JECC beat Echelon by 5 wickets.
Echelon were all out for 82 in 27.5 overs, batting first; JECC managed to score the required 83 in 20 overs for the loss of 5 wickets.
Man of the Match: Mital - for taking 4 wickets in an excellent spell of fast bowling resulting in a complete collapse of the Echelon batting order.
The figures of 5 overs 2 maidens, 4 wickets for just 5 runs were a reward of Mital’s consistent line and length and the effort he put into the wicket balls.
Bowling: Echelon won the toss and surprisingly opted to bat first in damp conditions. Suneel and Mital made good use of the new ball. Suneel got a perfect start with a maiden and Mital went one step ahead with a wicket maiden in his first over getting the opener off a fast, swinging yorker..
The batsmen had no clue to this type of quality bowling which resulted in mounting pressure and wild swings of the bat. Nothing connected though.. instead they kept losing wickets. Suneel got a wicket to a good catch by Sekhar and Mital followed it up by another 2 wickets to finish his first spell with 3 wickets.
The bowling change of Preetham and Sreenath was upto the task keeping a tight line, giving nothing away. Sreenath, as usual, got a couple of wickets ith good bowling.
Preetham was unplayable with his quick whippy action, zipping the ball past the bat regularly. He bowled unchanged for 7 overs going for only 12 runs. A wicket off his bowling was a brilliant catch in the gully by Ganadeep.
By this time, the lower order batsmen were swinging their bats to anything pitched up. One guy- Vaibhav was a neat striker who was, clearing the ground very easily and threatened to run away with the game. Dhanushka kept things tight from one end with his variations in pace but the last overs of Sreenath, preetham and a couple of overs by myself leaked some sixes that got them some momentum. Mital came into the attack and immediately got rid of the troublemaker. Dhanu got a couple of wickets to clean up the tail ending the Echelon innings for 82. He is on a hatrick going into the next game.
Batting: Preetham and myself came out in a positive mode and started the innings briskly. A couple of overs later, preetham got out to an top edged pull and Mital followed him soon after getting out, attempting a big shot. Suneel and myself steadied the innings a bit taking the extras and chipping in with ones and two’s.
Suneel was out later on, unfortunately to a good shot. With only 30 odd runs to go, I was involved in a mix up with Amit and got run out. Dhanu and Amit got us within striking distance with some good hits, but Amit too was run out in a similar fashion, letting Sekhar hit the winning runs for us.
Echelon: From the time they stepped on the ground, Echelon was trying to get into unnecessary fights hurling abuses for nothing. I think they were looking for a rained out/abandoned game might that might atleast give them a point! The umpire was also visibly upset with this behavior. They argued very much about a chipped catch to shot cover while they batted and an attempted stumping during our batting; walking off the field to complain to the officials. The umpire and CLNJ sorted it out after they figured that they were risking giving a walkover.
This was one of the worst teams to play with in terms of behavior..
Kudos to JECC ..we realized that it would be our loss if there was a fight and we played the game almost in silence, not even celebrating much for a wicket; we might risk provoking them into an argument! In the end, hopefully we showed them how a good team has to be..how to conduct yourself on the field..
Verdict: We knew that we would win this game but were cautious not to take things easily. The effort in the bowling paid off but batting was a bit too aggressive.
All were gifted wickets to Echelon and a 150+ score might have troubled us. We have to make sure that we play clinically no matter who the opposition is.
Once the other batsmen -Suneel, Mital, G, preetham etc.. - get into some form and fire, we can expect big scores going into the playoffs. Its only a matter of time!
Score card: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=1866
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