We won the toss and elected to field in the game played at Spring Canyon Ground. The pitch had good pace and even bounce. It was the only spot where a wicket could be placed. Despite attempts to encourage players to be on time the game began only at 8:45 am.
Amit C, picked up Spandan on the last ball of the first over. Mudit began the second over and conceeded an easy boundary to Shiva. 12 runs were conceeded in the second over, with five of them being wides. Shiva seemed to have started well at the other end. He kept dabbing the ball slow on either side of the wicket, making the fielders run for the ball. Gopal was let down in the next over (in the slips) from Amit when his score was just one. In the very same over from Amit, Gopal edged one over the keeper/slips for a boundary to celebrate his much desired life. Gopal went on to repeat the feat in the next over from Hari hitting one with power, to mid-wicket for another boundary. Samir started well by moving the ball in the air but conceeded a few wides due to the excessive movement that he was able to generate. Gopal then struck Hari, to a wide mid-on position where Amit judged the ball to a nicety and held the ball one handed over his right shoulder. The ball was travelling even as it approached Amit, who did well to judge the trajectory early on, without moving too much or too early, taking his time, followed by a reflex action. Now, this is catching at its best.
In the next over from Samir, Srinivas K lobbed a straight forward catch to Suresh at short mid-wicket. At 41/3 in 6.3 overs, Sumanth walked in to join Shiva, who was batting steadily.
Samir was called for a no-ball in the very same over (due to a suspect action) that annoyed the fielding side but more than enraged Samir. Ajay bowled the 8th and kept the batsmen quiet with his lack of pace and a good length. Ajay was rewarded with the wicket of Shiva (in the 10th over) who was bowled by a ball that moved slightly and knocked the top of leg stump to take out just that bail.
The Strikers went in to the break with the score reading 54/4. Srinivas was unlucky in the first over after the break. A simple catch was hit feebly towards a short fine leg. It was one that Boycott's mom would have caught single-handedly with the right hand. But not for us, our fielding side found this a challenge and dropped that, almost not willing to accept easy chances thrown at us by the opposition. Srinivas K (from Strikers) , struck a short ball towards a vacant mid-wicket for a boundary to rejoice. Srinivas K (of our side) however, struck back to get the same person bowled the very next ball.
Prasad joined Sumanth and hit one good looking shot towards extra cover for a good looking two. In the 15th over from Hari, Prasad hit a full toss towards deep fine leg. Another regulation catch was dropped to give Prasad a life. The bowler to suffer was Hari who let out his frustration in no uncertain terms. Samir bowled Prasad who has a tendency to shuffle towards off even if the delivery is on leg stump. Sumanth was given a life at point as the fielder could not latch onto the ball that was struck not that firmly. Amit C, bowled Pradeep with a peach of a delivery that came in from a fullish length. Pradeep takes a stance outside leg, and moves in as the bowler bowls thereby keeping his options open to loft straight on both sides of the wicket.
Narasaiah struck a full toss from Samir to fine leg for a boundary towards the end of the inning. The Strikers crossed 100 in the final over and reached 104/8 in 20 overs. Sumanth was stumped on the final ball of the 20th over to give Hari his second wicket. Sumanth (20, 30b), Shiva (18, 23b, 1*4) and Gopal (13, 16b, 2*4) were the mainstay of the batting for the Strikers.
Srinivas K (4-0-15-1, 1Y and Ajay 2-0-6-1, 2Y) impressed with the ball in hand. The other bowlers on display were guilty of conceeding quite a few extras.
Our batting in recent outings did not seem stable and we were intent of getting to this target with wickets and overs to spare. The start was good with Parag picking 7 runs of the bat in the first over with a boundary struck towards fine leg on a full toss. Shekhar hit one uppishly on the last ball of the second over, where Sumanth held a good catch at point, to give Shiva his first wicket. Haran did not do particularly well in the 3rd over and conceeded another 8 runs with about four wides. Parag hit a pull towards fine leg on a shortish delivery from Prasad in the 5th over. Runs came at a steady pace for the first 6 overs with Shiva bowling 3 overs on the trot in the search of wickets at the start. At 41/1 in 6 overs we seemed to have started well in the search of the 3rd consecutive win against the Strikers.
Narasaiah introduced in the 7th over changed the complexion of the game. A few deliveries were tapped down the crease by Parag, who was trying to get used to the sharp decline in pace compared to the earlier overs. Three wides were sent outside off. The next ball on leg stump was hit towards mid-wicket. The bat turned a bit too early in the hands of the batsman, before the delivery pitched and a simple lofted catch was held at wide mid-wicket, on a shot that was intended to travel squarer, to a vacant mid-wicket. At 44/2 in 6.4 overs we seemed in a situation of ascendancy. Suresh played a quiet 8th over but on the final ball, stopped the ball with his hand as it was rolling towards the stumps. An appeal followed and Suresh was adjudged out, handling the ball. Mayank (new player) and Hari played the next couple of overs with caution and we walked into the break with 59/3 on board.
The approach after the break was to pick up runs steadily without taking too many risks with the asking rate being 4.6 an over and 7 wickets in hand. We then lost control of the situation immediately after the break losing the wickets of Mayank and Amit in the 11th over being bowled by Pradeep. Sumanth held a good catch at point and Amit edged one to the keeper. To make matters worse Hari was deceived by Narasaiah who hit a feeble shot to point where Sumanth made no mistake. Narasaiah deceived the second batsmen, with his controlled slow bowling.
Mudit and Samir picked up singles and an ocassional two to ensure the game went along without further loss of wickets but that lasted only a couple of overs. Narasaiah picked another wicket in the 15th over, this time that of Mudit who granted Sumanth his 4th catch of the game in the same position. With Adi, Srinivas and Ajay to follow we did not seem to have the depth in batting to give Samir company in the quest of 30 runs that were required in 5.5 overs. Although the equation in terms of runs and balls seemed in our favor the loss of wickets had placed us in a precarious situation.
Shiva, Haran and Prasad kept Adi quiet until the end of the 17th over. Fortunately for us we did not lose any more wickets. At 83/7 in 17 overs, the equation had tightened a bit with 22 needed in 18 balls. The 18th over yielded two boundaries towards third man. Four byes and an edge to third man brought down the required runs to 12 in 12 balls. Prasad balled an erratic 19th over conceeding 7 runs that also included two no-balls. One of the two was for overstepping, resulting in a free hit and another was a full toss over the waist. Prasad however struck back to get Srinivas bowled and Ajay played down two balls without a loss of a wicket to take the game to the final over. 5 runs were required in the final over from Pradeep. Samir flicked one nicely to fine leg for a two. Samir had been flicking the bowlers well on the leg side for ones and twos. One such shot off the bowling of Haran had yielded him a boundary. Ajay was run out on the second ball at the non-strikers end. Samir played a quiet shot on the third ball thereby resulting in 3 runs required in 3 balls and only a wicket in hand. The ever so accurate Pradeep, then bowled Samir on the 4th ball of the final over to give the Strikers victory by a slender margin of two runs.
It was the first win for the Strikers against our team. We had won the two previous games narrowly and given our previous performances against the opposition, had hoped the inevitable loss does not happen so soon.
Parag (18, 22b, 2*4) and Samir (18, 29b, 1*4) dropped anchor but most other batsmen yielded too easily. The effort from the two could have been better but Samir had only the tail to play with.
We conceeded 23 extras, dropped 4 regulation catches. The dropped catches resulted in 19 runs in favor of the opposition batsman. At the end of the day our own blunders cost us another game, even though we may have won a few with such errors in recent history. It is an indication of our falling standards. We managed to keep the standards high, over a period of the last four years but not so in recent games. Will we be able to rectify our issues and are those only temporary ? Only time will provide an answer over the next couple of months..
http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArRZKVChcIaXdDFnRjNDR1Etek53ZmFoRmtWVG80Q0E&hl=en
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