Game 2: uBills Vs Lions -->Shit happens

Lousy day...You wake up to the news of India being knocked out of the T20 world cup and you get your hinds thoroughly whipped at the hands of uBills. I'll say it again; Lousy day.

All credit goes to the uBills for bowling beautifully and holding on to their catches (am not looking at anyone but maybe just a Lankan who speaks some Gujarati). The game started pretty well for us (the Lions). Though they got off to a flier we took a few key wickets early on to keep us in the game. Danny turned up and played for the uBills today. We opened with Sachin and Munna sharing the new ball and they had Danny along with Kamran open their batting. Danny was off to a quick start with a cut to the boundary off his second ball. Sachin started a little shaky and but came back pretty well. Danny then went to work on Munna with some power full hitting on the on side. Sachin then bowled a lovely delivery that uprooted Danny's off stump that brought BigO in at number 3. Kamran then tried to hit one over point but ended up slicing it up in the air and was caught by me. The skipper then came into bat and went straight to work with a lovely cut between point and gully. BigO had a couple of boundaries at exactly where everyone expects him to score (slice the ball thru gully and a hook behind square). He got out to Mark with a thick edge giving a comfortable catch to Misa who was handling the keeping duties for us. Must say that he did a pretty nice job behind the stumps except that he needs to bend over a lil bit (to stop the ball from running between his legs u pervs). Raghu kept going at the other end with some lovely stroke making. I thought we could've had a better fielding placement for him (we let him play his fav cut shots and flicks way too easily) but to his credit, he exploited the situation and was very aggressive with his shot selection.

The skipper gave me the nod at the last over before drinks. I was bowling at Raghu and knew he'd go for his sweep. I started with a wide down the leg and then bowled a really bad one; a full toss on the pads which was promptly packed off to the boundary. With some tips from Lazar I knew I had to bowl on his off stump and changed my bowling side. I bowled one on the off and he tried to cut it even though it wasn't that short a ball. Troy held on to a nice catch and we were relieved to see Raghu's back (he was 3 runs short of 30 when he could've retired). We had Nadeem walk in and all of us knew his instinct was to go after the ball and slog it over midwicket. I tried to bowl it a little quicker and on the off stump. He went for his shot and hit it high up in the air; it landed in the safe hands of his brother (lazar). My hatrick ball was to Ricks who was batting pretty well up till then and he denied me any further joy with a lovely drive. In my next over, I got rid of Srini tempting him to play his favorite shot over mid-wicket against the wind which was caught by Mark. The next scalp in the same over was one of the few bright spots of my day. I cleaned up Ricks with a yorker on his leg stump (I enjoyed this coz I know its usually pretty hard to get thru Ricks defence even though he ALWAYS moves back and across and looks as if he's going to get out every single ball). Since I've dedicated a paragraph to my own spell of 2 overs I'll stop it here (there's a lil red-horned devil sitting next to me yelling "Its my bloody blog; I'll dedicate the whole thing to my 12 balls"; and the white winged guy just gave him the bird from the other side and told him to shut up and be nice").

The Lankan tiger (aka ragu) was in next (which could explain the move of pulling the plug on my lovely spell of 4 for 10 off 2; I promise to stop mentioning myself soon). He wrecked a havoc as soon as he came in and looked as if he knew exactly where he wanted to hit every ball (which is pretty rare for him). He played some lovely shots all over the park. Mark then gambled a bit by bringing back Sachin to bowl at Ragu. Here's the thing with this one (I know hindsight's a 20-20 and it was what it was, a gamble); Sachin bowls on the middle and leg with his lethal ball being the one that beats the batsman and crashes into the stumps. The wind was heavy and blowing from the off to on. This fits snugly with where ragu loves playing his shots. He heaved a couple of humongous hits over mid-wicket and another crashing boundary to go past 30. This though wasn't a game changing moment but nevertheless was a momentum shifting one. With 127 off 16 overs, I thought we bowled pretty tight to get them all out for 135 in the 19th over. I thought our skipper may have missed a trick in not bowling me a little more as I fancied my chances of getting Ragu stumped (I've had some success in doing that) and I was on a roll till I was pulled off the attack (devil 1 white winged man 0) . The bonus point was definitely an icing we all relished.

uBills 134 all out in 19 overs

We opened our batting with Munna and myself. It wasn't a daunting target and we figured we'll get our eye in and start the fireworks. Little did I know it was going to pan out drastically different. Ragu opened from his favorite Beach-end with an absolute beauty that pitched on the off and moved away ever so slightly to catch a decent edge off Munna's bat. BigO completed the formalities by taking the first of his many catches behind the stumps today. It was a massive blow to our chase but we still had Mark and Lazar who could go ballistic. Danny shared the new ball and bowled a pretty tight line. He got Lazar playing a back foot cross-batted shot that hit him in line with the stumps. The umpire (Karthick) had no doubt in his mind that it would knock the middle stump off and prompty raised his finger; but the square leg umpire and myself (At the non-striker's end) agreed that the ball hit him a little too high (not trying to call out the umpiring decision but...well, I think I am). This was key wicket which brought Mark in and I saw Ragu turn all green and I swear I saw his shirt bust a few seams. This was a key match up and it was still just ragu's second over. First up was a full toss on the legs which was smoothly guided to the fine leg boundary. I thought Mark had his number today (I heard a faint HA from the heaven). Ragu's plan for Mark is usually to bowl on the off and let his natural angle guide the ball onto the middle and make him miss the line (all this at a blurring speed). He tried too hard and bowled a couple on his legs. I faced the brunt next and managed to not get out playing all of Ragu's 3rd over. He not so surprisingly came back for his last over (which he hardly does) and had a final go at Mark. After some friendly (I use the word pretty loosely) banter between the two, Mark survived a couple of deliveries before finally succumbing to some brilliant pace. He went for a cut off a not so short ball and managed to snick it into the safe gloves of BigO. This was a killer blow. I did not play my natural shots owing to some very good bowling and the fact that wickets were falling pretty fast at the other end. I thought it was McGrath bowling at me as Kamran kept the ball right around the off stump and moving away after pitching (A better batsman would've definitely edged one of them). I realize now that time was running out and I should've played a few more shots or at least rotated the strike better. Maybe it was the pressure of no runs from my end that prompted the others to go for a much more aggressive batting. Or maybe not. Well, I was waiting for Raghu and Ricks to bowl before I launch myself and made a pathetic attempt at it. I tried to slog Raghu over extra cover but just managed to find the lower edge of my bat (and of course, BigO was behind the stumps to gulp it down).

Our target now shrunk to at least reaching 100 and getting a bonus point. Misa and Sachin were off to a good start and looked as if they would take us there. Sachin played some really great looking shots off both Raghu and Ricks and reached 23 before the vile he consumed last night got some action of its own and he had to retire drunk (I am surprised Symmo's not given out to one of those yet). Misa tried his best to get us the extra bonus point but fell short by 4 frustrating runs.

Royal Lions 96 for 5 off 20 overs

I thought both sides had a very disciplined bowling attack and managed to keep the total tally of wides at less than 30 (the last game saw about 10 extra overs being bowled). The uBills batted aggressively throughout their innings inspite of loosing early wickets and posted a pretty nice target while we collapsed early on and were kinda stuck in a rut without much momentum. As I mentioned in the preview that though we were the favorites on paper, things can turn pretty funny pretty fast. Ragu was definitely the man of the match in my book for his all round display. Though this wasn't as close as I expected it to be, we witnessed some lovely batting and disciplined bowling and generally had a good time out in the sun (NO; I HATE THIS;LIFE SUCKS).

Anywhoo...aloha until my preview of Game3 between the Lions and the Sloggers

P.S. In case you are wondering Munna; Yes I called you out for your dropped catches...;-)

P.P.S. This blog is just my attempt at adding some more excitement to the tournament and our games in general and hope you all take it easy on this...(I don't want my head blown off with a bouncer or a throw aimed at my fat ass instead of the stumps)