Game 5: Underdog Billionaires Vs Royal Lions

We're in the finals baby...!! This really wasn't a close game at the end, but it did not lack in the excitement department whatsoever. It was a perfect day to witness some clean hitting as batsmen from both sides played some lovely strokes. The uBills won the toss and elected to bat first. They picked Troy, Tim, Francis and John from the pool and we had Arron, Allen, Lyle and Rambo playing for us. Arron and Tim were visiting the island from Australia and joined us just for a game (more about their exploits later). The umpires (duties shared by Pankaj bhai, Travis and Shabbir) took control of the game early on as Pankaj bhai proudly flaunted his yellow cards and warned the more volatile players from both teams that mischief will not be tolerated.

The Underdogs opened with an unusual opening pair of Srinivas and Tim. This pushes their other batsmen down to bolster the middle order. It was an eventful first over to say the least asMunna opened with a wide. The next ball was a bouncer aimed at Tim which was sent sailing over deep square leg with a hook (that was Tim saying Helloooo Hawaii). A few more wides laterSrini was caught behind (golden duck) by Misa. The first (and Munna's last) over ended with 15 runs and a wicket. Ragu walked in at three (which was a pretty good move I thought) but did not stay around too long getting out to a soft dismissal. He played a really well timed shot off Mark but never finished it and ended up hitting to Lazar at point. Tim then gave Sachin the treatment with 3 more boundaries; He was on a roll. We wanted to see how he does with spin (or maybe the skipper just wanted to give him his 30 asap...;-) ) as I got the ball in the 5th over. I had them on the leash for a bit before Tim hit one over long on for the maximum and reached 32 in 14 balls. Arron (Tim's 15 year old son and one of the better bowlers I've seen in a while) came in and bowled a lovely over showing off his pace and accuracy. He dropped one a little short and a tad bit wide and Raghu jumped on the opportunity to play a lovely cut that fetched him 4. Raghuand Big O were steadily taking them to what looked like a score of 150 as they were 74 off 10 at drinks.

Right after drinks, Mark brought himself on from the beach end and Arron continued from the shell end. They both bowled the next 6 overs giving away just 21 runs. Raghu played and missed a bunch of times as the ball whizzed by his outer edge. He struggled to score and the pressure mounted as he tried to play shots that he wouldn't normally consider. Big O had his share of dot balls but slowly kept gathering singles. He had a couple of big hits before he retired as he hooked a shorter one off Arron to the boundary and hit Lazar for the maximum before retiring at 35 (off 48 balls). Kamran joined his skipper and flicked a lovely one behind square for 4. Raghu tried to hit out and did not even try to get back into the crease when he stepped out to Naveen and missed it by miles and was not so promptly stumped by Misa. Nadeem then holed one to deep mid-wicket where I caught him. We pulled them back after their quick start and gave away just 50 runs the in the last 10 overs thanks largely to the lovely spells by Mark and Arron.

Underdog Billionaires 124 for 4 in 20 overs.

We knew this wasn't a great target and just needed some sensible batting to overhaul it. Misaand myself opened the innings and they had Kamran and Troy sharing the new ball. I played an absolute horror of a batting stroke (to call it even that is blasphemy) and was cleaned up by Troy. Munna walked in at three and had to just set his eye in and rotate the strike andaccumulate his runs as he was in a dry patch so far in the tournament. Well, he was supposed to do that but he upped it by clobbering their bowlers. He started with a beautiful six off Troy over the covers and followed it by blasting Kamran for 15 more runs. He tried to slice one over point off Kamran's last ball but ended up hitting it high up and was caught by Troy who did an astounding job running behind and keeping an eye on the ball which was moving in all directions owing to the wind. Munna provided the momentum we needed and Lazar walked in to replace him. Lazar was due a big score after failing in the first 2 games and boy did he deliver! He took a little while to settle down before throwing the kitchen sink at Raghu. He had a coupla monstrous hits that cleared the longest boundary (behind square batting from the shell end) while travelling against the wind. He and Misa (who was slowly accumulating his runs) provided the steadiness we needed while guiding us to 77 at drinks.

Lazar then retired at 30 bringing our skipper in. Ragu (who predictably came in to bowl) had a go at him and was trying too hard to beat him with his pace. But by then it was a little too late as our target wasn't too big and we were comfortably placed to reach it. This probably dampened his spirits and Mark saw him off without much drama. Misa faced one from him and stepped out to play an insanely wonderful lofted shot over mid-off for 4 (something tells me the bouncer that hit him in the chest a few balls earlier had something to do with the bravado). Tim was bowling his cleverly disguised leggies and was by far their best bowler till then giving away just 6 runs off his three overs. We needed about 23 off the last five overs when Mark happened; He pillaged Tim for 20 runs starting with a monstrous hit that was still on the ascent when it cleared the long-on rope. He hit him for 3 more boundaries on both sides of the wicket and by the end of the over it was almost game over. We finished the formalities in the next over. Mark had scored 25 off 11 balls and Misa had 29 off 42 (he opened the innings and carried his bat). I thought Misa batted very sensibly (for this target) as he held one end up and let the big hitters at the other end do the damage.

Royal Lions 128 for 2 off 16.3 overs

Though it was a competitive target, we never looked out of the game and more importantly (for us anyways), the underdogs never felt like they were in the game. The dad son duo of Tim and Arron performed beautifully and added some zing to the game. The Underdog Billionaires are ousted from the tournament but did a darn good job of playing well as a team and did the best they could over the last few weeks. Ragu's wonderful spells, the skipper's graceful strokes and BigO's acrobatic keeping efforts among other performances will be not be forgotten soon.

Cant wait for the finals next week...!!

Aloha till the preview...