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!