An Entertaining Session Punctuated With Scoring fistfights

Throughout the game, this past Sunday, I kept saying to myself that I should definitely write about the weather and how it was just awesome. The sun did peek out a few times but quickly went back behind the clouds for some much needed rest. Now only if the clouds could shed some of the water and bring some actual relief to the entire region and not only to the 10 cricket enthusiasts at 255 Visions. When I got to the field a practice session was already underway and from the looks of it I felt I should have got there sooner. Every batsman had a quota of 10 deliveries and he could hit anywhere and anyhow. To tell you honestly, it felt quite liberating, otherwise normally during such practice  sessions you try to rein in a bit and just play the ball. But not this time, everybody was having a go. It felt quite nice, I too let myself go! This is how the death overs and powerplay of T20 must feel like, trying to hit on every single ball. We had a decent crowd and two very entertaining games both of which were kind of one-sided but entertaining none-the-less. We had some intense moments … can anybody guess what was the reason … was it a bowler who was sending some genuine quick ones or was it a batman who was hitting everybody out of the park … well … it was neither ... the crown was taken by our resident scorers … all of them.

Team A: Partha, Arvind, Pankaj, Amit and Ram
Team B: Rajesh, Senthil, Abhijeet, Ashish (new guy) and Anand
Arvind had to leave early, so Rajesh volunteered to be the common player in the second match

Team A won the toss and decided to bat. It was good to see Arvind open the innings after a long time. He took some time to settle down but appeared to be dong well. Unfortunately he misjudged an off-stump delivery which went past his bat onto the stumps. I am not sure if there was a nick and whether the ball grazed the bat on its way to the stumps. None-the-less Team A suffered a blow right in the first over. Ram replaced Arvind. Remember the practice session that I was talking about earlier. I think Ram forgot that the practice was over and that we were playing a match … well Team A wasn’t complaining. He just continued where he left off in the nets and took Team A’s bowlers, especially me to the cleaners. He hit some huge shots in the mid-wicket region. The scoreboard was galloping and even though other bowlers, especially Abhijeet with his wily flighted deliveries, were able to introduce some speed-breakers Ram still appeared quite comfortable in handling them. I think Amit came in next followed by Pankaj. If Ram was aggression personified, Amit concentrated on taking singles. He did a great job of frustrating Team A’s bowlers and fielders alike by just pushing and running. Unfortunately for him one such push went in Arvind’s direction and he was able to get his throw in quickly and Amit had to depart. He had done his part and kept the score board ticking while showing everybody how some agility can go a long way in making a difference to the bottom-line. Pankaj kind of integrated Amit’s penchant for pushes and Ram’s affinity for heaves and sculpted his innings by scoring some well earned singles and equally admirable big shots. He singled out Ashish (the new guy) for some special treatment. I guess that’s because Ashish can generate decent pace and if the ball is in the right area then an enterprising batsman can take some chances and that’s exactly what Pankaj did. In fact one of his shots prompted Ram to call it the shot of the day when it cleared the ropes without a single bounce. It was an awesome shot with a great follow through. Team B  wasn't looking too happy. Team A’s batsmen were trying to make up in terms of runs what they thought they lacked in the bowling department. After Pankaj,Partha took Team A’s bowlers to task and continued his side’s dream run-spree. He was able to score couple of boundaries and ended his team's campaign on a high note of 76 runs.

Team B thought they could pull this off as they were made to believe by Team A that they did not have quality bowlers.Abhijeet opened the innings cautiously. Following in Arvind’s footsteps he too got out in the first over. I think Rajesh replaced him. He played very sensibly. He displayed what we should be doing during the matches. He was running the first one really fast and so was able to get 2 runs easily and I think on one occasion even got a three. He played very well. I think he declared his inning because I remember him coming to play again at the end of the match. Team B was still way off the target and really needed Senthil to come through as the run rate was climbing. He played with confidence started hitting ground running. He was able to provide a sliver of hope and Team B’s chances started looking a bit better. But where Team B had failed Team A was successful, i.e. getting breakthroughs at regular intervals. Senthil too departed early. Finally Ashsih came in. He started a bit tentatively. That’s understandable as he was playing with us for the first time. After facing few deliveries he appeared to settle down because I vividly remember him playing comfortably thereafter. He payed well and added to the score, but Team B was way way behind the total. I think they may have just barely crossed the half-way mark. If I am not mistaken Rajesh had declared his inning and he came back after Ashish’s departure. But his return was short-lived as he was taken down by an absolutely wonderful catch at short mid-on by Partha who held onto the ball even while slipping. It was an absolute stunner. It was just befitting how Team A wrapped up Team B and beat them squarely. Team A bowled exceptionally and got breakthroughs when they needed. They also fielded very well. There were couple of direct throws, one from Abhijeet and then there was one from Arvind in the first innings. As far as bowling is concerned Ashish was able to generate decent pace. His style is slightly in question and was the topic of discussion. Rajesh even gave him some tips. It would be interesting to face him.

For the second match Team A again won the toss and elected to bat. As Arvind had to go Rajesh volunteered to be the common player. Team B this time around was able to get some crucial breakthroughs in the beginning. Team A lost Pankaj early. This setback plus some spirited bowling saw Team A stumble a bit. After about 3-4 overs only 9 runs were on the score-board. Rajesh and Partha turned things around. Rajesh playing the common player’s role was able to score briskly and within a matter of 2-3 overs Team A was scoring well. Finally when the innings ended they had made 26 (or maybe 27) runs.Team B’s job was cut out, they had to reinvent themselves and not repeat last match's mistakes. I think Abhijeet understood this very well because after losing Senthil early on he consolidated the innings pretty well. Senthil started off well and appeared quite comfortable. The shot on which he got out deserved to be a six. It was very well hit. It covered both distance and height, but unfortunately it fell a bit short and Amit took a great catch running back and sideways a little bit. It was a very well judged catch.  Abhijeet, on his part, was able to steer the ball on the leg side on a number of occasions. By the time he left Team B was perched quite comfortably. Ashish followed him who again played sensibly and added crucial runs. Rajesh came in next. I guess Team B needed just 2 or 3 runs. In an effort to to put some pressure Ram got everybody to close-in, but Rajesh was prepared for this and he hit over the fielders to score the winning runs. So in a way Rajesh played from both the sides, first successfully setting the target and then helping Team B scale it as well.

Overall we had two entertaining games where the wonderful game that we played wasn't even the main attraction. The limelight was stolen by some friendly banter which threatened to deescalate but was quickly brought under control after the involved parties decided to take it down a notch and settle things amicably. The stars of this side-show were Arvind, Abhijeet, Senthil, Amit and to a certain extent Ram Pankaj, Rajesh, … well as you can see … all of us were arguing and at the end I wasn’t even sure if the person who started the latest argument was really serious or just doing it for riling his fellow players. In any case it was quite entertaining … hadn't seen this in a long time … I seriously feel Arvind should come more often, it livens things up a lot where players like Abhijeet and Senthil bring their ‘A’ game (and mind you we are not talking about batting, bowling or fielding) to the proceedings.

The highlight of the game was Partha’s superlative catch and Ram and Pankaj’s power play in the first innings. Rajesh and Partha batted very well in both the innings. Rajesh along with Amit ran really well between the wickets. Abhijeet was absolutely amazing with his flighted deliveries and was able to arrest the run flow in the first innings of he first match. We saw couple of direct throws which resulted in wickets.

Hopefully I will see you guys next Sunday to make things even more exciting (in this case more is definitely better). If things go fine then we may have a game with the Cisco team for which we need our best players.

You guys have a nice rest of the week.

Bye.

Anand