The loss against the Tigers was a bitter medicine to swallow. Our batting weakness was completely exposed against a bowling attack which was not express speed but bowled a consistent line and length. A lot of retrospection was done and few changes were effected. Playing XI was changed. Ramesh who went to India on vacation was replaced by Piyush and Anbu came in for Prabhu to strengthen the bowling department . The batting order was changed. The match was in the home ground under lights for the first time. The opponent team Parsippany Sports cricket XI looked like a professional outfit and again they were unbeaten in the tournament just like NJ Tigers. In the pre-match analysis we found that they are a good batting side with really strong hitters.
Karthik won the toss and elected to bat as a decent total on the board will help the bowlers to defend . Remember we are good bowling side now and the batting has failed us twice. As mentioned earlier the batting order was changed. Sriram who opened the innings in the first two matches decided to go down the order to get rid of the rustiness. Jeeva took up the challenge. Karthik was replaced at the top by Saurabh. The conditions were good except for a really strong wind which was throwing up dust at regular intervals.
The Hemants started the proceedings for PCS XI. The first over was quiet. In the second over Saurabh was caught behind of Hemant C. Again a early wicket in the innings. Rahul promoted in the order joined Jeeva. Jeeva looked in good touch and played couple of good shots before he was bowled by Punit. Karthik and Rahul steadied the ship for sometime before something phenomenal started to happen.
The batsmen were running themselves out as if they didnt want to stay in the middle. First it was Rahul who could not reach the non striker's end for a close double. The next ball karthik was given out to a very close run out call. Piyush and Hemchand spent sometime in the middle scoring 5 and 6 respectively. Piyush holed out to Ravikiran off Uppuraj. Again we were staring at a very low score in the break. Pandi who was also rusty as he hasnt played much cricket over last year could not last long. Vishwa and Hemchand were batting together and the team was again bit by the runout bee. Vishwa played a ball straight to the fielder on leg side and before he could react Hemchand joined him at the striker's end. The bowler whipped off the bails and Hem was out for 6.
Sriram and Vishwa played off some balls with Vishwa having most of the strike. He waited for the bad balls and could score couple of fours off Punith. At the slog overs Sriram was run out for 3, Vishwa holed upto Uppuraj. Sabeer and Anbu played off the last few balls and we put on a score of 69/9 in 16 overs. A very mediocre score with the highlight being 4 runouts. Most of them suicidal.
The team spirit was high because we got to a decent total and in the team huddle Karthik asked the team to stick to the basics and do not worry about the strength of PCS XI's batting. This match could be won only by trying different things and to start with Karthik bowled the first over. As always we got a wicket off the first over. Uppuraj was brilliantly caught and bowled by Karthik. This set the tone for us and we fired in some excellent overs. Sabeer opened his spell and was not his self that day. His rhythm was missing and he pitched the balls short on a slow wicket. Saurabh removed the other opener who was brilliantly caught by Hemchand at long on. Jeeva's first over was excellent as he could raise the ball of good length. Rahul completed a sharp chance at short midwicket removing Veerendra.
We had belief that we could win this as 3 quick wickets were down. Nilesh and Anand played sensibly by blocking the good balls and scoring off bad balls. After the 8 over break we came back to our routine of dropping catches couple of them put down at crucial situations. Sabeer then came for his second over with confidence. The team and the captain was expecting a fiery spell from him. Unfortunately as mentioned earlier he was not on rhythm. First couple of balls he pitched short and he was punished. He then bowled couple of wides and started bowling really slow. Remember Manoj Prabhakar bowled offspin against Jayasurya. They scored too many runs in that over. Last ball Nilesh was caught by Pandi but it was too late. Jeeva bowled the next over and the momentum was with the opponent team. Anand finished off the innings with 3 sixes of Jeeva. He scored 33 of 15 scoring a four and a four sixes. It was all over.
We can say we gave a fight but the moment our batting failed this time again against not so great bowling attack but who bowled consistently in good line and length. Our bowlers gave away too many extras something we should correct going forward.
Now please stop the RUNOUTS!!
The plus of the day was Sriram turned 28 on the very same day. The team members took the loss in right spirit and celebrated his b'day with cake, bums and a cheer. Everyone knows what went wrong and the day ended with the chasing of Sabeer by Karthik.
Summary
League - NJSBCL
Match number - 52
Storm Riders
69/9 in 16 ?(Vishwa 12, Karthik 10)
PCS XI
74/4 in 12 Overs ( Anand 33, Nilesh 21)
PCS XI won by 6 wickets
Man of the Match – Anand for his fluent 33 with the bat and a wicket
Playing 11 - Karthik*, Sriram, Piyush, Rahul, Hemchand, Saurabh, Anbu, Vishwa, Jeeva, Sabeer and Pandi.
Team Form factor
Batting – Below Average
Bowling - Below Average
Fielding – Below Average
Team Bonding - Average
Intensity – Average
Match summary prepared by Vishwa Balachandran
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