The game was played at Doyle Park and began late due to delay due to ground availability. Rahul B won the toss and elected to field.
Amit C could not control the ball in the first over but Mudit started with a maiden over. Amit struck in the very next over to get Shiva clean bowled. Mudit continued with a tidy over. Samir coming in first change bowled Narasaiah as he moved outside off to hit the ball towards leg side. Ravi M and Gopal consolidated the inning to an extent. Both were kept relatively quiet by Samir who struck to get Ravi M bowled. The pitch had awkward bounce and a few balls flew over the keeper for extras. Gopal was bowled by Hari, with the ball keeping very low. Gopal left amidst complaints that the ball should be declared dead.
Naveen and Pradeep provided further consolidation. Pradeep played with aggression, starting with a boundary against Suresh. Amit was struck by Pradeep for a huge six towards long on with the ball sailing over Suresh standing a few yards in. Naveen lofted one towards wide long on but Suresh ran in hard to his right and held the ball well above his right shoulder. Sumanth was run out in a mix up with Pradeep. Pradeep however continued to attack as the overs came to a close. Srinivas was hit for a boundary over long-off and then for a six over long-on. Srinivas however struck back by getting Pradeep bowled and then immediately dismissed Srinivas bowled on the very next ball. Arun was run out by Amit fielding well at short mid-off. Samir got the last batsman caught behind. Cricket Communications lost their way in the final 5 overs and were dismissed for 95 with 5 balls to spare. Pradeep scored 31 (27b, 2*4, 2*6) and impressed with his big hitting skills. Samir (3), Srinivas (2), Hari (2) and Amit (1) were among the wickets.
The chase did not begin well with Mudit being bowled by Pradeep on just the 3rd ball of the first over. Hari joined Samir but was caught and bowled by Naveen in the 4th over of the inning.
Shiva had Abhishek caught by Pradeep at long on. Suresh walked in to join Samir but very soon, Samir was dismissed. Samir tried to hit one towards wide-fine leg but the ball bounced and took the upper edge of the bat and flew to Naveen standing at short fine-leg at the edge of the circle and held the ball with ease. Samir scored 16(226, 2*4, 1*4) and was dismissed just when he seemed set to score runs with confidence.
Parag joined Suresh but edged one to the keeper within four balls. With 5 batsman dismissed and the score reading less than 45 runs the team was under pressure. Suresh struck a straight six over the head of Gopal standing at long-off. Narasaiah introduced himself into the attack and deceived Suresh in the very first over. Rahul B was bowled by Haran and with just 3 wickets to get Cricket Communications were confident of winning this game. Naman was bowled by Pradeep, who was introduced to try and clean up the inning. Shekhar and Amit however played with caution and were also helped by the continuous offering of wides by the Cricket Communications bowling. Shekhar struck Narasaiah for a boundary towards fine leg and later hit one high over point for a boundary. With just 6-7 runs to get Amit decided to loft one over long-off. Amit could not clear Gopal standing about 50 yards away and was held to with ease, increasing the hopes of a win for Cricket Communications (also known as Strikers). the partnership between Shekhar and Amit had saved us the blushes, but could Cricket Communications get the final wicket and save the 6 runs. The overs were not an issue but we had to avoid losing a wicket. Srinivas held fort and finally a wide down leg side went for a boundary to bring us victory with 8 balls to spare.
It was a close game that could have gone wither way but in the end good, responsible batting by Shekhar (14*, 23b, 2*4) saw us through. Amit and Shekhar put on a good partnership for the 9th wicket and got us close enough, thus easing the pressure on Srinivas.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArRZKVChcIaXdERzdTYzNE15RVhJUGhBT1A2V3lCWnc&hl=en
Subscribe to:
Post Comments (Atom)
No comments:
Post a Comment