JECC lost to Prince CC by 35 runs
Batting first, Prince were allout for 178 in 39 overs. In reply, JECC got allout for 143 in 35 overs.
Brilliant fighting knock of 45 by Ganadeep was the only saving grace in our batting.
ScoreCard: http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=3727
Bowling: Prince won the toss and elected to bat on a hot and humid day. One of our new players – Sushanth didn’t bother to show up or inform us about his absence for the game and we fielded with 10 throughout the innings. A sick Ganadeep answered the teams call and came into play as 11th player.
Bowling in the heat was difficult as the batsman were able to negotiate the opening spell by Suneel and Sid. Suneel got the first breakthrough, lbw but the next couple of batsman stuck on. Mital and Dhanu, came in as first change and kept things tight.
The pressure mounted and an sparkling fieling and direct hit run out by Vishal dismissed their main batsman. Another run out ensued, with Suneel and Mital getting into the act. Our new player Ajay came onto replace Mital and was spot on with his line and length and movement off the seam. With Dhanu settling into a nice rhythm on the other end, things looked bleak for the Prince batsman as the overs kept rushing by without any runs. A couple of quick wickets came in the process. The highlight was a tough but cool catch in the slips by Ananth off Ajays bowling.
The prince batsmen meanwhile got settled and were looking ominous towards the later part of Dhanu’s spell in the slog overs and went for some big shots. The change in the bowling got them the needed momentum and they launched into Mital’s, mine and Rishis bowling, a 5 over spell going for more than 40 runs. A couple of dropped catches didn’t help our cause and the heat caused fielding lapses that got them the runs needed. Two of Prince’s batsmen, a lefty latched on to our bowling, hitting Mital for three consecutive sixes and a couple more off mine and Rishi’s bowling.
As with the earlier games, the last 10 overs yielded a majority of runs. Suneel came into wrap up the things and got two wickets in the process. Prince were allout for 178 in 39 overs.
Batting: Ajay, opening with me, hit the first ball of the innings for an uppercut four ala sehwag, signaling our intentions chasing 178. We had to resort to only pull shots as the Prince bowlers repeatedly bowled short and into the body. Runs kept flowing as we scored 25 in 5 overs when Ajay got out for 11 to a mistimed pullshot. Ananth’s stay was brief as he was out bowled to a skidder off their fast bowler Irfan. I was out bowled soon after to a slower ball for 12 and Mital followed soon after.
Sid with Suneel and later with Gana kept things in control, scoring off bad deliveries and saw off some tough overs. But Suneel and Sid got out soon and we were staring down the barrel.
Karteek came into support Gana for a while and to kept things in check, but the mounting run rate built up the pressure, resulting in Karteek and Vishal’s wickets.
Ganadeep, meanwhile was looking in good touch, ignoring his fever. He ran well and timed the ball all around the park. Dhanu and Gana went into counterattack mode for about 5overs when runs started to flow. Sixes, fours were coming regularly when Dhanu got out to a mistimed shot leaving Rishi to support Gana for the last wicket. And boy, did he support well!
He stood up bravely to the hostile bowling and close in fielding. The Prince bowlers showed no mercy to the little boy and kept bowling short. Gana farmed the strike well and hit a cuple of glorious sixes, getting us into striking distance of the target. Prince tried to hurry up things and get Rishi to take strike but both of them batted intelligently and kept things at bay.
With 35 needed off five overs, Gana was out bowled to a yorker and JECC were allout for 143 .
Verdict: With some support, Ganadeep could have pulled things off for us, but we gave away too many runs to begin with. We have to rethink our strategy as we’ve been seeing in every game that the lower order batsmen are making runs and we are losing plot in the slog overs. A bit of energy in the field and catching might have saved some runs, but 5-8 overs of bad bowling cost us the game in the end.
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