Intone Eagles lost to Tiranga by 5 wickets.
Batting first, Eagles scored 117/9 in 40 overs. Tiranga
managed to get to the score in 22 overs losing 5 wickets.
Man of the Match: Sid for top scoring in the match with a
classy 41 where the rest of the team barely managed double digits.
Sid also bowled his heart out in a spell of 8 continuous overs
for 2 wickets.
Batting: It was pretty much a replay of the previous game against
Princeton.
Dhanu and I got out cheaply in the 3rd over just
when we needed a good start. Ananth and Naga settled in to look good when
Ananth was out to a catch in the covers. Naga followed soon after caught off
the off spinner. A familiar collapse was looming in and all our plans to make a
big score were gone, with all the batsmen getting out to lofted shots.
Sid played the savior act again and he came in and looked busy
taking quick singles and running some hard twos. Lucky gave him support playing out the tough overs, but
got out stumped just when he looked settled. Venkatesh was bowled
soon after.
Chinmay supported Sid briefly with some strike rotation after the drinks break and Sid
started to open up with some glorious
shots. The wristy flicks, pulls were all there and he pushed our score close to
100. Chinmay too got out off a lofted shot towards the slog overs. Sid was running out of partners and
before the batting powerplay, tried a big shot to get out for a well made 41.
Murali and Bala stepped up the last few overs to get us some quick runs. Murali
got run out for next highest score: 12. Asif and Bala played out the last few
overs to get us to 117.
Bowling: Murali and Sid opened the bowling. We needed quick
wickets to have any chance of putting up a fight with such a small total. Sid
was accurate and fast from the get-go, bowling a good length and unplayable
deliveries. His second over produced an edge that went to third man where Dhanu
took a good running catch. The next few overs were supposed to add to the
pressure, but their other opener went on a rampage hitting a big six and three
successive fours off Murali.
Tiranga quickly got to 50 and our team went into a quiet mode.
Sid kept up the fight with some tight bowling and eventually
got the opener out bowled off a skidder to revive our chances. Asif also
stepped in to bowl some excellent overs. He was rewarded with a wicket off an
brilliant caught behind by Naga standing up to the stumps.
The runs kept leaking though and Tiranga were well on their
way, getting close to 100.
I was brought in
after the break and got a wicket in the first over off a flighted ball to reduce Tiranga to 4
down. Venkatesh came in from the other
end to bowl some fast, unplayable bowling, but the batsmen were able to survive
him. Chinmay got a wicket towards the
end with a good catch by Ananth in the slips.
Our batting let us down completely in the last few crucial games.
Apart from Sid, none of the established batsmen were able to play the ball
along the ground. We should have learnt from the game against Princeton, but we
repeated the same mistakes. Sid’s lonely fighting effort was in vain in both
games as no one gave him enough support. We should learn to apply ourselves and
not look for glorious shots.
May be a re-jig of the batting order would do the trick, but
it was too late in the season to try anything. As always, practice is essential
for batting on the field…Let us try to implement that next season.
Till then, stay fit.. cheers everyone!
