Match Report: Eagles vs Vikings, 07/15/12 at Far Hills

Intone Eagles beat Vikings CC in yet another thrilling chase of the season.

We bowled first after losing the toss and got Vikings all out for 183 in 37 overs.

The chase was led by Nagarjun with a brilliant 86 not out, well supported by Sreenath and Sekhar to get to the target in 38 overs for the loss of only 4 wickets.

Bowling: Murali got us off to a great start with a wicket maiden in his first over. He was unlucky to not get a second wicket maiden due to a missed catch, but maintained the tight bowing. Dhanu was given the new ball from the other end and he too stuck to a very accurate line and length right from the start. Both of them were almost unplayable, creating multiple catching opportunities, which didn’t stick but didn’t give any runs, extras or off the bat. The Vikings were limited to only 18 off the first 10 overs, but only lost one wicket.

The second spell leaked some runs as the batsmen got comfortable and started to play some shots. Venkatesh, a new player debuting for us this game was fiery fast in his spell, may be the fastest we’ve ever seen. Slips had to go almost at the 30 yd circle and runs were moslty coming off the edges which kept flying past our fielders. He is an exciting prospect for us to watch out for in the next few games..good to be on our side rather than face him!

Mayank, Sid and Sekhar were tried from the other end, but we were unlucky to still get the 2^nd wicket, courtesy of a couple of dropped catches. The scoring rate went up and Vikings were about 70/1 with the second break in the 20^th over.

Hot and humid conditions didn’t help our fielding cause too and thanks to Vishal, substituting for Naga, and then for Sid and Dhanu, we were able to put 11 on the field at all times.

It’s a luxury that few teams can afford and can easily help the fielding team a lot in the heat. Kudos to Vishal!

Murali introduced spin with me after the break and this immediately got us a wicket with Sid taking a good catch. Srinath was able to maintain a tight line from the other end, while I picked up 2 more wickets from the next two overs.  

The hitters came in next and launched a couple of big sixes which made Murali to bring back the pacers into the attack.

The scoring started picking up with the death overs with some huge hits by their middle order batsmen. Dhanu bowled in-swinging Yorkers to get two wickets and Sid, sekhar, Venkat chipped in with a wicket each with some accurate bowling to finish the Vikings innings all out for 184.

Batting: I opened the innings with Dhanu and got off to a decent start with 3 boundaries, but missed a straight one that skidded on to get bowled. Dhanu followed soon after top edging a pull shot and it was left to lucky and Nagarjun to resurrect our chase. They did so patiently seeing off the good bowlers and taking ones and twos. Naga looked busy from the outset scoring a lot of two’s. His timing was perfect and looked in complete control all the time. Lucky was chugging along well and looked set for a big score when he got out to a simple catch off a checked shot.

In a surprise move, Murali sent in Srinath to hold up one end. With a almost match winning innings during the previous game, Sreenath looked confident and played a good support role to Nagarjun.

Sreenath’s batting was a revelation. His shot selection was perfect, just sticking to his strengths. He blocked and took singles off the good balls and square cut anything short and wide. Vikings tried everything against him, but couldn’t even manage a half chance. Gentle nudges and clever placement off spinners and medium pacers were a treat to watch. A couple of thwacking square cuts off his $20 MRF bat and a lofted off drive were highlights of his innings. We are told that a costlier bat is on the way (may be the kookaburra team bat?)..so watch out for longer hits in the following games...

Seeing the confidence and dropped shoulders of the opposition, Nagarjun stepped up the run rate with some big hits. Sreenath and Naga strung together a 90 run partnership that turned the match in our favor completely and we were looking to coast along to victory.

Nagarjun got past a classy fifty with his trade mark flicks and back foot punches and looked energetic for more. Against the run of play, Sreenath got run out for 34 trying to steal a single.

We needed 40 off 7 overs when Sekhar came in to replace Sreenath. Sensing the urgency, Naga tore into the bowlers making sure he got at least a boundary every over.

Batting powerplay was taken when a spinner was introduced and Sekhar showed the power of his big new CA bat.

Two boundaries and monstrous six brought the target to single figures. Naga hit the winning boundary to finish the game on an unbeaten 86 with 20 balls remaining.

It was a tough game to field in the heat and a decent bowling performance. The thrills were provided by us losing wickets cheaply and about 8 dropped catches to make the game a tight one.

In the end, Nagarjun and Sreenath’s big partnership saved the day for us. Murali has to be appreciated for taking the gamble in sending in Sreenath at 5. Had it failed or backfired by us losing, he would have had to listen to a lot of crap from all of us..

Lets improve our catching and look forward to go unbeaten into the playoffs..

Go Eagles!

ScoreCard:

Score Card

Match # 6085
Vikings Cricket Club v/s Intone Eagles Cricket Club
Far Hills
07/15/2012(40-over match)
Result	IntoneEagles Won Vikings Cricket Club:184/10 in 39.2 Intone Eagles Cricket Club:187/4 in 37.3
Comments	Both teams played with great sportsman spirit. Excellent Batting by Sreenath and good knock by Naga.
Toss	Vikings Cricket Club
Umpires	Akram Khan (2693)
Man of the Match	1.Hasan Fawad
	2.Sreenath Nandyala
Vikings Cricket Club Innings  (40 overs maximum)       R B 4 6 Tahaa Khan Caught   Murali Vijjapurapu 4 4 0 0 Usman Mushtaq Caught   Dilip Kovuri 18 68 0 0 Badar Malik Caught   Dilip Kovuri 32 57 0 0 Armughan Rafat LBW   Dilip Kovuri 4 5 0 0 Muneer Hussain Bowled   Shekhar Vajjhal 19 17 0 0 Hasan Fawad Caught   Siddharth Jayakumar 51 65 0 0 Sohail Iqbal Bowled   Dhanushka Haputhanthri 3 9 0 0 Irfan Pirzada Bowled   Dhanushka Haputhanthri 6 5 0 0 Mohammad Mahmood Malik Caught   Venkatesh Donavalli 11 11 0 0 Mohammad Kamran Run Out     1 2 0 0 Aamer Kamal Not Out     0 0 0 0
Extras	(b 4, lb 1, w 31, nb 3)
Totals	(10 wickets in 39.2 overs) 184
FOW	1-0 (, 0.0 ov),2-0 (, 0.0 ov),3-0 (, 0.0 ov),4-0 (, 0.0 ov),5-0 (, 0.0 ov),6-0 (, 0.0 ov),7-0 (, 0.0 ov),8-0 (, 0.0 ov),9-0 (, 0.0 ov)
Bowling O B M R W Murali Vijjapurapu 6 0 2 22 1 Dhanushka Haputhanthri 8 0 1 23 2 Shekhar Vajjhal 4 0 1 18 1 Venkatesh Donavalli 8 0 0 43 1 Mayank Jain 2 0 0 12 0 Siddharth Jayakumar 4 2 0 19 1 Dilip Kovuri 4 0 0 28 3 Sreenath Nandyala 3 0 0 19 0
Intone Eagles Cricket ClubInnings  (target : 185 runs from 40.0 overs)       R B 4 6 Dilip Kovuri Bowled   Aamer Kamal 14 0 0 0 Dhanushka Haputhanthri Caught   Sohail Iqbal 7 0 0 0 Ananthkrishnan Gopalakrishnan Caught   Irfan Pirzada 13 0 0 0 Nagarjun Aleti Not Out     86 0 0 0 Sreenath Nandyala Run Out     34 0 0 0 Shekhar Vajjhal Not Out     20 0 0 0 Siddharth Jayakumar Did not bat     0 0 0 0 Murali Vijjapurapu Did not bat     0 0 0 0 Bala Devarajan Did not bat     0 0 0 0 Venkatesh Donavalli Did not bat     0 0 0 0 Mayank Jain Did not bat     0 0 0 0
Extras	(b 3, lb 1, w 10, nb 0)
Totals	(4 wickets in 37.3 overs) 187
FOW	1-0 (, 0.0 ov),2-0 (, 0.0 ov),3-0 (, 0.0 ov),4-0 (, 0.0 ov),5-0 (, 0.0 ov),6-0 (, 0.0 ov),7-0 (, 0.0 ov),8-0 (, 0.0 ov),9-0 (, 0.0 ov)
Bowling O B M R W Aamer Kamal 8 0 0 32 1 Sohail Iqbal 8 0 0 36 1 Hasan Fawad 8 0 0 44 0 Irfan Pirzada 7 3 1 34 1 Armughan Rafat 3 0 0 23 0 Badar Malik 3 0 0 18 0