We were playing Cricket Communications for the first time. As usual the hunt for an appropriate ground preceeded the start of the game. The game was played at Mira Mesa Community Park (Outer) on a pitch that was uneven with patches of soil.
Narasaiah (captain of Cricket Communications) won the toss and elected to field. Rosie (captain on the day) decided to open with Naman and Mudit. The first over bowled by Anil was a quiet one with the batsmen unsure of what to expect from the pitch. Pradeep bowled a few short balls to start with and conceeded four no-balls on the trot with one evading a jumping keeper and going for a boundary down the slope. Naman expected the bouncers to continue and was deceived by a fast fullish delivery to see his stumps knocked down. Srinivas joined Mudit and cut the first ball over the slips for a boundary. There was the usual uncertainty in running with Mudit and Srinivas at the crease. One such incident resulted in Srinivas backing up too far and being run-out at the non-strikers end. Nitin B joined Mudit and within the first couple of balls hit one straight shot that sailed over the boundary and a waiting long-on fielder for a six. His aggressive intent soon resulted in his downfall. Nitin missed a straight full length delivery only to see his stumps rattle.
Santosh joined Mudit and there began a consolidation of the inning. Mudit hit one forcibly to cover. The ball kept running away from the fielder and went for a four on the soiled area devoid of grass. Mudit let out a hearty laugh, seeing a forced ground shot yield a boundary. Earlier, a wild throw to the non-striker resulted in a two being converted to an all-run six as the ball evaded the bowler and went to the cover boundary. The fielders at cover and long-off (Gopal) were caught napping and to add to that a hapless bowler (Shiva) had to chase the ball in vain almost to the boundary.
Mudit backed up too far and was late to come back to the non-strikers end. The ball had hit Santosh's feet and there was no run to be taken. In normal circumstances we would not have given it out but this being an external game we had to call it as a wicket since Mudit was outside the crease when the stumps were brought down at the non-strikers end. A distraught Mudit walked back objecting to the mode of dismissal.
At 68/4 in 10 overs we were sitting in the drivers seat with a score of 120 being a distinct possibility. Cricket Communcations were eager to make a mark. Narasaiah introduced himself into the attack after the 10 over stage. Santosh fancied his chances against the slow bowling of Narasaiah, and kept playing the sweep towards square leg. Santosh and Vijay S had run a few quick runs between themselves but one such attempt for a two resulted in Santosh being dismissed at the keeper's end.
Rosie joined Vijay S but very soon Narasaiah struck with Gopal latching to a catch at long-off. Vijay S departed with a shake of his head. Rosie was stumped by Kiran to yield Narasaiah his second wicket. Parag played with caution but Hari seemed eager to up the ante. A lofted shot that almost sailed to the fence for a six was plucked by Gopal standing almost on the rope at long-off. Parag had earlier hit a four towards the short boundary at wide long-off. An attmept to hoick Narasaiah towards the mid-wicket fence resulted in Parag being caught by a reliable Vijay S (substitute fielder) about 5 yards inside the long off boundary. Samir fell within the space of two balls and we tumbled to 95/10 in 16.3 overs. It was a disapponting effort in the second half of our batting, resulting in us being 20-25 short in terms of runs with about 21 balls being unutilized. Narasaiah picked up 4 wickets and Gopal held two catches having dropped one early in the inning.
We were very much determined to not let Cricket Communications get even close to the modest target of 96. Hari and Samir started brilliantly with no runs and a wicket coming in three overs. The 4th over yielded another wicket and three runs. Samir picked up a wicket in the 6th over to increase the pressure on the batting of Cricket Communications.
Gopal started with aggression against the bowling of Vijay S and Srinivas playing forceful shots in the V on either side and also hitting towards cover. Sumanth at the other end was playing with caution, playing out defensibly and thereby mounting the asking rate for Cricket Communications. 64 runs were required in the final 10 overs with 7 wickets standing.
Rosie introduced himself into the attack and bowled Gopal with a fullish delivery. These were deliveries that Gopal had been hitting for runs in the V behind the bowler but Rosie's magical arm did the trick. Pradeep joined Sumanth and launched the bowlers for a few boundaries towards long-leg and mid-wicket. Mudit had bowled an erratic over yielding 12 runs forcing Rosie to bring in Hari into the attack. Sure enough, Hari delivered with Sumanth edging one to the Santosh behind the stumps. A sharp chance was let down by Samir in the slips as he stood there not being very alert as one expects a slip fielder to be. Hari was aggrieved and let out his opinions with usual emotion.
The asking rate had at one point come to less than a run a ball but the fall of two wickets brought it back up to a run a ball in the final four overs. Samir and Vijay S bowled out their last over each with 4 wicket remaining and two overs to go with 11 runs to get. A brief discussion ensued between Rosie, Parag and Santosh. It was decided Rosie would bowl the 19th over and Srinvas would bowl the final over. Pradeep and Shiva had been playing sensibly, running hard for singles and chipping balls for twos into the outfield that was well spread out.
Rosie struck with the first ball forcing Pradeep to loft one weakly on the leg side. Rosie went a few yards to his right and held the simple return catch to bolster our chances of a win. The next ball resulted in Narasaiah being run out at the keeper's end as he was slow to get to the stumps with Aravind and Santosh teaming up. Rosie bowled Anil on the next ball and a single wicket and 10 runs stood between victory or defeat. Haran tried to steal a two on the last ball of the 19th over. The batsmen had to run for everything on offer. Vijay S sprinting from long on hit the stumps directly from a good 30-35 yards to earn the final wicket.
We won by a narrow margin of 9 runs. Narasaiah with 4 wickets with the ball, Gopal (21 runs, 24b, 2*4) and Pradeep (18 runs, 20b, 2*4) did well for Cricket Communcations with the bat. Mudit 21 runs (26b, 2*4), Santosh 14 (20b, 1*4) put on a good patnership towards the half way stage of our batting only to see others undo the good work.
Samir was the pick of the bowlers on either side with excellent figures of 4-2-5-2. Hari had good figures of 4-1-13-1. Captain Rosie (with a do it self attitude) bowled the magical 19th over dismissing two and also enabling two run-outs helped by good effort in the field. That over sealed a game that could have swung either way with just 11 runs and 4 wickets separating the two teams.
Cricket Communications did well to challenge us at stages in their first game against us. We need to improve on consolidating our inning with a decent start in the first half of our batting. It is the second ocassion in 4 games that the batting has collapsed to fritter away a good start. Perhaps we are too eager to convert a score of 60 odd into 140, possibly swayed by chants to attack by uneasy individuals sitting in the dressing room. We need to learn that 120 is good enough on most ocassions. The aim should be to first get there and not set sights on too large a score, too early in the second half.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=r7dFrba4IVRxub8RBYYWROQ
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