High Drama At Alton Athletic Park

Everytime I write this paragraph I think how the weather will be next time, will it be better than what we experienced today? You can be rest assured that the weather that we had  this past Sunday’s was amazing. It just cannot be beat. The sun came out exactly at 9:30 AM when we started the second game. The sky was gray with no trace of white and the sun was nowhere to be seen. It was slightly nippy, but perfect for a game of cricket. We could just keep on bowling and running and yet not have a bead of sweat run down our forehead. I guess this is how it must feel at Lords playing in the English weather  (I have been rehearsing this line since I left the ground on Sunday … I had to say it!).

The weather wasn’t overshadowed without a reason, for we had a dispute in the first match, where the result came under much scrutiny. The cloud cover suddenly moved from above into within and that’s a pity because it was an absolute cracker of a match where both the sides played some fabulous cricket and one of them definitely deserved to go home with a convincing win. One of the two (teams) knew in their hearts that they had won the game fair and square and the other was satisfied thinking that they had been successful in squeezing an iota of doubt in the other team’s mind and thus feel somewhat redeemed. I will leave it up to you to decide …

Team A: Venki, Rajesh, Siddharth, Sanjeev (new guy), Vivek (new guy) and Amit

Team B: Senthil, Chaitanya, Pankaj, Chandru, Dharmendra and Anand

Second match: Amit left and Chandru was the common player.

Team A won the toss and decided to bat. Amit and Vivek opened the innings. The pair was successful in frustrating the bowlers. They were just happy with pushing and placing the ball and running for singles and twos (no field placement can counter this approach). They played some very smart cricket. Vivek showed some great skills which was just a trailer because he saved the best for the second match. He was able to find gaps and place the shots very well. I should have guessed it when I saw Venki and he coming to the field together. They added some 12 odd runs rather quickly. The real star of the innings was Venki where he played some great shots. I vividly remember couple of shots which just raced to the boundary. One was a pull shot which raced to the boundary even before I could attempt to track the trajectory. The other was a classy off-drive which was slightly uppish but never dangerous as no one was present at the boundary to catch it. There was one particular Senthil over which should be mentioned over here which pretty much sums up Team B's dilemma. Standing at mid-on I saw Venki look in the square leg region, which thinking back should have been ominous. Senthil came in to bowl and just as the ball left his hand (I am not kidding, I could see all this happening right in front of me ... kind of in slow motion) I could see Venki change his stand and shift his weight on the right leg while lifting his left leg in preparation of a pull. The result left Chandru gawking at the ball which went over his head and landed just short of the boundary line. Very smartly I suggested to Senthil that it would be better if I moved to deep mid-wicket (from mid-on). This brought about couple of more changes and we thought we were ready for the next shot, but this time Venki went very finer and sent one crashing in the backward point-square third man region. Two consecutive fours in two diametrically opposite directions. It was absolutely amazing. For lack of any more suggestions we just continued with the same fielding position. We didn't know what to do. Team B appeared to be cruising and was playing very well and at this time Senthil made a very good decision of giving the ball to Chaitanya. I think this was the turning point of the first innings. Chaitanya bowled an extremely calculated over where he had both the batsmen wrapped around his finger. It was a crucial point in the game, six overs had been bowled and Venki and Siddharth were at the crease. Both were set and were playing effortlessly. I remember thinking, 'these guys have been playing for the longest time'. He was able to put the brakes on and Venki who was sending the ball to the fence at least once per over was finding it difficult to dispatch. Chaitanya, Chandru and I discussed his last ball where he said how he was anticipating Venki to wait till the last minute to see where the ball was being pitched. Chaitanya had saved he slower delivery for the last. Venki tried to pull it, but it stayed glued to the ground and fetched him only one run. Chaitanya was followed by Pankaj and Dharmendra and the final over was bowled again by Chaitanya. Dharmendra and Pankaj bowled economical spells and were successful in containing Team A. Siddharth provided Venki great company. Towards the ed one of them got run out while trying to convert 2 into a 3. Finally Team A scored 57 runs. Full credit goes to Team B’s bowlers who brought their team back into the game in the second half. One of things that I remember from first innings was our fielding. In fact Venki mentioned it to me while trying to prop up the stumps for the umpteenth time ... everybody seemed to be hitting the stumps directly. Sanjeev, the new guy took 2 great high risers.

Chaitanya and Pankaj opened the innings for Team B. Chaitanya opened his account with a  stylish cut in the slips and Pankaj seemed to be carrying from where he left off last Sunday. They both combined well and were cruising along. This is when catastrophe struck for the first time for Team B. Normally Venki doesn't bowl 6 quickies, he bowls them maybe two or three times in a over. He tries to humor the batsmen by bowling his spin deliveries. But he was in mood to oblige and was sending one quickie after another. Every member of Team B wanted to rush over and tell Pankaj and Chaitanya to just cool it and play this over out. Pankaj seemed to read our collective mind and was not committing any harakiri. After letting 2 balls go the wicket-keeper way he pushed the third in the mid-off region and ran for a single. This brought Chaitanya to the crease. Venki didn’t want Chaitanya to settle down and decided to continue with the same line, length and pace. In an effort to late-cut the ball, Chaitanya went on his back-foot and tried to slash the ball but unfortunately for him the ball was in no mood to come onto his bat. It rushed onto the stumps crashing all 3 in the process. Team B had lost its first wicket. Senthil joined Pankaj and had the difficult task of facing two more deliveries which he did successfully. Senthil gave Pankaj good company. Like last Sunday Pankaj was playing marvelously. He was pacing his innings very well going after the lose balls and not taking any chances. After 5 overs Team B had scored 29 runs and the match was exactly half-way through (in terms of overs and runs).  Pankaj then stepped aside to allow his team-mates a chance to bat. Unfortunately, Team B’s middle order collapsed leaving the onus yet again on Pankaj and Dharmendra. It was very uncanny to see Chandru and Dharmendra at the crease with Pankaj to follow. It was an exact repeat of last week’s match. And just like last time Chandru, Dharmendra and Pankaj rose to the occasion. First it was Chandru and Dharmendra. The former batted very well under pressure and gave Dharmendra good company. The duo was responsible for stemming the fall of wickets and bring some order to the proceedings. After losing some quick wickets the two just concentrated on taking singles and twos and did not go for the big shots. They made about 12-15 runs. After Chandru’s departure Pankaj returned. I think Team B needed some 15-20 more runs. Team A was bowing very well. I particularly remember Siddharth’s over which was Team A's answer to Chaitanya’s match turning over in the first innings. The last 3 overs were bowled by Siddharth, Venki and Vivek. Venki’s over saw the demise of Dharmendra’s wicket. They were so close yet so far. Pankaj, who had opened the innings was still standing at the crease all by himself trying to think how to score 13 runs from 7 balls. Vivek came in to bowl the last over. His work was cut out, he had to stay on the off and not let Pankaj connect. They could afford singles, but no boundaries. Team A packed the boundary and Vivek took his run-up. Pankaj scored 1 run of the first delivery and then 2 from the next. The third was a dot ball. The situation was very tense. Standing at long on, I was very fidgety trying to think of various scenarios and how we could make the remaining 8 runs. Pankaj had to hit a boundary. The fourth ball fetched 1 tun. Team A was slowly winning this tug of war and was quite upbeat. It was just a mind game now. The next delivery had to cross the boundary in order to keep the match in Team B’s favor and that’s exactly what happened. Vivek let one lose ball go through which Pankaj capitalized and sent it crashing to the fence in the mid-wicket region. There was a slight misfield which aided his quest, but that was just a coincidence. Team B needed 3 runs to win and 2 to tie. Pankaj was ready for anything. He just wanted to connect and run. He drove the last ball to the long off region in Rajesh’s direction. He (along with Senthil, who was giving him company since it was the last wicket) ran the first one quickly. Rajesh, by this time had reached the ball. It was a no brainier that Pankaj and Senthil would go for the second, which they did and when we all thought that to the least it would be a tie, Rajesh found the bull’s eye. Standing at long-on I could clearly see his throw hit the stumps directly. Senthil had just managed to reach the crease. After being deflected from the stumps the ball went away from Vivek and the two decided to complete the third run.Team B had won the match ... did it really?

As I said earlier … this is where the dispute began. Team A was confident that Senthil had not made his ground when Rajesh’s direct throw dislodged the stumps while Team B was arguing that Senthil was safe and that the third run was legitimate. In my honest opinion .... Team A won the match!! Chandru (umpire) and Senthil's (the runner) goofish smiles said it all. It was absolutely amazing on Rajesh's part to stay calm and throw the ball and make it count. Had it not been for him Team B would have definitely won the match. In any case both the teams played brilliantly displaying great batting, bowling and fielding.

The second match was a pale shadow of the first match where we were booted from the ground before we could finish the game. As Amit left we decided to play with only one batsman and no runner. That was a slight downer where it appeared as if we were not playing as a team (till few months back that’s exactly how we used to play regularly, but now we find it odd). This time Team A decided to bat. Pankaj played brilliantly and hit some great shots. He was ably supported by Dharmendra and the two were responsible for scoring most of the runs. Senthil, Chandru and Chaitanya provided them good company. I am not sure about the score, but it was something in the range of higher 30s and lower 40s. From Team A Vivek played some great shots. He was playing fluently on either side and appeared to be taking the game away from Team B single handedly. But just then the game was cut short and we had to abandon the match.

So basically we played 2 matches with one’s result some wanted to dispute and the other had to be abandoned. Once again Venki and Pankaj dominated the batting scene. Venki was given a run for is money by Vivek and they both played some great shots Dharmendra was playing some great cover drives by opening the face of his bat. Pankaj once again proved why any captain would to have him on his team.  Chaitanya, Dharmendra, Siddharth and Venki were flawless in the bowling department.

One very important announcement (based on Chandru's and Chaitanya's suggestions) … for the next 2 weeks we will play a match amongst us us and the playing 11 for the game with Woodbury East will be selected from these 2 matches.

You guys have a nice rest of the week.

Bye.

Anand