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.
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.
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