CLNJ Div 1 league match
JECC lost to Mavericks by 26 runs.
ScoreCard: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=3384
Batting first, Mavericks scored 153 all out in 39 overs. JECC fell short in the chase and were all out for 125 in 33 overs.
Bowling: Mavericks won the toss and elected to bat first on a hot and humid day. Our opening bowlers, Rushi and Siddharth struggled to find a line initially which helped the Mavericks get off to a flying start. Mital stepped in for Sid and stuck onto a wonderful line and length, slowing their run rate. Mital got the first breakthrough and ended up with three wickets for the game. Rushi got into a rhythm after changing ends and got a couple of wickets. Karthik stepped in and settled into a nice line and was also rewarded with a couple of wickets. Both Mital and Karthik hurried the batsmen with their pace, beating the bat and made them struggle for runs.
Dhanushka and I bowled some tight overs at the half way mark to suffocate the batsmen. Dhanu got into his merry–go-wicket-taking spell getting three quick wickets, unlucky to get a fiver. Our strike bowlers came into finish the job but couldn’t as the Mavericks tail enders hung around and scratched their way to a 150+ total with the last two pairs scoring 40 odd runs.
Batting: Vijay and I opened the innings, but didn’t have to even touch the ball as the Mavericks bowlers struggled with the swing and leaked plenty of wides. The first 3 overs yielded almost 20 runs in wides mixed with a couple of straight ones. A freakish run out that touched the bowlers hand off a straight drive got me run out at the non strikers end. Their bowlers settled into a line later and Karthik, along with Vijay nicely built up our innings with ones and twos and the odd boundary. With rain predicted, we were well ahead of the run rate and were looking good when Vijay had to retire due to the heat and dehyrdration. Sid also had to retire between because of the heat. Karthik stuck on at one end and rotated the strike well, ticking on the score board. He got out for a classy 22.
None of the batsmen that followed Karthik were able to stick on as we lost wickets at an alarming rate. Mital, Rushi, Ananth, Sekhar, Dhanu, Gana, all got out in a heap – with 3 wickets falling at once. All of them got out to a slow bowler, Sudhir who was just flighting the ball and our batsmen gave easy catches to the ring fielders, gifting him 5 wickets.
Vijay came into bat again and looked in good nick scoring some big hits and running well for ones and twos. He got out for a well made 33, off a blinder of a catch. Sid came in to bat at the end with Dhanu as a runner with Murali. This was the last wicket. They put on a brave fight and got us into striking distance of the target. With good running, they were set to get a come from behind victory, just when Sid got out caught, closing our innings with 26 runs left.
Verdict: This was a game we expected to win. With home field advantage and an opposition like Mavericks, the odds were in our favor. But our lame batting cost us the game. Only 3 batsmen got into double figures while the rest of the batting line up collapsed like a pack of cards. Five ducks in a batting line up doesnt look good. Although we can take heart with the fight at the end by Murali and Sid, this was essentially a total batting failure.We went into the game assuming that we have the best batting line up in the league – but it showed that it was on paper, not on the ground. We just had to stay on the wicket as the reqd run rate was only 4 runs an over.
Bowling was OK, but we lacked a finisher that could have wrapped up the Mavericks tailenders for well under 100. We gave up too many runs at the beginning and end of their innings.
Fielding was OK too, but we could use some improvement with the catching. The heat and exhaustion didn’t help anyone but some very good catches were taken although some catchable ones were dropped. Credit to Murali, Rushi and Gana for taking up the keeping responsibility and not giving any byes or catches in the absence of a regular keeper.
We have to get set for the upcoming games as we will be facing tougher opponents throughout the season.
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