Team: Mani, Vignesh, Jagan, Fred, Vivek, Balaji, Sudharshan, Yogesh,Ramchandran and Raghu.

It was an overcast day with the threat of rain looming large. As usual, our team mates casually assembled around 7.30. When our guys don't stick to the timelines,its irritating, to say the least. The match was against a team whom we haven't faced earlier. Jagan's luck with the toss is running out. He lost again and they decided to bat. We started the game with just 9 fielders and Raghu came in by the end of the 2nd or 3rd over.
Mani picked up two wickets in his first over, both were bowled by good yorkers. However, their team had a left hander who batted well. They had posted 19 by the end of the 4th over. I bowled the fifth over in which I picked up a wicket but gave away 9 runs. Mani dropped a sitter and its usual these days for him drop easy catches off my bowling.:-) The ball went high in the air and I saw Mani getting under it. I knew what was gonna happen:-).
Balaji bowled a couple of overs where he picked up 2 wickets courtesy full tosses. One was bowled and the other was caught at deep covers. However his second over was a good one. I decided to give Vivek an over and maybe I had thrust too much responsibility onto him. He gave away 13 and was struggling to pitch the ball. The last 5 overs bowled by Jagan, Mani and myself. We gave away only 25 off the last 5 overs which I thought was decent enough. They had scored 74 off 14 overs.
Vivek and Sudharshan opened and Sudharshan's middle stump was uprooted in the first over. Mani joined Vivek and the two put on a decent partnership close to 20 off the 5 overs when Mani had a wild swipe and got out. Fred played a few shots (including 2 fours) and we were 32 off 6 overs.
At this point, we lost the course. Vivek, who was playing his best knock till date, got out. I must say he applied himself well scoring singles and twos. Fred and me got out back to back. It was frustrating that I got out without facing a ball and considering Ramchandran was at the other end, there was no run.:-) Lesson learnt. Ram got out after a couple of hits through the leg side. Yogesh and Balaji restored parity when they forged a partnership of close to 15 off 3 overs. We needed 27 off 4 overs when Balaji got out.
Yogesh was batting beautifully, scoring at will, running well and Jagan gave him company for a while. When Jagan got out, we needed 14 off 2 overs. Unfortunately, Yogesh got out the next ball leaving Raghu (who couldn't sight the ball and hence he played last) stranded as the last man. Lost by 13 runs.

Positives: Vivek's batting and Yogesh's good hitting.

Negatives: Poor fielding and Sudharshan's continued lack of runs

Needs improvement: Mani's catching (plssssssssssss Mani..)


Cheers

Vignesh