Report by Mayank
Summary: Tracy: 176 all out in 43 overs
Lost to Dynamos: 177/5 in 32.5 overs
Innings 1: Proceedings to this Sunday started with an overcast sky clearing up just in time for the game to begin. New face Dynamos included known but fresh faces as Atif & Arun played for Blazers, Sunder succumbing to a freakish Bike accident. Saideep, Sohail, and Babaji were the ‘new’ additions to the playing XI for this weekend in place of those 3 fine gentlemen.
The game started with D-mos losing the toss and being invited to field first where Sohail (# 786) and Deepak started day’s proceedings where wind helped both bowlers move the new ball. With geese partying around the baseball ground on the street end made fielding pretty miserable for a few overs until they decided to leave the ground and go elsewhere. During the 1st session runs were coming pretty easy for Tracy as they were scoring at more than 6 an over rate, until Deepak delivered a peach of a delivery and foxed Anoop (Tracy’s opener) making him edge one to Sanket’s awaiting hands behind the stumps. Shortly #786 joined the party when he made the first down batsman to drive the ball on the full with an uppish cover drive giving a sharp catch to Giri. Then #786 followed up with his banana swing and uprooted other opener’s stumps and Tracy’s misery started from there onwards as runs started to dry up and pressure began to mount. They went from scoring at a brisk of 7 r.p.o to about 4 r.p.o at 15 overs mark where the scoreboard read 63/4. The first session saw some sharp bowling by pacers (Deepak, Sohail and Santosh) keeping the ball on the off stump and Baba tightening up the runs on a lush Ortega field featuring smaller boundaries this time around (A sight unseen, yes we know).
After the break, during 2nd session Sunnyvale’s glaring weakness of not being able to catch the ball started to show as one of Tracy’s batsmen gave our guys plenty of chances to catch the ball. At one point the ball went up high and there were 4 guys around the ball with ‘No communication’ and the ball ended up falling in between all 4 folks. 2nd session also featured the best reaction to a catch where #786 was found ducking from the ball as if he was being attacked by the aliens in the sky LOL. But hey, the good part was that Tracy batsmen were so frustrated that their long balls couldn’t fetch them boundaries that they so desired led them to not be able to score runs as they may have pleased and that resulted them scoring at about 4 r.p.o this session as well which by Ortega standard is pretty decent as we all know. These runs were mostly kept in check with Neeraj’s good flight-y bowling (poor guy missed getting a wicket on a 1st ball he bowled because a short (in height) umpire missed the catch as Neeraj’s follow through ended up in front of the umpire). Just before the 2nd session was about to end, Tracy batsmen Ghayoor and Yasir got involved in a big mix-up leading Yasir to succumb to a run out after a decently long innings.
That wicket was the sigh of relief that D-mos needed as they got their act together during the 3rd session and held on to everything that was popped up in the air. The catches involved Sanket being super sharp behind the wickets as he held on to all the chances he got with his ninja like reflexes, Deepak holding on to the long ball at deep mid-wicket, Saideep’s diving brilliance in the field, Santosh’s rocket throws to name a few. Giri came in to the bowling attack towards the end of Tracy’s innings and cleaned up their tail without letting it wag any longer. Ultimately, bowlers did their job to the point while Sanket uncle contributed with excellent keeping behind the stumps.
Innings 2: D-mos started off their innings with a BANG BANG combo of Raj bhai who got back to action after a while and delicate stroke player Rohan on the other side. D-mos made their intentions clear from the get go where they defended good balls and dispatched the bad ones to the fence without skipping a heartbeat. Both gentlemen ran hard in between the wickets and kept the scoring rate around 6 r.p.o and set a perfect platform for the rest of the team to follow. 1st wicket fell at 51 runs on the board in the 9th over when Raj bhai misjudged the bounce of Abid Farooq who bowls same loopers as our very own Chetan bhai, if not more and surely enough that bowling brings in wickets.
After Raj bhai departure, Babaji and Rohan steadied the ship a bit until Baba strained his right oblique muscle trying to pull another looper from Abid just before the 1st break. It was evident by his condition that he wouldn’t last too long in the middle. Few overs passed as runs kept coming and then Baba tried to push a ball on the off over point region only to find a fielder; in went Giri who was determined to make sure we are not going to lose this game after the stage was set by Raj bhai and Rohan. Giri and Rohan milked the bowlers for singles and doubles until Rohan also succumbed to Abid’s loopy deliveries.
Sanket produced a quick fire 11 runs of 8 balls before falling to another loopy delivery of you know who. D-mos sat pretty at 94/4 at 20 overs mark with their heart in their hands as regular fall of wickets was not much of an amusing part. In went Santosh and started to slaughter Abid bowling from the word ‘GO’. His quick fire produced valuable 21 runs before he fell to a horrendous LBW decision off of Abid’ bowling. It all seemed same again where D-mos were on a cusp of victory but far enough as has been the story of the season; as we have watched the games slipped away. But not this day! Not on Giri’s watch. After Santosh’s departure, the scoreboard read 133/5 in 25 overs; in walked Mayank who has been plagued with bad form throughout the season; and chose this day to return to form after last week’s signs of life. Abid during his last over after getting Santosh’s wicket tried his best to add the damage with his 5-for bagged, but Mayank was in no intensions to let Abid add to his tally of wickets for the day.
As Abid finished his quota of overs, and D-mos needed 44 runs to win; Giri and Mayank launched final assault on Tracy where both milked the bowlers for singles, doubles and launched Tracy’s attack to the fence whenever they felt like it. The innings ended with a hit to the fence which sent Tracy packing to their long drive home. At the end, D-mos cherished a long awaited victory and celebrated with beer!
Please see the scorecard below:
https://www.crichq.com/#matches/290845/2nd_innings
Positives: Strong bowling and Batting effort
Negatives: No support for team mates during fielding. Folks need to support their bowlers and fellow fielders on the field. Not everyone will catch the ball each time, but if someone drops a ball; we should lift them up by encouraging them. Sticking together and not letting the shoulders drop is the recipe to win these games. Also, please let the field setting to the captain and the bowler. IF you have suggestions, talk to the skip after an over in completed, not during the over.
Last thought: Got 3 games in the season left – let’s kick ass and sign off on a winning note.
Sunnyvale Cricket Club 