M2 hands Wanderers the Verdict. by Ramji.

23^rd May 2009

The match - Preamble

On this day, the 25^th day of May 2009, it is hereby affirmed that a game of cricket, popularly called T20 took place at a ground slightly bigger than a table-tennis court, unpopularly called Fernvale Cricket Ground.

The Teams

The teams were a relatively lesser known team called “Marina Winners” (a new found name for this team which, unlike in the past, is really living up to its ability and expectations. The other team wandered around at the end of the game in search of their souls and was rightly called ‘Wanderers”.

The pre-match scenario

The day started hot and when people started turning up at the ground around 12.20 (Ramji, Chandru and Ganesh being among the early birds). The captain himself failed to turn up at the ordered time but could be excused for 5-10 minutes delay. Cold stares were promptly exchanged by the captain with the real late comers.

Marina had a very good fielding (or catching) session before the game and not many catches were dropped during the fielding session and it augured well for the game to come.

The toss and its nightmare for the Marina captain continues…

For the umpteenth time in the life of the Marina captain, the toss was promptly lost followed by exchanges of mathematics and quantum physics theory as to why Sri lost the toss, the theory aptly started by Sri’s father who went to the extent of ridiculing his son’s lack of hard work during his NUS engineering days as the main reason for losing the toss.

Luckily on this day, the only thing that Marina lost was the toss. The match ultimately turned out to be 20s game with Sri penalised 2 overs for losing the toss so that Marina were docked 2 overs from its batting which two overs were added to Wanderers batting.

Wanderers batting or Marina bowling

The sun started dropping its intensity as the Marina players took the field and it became a perfect UK summer weather making fielding such an unusually pleasant experience for the Marinoids, who are actually known to enjoy their fielding(!!!!).

Naveen and Siddharth started the bowling attack for Marina and bowled a good line and length albeit without luck. The first wicket came fortuitously through a run out and through a fantastic fielding effort with the batsman going for a non-existent 2^nd run.

The next wicket was not lucky though, with Siddharth, who was hit for a six the previous delivery, getting the batsman bowled of a fantastic delivery. The run rate remain at less than 4 an over after 8 overs. Sri brought on Pareet from one end and Ramji from the other end. The Wanderers batsman who had settled in by that time, started scoring freely, with Ram leading the way. Ramji though was unlucky to liss out on a wicket when a clear edge of the batsman to the keeper was not given out followed by a close stumping not given out. Ramji’s misery was added when a fantastic pick up and throw from backward square leg which was straight on target was interrupted by Sushant who misjudged the direction of the throw.

With wicket starting to dry up and the score reading 89-3 after 15 overs, Sri brought himself and Chandru on and there ended the resistance of Wanderers who fell like 9 pins. The highlight being 3 wickets of 4 deliveries by Sri (hat-trick missed by a whisker). Chandru from the other end bowled unplayable deliveries and knocked batsmen at his will. Sri ended the misery of the Wanderers batsmen by picking up his 4^th wicket and the last of the wanderers innings. Chandru picked up 3 wickets and there were 2 run outs with Siddharth picking the other wicket.

Eye-wash over: Ganesh’s insatiable hunger for bowling his leg spinners was satisfied when he was given an over and just an over (come on Ganesh – here comes Naradha, Narayana, Narayan!!) – the Captain lives to his promise – did that reflect in the unusually subdues batting of our stylish opener – Introspection and commission to inquire into this required?

Wanderers succumbed to 120 all out in 22 overs, leaving Marina 121 to make in 30 overs but the target fixed was 18 overs to get the full 10 points.

A note on Marina’s fielding standards

It was one of the best efforts by Marina on the field with no dropped catches and some very good ground fielding and fantastic work by Susi behind. While some good catches were taken, Sri’s diving catch at silly mid-on of Chandru’s bowling stood out. Two good rund outs were effected and some close run out chances were created by some excellent fielding.

The Marina Batting or do you want to call it the ANSHUL SHOW

Cricket is a team game, yes. The batsmen are up to prove it wrong all the time. Today it was Anshul’s turn to prove accusations against him that he often fails to match his extraordinary talent with scores. His one shot (shot of the day) where he walked across to the opening bowler and cut him over backward point for a boundary told the story.

With Anshul playing lovely shots and going aggressive right from the word go, Ganesh intelligently rotated strike and was rather subdued curbing his attacking instincts. The 50 partnership came in less than 8 overs and when it looked like that No. 3 will only remove his pads after the game without playing a single delivery, Ganesh got out to a full length delivery that brushed his pad and knocked the stumps.

Finally the Anshul show ended sadly with Anshul getting out for 49 and missing a really well-deserved 50.

The not so good batting display in general

The batsmen who followed Anshul had no tale to tell and were rather discreet in playing their shots in the pretext of going for 10 points. At that time, Marina still required only between 6-7 per over to get 10 points and there was no need for indiscreet rash shots. While Anshul was going strong on one end, wickets kept falling on the other end.

The other shot of the day came from the bat of Siddharth – a powerful straight flat hit behind the bowler which just landed for a six at the boundary rope in a flash.

Marina lost 7 wickets in the process. Susi stayed till the end to guide Marina to 10 points with the winning shot coming form the bat of our veteran Pareet of the last ball of the 18^th over. In fact, the Wanderers were puzzled to hear Marina shouts from the pavilion, 6 in 7, 5 in 4, 3 in 3, 1 of 1 as though it was the 30^th over of the innings.

Retrospection

While all is well that ends well, we really have to rethink about our batting today. While we have so much to carry forward in our bowling and fielding departments, our batting today, barring Anshul and towards the end, Sushant, has some thing to think about. We needed around 6.6 per over in the beginning of the innings for 10 points and after a fantastic 50 run opening partnership in les than 8 overs, we needed around run-a-ball or slightly more to get the targeted 10 points. Batsmen should have applied themselves better under the circumstances. While we were under no threat of losing the game, this is a game we should have won by 6 or 7 wickets and not by 3 wickets and made it look closer than what it should have been.

Let us carry forward this 10 point win as a great moral booster to our game against Bengal CC and go for another emphatic win.

GO MARINA WINNERS. From henceforth Marina 2 shall become Marina Winners.

Regards

Ramji