Amazing Camaraderie And a Wonderful Match

We had a great turnout this past Sunday. I am not sure if we have ever played ten a side, having to borrow only one from the other team. You could sense something was afoot when even the mighty Sun had to push the clouds aside to sneak a peak only to be quickly overpowered. The weather was just fine, it started with a complete cloud cover and then cleared up making way for a bright and sunny morning perfect for a friendly game of cricket.

  

Team A: Manoj, Chaitanya, Vivek, Siddharth, Abhijeet, Abhijeet J, Sanjib, Sumeet, Partha and Pankaj

Team B: Amit, Venkat, Rajesh, Pratik, Kishore, Vamshi, Gunjan, Bala, Chandru and Anand

Team B won the toss and elected to bat. Amit and Rajesh opened the innings. Playing sensibly, they did not go for the big shots but were content with scoring singles and twos. They were finding the gaps rather well and kept the score bard ticking. Venkat joined Rajesh and continued the run flow. The former went after the bowlers and was very effective on either side. This continued for the next few overs. Team A’s bowlers were doing a good job, but were no match for these two. They were able to cut and pull with great ease. Both declared their innings to let their fellow batsmen a chance to bat. Rajesh returned first making way for Kishore, who showed no sign of rust. Coming after a brief hiatus, he took few balls to settle down. Team A’s bowlers must have definitely kicked themselves for not putting him down when he was fresh on the scene. He was responsible forgetting everybody on their feet early on in the game. He was especially lethal on the on-side, where he pulled the short deliveries and the ones going down the leg side with great ease. He scored couple of boundaries and quite a few singles and double in this area. In fact this onslaught forced Manoj to rethink his strategy of having a close-in fielder and instead move him deep. After his departure, Venkat was joined by Bala. They continued Kishore’s hitting spree putting Team A’s bowlers in quandry. Please don’t get me wrong, Team A had a great bowling line-up, just take a look at the team composition above, but Team B’s batsmen were gaining a  slight edge. If I am not mistaken Rajesh retired and Bala continued his siege of the other end. The lower middle order could not match up to the early onslaught and there was a slight lull. It did not help when Abhijeet Joshi, the new guy, claimed Pratik and Vamshi in the same over. His slower deliveries got the better off of the two batsmen providing the much needed breakthrough for Team A. Team B could not recover from this downturn fully, even after Venkat and Rajesh returned. Chandru along with these returning batsmen tried to resurrect the innings but failed. Towards the end Bala and Rajesh tried their best to haul the score over the 100 run mark, but Team A’s bowlers had found their mojo. They had tasted blood and were not ready to let up so easily. They continued their strangle hold and despite Balas’s heaves Team A could manage only 91. It was a good score, but given the start and the middle order fireworks more was expected. In fact the number doing the rounds was 120. Team A deserves a pat on the back for turning the game around thus keeping themselves in the fray.

Team B had its work cut-out. They had to put their heads dwn and repeat what Team A’s performance save the lower middle order collapse. But things don’t always work out the way you want … well at least not the way Team A wanted. They began their campaign on a rather disastrous note. They lost 3 wickets in 3 overs. This coupled with low scoring in the initial overs put immense pressure on them. At this critical juncture Manoj decided to promoted himself up the order. I always marvel at such players who take the situation head-on. I am not a great fan of Dhoni, but after Tendulkar I find myself gravitating towards him. One of the qualities that impress me is his fearlessness. That’s exactly what Manoj did, and he too was successful. He went out there and started blasting from the word go. This eased the pressure and buoyed his fellow batsmen and team-mates’ hopes. The innings stabilized a bit and runs started pouring in. Team B’s bowling faltered a bit and Team A capitalized. Team A’s middle order flourished where the openers had faltered. Manoj was ably supported by Siddharth and Chaitanya. Manoj departed a bit early, followed by Sanjib and one more player. Suddenly Team B found itself on the top. They were able to maintain the pressure throughout the rest of the match and stifle any resurrection. I had to leave a bit early … but thanks to Rajesh (who sent me a write-up) here is an account of the rest of the game … while wickets kept falling at one end Chaitanya held the fortress at the other. He tried to get as much support as he could from his team-mates and rotated strike trying to get himself to face the deliveries but at the same time scoring the much needed runs whenever possible. The asking run rate started to creep and towards the end it became a do-or-die situation. Having played responsibly till now, it was time to throw caution to the wind. Unfortunately he wasn’t too successful and holed out to Vamshi, who took a splendid catch to bring an inspiring innings to an end. Vivek took over the mantle from Chaitanya and continued the fight, but unfortunately he was left alone at the crease and finally it was just a matter of time. Team B won the match comfortably by 19 runs. There were couple of controversies like the team composition being lopsided and Team B’s choice of awarding the ball to their strike bowlers more than the allocated quota of overs. I say these are good problems to have … hopefully we have a full house next Sunday … we will try to address them.

The game belonged to the batsmen. The stars were Venki, Rajesh, Kishore, Bala, Manoj, Chaitanya, Vivek, Siddharth and Sumeet. While players like Rajesh, Chaitanya, Venki and Sumeet concentrated on ball placement and keep the score board ticking the rest displayed some awesome hitting. Fielding was top notch lead by players like Partha. Sunday after Sunday he amazes me with his great throwing ability. If the ball is in his hand or if he is anywhere near the ball, then I would tell the batsmen to think twice before making a dash for the other end. More often than not the outcome would be decided by the batsmen’s  luck than his ability to outrun the throw. Manoj too has a great arm. Abhijeet J, the new guy took an awesome one handed catch at mid-on thus dashing my hopes of playing more than 3 balls in a match. Pratik and Manoj impressed me with their awesome bowling. Both were breathing fire and the batsmen were finding it difficult to play their shots.

As you can see we had a very entertaining match, but that wasn’t even the half of it. More than the match the friendly banter happening on the sidelines was equally entertaining. As Chaitanya later pointed out the match turned out to be a big stress buster and I absolutely agree with him … it was what the doctor had prescribed. Pratik and Chaitanya were going after each other and everybody including Abhijeet, Vkishore, Sanjib Sumeet, Vamshi and Chandru was chipping in with their comments. There was great camaraderie at display. As much as the game, folks were enjoying each other's company thus quadrupling (and some more) the fun they would have normally had at the game of cricket.

I hope the cricket gods smile upon us and we continue to have this full house in the coming weeks. After few weeks of practice we can besiege Abhijeet to contact Woodbury East for a match. We can go beyond them and contact some more teams.

You guys have a nice rest of the week. See you next Sunday.

Bye.

Anand