Match 4 : Vs Indian Colts : Won by 21 Runs

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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.

Match 6 : Vs Indian Colts : Lost

Watching the Bombay Boys play and writing for them has always been a treat. And much as I have tried to put off writing about the hopeless debacle that ensued on Saturday, June 28th, it was either this or an entry in my diary, so I might as well say it out loud.

Disclaimer : The reminder of the email is intended to be unbiased yet not intended to offend anyone.

Looking at this match in the perspective, I would say there were a host of events that went bad causing the team strategy, if any, to fail. The idea of experimenting with the batting order for one looks to be a bad idea now; maybe one wouldn’t be saying this had Bombay Boys won. But they didn’t and its safe to say that we cannot afford this again. 4 ducks in the team. Kind of hard to digest. Only 2 double digit scores. The second one barely making it in at 10. The skipper Chakra and Dada gave a somewhat admirable stand, considering the circumstances, pulling in 10 and 8 respectively. KT and DevAnand giving in their share of 7 and 8 as well. The Wall, Satchit, barely edged up 3 runs. Needless to say; the others Asif, Arvind, Monty and Arun walked back to the pavilion the same as they had gone in to play. The series of ‘bowled’s one can understand; but the catches? Well, if the team knew they were losing wickets I wonder what prompted each of them to keep flicking their bats? At the end of the batting innings; the Bombay Boys wicketkeeper Vikram is clearly the one who pulled them
through with the batting innings; making a good very sensibly played 34 taking the team to a very well defendable score of 92 when at times it looked like even 60 was a good enough score.

Now the real test began. It was upto the bowlers and the overall fielding to fall into place. The initial 10 overs were a pleasure to watch. The top order of the Indian Colts was bundled out for a measly 27 at the end of the first 10 overs. The Indian Colts had to make 66 in 10 overs. The Bombay Boys were all set for a victory. Well then, what failed? Misfields, totally unecessary extras, short balls, full-tosses, missed really-important catches. The next 10 overs had all the mistakes one should learn from to get better in the game. Colts had lost atleast 4-5 wickets in the first 10 wickets yet they won the match fair and square with 3 wickets to spare. OK, the Bombay Boys performed badly; but we have to admit; they made an awesome comeback too and played to win. I applaud the 3 hugely hit sixers from IC to each of our mainstream bowlers. Even though I thought then that a couple of runs would have made the difference, thinking back, now I beg to differ. Where they made 93, they could also have made 100. What we needed was a good score maybe 120+ and each of you know we could have done it.

Its bad enough to lose a match but losing to a team who has lost every other match; never won a single one before and wins straight against the Titans, well that doesn’t sit too well. Were the boys too complacent? Probably yes. Indian Colts was percieved to be a poor team and did the boys think this was too easy? Probably yes again. (Saturday’s opponents don’t look so tough?? Reality check needed here !!) Another mistake to be learnt from. Its important that we end the losing sequence with just this one. Thanks to Naren and Nitesh (and probably even Feroz) we have the entire match caught on tape (shortly to be uploaded on KM .. LOL .. Just kidding Arvind), and what better take-away but to analyze and ensure that every match henceforth is played with a vengeance.

As Monty and Arun rightly remarked; its high time that BB has the Australian attitude : Never to lose. If it’s a poor team; lets beat them even more aggressively. That’s what makes them the trend setters. Its important that BB takes this defeat in stride, positively and make up for it the next matches. This loss has cost us dearly shifting our positions within the group as well as overall. Right now; the only thing to hope for is that this doesn’t play a part to any downslides. To make it to the top, BB is going to have to play it tougher with stronger teams like Indian Knights and Indian XI.

As you can see, this week’s score came in pretty late compared to the usual SLA of 2 hour; as well as 4 totally unrelated pics of nature seem to be in KT’s Orkut album which says Match 6 : Bombay Boys Vs Indian Colts (PS : I do find that a little humorous and empathize with the players). Most of the BB team has been down in the dumps since the catastrophe; Stop whining and get over it guys. Move on; learn from it and make sure you play so well that people don’t remember this one anymore. Most of us in IT have a short memory anyways.

Am sure Harshad had a good time umpiring; the poor person got stuck in a tight spot because of the neutral umpire not making it, some say the umpiring costs did cover his Farmer's Market expenses though and Vijay needs to come for a match which the BB wins to prove that he’s not the unlucky omen.

Over and out,
Deepa.