Click on image(s) to view in detail.Bombay Boys drew the match against TMK on Sunday 06/20, in what can be categorized as their first truly “exciting” match of the season, complete with a nail-biting finish. With a diversion from the usual trend, Bombay Boys lost the toss this time and acceded to bowl. The team was used to batting first and defending, chasing a set target would be a true challenge to gauge form. Bombay Boys was missing a couple of mainstream bowlers like Arun and Asif, as well as the only left-hand batsman of the team, Arvind. Ashish Prabhu (hereby referred to as AP2) and Nitesh made their season debuts with this match.
Nitin and Ketan started off their bowling spells with decent overs, keeping extras in control and bowling perfect line and length. TMK openers, in first 4 overs thus, were able to post only 15 runs. At a run rate of marginally less than 4 runs per over, the start looked decent enough. However, it seemed like a bad day for Chakra bowling the 5th over. With wides abundant and a huge 6 off the last ball of the over, the 5th over by itself added another 15 runs to the TMK scorecard. Ketan and Monty followed with their overs, somewhat stabilizing the batting outburst. TMK’s main striker Bharat, the guy to watch out for, was on a roll, with a 6 and some meaty 4s, playing strong when his wicket was beautifully taken by Monty, caught by Vikram. Bharat’s dismissal wasn’t taken too well by TMK, who appealed that Bharat was not out since it wasn’t a nick. Bharat for his part, stormed out of the field, pounding his bat against the terrain. BB was on a high, including Bhavin who was having a great time provoking TMK anyway. The very next wicket went in the 9th over, again taken by Monty, who seemed to be returning to his previous dependable form! Albeit having bowled slightly costly overs, the two important wickets were a huge moral boost. At the end of 10 overs, TMK stood at 64/2. Chakra resumed after halftime, this time with well controlled bowling, and amazingly, the remainder 3 overs of his only total up to 12 runs in all. AP2 also bowled some really good balls, 2 overs in all, giving only 11 runs, much to the relief of a lot of us, whose hearts were in our mouths. The real surprise package was Saurabh, who picked up 5 huge wickets in a single match, which has probably never before happened in the history of Bombay Boys. Saurabh also contributed in one of the two runouts, the other involving Vikram and Chakra. At the end of the innings, TMK stood at 111 having lost 9 wickets.
Nitesh and Ketan opened with Nitesh at the striker end. From the very start itself, both TMK and BB seemed charged. Low level swearing from the BB was met in turn by personal comments on the BB players that slowly escalated into a verbal dual. Both teams played with a vengeance. Nitesh got bowled in the 3rd over. In walked Saurabh and between the two and them, they scored some well-timed 4s and ran a good amount of singles/doubles. Saurabh, however, fell prey to a good ball from the TMK bowler Madhu (who had been ragged for quite a while, as he stood close to the BB team at the boundary line during his fielding stint). At the end of 10 overs, BB stood at 53/2. BB now needed 59 runs from the remaining 60 balls. Monty and KT as a duo, exhibited superior batting qualities during the second half, making every use of loose balls and running well-called singles/doubles. The partnership between the two had just set in, when Ketan got bowled again to Madhu. 80/3 in 15 overs. The “equation” now read – 32 runs required from 30 balls. Doable? Paras ensured that we stay in the game, by hitting 2 back-to-back 4s in the 15th over, which brought BB closer to achieving the target. BB needed 16 runs from 4 overs. Definitely doable. However, in the next couple of overs, Paras was not able to connect, causing concern among the BB squad, neither were the batsmen able to rotate the strike. With every missed ball, the target seemed to inch away from reach. Paras’s wicket then fell, as he got bowled to Shrikant in the 19th over. In walked the BB Shrikant and tried to revive the BB scoring. 7 balls 7. 6 balls 6. 5 balls 6. Nail-biting. 2 balls 3. The second last ball of the innings was hit by Monty and the batsmen succeeding in scoring a double and could have run back for the 3rd, but confusion reined as Monty thought it was a No-Ball, given by Satchit who was the leggie but over-ruled by the main umpire. The scores now stood at level. Unfortunately for BB, we were not able to convert the last ball to a run, resulting in a DRAW, which for TMK was a huge victory in itself.
4 runs, 2 from Paras and 2 from Monty were cancelled out by the umpire, claiming that the ball had not touched the bat. Should BB have appealed stronger? The no ball was a controversy. Would that have changed the face of the match? No offense to Shrikant, but Vikram was used to playing in nail-biting finishes like these, would he have been a better fit to the situation at hand? The umpire was supposed to have been from the SOC team, turns out he was from a different team, and surprisingly his name was not even in the roster. Should we have continued? There are innumerable questions that could have been raised, but at the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that the match ended in a draw. Could we have played better? Probably. Could we have done anything different? Probably. Did we miss out on our effort anywhere? NO. We’ll just do better next time.
Bombay Boys now proceeds to their next match against KnightRiderz on 06/26. Stay tuned.
PS : The questions/opinions raised are solely mine and do not reflect the thoughts of the BB team or any player.
Scores : http://www.cricketmn.com/
Nitin and Ketan started off their bowling spells with decent overs, keeping extras in control and bowling perfect line and length. TMK openers, in first 4 overs thus, were able to post only 15 runs. At a run rate of marginally less than 4 runs per over, the start looked decent enough. However, it seemed like a bad day for Chakra bowling the 5th over. With wides abundant and a huge 6 off the last ball of the over, the 5th over by itself added another 15 runs to the TMK scorecard. Ketan and Monty followed with their overs, somewhat stabilizing the batting outburst. TMK’s main striker Bharat, the guy to watch out for, was on a roll, with a 6 and some meaty 4s, playing strong when his wicket was beautifully taken by Monty, caught by Vikram. Bharat’s dismissal wasn’t taken too well by TMK, who appealed that Bharat was not out since it wasn’t a nick. Bharat for his part, stormed out of the field, pounding his bat against the terrain. BB was on a high, including Bhavin who was having a great time provoking TMK anyway. The very next wicket went in the 9th over, again taken by Monty, who seemed to be returning to his previous dependable form! Albeit having bowled slightly costly overs, the two important wickets were a huge moral boost. At the end of 10 overs, TMK stood at 64/2. Chakra resumed after halftime, this time with well controlled bowling, and amazingly, the remainder 3 overs of his only total up to 12 runs in all. AP2 also bowled some really good balls, 2 overs in all, giving only 11 runs, much to the relief of a lot of us, whose hearts were in our mouths. The real surprise package was Saurabh, who picked up 5 huge wickets in a single match, which has probably never before happened in the history of Bombay Boys. Saurabh also contributed in one of the two runouts, the other involving Vikram and Chakra. At the end of the innings, TMK stood at 111 having lost 9 wickets.
Nitesh and Ketan opened with Nitesh at the striker end. From the very start itself, both TMK and BB seemed charged. Low level swearing from the BB was met in turn by personal comments on the BB players that slowly escalated into a verbal dual. Both teams played with a vengeance. Nitesh got bowled in the 3rd over. In walked Saurabh and between the two and them, they scored some well-timed 4s and ran a good amount of singles/doubles. Saurabh, however, fell prey to a good ball from the TMK bowler Madhu (who had been ragged for quite a while, as he stood close to the BB team at the boundary line during his fielding stint). At the end of 10 overs, BB stood at 53/2. BB now needed 59 runs from the remaining 60 balls. Monty and KT as a duo, exhibited superior batting qualities during the second half, making every use of loose balls and running well-called singles/doubles. The partnership between the two had just set in, when Ketan got bowled again to Madhu. 80/3 in 15 overs. The “equation” now read – 32 runs required from 30 balls. Doable? Paras ensured that we stay in the game, by hitting 2 back-to-back 4s in the 15th over, which brought BB closer to achieving the target. BB needed 16 runs from 4 overs. Definitely doable. However, in the next couple of overs, Paras was not able to connect, causing concern among the BB squad, neither were the batsmen able to rotate the strike. With every missed ball, the target seemed to inch away from reach. Paras’s wicket then fell, as he got bowled to Shrikant in the 19th over. In walked the BB Shrikant and tried to revive the BB scoring. 7 balls 7. 6 balls 6. 5 balls 6. Nail-biting. 2 balls 3. The second last ball of the innings was hit by Monty and the batsmen succeeding in scoring a double and could have run back for the 3rd, but confusion reined as Monty thought it was a No-Ball, given by Satchit who was the leggie but over-ruled by the main umpire. The scores now stood at level. Unfortunately for BB, we were not able to convert the last ball to a run, resulting in a DRAW, which for TMK was a huge victory in itself.
4 runs, 2 from Paras and 2 from Monty were cancelled out by the umpire, claiming that the ball had not touched the bat. Should BB have appealed stronger? The no ball was a controversy. Would that have changed the face of the match? No offense to Shrikant, but Vikram was used to playing in nail-biting finishes like these, would he have been a better fit to the situation at hand? The umpire was supposed to have been from the SOC team, turns out he was from a different team, and surprisingly his name was not even in the roster. Should we have continued? There are innumerable questions that could have been raised, but at the end of the day, the truth of the matter is that the match ended in a draw. Could we have played better? Probably. Could we have done anything different? Probably. Did we miss out on our effort anywhere? NO. We’ll just do better next time.
Bombay Boys now proceeds to their next match against KnightRiderz on 06/26. Stay tuned.
PS : The questions/opinions raised are solely mine and do not reflect the thoughts of the BB team or any player.
Scores : http://www.cricketmn.com/
For further details on Bombay Boys : http://bombay-boys.blogspot.com/
Cheers,
Deepa Duraisamy
One Team. One Dream.
Addendum :
All,
I just wanted to clarify that the question about Shrikant was not raised to undermine his playing or doubt his capability. Being a mere spectator, its not my place to do so. He scored a good 3 runs off 3 balls faced making it a perfect 100% strike rate, however this was still a question that I had in mind which I felt I could voice. Hopefully my email did not touch any raw nerves.
Thanks,
Deepa.
Deepa Duraisamy
One Team. One Dream.
Addendum :
All,
I just wanted to clarify that the question about Shrikant was not raised to undermine his playing or doubt his capability. Being a mere spectator, its not my place to do so. He scored a good 3 runs off 3 balls faced making it a perfect 100% strike rate, however this was still a question that I had in mind which I felt I could voice. Hopefully my email did not touch any raw nerves.
Thanks,
Deepa.
