One word to describe the attitude of Bombay Boys during their game with the Victors – Determined. Victors were believed to be a good team with a strong bowling attack. As per information from our sources within the BB team, this was where the real tournament started for the boys. It was almost as if the earlier ones were practice sessions.
Concentration, focus, absolutely no extras, brilliant fielding and not-to-miss a good batting innings were key to success in this match. One cannot help but ask the question, what’s left that needs to be mastered?
Dada and Asif opened making quick singles as BB won the toss and elected to bat; but it was hard luck for Dada as he got bowled off a slow ball very early in the game. Monty stepped in at his usual 1-Down position and it was a good initial partnership between him and Asif; one huge sixer coming off Asif’s bat towards the long on. A few more runs to add to his score and the partnership was just starting to look good when Asif got out. A decision which seemed questionable there coz as per Asif and the BBs “nick nahi laga tha; awaaz aaya tha but pata nahi kya tha”. Well, the umpire’s decision being final; Asif walked out and KT walked in. But this time before the crowd could view the fireworks coming from KT he got run out due to a hesitated decision on a run. That’s something that the team needs to get better at; running between the wickets; we were weak at it last year and we still got scope to improve. Next in line was Anand; and this time even though the opponent tried psyching Anand to hit with comments like “Last over before break” Anand stood firm. He did give a loose catch to the Victors at the start of the second innings though and walked back with hardly a couple of runs to his name. And there was one more well-placed sixer from Monty landing right in the exact same spot as Asif. Talk about consistency within the team. The score stood at 52 runs at the end of first 10 overs. The BB looked to be a formidable team at this point of time.
But the second innings didn’t hold much interest atleast till the last 3 overs. Hardly 20 runs in 7 overs brought the run rate crashing down like anything. Monty played a good 31 runs before walking back to the pavilion. Due contributions from the rest of the team in the last 3 overs - Arun Kadam, who made 17 runs with two much-needed fours, the skipper’s 7 runs and the last few runs coming in from the BB’s wicket-keeper Vikram who also hit one neat four took the total to 101. Good defendable score but will it be enough?
The bowling innings got off to a too-casual start as the bowlers seemed to give wides by the dozen. No one bowler. Charity all around. Of the first 40 runs scored by the Victors; 11 were extras. 30%. Not good at all. The Victors slowly inched their way along and even though were no where close to the BB score at break time, they definitely had enough potential to cause a huge upset. As known, the last 5 overs have the typical make-or-break play.
Some excellent catches by Asif, Chakra, KT and a brilliant runout by KT/WK – Vikram brought back some zing into the game during the second half of the bowling innings, tight fielding by Arvind, Dada and the quick wicket-taking did kind of make up for the runs donated in extras. Arun Kadam did a brilliant caught-and-bowled too. Stats wise : this match would be best attributed to our skipper who did a classic 3-1-3-1 (Overs bowled-Maiden-Runs Given-Wickets taken). Wickets were evenly distributed give-or-take 1 wicket between the regular 5 bowlers. The last 3 overs of the match sealed the victory in the hands of the BBs. Thinking back; Victors didn’t seem to be that strong a team but they didn’t give up; they didn’t throw their wickets in desperation or try any foolhardy stunts; they kept going at it silently; and maybe this was their bad day; its always better to over-estimate the opponent and play it tough rather than under-estimate them and let it loose. At such times; playing it simple; keeping enough gap between balls remaining and runs to be scored makes all the difference.
It was a good team play by the boys today – who turned out to be the true Victors; hopeless extras; an overall good victory (the cheering team is fine with average excitement in such cases provided we play strong and stay put) but what remains now to be seen is how much effort the BBs are willing to put in to stay ahead in the game; given the fact that we need just 1 more victory to get into the 2ndround. To compete with teams like Indian-XI and Geeks; the boys will need much more than the regular singles and one-off sixers.
Gear up boys – The tournament has just begun.
Scores as always have already been uploaded to www.cricketmn.com - Thanks Ketan.
Photos' on Ketan's Orkut - Thanks Feroz (who has his tripod and video shooting going !)
Thanks to Anand for the refreshments.
And last but not the least, to the ever supportive cheering team.
We Rock !!
Thanks,
Deepa
