Match Report: M3 vs Lanka Lions 2

Afternoon game...bright sun...beautiful ground and slightly damp outfield. Akki lost his first toss this season and Marina was put in to bat. Rishab had pulled out of the game due to office reason, and Mohan miyan made a comeback to the side. Mani was late and he had no recollection of the last night. Somehow we managed to wake him up and luckily we were batting first. But this meant AB had to open the innings with Mohan. The third opening combination in as many matches.

Things didn't start that well for us as AB was yorked in the second over. He didn't manage to get his bat down in time and his middle stump went flying. But it seemed that Mohan miyan was never out of the game. He was his usual self and together with Sridhar tried to settle down things. The second wicket partnership was of 36 runs. Sridhar seems to be in form this season and is enjoying his promotion to number 3. But Mohan was out caught in the 11th over and Sridhar joined him back in the pavilion the very next over. Vivek and Amit Bansal were the next guys to go in. Amit has been the leading run scorer for us this season...but today was not his day. He tried to cut a ball, which went straight to the fielder at short cover. Raj was the next man in. A partnership started to build up. Vivek started to take control and hit 14 runs in an over. unfortunately he was stumped in the 21st over, trying to hit one straight down the ground. Akki was the next man in, but he was soon out caught and bowled. The bowler took a spectacular (or at least made it look like one) diving catch. Mani was in next... and together with Raj tried to accelerate the score. Things were looking good and we still had hope for a 150+ score. But Raj was stumped in the 27th over. Ritest was the next man in, but was also out soon. Naman came next and with Mani ran some valuable 2s. Mani was out on the second last ball of the innings. He was the 4th victim of spinner Jeraj who bowled really well for Lanka Lions.

The final score was 126. We would have ideally liked 150 on Turf City. The wet outfield played a role in this, but with the team that we have we would like to aim for 150+ on turf city and 180+ on other grounds. None of the batsmen played really slow, but as a team we need to workout ways to score quicker in situation like this. There were only six boundaries and a lone six in our innings.

Bowling...We didn't have both our opening bowlers for this Match. Shan's parents were going back to India and Pathak was busy with office work. So Akki had to open the bowling with Mohit. The lankan batsmen showed aggressive intent, but the bowling was tight. Akki bowled 2 overs and gave 13 runs in those 2 overs. But he got nicks out of both the batsmen (both were left-handers). One flew left of the first slip and ther other one between the keeper and the first slip. I'm not sure how close these catches were...so M3 need your input on this.

Mohit kept things tight at the other end. Ristesh was the next bowler in and before he could bowl his first legal delivery (he bowled 4 wides) it started pouring heavily. It was so heavy that the match was called off immediately. At the starting of 5th over Lanka Lions were 21 for no loss.

It was too early to say how we would have fared in the match, but surely it would have required something special from our bowlers and fielders.


Batting (Score/Number of balls faced)

Arun Bhaskar(2/3), Mohan Roy(16/32), Sridhar Sesham(13/32), Vivek Chopra(34/35), Amit Bansal(1/11), Rajkishore Patel(21/32), Akshay Sharma(2/10), Mani Bhat(17/17), Ritesh Moudgil(0/2), Naman Agarwal(1*/3), Mohit Gupta(0*/1)

Extras: 19

Bowling (Overs/Wickets/Runs)

Akshay Sharma(2/0/13), Mohit Gupta(2/0/4), Ritesh Moudgil(0/0/4)


A special thanks to Vishesh and Sridharan for being there to support the team.