M3 vs MUCC - M3 lost by 6 wickets

Report by Mohit Gupta

At last the M3 season starts. The weather was fantastic and the turf city ground never looked better. Almost everyone was on the ground at time and the day started by the distribution of new Marina team clothes (used by m2 and m3).

Team: Akki (captain), Shantanu, Arun, Amit Pathak, Vivek Chopra, Amit Bansal, Raj, Mani Bhat, Rishab, Sridhar, Ritesh Mohit.



Ritesh was all set to make his debut for M3...but he picked up some shoulder injury last minute and Mohit took his place. But Ritesh was game enough to be the scorer for the match.

Losers live in the past. Winners learn from the past and enjoy working in the present toward the future.

A glorious atypical Singapore hot weather for start of the season, Marina played first game against MUCC, champions of last year 4^th league. Marina won the Toss and captain Akki chose bat first.

1^st Innings

150 is suppose to be a good score to defend on Turf city ground. Openers Manni and Rishab were asked to play steady and defend first few overs as MUCC has good bowling attack. Couple of extras came in first over, both the openers were playing confidently and scoring singles, but one wrong shot by Rishabh and he got caught out on midwicket. Arun went one down and scored first boundry of the game, extras were coming continuously, score was moving. Aruns scored 19 runs but one cross batted shot and catch to point fielder. Chopra next batsman hited a high Six (Just like Yuvraj was hitting in NZ), he scored 30r runs but missed a straight the ball and got bowled out. Now Bansal and Manni were on the creas, Mani who was standing like an anchor for Marina, scored 11 runs and got bowled out. Score was 73 for 4 in 13 overs, it was not a bad start and what was needed a good partnership, Raj and Bansal were on the crease and playing defensive. 5 runs came in next 4 overs, which was ok because we wanted to stop fall of wicket, Raj scored 13 runs in a single over and marina was back on track. Tight bowling fielding attack by MUCC and they keep getting wkts, Marina was suppose to hold the situation and try to play all the overs but regular fall of wkts and Marina managed to set target of 126 runs, definitely 20-30 runs short of what Marina had thought of.

2^nd Innings

By keeping the target in mind only chance for marina to win keep taking the wickets, Good start by both opening bowler Pathak and Shan, good length, outside the off stump bowling attack and we got success in 2^nd over by Shan. Perfact use of new ball Batsman was not able to touch Amit’s bowl and another wkt for Marina in 3^rd over by shan. Opener bowler restricted MUCC, rare chances were given to score runs. New bowler Mohit was given opportunity and got success in his 2^nd over by a splendid catch by Pathak, in the next over Manni bowled out another good batman of MUCC. Score was 57 for 4 in MUCC. It was the ideal start as we planned early wickets and tight bowling.

After having Samosa and tea in lunch break, Marina’s efforts had come down in next session of the game, I wouldn’t really blame Samosa but Singapore’s heat played major role (This is the part where we all need to work specially me to get use to this weather for 30 overs match). Match equation was MUCC requires 69 runs in 15 and 6 wkts in hand. It was still a challenge for Marina. Pathak was again put on attack, another good spell by Amit but unfortunately clear chance to catch and simple run out was missed and MUCC keep scoring the runs, spin and slow bowling attack was put by captain but no success. Shan was called to use his experience when Only 24 runs were required in 8 overs but Marina was generous to giving lives to MUCC in the dying movements. But MUCC had the last laugh and Maina lost the game by 6 wkts.

A few more catches taken, a few more cleanly fielded balls, a few more
tighter overs bowled and it could have been very different. A lot of ifs. I
enjoyed the game and look forward to the next one.

*Lessons learned:*

1. MUCC are a good side and they put the pressure on and executed on their
game plan when it was required. They kept to the basics and made us work for our runs.

2. Batting - All the top order batsmen got off to a start, but no one carried on from there. The highest partnership was of 30 and we need to improve on this. The last 6 marina wickets fell for mere 18 runs. We have to watchout for this kind of collapse.

3. Bowling - Bowling was generally good baring a rare bad day from skipper.

4. Fielding - *catches win matches* We did not support the bowlers with fielding and put any pressure on the batting team.

5. Fitness - This being the first match of the season...we seemed a bit out of touch with the heat etc. This is something that an individual needs to look into themselves and be prepared (have food, fluids etc). The first half or the season will be always like this.

*On the balance of things a good days cricket, played under a good competitive atmosphere and the team that batted, bowled and fielded the best won the game.

SCORESHEETS

Batting

	Batsman	4s	6s	How Out	Score	Balls Faced
1	Mani Bhat	0	0	Bowled	11	21
2	Rishab Bhurat	0	0	Ct @ Short Midwicket	3	4
3	Arun Bhaskar	3	0	Ct @ Point	19	17
4	Vivek Chopra	1	1	Bowled	20	22
5	Amit Bansal	0	0	Ct Behind	17	38
6	Rajkishore Patel	2	0	Bowled	18	30
7	Akshay Sharma	0	0	Ct	9	12
8	Sridhar Shesham	0	0	Ct @ Midwicket	3	5
9	Shantanu Bhadury	0	0	Ct @ Mid Off	3	6
10	Amit Pathak	0	0	Not Out	0	4
11	Mohit Gupta	0	0	Runout	0	0

Bowling

	Bowler	Wides	No Balls	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
1	Amit Pathak	2	0	6	0	12	1
2	Shantanu Bhadury	2	0	5.4	0	30	1
3	Akshay Sharma	2	0	4	0	32	0
4	Mohit Gupta	6	0	5	0	16	1
5	Mani Bhat	4	0	2	1	9	1
6	Sridhar Shesham	3	0	2	0	14	0
7	Amit Bansal	4	0	1	0	9	0