Team eleven: Raghu,maddy,mani,vignesh,ram,sridhar,freddie,kailesh,yogesh,suresh,jagan
Finally we managed to have a good day of cricket after rain playing spoil sport for a couple of weeks. We made the most of it had two great games, as usual we won one and lost one yet to break the jinx!!...
First game of the day was played in the kozhipannai ground after a struggle to reach the ground due to the Chennai marathon and the opponents found it even more difficult to reach and the game started as late as 8.30 but we managed to have a good round to practice before that which was a much needed one after a break of couple of weeks.
We managed to win the toss third time in a row courtesy our new toss captain Freddie!!..We opted to bat with the smaller dimensions of the ground coming into play we had our sights towards reaching a target around 80. We got to the worst possible start by losing quick wickets and with very little runs on the board. Ram made a comeback into the team after a long break but failed to open his account!!..We lost wickets to needless run outs with yogesh getting out by backing up way too far in the non striker end, then raghu ran for a non existing single when maddy stroked the ball straight to the fielder in mid wicket he just committed suicide considering the running potentials of maddy and his poor run of form with the bat continued....Soon after we lost Sridhar to yet another run out and maddy playing his part again this time around running for a second run which was not on and the throw had Sridhar well short of the ground!!..Lesson learnt never have these two guys batting together again because this might well be the fourth or fifth time this pair had resulted in a run out. Finally we managed to get some partnership going between myself and maddy but both of us got out at the wrong time and with wickets tumbling we just played 13 over’s scoring 55 runs.
A very poor total to defend considering the opponents bowling attach which was never potent to dismiss us for such a target and as i stated earlier considering the ground dimensions the bowlers had a tough task ahead. I started of the bowling along with Sridhar. I managed to bowl a brilliant third over where i got rid of two wickets of the successive balls including the key wicket of their team. It was a satisfying over and we were back in the match with Sridhar picking wickets in the other end and we managed to keep a check on the scoring and picked up wickets at regular intervals. Raghu and Suresh bowled well in the middle to maintain the pressure. They required 16 or so in the last 4 over’s when Sridhar bowled a brilliant over to just give away 1 run. With 10 needed of the last 2 over’s it was decided i bowl that over and thanks to some great wicket keeping by yogesh i picked up 2 more wickets in that over leaving 7 runs to win of the last over. Yogesh kept his cool bowled well for his first over of the match we dismissed them in 13.2 overs for under 50 which i felt was a remarkable bowling performance backed up by some good fielding and excellent wicket keeping by yogesh and he seems to become a specialist there!!...
All in all a great team effort and very satisfying win but leaving us to ponder upon our batting which has failed yet again to post a good target...
Coming to the second game of the day with couple of changes in the team sudarashan, muthu and jagan friend coming in place of vignesh, yogesh, suresh. I lost the toss and we were bowling first. Jagan started of the bowling and what could have been a great started was spoilt as i dropped an easy chance and what that triggered off was a very poor performance in the field where catches was dropped at will and misfielding in the deep we just lost control over the game. We managed to do well in the middle where i bowled a couple of good overs. Maddy came with two good catches in the deep and we finished off the innings well with all bowlers leaving the disappointment of the fielding behind to restrict the opponents to 72 in 12 overs which we felt was a another great performance from the bowlers considering the fielding display.
Batting was yet another let down with losing of wickets regularly and we were in a spot of bother when sridhar and jagan played well to bring us back in the game. But the turning point was the partnership between the most unlikely pairs of all Sridhar and maddy!!...with we needing almost needing 33 odd runs in 4 overs the pair really did well to keep us in the game it came down to 27 in the last two as sri played a one run over but could not blame him he tried to whack the ball. He made up for it in the next over maddy stroked the first ball for 5 runs and god did he ran well to make it may be the marathon in the morning inspired him since he did not want a runner in the morning and as well as in the evening game. Then sridhar took control of that over leaving us to get 12 runs of the last over with maddy and myself dismissed in that over. Jagan friend played well to smacked the ball around in the couple of balls he played and we needed 3 from 1 ball managed to get a bye of a wide and leaving jagan’s friend to face the last ball with 2 needed but he missed to get a bat on ball and we fell short by 1 run in wat was a great game...
The jinx of not winning two games in a day continued it was so near yet so far!!...great display there by maddy and sridhar with the bat and sri has become very well in finishing the innings for us or in chasing with his lefty blows may be if he could increase his range of strokes he could be far more effective...
A great day where we had two close games but our batting being a disappointment in both the games and for a while now we need to get it right now since the bowling is being put under pressure way to often!!...Hopefully we will have that corrected next week!!...Cheers!!...Well played guys!!...
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