Wonderful Weekend

The past weekend saw two matches being played, which involved cricketers belonging to the Palar Cricket Club:

Match1: (Saturday) Open-Silicon winning by 1 run @ Railways Ground. (Kinvah Corporate Cricket Challenge)

Match2: (Sunday) Indiranagar Cricket Club winning by a huge margin @ REVA Ground (Division 4 League match)

Apart from my blog below, we also saw the following comments come from the captain and the man of the hour - Umesh!!

 - Comments from Ajay S:

"This is good stuff J thanks Prasan, Rahul….

Couple of moments:

1. Catch at short covers was “catch of the year 2010”!  Needs to be rewarded…..U are a champ Umi !!!!!! 

2. Sujit seemed so scared about re-injuring his ankle while stopping the ball with hand!  How is that logically possible?? Finally due to confusion he let the ball go for a boundary costing 4 runs! I had to tell him that there is no ankle in either hand….and he accepted J J

Umi, may be we should add something for league match yesterday!

Some moments I enjoyed:

1. First hundred for Indiranagar this season. That means I need to give first Rs 2000 to Ashfaque (115)…which I am very happy about. Indiranagar recorded highest score 372 for year 2010. Umesh 76, Anuj 49, New chap rajendran 50 runs contributed to make that happen along with Ashfaque. Jr Vikam (Age 14) took 6 wickets for 45…another left arm spinner in making to replace Bhagwan Singh…Indiranagar winning 5 out of 5 matches at league stage! 

2. And here is the best Moment: Manohar bowling….Umesh comes at first slip with great confidence…ball edges towards point….Manohar yelling at Umesh for not diving in the point direction from slip…ha ha ha…..next ball Umi promptly asking Prithwi to take slip position…and going to short third man position himself…We all can understand Umi..don’t we?"

- Comments from Umi:

" :) Wow i enjoyed it - I am on high with compliments from the Captain on the catch - great feeling !@!#@#$@$

Yeah it was a great week end altogether on Sunday included.

Few of things i remember was the new Guy - he was struggling to touch the ball first few overs - it looked like he never batted before and then he went on to make 50 !!! Also every over i have told him while batting not to change the end - lot of tennis ball cricket i believe :)

Manohar standing next to me in Slips and Jealous about Ajay's bowling - saying he is still figuring out how Ajay can get more wickets...and the next ball ..Guess what Ajay takes wicket next ball - uff...

Enjoyed Ashfaque hitting big ones....and first time in my life seeing the other Guy hitting century batting opposite side and the Joy that he experienced...."

Well...I am really not sure what Umi meant when he typed - '!@!#@#$@$', but I am sure it is just pure happiness. :)

Keep the comments coming guys and hope for a even more memorable weekend to follow.

Cheers,

Dundee

The Sweet Revenge

Yesterday, when Rahul came up to me and told me about the next match of the 'Kinvah Corporate Cricket Challenge', I didn't know that it was actually the semi-final match. Infact, it was only when I got to the ground that I realized that we were playing this semi-final against rivals - Cap-Gemini. 

The reason I mention our opponents so clearly here, is because the previous two encounters between our teams have always yielded very tight results. The first happened in the BGS ground, where I was told that the 100 run partnership between Umesh and Ajay B sealed the match for us. The second, and obviously more infamous, meeting happened at the RSI ground for the 'Royal Challenge Corporate Trophy' where we were chasing and had to score 2 runs of the final over, but ended up loosing 4 wickets for nothing and lost the match!! (for more details on that match, please refer Rahul's blog below)

This time around, however, things were much different. This Saturday, we decided to go out there and "play our natural game". Here, let me say that whenever you here any International or Domestic cricketer say the above phrase, what he actually means is - 'We had no strategy!!' or in many cases - 'Our strategy was so pathetic, that I prefer saying that we played our natural game instead!!'.......In our case though, the reason we had no strategy was mainly because, we are all too lazy!

This fact was quite obvious because when the organizer called our captain for the toss, we looked at each other for 5 minutes, wondering who will be the captian today, before Ashfaque obliged with the honours, won the toss and decided that we would bat first. To follow that up, Ajay B had absolutely no idea untill the last moment that he was actually opening the batting with Ajay S and soon we had 2 other batsmen padded up not knowing when they had to go bat. Eventually, it was decided that Umesh would be the captain and after that he did a wonderful job of marshaling the troops.

The lack of strategy from our end, was more than made up by our opponents, who ran a full round, warmed-up, got into a team huddle and opened the bowling with a spinner. A strategy that worked beautifully, cause our ex-captain Ajay S was back into the dug-out in the first over itself, to give Anil company with a little chai cutting.

Our other main stream batsmen tried to up the tempo, but managed to regularly leave their stumps open or find the fielders. Umesh and Puneet tried to build a partnership, but Puneet succumbed to a suicidal run. Pinkesh and Rahul lost their wickets trying to score a few quick runs and it was left to the tail enders to play out the stipulated 20 overs. Anil (8 runs), Sujit (3 runs) and me (2 runs n.o), somehow managed to stretch the innings to the last ball and we ended up being bowled out for exactly 100 runs in 20 overs. 

As we took to the field, we hardly had any scope of winning. Infact we were all looking forward to finishing the match and having some sumptuous snacks at Shri Krishna Bhavan at the earliest. Our opponents, however, had different plans. Again their opening batsmen strolled out with a pre-defined strategy and smashed their way to 48 runs without loosing any wickets. Eventually, it took one of Ajay S's super-flight balls to get us our first wicket. The next batsmen lost his stumps to Yadav and the suicidal runout in our innings was complemented by an even more suicidal runnout in their innings. Soon they found themselves at 50 odd for 3 wickets. 

At this juncture, we still did not have any hope of winning, but kept our cool and encouraged the bowlers to keep bowling the good balls. It was at this time, that captain Umesh pulled out his trump card - Spinners.

Ajay had already picked up a couple of wickets, Sujit and Pinkesh picked one each as well, which included a brilliant catch taken by Umesh. The target wasn't too high and the runs kept coming and soon we were in a situation where the opposition need only 5 runs from 6 overs, with 3 wickets remaining. 

Enter Pinkesh who bowled a straighter delivery to get rid of the left hander. A tight over ensured that 3 runs were needed with 2 wickets remaining. Sujit bowled, what was to be the last over of the match. He bowled a short ball first up, which the batsmen pulled and the ball traveled in the air in the direction of Ajay, who took a superb catch running to his left. 

3 runs and 1 wicket remaining. Sujit tried a straighter one, which slid down the leg slide and was given a wide. 

2 runs and 1 wicket remaining. The pressure on the batsman was clearly visible. Sujit bowled the next ball. It was a straighter one, which the batsman did not pick up. The ball skipped the bat and hit the pad in-line with the stump. All of us let out a huge appeal and as the umpire started raising the dreaded finger, our celebrations had already begun!!

It was yet another close encounter and this time around, we emerged victorious. It was a great come back for our team and we did not even try to hide the joy on our faces. 

Sujit, who picked up 3 wickets for 16 runs was adjudged the Man of the Match, but the bottle of red Kinvah wine was enjoyed by the whole team. This was a momentous victory for us and as I recollect, it was the first time that we had emerged as winners in a closely fought battle.

Cap-Gemini was quite stunned with what had happened and it was the sight of them, huddled  under a banyan tree, outside the ground, still wondering what really had hit them, that made this a very sweet revenge. 

The score now stands at:

Open-Silicon 2 - 1 Cap-Gemini

Now, as we look forward to yet another final, I would summarize yesterday's match by saying that it was the 2 crucial runs that I scored in the last over that made the difference in the end.

Ok, I know all of you will oppose this, but what the heck - this is my blog. If you think otherwise, write your own!! :)

Cheers

Dundee