Match Report by Chinmay: JECC vs Mavericks: 07/21/2019 @ Dudash Park

ScoreCard: https://www.cricketsocial.com/showScoreCardSessionOut/boardId/3bd89e2b-46b7-47b6-a1f7-e6af2c45029b/matchId/2041ce43-7529-4830-8f63-f176308a6a76


Match Report by Chinmay Bhat:
Folks,

First of all thank you for signing upto play this weekend. I know that you had to get through lot of family pressure to play this “hot” weekend. Some of you had to make big sacrifices to be on the field today. I have had request you to play and you said Yes. I am indebted to you.

It was unbelievably hot today and was very tough in the middle. Considering the heat, We did exceptionally well with Bat, Ball and Field. We could have easily accepted defeat during the second break and gone through the motions. But the JECC that showed up after the break is the team everyone should be afraid of, the team that refuses to go down and the team that we all want to be part of. We showed the true character of how we want to play!!!

Batting: 
We got a decent opening partnership. Dilip and Vishal showed lot of promise and could have gotten a big one. Karthik got out in an uncharacteristic way. I guess, It’s good to get those out before the business end of the season. I felt that I got the wrong end of the call, (two weeks in a row!!!) At 53/4 we needed a serious partnership to get us to a safe total and what a partnership we got!!! Chintan and Srini put together 153 runs in 20 overs and it was a treat to watch. A collection of drives, flicks and big hits that cleared long boundary. It was a calculated massacre that put us on a course to a daunting score. Srini has looked good this season, contributed to few wins without getting a big score. Today he showed his real class. Nimble footwork and aggressive approach helped him to score his first fifty of the season. Looking good for many more in the coming matches.

That brings us to the main highlight of our batting, Chintan Modi. Most people would be happy to go out and play two weekend games at 100 degrees. To score two back to back centuries(Saturday and Sunday), at this temperature is just unheard of. It takes a lot of patience, concentration and luck to score one century. I can only imagine the superhuman abilities needed to score two centuries under these circumstances. Chintan’s innings was A demonstration in what true talent combined with single minded dedication can achieve. He fought dehydration, back pain and a scorching sun to get his first century for JECC and we are sure many more to come.


Bowling: 
Just like our batting, we started decently well but put down couple of tough chances. Opposition were 69/1 at the first break(9 overs). Mavericks launched a spectacular attack after the break and scored 50 runs in the next 3  overs. We had lost all the hopes by next break as Mavericks had reached 156 in 18 overs needing only 64 runs in 17 overs with 7 wickets in hand.  That’s when Dilip and Shrini Bhat show started. They both bowled out of their mind. Shrini kept it quite on his end taking two important wickets, ending with 16/2 while Dilip bowled his heart out and took 26/6 in seven overs. It was an amazing bowling partnership that made Mavericks collapse for 31/8 and gave us a 34 runs win. Dilip bowled his best this season(so far) and showed us The value of experience and variation. Shrini kept it simple and tight while taking crucial wickets. It’s this partnership that gave us the win.


Man of the match:
Shared by Chintan and Dilip for their combined contribution to the win. It was a real scrappy game where we won by fighting with our back against the wall. It’s a kind of win that’s going to give us lot of momentum for the business end of the season where we have some important games coming up..

Match Report by Ananth: JECC vs Middlesex - playoff match1 - 08/25/2016

Match Report

by

Ananth

JECC vs Middlesex Cricket @ Far Hills                                                 

8/25/16

Summary:

JECC won a low scoring thriller to register the team’s first play-off victory since 2009. Having won the toss and batting first, JECC put up a less than impressive 105 runs on the board. JECC bowled out Middlesex for 64 on the back of a 5 wicket haul by Chinmay.

Man of the Match:  Chinmay for a spectacular spell of 6.3-2-9-5.

Toss: Dilip won the toss and had no hesitation batting first on a beautiful sunny day.

Batting: Our philosophy is to bat first when conditions are good and put runs up on the board on the strength of one of the top batting units in the division. Our batting line up of Dhanu, Nitin, Myself, Sid, Srini, Chinmay and Dilip is extremely formidable with Nitin being the highest scorer and everyone else scoring 200 runs or above in the season. It was our home ground, we knew the conditions and we were hoping to post a score above 180.

Dhanu and Nitin started of solidly with a few singles and twos and were feeling out the conditions and the opening bowlers Zia and Ulfat. Zia was generating some pace while Ulfat was trying to get his outswinger going at medium pace. The ground was sluggish and it became apparent that we would have to do a lot of running as the ball didn’t travel at all. In the 5^th over, 

Dhanu fell against the run of play by finding the fielder at long –off, playing a lofted drive. I walked in at no. 3 and was initially struggling to find my timing. I typically like to hit a boundary early in my innings when the field is up which gives me the confidence to carry on playing positively. But today I was playing and missing and decided to take singles to give Nitin the strike.

Nitin, on the other side, was starting to play fluently and he started finding his shots on the on side including his trade mark pull shot which got him a lot of runs in his 94 against Monroe, two weeks earlier. He started taking the attack to the bowler.  On one instance, he walked out of the crease and the bowler was rattled and bowled a big wide down the leg side. The scoring rate was hovering around 4 after a slow start and we were starting to feel good in the middle. It was then that Nitin tried to do his walking out thing again, but this time he walked out on the offside, leaving all three stumps exposed and Ulfat bowled a straight one that Nitin missed down the legside and got his middle stump uprooted. 

Cricket is a very funny game and it is always a very fine line between batting like a genius and looking extremely foolish and unfortunately for Nitin, it proved to be the latter. The look of horror and bewilderment on getting bowled down the leg side is my memory from being at the non-striker end. Sid then walked out at No. 4 and was looking to consolidate, with two wickets down. Jamill, their first change bowler fired a Yorker at the base of off-stump and Sid, unfortunately was late in bring his back down and bowled for 1 run. We were 35-3 in 11 after his dismissal and needed a big partnership to steady the ship. In walked Srini at no. 5. I love batting with Srini. He has all the shots in the book and has got the “lazy elegance” associated with his batting which makes him so attractive to watch when on song. By this time, I had started middling the ball and finally got my lofted cover drive boundary. Srini hit a bunch of twos on the off and onside and our run rate picked up again. WE were back to 4 runs per over and put on a quick 25 runs partnership. There was nothing in the bowling and we were looking set to take control of the game.

Again against the run of play, Srini spooned a full ball on the legside straight to the mid-on fielder and we lost our 4^th wicket at 59. The in-form Chinmay then came in at no.6. He had been in terrific form over the last few games, playing the role of finisher and scoring quick fire 30s in three consecutive games. Unfortunately, today wasn’t his day and he fell to a soft dismissal driving Jamill straight to the cover fielder. It was up to me and Dilip to rescue the side from a precarious 63/5. Unfortunately, I fell soon after, getting an edge while trying to run the ball down to third man. It is a shot that I must cut down especially at Far Hills, where you may not even get a single when you connect. Santosh was out LBW two balls later and Pavan, our wicketkeeper batsman was given a horrendous caught behind when the bat hit the ground but was miles away from the ball. We were now tottering at 72 for 8 and were staring down the barrel.

We had collapsed from a relatively healthy 59/3 in 15 to 72/8 in 20. Venki went in at no. 10 and him and Dilip started the slow recovery process. Both of them applied themselves really well and put on a crucial 30 runs in 11 to 12 overs. The bowling at this time was highly accurate wicket to wicket stuff that Dilip and Venki negotiated patiently. Dilip got a couple of boundaries and we reached 100. 100 is a huge psychological landmark and it gave us something to bowl at. Unfortunately Dilip fell soon after being caught behind and Venki was out caught at short cover and we were all out for 105 in 33 overs. At the time, I was wishing we played out the remaining 7 overs to get to about 130. We would have to bowl and field out of our skins to defend this and win our first play-off game in forever. The 30 runs partnership that Dilip and Venki put on though was crucial for us to have a chance in this game.

Bowling:  

Going into field, our goal was to get 3-4 wickets before they reached 50 in order to have a chance. Sid and Dhanu opened the bowling for us. Sid was not fully fit as his shoulder was bothering him. Far Hills is not his favorite ground as the ball stops on the surface and bounces like a tennis ball as opposed to skidding through the deck on most matted pitches for him. Both him and Dhanu kept it tight for the first few overs and bowled very few wides. Sid was the first to strike when he got Usman caught by the substitute Bhanu at mid-on.

Bhanu, Sagar and Naga had come to support us and it was an amazing show of team spirit by them. We’ve never had the luxury of having multiple substitutes. Sagar and Nag, kept running into the field between overs to give us Gatorade and water and their cheering and support really encouraged us. A big heartfelt thank you to the three of you for showing up and being there for the team!

The one down batsman Vikas  and Ulfat, who opened the batting as well, settled down and played patiently to take score past 30. Sid and Dhanu completed their opening spells and Dilip being desperate for a wicked brought on Santosh first change to try and pry out a wicket. Santosh bowled very well with prodigious turn and flight but unfortunately couldn’t take a wicket. Venki bowled a couple of accurate overs but the wickets weren’t coming. Dilip then tossed the ball over to Chinmay after the bowling powerplay and he struck in his first over. Vikas, hit a full blooded drive straight to Dhanu at short cover, who took a very sharp chance to make it 34/2. Dilip brought himself on and we wanted to take one more wicket before the first break. Their best batman, Amir had now come to the crease. He is an attacking batsman and started hitting right from the get go. Dilip tossed one outside the off, which Amir took a wild swipe at and ball went sailing over Nitin at cover. Nitin ran back and took an excellent catch to get rid of Amir. They were now 43/3 in 14 at the break. We were in this game now and needed a couple more wickets to put more pressure on them.

First over after the break, the new batsman Taimour took a wild swipe at the ball and was clean bowled by Chinmay. I do not know what the batsman was thinking as he tried swinging a fullish ball on the off stump to cow corner. We all started to sense that something special was happening. The fielding was spectacular thoughout the chase so far and came up big once again when Ulfat, the opener was runout after a clean collection by Pavan, who was doing a great job behind the stumps. Mustafa came out to bat and we felt that he was the last major obstacle enroute to our first play-off victory since 2009.

Fortunately for us, Abdul Rahim hit the ball straight to Santosh standing at point and setoff for a suicidal run. Santosh cleanly picked up and fired it to Pavan and we got Mustafa run out by a mile. They were 7 down for 50 odd and we started smelling victory now. Dilip took himself off the attack and after trying Santosh for a couple of overs brought back the old warrior Dhanu to get a breakthough. Dhanu immediately rewarded us with the 8^th wicked, getting Zia, the opening bowler LBW plumb in front of the wicket. Chinmay, bowling an uninterrupted spell, came back for his 7^th over. He got his 4^th wicket when he got Abdul LBW and his 5^th wicket, when he got the last man LBW next ball to complete a tremendous victory. It was a brilliant spell of bowling from 

Chinmay, who stepped up, when we need him the most. He was highly accurate and bowled just two wides in his entire spell. He kept it simple and was rewarded for that. HE is now on a hattrick when we faceoff againt SOMCAV in the quartes. He has always been a big match player and seems to thrive in high pressure situations. I still remember the time, he asked for the ball to bowl the last over against Hightstown in 2013, in a game that we had to win to avoid relegation to division 3. We had only 5 runs to defend which we did when he got the last man out in that game.

This was the most complete bowling and fielding performance by our team in my time playing with JECC. Our batting had carried us thus far and got us into the playoffs and the bowling/fielding delivered when it mattered the most, to get us a famous play-off victory. We play SomCav next in the quarterfinals and look forward to the challenge of squaring off against Jermaine Lawson and Shemroy Barrington. We have the team to beat them and if our batting lives up to its potential and we continue to bowl and field like we did today, we will beat them.

Let’s go win the next game guys. Goooooo Eagles!!!!!!

Match Report: JECC vs Legions @ Far Hills - 08/09/2015

Match Report
by
Chinmay Bhat

Batting first, Legions were all out for 98 in 25.3 overs and JECC easily chased the target in 14 overs losing 2 wickets.

Coming into the game, we had a hatrick of wins under our belts and were sitting at the 6^th position on the point’s table but we weren’t sure of our spot in the playoff. The point’s table is very crowded and seven closely matched teams are vying for the bottom four spots for a chance in playoff. This was a tricky game for us. A win would make sure that we were in the playoff and a loss would mean that a lot of other results had to go in our favor to make it to the playoffs. A loss would mean that we would be at the mercy of others to book our spot and we didn’t want to be in that position. Considering the background, we had some pressure going into the game and didn’t want to end up loosing. Moreover, we hadn’t played legions in the last couple of years making them an unknown. Everything considered it was a pressure game for both the teams with an assured playoff spot for the winner. 

Most of our players made it to the ground on time and a catching session had started when I reached the ground. People were taking catches, diving and having general fun to warm up. Grass was cut, Sun was out and both the teams were ready to roll except the umpire was nowhere to be seen. Dilip and the captain from Legions decided to go for the toss without the umpire.

Score Card: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=9884

TOSS:In my previous reports, I have gone into details on why toss might play an important factor during mid season games. Obviously we wanted to win the toss and bat first but unfortunately we ended up loosing the toss and the opposition opted to bat first. In hindsight it wasn’t a bad toss to loose and field first. We have been batting first and scoring big runs but testing ourselves with a run chase wasn’t a bad proposition.

Man of the Match: Bhasker for a scintillating half century in a crucial chase being very patient and scoring at a run a ball. His innings took the match away from Legions in the first 5 overs.

Bowling: Over the last week our players had poured over the score sheet and had realized that legions were a top-heavy team. Their openers had scored a lot of runs but the middle hadn’t performed at all and we were hoping to exploit that. We also had some information on the field settings required for the openers. The bowling plan was to take early wickets and build pressure on the rest of the batsman to force a collapse.

            Venki opened the bowling for us and we had a deep cover from the first ball. The batsman went after the first ball and the ball almost carried to the deep cover fielder. Both of the openers played aggressively and went after the bowling resulting in constant run scoring. Dhanu started from the other end and kept things relatively tight. 

During the fourth over of our bowling, their opening batsman Ravi sliced a wide ball that flew all the way to cover boundary. I was at the boundary and saw the ball cleanly; the ball was slightly swerving to my left. For a slight second I took the eye off the ball to assess the distance between me and the boundary line and that turned out to be a fatal mistake. The ball hit my hand, fell to the ground and ran outside the boundary line for a four. It was the second catch I dropped off Dhanu’s bowling in consecutive weeks. I haven’t returned the favor since he took a brilliant catch to get me a hatrick. Every time Dhanushka takes the field for JECC he does everything he can to win us the game, I hope to return his favor before the season ends.

            The runs continued to flow thanks to few good shots by the opening batsmen. They managed to score 5-6 runs off every over. At the end of the sixth over Dilip replaced Venki with me. He asked me to vary the pace to coerce a mishit from their batsman. It’s very rare that I get to bowl this early in the innings. I was surprised to find good amount of swing on the newish ball. The ball was swinging both ways, making it quite difficult to control. In my second over the opening batsman tried to push at an outside off stump delivery and poked a catch to short 3^rd man. Nitin grabbed a sharp chance. In the very next over Dhanu took the wicket of the new batsman. It was an essential Dhanu delivery. After pitching, the ball moved out with the angle, kissed the edge and nestled into Ananth’s safe hands at slip. We took the break with Legions at 54/2 at 10 overs.

            During the break we felt that Legions had scored few more runs than we hoped. We still were happy to get rid of one of their dangerous openers and were quite confident of restricting them to a smaller total. Throughout my spell, the remaining opener was getting into a staring contest with me. He scored couple of boundaries of my bowling and continued to stare me down. I badly wanted to get him out and had a backward point, deep point and a regular point, trying to entice him into an aerial cut shot. It was the fuller ball that did the trick. The 5^th ball of the 11^th over was fuller and was as perfect out-swinger as I can bowl in my life. The ball moved out in the air, continued to move out after pitching, took the edge before slowly nestling into Wicketkeepers gloves. We had broken in.

            Right after that wicket, Dilip replaced Dhanu with Manoj. Manoj is the “Rajini” of our team. As per most players, Manoj is the true superstar.  Manoj struck as soon as he was introduced. Batsman giving Avi his second catch behind the wicket. Manoj bowled the next batsman through the gate and claimed his 3^rd wicket thanks to a filthy full toss down the leg side that took the leading edge to be caught at covers. Only the superstar could take a wicket of that ball J. During this period the runs weren’t flowing as freely as before but there were enough extras to keep the scorecard moving. Manoj was unlucky to be turned down a plumb LBW towards the end of the session. We went into the break with Legions at 92/6 off 21 overs. 

During the break we discussed the need to wrap the Legions innings at the earliest. Several times, we have had opposition for 80-90/6 only letting them get out of the situation. We didn’t want to entertain any such possibilities during this important game. Bhanu operated after the break and provided the breakthrough right away. The batsman tried to cut a fuller ball and inside edged it onto the stumps. Dilip started on the other end got his first wicket through an LBW. Bhanu took his second wicket in his second over by bowling the batsman through the gate. Within three over of the break, we had taken three more wickets and in no time legions were 9 down. The last wicket partnership hung around to score few more runs but soon Bhanu wrapped the innings with by taking his 3^rd wicket. Bhanu bowled an excellent spell of 2.3 overs taking 3 wickets for 1 run. Bhanu, the quintessential team man steps up every time the team requires him to do anything. He has had an impressive debut this year.

A special mention should also go to Dilip for excellent captaincy and field placements. At all times he looked to be in control and a step ahead of the game. Timely bowling changes constantly pegged Legions back to a below par score. He was not afraid of making necessary bowling changes to move the game ahead rather than hanging back, letting the tired bowler continue and waiting for things to happen.

Batting: At the break we were quite pleased with out effort in the field. We had managed to restrict Legions for 98 and were quite confident of chasing the score down and booking our place in the playoffs. These middling scores can be tricky to chase depending on which team gains the momentum when the second innings starts. We had been burned by a low chase this season and didn’t want to repeat our mistakes. When our batsmen went into bat, the captain’s instructions were simple. To play defensive but not let go of any scoring opportunities. To play like we are batting in the first. 

The opening partnership of Nitin and Bhaskar was going to lay the groundwork for the chase to unravel. They delivered in an excellent fashion. Good balls were defended and loose balls were dispatched for boundaries. They peppered the offside boundary with beautiful cuts and drives. Nitin pulled couple of boundaries on the leg side as well. Nitin hadn’t recovered from his muscle injury and was struggling to run between the wickets but he didn’t let that affect his batting and put away any loose ball that was on offer. Legions were guilty of bowling too many short and wide balls as well. Nitin got carried away and got out LBW trying hit a full straight ball. Nitin and Baskar had put on an excellent 50+ run partnership at an almost 6 RPO to set up the match for us. We went into the first break at 51/1 after 9 overs. Nitin looks to be an excellent opener and has scored runs almost every time he has batted. We hope that couple of weeks of rest will allow him time to recover completely and be ready for the playoffs.  

Soon after the break Ananth had a rare failure and got out trying to run the ball down to the 3^rd man. Dilip went in and pulled a boundary to start his innings but soon was caught and bowled while trying to punch a ball. We had lost couple of quick wickets after the break. I went into bat and discussed with Bhaskar the need to finish the match without loosing any additional wickets.  Bhaskar is in ferocious form. He soon square drove couple of boundaries to bring us close to the victory. In the same over he completed an excellent half-century as well. His innings was a pleasure to watch. He cashed in on every loose ball and ended up scoring 9 boundaries, settling the match in our favor. He has grown in confidence at every innings that he has played at the opening spot and has made a huge contribution to our run of four consecutive wins. Soon after Bhaskar’s half century, I scored the winning boundary to wrap up a comfortable victory for us. We chased down the total in 14 overs. The wagon wheel below depicts the dominance we displayed.

It would be a tragedy if this match report were concluded without acknowledging the effort and passion of Ravi. A man I have always admired. Going into the match, we knew Nitin was carrying a niggle and may not be able to field all the 40 overs. Ravi volunteered to carry out the 12^th man duties and was at the ground throughout the day to help the team and substitute for Srini in a crucial phase of our bowling. He fielded under the hot sun and provided his invaluable guidance to help us get through the line. Ravi has had to battle weak eyesight throughout this year resulting in a bad-batting form but his resilience to fight through all the difficult times should be a model for us. It must have been hard for him not to get a game during these last few matches but his ability to put personal disappointment behind him to help the team cannot be appreciated enough. We at JECC are lucky to have an amazing bunch of senior players who have always shown the right way and have helped maintain the correct team spirit.

With this win we have booked our spot in the play off. We have had to fight hard and win 4 consecutive games to make it to the playoff. The fact that the team was able to pull off such a feat is a commendable effort but we shouldn’t forget the mistakes we made during the first half of the season that got us into this situation. I have always felt that, we are one of the 3 top teams in this division and anything less than that doesn’t justify the talent we have amongst us.

With the playoff’s looming on the horizon, our difficult games lay ahead of us. We will face stronger and better opponents with each passing game and need to be on top of our game to beat them. JECC is in the best possible shape in recent years to make a strong run into the deep end of the tournament. Let’s use our momentum, execute our plans, play to our potential and beat every team that stands in our way.

 

GooooooooooooooooooooEagles….

- Chinmay

Match Report: JECC vs Edison @ Thomas Jefferson - 08/09/2015

Match Report 
by

Chinmay Bhat

JECC bt Edison by 20 runs. Batting first, JECC scored 209/9 in 40 overs & Edison got all out for 189 in the last over.

After our strong showing in our last game, we were coming into the match with a lot of momentum. Taking on one of the top teams in the competition was something we were looking forward to. Edison has played solid, yet defensive cricket this year and is one of the teams that are vying to move to the first division. Although we recognized their strength and standing, we knew that there were certain chinks in their armor that we could exploit. For the few years I have been part of JECC, I have noticed that we tend to play well when we have a momentum. In 2013 we had a string of wins towards the end of the season and surprised few table toppers with our execution. In 2014, we had a run of 6/7 consecutive wins. This was a match to look forward to between a team that was gathering momentum with a playoff spot on the line (JECC) and a team that had occupied the top of the charts (Edison).

ScoreCard: CLNJ scorecard to be posted.

Cricket HQ scorecard for our batting: https://www.crichq.com/#matches/286190/1st_innings

TOSS:  Toss plays an important factor in a lot of matches that happen during the middle of the season, when the temperature soars. I think this has mostly to do with the fitness level of the non-professional players. Its tough to bowl and field in the sun and maintain the intensity throughout the course of the match. The team bowling first either gives away too many runs towards the end of the innings or tends to collapse while batting second. This doesn’t seem to be a huge factor during the beginning or end of the season when the sun mellows down in this part of the world. It would be interesting to see the win % of the teams that bat first across the league, especially during the middle of the season.

Just like all the other teams, we wanted to win the toss and bat first but Dilip’s form at the toss didn’t inspire much confidence. Like an unspoken rule, the team started catching practice before the toss J.  Given the background, it would be an understatement to say that the team was thrilled to see Dilip win the toss and bat first. We were off to a great start even before a ball was bowled and we didn’t want to concede this head start.

Man of the Match: Ananth for a valuable 39 runs and a great bowling spell which got us 2 wkts. A brilliant catch at first slip was the highlight of the day.

Batting: Over the past week our players had poured over the statistics and figured out that Edison’s strength lay in bowling. They had very good opening bowlers and were able to restrict the opposition for lesser scores. During the pre-match huddle, our agreed upon goal was to start cautiously and accelerate towards the end of the innings with wickets in hand.

Dhanu and Bhaskar opened and spent the next few overs assessing the pitch and the bowlers. For the first 5 overs we scored only 10 runs without loosing any wickets. Just when it looked like Dhanu was getting his groove back, he got a peach that pitched on leg stump and took the top off. Sometimes as an opening batsman you have to look at the sky and ask “why me?”

Srini joined Bhaskar in the middle and took the job on. Srini and Bhaskar have done extremely well since the last few games. They team dugout is happy and calm when they bat together. The batting is adequate without being aggressive. They seem to know how to defend good balls while milking the strike on anything that is overpitched or pitched on leg stump. I remember looking across the dugout and watching Sid and Ananth (padded up) taking pictures, posting on Facebook. I think that moment captures the serenity at the dug out when Srini and Bhaskar were batting.

In the middle, we were executing our plans of not giving wickets to the opening bowlers. At one point the opening bowler for Edison had 4 maidens out of the 5 overs he bowled. After ten overs the bowlers changed and our batsman adjusted accordingly. Srini drove two beautiful boundaries to cover point. Bhaskar cashed in on his hard work with a square drive and cover drive as well. Runs were staring to flow and we went into the first break at 44/1.

Constant run scoring continued after the break with an occasional boundary. Against the run of the play, Bhaskar got out caught. The very next over Srini got out LBW to a full toss on the leg stump that deserved a four. Srini should feel missed out on a half century, twice in consecutive games. Bhaskar and Srini had put on a 50+ partnership to get us to 78/3 at the end of 20^th over. It was time for Calvin and Hobbes show.

Ananth and Sid started from where they had left on from the last innings. Ananth hit the first ball he faced to the straight boundary. He has such grace and elegance that it’s impossible for him to hit a mistimed shot. It was the phase of the game that would define whether we end up with above or below par first innings score. Sid and Ananth made sure that it was the former. Strike was constantly rotated while singles were converted into two and two’s were converted to threes. Bowlers were guilty of conceding a lot of extras as well. Couple of boundaries off the sweep shots were a treat to watch. We went into the second break at 119/3 of 27 overs. Game was nicely setup for the late flurry.

Sid got out on the 29^th over after putting in another 50+ partnership with Ananth. Sid is batted beautifully and his batting will be crucial to our middle order for the reminder of the games. Dilip joined Ananth in the middle and took the score to 145 when Ananth perished LBW. Ananth played a crucial innings of 39.

I joined Dilip in the middle and unfortunately Dilip got out the very next over caught at the midwicket boundary. The score was 150/6 at 33^rd over and we had lost 3 wickets in a span of 5 overs.  When Avi joined me in the middle, we decided to recalibrate our target to make sure that we don’t take too many unnecessary risks. We didn’t want to end up with a score below 200 while trying to over reach for 230. Avi hasn’t played too many games this year due to a finger injury and was very determined to play well against Edison. It was hot and tiring but boundaries were not easy to come. With the help of copious amount of Gatorade, We ran hard between the wickets and were able to fetch 8-9 runs per over without many risks. Couple of boundaries thanks to a short arm pull by Avi and a back foot square drive by me gave us a moment to breathe. Avi got out on the 38^th overs trying to accelerate. We had put on a 40 runs partnership within 5 overs. Sekhar and Dinesh helped to get the score to a respectable 209/8. I remained not out on 27 off 22 balls.

We could have gotten additional 10-15 runs had we not missed dispatching couple of full tosses to the boundary. While walking off the field, I felt that we had an above par score. We were slightly happy knowing the fact that Edison hadn’t chased 200+ score this season. The team had executed on the perfect batting template. Cautious openers, steady middle order and frantic finish. We were the happier camp of the two.

Also,  Edison panicked at the calm and confident approach of our batsmen resulting in a lot of extras and confusion in their fielding. They gave up 43 extras for which we kept thanking while scoring in addition to a number of overthrows.  We easily got about 20 runs in overthrows itself which made a winning difference in the end.

Bowling: Batsman had done their job. Our plan for the bowling unit was simple; bowl a tight line and length without many extras. We wanted the batsmen to take the additional risk to maintain the required run rate.

The effects of Biryani are very obvious during the first few overs of the bowling. J All our fielders looked ready to fall asleep as soon as we stepped onto the field. The batsman nicked the first ball of the innings and we promptly dropped the catch. I am going to blame the Biryani for that J. After the first over, we were back to our bowling self and Dinesh got rid of the opener thanks to a sharp catch by Srini. Shortly, Sid removed the other opener thanks to the ever-reliable Ananth at slip. Ananth jumped up, knocked the ball up and caught the catch one handed while falling down. Dinesh was impeccable during his 5 over spell. He bowled few unplayable balls, which turned the opposition batsman over. He was a constant threat to the batsman and was unlucky not to get another wicket. There were few close LBW shouts that should have gone our way. Dhanu and I replaced the opening bowlers and kept it tight. Edison went into the first break at 40/2 off 14 overs.

After the break, Dhanu and I continued to probe away outside the batsman’s off stump. The required run rate soon climbed over 6 runs an over. Dhanu was unlucky to not get a LBW off a Yorker. Occasional boundaries kept Edison in the hunt. Off my 4^th over, batsman hit the ball to cover and ran hard. The non-striker wanted two runs and the striker turned him down late. An accurate throw by Dhanu and a relay by me to Bhaskar resulted in an easy run out. Soon Ananth and Dilip were introduced into the attack. The Edison batsmen started taking few chances. Their batsman Laxman hit couple of sixes to keep up with the run rate. Ananth had one batsman caught at deep midwicket, thank to an excellent catch by Sid. We went into the break with Edison on 96/4.

Soon after the break, Dilip introduced the Manoj into the attack. Manoj had copious amounts of Banana, Chicken and Egg biryani during lunch so it was time for Manoj to deliver J. Manoj is a true team player and has an unenviable role in the bowling unit as he gets the ball when the ball has lost its zip. He looks very innocuous while running into to bowl, but he can make the ball talk. He has slight variations and almost always moves the ball off the pitch. As soon as Manoj was introduced, he had their set batsman in all kinds of problems. Batsmen were not able to time the ball, were getting beaten consistently. He removed the set batsman, Laxman by getting him caught at short midwicket. He had his second wicket in the same over as well. Manoj bowled an excellent spell of 5 overs for 16 runs while taking two wickets. In the context of the match, the spell was exactly what the captain needed.

Just when we appeared to be closing out the match, we were guilty of dropping couple of easy catches. The second one at deep log off hit Dinesh on the fingers and by the sound of it, we knew something was wrong. The ball hit his finger near the nails and had dislocated his finger. It was a difficult sight to watch and Dinesh rushed off to the hospital. JECC really appreciates Mr. Chirag Patel from Edison CC for taking Dinesh to ER and staying with him. I visited Dinesh at the hospital (after the match) and was glad to see him doing better. He bowled really well and was unfortunate to end up injured. We wish him speedy recovery.

As soon as we resumed, Edison CC hit Ananth for couple of sixes and a four. Our earlier drops were starting to haunt us and Ananth was unlucky to be the recipient of it. He could have had couple of wickets instead he was taking a hit and suddenly the match was getting closer.  Edison needed 68 off 54 balls with 4 wickets in hand.

At JECC, when we need someone to bowl in a crunch or need wickets, the captain tends to turn to Dhanu. His slingy bowling action makes it difficult for the batsman to hit and he can land those Yorkers. Dhanu right away took a wicket and put the breaks on Edison’s plan to chase down the target. Sid operated from the other end and kept things tight as well. We were fielding with 10 players and it was very difficult to manage the fielding positions. Dilip did an excellent job to get the positions correct. Runs were not easy to score with Dhanu and Sid bowling and soon the run rate climbed over 9. Sid got the hard-hitting batsman bowled and got another wicket the same over to an LBW.  Edison CC were 9 down and still needed almost 40 runs.

We all thought we wrapped the match up when a combo of Shaky and Dhanu resulted a run out. To our disbelief, the umpire turned down the run out. The batsman was miles out. We were frustrated with the blatant misjudgment by the league umpire. The very next over a slightly difficult catch came my way, which I was unable to hold on to. It was frustrating to let these opportunities pass by.

During these close matches its more important to put in that extra effort to wrap up the match, as you never know which way the game could turn. I was personally very disappointed with the drop. The very same over Dhanu got the batsman to mishit again and this time the catch was an easy one. Catches probably don’t come easier than that. I went with hard hands at the catch, the ball hit my hands popped out and hit the ground. I still cannot fathom the second drop. Dhanu’s words of “Are you kidding me” will be ringing in my ears for years to come. I wanted the earth to open up and swallow me as a whole.

Dhanu finished an excellent but unlucky second spell and Edison needed 22 off the last over. Sid didn’t let the antics on the field distract him and bowled a tight final over and we closed out the game thanks to a run out.

It was a match filled with lot of drama and we should have closed out the match lot earlier, may be around 150 runs had we caught the catches that came our way. Atleast 7-8 easy catches were dropped by all of us resulting in the close match at the end.

It was difficult towards the end to field with 10 players but we were happy to win and claim 2 points. Our batting set up the match beautifully with our bowling stepping up at crucial times. We were a step ahead of the opposition at all times. It feels good to beat a top ranked team and have a hatrick of wins under our belts. Just goes on to show that we can beat anyone when we play to our strengths and execute our plans.

Go………………..……………………….Eagles..

Cheers

Chinmay

Match Report : JECC vs Indus @ Far hills, 08/02/2015

Match report
By
Chinmay Bhat

JECC beat Indus by 70 runs.

Scorecard: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=9834

The match against Indus was an exciting prospect. Both teams have been playing in CLNJ for a long time and there is a lot of friendship between the teams. Indus has always played a fair but a competitive game without a hint of ugliness, something that resonates with JECC principles. I was tensed the whole weekend thinking of the game, as we are coming towards the end of league stage, unsure of our place in the playoff. The fact that both the teams are closely matched and the win would go a long way towards the playoff didn’t help as well.

The reporting time at the ground was at 10:15, but even at 10:20 we only had 2 players on the field. At 10:40, we had 6 players on the ground and the ground was not ready for hosting. We barely managed to have the ground ready by 10:45. A stricter umpire could have awarded the toss to Indus. I have seen us being late to the ground (myself included), but I don’t remember the last time, we were as vulnerable as this game. I remember looking at the street every few seconds to sight a car of one of our players, so that we don’t loose the toss. It’s not a situation we should be putting ourselves in. I think it’s time to make a collective pact to be on time at the ground. It’s finally time to take stricter measure to avoid such situation in future.


TOSS: At the toss time, Indus had only 5 players on the field and JECC could have claimed the toss. But considering that we were late in setting up the field and the friendships we have with Indus, we decided to wait additional 10 minutes, by which Indus had 9 players and we were ready for the toss.

It was an important toss and we have been unlucky to be on the wrong side of too many calls. Luckily, Billu called wrong and we had won the toss. Finally it felt like cricketing Gods were smiling on us. We promptly opted to bat.

Man of the Match: Chinmay for a brilliant Hattrick which resulted in 6 total wickets and a quickfire 22 runs.






Batting: Before we went in to bat, I told the team that we want to bat 40 overs irrespective of the score we put up and make sure that Indus spends the full quota under the sun. We have been on the receiving end of this to understand the effects of batting second after spending 40 overs under the hot sun. Batsman tire, aren’t able to concentrate and the team ends up collapsing. It’s a familiar script and we were happy to be on the right side of things.

Bhaskar and Nitin opened, spent couple of uneventful overs with few singles and doubles and got off to a calm start. It was a soothing start with lot of defending and not much of a ball beating the bat. Nitin got bowled to a ball that came in and took the stumps. Srini joined Bhaskar in the middle. We decided to hold back Ananth as we were short of a batsman with Dilip being in India.

Srini and Bhaskar continued the form they exhibited in the prior match. Bhaskar, calmly defending the good balls and putting away the bad balls. Bhaskar is a versatile cricketer and brings a sense of calm to batting. He is a batsman with a lot of resolve and cannot be dismissed easily. He is willing to wait for the bowler to make mistake and take advantage of that. A back foot cover-drive along the ground for a boundary was a sight to watch. At this point Indus made couple of bowling changes, and Bhaskar got out to a miscued pull shot after scoring 20+. He did all the hard work and should feel missed out, after being set.

Ananth joined Srini. Srini continued his good nick and lofted cover drive for four was beautiful to watch. Srini is a natural stroke maker and it’s good to see him starting to find form. As we all know Ananth is the batting backbone of JECC. He is a versatile player that can play spin, pace and everything in the middle with equal authority. Also is a true team player that can understand the needs of the team. Ananth and Srini partnered well to get the team to 70 when Srini was given out LBW to a marginal decision. We felt it was a harsh call and Srini was unlucky to get out for 33.

Sid seemed to be angry that he didn’t get to bat in the last game. Within the first few balls he was there, he scored 2 sixes and a four to force the spin bowlers out of the attack before settling down. Sid and Ananth are the Calvin and Hobbes of our team. Both are good friends off the field and are stunning to watching on the field. They maintained constant run flow with quick running and frequent boundaries. Sid has been batting solidly this season to stabilize the middle order. Ananth and Sid are experienced members of the team and played their role to perfection. Only point I would add is that Sid needs to cut out the dab to 3rd man that involves a lot of risk.

We were at 108/2 at the second break (26th over). We were planning for a score of 200+ but didn’t want to explode too early and collapse for less. Ananth got out around 29th over having scored a well-made 39. I went in after the fall of Ananth and saw Sid complete a well deserved half-century. I got out at the start of power play after scoring 22. Dhanu continued where I left off and carted a six over the square leg, scoring another quick 20. Venki, Anirudh, and Murali chipped in and we scored 210 at the end of 40 overs. We felt that we did well and were just above the par score. The fact that we were able to almost double our score from second break made us feel that batsman had done their job; it was time for the bowlers to show up.

Bowling: Bowling has been one of our main strengths over the years. We are privileged to have multiple good bowlers in our team. We were confident of defending the total as long as we bowled tight lines (without too many extras) and force the batsman to take the extra risk to score at 5+ runs an over. Our opening Combo of Venki and Sid can be expected to deliver early wickets and are rightly the top two wicket takers of JECC this year. Venki started well in the first over but unfortunate break in the play seemed to affect his bowling. Sid on the other end was suffering from a side strain and wasn’t his usual bowling self. Still, Sid sneaked one through the gates to open the account for JECC. Indus kept up with the scoring at 5 runs an over with occasional boundary and a healthy dose of extras. Sid got another wicket having the batsman caught at cover point, just before the break. We went into the break at 55/2 of 14 overs.

During the break, we discussed the need to restrict the run rate and take additional wickets to put pressure on the opposition. None of us could imagine what was going to transpire in the next 3 overs after the break. I bowled the first over after the break. Second ball was short outside the off stump and batsman hit it straight to cover point to give me my first wicket. As I was running in for the next delivery, I had the intuition of getting a wicket of that ball. The ball was fast, full and angling in. Batsman missed the ball to get out LBW. Indus were 4 down for 50 odd runs within 3 balls after the break, and I was on a hatrick.

I have taken a lot of wickets of consecutive balls to know that hat-trick’s rarely happen (Never in my case). Generally the batsman expects a full ball and presents a dead bat or sees a ball outside off and leaves it alone. We had 5 slips, short cover, silly mid on, silly mid off and short leg to gobble up any edge. I ran in and bowled a rising ball outside off to hope that the batsman edges it to one of the 5 slip fielders, instead the batsman saw it as a scoring opportunity and tried to smash it over covers. Before I could shout catch it, Dhanushka jumped up high above the short covers and plucked the ball destined for a boundary. The ball was hit so hard that it was a blur to us, I still marvel on how Dhanu was able to catch that ball, but I am glad he did. After a long time, JECC had a hatrick. We all ran around trying to make sense of the turn of the events within an over after the break. It was a great moment. One I will cherish for a long time.

Dhanu bowled the next over and uprooted the middle stump with a pinpoint Yorker to get rid of dangerous Billu.  Vishal and Pavan perished in my next over. Within 3 overs of the break Indus went from 53/2 to 58/8.

We were well and truly on top of the game. But as it often happens in the game, a partnership is bound to develop, which is exactly what happened. Indus started playing more carefully and started to accumulate rather than explode. Few boundaries and sensible running helped Indus to advance the scoreboard. During this period, Bhanu, Murali and Ananth bowled consistently with some half chances falling short of players. Bhanu and Murali bowled exceptionally well and were unlucky not to get a wicket. Bhanu has improved consistently over each game and has taken up keeping, bowling and fielding with aplomb. He saved a lot of runs during keeping with leg side dives. I see a future-bowling all-rounder in him. An all around team man with irrefutable spirit.
Indus went into the second break at 115/8 from 26 overs with some momentum behind them. We knew that we had to be patient and need just one wicket to close the game.

Venki and Dhanushka opened straight after the break. This decidedly changed the momentum towards the JECC. Both bowled with intensity to restrict the run scoring while creating the chances. Both were unfortunate not to get wicket during this spell, but made sure that the required run rate climbed above 7 runs an over.  Ananth came into the attack and broke the threatening partnership with some smart bowling. Soon after Indus folded to hand a comfortable win to Eagles. It’s important to acknowledge three important catches from Anirudh and two important catches from Murali.


It was an important win for Eagles with the playoff’s coming up. It was a true team effort with everyone pitching in. Batting and Bowling form of key players augurs well for the next few games.


GoooooooooooooooooooooEagles………

- Chinmay

Match Report: JECC vs CFC @ Dudash Park - 07/26/2015

JECC beat CFC by 8 wickets. Batting first, CFC scored 159/9 in 40 overs and JECC chased it down in 34 overs losing only 2 wickets

Scorecard: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=9814

Man of the Match: Sid – for taking 3 wickets and scoring 43 runs opening the innings.

Bhasker also scored 51 in a great opening stand with Sid. Murali’s 8 overs 18 runs and Venkis 3 wickets were the highlight performances of the match.

Toss:  We haven’t batted first in a while, losing the toss on most occasions and chosing to field when winning the toss on other occasions when we won it. Driving to the ground, Ananth made it clear that he wanted to bat first, so I put the onus on him to go for the toss on our teams behalf and win it. Dhanu and I gave him some good pep talk and told Ananth to practice calling. Dhanu went with tails and told Ananth that it was a tails day, but after assessing the conditions, Ananth called it heads. Bottom line, we lost the toss and were fielding first :(. All Ananth's fault!

Bowling: On a hot day, our star bowlers Venki and Sid got into a good rhythm initially, but with the fast outfield, runs were leaking as the CFC openers started to time the ball well. We still attacked with catching positions as the ball was moving a bit. One such ball off Venki’s took the edge to me at second slip opening the wickets count for us. Soon Sid got a wicket as well and with two new batsmen, Sid and Venki started to look very threatening. The pressure was mounting and runs pretty much dried up from the 6^th over. We dropped a couple of catches during this time and there were a few half chances as well, but the batsmen just hung in there. CFC were 33/2 in 10 overs.

A double change with Murali and Dhanu was equally effective as both of them stuck to a wonderful line and didn’t give anything away. Murali was exceptional moving the ball in the air and off the seam as he used to about 10 yrs back: ).  He bowled unchanged for 8 overs and was unfortunate to have a few catches dropped off his bowling. Dhanu from the other end was his old self again, zipping the ball through. They took us to the second break with 57/4 in 20 overs with a wicket each.

We introduced spin at this stage with Srini, myself and Ananth and got them to 93/5 in 30 overs. After the break, with pressure mounting, the CFC batsmen started hitting and connected a few shots. A fast outfield is tough to defend, but our bowlers did very well to contain the extras. Venki and Sid took a couple of wickets in between to stop the run flow. CFC got the score to 159 in 40 overs losing 9 wickets.

Batting: Our failures in batting became a conversation for jokes if we can chase even 50 runs forget 160 or 200.. A drastic change had to be made and I had decided to send in Sid and Venki to open initially with Srini to follow, but instinctively sent Bhasker as a steady batsman to support Sid’s stroke play.

Both batsmen played off a maiden each to start with. Normally, this would trigger alarms, but we were kind of happy to not lose a wicket in the first 2 overs as was happening before. 0/0 in 2 overs meant a few taunts from the opposition, but after getting the pace of the pitch and assessing the bowling, Sid unfurled some gorgeous drives to get us going. Bhasker was content to rotate the strike initially dabbing good length balls in the gaps for ones and twos.

Sid was in his element and was timing the ball beautifully. Classy cover drives and flicks ensured runs were flowing fast and by the first 10 over break, we were 35 for no loss. Bhasker started to play some wonderful lofted shots in the gaps and with Sid’s scintillating stroke play we were happily trottering along for 80 runs in 20 over break, exactly half way. A thundering pull shot was the highlight and our bench was laughing and enjoying the fun. CFC was pretty much done at this stage and were trying out all the bowling options they had. One kid with a balle-balle bowling action was hilarious!

Against the run of play, Sid got out and I sent in Srini holding back Ananth. Taking the attacking role, Bhasker upped the run rate with some well timed shots all around the ground. and got to his first 50 for JECC. Congrats Bhasker!

Srini played a very steadying hand rotating the strike well. Bhasker got out at 116 in 27 overs trying to finish things off quickly. Ananth went in and made sure nothing dramatic happened and together with Srini, got us home with 6 overs to spare.

It was a clinical chase and made us look very ‘professional’. Although one cannot expect the same performances every time, we should strive to get this consistency in batting, atleast in the top order. 

We all knew Sid capabilities and his 43 wasn’t too surprising, but Bhasker’s composed yet authoritative half century was a revelation indeed. This man can do everything! Keeping wickets, bowling and batting, we see Bhasker pushing himself to perform well whatever he does. Thank you Sir!

We celebrated a surprise 40^th birthday for Murali after the match with his family, some old friends and kids. A wonderful end to the day and we didn’t let Ravi’s biryani lunch go waste..We also disproved the biryani-loss jinx as well…Coming few games are very crucial for us in making a playoff spot. Let’s stay focused and get into this habit of winning!

Match Report: JECC vs Majestic@ Lowes field - 07/12/2015

Match Report

by

Ravi Suri

JECC beat Majestic by 1wicket. Batting first Majestic were all out for 140 in 36 overs.
JECC chased down the target with the last wicket remaining .

Wins like these give you such a HIGH!!! For past few games, rather most of the season we have had the rough end of the stick. We lost too many close games, let slip from our grip many games which were in our control. Not this one though. We lost the toss on a hot day and were put in the field first up.

Scorecard: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=9763

Man of the Match: Srinivas for electrifying 27* in a tense chase and Dhanushka for 4 wkts bowling, an astounding catch and 19 runs batting.

Bowling: By and large this season we bowled well but missed one ingredient. The UNIT as a whole dint hunt as a pack. By that I mean if Venki bowled well in a game, Sid was not in full support or if Sid was firing on all cylinders then Venki was off the boil. So also with Dhanu and Chinmay. But this game the 4 of them bowled in tandem and put so much pressure on the top order. I was commenting to Ananth at slip saying our previous season we had opponents 4 down by about 15^th over in almost every game. That was missing this season till now. But this game brought the Eagles bowling combo back. Venki brought one in sharply to clean bowl the opener after he got off to a very decent start. Other end Sid was bowling very fast and had the batsman in trouble with his pace. The ball was thudding into Bhanu’s gloves. 

Dhanu came in first change after Venki and Sid bowled a tight spell of 4 overs each. At 9 over stage Majestic were 36 for one. The next 11 overs changed the game completely as Dhanu and Chinmay bowled a brilliant spell. Chinmay in particular bowled as well I have ever seen him. He dint bowl a wide in his entire spell and such accuracy puts tremendous pressure on the batsmen. Ananth took an outstanding catch at slip, I was at second slip, Ananth at first. Sidharth edged one which was coming straight to my face at second slip. Last minute Ananth dove to his right and plucked the fruit so to say from my mouth. Later when I saw where I was at second slip, I realized how much ground Ananth covered to take that catch. Chinmay’s bowling helped Dhanu as the batsmen felt strangulated at the other end. Relentless in his line and length and with ZERO experimentation Chinmay was a BIG factor in the game turning around. 

From 36 for one in 9 overs Majestic slipped to 54 for 4 by 20th over. From there on the odd dropped catch and two leg spinners bowling in tandem, with the wides coming as can be the case with leg spinners Majestic started to get back in the game. Dilip was smart to realize the pacers could the nail the deal, brought them back. Sid got 2 wickets with Dhanu taking one catch a long on and another one which was a stunner at cover. The second catch was a terrific effort with the ball going way high and Dhanu covered a lot of ground, tumbled and took a brilliant catch 99% effort with 1% DRAMA. We got Majestic all out for 140 which was a very easy target on a good batting wicket with reasonable outfield.

Batting: As a team we have been quite jinxed with the batting. Something or the other is going wrong and we are not able to bat to potential. Dhanu and I opened the innings with our captain laying the instructions to bat time and build a partnership. My troubled season continued and despite defending well for 10 balls and seeing the ball well and doing most things right I was out played on. The rub of the green is just not going our way. That said I will share some thoughts later in this report about how this great game balances the ends of a spectrum between good and bad times. Ananth replaced me and played an UN- ANANTH like innings. By that I mean normally Ananth is 0-1 mode either he is batting brilliantly or is out, have hardly seen him not time the ball or play airy fairy shots. This innings dint have the typical flow. 

Dhanu on other hand was grinding it out. He defended stoutly and took some well-placed singles and doubles. Ananth ran very well between the wickets and called particularly well. With his timing not being at its best Ananth pulled one to mid-wicket a soft shot which lobbed to mid-wicket, the fielder put down a SITTER. As Ananth was anxiously looking at result of the catch he was not prepared for next action point which is to ensure he is not run out. The fielder who dropped a sitter made up with a good throw. The bowler dint collect the ball but broke the stumps with his hand. Umpire was probably un sighted and gave Ananth out. Sid replaced Ananth, all this while the chase was not getting the right flow. We were getting our runs but the calm in the tent was missing. Dhanu’s determination was re assuring. Sid too was not in his elements and like Ananth was not timing as well as he usually does. Sid perished to his favorite shot, the pull. 

Venkat the Majestic captain sent the mid-wicket slightly deeper and Sid pulled one to his hands. On any other day he would have cleared the mid-wicket fence. Dilip replaced Sid and looked the best of the men who went to the crease. This year Dilip has been batting extremely well and one can sense his confidence and assuredness at the crease. Ananth apart Dilip and Sid are giving the rest of the team a sense of confidence while batting. While Dilip was digging in we lost Dhanu and Chinmay in quick succession. This put a huge shadow of doubt. Chinmay is a very good batsman with a sense of the game situation. He has always played the game with a lot of match awareness which is such a MUST to win games. Chinmay like the rest of us is having a rough time with luck. One bad shot, or one bad judgment or just that little lapse in concentration is getting him out. This game hinges so much on luck factor or rub of the green as they say.

Dilip followed Chinmay and got out as we lost wickets in a heap, we were struggling at 98 for 7. While all this happened somewhere in between Srini slipped in and played himself in calmly without being noticed. All eyes were on our earlier match winners like Dilip, Chinmay, who won games for us earlier. We were disappointed and worried when we lost them. Bhaskar and Srini started to re build and were looking good. Bhaskar is a calm customer and has shown us in earlier games he is a tough out and will not give his wicket easily. Just as Bhaskar and Srini we were giving us the re assurance Bhaskar got out to a freak catch, left handed diving effort at gully. Shekar looked good till he got run out, Shekar played one of the shots of the day a drive to cover point which was caressed more than hit to the boundary. It never looked like reaching the boundary when hit, but sped past the boundary on a heavy outfield, such was the timing on that stroke it left the fielders and the watchers wondering how did the ball travel so fast.

The ebbs and flow of this game were not for the faint hearted. Every time we felt safe in the chase we lost a wicket. Every time Majestic gave up the game we lost a wicket. Every time we felt now there is no chance, Srini came up with a MAJESTIC stroke. Srini’s timing during his innings was pure brilliance. A flick to mid-wicket and a cover drive were the highlights of his innings. The calmness he showed was un believable. Despite losing wickets at the other end, Srini dint play one rash shot or a shot in desperation to reach the target soon. With 17 more to get we lost our most dependable ice man Venky. Normally Venky is reliable and very able in such situations. He too is having a bad run of luck, one false shot and he was gone. Bhanu replaced Venky and to be honest some of us gave up the game. 

Unable to watch the tension we started to pack up the bags, bring the tent down. During this time Bhanu defended stoutly and Srini never ever gave up. The wides from bowlers helped; Bhanu gave Srini the confidence that he would finally get a partner who will stay with him.

I referred to the balancing act this great game provides; just a few weeks back Srini dropped a sitter against Indians and I could see how much he hurt that day. It was a like night which never ends for Srini, that’s the feeling when you have a bad day in the field. You feel so low and down (as I am feeling with my batting these days) and wonder when will you turn the corner. The game of cricket is fascinating because you can be the HERO one day even if you have been a villain on earlier occasions. The game provides opportunities as it did for Srini; he controlled the chase and was the MAN OF THE MOMENT. 

Under extreme pressure the calm approach shown by Srini was admirable. The best part was he never played a false shot, his defense was assured, his run making shots were precise and his control over temperament was an example for rest of us to take away from. A terrific win which I hope and expect will motivate us to more wins this season. Let’s fight our way to # 8 spot which is still in our grasp. THANK YOU SRINI for an inspiring knock. Dhanu well bowled and brilliantly caught!! WELL DONE Eagles!!

I love the spirit in our team, win or lose we stand and stick be each other. Even in our worst phase I never noticed any finger pointing or lack of coordination in the field. Yesterday it was embarrassing to see opponent team so ill coordinated. A lot of this spirit in Eagles is thanks to team management; the captain- vice captain seniors like Dhanu-Ananath-Sid-Venky-Naga. Great to be part of this team. A word on Bhanu who kept for the first time ever and did a tremendous job.

RS