Victorious on Vijayadasami

Team: Maddy, Mani, Raghu, Freddie, Sridhar, Jagan, Suresh, Sudharshan, Goutham, Yogesh and Vignesh.

Result: Won by 8 runs.

Almost everything fell in place today; except the toss, which we won. Jagan won the toss and this is his second toss won in a row. And there was a lot of confusion after that. Mani gave a SWOT analysis of our team and just to stop him we decided to go with his decision – which was to bat first. 

Fred and Sudharshan opened but Fred got run out in the first over. Sudharshan didn’t stay for long either. Raghu and Yogesh forged a mini recovery and both of them looked good until Raghu was caught and bowled. We were 23 for 3 after 4 overs. Good start in terms of runs but we had lost 3 wickets. Goutham was slotted at No.5 and he was finding it difficult to score initially as he was batting after a long time. Yogesh was at his usual run-scoring self picking up 2s and 3s. Goutham got into the act a bit later with a boundary through covers but got out when he was looking good for more and Yogesh was run out immediately after. But the two had put us on a position of strength. We were 48 after 9 overs.

I joined Sridhar in the middle and we found runs coming easily. Sridhar is turning out to be our “Finisher” and he seems to be getting better with every game. He struck some power packed blows. I decided to churn the strike and give it back to Sridhar but I found that there were a lot of over pitched stuff which fetched me lots of doubles. Together, we had got 41 runs of the last 5 overs. Our total was 89 at the end of 14 overs. Good total and Mani was happy that his decision was right

Jagan and Suresh started off the bowling. Jagan bowled a good spell with 3 tight overs. His pace was good and he was not bowling loose balls. Hope he continues this form with the ball. Suresh was struggling at the other end. He bowled a lot of wides and also taken for runs. Maddy replaced Suresh and he bowled a couple of overs which went for 6-7 runs. I had told Mani that his 4 overs would be the key and he delivered a fine spell of 2 overs. The opponents had only scored 37 off the first 8 overs and had lost some 2-3 wickets.

We brought on Suresh and he did bowl a better second over giving away only 6 runs. Jagan was taken for runs in his final over with a mighty 6 over long on. But something special happened too. Raghu held onto one of the best catches I’ve seen. He was at long off. The ball was hit flat and to his left. Raghu ran for a few yards, held out his left hand, dived and took a beauty. There was applause from all those who witnessed and we were over the moon. They needed 35 off the last 4 overs and Mani bowled a tight over for just four runs which was courtesy a misfield by yours truly. Suresh bowled another over for 8 runs. Mani was taken apart in his last over for 10 runs but he had picked 4 wickets for 21 runs in his 4-over spell. With 13 needed off the last over, Raghu completed the proceedings with two wickets.

The batting had clicked well with two well constructed partnerships. Mani and Jagan were good with their bowling. Hope we carry on from this as I feel the team is shaping up well.


Cheers
Vignesh