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.

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