JECC beat Crescent by 71 runs
Man of the Match: Shared between Les and Dhanushka. Les scored an important 50 runs to stabilize the innings with Sekhar in a 74 run partnership. Dhanushka took a 5 wicket haul (5/30) to dismantle the Crescent batting lineup.
Batting: We won the toss and elected to bat on a sunny, but windy day. Rajesh and me had to just negiotiate the bowling as the Crescent bowlers were leaking wides every over. After a 33 run partnership in 8 overs, Rajesh was run out in a mixup with me which brought Mital to the crease. I was out bowled soon after to a ball that hit my pad and rolled on to the stumps. Preetham and Mital played some delightful shots to take us into the break. Mital was looking ominous with some wonderful shots down the ground but was soon out caught to a checked shot on a full toss delivery.
With Preetham and Suneel out quickly, Les and Sekhar had to negiotiate a difficult passage of play. They played intelligently, cutting down the risks and taking the singles on offer. The score was ticking along fine with 3-4 runs an over. After settling down and facing a change of bowling, both batsmen opened up and hit some wonderful shots with placement and timing. The second break got us to 140 in 30 overs and a 200+ total was on the cards. Sekhar launched into their strike bowler hitting a huge six, straight down the ground. With our intentions clear, Crescent panicked on the field. Les played some big hits before getting out for a well made 50. Sekhar was out soon after for a neat 35. Dhanushka, Murali and Asif helped the score to tip over 200 at the end of 40 overs.
Bowling: With a psychological advantage of having 202 to defend, Suneel and Himanshu bowled to an attacking field. It had to take some talent to negotiate both of them which Crescent lacked, and lost their opening pair to Himanshu. One of his wickets was courtesy - Suneel, who took a binder of a catch in the slips. The next batsmen for Crescent were intent to scratch around, trying for a rain delay (there were some clouds) which didn’t help our cause to get wickets. LBW’s were out of question for this game, as the umpire was never sure..this kind of helped us as a couple of close calls went our way.
Murali and Asif tried in vain which caused Dhanushka to step in and show why he is an expert with the old ball. With me bowling spin tidily from one end, Dhanu made the ball dance around from the other end. This didn’t leave much of an option for Crescent than to succumb to Dhanu’s bowling. He got a wicket almost every alternate over with some excellent catches by Srinath, Himanshu and Mital in the deep. Murali kept wickets for a while giving Rajesh some well needed rest to claim one of the catches for Dhanu. Dhanu caught one off his bowling to get his 5 for in his allotted 8 overs. Asif cleaned up the tail as usual with his efficient bowling wrapping up Crescent for 134 in 34 overs.
Verdict: Very good outing for us against a Div1 team. The top order looked good but did not fire. It was left to consolidate first and attack in the last 10 overs which we did very well. We scored 74 in the last 10 losing 4 wickets. With wickets in hand, we attacked well in the last two games. It is important to keep wickets in hand to make the surge in the final overs and we should make sure we follow the template. Catching was excellent as we did not drop anything, but rather took some excellent catches. Fielding and bowling was tidy but we have areas to improve.
The next game is against Hightstown which is one of the best teams in the division. Please make yourselves available.
Score card: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=1820
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