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The Bombay Boys winning streak continues with yet another victory, this time against the Indian Colts. As has become the norm, Bombay Boys won the toss this time too and elected to bat. A precursory review of the pitch came back negative for batting as the ball refused to bounce. Bombay Boys definitely couldn’t hope for many extras.
Venu replaced Arvind this match, opening at the non-striker end, aiding skipper Ketan at the striker end. Two consecutive 4s by KT in the very first over set the ball rolling for the Bombay Boys batting scorecard, also building up expectations of a huge target for the Indian colts. Venu got bowled to a good ball from Jatin of Indian Colts in the 5th over. Monty stepped in at the 1-down position and here began the solid 80-run partnership between the duo. KT and Monty continued to steadily garner runs, exhibiting a good running between the wickets, going for 4s and 6s on loose balls and overall, putting on a commendable show. High energy cereal bars and Gatorade from Costco kept them going, I have been told. Special thanks to Venu and Madhu, who were in charge of refreshments and to Arun/Paras who had introduced the bars the first time round. The duo stayed put way past halftime, right till the penultimate over, when both of them fell prey again to Jatin, KT's shot caught by Pawas and Monty for his part, caught and bowled by Jatin. KT finished his innings with a superb 53 off 57 balls, only the 2nd player in the history of Bombay Boys to hit a half century after Neeraj Sinha (Season 2006). Monty also finished with a 'Beautiful' (vocabulary credit - Jitesh) 42 off 44 balls, falling short of a half century by just 8 runs. Talking from a 4s and 6s point of view, KT had 5 neat 4s and 1 huge 6, Monty finished with 3 lovely 4s. The scoreboard at this point read 108. Srikant, Paras, Vikram and Saurabh finished off the last two overs with some quick running between the wickets taking the total score to 121, of which 13 were extras, setting a target of 122 to win.
The bowling innings started with Nitin and Asif, who made a comeback with this match this season. Indian Colts, even though having lost every match of this season that they played, refused to back down and took to aggressive playing right from the very first ball. Openers Harish and Pawas ensured that even if they end up losing this one as well, they will not do so without a fight. A steady contribution by both of them, led to a 67-run partnership, with 4s galore. The score at halftime read 50 with no loss of wickets. This was a dangerous situation to be in. Bombay Boys bowling innings missed the inherent aggression and superb mind sledging display of the previous match. To add to it, the previously unhelpful pitch seemed to have changed form as balls bounced off it in abundance, transforming into no-balls easily. As the BB skipper had mentioned during the initial preplay huddle, Bombay Boys had lost only 1 league match in the entire 2008 season, that was to Indian Colts. We sure as hell didn’t need a replay of that. But at this point, looking at the score and the attitude of the Indian Colts, the match could go either way. The only sliver of hope came in the 12th over when Pawas was caught by Asif amidst sharp intakes of breath by the onlookers, as the ball bounced off Asif's hands and he managed to take the bounced catch again while in the running mode. The very next wicket went in the same over by Srikhant, this one taken by the BB wicket-keeper Vikram in a similar enthralling fashion, followed by nonstop rooting and cheering. The 2 cut-to-cut wickets put some pressure on the Indian Colts and boosted the morale of the Bombay Boys who upped their aggression factor, having gone down due to dropped/missed catches by Satchit, Saurabh, Vikram, Monty that could have cost the team dearly. Comments coming from the direct source, Monty's bowling also needs work, pace adjustment and focus on line (length being perfect) required since wides were abundant. Other well taken catches by Vikram (who took a total of 4 catches this match), Saurabh, Ajay P (brilliant, well-timed catch, Chichi - under a lot of pressure to perform well in his 1st match this season) and Ketan ensured that history didn’t repeat itself in this case. Indian Colts ended their 20 over innings with a total of 100, of which 24 were extras. Translated to 4 complete overs. That is A LOT.
Bowling and fielding sections needs to step up. Bombay Boys now stands at 4/4, facing their next opponents in the form of TroubleMakers, who have been doing pretty good this season. Gear up people, the race has just begun to get interesting !
Scores : www.cricketmn.com
For further details on Bombay Boys, http://bombay-boys.blogspot.com
Cheers,
Deepa Duraisamy.
One Dream. One Team.
