In their 4th 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 3rd 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 9th 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 13th 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 16th 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 10th over. Post break is when it all started going downhill. 17 runs in the 11th over, 11 in the 12th. To top it off, the Indian Knights team then pulled a cheap stunt at the end of the 12th 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 2nd 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.
Deepa Duraisamy
One Team. One Dream.
