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 2nd 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