Match Report by Sid - JECC vs HBCC 06/22 @ Far Hills.

Report by 
Siddharth Jayakumar (Sid)

JECC beat HBCC by 5 wickets, winning 6 games in a row (excluding the called-off game against Cavaliers).

Scorecard:http://www.dreamcricket.com/clnj/scorecarddisplay.aspx?gameid=8573

Man of the Match: Our war-horse(not old though!) Vijay for a match-winning 50, converting a middle-order batting collapse to a convincing victory.

TOSS: We won the toss on a cloudy day and our stand-in captain Chinmay chose to bowl expecting some movement for our medium pacers and hoping the outfield would get faster as the day progressed.

Bowling: Venky and I opened the bowling for us. The ball was doing a bit but after seeing off the first few balls, their opener Ibrahim started with a well-timed straight six off Venky. Both their openers played positive cricket and they were off to a good start.
I went for 12 runs in my third over as both the batsmen had enough time to play good-length balls off the back foot. We realized that while the pitch offered good bounce, 
the ball was stopping for Venky and me as we tried to hit the deck hard. Chinmay brought in Murali and Dhanu after 6 overs. They bowled well in tandem but the batsmen were still going at 5 runs anover. 

Realizing the need for a wicket, Chinmay came in and immediately struck forcing Ibrahim to sky a catch towards long-off. We had the momentum as got the next couple of wickets within the first break with the score reading 70/3 in 14 overs.

Their no.5 batsmen and opener Anand applied themselves well and went about getting ones and twos without much diffculty aided by our generous offering of extras. Chinmay brought in Jay to slow their scoringas the pair put on a 50-run partnership. Jay bowled very well beating the batsmen with flight and turn consistently and soon got rid of their other opener Anand plumb in front with an off-spinner.

At the second break, they were 140/4 in 28 overs still going at 5 an over. Murali then joined the party and got rid off their set no.5 and the new batsmen with an accurate yorker right after a slow off-spinner.
Jay at other end was lucky to get an lbw off a ball that was short/low and almost pitched twice before reaching the batsman. After 3 wickets, they were below 150 for 7 with 9-10 overs remaining. 

Chinmay and Dhanu picked a wicket each a couple of overs later but allowed their lower order to score another 40+ runs thanks to a few dropped catches and wides. Notably, their last pair played >5 overs managing to remain unbeaten while we bowled 30+ wides in total.

Batting: Chasing 191, Dhanushka and Hari opened the innings for us cautiously. Dhanu looked in great touch and unleashed some classy pulls, cover drives to get us to 22 after just 3 overs. Hari at the other end was just getting set when he was bowled trying to whack a good length delivery. Ananth joined Dhanu and looked confident. We got going as Ananth played some of his trademark cover drives. His 2 consecutive straight boundaries off their opening bowler Sameer stood out. 

We were 73/1 in 14 overs at the first break with Dhanu at 44. After the break, HBCC got their spinners in. Dhanu was getting tired and offered a couple of chances before reaching a well-constructed 50.

But he was dismissed soon by their off-spinner Anand off a leading edge. Naga joined Ananth but their partnerhsip was brief as Ananth got out leg before trying to work the ball on the leg side. I joined Naga and we decided to steady the boat but that was not to be. Naga was out stumped coming down to a delivery from their leg spinner bowling around the wicket. 

Vijay joined me in the middle - we looked comfortable against spinners taking ones and twos. Just when it looked like we were cruising, I got out stumped off their leg spinner coming down the ground. Chinmay joined Vijay and we needed around 70 runs at this stage.

They applied themselves well and played sensibly picking ones and twos with ease. At the second break, we needed 58 off 12 overs with 5 wkts in hand. Chinmay and Vijay carried the momentum forward, playing along the ground cutting out any risk while Vijay started timing the ball better. They made sure our required rate was under 5 an over and the equation came down to 30 off 6 overs. They both started finding the gaps easily and Vijay unlaeashed a well-timed six off a short ball getting us to close to a victory with the required rate dropping to 3 an over. They finished the task with 2 overs to spare with Vijay getting to a match-winning 50 in the process.

It was a great win for us chasing a big score. It was great to see another batsmen finding form and scoring valuable runs. Lets keep winning and win them all ! Go Eagles !