Match Report: JECC vs Warriors @ Mercer County Park - 07/12

JECC lost to Warriors by 58 runs.

Batting first, Warriors scored 193/8 in 40 overs and JECC were all out for 135 in 31 overs.

Scorecard: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=1936

Man of the Match: From Warriors - Durale Forrest for scoring 99 runs getting out in the last over.

He played really well blocking the good balls and scoring runs off anything marginally bad. His batting was the difference between the two teams.

Bowling: It was surprising that the match started on time with the overnight thunderstorms in the area. We won the toss and elected to field first with the moist pitch and heavy outfield. Suneel justified the decision with an excellent first over dismissing Anup for a duck off a brilliant catch in the slips by Les. The ball looped up off the batsman’s glove and was falling short of Les, just when he dived full stretch to catch it in the air. Himanshu from the other end couldn’t get his line and went for a few extras in his first spell. This let off some pressure but runs were still hard to score. Mital came into the attack and immediately got a wicket bringing Dural to the crease.

A couple of boundaries off legside balls got him going and we reverted to spin to keep the scoring in check.Ganadeep and myself bowled some tight overs of spin from both ends with G getting the other opener out LBW. After that ,for a period of almost 12 overs, we couldn’t get any wickets as the batsmen were content to take ones and twos. Of course a couple of appeals and half chances didn’t go our way and bowling changes didn’t work either.

Durale grew in confidence and started to play some big shots with the run rate going around 4 an over. Some run out chances and a drop catch by Suneel were enough for Durale to charge towards a century. Still, we were in an OK position at the 30 over mark with only 130 on board. But with wickets in hand, Warriors scored runs in good measure until Himanshu bowled an excellent last over to dismiss two batsmen off fiery yorkers and getting Durale out for 99 in the process.

Batting: With a loaded batting lineup and a fast outfield, 193 looked manageable provided we got a good start. That just didn’t happen with Suneel and Himanshu (coming in as a pinch hitter) going out for ducks and I followed them soon after. Mital was looking ominous with some big shots but couldn’t make it count for a big score getting out for 22. Les was looking in great touch with silken timing but was unfortunate to be given LBW, a bad umpiring decision, off the lowly bowling of Anup.

Rajesh, coming in the middle order played well with some big shots but got out for 15, chipping a catch to short cover. Preetham and Sekhar played out some slow overs with good running and pleasing shots. Preetham got a good measure of the bowling and hit some delightful boundaries. He was out for a well made 34. Sekhar and Murali put up a fight at the end but it just too late and we folded out for 135 in 31 overs.

Verdict: The Warriors tactics of sledging and painstakingly slow over rate bowled in slow motion worked into the minds of our batsmen. It appeared as if we weren’t scoring runs but the run rate was always good and we were still in the hunt. This didnt look like that on the field as warriors managed 25 overs in 3 hours! The irritant bowling of Anup proved quite a handful coupled with some of the other bowlers that they had. Without a run up, Anup’s bowling was going at almost 10-12 minutes an over! The constant sledging got into most of our heads which also proved to be bad for the chase. It also looked as if we were a bit too complacent with all the earlier wins.

In retrospective, a lot of decisions could have made a change, but whatever I decided just didn’t click that day. A bad day in the office as one would say.

Although the decision of bowling first was collective, it didn’t work as well as they scored much more than we expected. My plans to make bowling changes, juggle the batting order, use a pinch hitter – all of them backfired on one day! Any other day, with a batting line up as we had (Sekhar batting at 10!), 193 at 5 runs an overs is achievable.

Our fielding was also slacking and the energy just wasn’t there. We see that quite often where a partnership gets our fielders to droop the shoulders and gets them into hibernation.

We should make sure we get out of this habit and back up each other, fight as a team.

A loss especially as this one hurts, but we still are at the top of the points table and we should bounce back strongly.

We host Miracle at Far hills next Sunday and I expect everyone to be fired up and show what a good team we are!

Go Eagles!