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!