A very good run chase - 28th Macrh 2010

We are beating the sun, or to say for early part of it at least we are escaping its heat, morning game is in order and that is quite a relief for us all. Leaving the obvious reason behind, we also get to rest and get charged up for Monday. Its the third week of our brand new odyssey and my first blog.

Team: Mani (Captain), Vicky (Captain/ Item), Maddy (Captain/ Owner), Raghavendran (Idli), Kailash, Ram (Kaipilla), Sridhar, Raghu, Yogesh, Goutham and Jagan (Jug head/ Broker/ Agent)

After a win and a loss (more like a throw-away) in the first two games, we went into battle with our favourite opponents, Dinesh's team. They even got jerseys, Wild Wings or something they call themselves. But the thing is Sriram is calling himself the 'Boss', someone is 'Ambrose' (looked like a moth) and one other is 'Ryder' though he had the structure as Ryder and did not get to bat at all, I guess he is ok.

I think its voodoo or something but its been a while since we won the toss, be it Mani or Idli to challenge our luck. But its always good to bowl first and escape fielding in the heat. Only problem is there are so many teams playing, its hard to concentrate and field.

We got a wicket first ball, bowled, Mani doing the damage. A couple of hits and a run out after, Sriram joined hands with Mukesh? Was his name Mukesh? Anyway, it was the partnership which gave momentum to their innings, from 4 to 8 overs, we were put to the sword, specially Vicky was taken for granted. Runs leaked and it took a good over from Raghu to peg back things. Still the impact was enough for them to reach 94 in 14 overs. Thanks to Mani's last two good overs, we were chasing a gettable total.

Yogi and Goutham started the innings and Gouti didn't last long. He hold out to a full toss. Raghu and Yogi kept the runs coming at a steady rate. the most important thing for us chasing a total is not to lose wickets, that looked like the sort of plan in their mind. We were 27 off 5 overs. Raghu felt thirsty and got out :)

The partnership of the game came after Kaipilla walked in. He was timing the ball as well as he had ever done, and soon enough, the floodgates were opened. Thats when the opponents took their strategic time out, the first ball after got the better of Kaipilla, caught mid wicket/ square leg, the guy was standing in the middle!!

Yogi kept on going, bludgeoning the attack with timely boundaries and to think he ran for himself till the end speaks volume of his energy. When Yogi got out we needed 4 tuns off 2 overs. I took three of them in as much deliveries only for Idli to change the innings into an almost anti-climax. He was helping the Chennai Corp by sweeping the pitch!! He almost got himself hurt by doing that. The message was pretty clear from Kailash, don't let my brother face another delivery please. Idli score the wining run nonetheless, actually it took a full toss and an accidental connection of bat and ball to pull us thru, I should say.

A good run chase, this was. We didn't feel the heat (of the moment, that is). Lets keep it tight in the coming weeks.

Adios.

Can we be any worse in bowling?

Its getting terribly hot out there and we are all feeling the heat. Excruciating heat. Mani was not available today, our opponents were Kailash's colleagues. For reason unknown, we opted for a 15 over match.

We were to set the target and what a start it was!! Jughead and I opened the batting, I was the mover and Jughead the shaker. For almost 10 overs, we didn't lose that partnership and scored 72 runs. Jughead scored the bulk of the runs, I would have definitely crossed 20

There was not even an iota of gas left in my tank half way thru. Jughead was running with his tweaked foot but I can't seem to help. I had to hand over the bat to someone. Retired.

The much needed impetus to the innings was given by Idli at the end. We amassed 117 runs in 15 overs. It was terrific batting.

We lost the match when we underestimated the opponents and made fun of them. We were planning to give Idli and myself a go at the batsmen even before the innings had started. Goutham, Suresh, Sridhar, Raghu and Vicky all went for runs. For a moment, when three wickets fell in quick succession, we thought we had a chance. But not to be. I dropped a catch, Jughead's misfield in the penultimate over, all cost us the match. Raghu and Suresh were bowling as if this was a match against kids. Very very bad.

Line and length went out of the window and we bleeded runs. The match was lost eventually in the last over. We got to give it to the opponents, they chased superbly. Never panicked. Hats off!!

We gotta bounce back next time, take the positives out of this game and come hard.

Cheers.