2011: Match 7: Vs Pinch Hitters: Won: By 7 Wickets

Bombay Boys sealed their 7^th victory of the season playing against the Pinch Hitters in an absolute firecracker of a match on Wednesday June 29^th  at the Eden Prairie, Flying Cloud Airport fields. Playing compressed 15^-over innings on a weekday wasn’t easy for both teams, but Bombay Boys managed to nail it proving to themselves that Oh Boy! Yes, we can chase huge scores just fine !

After winning the toss and electing to field, Bombay Boys started their bowling innings with a seemingly glaring absence of their 2 mainstream bowlers – Chakra and Abhishek. However, new players for the season, Pramod and Milind seemed absolutely gung-ho and in form for their part. 

Going from 20 overs to 15 overs was like moving from the 50 over ODIs to the T20 matches. Gutsy shots, risky singles, well timed fours, thunderous sixes were all expected along with the increased probability of catches as batsmen went in for the kill. Pinch Hitters started their batting innings with a good amount of agression and despite losing a couple of wickets in the initial overs, kept going strong. The run rate trend was a steady climb as the team continued to amass 6+ runs in every over, primarily owing to contributions from the Nikhil and Nikhil duo who hung in there and went in to perfectly time and hit loose balls. Aided by Nitin, the “Ni-teen” combination seemed confident of securing their victory.

Bombay Boys bowlers for their part worked extra hard at securing wickets but in the process also ended up bowling expensive extras. Despite this, Pramod for this part, was instrumental in damage control as he took 2 wickets superbly bowling out the batsmen as the cheering team yelled their heart out. (Special appearance by Shilpa and Saachi). Passionate fielding also went in tow with the bowling as we witnessed a brilliant catch by HappyDent Whtie and a superb run-out by KT and Nitin. Pramod and Vijay took some well-timed catches soo. At the end of 15 overs, having lost 8 wickets, Pinch Hitters had set a tough but achievable target of 93 to win.

The second innings of the match commenced with KT and Swaroop opening up the BB batting innings playing for a RRR: 6+ per over. However, BB experienced a very early FOW as Swaroop’s shot went for a neat catch in the second over itself. Jitesh too, unfortunately, was in and out in a jiffy. It wasn’t looking good for BB at the end of 5 overs – 18 runs in their kitty at the loss of 2 wickets. The revival by Paras and KT was thrilling enough as Paras hit a couple of hard power-packed sixes, sending the crowd roaring and upping the BB score in a very short period of time. But the batting partnership performance between KT and Monty was exceptional and a complete treat to watch.

Despite their best contributions, the BB score stood at 58 at the end of 11 overs. 35 required off 24 balls. The last 4 overs triggered off multiple nail-biting moments as the equation seemed like a mirage. Doable but something that could just as easily slip away as sand. 28 in 18. 14 in 12 as the players and the spectators all held their breath. The Pinch Hitters were at their fielding best. A couple of mad hits in the air as BB also tried their best to hit every ball. Ultimately, Pinch Hitter’s score of 92 for 8 proved woefully inadequate in the wake of a dominating batting display from Players of the Match (if I may say) Monty who finished with an unbeaten, 31 off 25 balls, and KT, in his 3^rd consecutive notout 27 off 36 balls. Monty proved his mettle yet again with 3 astounding sixes and a clean four – perfectly timing shots on loose balls and scoring singles as and when they could.

Just the previous match had been termed “boring”. This match however, was anything but. Complete with a nail biting finish, the match was splattered with just enough edge-of-the-seat excitement to keep one’s attention always on the field.

Bombay Boys has now succeeded at a high-speed chase and are confident that they can repeat the magic if required. From the sidelines, excitement was rife as the crowd went into an animal frenzy during major shots by the BB batsmen – what with someone even jumping on the fence at one point in time (chuckle). This probably was also the first match in years when I “ran” into the field at the end of the match. No victory dance or Cadbury’s ad mind you ! (contrary to what Chichi might have been saying !).

We have started encountering tougher teams and will continue to. Lets not forget the extras which might prove costly and gutsy as this may sound, we need to have an overall stronger batting line-up. KT notout for the 3^rd consecutive time is both a very positive thing and concerning at the same time (coz it only means that the non-striker end kept changing). Hang on to your seats folks, this was just the trailer, the real movie now begins ! BB bid Adieu to Vijay as he played his last match of the season and moved back to India this past weekend.

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

For further details on Bombay Boys, http://bombay-boys.blogspot.com

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.

2011: Match 3: Vs Desi Devils : DRAWN (Due to Rains)

No synopsis written due to the match having ended in a washout midway through the match and the points being equally divided between the two teams.

2011: Match 2: Vs Churchill Cheetahs: Won: By 7 Wickets

Churchill Cheetahs, a first timer in the MTBC tournament, beat India XI, one of the tough contenders in this tournament, in their first match of the season. But CCH could not carry the intensity from their opening onslaught into their second match, especially one against the Bombay Boys.

After losing the toss to CCH and having to field, BB still seemed to have got off to a good start. The first 10 overs showed tons of promise and a very quick successive FOW made interesting an otherwise very bland match between the two teams. Catches were abundant, runouts precise. Excellent stats from right arm bowlers Nitin 4-0-8-2 and Abhishek 3-0-6-3 ensured that the CCH run scorecard stayed within achievable limits. In all, BB only awarded 10 extras which was pretty neat. A special note about Nitin who had his mind set of taking out the CCH alleged all-rounder KLN, which he did – by taking a well-timed catch and having KLN return to the pavilion on a duck ! An all round bowling-fielding team effort resulted in CCH getting bundled out for a measly 55 at the end of 15 overs. That there were 5 ducks in the CCH batting lineup is another notable statistic indeed !

BB opened their batting innings with Swaroop and Ketan. After losing their left-handed opener Arvind to a work-related transfer, BB now seems to have a found a dependable opener in Swaroop, even though this innings might not give him much to boast about unfortunately. Vijay stepped in when Swaroop was caught behind in the 3^rd over and KT and Vijay inched their way to build a 28 run partnership of the required 56. Considering that there were 2 maiden overs and an additional 3^rd one where there were no runs made off the bat and even though and the average batting strike rate was quite low, for the BB batsmen it was a slow and steady yet positive battle. After KT was runout in the 12^th over, Monty and Paras worked together to finish up the reminder, with Monty hitting a strong four on the legside on a no-ball wrapping it up finally. Bombay Boys won the match by 7 wickets at the end of 14 overs.

We now face Desi Devils on May 22 2011 9:00AM at the University Van Cleve field. BB is now slowly getting into the phase where throughout the season, it will be on and off, missing a few of its seasoned players and the next generation of batsmen/bowlers will now get more opportunities to showcase their talent. It will be interesting to see how that shapes up.

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.

2011: Match 1 : Vs V3BD : Won by 30 runs

Close on the heels of India clinching the title in the World Cup 2011 tournament, the new captain Ashish Prabhu, hereby referred to as AP2, and his boys were off to a good start in the 2011 MTBC tournament with Bombay Boys winning against V3Boys Dalakties a.k.a V3BD in their very first match of the season.

After winning the toss and deciding to bat first, openers Saurabh and KT were off to an initial good start when Saurabh fell prey to probably avoidable call-confusion running between the wickets. In stepped Jitesh and the duo then played it steady, taking quick singles and doubles and making the best of the loose balls for about 6 overs taking the total to 41 runs off 9 overs. One over before break time, Monty stepped in when KT’s shot went for a catch and he had to walk back to pavilion.

At the end of 10 overs, the Bombay Boys scorecard read 47 runs. The second half of the innings slowed down the run counter as wickets fell in quick succession starting with Jitesh’s wicket in the 12th over. This was one of 4 wickets taken by the V3BD bowler CVS against the Bombay Boys. In the 14th over Monty joined KT in the pavilion as well when the umpire ruled him caught behind despite protests that the bat did not touch the ball. The batting lineup started to disintegrate with Bombay Boys losing 2 more wickets in the 15th over and 1 in the 16th over. However, Vijay Pahuja stood in steady for a while and played some well timed shots helping take the Bombay Boys total to a 100+ score aided by a couple of runs by Chakra, Satchit and Nitin each. Bombay Boys completed their 20 over innings at 105 all out with Nitin being run out on the last ball.

V3BD started their batting innings playing patiently and steadily. Needless to say, BB bowlers maintained momentum and kept up tight fielding as they tried their level best to secure wickets. Nitin got hit to a couple of strong sixes/fours as he bowled full tosses. Abhishek had a better day as he took the wicket of Satish and Siva, the V3BD openers who were just beginning to settle in after having hit a couple of sixes and fours. But it was the captain AP2 who took centerstage in the bowling attack taking home a 4-wicket haul, aided by Monty and KT taking 2 wickets and 1 wicket respectively. The V3BD batting line-up resembled a crumbling pack of cards with the BB bowlers doing their job well and most of the fielders doing an excellent job and taking precise big-mistake-if-dropped catches like Chakra, Vijay and KT. A quick runout of the last man standing, performed by KT and Abhishek sealed the BB victory winning by 30 runs.

I should not forget to thank and appreciate brilliant sledging efforts by Jitesh, minor profanity by Bhavin – responded in kind by the V3BDs and major cheering by the rest of the supporting team. The Bombay Boys team owner, Venu Nambiar (Siddharth Mallya), goes home a happy man today. Deepika Padukone was missed. 

Takeaways from the match:
1. Get the rules straight with the umpires and make sure people stick to it. If a bounce on a tree does not count to a catch, it should not count to a 6 either. Mutual understandings are fine, but we have been burnt by those 1-2 runs before.

2. Need to improve on catches. Captain needs to lead by example. Dropped catches wont work. We got by today but with a mighty opponent, it will prove to be very expensive.

3. All in all, we had 4 wickets due to runouts. Tolerable? Definitely not.

Bombay Boys now move on to face Churchill Cheetahs on May 15 2011 at 9:00AM at the same venue.
Scores as always have been uploaded on http://www.cricketmn.com

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

Cheers,
Deepa Duraisamy
One Team. One Dream.