Gut-Wrenching Defeat

What we achieved today perplexed me in a sense that we were magnanimous and handed our opposition the kind of victory they needed to boost their morale and the kind of defeat that we didn't need, which has, to say the least, made us look stupid. I mean where would a team find strength and discipline (or the lack of those) to dig deep deep deep inside to find an impossible defeat when the odds were so much in favour of our victory, I don't know! Think this for a moment: We needed 7 runs in 10 balls with 4 wickets in hand, against a mediocre bowling with Mani and I at the crease and looking very good to finish it off in the penultimate over itself. What followed in the next few deliveries could only be described as madness or probably utter foolishness. Mani skied behind, Jagan skied over deep cover, Suresh skied back to the bowler and KV (you can't blame him seriously) caught behind with only one added to our score when I could get just a single off the first ball of the last over, again that can be called foolish too considering that was the last pair and I should have had the strike no matter what (should not have taken that single) but as fate would have it, we presented a bittersweet victory to Dinesh's team.

As it happens many a time, Idli lost the toss. Dinesh elected to bat first and at that point we had just 8 guys and waiting for Mani, Suresh and Raghu to show up. They made it just in time and we started 5 minutes past 4 pm. Started off with Jug head and Suresh and we effected a run out in the very first ball at my (keeper's) side. Great start and it ended there except for a few glimpses of brilliance here and there. Sridhar bowled three overs on the trot and the I thought the last two of his overs were very impressive. Mani's second over was again brilliant as he got back to back wickets including that of Sriram. He too bowled 3 on the trot though he was panting at his last. Sriram had minimal impact with his batting. Raghu kept after the initial four overs and he did a decent job. Its time Raghu nursed his healing arms and stands in the deep, he can deliver more over there. Dinesh still managed 73 off 12 overs. Our fielding was again a lot to be desired. Mani (he was standing deep) and KV dropped sitters, both of the opening batsman (a new face) and he capitalized brilliantly. Kaipilla dropped three or four. Fortunately we didn't give away many over throws.

Disastrous start to our innings with Kailash pulling one back to the bowler in the first over. Sudarshan played a decent innings and he didn't waste any delivery. Idli chose to get out than score runs and so did Raghu and Kaipilla. Sridhar played a good hand and I guess I didn't fair badly as well, at least I didn't waste deliveries and probably got 10 odd runs. When Sridhar got out caught and bowled Sriram, Mani came in next and had an immediate impact with free scoring. We were well on target to score 74 until we catastrophically misfired.

Please please please cooler heads need to prevail. Hopefully next week. Same opponents.

Cheers.

Winning start to 2010

We are playing with Dinesh's team more often and we are winning more often. Today was the first match of 2010 and it was a winning start, not that we won comprehensively, we were made to toil as always. Dinesh and co needed to chase a big total of 88 in 12 overs.
They won the toss and chose to field as they always do. We opted for Maddy and Kailash for the opening slot and both of them looked comfortable against some innocuous bowling. Kailash played a superb hook that fetched 3 runs. Maddy was finding the gaps with ease and he managed to run for himself till the fourth over which is a considerable improvement considering his stamina levels. The openers got us to a good start scoring 24 runs off 4 overs. Kailash got run out and Raghavendran stepped in and was in good touch with his muscular hits. Maddy, in the meanwhile continued his good show complementing Raghavendran very well. Their fielding was awry giving us a lot of overthrows. The run rate zoomed past 7 per over. We were 58 in 8 overs I guess. Raghavendran got out going for big hits. Yogesh was in at No.4 and he continued where he left off last week. He was in no trouble finding the gaps and ran well. His upper cut over point was special. In the last few overs, we lost a few more wickets going for runs but ended up with a total of 87. Maddy had played an innings of note after a long time.
Mani started the proceedings with 3 wides to the leg side, two of 'em I was unable to take behind the stumps. Vicky held on to a skyer to dismiss the opener (they called him Gopi) and Mani was redeemed. The other opener soon got out in the same fashion, but this time Sudharshan ran diagonally to his left behind to take a stunning catch, wicket credited to Suresh. Dinesh and Sriram combined together to put on a tremendous partnership till the 10th over, till Vicky bowled Dinesh out, he was going for a slog fest. In between these overs, Mani and Suresh were treated with disdain by Sriram. Runs were leaked thanks to some good batting, bad ground fielding and some ordinary bowling, Sridhar was not that effective.

As I said our ground fielding, on the other hand, was not something to be proud of. Jughead (jagan) dropped a sitter and Dinesh got a reprieve in the third over. And Jughead was again the culprit with his rash throws. Actually his throws are strong but off target, we can work on that. I didn't do a good job behind the wicket, when I couldn't hold on to an easy take,I took myself off and put Raghu behind the stumps. And Mani was just not backing up. He needs to do a lot better fielding wise. Overall, we held on to good catches, but it was an ordinary performance on the field. Some glimpses of effective fielding were shown by Kailash at the end. Did I mention Vicky also dropped one? Was that of Sriram? Again, everyone can improve a lot. A lot of scope.

When Dinesh got out off Vicky, they needed 23 off 3 overs. The opponents started losing momentum at the end by losing regular wickets. Vicky and Raghu bowled 3 good overs at the end by giving only 9 off the 10th and 11th overs in toto. This left them with a daunting task of 12 off the last over, which Vicky bowled. Sriram was till there. Panting but still looking ominous. He could finish it off in two deliveries. But as it turned out, Sriram was caught behind and from then on our victory was only a formality to be completed. And we did, won by 5 runs.

A winning start to 2010. We won't will all the matches in 2010 but I want to be proved wrong :-) Are we guys up for it? :-)

'Da Freaks will continue to rule.