Corridor of Uncertain Tea - WGCC vc ACC (15th May 2010)
Guys, I am back after a brief hiatus!!..I felt like writing the blog again, after a wonderful performance by our team today!..
So, here you go...the match blog...
The occasion was our 3rd league match against ACC at their home ground. We were in high spirits after our thrilling win against PACC last week, and were eagerly waiting for this match. Now, before I fill you in with the match details, let me brief you regarding the ground tht we played on.
Reddy Creek Park..a joke of a cricket ground with the boundaries on either side just a silly distance away. So silly tht if you just punch the ball with no effort at all, it will still find the other end of the rope in no time.
Having said tht, you still have to score or chase sensibly to put a challenging total. It would have been easy for our batsmen to get excited about the short boundaries, just the same way a teenager would be excited about watching his first porn movie. But full credit to our guys, who played with such ease and class tht made us proud.
After losing the toss, we were put to field first by the opposition. With Sunny, Kanwer and Santosh not playing in this match (all of them very competent opening bowlers), I shared the red cherry with Prashant and we provided a decent start to the team picking a wicket each in our 3 overs spell. The scorecard read 39/2 after 6 overs which was very economical given the unforgiving circumstances for the bowlers in reddy creek. Prashant especially was awesome. This guy is one of the best we have in the team and when he bowls like he did today, there is no stopping him. Rahul, the birthday boy, was brought in as first change and he immediately picked a wicket in his first over courtesy a stunner of a catch tht Parth took over the long off boundary. That however didnot dampen the opposition batsmen spirits and they non-chalantly upped the ante over after over and looted most of the bowlers for plenty, especially their captain who eventually played a not-out innings of 150+ to take his team to a competitive total of 273 runs after 30 overs. Ashish, Arun and Mo bowled short spells with occasional burst of excellence. On the way, we dropped 3-4 chances to get their skipper out, as suddenly it felt tht all our fielders had two left hands. Mayur's leg spin was also ineffective today as the short boundaries really worked against his flighted deliveries. I and Mayur managed to pick a couple of wickets for ourselves, while Prashant, Rahul and Ashish picked one wicket each.
So there we were; chasing a total of 274 in 30 overs; something tht we hadnt done previously; but we were optimistic given our batting depth and a small ground.
Mayur and Raman planned to start watchfully to give us a good chance for a successful chase, with just 2 runs coming out of the first over; Raman playing 4 deliveries and Mayur getting a couple of balls. At this point, our captain decided tht he has been watchful Enough and cracked 2 consecutive sixes off the first 2 deliveries of the 2nd over, and then there was no looking back. There were many more short balls from the opposition bowlers which met the middle of Mayur's bat everytime. We lost Ramanji soon after he hit a six, and tht brought the hero of the match into action. When Rahul Mandewalker walked into the middle, little did the opposition know tht it was going to just kill any excitement and thrill tht is generally associated with a high chase, as Rahul decided to play the best innings in the league on his birthday today. He batted like a man possessed, churning sixes at will. It was a flawless effort, which continued even after Mayur's blazing innings of 67 came to an end. Dipen played a perfect supporting role to Rahul with this level headed shots and keeping the momentum always with us. He found his confidence back, and we found our Dravid....although a Gujju but nevertheless equally effective; both behind and in front of the stumps.
There was not a single moment of panic in the dug-out, as we always believed tht we could do it. The approach was always positive even when Dipen got out, Fawaz went in and smacked two deliveries right over bowlers head; one all the way over the rope.
At the end, WGCC got home with 9 balls to spare with Rahul fittingly hitting the winning runs with a massive six and deservingly bringing his 150 off it. He will not forget this birthday for a very very long time and neither would we!!!
GO WGCC!!!!
So, here you go...the match blog...
The occasion was our 3rd league match against ACC at their home ground. We were in high spirits after our thrilling win against PACC last week, and were eagerly waiting for this match. Now, before I fill you in with the match details, let me brief you regarding the ground tht we played on.
Reddy Creek Park..a joke of a cricket ground with the boundaries on either side just a silly distance away. So silly tht if you just punch the ball with no effort at all, it will still find the other end of the rope in no time.
Having said tht, you still have to score or chase sensibly to put a challenging total. It would have been easy for our batsmen to get excited about the short boundaries, just the same way a teenager would be excited about watching his first porn movie. But full credit to our guys, who played with such ease and class tht made us proud.
After losing the toss, we were put to field first by the opposition. With Sunny, Kanwer and Santosh not playing in this match (all of them very competent opening bowlers), I shared the red cherry with Prashant and we provided a decent start to the team picking a wicket each in our 3 overs spell. The scorecard read 39/2 after 6 overs which was very economical given the unforgiving circumstances for the bowlers in reddy creek. Prashant especially was awesome. This guy is one of the best we have in the team and when he bowls like he did today, there is no stopping him. Rahul, the birthday boy, was brought in as first change and he immediately picked a wicket in his first over courtesy a stunner of a catch tht Parth took over the long off boundary. That however didnot dampen the opposition batsmen spirits and they non-chalantly upped the ante over after over and looted most of the bowlers for plenty, especially their captain who eventually played a not-out innings of 150+ to take his team to a competitive total of 273 runs after 30 overs. Ashish, Arun and Mo bowled short spells with occasional burst of excellence. On the way, we dropped 3-4 chances to get their skipper out, as suddenly it felt tht all our fielders had two left hands. Mayur's leg spin was also ineffective today as the short boundaries really worked against his flighted deliveries. I and Mayur managed to pick a couple of wickets for ourselves, while Prashant, Rahul and Ashish picked one wicket each.
So there we were; chasing a total of 274 in 30 overs; something tht we hadnt done previously; but we were optimistic given our batting depth and a small ground.
Mayur and Raman planned to start watchfully to give us a good chance for a successful chase, with just 2 runs coming out of the first over; Raman playing 4 deliveries and Mayur getting a couple of balls. At this point, our captain decided tht he has been watchful Enough and cracked 2 consecutive sixes off the first 2 deliveries of the 2nd over, and then there was no looking back. There were many more short balls from the opposition bowlers which met the middle of Mayur's bat everytime. We lost Ramanji soon after he hit a six, and tht brought the hero of the match into action. When Rahul Mandewalker walked into the middle, little did the opposition know tht it was going to just kill any excitement and thrill tht is generally associated with a high chase, as Rahul decided to play the best innings in the league on his birthday today. He batted like a man possessed, churning sixes at will. It was a flawless effort, which continued even after Mayur's blazing innings of 67 came to an end. Dipen played a perfect supporting role to Rahul with this level headed shots and keeping the momentum always with us. He found his confidence back, and we found our Dravid....although a Gujju but nevertheless equally effective; both behind and in front of the stumps.
There was not a single moment of panic in the dug-out, as we always believed tht we could do it. The approach was always positive even when Dipen got out, Fawaz went in and smacked two deliveries right over bowlers head; one all the way over the rope.
At the end, WGCC got home with 9 balls to spare with Rahul fittingly hitting the winning runs with a massive six and deservingly bringing his 150 off it. He will not forget this birthday for a very very long time and neither would we!!!
GO WGCC!!!!
Labels: WGCC vc ACC
posted by ASB at 9:37 PM
5 Comments:
awesome blog paaji.....its good to read your blog....keep writing...
Great work Amar, excellent blog. Thus was such a great team effort even though personal brilliance took stage
over the team work. I beleive Mayur bowled well within his strengths and his captaining was excellent. He always showed
confidence inspite of the massive target. I will write the
positives of this match in a day or two .
I think we are ready to win the next away game .
Cricket is a confidence game and certainly we
have it now.
Thanks
Santhosh
Great blog Amar!! Big ups for WGCC!
Very well said, Amar. It was indeed an HAPPY b'day for me and a great victory for our team. I agree with Santosh it was a great team effort and every contribution was important.
Jai WGCC!!!
Rahul Mandewalker
i missed the match. but right now i feel like watching it on ur blog..
Congrats to WGCC for a gr8 victory :)
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