Shekhar ensured that the Miramar College Ground was secured and all arrangements were done at 8 am. Doyle Devils won the toss and wisely elected to field first. Players in our side arrived late as usual with utter disregard for a person like Shekhar who came to the ground about 75 minutes prior to the actual start of the game.
Abhishek and Santosh opened the batting and provided a good start of 16 in 3 overs. Abhishek mis-hit one and was caught by Srinivas square of the wicket on the off side. Abhishek and Santosh were both dismissed in the same over that was shared between Ashwin and Venkat. Shekhar and Rahul B them put on a partnership of about 25 runs between them to take the team to a score of 48/4 in 8 overs. Venkat bowled Rahul B and Shekhar was caught behind to giving Sai his first wicket. The 10 over break was taken with two balls to go in the 10th over. Hari had flicked one to fine leg on the first ball he had faced from Venkat. Hari also lofted Prashant for a straight four over long on. Prashant however bowled Suresh with an over pitched delivery. Vijay S was dismissed in a similar manner by Sai. Hari hit one square of the wicket to give Srinivas his second catch and Venkat his third wicket.
Parag hit a full toss from Ashwin towards fine leg for a boundary but was bowled by Prashant as he shuffled across to a delivery bowled from around the wicket. The innings folded in the 20th over with Srinivas and Aravind being bowled by Pankaj. A score of 97 seemed about 10-15 less than what we should have reached given that we were 57/5 in 10 overs.
Srinivas began the bowling well making left-hander Srinivas from Doyle Devils reach for the ball. Srinivas was bowled on the last ball of the final over to give us a fantastic start. Abhishek began erratically conceding 10 runs in the second over but Srinivas kept Anil tied up in the third over. Rahul B held a sharp catch at short square leg that was hit with power and was travelling fast. Hari had Karthik caught behind by Santosh in the 6th over. Vijay S bowled Venkat in the 7th over to place the Doyle Devils at 24/4 in 7 overs. Tushnim was run out in the next over as Shiva called for a non-existent run making the situation worse at 28/5. Shiva was caught behind in the 9th over giving Rosie a wicket in his first over. Doyle Devils went into the break with 6 wickets gone and a deficit of 66 runs. The situation could have been worse but Joy was let down at short square leg. This particular catch was lower down but straight forward in comparison to the blinder that was taken earlier in the inning at the same position.
Saurabh was intent on slogging every delivery he faced but could not last long the moment he changed his approach to play as per the merit of the ball. Saurabh edged one to keeper Santosh giving Rosie a wicket in his second over, the 11th of the inning. Pankaj walked in with a tight equation and a score of 37/7 in 10.3 overs. He seemed nervous but took a liking to the bowling of Abhishek in the 12th over. 1o runs came the way of Doyle Devils but Rosie struck back dismissing Pankaj in the 13th over and worsening the situation for Doyle Devils with a score of 46/8 in 12.2 overs.
Prashant walked in to join Joy at the wicket. It was just a matter for the fielding team to close the game, grabbing opportunities that came ones way without trying too hard. The onus was completely on the Doyle Devils to make a game in this situation. Belief, temperament and application are the factors that play a role when batsmen are faced with this situation. Prashant and Joy did just that and put on a 47 run partnership in the next 38 balls to take the Doyle Devils from a situation of adversity to one of ascendancy. Joy was bowled by Rosie in his fourth over providing us a vital break that came a bit too late. 5 runs were required for a win for the Doyle Devils and 8 balls to go with just a wicket in hand. Sai negotiated two deliveries from Rosie with caution to take the game to the final over.
Abhishek was given the final over and had to bowl a magical over to bring us victory that we deserved until mid-way of the 13th over of the second inning. We helped the cause of Doyle Devils with sloppy catching and erratic fielding. Prashant and Joy ran the singles well, placed the ball for an occasional two or three and ran hard all the time. The runner taken by Joy added to the sloppy fielding by distracting the fielders who threw to the wrong end or were misled by three batsmen around.
Prashant hit one to fine leg for two and then picked up a single on the third ball. A wide was conceded with Sai on the crease. The scores were tied and an easy catch was dropped square of the wicket on the off side to bring delight and a well deserved victory for the Doyle Devils. The partnership for the 9th wicket paid dividends. Doyle Devils walked away with smiles on their faces whereas we walked away wondering how we can avoid such narrow losses.
We had ourselves to blame with about 6 catches being dropped, three of them being fairly easy ones. Fielding at times was shambolic and the lack of bowling options for the captain meant he could not try something different even as he saw certain overs were costly ones. This is where a couple of backup bowlers come handy but we seem to not believe in carrying backups into a game.
Joy (28, 2*4) and Prashant 26 * (2*3) were heroes on the day with the bat. Srinivas, Hari and Vijay S bowled economically and Rosie continued his dream spells at this ground with the ball. In the end, fortune favored the brave and the team that maintained a stable head under adverse conditions won.
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArRZKVChcIaXdC1KQldFdmczTEo4RjYyNXZhaDJNaHc&hl=en
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