After the run fest in last week's game (record for the highest total) this was a low scoring affair. The uBills won the toss and elected to set a target. They thought 130 should be a defend-able score with their bowling line up. There were not many batting highlights from both sides but astounding fielding and some lovely bowling were at display.
uBills opened with Kamran and BigO. They needed a big innings from atleast one of them but Barry and Troy opening the bowling had other ideas. Barry bowled a tight first over. Troy bowled beautifully to BigO not giving him any width and keeping him on the leash with his length. BigO struggled to get off the blocks and tried to hit an over-pitched delivery over long on. He dint have enough power behind the shot and ended up giving a simple catch to Subbu stationed at mid-on. The skipper came in at 3 and needed to to provide his team with a good start. He played an exquisite cover drive off Barry that raced away to the boundary. This was one of the few batting highlights of the game. Troy in his next over bowled one that was wide and over-pitched; Raghu went for it and tried to slice over point. It had more elevation than distance and Barry was running backwards from point and took and amazing catch. I don't know a lot of people who would've caught that one. This was the turning point of the match as Raghu was crucial for their batting line up. Troy was bowling beautifully and I thought he was unlucky with some umpiring decisions that went against him as he appealed for a few lbws (I was the umpire; damn those lacrosse girls). He finally caught a break and Kamran, plumb in front of the wickets with a toe crushing yorker. Ricky tried to keep the runs coming with a few singles but was bogged down by some lovely bowling from Karthik and Vishan. Karthik bowled a peach of a delivery to get Ricks caught behind. It was amazing piece of fielding where Pankaj bhai dived to his right and held on to a one handed catch inches above the ground. Nadeem had a couple of boundaries that kept the score moving. Karthick then had a devastating spell (justifying his nickname as the destroyer). He got Nadeem and Srini out on consecutive balls. Pankaj bhai to get Nadeem out off a thickish edge and Srini was cleaned up the first ball going for an extravagant slog. The uBills were in a heap of trouble. Meanwhile, Ragu was playing some nice shots along with some very ugly heaves with mixed results. He did play some trademark shots that fetched him a few boundaries. He was quickly running out of partners as Matt, Lyle and Allan did not trouble the scorer (Misa) at all. Ragu was left stranded without anyone to support him. Matt and Lyle were cleaned up by Shabbir and Barry (who was bowling his last over and told me he'd make this the last one of the innings) caught Allan off his own bowling. Ragu's frustration was obvious as he felt he was playing a controlled innings without going all out and in the end was ditched by his other team mates. Not to take away anything from the Sloggers; they bowled beautifully, took most of their catches and were mostly very disciplined. uBills scored just 53 runs and the extras gave them a not so embarrassing total of 76.
Underdog Billionaires 76 all out in 16.4 overs
This was a tricky score to chase. The sloggers could not afford to take it too lightly and had to deal with it a little cautiously as a few wickets up the order and the pressure would be on them. Sloggers displayed a clinical performance with the chase. Travis and Vishan opened the innings. Vishan was a little uncomfortable playing and missing a few balls before playing on one of them off Kamran. Travis was a little cautious early on and then started rotating the strike with a few singles. Barry complemented his skipper beautifully by running hard between the stumps. Kamran maintained a nice line and length for the most part. With this total, the uBills needed something of a miracle with their bowling or a complete meltdown in the Slogger's batting to have any chance of defending it. It was up to Ragu to produce something wonderful to get a few quick wickets and he did try pretty hard. He bowled a beautiful bouncer at a mind boggling pace; Travis was the batsman and of course, as everyone expected, he went for the hook. He connected and the ball raced away to the fine leg boundary. It was a lovely reflex shot. Ragu then bowled an absolutely gorgeous slower ball that Travis completely missed and took his middle stump. This was the only bowling highlight from this innings. Troy came in and tried to stick around but was quickly cleaned up by Raghu. Both Pankaj bhai and Baz played a few lovely shots on both sides of the wicket and quietly carried their side over the victory line.
Sloggers 79/3 of 13 overs
This was a comprehensive victory by the sloggers who rightly lead the table with 11 points. They've played wonderful cricket all season and deserve this lead. Their great bowling along with some not so great batting from the uBills set this victory up for them.
Next week's game between the Royal Lions and Underdog Billionaires should be a very exciting battle. See you all at the preview...!!
Aloha
4 comments:
As usual a wonderful blog. It is too bad that a low scoring game did not provide sufficient amount of drama and material for the blog. Your prediction about the importance of Big O as a bat and need for him to find his form and score good runs for his team to win is crucial (it did not happen and uBills lost); that Karthik is a silent assasin (Karthik bowled a lethal spell that routed ubills); key match up between Travis and Ragu and Ragu won that one by clean bowling Travis (Travis' dismissal gave uBills hope and sent chills down the Sloggers camp); and need for me to play a sensibly inning and keep the run rate moving by rotating the strike, if Sloggers wanted to win (which Barry and I did and we won). I am very happy to have my name mentioned for cricketing reasons in your blog. Lastly, "Main aapki tang nahin kheench raha tha, aapki tareef kar raha tha. Dono hathon se loot lo." Continue the good work.
Even though my eyes hurt at reading the white on black (i'm still seeing lines!), I love your work Sankar. I laughed out loud when you mentioned the lacrosse girls as a reason you missed an lbw! Good man! I concur with Pankaj bhai in that he and I had to bat the runs away sensibly and with restraint to insure the victory. Not pretty, but darn sure effective. You should have stayed for the 6-a-side match! Won on the last ball -- a suicide squeeze of a run that Ragu made even more interesting with a direct hit! -- chasing 72 for the victory after Subbu and Mark spanked the ball to all parts for my team in response to Lazar's lethal captain's innings that set the total. Good fun all round - even umpiring, eh Pankaj!? Good luck next week.
Damn...Looks like I missed out on some fun...I would've stayed for the 6 a side but I wanted to rest my knee before the all important game this weekend. It was feeling a lil wobbly after my umpiring duties.
Thanks for the comments guys. Makes it that much more fun to write these blogs....Its fun to see how my predictions turn out every week...Baz...I'll try and change the color scheme to something less distracting...
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