Thanks for your comments and inspiring words. More feedback, more comments, more Cricket action has given me more energy to write the blogs. Nice to see lot of people proving me wrong in their match results last weekend. J
Bhagam Bhag
Saturday 14 Nov 2009, The game was fixed between Nemesis( NEM) and Weekend Cricket Warriors( WCW) at Thomas Russell.
Early morning rains gave the intention that day is not giving to be easy. After reaching ground found they have some construction going on the ground. Reaching early to ground helped us, to co ordinate between ourselves and have look at various grounds and were lucky to locate the ground well in time. Everyone including umpires moved to new ground and ground was ready in no time. Thanks to both teams to work together and get the things moving.
Head ya Tails
Toss was won by NEM, and without giving second thought they elected to bat. Pitch was quite uneven and NEM decided to broom it out at last moment. Climate was on colder side and it was over cast. It was drizzling but I doubt, enthusiasm reduced or thought of canceling the match came to anyones mind.
Singles and Doubles Key for Batting.
Vijay and Manoj opened the innings. Pitch was going to be tricky and showed its trickiness when ball sharply came in and stayed lowed which took wicket of Vijay. Parshu joint Manoj, he did not took his time to settle down and started picking singles. Manoj was middling the ball, and some of his cut shot and on the rise shots were amazing to watch. His poor judgment cost him his wicket in form of run-out by Manish. Manish was fielding in covers and who says he had just arrived from India, he was fully charged and was right on top of the ball whenever it was placed near him. Then comes captain Harshad. The lefty righty combination of Parshu and Harshad slowly took control over the game and NEM were 34/2 in 10 overs.
Dhamaka time
After the break they made their intentions clear and started scoring and running for every opportunity they got. Singles and doubles were flowing easily and occasional boundaries added as catalyst to their scoring. In no time NEM reached 62/2 in 15 overs. With 8 wickets in hand they had decided to go behind the bowling and take their chances. Harshad, you can was lucky enough or you can say WCW gave him many chances in form of drop catch and run out opportunities. on the other hand Parshu was unbeaten, he had played shots all over the park and cover drive from him was wonderful to watch. Finally Harshad was bowled by Manish on second last ball and last ball Deepak trying to get hit out of the park was caught in deep. Last wickets puts Manish on hat trick in next match. I would love to see if he is able to get hold of wicket on 1st ball against Indians. While Parshu remain unbeaten. Singles and doubles helped NEM to score 96/4 with just 5 boundaries. While in bowling Sulabh started well but at the end gave away few runs. I think overall their bowling was on the target just giving away just 5 extras. Day belonged to batsman.
Never give up Key to success
NEM were looking really confident after their score on the board but decided to move on ball by ball and play as a team. I was more impressed by WCW positive attitude to chase down the score. I heard the chatter from their dug out, they can do it and they have done it in past and presence of Manish gave them hope of success.
Every dot ball counts Key for Bowling
Sujith and Hitesh started the bowling for NEM, while Kunal and Dheeraj from WCW were ready to face them. I was happy because sun was out for the first time and felt that things will change and bowlers and fielders will get help in holding the ball cleanly. No doubts batsmans had their own plan ready. After few dot balls Dheeraj started punishing the bad balls out of the park. He made captain think and got deep square leg right from second over. While Kunal taking advantage of gaps in off started picking up singles. No sooner they reached 32/0 in 5 overs. Then it was some energetic fielding and on target bowling by Deepak M and Parshu controlled run scoring machines of WCW to 45/0 in 10 overs.
Plan mein twist
Every dot ball counts was key to success and they had 10 wickets in hand and every dot ball will bring required run rate bit higher. Anything was possible from here.
After the break, they brought DB in attack. Up till now he was just a spectator watching the game from long on. With plan of his own and importance of dot balls he was right on the target. His first victim was Dheeraj who had been playing most of his shots in mid wicket area was trapped in off at cover point by Parshu. His sharp catch broke the partnership; it was the fielders wicket than the bowler's. In the same over Kunal who was playing confidently, try to do something different and played for the first time ball in the air in the leg side. Unfortunately he spotted Hitesh, who has one of the safest hands in NEM side. Double break through got NEM back in the game. Parshu while on other end had decided not to relax and few tight over fetch him wicket of Praveen. Manish the dangerous man was in the crease and he is well know for stealing the singles and was quite successful. Along with Jayesh scoreboard started moving. Dinar trying too hard almost got hold of the catch and run out but was unlucky to get decision in his favor. He kept trying and finally got hold of price wicket of Manish in form of run out. Bowlers were quite supported by sharp fielding in front of the stumps and in deep. Sudhi, Manoj, Deepak K and VJ were on top of the ball and did not allow any extra runs. Required run rate was picking up and dots balls were making life miserable for batsman. Jayesh had not yet given up, he played his shots and punished the full toss out of the park way behind the boundary lines. His innings brought WCW back into the game. Sudhi ran him out just at right time. At one time required run rate was roughly 6.5 now was brought to under 5.
Abhi Khatam nahi huva hai ...
4 overs 19 runs needed and 5 wickets in hand. Harshad had very limited choice left in bowling change and handed bowl to DB once again, our main plan was to just give no easy runs from here on wards. You can say it was DB's day he was right on target getting batsman do something different. Saurabh tried to be innovative and stood almost near off side wide. Dot ball created pressure and he nicked the ball to Dinar. Vivek was unlucky to get one of the slowest ball in the match and was clean bowled on next ball. With just sinlge in the over, WCW require 18 of 18 with 3 wickets in hand. Deepak M, DB kept their head cool and just gave 11 of the next 12 balls. Sujith was confident enough and decided to bowl last over with 2 wickets in hand pressure was on bowler. Prithvi played awesome inning and trying to get an extra run was run out by Hitesh, man never challenge him, he is dam sharp in fielding and throw right to keeper gloves from deep wicket ended innings of Prithvi.
Climax Photo finish
Last ball 2 runs needed, Sujith right on york length, Batsman lucky to get wood on the ball and diving stop from Parshu at short mid off and quick release to Sujith lead to final run out of the match. No runs scored, WCW all out and NEM wins by 1 run.
Thank you one and all
What a match. I think it will be on of the finest match or may be memorable match for all playing players and may be for Umpires.
Umpires Shiv and Amol were great in keeping their cool and handling the close calls. Thanks guys. WCW I loved playing with you guys.
I would say Cricket was at it best with not having just one winner or one Man of the match, everyone involved in the game deserved man of the match. They showed in Cricket, game is not over till the last ball is bowled and never give up till then.
DB is nobody but me ;). I had a blast. I wished MOM was given to Parshu, so as many of us would have thought as he belongs to my dream cricfantasy team.
Yet not registered to cricfantasy http://cricfantasy.cricbay.com/ , do it today and win exciting prizes from our proud sponsors.
Keep Smiling Always
http://bayarea-cricketfever.blogspot.com/
Dharme
Bhavnavho ko samjo ... Grammar mein mat uljo :)
From next time will try to cut down the blog :)
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