being run-out when he was sent back by Samir, standing at the non-striker's end. Vijay S, played a patient and steady knock of 21 (24b, 1*4).

Parag joined Samir with about 7 overs to go. Samir hit a boundary on the 5th ball of the 14th over bowled by Ram but was bowled the very next ball. Samir (28, 35b, 1*4, 1*6) was lucky to be dropped three times but nevertheless laid the foundation for a good score and put on more than a useful 48 run partnership with Vijay S.

Mudit and Suresh did not last long when the need was to accelerate without losing further wickets. The 17th over thus resulted in a maiden with Ram dismissing both Mudit and Suresh in a space of 5 balls. Parag (22*, 20b, 3*4) was joined by Narasaiah (10*, 12b) and together they put on some useful runs in the final 4 overs. We finished with 117/8 in 20 overs.

Ram finished with splendid figures of 4-1-11-4 but RBCC were guilty of dropping quite a few catches. Samir got back into form and Vijay S and Parag continued their good run with the bat. Narasaiah proved his worth with the bat too.

RBCC began the chase with Hari and Nikhil being kept relatively quiet by Vijay S and Satheesh. The 6th and 7th overs bowled by Satheesh and Srinivas were a bit expensive and RBCC reached 34/1 in 7 overs. The next three overs went at around the same RPO of 5 an over. RBCC were placed at 51/2 and had a chance to chase down the score with wickets in hand. Amit and Nagendra were at the crease. Satheesh and Mudit had picked up a wicket each.

The next three overs produced 19 runs with Amit going on the offensive. 48 in 7 overs seemed a certain possibility and restricting the opposition was the need of the hour. Samir bowling the 16th over gave away just two runs and Srinivas bowling the 17th restricted the scoring to just three runs to make defending the score a distinct possibility. Vijay S and Srinivas then conceeded just 7 and 5 runs respectively in the 18th and 19th over respectively. Satheesh bowling the 20th over then had a cushion of 16 runs to defend for a win. By then Amit and Nagendra had been dismissed. Anuj and Gavaskar did some brisk scoring but in the end it was not good enough. The field was spread-out with fielders defending the boundary and just 10 runs were conceeded in the final over to give us a narrow 6 run victory.

Srinivas with figures of 4-0-17-1 did well in his final two overs at a crucial time towards the death. Rahul B did a splendid job behind the stumps, latching on to three catches, two of which were very sharp ones.

We managed to score at almost a run a ball after losing 4 wickets at the top of the order. Although, a few catches were dropped in the outfield, we also managed to pull it back after 13 overs had yielded 70 runs.

http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=pEn3926bpcpqh7IjCLIb0ag&hl=en