Very disappointing loss to Homdel on Saturday. Scoring 200+ runs and not 
being able to defend it is not something to be proud of.

Holmdel were on time for a noon start, as we had asked for, and we made
them 
wait. I am as guilty as the rest, as I arrived myself at noon, but the van 
was not there, and by the time it arrived, the matting was nailed down,
and 
our last pair came in, it was closer to 1. This is pretty poor guys. It's 
embarassing to be hosting a match and to have  the opposition there and 
ready to go while our guys are casually strolling in 45 minutes after the 
match was due to begin. Lets work on this.

We won the toss, and I elected to bat on a very hard VCP1 pitch. We were 
fortunate enough to get 13 guys a game, as Holmdel were short two players, 
so we were able to let Kshitiz and Imran Khan play for them, which was
going 
to cost us later! Anyway, their opening bowling to Prabhu and John started 
off well enough, but in their second over, they were well into beginning
the 
day's procession of wides. John was the first to lose his wicket, playing  
across the line to a full toss and having his stumps disturbed. Prabhu 
maintained composure through the loose bowling and was often seen to be at 
full stretch to try and reach some of the wider balls. He was joined by 
Mushtaq and the two posted a solid 49 run stand before Mushtaq played a
very 
casual stroke to be the second wicket to fall. At this point, with Sridhar 
now going in, and our rate already just under five, we were looking good
for 
a big score. Sridhar went in and made his intentions clear. Prabhu shored
up 
one end while Sridhar attacked the bowling. The two posted a 78 run stand 
before Sridhar lost his wicket for a fine 56. And this, of course, 
precipitated our customary middle order collapse, taking us from 154/2 to 
170/6. Fortunately though Suraj maintained composure and played a very
solid 
hand. He was ably partnered by Kunal for a 40 stand and succeeded in
taking 
us past the 200 run mark yet again this season. The batting is looking
good 
for the President's. My only word of caution is that the middle order has 
been caught dozing a couple fo times due to solid early starts. With a
start 
like we had on Saturday, I think that we should have scored 30-odd runs 
more.

At any rate, defending 210 on this wicket, which was good for batting, but 
had plenty of bounce in it, shouldn't have been difficult. But we made it 
so. Imran Fazal and I opened. Both of us got considerable movement out of 
the new ball, perhaps more than we could control, as our wides began
coming. 
Imran Khan opened their batting and looked good, punishing the short stuff 
in particular. A few close edges didn't take, and a couple that did off of 
Imran went down, albeit being difficult chances. One close leg before
shout 
and a missed catch in the gully, but through all of this, plenty of loose 
stuff, as well as the wides, so that when the pizza break came at 10
overs, 
they were 72 for no loss, of which 20 odd had come from wide balls. This
is 
the first match in which I have played in this season in which neither
Imran 
nor I was able to take a wicket with the new ball, and that gave the
batsmen 
the freedom to play their strokes.

Immediately after the break, Kishan dropped one slightly short, but not 
quite short enough to pull, and when Imran went for the shot, he skied it 
behind the bowler and I held the catch. From the other end, I replaced
Imran 
with Prabhu which put some pressure on the batsmen. Prabhu took on wicket, 
and Sridhar took two, but at that point, we failed to capitalize. Extras 
kept coming, fielding was lax, and we struggled to find a fifth bowling 
option that would work, with the 6 overs that were bowled by the combined 
fifth bowler costing us 58 runs. As a partnership built, and they came 
closer to victory, with 35 odd runs to get, I reintroduced Imran and
myself 
into the attack. I took a wicket with the first ball of my second spell. 
Towards the end of that same over, Suraj pulled off a direct hit run out.
A 
maiden over from Imran, and one more wicket from Sridhar and the pressure 
was on them suddenly. Three wickets in hand and 15 needed in 5 overs. We 
needed to be tight, but again, the control problems flared up, and we gave 
them the match pretty much in extras, which by this point were also being 
called for anything that the batsman missed.

Few bright spots on saturday. Fine innigs from Sridhar, Prabhu and Suraj, 
but the need for the rest of the lineup to show composure and build a
larger 
score is needed. Fielding was generally poor. We didn't stop their singles 
and didn't show much urgency. And the bowling was atrocious, as is
evidenced 
by the figures below. Even those who took wickets bowled plenty of extras.
A 
four week layoff may have contributed to this, but then we should expect
to 
see a marked improvement this weekend.


CUCC vs. Holmdel CC, at VCP1
Toss won by CUCC

CUCC innings:
John            b.asif    2(15)
prabhu          b.arvind 42(83)
mushtaq c.?     b.arvind 22(28)
sridhar c.imran b.arvind 56(41)
jay     c. ?    b. sudhir 1(4)
suraj   not out          37(28)
goutam  c. ?    b.arvind  0(3)
kunal           b.sudhir 16(14)
imran   not out           2(3)
kishan   dnb
deepak   dnb
asad     dnb
Total   in 35 overs      209/7
1/23(john), 2/72 (mushy), 3/154(sridhar), 4/155(prabhu), 5/160(jay), 
6/170(goutam), 7/201 (kunal)

Holmdel bowling:
asif 7/0/39/1
asim 7/1/51/0
imran 7/0/34/0
zakir 4/0/30/0
arvind 6/0/31/4
sudhir 4/0/25/2

Holmdel batting:
imran    c. asad b. kishan  29(33)
hari             b. sridhar 29(57)
asif             b. sridhar  9(9)
asim             b. prabhu  18(16)
sudhir           b. asad    22(21)
kshitiz         lbw sridar  30(44)
rizwan        run out        0(2)
errol         not out        1
viswanath     not out        1
Extras (w61, nb4, b2, lb1)   68
Total         in 32.3 overs  210/7

Columbia bowling:

asad       6/0/37/1 (w8,nb4)
imran      7/1/40/0 (w17)
kishan     2/0/24/1 (w14)
prabhu     7/0/47/1 (w9)
sridhar  6.3/0/25/3 (w9)
mush       3/0/22/0 (w1)
kunal      1/0/12/0 (w4)

Holmdel wins by 3 wickets