WCC Match Review – Season 3 Match 5 & 6

Apologies for no review on Match 4 – I was disappointed at the loss and ignored the write-up. So here’s a double treat

SRF Manali – 24-JUL-2011, vs SATHYA CC

 Kartik Srinivasan anchors nail-biting finish

We were like cornered tigers. Nothing except 3 consecutive wins could take us through to the next round. We were drooped by 3 consecutive losses and were desperate to win. One win could bring back the momentum to our side. We were utilizing the non-match weekends by spending time at the nets and keep the confidence along. Overnight rains were trying to spoil our practices but we never let the momentum wear off our minds. We were ready to face the challenge.

When the fixture was announced, we got a little skeptical on the venue. SRF was a venue where we’d never won in 3 matches. The big boundaries and heavy outfield always made life difficult for the batsmen. The next thought process was on the team selection and the combinations that we had to adopt. Sunil, Vinod and Venkat were unavailable for the match for different reasons. Kartik Srinivasan, after terrible strings of failures with the bat in the middle order, was very unsure of his batting during the middle overs. I seized this opportunity to promote Kartik to the opening slot where he could play a free hand given the fact that he was batting well in the nets. SP was a new inclusion to the side. I knew his cricketing skills since as early as 1997 when he anchored his team to victory – I happened to be a member of the opponent then. I knew he would be a perfect member to stabilize the middle order with his variety. Raghavendra joined the team after a long gap and I knew he would strengthen the bowling attack, not to forget his ground fielding skills. In order to fill the playing eleven, we invited Ranjith that further strengthened our bowling unit.
We lost the toss and unsurprisingly, were bowling first. We set ourselves a target of 100 for the opposition because the ground was too heavy to chase anything beyond 125. Kartik initiated the play as I took my usual position at slips. I had a quick glance at the field and started to focus on the ball. The short midwicket fielder was positioned straighter than we normally have for Kartik’s bowling – and the change was a plan that we had earlier made. Right in the first over, one of the opening batsman flicked to square-leg and Ashwin gave a good chase. When he threw the ball back to the wicket-keeper, we noticed that both the batsmen were stuck at the same end and Raghavendra collected the overthrow and ran to the non-striker’s end to break it. The suicidal run-out gave us the first break. The survivor of the run-out cut a full toss outside off stump next ball straight to SP at point. A horrible delivery that was, but we took the dismissal with pleasure. I am sure Kartik would have been embarrassed with that delivery but the batsman would have felt it more. Now that was like a dream start that we had. Sridhar operated from the other end as per the plan provided by Sriram. It is usual in cricket to open with your best bowler, but Sriram wanted himself to be reserved to provide a bowling balance through the middle overs. A suggestion was coming from an experienced bowler – and I had to pay due respect to it.

Few overs went by. Few runs were scored and a couple of wickets fell. Kartik picked an LBW and SP dived on to a rebound catch from my hand at gully. The next 2 batsmen started showing some solidity and that was when I had to introduce Sriram at one end and Ashwin at the other. The plan was to create pressure with Sriram and pick up wickets through Ashwin when the batsmen tried to release the pressure. Our plan worked when the batsmen after belting Ashwin for a six and a four felt greedy to pull a short ball from Ashwin which bounced a little more to take the upper edge – and I had to run some 15 yards to complete the catch. Ashwin produced a perfect leg spinner’s delivery the next over to take the outside edge of the other batsman where Rajesh completed the formalities behind the wicket. Sriram on the other end was ruthless with his pace, line and length. This was evident from the fact that I had to have 3 slips and a gully at one stage to grab the edges that he was generating. 15 runs in 6 overs with almost 75% of the runs leaked away through genuine edges was a mark of a classic bowling spell. It not only created the pressure on the opposition but scared them away to the defensive. The end of Sriram’s spell was merged with Ragha and Ranjith providing the death bowling and picking up the remaining wickets with a bit of ease leaving us 100 runs to chase off 27 overs. Karthi had held on to 2 catches – one each of Sriram and Ranjith. Kartik had held on to a sharp chance at gully off Ranjith and Ragha had castled one (not in that particular order) to end the innings.

Our batting strategy was to pace the innings through with not much of hurry, but also ensuring that we don’t go into a shell. Our motto was to play positive. Kartik opened, for the first time probably in his life, along with Rajesh. Runs started coming slowly and steadily with some good range of shots by both the batsmen. The unreliable bounce on the pitch was a challenge to run scoring, but both openers were good in their shot making. Rajesh fell LBW after a brisk start and Murali too fell attempting a optimistic heave across the line. SP joined Kartik, who by the time was well settled at the centre except for the pain in his thigh. By drinks we were just on par with the chase and were well settled with only 2 wickets down.

SP fell soon after drinks trying to play across. Soon after that I gloved one that bounced too much and Sriram followed me back to the pavilion mistiming a drive early to covers. All of a sudden, we had lost 3 wickets in 2 overs and the opponents looked to have seized the momentum. We had some hopes on Ranjith but the good thing was that Kartik was still at the crease aided with Rajesh as runner. There were some curious moments in the middle but somehow the runs were coming slowly. Ranjith was soon bowled trying for an over ambitious shot. Ashwin walked in and to me that was the last recognized pair. I kept my fingers crossed as I wanted this partnership to gear up. All of us sitting outside were anxious for something positive to happen. I felt eased when I saw Ashwin playing his shot positively and immediately started occupying the scorer. The partnership started blossoming and very soon the target shifted from 35 in 7 overs to 15 off 3 overs. We were pretty confident at this moment that we could pull off the victory. Kartik reached his 50 in the penultimate over and immediately got himself out offering a simple catch to backward point. I sprang up from my relaxation pose – the match was still not over. Sridhar walked in ahead of Ragha and the pair brought the target down to 5 off the last over. It then came down to 3 off last 2 balls when Sridhar and Ashwin ran a hard two to mid-wicket forcing the fielder to fumble. The last ball was edged to slip and that was it………………….. I ran like mad to grab them, Ashwin in particular for letting him know how good an innings he had played and how well he crafted it with responsibility. Soon then, all focus shifted to Kartik without whom this match couldn’t have been won. His first stint as an opener was a tremendous success and all of us relished it. He played with focus on shot selection and keeping it straight knowing the uneven bounce of the wicket – and that was a demonstration of a matured temperament. Obviously, he was the deserved MOM for the match. I would like to specify Sriram and Ashwin as the other key contributors in this match. Kudos to Ashwin Jr, for supporting us from outside the field. Being the youngest in the group, he showed as much enthusiasm and zest as the others and was an integral part of the victory. If TORNADOS was a match of a lifetime defending, this would be the match of a lifetime chasing.

Well done guys – hope we do our best in forthcoming matches and keep the momentum going.

Scorecard -> www.cmdn.com/scores/SATHYA-CC-vs-WEEKEND-CC-8732

 

Hindu C – 7-AUG-2011, vs BULLET CC

 Batting unit and opponent’s delay assures WCC win despite fighting knock by Dilli

 
It was a weekend where no match was initially planned for. All plans for practice were made on Sunday morning at Sindhi and everyone was waiting for it. The organizer threw a match at us and after consulting all team mates I grabbed it. The venue had one of the ugliest outfields we know of, but we knew that the wicket was decent. Due to the last minute plans, Ragha went unavailable along with Sridhar. Venkat had another cricket appointment, but Vinod and Sunil were back. We pulled Pradeep Srikanth and Vignesh to the squad, but Vishak filled the eleven.

We reached the venue at 8 am sharp only to find the umpires discussing in solitude. There were no signs of the opponents, but we started warming up and preparing ourselves for the game. Half and hour passed and still there were no signs of the opponents. We confirmed with the umpires about their availability and more importantly, the reduction of overs for them. We didn’t want to be penalized for them coming late and we confirmed that specifically. After sometime, they started showing up and by that time it was already an hour late. The umpires derived that we could play 27 overs and they could play only 20 overs. Half of the match was already won there. I lost the toss again, but we were put into bat. We knew that if we could post a decent score, we had almost won.

Vinod and Kartik (the 4th opening combination in as many matches) walked out and Vinod took strike. Vignesh obliged the request of being the scorer as the official scorer was absent. The start was very cautious as we learnt later that the movement was very prominent. We got the odd boundaries and runs came at a decent rate. The openers ensured that they did not lose wickets and slowly paced to a 50 run partnership. The highlights of the partnership were a flick of the hips from Kartik and a couple of drives from Vinod that fetched us boundaries. At the stroke of drinks, Kartik mistimed a pull to give an easy return catch to the bowler. Rajesh joined Vinod to find him offer a dolly to mid-wicket immediately after drinks. I’m not sure if that triggered it, but Rajesh went berserk all around the park hitting boundaries in a flurry. Murali too met some deliveries at the middle and one went sailing above square-leg boundary. Rajesh got beaten by a slower delivery and by that time the acceleration had been set up and the momentum was back. With 7 overs remaining, SP and Murali started rotating singles well for the next 2-3 overs. When Murali fell, I walked in with one objective – to hit the ball as hard as I could. SP and I batted the death overs very sensibly by picking a run almost every ball and hitting the odd boundary. It was a treat to watch SP’s cover drive that raced to the boundary like a bullet. SP fell in attempt to accelerate in the penultimate over. When Sriram and I walked back at the end of the innings, we had 165 on board. By that time, the 2nd innings was more of a formality.

I had decided to keep wickets this match and having put up a good score on the board, it felt all the more reasonable for me to try it out. Kartik produced a beauty first over that knocked off the off stump when the batsman was trying for a good leave. The captain of the opposition (Dilli) walked in – he was tall and well built and looked like a real threat. Sunil operated from the other end and although was swinging the ball well, was hitting wrong lengths and was getting hit. We had the first chance of the captain when I missed a difficult stumping chance (difficult to my standards) of Kartik’s inswinging medium pacers. When Sriram bowled first change at Sunil’s end, we had another chance – the culprit being me again for having dropped a straight forward caught-behind chance that hurt my finger. I would blame the excitement of the nick for dropping such a dolly. He grabbed the chances that we gave him and started hitting bowlers around. When I tried to bring in slower bowlers (Ashwin and Karthi) hoping for a mis-hit, he smoked them out of the ground consistently with so much power and timing. Having finished off Kartik’s quota of bowling with his first spell, I rotated among other 4 bowlers not bothering much about runs as I knew the target was unreachable in 20 overs. Even as we tried to come back with some wickets at the other end, this guy was continuously treating us like school boys – it looked like the boundary was just 30 yards away. Towards the end of the innings, he fell and then there were a few more which fell after that. In the end we won by some 30 runs.

He was the hero of the match and why not. He had scored a mighty 89 of some 62 balls with some 8 sixes and 3 fours. The other highlight of the 2nd innings was the fact that Vinod took his first catch for WCC at last.  We wouldn’t forget that moment for lifetime. The positives to come out of this match were the batting contributions – everyone scored their bit. This was the first time, if I remember right, that the batting unit had clicked with everyone having a go. Millions of thanks to Vignesh, Pradeep Srikanth and Ashwin Jr to have accompanied the team and provided reliable support. With Ashwin Jr, commitment to the team, I definitely see him make a debut soon for the team.

These back to back victories have given us great momentum to go into the last match looking for a win and enter the semis. I hope we will be full strength for the next match and demonstrate great commitment to complete the league stages with a win.

Aditya Ravindran, Captain – WCC

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Really – the cup that counts

It’s almost a month since India lifted “The Cup” and the euphoria of the historic triumph has subsided a little (thanks to the IPL). The victory sparked wild celebrations across the country, even across continents it should be said as Indians world over rejoiced.

But it really begs the question, what is it about cricket that makes us go berserk? Why is it that an Indian victory in cricket seem to bring much more joy than does an Olympic gold medal (an arguable statement made and some may object to this)? As one of my clients joked to me, we have won the World Cup, what more do we need. It’s as if we have achieved the pinnacle of glory.

But have we? For a nation still considered to be developing, poverty rampant in most parts of the country, where people still starve to death, where scams are a daily headline, does a victory in a sport warrant such attention?

I would say yes and it’s exactly because of the above reasons does this victory mean so much to us. On April 2, on that memorable day in Mohali when we beat our arch rivals, on the day Yuvraj knelt down on the ground and let a war cry, we too felt our blood surging through our veins. No matter how many times we have heard our National Anthem, every time the anthem was played before the matches began, we stood in our seats and did the same. Just the sight of Sachin with his head held high on a victory lap around the Wankhede brought tears to our eyes. The entire country went to bed on that day (albeit a bit late after partying all night long) with a smile on their faces.  We forgot 2G scams, we forgot what our bosses might if he sees our incomplete project proposals, for those few hours we postponed our miseries. Cricket is the only sport that can unite a billion of us. I can’t imagine a roadside hawker grinning with joy because Saina Nehwal has just won the All England Badminton championship (no disrespect meant to her).  It’s cricket which fascinates us, maybe because we revel in celebrating joy, sharing our sorrows as a group. That’s how we have been brought up. A Diwali celebrated with 20 friends as a group is what makes us happy. Marriages are not a simple family affair but a long drawn 3 day celebration in themselves.

In exactly the same way, it’s when we watch cricket that we get together as one. Whether it’s a roadside TV shop or our neighborhood tea shop with radio commentary, or our office cafeteria with the match being broadcast, we watch as a group. And it is this which differentiates cricket from other sports in our country. For those 8 hours they play, we forgot everything else.  A Sachin straight drive or a Sehwag Upar Cut, an Indian victory gives us reason to rejoice as for us it’s our triumph, we as a country have won and not a team of 11 cricketers.

Thank You Team India for all those magic moments which we will remember and relive again and again again for generations to come. For us, this really is the Cup that counts.

Pradeep Srikant – WCC

WCC Match Review – Season 3 Match 3 – 06-MAR-2011

Fielding unit gifts the match to SMACKERS

With a win and a loss in the bag, we set out for the third venture aiming to improve on the past mistakes and to convert this into an eventful victory. The destination was Hindu college ‘A’ ground where we’ve had good memories last season. We had bundled the opposition around 53 then, but realised this was a different day and different opposition altogether. SMACKERS were already present in the ground although we arrived half an hour ahead of schedule. This time it was an afternoon match and the summer was just beginning to sneak out. Even this time around, we had to live with the absence of Venkat and to add more oil to the fire, Prashanth called himself unavailable that left us with more than batting problem. We then decided to give Rajesh his debut match and announced that he would be keeping wickets. But the bigger problem was in selecting an opening partner for Vinod. With lot of discussions and thinking we chose to give that opportunity to Sunil. The bigger news was that Sriram was back into the side to give us a big leap on the bowling department and to strengthen the middle order batting.

Given the fact that the teams were in early, the umpires decided to kick off early. The coin was tossed and I won. I had no hesitation to bat and within a minute I saw Sunil and Vinod padded up – ready to get in. I felt positive about my own batting too and was aiming for a score for over 150. I knew the responsibility was on the middle order this time and we had to deliver. Sunil and Vinod started off carefully and cautiously until when Sunil called Vinod for a suicidal run-out (should we call this murder????) – shockingly to which Vinod obliged. Rajesh was the next batsman in and I immediately saw some positive but sensible approach from him. Sunil continued trying hard to find gaps and later got out (I think he was trapped in front). Kartik went in and I really had high hopes in him given the kind of bowling attack the opposition had. Shockingly, he scooped one to mid-on to get out for a duck. I thought I was dreaming for a second after which I realised I had to walk in with more responsibility. I had to stay.

I took an over to get settled down while Rajesh was showing good attitude and strokeplay from the other end. The field was up and I was happy to nudge few singles into the gaps for the initial 3-4 overs. When I realised that I had to force a field spread-out, I swung one over mid-on and although did not time it well it still managed to reach the fence and more importantly had the mid-on fielded back on the ropes. I demostrated the same from the other end too and had both the ‘V’ fielders back. That gave me some space to start my own game with the field spread out. Rajesh was well settled and was advising sensibly. We started building a partnership very carefully setting small targets. The next target was to go into drinks break without losing any further wickets. During the last over before drinks, I played 3 dots and as soon as I saw one outside the offstump, I tried to steer it down to thirdman only to find a faint edge to the wicket-keeper to was standing up. I was unhappy with myself at that point as I thought it was a good platform to score big.

Sriram walked in next and I gave my instructions clear to him by asking him to bat through if we needed a good score to defend. He and Rajesh started off well post drinks and the run rate began to creep up. Rajesh started improvising on his strokeplay and in pursuit of ramping up he run-rate lost his wicket after a very well played innings. Sriram then batted around with Ashwin, Karthi, Niranjan to take the score past 125. Vijay and Sridhar ended the innings with the score at 133 leaving them 134 for a win.

133 was very defendable, given the bowling strength we possessed. Sriram was the obvious choice for opening the bowling but we had a bowling plan in place and wanted to experiment the new idea. We wanted to try an offspinner to partner Sriram and Karthi was given that responsibility. The plan was to get initial wickets through Karthi. Initial overs were good for us and although we did not pick up any wickets we didn’t leak too many runs. The openers were looking cautious and when they tried to hit Karthi hard, the ball flew to mid-off where Vinod spilt a sitter. Now, this was becoming a trend in itself and I was speechless. I didn’t know whether to encourage or to vent out my frustration – I decided to keep silent. They started utilising the advantage of the dropped catch and never looked like losing a wicket even after I introduced couple of more bowling changes through Vijay and Sridhar. We gave them few gifts through misfields and that was too unacceptable. We almost had one another chance when Niranjan dropped a sitter at deep square leg through some brilliant bowling by Sridhar who planned this trap in advance and executed almost perfectly. In search for a breakthrough I turned on to the dependable Ashwin who immediately obliged by getting the batsman stumped. With this breakthrough in hand, he beat the other opener and had him stumped too. I thought this was the best chance to create a hole in their batting and hence threw the ball to Sriram. The first ball sent the off-stump reeling and we felt we were back in the game. I day-dreamed a caught behine before the 5th ball of the same over and coincidentally, the same happend. Sriram floated a slower ball outside off-stump and the batsmen felt for it edging it low to Rajesh behind the wickets. 2 wickets in the over brought back the energy in the team. The last ball also took the edge on its way to the keeper, but to our ill-luck, the umpire thought otherwise. Sriram started an argument with the umpires and I had to persuade him to get on with the game.

The fight back started from there on from both teams. We employed 2 catchers at all point of the game and started pressurising the batters. From that instant, the fielding unit was aggressive, not letting anything through. Karthi was at his best on the field His one hand stop at cover and subsequent throw missed the stumps by a margin. We almost had another chance when Vinod chose not to charge in at long on. Everyone could hear Karthi screaming out at Vinod at that moment. We picked another wicket when Kartik at short extra cover clinged on to a drive. Vijay had his share of wicket when the batsman mistimed a pull to square leg and I ran from mid-wicket to complete an easy catch. Another catch went down when Kartik dropped a similar one that he caught earlier. We tried various other methods to pick the rest of the wickets, but the batsmen were too sensible to gift it to us. By that time, the target had been reached and we had to hang our heads in shame for one of the poorest fielding display for a long time.

Although the fielding was disappointing, there were lot of positives we could take from the game – Rajesh’s innings being the best. Sriram contributed hard with bat and ball. Many thanks to Vishak for substituting for Sunil who had to go off after developing cramps in the field. Heartfelt thanks to Srivatsa for his support to the team from start to end.

We know we can display a better show in the field with bat and ball – also on the ground fielding and catching. I call for more focus and concentration for the 60 overs we spend on the ground. We vow to come back strong for the final 4 matches. And I hope each individual in the team will agree and take adequate responsibility. Let us take a leaf out of the matches that we have won so far and display the same energy going forward.

Aditya Ravindran. Captain, WCC.

WCC Match Review – Season 3 Match 2 – 19-FEB-2011

Senseless batting leaves WCC short of victory

Feb 19 2011: This was the day when all eyes of the cricketing world were focussed upon the Indian cricket team wondering if they would take a sweet revenge on their eastern neighbours having lost to them 4 years ago in the Carribean. There was 6 hours to go for the ICC world cup 2011 to start-off while we were at Sindhi college preparing for Match 2 of the season against EDS. This time our team was more depleted than the first, but a good enough team to win a match. With Venkat, Murali and Ashwin unavailable for the match due to various reasons, we had a debutant playing for WCC – Niranjan. Vinod and Sridhar were the other replacements. And this time it was home ground – much different from the conditions of our previous match. It was a good outfield, a better wicket and short boundary on one side – all good for the batsmen.

Toss happened at 8:05 AM and I had no hesitation opting to chase after winning the toss. The absence of Venkat was a major factor for that decision because I always felt comfotable planning a chase than setting up a score. Kartik opened the bowling as usual – the first over was decent. Niranjan operated nervously from the other end. After a couple of overs, the openers started smashing the ball around and soon we realised that their plan and skill was only to hit the ball hard. They ignored all possible opportunities for single and went hard-hitting for everything. After the end of 6 overs that contained some bad bowling and some lucky edges, I immediately spread the field (a unanimous decision involving other team members as well) and introduced Vijay as the first bowling change. They continued the same batting and I replaced Niranjan with Sridhar who immediately bowled a batsman. The forthcoming batters were no different – and it looked like they were fresh out of tennis-ball cricket. They were scoring runs and I had to stop that somehow. The spread-out field really helped us by getting wickets at regular intervals even though runs were made. Karthi bowled the last over before drinks and by the end of that over, the scoreboard read something like 88/5 in 15 overs. Sunil made the breakthough with his first ball after drinks with a good return diving catch. We had the momentum going in, but the batsmen at the crease were more cautious not to throw away their wickets and started to build the innings rotating singles. One or two hits went for boundaries, but that was understandable. After another ten overs, their innings was over with 142 on the board. 143 was our target and at that point it looked easily acheivable.

Vinod and Prashanth made it to the crease with my words in their ears. The start was very good and confident from both of them and we raced to 22/0 in 4 overs. This was the start we expected and it was given. We needed them to continue, but Prashanth went for a heave to see his stumps on the ground. Shyam was totally out of place as he never found his rhythm of stroke-making ultimately edging behind. Kartik joined Vinod and they both carried along pretty decently when Vinod walked on a delivery outside offstump to get himself stumped. The moment I entered, I had the confidence of finishing off this match with Kartik and played out the first 5 balls. The first ball of the next over was something that I never wished to happen. A bouncer directed to the body and Kartik gloved it to the keeper. I was watching helplessly from the other end but that moment injected a high sense of responsibility on my shoulders to take the team though. Sunil and I played out couple of overs accumulating few runs and at drinks break we required 90 to win off 90 balls with 6 wickets in hand – still an easy proposition.

I unusually remained silent during drinks break to avoid diturbing my concentration. I felt the need and desire to win this match – it was my stage and I wanted to win it for us. I walked back with Sunil telling him to focus from the beginning and it was easy to achieve this if we stayed on. CRASHHHHHHHH – he played the first ball to his stumps and i was left stunned. I felt this match was slipping away until Jagan demonstrated his strokeplay. He was successfull in pushing the fielders back in order to fetch easy singles. Everything was going well when he suddenly repeated Vinod’s act to get himself stumped. I still kept on holding to my confidence and I could see that I was the one who could turn this match on in our direction. Niranjan provided vital support and during this partnership I had the pleasure of toying with the opponent captain’s bowling as we garnered 14 off his 3rd over with me hitting a 6 over mid-wicket and immediately followed by a boundary through extra-cover. Niranjan supported me very well but walked across his stumps to a delivery that hit him plumb in front. Karthi started off sensibly with little bit of luck when his defensive stroke guided the ball to the fine leg fence – thanks to the inside edge. We reached a point when we needed 39 off 6 overs and I was the only potential striker. A rush of blood prompted me to strike a ball hard due to the tiredness and the lack of concentration – and what i heard behind me was the sound of timber. I never bothered to turn around and that was virtually the end of it. Vijay lasted for a couple of balls and Sridhar for a couple of overs leaving sensible Karthi stranded at the other end. We lost by 30 runs – the primary culprit of the result being our senseless batting.

Lets improve our batting by increasing our patience to stay at the wicket and we will automatically run into a winning habit.

The match moments still haunt me – it will continue to stay there until the next time I take the field.

Aditya Ravindran, Captain – WCC.

WCC Match Review – Season 3 Match 1 – 06-FEB-2011

WCC impresses with depleted bowling attack and produces a comfortable chase

It was a nervous night and all reason to be. The first match of a new season and I was back as captain. Back to club cricket after a long gap. And that too having a depleted bowling side in hand, I knew it was going to be difficult. We didn’t get enough bandwidth for fielding practice and that was a worry in the camp. Fitness was another concern at the start of the season – apart from a few who were regularly in touch with the game. It all started when each fast bowler had a reason for his unavailability and we had finally a decent plan in place until another quickie turned down his availability at 11 PM on the eve of the match. All these factors transformed into nervousness on the eve of the match. I had earlier decided to skip down as captain, but my mind did not agree to it. I decided that I was to lead this wonderful team again. I went to bed at midnight and slept at 1:30 AM – all the time thinking of all the strategies with a depleted bowling unit.

We were, as usual, early birds to the ground (Hindu B) and started getting ready for the game. We had 3 debutants for WCC – Prashanth, Jagan and Shyam. We had only eleven members accompanied by Rajesh who we picked up at the last moment as a helper – thanks to Venkat’s network. The ground was a familiar stage as we’ve had earlier experiences during the previous season. This time, I knew it would be tough to make a call if we won the toss. After a long thought process and with the opinions of few team-mates, we planned to chase. Meanwhile, I was praying to lose the toss. Toss happened at 8 AM, and the opponent (PCC) captain rightly called and gave me a relief by deciding to bat first.

Kartik started the proceedings with his gentle swing bowling and with the lack of wind, it was gentler. The batsmen started cautiously and I threw the ball to Ashwin to open on the other end. He was spot on with his length and variations right from the start and very soon had a batsman mistiming a swing to Sunil at mid-on. 1 down. After realizing that the ball is not swinging, Kartik cut himself and I gave Sunil a go. He produced the 2^nd wicket soon when the off-stump was knocked back onto the ground. Meanwhile the batsman at the other end (#3) was starting to play a good game. The next wicket fell when the batsman tried to flick Sunil through the leg-side, missed it completely as the ball hit the pad and rolled onto wicketkeeper Prashanth. Prashanth smartly broke the stumps as the batsman fell over to leave the crease. That was a smart thinking move. I cut Ashwin after his 5^th and introduced Vijay who was as sharp as an eagle. His line and length was spot-on as he gave nothing is his first over. The batsman trying to keep the scoreboard ticking, steered one to the left of Venkat at point and tried to steal a run. Venkat was at his best at the moment as he swooped on the ball and his throw made Prashanth’s job easy. It was almost a replay of an earlier run-out during the second season on the same ground, same end. Close to drinks time, #3 was playing well till he pulled Venkat to midwicket and failed to keep it to the ground. I dived to my left and pouched it comfortably to send him back with his team at 48/5 in 15 overs. We had had a good start.

The 2^nd half of the first innings produced some runs although Vijay continued to impress. Few bad balls were punished severely and I started to feel the lack of bowling. I tried to manage and rotate the bowlers as much as possible when Vijay trapped one in front. Karthik & Shyam bowled few overs along with Venkat to push the over rate. The last few overs produced good catches – 1 from Jagan and 2 from Vijay. Ashwin cleaned up the last man stumped to let us 113 to win.

I was confident about the batting strength, but chose not to be over-confident. We had half-won the match, but we had to finish it off. We had a good batting combination and I was sure it would work out if we applied ourselves properly. Venkat and Prashanth started flamboyantly, but soon Venkat’s pull was caught at square leg and Prashanth lofted one straight to mid-off. Kartik and Shyam consumed the new ball to disallow any more wickets for the opposition. Although they consumed few maidens, that was the period of play which I thought won us the match because it said strongly to the opposition – “We are not letting you take any more wickets”. Shyam unfortunately fell to a usual umpiring blunder and in walked Murali with his favourite job on hand. I wanted these 2 to pair up a partnership like they usually do with tennis-ball cricket and this was a perfect stage for them. Kartik was fighting to find gaps, but was sensible enough not to get impatient. He displayed his temperament to ensure we were on the right track. Murali, on the other hand, was finding singles at ease and felt very comfortable playing his role of a chase-master. At drinks, we were 47/3, but knew the task was going to be easy if we kept those wickets in hand. 66 to get from 90 was easy with both these batsmen settled comfortably.

The opposition bowlers were not deadly, they were easy to negotiate. The outfield was unfriendly as it cut down runs almost at will. Kartik and Murali renewed the chase comfortably and the first 2 overs got us 10 runs. Kartik tried to accelerate slowly but ran himself out needing 36 to win. He played a very very good innings overall. He anchored an end to ensure we got this far. I walked in having one target in mind – to finish things off before returning back. Murali kept going as usual and scored the greater percentage of our partnership. Couple of his boundaries was a treat to watch. With a run needed to win, he fell LBW. He was completely dehydrated at that point. It all boiled down to – one run from 2 overs. I sent the ball over the mid-wicket fielder on the third ball of the penultimate over. Sunil and I crossed over and that was it. It was smiles all around – we had won comfortably. Although it was only 9 balls to spare, it was a comfortable and controlled win. Murali rightly deserved the MOM, but there were others who supported the cause to a great extent.

A BIG thanks to Rajesh, whose religious support as a 12^th man proved most crucial for the team from start to end.

Aditya Ravindran. Captain, WCC.

WCC Great Moments

The below are some of the great moments WCC had so far during the 2 seasons of CSCA league – all from my individual perspective. This list is not exhaustive and not in any specific order. Add any more through your comments.

Moments in the field

Murali’s catch at Manali against Rockers. Season 1

I had never seen a better close in catch live. On the semi-final of the season when the batting failed to post a good score, the opposition’s best batsman charged to Kartik’s inswing and mistimed it to mid-wicket when Murali plucked out a blinder from nowhere. This catch, with no exaggeration, was of an international standard. Trust me – those of you who saw it will vouch for it.

Sriraj’s catch at DB Jain A  against Tornadoz. Season 1

This one was equivalent to the previous one stated, just that it was the best outfield catch I have ever seen. Fielding with a low score to defend and the opposition in a strong position, only such a catch would turn the match and it really did. Murali’s out-swinger was cover driven in the air and when everyone thought it made it all the way, only one man had the will to jump miles up in the air and turn it into a breathtaking catch on the edge of the boundary. That catch changed the course of the match in favour of WCC.

Venkat’s Run out at Hindu A against ??. Season 2

I don’t remember the opponent’s name, but it was the first match of the season. The batsman glided Sriram’s delivery towards backward point and set off for a single which everyone thought there was one, except Venkat. He swooped on the ball like an eagle and the pick-up throw was an awesome treat which hit the middle stump to leave everyone open-mouthed. What an athletic fieldsman!!!!!

Vijay’s catch at DB Jain A against Tornadoz. Season 1

The match was evenly balanced at that stage and it could have gone either way. The opposition captain pulled Ashwin towards deep square leg when the non-striker shouted six-six. Vijay ran and ran and ran hard towards his right and plucked the ball and made a difficult catch look easy. We continued the sledge when Murali shouted back – its not six, its seven (denoting the # of wickets to fall)

Prasanna’s Hatrick at Hindu A against Blazers. Season 2

One of the best moments for any bowler at any level. No one matched Prasanna’s pace and bounce on that day when he produced a gem of a spell of 4 wickets in 5 balls including a hat-trick. It turned the match for us.

Sriram’s fifer at Sindhi against Vision2K – Season 2

A nail-biting finish to the game where Sriram was disciplined in the bowling after Venkat single-handedly set up a decent score for us to defend. He spearheaded the bowling attack and did it very well and took a great fifer. A great bowler for WCC – a person who always gives his best as a bowler for the team in each and every match.

Kartik’s 4 for at Manali against Rockers. Season 1

A very good spell for a losing cause. With a below par score on the board on a semi-final day, it needed someone to bowl a good spell and that came from Kartik who made his swing work beyond limits and kept the batsmen in check. The LBW still remains bright in my heart but unfortunately he could bowl only 6 overs.

Sriram’s 5/5 at Hindu A against ??. Season 2

This doesn’t mean a fifer. The first match of the season where Sriram went wicketless, but he was the one who really held the bowling attack by giving nothing away. He went only for 5 runs in his 5 overs. He was spot on with his bowling and was literally unscorable. While Venkat stealed the MOM with his batting capabilities, Sriram really deserved a massive applause for his performance.

Moments with the Bat

Venkat’s hundred at DB Jain B against Runs and Wickets. Season 1

Never really dreamed of such an innings from Venkat – an unbeaten century in a T20. He was sending fielders to all around the ground and scoring as though he was playing against toddlers. One of the best moments for the team and WCC is proud of the contribution from this guy.

Murali’s fifty at Sindhi against RUCA. Season 1

Playing against an internationally rated player is a boon. And scoring a fifty against his team while chasing a huge total is a wonderful feeling. There was a moment that we thought we would have made the chase more interesting – all to the free strokeplay of this man when everyone else were struggling to score. I really will relish the century partnership with him in that match which eventually gave us the pleasure of facing the highest wicket taker of CT 2010.

Boopal’s fifty at Hindu A against Engineers XI. Season 2

This was one of the well framed innings I have seen although it went for a losing cause. He was fighting like a lone soldier and didn’t find support from anyone else. Although the target was high, some support to Boopal would have made the chase more interesting. This was an innings, I am sure, when everyone’s confidence on Boopal’s batting increased.

Venkat’s quick-fire fifty at Sindhi against Thunder CC. Season 2

After Thundering out the opponents for 112, Venkat carried out his batting form to race to a quick-fire fifty to leave the opponents helpless. Although I will not forgive him for throwing his wicket, that start ensured that Kartik and I had ample time to get some batting practice to guide the team safely home.

WCC victory at DB Jain A against TORNADOZ

The most memorable and greatest moment of WCC – a victory that will be cherished for generations to come. This was a match when the fielding unit won the match after Murali’s tenacious batting gave us atleast 125 to defend. There were interesting sledging moments with Sunil leading them all. Vijay was at his furious pace and Andy had a sharp-tongue that day. When the last batsman nicked Vijay’s delivery and when Andy pouched a regulation caught-behind, no one knew what we were doing when all of us charged to hug every other team mate for the best ever contribution for the match.

Please feel free to point out more moments and any mistakes from the above.

Aditya (Ex-captain, WCC )

WCC Match Review – 20-Jun-2010 – Season 2 -Semi Finals

WCC bowled over by VSR

“We will do it for Adhi”. This was, is and will be the motivating line for myself and Kartik Srinivasan whenever we enter the field, but the truth is we have never done it for Adhi. Yes, it’s the beginning of the same old sad story and the title is “ WE LOST THE SEMIS YET AGAIN” . Since BOFA signed in our captain through INFOSYS, we had to replace someone instead of him and without any hesitation the radar pointed towards me. This was quite new to me as I had never captained even my school team till date. The only experience I had was to captain our second string team against Sindhi college for a practice match and definitely that wasn’t enough to captain a club team in a big Semi final. Putting all that behind I started to think about the various situations and the decisions I should take during those times. Thanks to CSCA proprietor Richard for postponing our match, I got lots and lots of time to think. One fine Sunday morning I went to the nets with all this captaincy thoughts in my mind. As usual I wore all my protective gears and started to bat. To my horror I couldn’t middle even a single ball, my foot was going nowhere. I got cleaned up more than a couple of times, the sound of timber rattled my ears and the confidence level touched a new low. That moment I decided I am not the right person to captain this team since I was becoming a liability. I messaged to Adhi anna and told him that I want to stay away from the game and the club for sometime. Some encouraging words from him and Kartik made me to reconsider the decision and that was done half heartedly. Finally after so much fight within myself I accepted the captaincy.

The day before the match started as usual with everyone reaching the practice venue earlier than me, though I had a genuine reason for it this time around. Since my Pakistani friends wanted to me work on weekends, I went to the practice late and started batting straight away as Kartik had done prior arrangements for that. To everyone’s surprise I was timing the ball quite well. The session ended on a high with one square cut over point and I was out speaking with everyone on how their practice went. Before calling everyone for announcing the team, I gathered all my thoughts and was silent for sometime as Kartik was giving innumerous ideas for the batting order. Finally I called everyone and announced the team. It was no surprise as Karthi and Vishak were announced as the substitutes, with Prassana anna bowing out in the last minute, so we had to pull Vinod (Nandubut) into the scheme of things. The tentative batting order was also told to the team so that they can get prepared mentally. Few basic things were said to the team by me and Kartik, after which the practice went on with me leaving the field.

As I was enjoying the India versus Pakistan match on the television, I got a call from Venkat saying that our opener and keeper Prashant will not make it for the match tomorrow as his grandmother expired. On contrasting reasons it was a disappointing moment for him as well as our team. Now again the radar started to rotate for pointing out the wicket keeper and again it stared towards me. I was not ready to accept this as I didn’t want to let my team down on various fronts. We had heated discussions on this and after so many arguments and ideas we ended up calling Sriraj to fill in that position which he accepted readily bringing peace between me and Kartik. This in turn triggered another question… “ Who will open the batting now” . The radar never really rotated to point at me this time as Kartik held it with his hands and was keeping it in front of my nose. Even though I wasn’t that comfortable with the decision, I accepted it. Too many dramas and too many events leading up to the D day.

The day has arrived. I got up only at 10:15 in the morning with more than two wake up messages in my mobile asking me to be in WCC HQ by 11 am. Before that I remembered, I am the captain and I should send a motivational message. After so much thinking, I sent a decent one. Then I got ready and all of us were in the ground very early, to our surprise the opponents also came on time to ensure a full match. We started warming up and that’s when the umpires decided its time for the toss. I changed to whites and went for the toss only to see the coin fall for the opponents call. With no hesitation they opted to bat first. After our customary huddle and the ever so stupid Shaa boo three we took the field.

Since the field set up was already briefed to the team, everyone took their places and we were set for the ball one.

Sriram started it with his usual packed off side field, but the batsmen was looking aggressive as he came down the track and smacked the ball over extra cover through which he sent a strong message, but that didn’t last long as he came down the track once too many to see his off stump go for a roll. We were pumped up by hearing the sound of timber. Sridhar too started with equal pace and precision, but was quite unlucky to miss out the edges on many occasions.  But he built up pressure which forced the batsmen to go for a non existent single and getting out tamely. We were off to a great start… We were slowly controlling the game. The boundaries weren’t coming that easily and the batsmen were made to work for their runs. I introduced Sunil who obliged by removing the next one by rattling the stumps. Vijay too gave us an important breakthrough as they were getting the momentum through that batsmen. We went into the drinks break on a high with them scoring only 72/4 in 16 overs.. Yes.. we were above the over rate, thanks to my bowlers who were very disciplined. This post break phase of the game has been pathetic for us throughout the tournament and we were very adamant in continuing that again. The intensity dropped, the shoulders drooped and the bowlers lost confidence. Runs started to flow easily as they got a boundary almost every over. But the partnership was broken by Venkat as he got the ball to bounce a bit more and the batsmen edged it safely into Sriraj’s hands. Even after this wicket they went on scoring steadily and losing some wickets in the slog. Sadly Vijay got injured and that hampered the death bowling preparations and I was forced to use Venkat’s full quota, but he was good in his second spell, pulling of a brilliant run out of a set batsmen and another wicket to pull things back to our side. At the end we managed to restrict them to 159/8 in 30 overs and also completed the innings ten minutes earlier than the scheduled time with each bowler giving away only one wide apiece. I was very happy with the bowling performance, my only concern was that the fielding could have been even better.

Kartik came to me and told that the umpires appreciated our bowling and said that the opponents are a wonderful batting side and to restrict them to around 160 in a small ground like Sindhi was terrific. That statement was a good encouragement for us, but I thought we gave some extra 30 runs, a feeling every captain will have after bowling first. I was mentally a bit tired, so I asked if Dilip could open as he had the experience of doing it before, he readily agreed and after a brief pep up talk Venkat and Dilip walked into the field.

Now the batting part, a part in which we have not shined in the entire season. We have had brilliant performances from Venkat and Bhoopal, but except them no one was consistent. So it was definitely going to be difficult to chase that target against their bowling attack. We started well with boundaries coming from the bats of Venkat and Dilip, but suddenly due to miscommunication we lost Venkat. That was a huge blow as he is the most prolific batsmen of our team and to lose him so early put a dent in our plans. Soon I walked out to the centre and stood, and sooner I came back and sat with my team mates to discuss how many of my stumps fell down. A duck in the first match as a captain, think it’s a curse to many. Sunil and Dilip started to build a partnership but an over ambitious shot from Dilip saw his stumps go for an evening walk, that’s NO.2 for the day. Kartik Srinivasan walked out to the field as confident as ever, took guard only to see his off stump produce a music which only R.Karthik can explain, and then there were three for the day. In went Sriram, played few defensive strokes and came back, this time also it was the off stump. The count increased to four. Now it was Ashwin’s turn to bat, a pat in the back for him for not allowing the bowler to disturb his stumps, it was LBW this time as we saw Ashwin limp off the field and throw his shoe into the pavilion, thankfully no one was hurt. Sunil tried to show some resistance and played some pleasing strokes but he also didn’t last long as he edged it to the keeper and “WALKED”. Yes, I am not lying here. It was Sunil who walked even before the umpire raised his finger and this gesture raised many eyebrows among us. Sriraj was the lone fighter with the bat as he toiled hard and put up some runs to take the team total above fifty. Others also went in and came out very fast. Finally we ended up scoring 76. A pathetic batting performance to say the least. The Semi final was over and we were beaten all ends up. Their fast bowler who liked our stumps was awarded the MOM. We started packing our kits and reached home very quickly. None of us were really tired. Another semi final gone with the wind…..

Special appreciation for Vinod who was the most improved and the most disciplined fielder of the day. A special thanks to Sriram and Sridhar who bowled their hearts out. Venkat’s field presence and smart bowling is a boon to the team. Ashwin was very stingy with the ball giving away only 3.75 rpo. Sunil provided the balance to the team. Thanks to Sriraj for his brilliance with the bat and he was very athletic behind the stumps as well.

A million thanks to Karthi, Vishak and kutty Ashwin for giving us drinks and glucose. You guys rocked.!!

And finally, Thanks a lot for everyone in the squad for making this season a successful one.

Fact and Statistics – There were 5 ducks in the innings (Maximum by WCC against all opponents) . This can be a quiz question in the future, so please make a note of it.

PS: Please ignore the grammatical errors and the choice of words as this is an informal match review.

S.Murali Mohan – Captain,WCC.

WCC Match Review – 04-Apr-2010 – Season 2 Match 7

Quickies rattle opponents – provide a record win for WCC

This was the day when everything went right for us – especially for the bowling and fielding unit. The scorching sun’s heat was no pain for us as we enjoyed and entertained ourselves upon the opponents’ massive batting fiasco. We were on time to the venue, but the match started 25 minutes late, but it didn’t matter then because we knew that the light would be available till 6 PM as summer had already begun. I was dead tired the previous day after the practice session under the hot sun, and was apprehensive about the match day – especially with nobody being a fitness expert. That prompted me to pack 3 packs of glucose and 5 packs of electrol, which I fortunately remembered to carry it for the match.

The playing eleven was no surprise – but the most surprising element for the team members was the fact that I chose to open the innings this time. The coin was tossed around 1:20 PM. I didn’t want to be a victim of the leather hunt, so wanted to win the toss badly but that didn’t happen. I called a “heads” but the head chose to hide itself from the sun, just like we did. The opponents, calling themselves “CRICKET HORIZON”, for obvious reasons chose to bat without any hesitation. I wasn’t upset at that point, but would have liked to bat first. The strategy was to bundle them within 100 runs so that we could chase it down easily especially after having fielded for 2 hours. We started off with Sriram and Sridhar at opposite ends with usual fielding positions. With the gloves covering my hands, I was too comfortable this time around with my legs, hands and body responding accurately to what my mind & intelligence wanted them to do. Sriram was extracting lovely away swing and Sridhar equaled it with steeping bounce. Most of the balls hit my gloves than the batsman’s willow. We had an early chance that went begging when Venkat dropped a regulation at 2^nd slip, but we knew it wouldn’t turn out to be costly.

The first wicket was a boon when the batsmen went for a non-existent 2^nd run towards deep gully when Ashwin threw the ball back to my end and I had no problems in breaking the stumps with the batsman well short. Sriram induced an edge for the next wicket that I gathered with no problems. In came a left hander and I thought we needed to get rid of him immediately failing which would result in fielding changes for every run they score. Sriram produced a beauty of a delivery – one that Glenn McGrath produces to dismiss Brian Lara frequently – the ball pitched on a good length on middle and leg and beat the batsman’s outside edge to kiss the off-stump. Lucky for us that the umpire saw the stump being rattled – something that was difficult to spot with bails dispensed. All this was a beginning before the tornado hit them.

After an opening spell of 4 overs each for Sriram and Sridhar, I called upon Prasanna as the first change. He started carefully, but I spotted him gradually increasing his pace and I knew something big was coming. Also understanding that they were facing great difficulty playing fast bowlers, I introduced Vijay as the 2^nd change – something that is usually not done. Vijay responded brilliantly as well but it was Prasanna who sucked their blood out. He killed them with his pace and brought about 2 caught behind decisions –one lucky and the other a comedy. Vijay on the other hand had an overconfident batsmen’s off stump reeling and Sriram held on to a simple chance at mid-off. Meanwhile Ashwin snapped a brilliant sharp chance at backward point earlier although he juggled it a little bit to pouch it on the 2^nd attempt. The last 2 wickets were cleaned up comprehensively with the stumps being rattled twice and we had 59 to chase. I’m sure no one would remember where the runs came from – it was a fantastic effort by our bowlers to restrict the opponents to a meager total. It was really a child’s play.

I walked out with Venkat 15 mins later and started off as usual. Venkat scored 13 off 8 balls and fell in the 2^nd over exposing his leg stump. Murali and I stayed for some while, laughing within ourselves at the attempted sledges from the opposition bowlers. A low-kept delivery knocked my stumps back and soon after Murali fell trying to drive uppish towards point. Ashwin and Sriram ensured there were no more mishaps and we were done in 10 overs. Although we lost 3 wickets, we were absolutely pleased with the performance. Our great bowling unit provided us with another exceptional win. Prasanna collected his well deserved MOM – his 2nd in 4 matches – hats off to him. We are now sure of playing the semi-finals and we look forward to better our previous season position.

Aditya Ravindran – Captain, WCC.

WCC Match Review – 13-Mar-2010 – Season 2 Match 6

Fielding unit dumps a loss to WCC

Nobody knows if this is really a pattern that WCC creates Match on Match (with 1 loss following every 2 wins this season), but all of us were sure that we had not practised for a month – and that really showed. Agreed that the ENGINEERs XI were a good side, but the way in which we responded on the field was pathetic. Leave alone the missing usual vigilance was on the field – even the fundamentals had vanished. Leave alone the many catches dropped but the basic energy on the field was missing. WCC seems to succumb too easily to good opposition starts – be it batting or bowling.

We had to have a reduced play – as both teams were late – only the degree of the delay varied. We had to accept a reduction of 3 overs as compared to opposition’s 5 overs. Punctuality would have saved the day; I hope we all learn from this. I won the toss and chose to field. Right from the start of the innings, we displayed our poor fielding. Boopal was erring too much in line and length and gave away easy leg side runs. I operated with Sriram, Boopal and Prasanna for the first 7 overs without any breakthrough – and runs flowing easily – bowlers were not on the money. I shifted my concentration to spin with Ashwin and Karthi. Ashwin looked good initially but went for too much in one over. Karthi continued to bowl well but still somehow runs leaked – more than 7 an over on an average. Several bowling changes at either end didn’t yield results as the fielding worsened. Towards the end, Sriram & Vijay controlled the slog and at the end of 25 overs, we had given away 211 runs – double the target we had set on our minds at the start of the match – of which atleast 50 runs would be dedicated to fielding errors – either direct or indirect – and everyone will have to take the blame for it.

We needed a great start and a continued push from all batsmen – but their opening bowlers were spot on. Babloo fell in the 2^nd over. RamC was sent ahead to keep the scorecard ticking – but Venkat on the other end played on to his stumps – to end half our hopes at that moment. We promoted Boopal to service the required rate. He looked comfortable from the start, but we did not get as much runs in the opening overs. The opposition never looked to operate a first-change. RamC tried to accelerate, but saw his stump knocked back too. Unlucky Murali got another horrible decision of his life – the dreaded finger rising up after the opponents extended their appeal. Mike Denness wouldn’t have found that interesting – even we didn’t. Sriram and Boopal played out the overs, but never seemed like pushing for runs – that was the stage where we portrayed to the opponent that the match was 100% theirs. I felt that a 10 over 90 was still achievable in the end if we could get ourselves to that position – the only confidence was that the opposition had exhausted the pair of their opening bowlers and had lesser quality bowlers operating the attack at that point. Soon after, Sriram fell and subsequently Prasanna’s hit unfortunately went in the hands of the long off fielder. I went into the pitch at an unusual #8 position and had only one thought in mind – just to keep hitting – as there was no other go. At that point we required more than 13 runs an over and that was the only solution. I started off with a single and in the next over, smashed a fast bowler to 2 boundaries – one over extra cover and another straight back before top edging another to covers. Ashwin then walked in – at that time there was nothing much to do other than playing out the 27 overs. Boopal accelerated towards the end to boost up his individual score to around 75 – the only good impact of our batting that morning.

It was a day when fielding unit let us down and everyone was a culprit. Little diligence there would have made a tough fight for the opposition. We have to ensure that we practice well before the next match and gain confidence in all departments of the game. Good luck guys….

 Aditya Ravindran – Captain, WCC

WCC Match Review – 28-Feb-2010 – Season 2 Match 5

Venkat’s continuous firing and Sriram’s fifer seal a nail-biting win for WCC

With yet another week’s break since the previous match, and having no practice at all, we went ahead with confidence into Match 5 of the season. We needed 1 more win to qualify for the semi-finals (at least that’s what I assume) and were desperate not to leave it to the last 2 matches. While our professionalism with punctuality continued; the unavailability of players also continued. This time we were short of 11 players, but one of my friends came to the rescue of filling the slot. Thanks to RamC. Boopal, Vinod and Sriraj made themselves unavailable due to diverse reasons. With all confusions and anxiety around the unavailability of players settled, we reached the venue an hour ahead of schedule in order to give the bowlers little time to get into the groove my rolling their hands in the practice pitches. It also made me understand RamC’s bowling capabilities, his strengths and weaknesses, and where he would fit into the bowling line-up.

Murali brought with himself more problems – for him and for the team as he ruled himself out of the match with a fever – that too after the team list had been prepared. I had the cushion to replace him with RamC’s companion (he who came to witness the match – even in his wildest dreams he might not have imagined his name to appear in the playing XI, I bet), who had some cricketing experience with him although it had been sleeping for more than 4 years. Murali Mohan S was struck out and Srivathsan was named in the eleven. Even a lover wouldn’t have waited any longer, but we were patient enough to wait for the opponents (VISION 2K) as they casually arrived 15 mins later than the scheduled start of play. My Physics teacher Prof. Sundaresan would have commented to the opponents “You are too late for this match and too early for the next.” Abiding by the new principles of CSCA, we were granted 30 full overs for batting and the opponents were penalized with 3 overs. It was advantage that we reaped for being consistently punctual and we took it happily. We also appreciate CSCA and the onfield umpires for implementing the rules.

For the 3^rd consecutive time in the season, I was spot-on with the toss and had as much hesitations in batting first as one would have when Aishwarya Rai proposed for a date. The sun was red hot and the heat was radiating more than we felt in earlier matches. Venkat got off to a flier right from first ball and looked to continue his supreme form sending the ball outside the park almost every over. Babloo missed out on a sweep to give a simple catch to the keeper and I walked in with lots of confidence and expectations. I began striking the ball well right from the start and after watching Venkat rocketing a couple of sixes out of the park, decided to match his standards and hit one almost for the maximum towards the longest part of the boundary. The next ball was also in the slot but I missed the swing and heard the timber behind me crash. The feeling was as bad as Don Bradman would have when he got stranded on 299*, the fact here was that I was in a very good striking form and couldn’t convert it to a big score – but no regrets – I brought myself into a balanced frame of batting mind and that feels positive. Ashwin played too sensitively during his tenure, especially after being hit by an uneven bounce, at the crease and offered a flick to the hands of square leg before drinks. At the stroke of drinks we were 85/3 with 15 more overs to go. Venkat was nearly dead when I requested him to carry his bat through – as that was required. He continued his onslaught after the drinks but fell plumb in front for a brilliant 73. RamC was joined by Sriram and both tried to rotate strike to a good extent but RamC fell short to a direct hit by the opposition captain from point. Prasanna walked in with our hopes relying on him to convert the start into a good score and he played too well with the bat striking big when necessary and rotating otherwise. Sriram stepped out to be stumped, but Prasanna continued his rhythm with Karthik contributing a little towards the end. We managed 157/9 in 30 overs with a couple of run-outs while attempting over-ambitious runs.

I considered them to be a good batting side as well (not that they were a brilliant bowling side, but the bowled well in parts) and was very cautious and calculative right from the word “Play” in the second innings. I wanted to have my fielders on the right spot and didn’t want to leak away runs unnecessarily. I also had to ensure that the bowlers get enough break between spells as the scorching sun was playing its part still. Sriram started off well and picked one right upfront by means of an inside edge. Sridhar at the other end also picked up the other opener and we felt we were in the right track. As it looked like the incoming batsmen were feeling comfortable against fast bowling, although Sriram picked another during his course of his first spell, I introduced Ashwin into the attack and he was right on target and got rid of one to hold a simple caught & bowled. Ironically, this was his first catch for WCC. It will take some time till his catches overtake his drops. Prasanna on the other end was too unlucky to accept too many inside edges from the batsman – he wasn’t able to digest the fact that none of them met the stumps. Some runs leaked in this manner in his overs and just before drinks I introduced RamC who started off well and picked up the dangerous batsman before the stroke of drinks – a sharp catch by Venkat at mid-wicket. At the stroke of drinks they needed around 83 runs off 14 overs with 5 wickets in hand. It was a tricky chase at this point, but I had an intuition that our bowlers would come back strong. RamC kicked off right after drinks to take another valuable wicket – this time Babloo taking a lollypop at square leg. Even Geoffrey Boycott’s mom would have taken that catch in her sleep. As a captain I did not make the mistake in spreading the field too much at this juncture which could have given them too many easy runs. I chose to pack and block the off-side to stop any runs in front of the wicket there and at this precise moment, when I thought that they batsmen were getting settled, I brought back Sriram to give us one crucial breakthrough. As beautiful as his out-swingers with the new ball, his in-swingers, rather reverse ones, with the old ball was equally deadly. He delivered a beauty that knocked off the top of the middle stump and the breakthrough was delivered. We were never made to relax as the opponents seemed to be sending in good batsmen even low down the order – it was as though a traditional Indian woman would have been relieved of a delivery pressure only to find her 2 months down the line that she’s got pregnant again. It reached a stage where we narrowed down to around 34 off 6 overs with 3 wickets in hand. I knew we had to bowl them out and I brought in Ashwin to deliver the 24^th over where he managed to trap another dangerous customer in front. Sriram cleaned up the next two wickets in the very next over with Babloo and Karthi taking good catches and I sighed in relief. We won by 9 runs.

Although it wasn’t as interesting as the TORNADOZ match, it was definitely nail-biting. Our fielding lacked discipline, but the bowlers headed by Sriram managed to get things done themselves. Ashwin and RamC were too good in supporting the bowling department with 2 wickets apiece and Sridhar managed to get one early in the innings. It was a hard time for Prasanna and Vijay with no luck to their favours, but I’m sure everyone will agree that they are far good bowlers than the statistics of this match would suggest. But the STAR of the day along with Sriram was obviously Venkat, who’s brilliant knock set us a good platform, not to forget Prasanna’s late contribution that extended our score to a competitive one.

Aditya Ravindran – Captain, WCC.

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