Dynamos fight hard just to fall short of Fresno’s middle order

Report by Mayank

Summary: Dynamos: 104 all out in 35 overs (Abhi Singh 4 wkts, Kuldip 3 wkts)

Lost to Fresno CC: 107/6 in 24.4 overs (Kuldip 30+*, Baldev 30+)

Dynamos innings: Dynamos started the day being on the ground on time and people taking care of their assigned duties: Setting 100 m boundaries, drinks, chairs, pre-game warmups and catching. Umpires for some reason decided to not show up to the game until 15 minutes past the game time. Giri, the super skip won the toss and without a second thought decided to bat on a day that had a nice warm and cozy feeling to it.

Sanket and our super skip opened the Innings for Dynamos on a cautious note; determined to not let history repeat itself from last time we encountered Fresno. With runs coming off Sanket’s bat and Giri playing with super cool head, Dynamos were sitting pretty with 11 runs on the board in 7 overs without a loss. With a bit of pressure building up on the batsmen to score runs, Sanket decided to let loose a little only to find sharp Lavi Sekhon’s hands and walked back to the dugout. Venky went in as a 1^st down bat and from the get go started to middle the ball. Giri and Venky started to rotate the strike and started to steadily build a partnership that has been lacking in the Dynamos camp. A few lusty blows by Venky, who on one occasion cleared the 100 m boundary set up with ease; as the confidence grew, both batsmen started to take charge and went after Fresno’s ordinary bowling attack.

Having confidence is good, but getting over confident is bad: After hitting a couple of juicy doubles, Giri decided to take on the bowler with a missing contact lens and attempted to hit a maximum only to find fielder. His innings came to an end after a very stable and steady opening stand that provided a perfect platform for rest of the team to chip in and do their part. However the Cricket Gods were not in the mood to see Sunnyvale Dynamos’ batsmen make merry. Maybe they had seen enough the previous day from Blazers; so they decided to pout instead of a smiley face as Dynamos’ middle order was skittled out cheaply. Middle order flop show featured yet another duck from Mayank, whose confident straight drive was snatched by the bowler. Venky’s innings came to an end next over to a bowled ricocheted of his pads. Hari was caught at slips to leg spin the very next ball and Arun was adjudged LBW by an umpire because he thought Arun stood on the imaginary 5^th leg stump when the ball hit his pads.

Atif, Dynamos best batsmen thus far took the game to the opposition, but didn’t last too long either. With a little bit of cheating/non sportsmanship-like behavior on Fresno’s end for claiming a run out after Raj hit a ball to the boundary and fielder’s body language gave the impression of one. He threw the ball mid way and then signaled not a boundary. By this time another fielder caught Raj in the middle of the pitch chatting with Santosh about the shot he just hit and had to see the bails being taken off. Wickets kept falling and Dynamos batting collapse gave them only 104 on the board to defend.

Fresno Innings: Dynamos took the field with full energy and raring to go and defend the total by making Fresno CCs life miserable and what a way they started! Atif set up his field based on his needs and drew 1^st blood on the very first ball with opener trying to whack 1^st ball out of the park only to give a catch behind the stumps at short 3^rd man. Four balls later another wicket to Atif’s super bowling that featured a sharp straight catch by Giri who was standing somewhere in between silly point and point position. Dynamos smelled what was cooking because Fresno was down 2 wickets with 1 run on the board in the very 1^st over; a dream start indeed. Atif and Eshwar made Fresno’s batsmen life a living hell for the 1^st five overs.

First change featured Santosh and his express bowling that saw 1^st ball wicket again of a lefty batsman who hit a screamer on the full only to find Atif’s gaddedar  (spongy) shoulder and there was a super catch! Dynamos smelled victory in the air as everyone was charged up, full of energy on the field. Fresno’s wickets kept on tumbling one after the other and at 1^st break scoreboard read 39 runs for 5 wickets.

Defending a low score, and seeing Fresno’s struggles; Dynamos were upbeat and were gunning for the victory. After the break, Ab Singh from Fresno decided to take on the bowling and started to slog anything on the full. Atif got him plumb LBW, but a horrendous umpiring decision gave him the life that he needed to finish the game. After the break, fielding became lethargic and featured a few ‘may be catches if fielders judged correctly and ran to the ball’ which were enough to see Fresno see themselves to victory.

At the end of the day, Dynamos fought really hard, just to fall a few inches short of what would have been a season defining victory.

Us as a unit, need to work on our batting and support each other instead of playing for ourselves or just show up to bat. Everyone goes through bad days, please don’t let your guard down and try to bounce back in other areas. If your batting isn’t working, give your 120% in the field or bowling or whatever your skip asks of you. All best for the next game boys! Chin-up.

Thanks