Victory from the doors of defeat - 21-Feb-10

Hi. This is Vignesh blogging as our official blogger Maddy (due to head ache) had to leave home midway during the match. As is our routine, the toss was lost..:) But today we handed ourselves a memorable win.
Mani and Suresh started off the proceedings and bowled 4 good overs for just 12 runs and picked up 3 wickets. I guess we lost the plot after that. Jagan was welcomed with a huge six over wide long on and was also dispatched for a four through the leg side. I bowled the next over and I gave away a couple of boundaries. A guy named Gopi batted really well and the score boomed to 32 for 3 after 6 overs.
Sridhar bowled the 7th over and he too leaked runs but picked up the important wicket of Sriram, courtesy a good catch by Mani at long off. It was a skier and Mani judged it well enough. In the next over bowled by Jagan, Gopi got out through a run out by Sudharshan. The back to back wickets kind of brought us back into the game as they were 53 after 9 overs. The last 3 overs yielded 22 runs as our death bowling was not upto the mark and Dinesh and co promptly scored freely.
The target was 76 off 12 overs and it was attainable. I opened the innings with Kailash and I decided to go after the bowlers immediately. I was successful to an extent as we fetched 12 off the first over. Kailash got out bowled to Sriram and Raghu came in at No.3. We batted for a while before Raghu’s pull went straight to deep midwicket. Maddy walked in at No.4 but did not last long as he was caught behind. I got out almost immediately trying to play a pull and edged it down the leg side to the keeper. It was disappointing as it was a soft dismissal and also, I thought I was meddling the ball well. I think the score read 25 for 4 after 4 overs.
Sudharshan and Sridar brought us back in to the game with some crisp hits. Sridhar hit a four through long on and Sudharshan struck one through point. The score read 45 runs off 8 overs. But the innings stuttered when both Sridar and Sudharshan got out. When Mani got out to a poorly judged single, we were staring down the barrel after with 20 runs needed off the last 2 overs. This was when Raghavendran and Jagan got together. Raghavendran found the perfect time to return to form with some muscular hits down the leg side. Jagan was his perfect foil and they plundered 10 runs off the penultimate over. 10 runs needed off the last over and Sriram was the bowler. The first one was a dot ball. Raghavendran pulled the next one for a four. He got out off the third ball caught in the deep. 6 runs needed off 3 balls. Jagan managed to get 2 off the fouth ball. He scored another 2 off the 5th ball thanks to some good running by Suresh and Raghu(bye runner for Jagan). The ball was deftly touched and they scampered for a single and there was an overthrow which let them take another run.
Two runs were required off the last ball. Sriram bowled a ball outside off which was smartly nudged by Jagan behind the wickets for 2 runs. The whole team, sans Maddy, celebrated madly. This has to be rated as one of our best wins. The key was that our batting clicked and no one let go many dot balls. It was fun to see the opposition camp dissecting what went wrong in the game..:-) ‘Da Freaks will have their new jersey this week. Hope it brings a lot more luck to us.
Cheers