Match report: JECC vs Piscataway @ Piscataway - 06/27

JECC lost to Piscataway by 4 wickets.

Batting first JECC were all-out for 121 in 26 overs and Piscataway managed to score 122 in 25 overs for the loss of 6 wickets.

Scorecard:http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=3573

Batting: Only 2 batsmen got into double figures. Not that the Piscataway bowling was menacing or unplayable. Apart from one dubious decision against Sid by our ‘favorite’ umpire, Mr. Diwakar the rest of the batting line up just collapsed to big shots off dibbly dobbly bowlers.

Lucky’s innings was the only bright spot in our batting. He played a classy innings of 38 not out with no support from the other end. Asif played a brief hand to support but got out to a slower ball. Lucky hit three magnificent sixes and a couple of fours all of which were wonderfully timed and placed. With some support, Lucky could have got us to atleast 150 which would have been a fighting score on the ground, but unfortunately, we got all out for 121.

Bowling: We had to take wickets, and the catching positions yielded a couple of tough catches that were dropped. Edges kept flying to the boundary and within no time, Piscataway were off to a flying start. Karthik and Sid’s bowling was good, and they beat the bat regularly, edges were coming, but wickets weren’t – until a lbw decision went our way and an excellent diving catch by Mital at third man got us going. Murali came in to bowl as the pace was getting easier to hit for the batsmen and got a wicket immediately.
Mital and Dhanu put on the pressure later on but we couldn’t generate any wickets as the batsmen were looking to just block it out. Asif and Ajay then came on to bowl a wonderful spell together and almost got us through. With accurate bowling, they created the pressure and took three wickets amongst them. But the spark in our field and bowling came a bit too late and with very few runs to defend, we lost the game in 25 overs.

Verdict: It was almost a 20-20 game. All our batsmen were in a hurry to hit and got out. We couldn’t do much in bowling as the score on that ground, with short boundaries was just not enough. We have to look to play 40 overs, even if you just block out the bowling. That will atleast fetch us 150 and tire out the opposition.