Unbelievable Turnaround

We had awesome couple of games this past Sunday. Due to the ongoing CG tournament and tooth extractions our regular folks were missing in action, but we were joined by 2 newcomers, who helped save the day enabling us to play on either side of the pitch. We hope they continue to join us Sunday after Sunday. We had to change our venue, but this time we were slightly better prepared, as Abhijeet had already scouted the Stonegate ground and informed us of its availability, thus we were able to start the game by 8:30.

Team A: Abhijeet S, Abhijeet J, Amit, Rishi and Shashi (new guy, Rishi's friend)

Team B: Senthil , Chandru, Rajesh, Tharendhu (new guy , walk-in, nicknamed T) and Anand

While the first match was kind of predictable, second match turned out to be quite interesting. Team B batted first and made about 30 runs. I think everybody contributed with the bat, especially Senthil who was responsible for some fireworks. T, the new guy, showed some promise and a taste of things to come. Overall Team B appeared to struggle a bit and was not able to put up a good total. Team A's work was cut out. They just had to stay there and runs would come. Amit seemed to embody this message as he stayed at the crease right till the end. He opened and I think played the winning shot in the end. You can say he single handedly won the match for his team. He was ably supported by his team mates in his quest, but the game belonged to him. 

In the second match, T completely blew away the opposition when he opened his and his teams account by hitting two huge consecutive sixes. They were absolutely wonderful and were oozing of raw power'. Timing was definitely there, but the swishing of the bat underlined power behind the shot too. In the first 2 overs he helped himself to 3 sixes and Team B was comfortably perched at 20 runs. He went on to hit one more six or maybe 2 boundaries. The rest of Team B's players only managed to play second fiddle and could not match T 's belligerence. In the end after 8 overs they had made about 46 runs. 

If Team A wanted to overhaul Team B's total and in the process wipe that smirk off their face then one one of  them had to pull a 'T'! And it became quite evident right on the first ball who this person was going to be when Abhijeet J hit me for a  4 on the leg. He went on to score big. His team mates supported him well. Remember it was a huge task, scoring at a rate of 6 per over. But all of them chipped in well. In the middle overs Team B was able to make a small cameo but squandered it away in the 5th over when Abhijeet hit 2 sixes and a four. (I think two consecutive 4s and a third 6) followed by maybe one more hit across the rope in the same or the next over which completely swung the pendulum in Team A's favor. This was slightly unbelievable given the required run rate was 6 at the start of the game and it had climbed to about 8 in the last 3 overs, where they needed some 24 odd runs to win. After that fierce onslaught it was just a formality where the winning runs came in the form of another hit over the rope. 

As far batting is concerned Amit followed by T and then Abhijeet J regaled all of us with their wonderful performance. Where Amit was patience personified, T displayed some brute force and Abhijeet J showed us once again how devastating he can be on the leg.

Rishi was literally spewing venom. I faced a few deliveries and found myself trying to hurry through my shots unless I wanted to get caught with my bat high up in the air and stumps knocked over the fence. Abhijeet J was equally effective with his nagging line and length and medium pace. It was great to see Abhijeet S make a comeback. He was able to flight the ball and pitch it perfectly. He was even able to tie T down a bit. T seems to be a good bowler too. He is in the mold of Venki where he is able to generate decent pace with a small run-up. He also exhibited great line and length.

Have a nice week ahead.

Bye.

Anand