Fourth win on the trot - win by 5 wickets

Playing 11: Mani, Maddy, Vignesh, Sridar, Jagan, Suresh, Sudarshan, Ganesh, Eshwar, Balaji and Muthu.
Opponents: Dinesh's team - Wild Wings
Blogged by:Vignesh
We did not update this blog last week. But it was a comprehensive win for 'Da Freaks. We defeated Shankar's team by 22 runs. We were back playing against the team which we play often. So much so that, we even know their strengths and weaknesses. And they were playing without their best player (Sriram), which should have made things easier for us. However, the way they batted and the terrible heat made it tough for us.

We won the toss and citing the heat, we decided to field first. We decided to hold back Mani for the middle overs and opened with Suresh and Sridar. Sridar was in his elements bowling well but Suresh was getting hit. And Mani gave him an extra over too as he felt he wasn't good at 'the death'. They lost two wickets (Suresh picking up one wicket and a run out) and were coasting at close to 6 rpo at the end of the 5th over. Jagan's introduction didn't make any difference as he was taken for runs as well. Mani bowled a couple of overs and I remember him picking up the wicket of their standby captain. That guy was looking dangerous. They were 52 after 8 overs. I bowled a couple of overs but my second one went for runs as my slower ball was hit for a six over square leg. I had gone for 20 off 2 overs. Mani and Sridar wrapped up the innings with a couple of decent overs. But our bowling lacked the sting. We managed to pick up only 4-5 wickets and had leaked 87 runs in 12 overs.
We began our innings with Sudarshan and Ganesh. Both of them were splendid in their strokeplay. Their bowling was mediocre to say the least. But credit should be given to our guys for taking full advantage. Sudharshan was severe on short pitched stuff and Ganesh was his usual self, scoring heavily on the leg side. They put on some 40 odd runs in 5 overs. Sudharshan was the first to go caught in the deep. We had a small collapse thereafter with Balaji and Ganesh getting out soon after. We were 58 after 8 overs. Maddy and Muthu were on the crease but Muthu got out in the next over. We promoted Jagan as he is a good hitter but he fell immediately too. I had joined Maddy in the middle and we needed 27 off 26 balls. From thereon, both Maddy and myself kept taking the ones and twos. But the heat was too much that I had to ask for a bye-runner. We needed 10 off the last 2 overs and we took 8 in the penultimate over, virtually sealing the match. It felt good to knock off the winning runs as I was happy that we didn't choke in the end.
Sudharshan and Ganesh set it up and it was closed out by Maddy and myself. I wish our bowling performs to its potential and fielding was not upto the mark.
Cheers to the 'Da Freaks for making it four in a row. Lets make it 5 next week.