Match Report: Anza CC3 vs Marina CC3 @ Turf City Ground A 0800 hrs

In our first morning game, we took on Anza CC3 at their home ground in the Turf City. A whole comedy of errors was encountered before the start. The umpires did not toss until 8am (official start time of the game), and had to reminded for the toss. The second event involved the roller and the ATV being stuck on the ground near the pitch. With a lady operator at the helm of the ATV, it was quite a sight to behold as she tried in various ways to get the roller towed out of the ground by the ATV. However, amidst her multitude efforts, the battery of the ATV gave way and the opposition side had to get another vehicle to jump start the ATV. Once started, the lady, for a reason that she only knows, pulled the roller to the square around the pitch and started rolling the square again. When can a day be over without Murphy’s law. The ATV broke down again. This time the umpire joined in the melee and tried to take things in his own hands (another car was brought in to jump start the ATV and the umpire almost ended up shorting the vehicle battery again as he connected the jump start cables to the wrong terminals). Finally however, they were able to clear the vehicle and the ATV from the ground allowing the umpires to toss. Due to the whole chain of unnecessary events, the game was narrowed down to 28 overs a side.

Akshay won the toss and decided to bat first. This being Pathaks second last match, he was promoted to open the batting with Mohan. He took first strike and scored a prompt 6 runs of the first over, Mohan on the other hand took his time to get started and was watchful. Pathak holed out soon trying to go for his shots upfront (caught at covers) and was promptly received back amidst applauses. Raj went out to bat next and concentrated towards rotating the strike. Raj and Mohan rotated the strike well before both of them were dismissed. Arun walked in and started stroking the ball into the gaps. His confident shots got Marina a couple of boundaries and raised the run-rate a little. Rishabh on the other hand took the singles and rotated the strike. The spinners were introduced soon after and herein the game changed. Their slow bowlers stuck to a line outside off and bowled slow and slower relentlessly, thus curbing the run flow. With no pace to play with, the batsmen tried forcing the issue. Arun fell trying to hit a full toss out of the ground (he got the top edge and was well caught). Rishabh and Bansal tried to curb the fall of wickets and play till the drinks break. A maiden over resulted before drinks break. At drinks the score read 72-4 in 14 overs.

The strategy for the second half was look for a total of around 170 to be competitive. Bansal fell soon declared lbw to a full ball by their spinner. Chopra strode in and an ensuing miscommunication between Rishabh and Chopra saw Rishabh being run out. With things not going our way, it was decided to try and bat out the 28 overs . However the wickets continued to fall, amidst the good bowling of their slow bowlers. Chopra continued to fight out with a quick fire 30 but the rest of the batsmen were not able to score consistently. We ended up with 129 runs in 26.3 overs.

We started off with Pathak and Shan bowling good lines and lengths. The first opener was caught behind while the second one was also soon set packing. At drinks the score was 60-4. It was quite comparable with our score and it was quite evident that we would have to play out of our skins in order to win from the situation. Some good tight overs were bowled and there was some sort of control. However, their captain decided to take things in his own hands. He started belting all our bowlers around the park. A crucial catch was put down when he was around 20, and the run fest continued. Arun was taken for 12 of his first over (last 4 balls bowled down the leg side again) and Sridhar was taken for 18 of his first over. Pathak and Akshay came back on and some sort of control was established. A slower one and a good catch on the boundary ensured the end of the opposing captain (he eventually scored a quickfire 50 runs). Some tight fielding and committed efforts saw the match heading for an exiting finish with 7 needed of the last 3 overs, and 1 needed of the last over. Two dot balls were bowled. However an edge on the third ball resulted in the batsmen scampering for a single to take their team home.
It was an exciting match to say for some consolation. High levels of commitment were shown in the field during the game. However, this should not distract us from the fact that our main area of concern was again the batting. The team was bowled out within 26.3 overs against an opposition not boasting of any good players.

As usual, we have our lessons learnt at the end of the game.. so for this case: THE LESSONS STILL NOT LEARNT:
Batting : Batsmen to ensure that they bat out the 30 overs and rotate the strike
Fielding : Catches, catches and more catches to be taken
Bowling: To cut down on extras as much as possible. (though cant blame the bowling since they don’t get a par score to defend)