Corridor of Uncertain Tea - WGCC vs TGCC (7th March 2015)
2015. New league season. New Captain. New Energy. But the result against TGCC was nothing different than the last 5 years. We won and did it with aplomb.
It was a day where the sun was shining upon us and it would be considered a beautiful day given the recent temperatures drop.
The league was back to the traditional red cherry with whites spread across the field. Ah, the sight of a test match.
The game was scheduled to start at 1 30 and we reached there with enough time for getting our rust off.
Now, I always wanted to experience how it would be to play cricket in an island, a small strip for the pitch surrounded by water all around.
Little did I know that I will get that chance today, playing at the TGCC ground, which was close to being submerged in water literally all around (okay may be I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the gist).
We won the toss and after a thought or two, decided to bat first. The roles and strategy was clearly communicated by the captain before the start of our innings.
That decision started to look pretty bad when both the openers, Amar and Phani were back in the pavilion within the first 5 overs and just under 15 runs on the board; Amar got out to an innocent delivery, done in by his indecisiveness on the shot while Phani got a tough decision from the umpire when he got hit on the thigh. To make matters worse, Tarun and Dipen followed soon and the scorecard read 29/4 in the first 8 overs.
Zeeshan; playing as a batsman today; steadied the innings with Ashish, who is soon becoming the go-to-guy for the team with the ball or the bat (don't go to him for fielding though).
They started to rebuild and set the base for a respectable score for the team. Zeeshan cleared the boundary rope by taking the aerial route a few times on his way to 49 before holing out in the deep, while Ashish sensibly rotated the strike before retiring hurt. Biv and Zaid; or 'Zaidi' as Biv would call him all day, only to be corrected by Zeeshan at the end of the day; provided some acceleration at the end by making merry and launching a few sixes square of the wicket and straight down the ground, but the highlight of the ending was a 4 run marathon they both took on a ground which would make a 2 run look like excellent running between the wickets. The slow arms and even slower reflections of the opponents in stopping the ball helped of course.
WGCC ended up with 144/5 on the board and enough confidence to defend it.
That confidence soared even high when we got the first wicket on the second ball, courtesy a lovely out swinger by Biv which was safely pouched by Piyush at 1st slip, after Jassi failed to latch on a difficult low chance at gully on the very first ball of the innings.
Piyush started the proceedings along with Biv on the other end (which was technically the same end since we were playing from just one end; you are welcome) and immediately found his line and length to go with the pace which made it difficult for the batsmen to play him.
TGCC never cut loose during the power play but still ended up with 6 an over in the first 6, while we had Biv, Piyush, Ashish and Zaid sharing the cherry in the power play.
Just when things started to sway towards TGCC, Ashish provided the next breakthrough when Tarun took a good catch in the deep midwicket area; which also concluded Tarun's participation in the game as he immediately had to leave the field to attend to his bleeding pinky finger. The latest news is that he is fine and got a few stitches, which may keep him off the field for a few weeks.
The next few overs were quiet and Ashish took out another one when Jassi held on to a great low catch in the mid-wicket area, more than making up for his spilled chance earlier. Ashish finally capped up a good all round day for himself by picking one more and finishing his spell of 4 miserly overs. The introduction of Neal saw some excellent spin bowling with beautiful flight and drift applied to it. We couldn't be more proud seeing Neal converting all his hard work in the nets by applying it successfully in the game. There was a wrong one too, which foxed the batsman and even our keeper.
The introduction of Jassi continued with our plans of giving a meaningful role to everyone in the game and he played his part to perfection with his 3 pretty tight overs (ok not so tight, with a few wides here and there and an expensive 3rd one), but he did bowl some rippers.
Piyush and Zaid picked a few wickets in their second spell and TGCC ended up falling 20 runs short of the target, giving us our first win for the T20 league season.
This should help us brush aside all the rustiness and we should be back next weekend, with more determination and focus.
It was a day where the sun was shining upon us and it would be considered a beautiful day given the recent temperatures drop.
The league was back to the traditional red cherry with whites spread across the field. Ah, the sight of a test match.
The game was scheduled to start at 1 30 and we reached there with enough time for getting our rust off.
Now, I always wanted to experience how it would be to play cricket in an island, a small strip for the pitch surrounded by water all around.
Little did I know that I will get that chance today, playing at the TGCC ground, which was close to being submerged in water literally all around (okay may be I am exaggerating a bit, but you get the gist).
We won the toss and after a thought or two, decided to bat first. The roles and strategy was clearly communicated by the captain before the start of our innings.
That decision started to look pretty bad when both the openers, Amar and Phani were back in the pavilion within the first 5 overs and just under 15 runs on the board; Amar got out to an innocent delivery, done in by his indecisiveness on the shot while Phani got a tough decision from the umpire when he got hit on the thigh. To make matters worse, Tarun and Dipen followed soon and the scorecard read 29/4 in the first 8 overs.
Zeeshan; playing as a batsman today; steadied the innings with Ashish, who is soon becoming the go-to-guy for the team with the ball or the bat (don't go to him for fielding though).
They started to rebuild and set the base for a respectable score for the team. Zeeshan cleared the boundary rope by taking the aerial route a few times on his way to 49 before holing out in the deep, while Ashish sensibly rotated the strike before retiring hurt. Biv and Zaid; or 'Zaidi' as Biv would call him all day, only to be corrected by Zeeshan at the end of the day; provided some acceleration at the end by making merry and launching a few sixes square of the wicket and straight down the ground, but the highlight of the ending was a 4 run marathon they both took on a ground which would make a 2 run look like excellent running between the wickets. The slow arms and even slower reflections of the opponents in stopping the ball helped of course.
WGCC ended up with 144/5 on the board and enough confidence to defend it.
That confidence soared even high when we got the first wicket on the second ball, courtesy a lovely out swinger by Biv which was safely pouched by Piyush at 1st slip, after Jassi failed to latch on a difficult low chance at gully on the very first ball of the innings.
Piyush started the proceedings along with Biv on the other end (which was technically the same end since we were playing from just one end; you are welcome) and immediately found his line and length to go with the pace which made it difficult for the batsmen to play him.
TGCC never cut loose during the power play but still ended up with 6 an over in the first 6, while we had Biv, Piyush, Ashish and Zaid sharing the cherry in the power play.
Just when things started to sway towards TGCC, Ashish provided the next breakthrough when Tarun took a good catch in the deep midwicket area; which also concluded Tarun's participation in the game as he immediately had to leave the field to attend to his bleeding pinky finger. The latest news is that he is fine and got a few stitches, which may keep him off the field for a few weeks.
The next few overs were quiet and Ashish took out another one when Jassi held on to a great low catch in the mid-wicket area, more than making up for his spilled chance earlier. Ashish finally capped up a good all round day for himself by picking one more and finishing his spell of 4 miserly overs. The introduction of Neal saw some excellent spin bowling with beautiful flight and drift applied to it. We couldn't be more proud seeing Neal converting all his hard work in the nets by applying it successfully in the game. There was a wrong one too, which foxed the batsman and even our keeper.
The introduction of Jassi continued with our plans of giving a meaningful role to everyone in the game and he played his part to perfection with his 3 pretty tight overs (ok not so tight, with a few wides here and there and an expensive 3rd one), but he did bowl some rippers.
Piyush and Zaid picked a few wickets in their second spell and TGCC ended up falling 20 runs short of the target, giving us our first win for the T20 league season.
This should help us brush aside all the rustiness and we should be back next weekend, with more determination and focus.
Go WGCC!
Cheers,
Amar
Labels: WGCC 2015, WGCC vs TGCC
posted by ASB at 11:29 PM
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