CS-10 XI levels 2-match series against Hyderabad XI

After the loss of the last match, all subcribers of CS-10 XI team yearned for one last game with pleasant memories before 2009 was done with. The ever reliable Krishna 'match-maker' Datta duly scheduled one with the Hyderabad XI aka 'Marybyrnong Magarmacchs', courtesy Soundar. Your correspondent was given the honour of captaining this very talented side.

Pre-match rules proposed by Hyderabad XI - no LBW, no leg byes, 20 overs with field restrictions. Cricket without LBW? What next - Hyderabadi biryani without spices? All of CS 10- XI led by a certain keeper-batsman-spinner voiced opposition to this 'rule'. Krishna helped your correspondent to negotiate with Tanveer, the genial opposition captain, to not push MCC to abandon the LBW rule and play cricket as it is intended to be, replete with the LBW rule.

That done and the toss lost, we were pleasantly invited to bat first.


Batting First

Soundar and Krishna were sent to make the most of the fielding restrictions. Captain Tanveer's genorosity then further extended to bowling juicy full tosses and hit-me half-volleys. Soundar fresh from having watched Sehwag videos for about 56.9 times over the weekend, graciously despatched the ball to all parts of the ground. At the other end, Safi bowled a testing spell by swinging the ball both ways. Krishna treated us to fascinating array of shots which would have taken us to 0-400 in 4 overs - if only the ball had connected with his bat.

Instead, we were at 1-40 after 5 overs when Soundar played all over a full toss from Tanveer and saw his stumps disturbed. Krishna too fell soon after by getting run out. Sharad and Kunal then threaded a valuable partnership. Sharad was eventually undone by a big hit which might have sailed over the boundary had it not been hit against the wind. That brought Jag to the crease. Jag quitely went about hitting four boundaries to contribute a well-made 21 before being tempted by their spinner Atik into a stroke that lost his leg stump. Kunal continued relentlessly accumulating singles, 2's and a few boundaries to top score with 33. He was joined briefly by Sirish and then by Sagar to build another valuable partnership. Sagar struck a memorable 6 over deep square leg, the only 6 of our innings. Pavan, your correspondent, Amar and Ravi made useful cameos to get us to a total of 160. This was not a great total for the ground, but not too bad either.



We fortified ourselves in the innings break with chai from the flasks of Sharad and topped it up further with more chai from the chai hall of fame worthy brew that Ravi never fails to supply at these events.

The Chase

The chase began with Sagar bowling with the wind and Amar taking on the tough task of bowling into the wind. The prodigious Safi was going after both bowlers with great gusto. Amar was relieved after his 3 overs by Ravi who continued with the onerous task of bowling into the wind.

Ravi bowled with a clear and well-thought out plan to get the rampaging Safi out. He started with a wide on the legside, then one on the offside and then let Safi hit a 6. He then cunningly let loose another two wides before luring Safi into hitting another 4 and a 6. By then Safi had grown with confidence. Then came the ball bowled just wide of the off stump to which Safi gave a big swipe. His hit gathered a lot of elevation, but stayed between Pavan at mid-wicket and your correspondent at mid-on. Using the captain's discretion, your correspondent took the swirling catch to complete the mission Ravi had set for himself. Safi then left for a well-made 42.



By this time 8 overs had elapsed and the score was as 2-80 with Amar taking the off stump of the other opener, Rohan. At the going rate, it looked like the Hyderbadis were set to wrap up the match in 16 overs and go home early. Then came Kunal, the man who could do no wrong today. He bowled with the wind for an unbroken spell of 6 overs. The 6 overs only went for 10 runs, a feat even McGrath would have been proud of. Meanwhile, a change in tactics at the other end was brought in by bowling spin into the wind non-stop from overs 10 to 24. The task of slow bowling was taken on by your correspondent and Soundar. The task of keeping then fell upon Sharad who was more than equal to the task by taking a catch behind the wicket.

Meanwhile, run scoring was reduced to a trickle by some brave fielding by the entire team. In particular, Pavan and Jag stopped some powerful hits from inside the circle which but for their superb interventions would have reached the boundary in no time. Sirish also took a sensational catch at point while Sagar's two catches at the slips for the spinners were not dissimilar to that of Kapil Dev's catch of Viv Richards at the 83 World cup final. Mention must also be made of a superb effort by Krishna at point to a great diving effort and throw to the keeper that resulted in a runout.



All of this pressure from our top fielders meant that the Hyderabadis moved from a strong position of 2-80 in 8 overs to a demoralising 8-114 in the 16th over. Still Captain Tanvir and the left-handed Asit looked dangerous while pursuing the task of getting 47 runs from 48 balls. the hustled and bustled, huffed and puffed and moved to a tense 9-138 in the 21st over, needing 23 off 24 balls. Having used up Kunal's quota, Sagar was brought back to use up his last over in the 23rd. Sagar bowled a tight over to the tailenders conceding only 3 runs in that crucial over. That meant the Hyderabadis needed 16 runs off 12 balls. Soundar bowled the penultimate over and kept it down to a measly 6 runs in spite a boundary being hit by Tanveer. That left the last over to your correspondent. However, all it took was one delivery that went past Sharad on the legside tempting Tanveer to get back on strike by stealing a quick bye. However, he forgot to account for the sharp and sprightly Sagar who collected the ball cleanly and fired it straight into the middle stump and run him out by a huge margin.

In the end, the Marybyrnong Magarmacchs were reduced to Mortiened Macchars, to paraphrase Peter Roebuck.



Rampant celebrations followed.



In keeping with the generally good spirit in which the game was played (despite questionable calls and mild disputes), hands were duly shaken and a commemorative photograph was taken.



Special thanks goes to David who gallantly cheered us from the boundary while cursing his dad for wasting his entire day.




Bouquets and brickbats



Positives



- Top notch fielding, with 5 catches, 3 runouts, and the conversion of many of the opposition's 2's into 1's
- Kunal's top score of 33 and 6 overs for 10 runs
- Soundar's 21 runs, 3 wickets, and keeping for 15 overs - is there anything the man cannot do??
- Jag's quickfire 20
- Sagar's 15, two catches, a runout and 1 wicket



Negatives


- Wides - while there is no count of this from the scorecards, we bowled quite a few wides to start with
- Not much else really!

CS 10- XI vs Hyderabad XI Scorecard

Error of 4 runs in the CS-10 total and an error of 23 runs in the Hyderabad XI total

CS-10 XI vs Camberwell XI - Match 3 - Scorecard

CS-10 XI goes down to a spirited Camberwell XI

In December 1933, Lala Amarnath scored India's first Test century in a match against England at the Gymkhana Ground, Bombay. In spite of his valiant effort, England won that match by nine wickets. Cricinfo refers to a report by Mihir Bose of this match:

"Amarnath was engulfed with spectators, garlanded and congratulated while the band played 'God Save the King'... As the day's play ended, women tore off their jewellery to present it to him, Maharajahs made gifts of money, and India hailed a hero." England's eventual easy win was almost forgotten in the hysteria.

85 years and 4 months later history repeated itself when Andre van der Merwe scored the first century for CS-10 at Willison park, Hartwell against Camberwell XI in a chanceless innings. Even as CS-10 eventually lost the match by a margin wider than Steve Harmison’s opening delivery in the 2005 Ashes, Andre’s brilliant, powerful and chanceless century was truly memorable for all those privileged to be present at the ground. If we could, we would shower Andre with gifts of camels, peacocks and elephants for his outstanding effort.

Given the past rivalries with Camberwell XI, our team assembled the finest talent it had at its disposal for this match. To heighten interest among supporters, a special commemorative collage of the elite players was released for the occasion.


Batting first
After winning the toss and assessing the cloudy and dewy conditions, Sharad chose to bat first. Sharad sent in Harminder and Ahmed to open the umpiring and Soundar and Andre to open the batting. The openers had to contend with the unfamiliar white ball from a largely accurate duo of Kush and Devang. The tight spell from their opening bowlers was impressive and they ensured that they were not exposed by fielding restrictions of the first seven overs. As the scoring rate was just 4.3 after seven overs, Sharad rushed into the field with water, towels, gloves, bats, chai and advice to the batsmen to up the scoring rate. Soundar and Andre ran the sharp singles with excellent calling and rapport. In this time, Andre also showed glimpses of what was to come by hitting his first boundary with a sweetly timed cut over point.

In the 11th over, Andre decided to open up his full array of strokes and despatched Nihar for a 4, then a 6 pulled to cow corner and finally a 6 that was hit so far and high that it crossed the Alamein line train tracks. The ball was then handed to Raunak. Andre was not dazzled by Raunak's name or bowling and greeted him first up with a powerfully pulled 6. He then followed it up with two more boundaries ensuring that Raunak's bowling duties for the day were called to an end. This motivated Soundar hit a peachy boundary and later a pull which almost went for six. After 13 overs and a break for drinks, we were at a healthy 0-98.

Soundar and Andre powered on the team to 0-103 until Soundar was bowled by a fine yorker from Devang. The fine boom of runs was inexplicably followed by a fall of wickets faster than the price of houses in the US. Devang castled Krishna and Raj in one over. The procession of wickets then continued with Sharad getting stumped, your correspondent getting run out on a 'yes-no-no' mix-up with Andre and Kunal being caught by an agile long on. If after this loss of wickets anyone had bothered to ask Andre if we could still put up a competitive score, Andre would have undoubtedly replied with a 'Yes, we can'. He continued unfazed by the fall of wickets and put up a stimulus package to the CS-10 scorecard with a flurry of fours and sixes. With the technology upgrades we now have access to, a large part of Andre's innings was captured in some fantastic close-up shots. Andre's batting higlights package will be commercially sold soon and the proceeds from his autographed copies will fund our club to have buy the hawk-eye, snicko and hot-spot technologies in good time.

After rotating the strike cannily to Andre, Ahmed lost his wicket when he tried to hit one that turned into him. Harminder did some adroit running between the wickets and ensured that Andre could reach his well-deserved landmark. In the 24th over, Andre brought up a fine century with a drive through covers that raced to the boundary. He was eventually run out on 103 and had by then taken our score to a respectable level. Amar and Harminder played out the remaining balls of the 25th over with some well-run singles and a brace to ensure we played out our quota of overs and set up a competitive target of 175.

The chase
As the fielding captain, Krishna was keen to rattle the opposition by not letting them settle into a rhythm by varying the bowlers. He opened with Ahmed and Sagar to the batting pair of Kush and Harshit. The Camberwell XI batsmen were all keen to chance their arm and numerous edges, lofts and French cuts that tantalisingly missed the fielders and stumps. Fortune favours the brave but Kush only managed to look foolish when Kunal removed his off stump in the 3rd over. Raj bowled to Harshit who by this time had hit 27 runs of which 24 had come in boundaries. Raj though splatterd his stumps and roared a roar of fearsome celebration.

This brought to the crease a fresh set of batsmen of which one was named Gopi and the other was named, wait for it, Puppi..!?! I assure you, dear reader, that this is indeed the name recorded in the scorebook. This new pair at the crease resembled more Thomson & Thompson rather than Dravid and Laxman. They survived edges, a tough chance to the reliable Andre, and a catch to short square leg where one existed only the delivery before. However fortune did favour the brave this time. Gopi and Puppi settled into a groove and at drinks break, they were at a steady 2-127. Krishna had rotated the six bowlers including himself. He then brought on Sharad who began well conceding only 4 in his first over. Soundar then began the post-drinks session with a tidy over as well. However, by this time the batsmen flung their bats around and the target was well within their grasp. They hit some lusty blows of the 16th and 17th over to complete their win.

Bouquets and brickbats

Positives:
- Did I mention Andre's batting?
- Sharad and Kunal's tea
- Our ground fielding

Negatives: Easy as I thought it would be, I am actually hard pressed to come up with the negatives. I think we all played to the best of our current abilities. In my personal opinion, We can do better only if we add to our skills. So I tried to find out the actual reasons for our loss today by looking at the events on field and in the rest of the world today which may have played a part. I came up with this:

Select pics of CS-10 vs Camberwell match

Raj warming up the boys


Andre launching into one of his five massive sixes!


The Centurion

Paaji performing the rain dance in a final effort to save the match


Capacity crowd for the match

See our Picasa album for more photos

CS-10 XI vs Camberwell XI - Match-2 - Scorecard

Painfully compiled and verified scorecard by Ahmed!

A noble effort but crowned with misfortune…for now

By Ahmed Alam Ansari

Camberwell XI: 220 (Sankit 83, Rajan 6-29) Beat CS10-XI: 169/6 (Raj 76*)

On the 22nd of March, it was a beautiful day for cricket. No rain forecast but with slight overcast conditions which proved helpful for early swing bowling. Most of the CS10-XI was present with the particular exclusion of yours truly. Our beloved Captain won the toss and immediately decided to repeat fate by bowling first and letting his pace attack have a crack at the opposition under the clear sky!

Camberwell XI
First 13 overs
Kush and Sankit opened the Camberwell XI innings. Raj and Amerdeep opened the bowling for CS10 XI. Amardeep looked a tad off color and not at his normal rhythm. After seeing his bowling in the practice session held on the 20th where he rattled the stumps repeatedly, he seemed to be trying too hard today, a lot of good balls were interspersed with a few giveaways which the Camberwell XI cashed in on. Raj bowled with good pace but was tucked into by Kush who enjoys anything coming into him and also taking advantage of the small ground boundaries, as well as the restrictions of the opening 8 overs. The scorecard was ticking over rapidly despite the best efforts of the CS10 opening bowlers.
Thus Sharad had to put on his thinking cap and come out with a change of plans. And he did. The first change was made in the 5th over, with the author having arrived into the ground was told to take over from Raj, and I was instantly welcomed to the crease with a slashed six over third man and then cover driven for 4 the very next ball. Things looked very grim at this stage, the opening batsmen looked set and in good form to take full toll. But in the 7th over of the innings, Kush tried to open his arms and try and target the short boundary and only succeeded in skying one straight into the heavens, enough time was given for the fielders to draw lots and see who wanted it most, in the end our capable keeper, Rajan, decided it was his and settled under it comfortably, taking the catch with consummate ease and panache. He was gone for a quick-fire 29.
Vignesh was introduced from the other end, and a tight rein was kept on the scoring. The new batsman Bhaumik hit Vignesh for a streaky six (the ball just going over the fielder’s head) and holed out the very next ball. From that point onwards, things were kept relatively quiet from one end but the occasional boundary did come and good batting from Sankit assured that Camberwell XI were in a strong position after 13 overs.
I must mention that the fielding had been exceptional uptil now, with lots of loud calls from the fielders to communicate with each other and continuous backing up and good accurate throwing. Looks like that practice sessions are paying off…
The same cannot be said about the very shoddy standard of umpiring, any delivery that was left by the batsmen or missed was deemed a wide. But with cricket being a gentleman’s sport, the bowlers in question simply changed lines to bowl more at the stumps.

Second half
At this point of the match, the pace bowlers had been tried and despite their best efforts found a tad wanting, and Sharad turned to the star bowler of the last match, Arvind to come onto bowl and things took a turn for the interesting. The opposing captain came onto umpire and informed Sharad that Arvind (aka Goli from Amir Khan’s Lagaan) had a suspect action and “chucked” the ball at times, and as a result the sudden pace would be surprising his batsman and had happened last time around, so he would calling no ball if it happened again. And he promptly did so in Arvind’s second over, for his first delivery. The point which I personally found quite funny was that Kush, himself as a bowler, slides in and then jerks his arm through to get his pace, but anyways, a messy confrontation was avoided by quick intervention by the Captains and play was resumed.
Camberwell XI was cruising at this point and Sharad once again reached into his bag of tricks to pull out something special, bringing himself on, he flighted a delivery which was hit to long-on where Vignesh took a superb catch inches from the boundary line, standing just before the cones and at full height to catch it above his height.
Amid the celebrations, the true shrewdness of the CS XI captain was revealed in the next over as Rajan was told to get rid of his keeping pads and take the ball. And what followed was phenomenal.
(Author’s note: I must mention at this point, that Rajan’s pants had come loose at this point due to a dressing malfunction (his naara/kamarband broke!)The significance of this will be revealed to you shortly!)
He struck in the first over he bowled, the batsman hitting a ball straight down square leg’s throat, who snatched it out of the air with no problem whatsoever…wait..I think that was me!
In his very next over he struck twice more, a catch to Sharad on the mid wicket boundary was well held. A stumping was also effected as the batsman danced down the wicket only to hear the rattle from behind him. The beguiling loop and turn imparted by Rajan was influenced by his wardrobe malfunction, as he was required to toss the ball high enough and follow through his action quickly so that he could hold onto his pants on his follow through. There you have it, the secret is out.
In his third over another catch was offered to Sharad, a much harder chance and due to miscommunication it was shelled, but no matter, Rajan by now was on a roll and dancing down the wicket menacingly, looping his deliveries wickedly and spinning them viciously off the wicket. A simple catch to Kumar gave him his fourth wicket.
A Michelle Pfeiffer (a five wicket haul in Sheffield Cricket) was beckoning, and as Rajan bounded through his fourth over, it came. A great catch by Raj on mid off helped him to the milestone. A flighted delivery was mis-hit over his head and Raj back pedalling, jumped/flew without his cape and got both hands to it and held on as he slammed back to Earth. The wicket rejuvenated Rajan, and just to prove it wasn’t a fluke, he picked up one last wicket to go with it all, finishing his spell with the magnificent figures of 4 overs, 29 runs for 6 wickets.
On the other side, our captain buoyed up by the success of Rajan, continued to rebuff the pleas from an exasperate bowler who simply wanted to show a former umpire that just cause the ball isn’t hitting the batsman’s bat, its not a wide!, and mopped up the innings with the final wicket.
It might have been the final wicket but it wasn’t the end of the drama. After taking all ten wickets, in walked the 12th man, all padded up and ready for action! Resulting in another commotion on the field, this was duly set right by another meeting of the Captains. Apparently the scorers had “forgotten” to allocate the correct number of wickets. It was a lack of common sense more like.
Thus the inning was bought to a close, and the Camberwell XI had scored a formidable total of 220 all out. (This total does seem debateable due to the huge blundering done on the scoring sheets, I can testify to this, not much seemed to add up, but anyways, perhaps two scorers should be introduced so that such mistakes/mishaps can be avoided in the future)

CS-10 XI Innings
First 13 overs
Being promoted to kick-start the innings, I received a very good ball from Kush (the chucker!) and heard the death rattle from behind me. In walked Andre to join Vignesh in their normal opening position, although I can say that I helped by taking off some of the shine of the new ball by letting it hit my off-stump!
And a brace of boundaries flew from Andre’s bat square of the wicket, some of them guided, others placed with excellent footwork. Vignesh played some wonderful shots as well. But both were dismissed by Kush in his opening burst, Andre caught behind off a slower ball after a spanking square drive. Vignesh was apparently caught down the leg-side.
CS XI was 40/3 at this point.
At this point, this author humbly thinks that some refresher courses in cricket should be given to the opposition as it seems that whenever the ball passes the bat into the wicket keeper’s gloves, it results in the bowler dancing down to the wicket while appealing/pleading/threatening the umpire to give it out! Also at this point, when called wide on the same principle as our bowlers had been, Sankit promptly threw out his toys out of his pram and got into a full blown argument with the umpire, which didn’t really result in anything.
Another funny incident that took place was that the 12th man was called onto ball at a certain point, which was promptly pointed out and remedied. This incident actually happened yesterday as well, as Yadav was late but was allowed to bowl. This time around, CSXI were not in a generous mood.
At the end of the 13th over, CSXI were placed at a precarious 76 for 3.

Second half
After the initial flurry of wickets, Kumar and Raj were bought together to the crease and they prompted dropped anchor and started building a partnership. Kumar played some snappy cuts and a couple of ferocious pulls that speed into the gaps and over the boundary. Raj, for the moment did his best impersonation of ‘The Wall’ and simply rotated the strike over.
Then in the 16th over, the match was practically sealed. The bowler, Ankur, another new recruit, produced a gem to get rid of Kumar. A ball that pitched on leg-stump and clipped the top of off-stump, not much many batsmen could have done about it, and so Kumar went back to sip on some tea. This bought our beloved captain to the crease and after a waft outside the off stump he was joining Kumar to share some of his brew.

After this, in walked the hero of the bowling effort, Rajan, and although at first, I was a bit confused with a few of his defensive shots (the photo above will show what I mean) he was sparked into action when apparently another appeal was made against him for caught behind and a few words were exchanged between him and the fielders behind the wicket.
The very next ball was pulled to the boundary. And to really rub it in, the last ball was square cut ferociously to the point boundary. For a moment, CS XI thought of calling the fire brigade as the ball had singed the grass on the way to the boundary.
Raj took this point to come out of his shell and played some fabulous shots all around the wicket, indulging himself thoroughly. One monster six landed outside on the road. Thus, the innings came to an end with CS XI scoring 169/5 in the end, and Raj being unbeaten with 70 runs to his name.
It had been a good match, and in spite of the overall result, a lot of positives are to be taken for CS XI.

Overall Analysis
Positives

• The fielding was top class. All the catches were taken, proper communication between the fielders and good accurate throwing. Sharad comes in for special praise here with superb pickups and throws.
• Rajan was the standout bowler, bowling beautifully throughout, more cannot be asked from him! *roaring applause*
• Sharad led from the front in the field, setting a high example in terms of sportsmanship and fielding. • Raj batted superbly, holding the innings together and giving it a lot of respectability in the end.
• Kumar, on his comeback match also batted really well, playing some lovely shots on both sides of the wicket.
• Krishna turning up with Maccas?

Added Positives

1. I must mention Harminder's magnificent glovework behind the stumps while Rajan was bowling which reminded the purists of Moin Khan and Saqlain's pairing. His quick glovework would have resulted in a run-out as well if not for the flimsiness of the stumps! But the stumping he effected was special indeed, the batsman didn't have time to even get his bat down from its upwards spiral, before the stumps were lying at his feet.
2. Special Praise also must be given to Paddy, who not only fielded brilliantly at point and cover-point, restricting the batsmen and then also performed stellar duties as Umpire.

Negatives

• The calling between the wickets was quite shoddy and comical at times, Kumar and Raj even ended up on one side of the wicket once! The opposition didn’t really take advantage but work needs to be done on that part.
• Opening bowlers need to stop the momentum of the innings for the opposition. Amar can’t be blamed as he just had an off day, but it is one of the big points, our bowling unit finishes off well but the damage is done with the new ball.

And that brings us to the end of the match report for this fateful match. I have been your writer for this match report, I bid you had a fun time reading as I had writing it.

Any comments are most welcome!

CS10-XI vs Pak-XI - Scorecard

Hi Guys, Here is the scorecard for the match we played on 8 Feb, 2008 against Pak-XI

Dr. Goodlength or: How I Learned to Stop Bowling Wides and Love Dismissals

At the start, my apologies for the poor parody of the title of the Stanley Kubrick cult movie in the title for this post : )

In case it escaped anyone’s notice, in the last few matches the single largest technical problem for our team has been the number of wides bowled. In a curious coincidence, the results of our last two fixtures (for which I have the scorecards) show that the team that bowled the lesser number of wides won the match.

At a basic level, top of off-stump is often the area that fast bowlers are asked to aim for. At the next Glen McGrath level, the stock ball for a paceman is the one that lands on a good length in that dreadfully clichéd corridor of uncertainty.

While all our bowlers presumably know where they want to bowl each delivery, the next question is how do we bowl there?

Here is one tip on where to look when you bowl, from Richie Benaud's ‘Way of Cricket’ :

“You know, for years as a youngster I used to watch the stumps, or the batsman—in fact, anything but the spot I wanted to hit. Then, one day I read a hint in the little hand-book by former Test bowler Clarrie Grimmett advising a bowler to keep his eyes fixed on the spot where he wanted the ball to land. What was good enough for Grimmett was good enough for me, though I had been remiss for long. At once I jumped from my chair, went outside, marked out the length of cricket pitch, put down a handkerchief on a good-length spot and started to bowl. All the time I watched that small piece of cloth and tried to pitch the ball on it. I did not succeed every time, and would not today, but it was amazing how much my control improved as the result of that simple tip. In fact, halving my run-up and watching the pitch have been the twin turning points in my career as a bowler.”

All the emphasis in the above quote are mine, only to reinforce the point that the technique for control is to watch the right spot in the pitch. Clearly this technique has not been revised from the time Arjuna decided to only watch the eye of the bird in Drona’s archery test!

Another variation of the same theory is to imagine that you will win a prize of $10,000 if you hit a particular spot. If you mentally change the stakes to such a level, you are more likely to look at the spot you want to land rather than look at the batsman or the stumps. You are also more likely to get a different result than if you just run in, deliver, and hope for the best. Obviously, repeat the exercise for the rest of the over!

As we practice at the nets this week, any other thoughts/suggestions on how to cut the number of wides?

CS10 XI falters against Uni XI: Scorecard

CS10 XI falters against Uni XI

New Year greetings to all of our match report readers. Hope all of you enjoyed watching the Aus vs SA test series. There were many performances to savour but Graeme Smith’s leadership was probably the most inspirational through the whole series.

Undoubtedly inspired by these top performances, the members of the CS10 Social Cricket Group were all enthusiastic to play in the first match of the New Year organised by Azeem-bhai against an University XI. Once Soundar’s email for the match came out, the available spots in the playing XI vanished faster than bhel in a chaat stall. As skipper Ravi remarked “It took exactly 03 hrs and 36 minutes to get the confirmed XI this time.”

Match report

Batting First
On the appointed morning the bulk of our team turned up on time for the occasion. The residents of Hartwell were even treated to the rare sight of the odd player from our XI warming up and actually holding on to some high practice catches. The opposition on the other hand were a bit tardy. They won the toss, mysteriously chose to field, and had the cheek to borrow a couple of our star fielders, Sandeep and Suhas, till their full contingent arrived! Azeem-bhai, the coach, mentor, and university instructor of our opposite team – who incidentally played for us today – will be punishing the latecomers by asking them to stand on the bench for the rest of the term in his classes.

Having been asked to bat, Ravi sent in Rajesh and Azeem-bhai to open. Both of them faced a testing spell of seam and swing from Kasub and Kavinda, the opposition bowlers. Keen to impress their coach, Kavinda clean bowled Azeem. This paper has now learnt that Kavinda will not just stand on the bench on Azeem’s class for the rest of the term, but will have to do so on the toes of one leg.

Jag, who made his debut for the team, was sent in next to take advantage of the fielding restrictions. Jag was keen to make a Dave Warner style explosive debut, but was caught at mid-off off Kavinda. Soundar, who came in at no.4 instead of his usual opening slot, worked with Rajesh for some quick singles. Rajesh who hit a pleasing cover drive for four was however castled again by the wily Kavinda. By this stage Azeem-bhai had decided that Kavinda will also be sent to Guantanamo bay at the end of the term for some water boarding. The scoreboard looked quite dire at 4-39 on the 10th over when Soundar was also bowled off a swinging delivery while on the backfoot.

This brought together Sharad and Krishna who have been in a purple patch with their batting form. Krishna decided to stay out of the crease to negate the swing, and Sharad decided to focus on the timing of his shots rather than use brute power. This tactic worked extremely well. Krishna, in spite of having a torn tendon on his right index finger, struck some powerful blows. For every boundary that Krishna struck magnificently (three 4s and two 6s), he graciously offered a skier. The fielders in turn kept dropping these catches as though the ball was dripping with red-hot sambhol. Navjot Singh Sidhu, who was later shown a replay of one of the shots, remarked “that ball went so high it could have got an air hostess down with it”.

Sharad soon found his groove as well and gathered his runs at a good pace. A cleanly hooked six was the highlight of his innings of 31 runs. Together Krishna and Sharad raised an 81 run partnership to take the team to 5-120 in the 20th over till Krishna was bowled on 39. Ravi who joined Sharad was also bowled and this brought Kunal to the crease. Kunal, who had been using the time fruitfully in the nets with some throwdowns was a different man to the one we saw in Wantirna South against the Dad’s XI. He timed his shots to perfection and pushed the tiring Sharad to run 2s when he only wanted 0.5. Kunal hustled the opposition with his singles, 2s and a couple of well-struck boundaries and remained unbeaten on 18. Sharad was bizarrely caught and bowled off a no-ball and then run out by the bowler off the same delivery. Harminder joined Kunal for the last over and sprinted between the wickets at nearly the same speed as JP Duminy. He was however, runout of the last delivery of the innings and the team total read 8-159 off 25 overs. It certainly looked like a defendable total.

The Chase
Kunal buoyed by his doughty batting opened our attack. In spite of conceding two wides, he kept the opening over down to a tidy 5 runs. Rajesh who bowled at the other end discovered prodigious swing the likes of which Troy Cooley has not been able to impart to Brett Lee and Mitchell Johnson. The only jarring fact was that they ended out of the reach of the batsmen when they finished swinging. The wide bowling, a persistent feature of our bowling through this season, came just as easily for most of our pacemen. Kunal though struck early and got one of the openers bowled out for 3. However, Shanil, the other left-handed opener and Harsh, their no.3, put on a tidy partnership of 58 runs studded with innumerable wides and some cleanly hit boundaries.

Soon Ravi asked Soundar to relinquish his keeping duties to the very able Harminder paaji and have a bowl. After being struck for a 4 and 6, Soundar struck back uprooting the stumps of Harsh who had scored 31 at a good clip. Shanil was then joined by his twin Shamil. With the same build and left-handed batting, this new partnerhip caused considerable confusion to the scorers than to the fielders.

At drinks the Uni XI needed 66 off 72 balls. Rajesh, who was brought back into the attack after drinks, reduced the width of his deliveries and the length of his trousers by wearing shorts. The shorts seemed to do the trick and he relieved the scorers of their agony by trapping Shamil LBW for 7. Shanil was ably aided by Duminda who came with a runner and yet scored a breezy 20 before being bowled by Ravi. By this time, the match was as good as over. The persistent Shanil was as unremovable from the pitch as the smell of kerosene on a piece of cloth. However, the winning runs were hit by their captain and the match was all wrapped up in 20.4 overs.

A special thanks to Sandeep and Suhas who fielded with large hearts even while not having had an opportunity to demonstrate their batting and bowling skills. On the plus side, it will be a mystery weapon for us to use in their next matches.

Bouquets and brickbats

• Outstanding tea catered by Ravi as per usual high standards
• Great batting by Krishna, Sharad and Kunal
• Solid keeping by Soundar and Harminder who conceded no byes between them
• Bowling: Too short, too wide, too often!

Personality Quiz time

Mark your answer for each question and check your personality type by tallying your score. There may be multiple right and wrong answers for each question.

1. Who famously said: "Yeh haat nahin, phaansi ka phanda hai”

A. Graeme Smith to Ricky Ponting, start of the Aus vs SA series, 2008-2009
B. Thakur Sahab (Sanjeev Kumar) to Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan), Sholay, 1975
C. Krishna Datta to University XI bowlers, Hartwell, Jan-2009

2. Who famously said this: "yeh haat humko de de Thakur,.. yeh haath humko de de Thakur”


A. Mitchell Johnson to Graeme Smith, before breaking the latter’s finger, SCG Jan 2009
B. Gabbar Singh (Amjad Khan) to Thakur Sahab (Sanjeev Kumar), Sholay, 1975
C. Our captain to his opposite number after losing the toss, Hartwell, Jan-2009

3. Who famously said this: "Jo mard hota hai, usey dard nahin hota."
A. Graeme Smith, batting with a damaged elbow and a broken finger, SCG, 7-Jan-2009
B. Amitabh Bachchan, describing himself, Mard, 1985
C. Krishna Datta, batting and fielding with a damaged finger, Hartwell, Jan-2009
D. Amrita Singh, describing herself, Mard, 1985

4. Who famously said this: "Main aaj bhi phenke hue paise nahin uthata."
A. Graeme Smith, when Hansie Cronje’s old friends contacted him
B. Amitabh Bachchan, Deewaar, 1975
C. Sharad Sharma, during match fee collection, Hartwell, Jan-2009


5. Identify this person:
A. Graeme Smith’s mom, SCG Jan-2009
B. Nirupa Roy, as Amitabh’s mom, Deewar, 1975
C. Not related to anyone in our Cricket team

Quiz scores:
Give yourself the following points for all answers and then rate yourself on the scale below:
For all answers that you marked A: 3 points
For all answers that you marked B: 2 points
For all answers that you marked C: 1
If you answered D on question 2: 0 points, and Amrita has this to say to you: “Naughty boy!”
Your personality assessment based on your score:
11-15: Dude, you are too obsessed with Graeme Smith. You are reminded that the Social Cricket group is not a male revue club
6-10: You watch too many outdated Bollywood movies. Develop a hobby
4-5: Congratulations !!! You really are a loyal member of our cricket group !