It was a fascinating week of cricket after a taking the much needed rest last week. Guys were rejuvenated to play few good games of cricket. Though due to last weeks miss, few had forgotten that the play was scheduled today while others turned away their promises. The minnows X1 were down by 0-1 after the first match, played some good cricket and beat the sharks 2-1 at the end to lift the SNCG Cup. Prasad, new MRF talent showed great promise with bowling and took away honors of the day for best debutant. while the old veteran Bond came back after year long suspension from cricket and played some good ground strokes to help the team in winning cause. Harish Jr was at his best throughout the match with bowling but batted exceptionally in the final encounter to seal the victory for minnows. For sharks, Deepak was at his fiery best with picking up wickets and mentoring the team, strategizing the plan along with field placing and other stuffs. Mohan & Praveen kannambadi were little inconsistent in their performances in batting and bowling respectively. Prashant in the first match was reasonable but later replacement Guru didn’t had much to contribute with bowl as he could bowl only single delivery in the entire series. The other mentors/Coach Nithya, Harish, star players Sudeep, Madhu, once in a month specialist Praveen, monthly visitor Srikant, Small ball specialist Venu, Vibrant Santosh were missing from the regular X1.
Sharks X1- Deepak(C), Prashant, Praveen kannambadi, Prashant (Replaced by Guru from 2nd match)
Minnows X1- Kiran UK(C), Harish Jr, Bond, Prasad
Match 1:
Minnows won the toss and elected to chase. Mohan and Prashant opened the innings for Sharks while I bowed the first over just for a change. Prasad bowled 2nd over and Mohan trying to hoik the ball couldn't clear long on and was caught in deep. Deepak and prashant were playing cautiously.. Harish bowled the 3rd over containing the runs. To increase the run rate Praveen was put into bat in 5th over but couldn't succeed in hitting big shot and lost his wicket. Deepak and prashant tried to bash but only managed to score only 17 runs in stipulated 6 overs.. Chasing the mere 18 runs of 6 over, Minnows started off well scoring runs at good rate. Bond and Harish opened the innings while Deepak started the bowling attack. they scored 3 runs in the first over. But the first strike was provided by removing the Bond caught at midwicket. I got the only four of the match to get the score to 8 of the 2 overs. But match turned upside down by a brilliant one handed dive to his left from Praveen kanambadi to get the price scalp of Harish. Deepak came back in the 3rd over to get my wicket. Prasad fought till end for minnows. The straight hit on the ground for 4 just went beside the demarcation line which could have made real difference in case if it had gone few inches o the left.. they required 9 of the last over. Prasad scored 4 of the first 2 balls to make the match interesting. They required 5 of 4 but a shot towards long on went straight into the hands to shatter the dreams of the minnows.
Match 2:
Sharks won the toss this time around and chose to bat first. Mohan and Praveen kanambadi opened the innings while I bowled the first over giving away a four in the final ball of the over. Good pull from Praveen enabled the sharks to open the account with a boundary.. But after that it was all minnows who bowled brilliantly to restrict sharks.. Prasad and Harish bowled 2 maiden overs restricting the sharks. score was 4 after 3 overs. they couldn't increase the run rate in the second half of the innings as well settling for a partly 10 runs. Chasing 11 to win from 6 overs, Prasad and bond started the inning while fiery Deepak started off the bowling. Deepak’s delivery went through the defenses of Prasad to shatter the stumps. Deepak had found the new found pace coming round the stumps. but Bond played well at the other end and I joined in and slowly we were on to the target. But while we required only 1 run bond got out to Deepak but Harish scored a single to get the winning runs in the 3rd over of the match. Minnows were delighted to level series 1-1 with some competitive cricket and boosted the confidence with a big win.
Match 3:
Once again Sharks won the toss and elected to bat first. and this time around determined pair of Deepak and Praveen opened the attack while I started off the blowing attack. This time around sharks went for rotating the strike and steadily made the progress. They were scoring slowly but steadily to progress well and had scored 21 in 5 overs getting few boundaries away in the mean time. But a final over from Harish was a treat to watch as he shattered the timber twice in the over and bowled a maiden over to keep the target to 22 for minnows.. Bond and Harish started the innings for minnows while Deepak with his grit and determination came to bowl. He took bond and would have nearly had Harish when an edge but was dropped by keeper. Deepak was furious and was all over the park as he couldn’t digest the same.. In the mean time Praveen couldn't get his line and length right and Harish took the complete advantage of this over scoring two fours and a six over square leg of 3 consecutive deliveries to draw the score. The score was 21 after 4 overs. Guru came to bowl with one run needed and a single delivery was enough to finish the match on the winning note to clinch the series 2-1.
Talking in the post match presentation , Deepak felt that the fielding was a let off. But those who missed the game today have missed action once for all as the regular video-grapher was missing today to shoot the action.. So Don't be unlucky again.. so Be ready and be present at SNCG next week on time every time..
Till then Just Chill maadi..
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