2011: Match 6: Vs Twin City Twisters: Won: By 6 Wickets

Twin City Twisters. No twists and turns in any way. A Decent team. Quiet players. No controversies. No sledging. No cheering. No supporters outside the playing 11. Decent leg umpiring. No extravagant appeals. They were all out at 65 runs in 18.4 overs. Great bowling statistics by KT (3.4-1-6-3)and Mahantesh (3-0-12-3) well aided by the skipper. 

Check: 18 extras awarded (3 whole overs !) and several dropped catches!

Favour returned in kind by the Bombay Boys. Decent leg umpiring. No controversies. No sledging (well Sourabh and Ajay tried a bit but no one from TCT responded, finally the two made peace with the fact and proceeded to sledge Jitesh Chavan of the Bombay Boys team itself – this comment sponsored by HappyDent White!!) . Chased 66 runs in 17.4 overs. Top scorers - KT who scored 26 and Mahantesh 21. Current overall MVP and Batting statistics topped by KT.

An easy win. I wont take the risk of asking for more excitement, we have enough of it in other matches, a match here and there like this is a good breather.

A very insipid match. Really, nothing more to it.

Scores as always have been uploaded to www.cricketmn.com

More details on Bombay Boys: http://bombay-boys.blogspot.com

2011: Match 5: Vs G-XI: Won: By 22 Runs

Bombay Boys were embroiled in yet another controversy this weekend, this time in their emphatic win against a seasoned long timer G-XI at the Hopkins Grounds. Read on for more details.

Bombay Boys posted 119 runs against their opponents in the first innings of the match; due credit to a fabulous innings played by KT, probably the first ever in the history of Bombay Boys to have played an unbeaten 20 overs; a terrific knock of 47 in 47 balls just shy of  a half century. KT has 3 intelligent fours and 1 rock solid 6 to his credit. He was aided in part by Monty scoring 29 off 34 balls, who also enjoyed sending the ball rolling to the boundary every now and then, with one 4 and 3 hard sixes. Bombay Boys also uncovered a surprise scorer in the form of Abhishek Taralekar who turned out to be just as good with the bat – scoring 17 runs off 19 balls. To their credit, opener Swaroop and batting one-down Jitesh made decent useful contributions and pitched in taking the total to a decent 100+ score. All in all, great strike rates and a a strong batting display despite a couple of misses. Good friendly sledging the first half of the match, so much so, that to an outsider, it wouldnt have been evident whether a person calling out the comments to a fielder was encouraging him or simply pulling his leg regardless of which team he belonged to.

On a warm morning, with temperatures in the late 70s, the boundaries on both on and off sides were relatively short and the outfield was fast if somewhat lumpy in places. It was apparent that any shot piercing the inner ring of fielders was likely to go for four, and that the fielding would be important. Unfortunately, this was a day when the Bombay Boys were not at their best in that respect, with just-nicked drives from the G-XI batsmen seeming to rush to the boundary. Dropped catches at critical moments did not help either. G-XI were 9/1 during the 3^rd over and continued without loss of any further wickets till they reached 67. Not good. 4s and 6s were equal if not more rampant in this innings. Bombay Boys definitely were more aggressive in their bowling attack than the previous match and intentional or not, one could see the marked difference before and after the 10 over break. However, the highlight, in a funny sense, of the match was when Sumit from G-XI was dimissed for a well timed catch taken by Abhishek during Jitesh’s over – the very basis for the controversy. The leggie ruled it a no-ball and the neutral umpire overruled the same. Sumit “fumed” – and that is an understatement - all around the pitch and back at his side of the pavilion shouting “I am the main player, how can you give me out !” and the captain and a couple of other players too resorting to name calling and foul language. Rightly said, If that were the case, Sachin whould never be out ! Complaints and back talking with the umpire went on for a few; while G-XI talked about they knowing that “something is going on between the umpire and Bombay Boys”. Finally, the match resumed and a couple of consecutive wickets also brought forth the same kind of resigned attitude from the G-XI team.

So, Jitesh took the wicket of the “main player” of the match and like someone said “Bombay Boys ka umpiring karte karte ek aur umpire ka career barbaad”. Whether Sumit could have changed the match around is something that we would never know, but that is where it all started going downhill for G-XI. The team went from 73/3 in the 15^th over to all out in the 20^th over with one ball to spare.

All in all, a pleasant and enjoyable game played in the right spirit. 5 matches down 6 more to go. We now start to face the tougher teams of the group and we need to make sure that our wins against the newbies do not make us complacent. We still got a ways to go. The cheering stand this match had more spectators than the last couple of matches with Sourabh and Bhavin making both the match and the sideline comments way more interesting.

Our next match will be against the Twin City Twisters on Sunday June 19^th at 9:00 AM, Roseville.

Scores as always have been uploaded on www.cricketmn.com

For more on Bombay Boys : http://bombay-boys.blogspot.com

One Team. One Dream.

Cheers,

Deepa.

2011: Match 4: Vs Indian Knights: Won: By 1 Run

In their 4^th match of the season, Bombay Boys won against the Indian Knights by a sheer single run in a nail biting finish of a match. (After their 3^rd match against Desi Devils was washed out and hence drawn). Bombay Boys openers Saurabh (VC) and KT opened beautifully going strong right to their 54-run partnership, with  brilliant strike rates (Saurabh - 24 off 24 balls and  KT – 39 off 38 balls), raking in some big ones as well at the right moments. Both openers have 3 4s and 1 sixer to their credit.

Skipper’s plan B went into action once the partnership crossed 45/0 in 7 overs and in walked Paras at the 1-down position instead of the original batting line-up, when Saurabh got run out (?) in the 9^th over. Unfortunately, Paras’ flick got caught behind and he had to walk back to the pavilion. Swaroop who walked in at #4 set up a quick easy-on-the-eyes running between the wickets along with KT scoring fast singles and doubles until the 13^th over when KT got run-out. Monty walked in at the 3-down position and along with Swaroop took the score from 77 to 112, again the both of them maintaining near perfect run rates. The 16^th over saw the departure of Swaroop after yet another run-out and “Boom Boom” Pahuja (as Chichi has recently christened him) and Monty breezed through the rest of the innings, both of them getting out in the last over after putting up a formidable total of 147 on the scoreboard.

Indian Knights opened their batting innings in a slow yet steady fashion inching their way along to 45 at the end of 10 overs after the loss of one wicket in the 10^th over. Post break is when it all started going downhill. 17 runs in the 11^th over, 11 in the 12^th. To top it off, the Indian Knights team then pulled a cheap stunt at the end of the 12^th over when opener Pankaj literally pranced out of the field quoting a “Retired Hurt” enabling their star batsman Vamshi to walk in and do his magic. Vamshi, the batting points #1 of the tournament so far, has (including this match) made 140 runs in 4 matches. It wasn’t a surprise then that his team banked on him to pull them out of the swamp, but to use a “Retired Hurt” was a tad too much. At no expense should this have been tolerated by Bombay Boys. Agreed, that Pankaj might have then tried a hit wicket “suicide” shot, but it would have atleast cost them a ball. Vamshi, to give the guy due credit, succeeded in taking the score from 73 to 142, scoring 42 huge runs off just 19 balls, majorly at Monty’s expense, who in his attempt to get Vamshi’s wicket got mercilessly hammered. In the history of Bombay Boys, their second best score till date, seemed woefully inadequate as the team struggled to bowl and field and valianty defend a great score.

But ultimately the revival by Abhishek and KT was thrilling enough. With 9 runs from 2 overs remaining, Abhishek bowled perfect line and length to ensure that there were no extras and no room for mistakes, also taking a wicket parallely. The last over was handed to KT as the supporters watched every play with bated breath.

It started with 6 runs needed off 6 balls and finally came down to 3 runs in 1 ball. The final “run-out” done by AP2/Swaroop happened towards the end of the 2^nd run – leading to a huge controversy of whether it was a run-out or not. Not – defining the match as a Draw, and Run-out defining it as a win in favour of Bombay Boys. The leg umpire from the Indian Knight’s team is still not sure and says the benefit of doubt should go to the batsman, the neutral umpire has overruled his decision, calling it a run-out and hence, declaring it a win for the Bombay Boys.

The Indian Knights team has cried “foul”, called the neutral umpire “biased” and decided to take their complaint to the board asking for a decision. Considering that the neutral umpire is sticking to his decision, in all probability, the decision will not be reversed. However, the board’s decision is yet to be announced.

One major question that needs to be addressed is: What really does a Retired Hurt mean without any injuries? Since when has lack of stamina or tiredness meant a "Retired hurt"? Letting an opponent railroad us like that is going to prove expensive beyond words.

That being said, Bombay Boys needs to hugely work on their fielding skills. (4s due to inaccurate fielding, fumbles, dropped catches). Defending a 147 score should not have come down to this. Period.

Scores as always have been uploaded on http://www.cricketmn.com

For a history of Bombay Boys in the MTBC tournament: http://bombay-boys.blogspot.com

Cheers,
Deepa Duraisamy
One Team. One Dream.