Back to CUCC Home 2005 Schedule
Sunday 8th May vs. Hicksville CC
Last Sunday we opened up our league season against never before seen foes, Hicksville CC. They looked like a fairly young group of guys, but we've learned never to underestimate.
Given that it was the first league game of the season, we got started on time, though it was a 35 overs match, due to it being mothers day. Madhura won the toss, much to our delight, on a sunny, but ridiculously windy day. Given the wind, it was interesting to see Hicksville's opening bowlers right on line. Gokul had his stumps rearranged in the second over. Nabil and Laks went about doing a little stabilizing act, but the opening bowlers were not giving much at all. The odd ball stayed low, and Laks paid the price,seeing his stumps in disarray at 22. Debutant, Dixit joined Nabil and they two proceeded to set the innings in order. They both took care to build their innings, rotating strike nicely, and finding the boundaries as the new ball pair came off. All told, the opposing bowling was not too bad.
Nabil continued his solid run of form,
nothing up his third (?) fifty of the season. Dixit got used to cricket
in NYC pretty comfortably and the
two had a 96 run stand before Nabil miscued
a shot and departed for a well-made 53. A refreshing feature of this partnership
was the running between the wickets. Venu could be heard muttering from
the boundary that hedidn't want to be at the crease with either one of
these guys!
As is often the case after a solid CUCC
partnership, mini-collapse ensued, with Dixit, Sunil and Venu going in
fairly quick succession. At this point, with about 6 odd overs left, Asad
joined Kunal. The two of them proceeded to test the Hicksville tail end
bowling, and fielding, which succumbed. Kunal and Asad added about 50-60
runs in the last 6 odd overs, with only a couple of boundaries during the
stand. Needless to say, they were both quite winded at the end! But 218
was always going to be a target worth defending. Michael Rao began with
the significant wind at his back, while Madhura 'took one for the team'
and bowled into the wind. Hicksville's rather portly opening bat was the
typical leaue slogger- no foot movement, very solid off side strokeplay,
but no strokes on his legs. He did proceed to dispatch
anything loose from Madhura or Michael
to the boundary. But his partner never did seem comfortable. Madhura finally
put the lefty out of his misery and then the big man skied one that Laks
found himself under, but
could not hold. Forunately, it did not
prove too costly, as Michael used the wind at his back to get one through
a little quicker that the big man played down and onto his stumps. There
ended the real resistance. Prabhu came on from one end, and Asad from the
other, and the rest of the lineup fell like pins. Prabhu bowled into the
wind and had to make an effort to get the ball to reach the batsman, but
once it did, it was clear that they were at sea at how to play him. From
the other end, Asad also used the wind to his advantage, not allowing a
run off the bat from his three overs, and ending the innings on a hat trick.
Nicely pulled together win. We know we'll see stronger, but we saw good basics in place from most of the team.
CUCC win by 144 runs
Comments from Ed regarding CUCC's bowling
figures:
Asad,
well bowled!
However, claiming 4 for nothing with 3
maidens when you've bowled 4 wides is a bit old style...
They've counted against you analysis for
about 20 years now yuou know!
Good win, keep it going.
Ed
Reply from Asad:
Well aware Eddy, of course. But whoever
was keeping score did not include
the wide deliveries in the overs they
occured, for me or anyone else, and
while I know I truly had only one maiden
over, I didn't geel that it was
fair to penalize myself only!!
| Scorecard | Top |
Sunday 15th May vs. Majestic @ VCP1
For the first time this season, Madhura
lost the toss and CUCC was put into bat. Earlier, what was threatening
to be a damp squib of a day for meteorological reasons, almost turned out
to be so for mateoroillogical reasons! What with a bunch of guys, none
of whom
resembled any of CUCCs own past, present,
or those present on the field for that matter expending their kilojoules
by dragging their mat onto the pitch area.
Our fearless skipper would not have any of this and ten minutes of arguments between Leslie, Madhura, and the spokesperson of the unknown invaders ensued with the result being a, by now very, vocal Madhura kicking off their mat and “stamping� his authority on VCP1. The (not so) Majestic innings started with a sharp (considering it was a thick edge) chance to keeper Gokul in the 2nd ball of the day from Michael Rao, that was grassed by the former. But CUCC didn’t have to wait much longer as the same batsman (B.Sukhdev) tried to pull a ball that hurried on to him. The result was a ballooning ball towards short midwicket that was taken effectively this time by our glover. Michael, who had been troubling the batsmen and beating their bats consistently with an astounding hat-trick of maiden overs (one of them with a wicket), received his just reward. What followed was, for all purposes, practical or otherwise, the only partnership that lived up to the oppositions name. Their # 3 batsman (Rashid Chaudhary) played with obvious ease from his first scoring shot which was a well-placed boundary between point and gully. Ten more mostly well-timed and mostly played square on the off shots followed from his bat as he raced towards his 50, while the other opener (S.Sukhdev) contented himself with playing watchfully while rotating the strike to his relatively more flamboyant partner. As the ball stopped seaming away, things were seemingly getting away from CUCC. Madhura had to leave the field to catch a breath and none of the changes in bowling seemed to work before, during, and immediately after his break. All that changed with a double-bowling change. What was being discussed between the keeper and first slip fielder, Venu, was corroborated by the skipper as Prabu and Lakshmanan were brought into the attack. Prabu, though starting a bit wayward in his line, quickly got back into his rhythm and was troubling the opener from the word go. His partner also had a few words of advice for him, none of which were to go after the bowling!
Quickly getting into his stride, Lakshmanan
sent down a maiden over for his second one. He struck immediately after
that with what might have been the most crucial of his bagful of wickets.
A well-set Rashid tried to force his agenda further by going for a wild
heave down the leg-side but only managed a mistimed shot that ballooned
up for Prabu at square-leg to swallow with utmost ease. Prabu wanted his
turn in the limelight as the game saw its first turning point. His inviting,
yet troubling line and length, combined with Lakshmanans wicket-an-over
policy, meant that the scorers could put their feet up (and keep their
hands down!) for the next few overs. S.Sukhdev, who had been adding 1s
and 2s to his piggy bank all this while, wanted to cash in big time, only
to be stumped, rather
inelegantly. The bowling partnership gave
CUCC a stranglehold on the match. Michael, Madhura, Kunal, and Anwer finished
off the rest of the innings, with Kunal taking a brilliant, diving catch
off his own bowling just nanometers off the pitch. That was the team’s
first glimpse of his talent for the day. CUCC had managed to snatch back
the advantage by wrapping up the Majestic innings for 165.
Needing just above 4 RPO to win the 40-over
match, CUCC started shakily with the irregular opening combination of Venu
and Prabu. Prabu fell early to an out-swinger from bowler #1, T. Rodney.
Gokul, the originally intended opener, walked in as a virtual opener at #3 unaware of the fact that he possessed the best ticket in town to witness a scintillating and dismissive knock filled with extremely well-timed, aggressive and elegant strokes from Venu that followed. The next few overs (and they were just a few) saw Venu pull, drive, and over-drive his way to 42 from a meager 28 deliveries. One such shot that looked to have cleared the long-on boundary (but was called a four) received special appreciation from the opening bowler who seemed to have been singled out by Venu for extra-special treatment. Just as the bowlers were giving up, a mistimed shot saw the curtains being pulled on what, in hindsight, seems as the first half of an entertaining Bollywood movie because what followed was a period of intermission which included a surprise fashion show which displayed CUCCs cricket gear to the opposition and handful of spectators. T.Small made the batting lineup smaller than expected as CUCC slumped from 47/1 to 61/6 in 15 overs. Gokul, who seemed to be holding his own at the other end, fell prey to he same bowler as he tried to get cute with an attempted jab down to thirdman that kissed the bat and lodged safely into the keepers glove. This brought in the skipper to the wicket who seemed to have made a confident start that was not enough. In the fourth delivery that he faced, he lost his breath to an intended drive to long on which took off with the new-found air and landed safely in the hands of the fielder there. Kunal joined Sunil, who was playing cautiously thus far, but not for long. An intended stroke down the leg-side saw him take his foot off the crease for a moment which was enough for the quick and slick (not adjectives that can be attributed to his batting as an opener) wicket-keeper to stump him. As the match seemed to be racing to an imminent defeat for CUCC and as silence prevailed in the pavilion, Anwer walked in to join Kunal. This signaled the beginning of the second period of entertainment. Of course, no one knew this at that time. The pair mixed aggression with extremely sensible cricket, taking the 1s and 2s at more than run-a-ball. All this, of course, would not have been possible but for the constant and extremely mathematically accurate (eg: shouts of 15 more and under-18 when there 20+ overs to go, 2 wickets in hand, and 40+ runs to get) cheers from the centurion of the previous day, Sriram from the pavilion. The pair in the middle, wise beyond their years, knew exactly what they had to do and went about doing it with utmost disregard to the bowling or fielding changes that the opposing captain had in store for them. The score-board was working overtime in the runs section. As the target was less than 25 runs away, the duo that had given the bowlers the (maje)stick so far, looked tired and exhausted and cut down risky shots in an unbelievably mature fashion. The victory came in the 29th over with 2 wickets to spare, one of which was Michael Rao, who had been padded up since the 15th over and had possibly played more balls in practice outside the field than bowled in the middle in that time. Eyes that were shut in disbelief, disappointment, or just tiredness from a hangover, opened up and focused on the goings on in the middle. Hands that were busy packing kit-bags for the day started clapping in appreciation. Legs that had gone numb from sitting at the same spot suddenly rushed towards the jubilant batsmen at the crease as CUCC had completed what was referred to as the best victory while chasing by a veteran player and current skipper.
Majestic-Sunday Vs CUCC-Sunday
| Scorecard | Top |
CUCC: CUCC v Kings of Kings- not so royal an affair
With the heavy rains coming Saturday night, I was pleased to wake to some sun on Sunday morning. However, the day was still chilly and the rains did come, giving the Kings of Kings (KOK), just what they wanted.
We knew we were off on the wrong foot when our opposition was asking us midweek to handle the matting for a match that they were hosting. Then Sunday morning we show up to find that they are three guys short. Madhura wins the toss and from the very first ball, Gokul whips one through midwicket and he and Michael Rao run two easy runs, but when contemplating the third, the communication breaks down and both end up going towards the same end, and Michael was out without playing a ball. Five deliveries later, Gokul was adjudged leg before to one that he felt hit him well forward and outside of off stump. But their 'neutral' umpire had no doubt. Suddenly, with two CUCC wickets down in the first over KOK thought their day might be worthwhile. Short lived joy.
Dixit joined Prabhu and the two settled down, and then proceeded to build a solid partnership, adding 116 for the third wicket. By the time Dixit's wicket fell, for a well deserved 50, KOK's spirits had gone as well. And as the first few drops of rain fell, they ran off the ground as if we had been hit by a hurricane. Much to our surprise, as all other matches on VCP were still proceeded. Much acrimony and angst followed. In all, about a 30 minute delay ensued, at the end of which they reluctantly agreed to get back on the field, asking for a 30 overs match. Madhura was quite upset by this point, but we had to make concessions if we wanted some cricket.
Prabhu completed his well deserved 50 as well and then Kunal and Asad joined for their late overs flurry to take us to 199 in 30 overs. Not a bad total to defend. If we had the chance...
KOK came off the field, and refused to go back out to bat, saying that it was too dangerous. As we all assembled first on the sidelines and then in the middle, we noticed one of their guys leaving. To spare the details, we decided to split the points only because we didn't want to have to deal with this group again.
In the end, as shame, as a fine batting
performance from Dixit and Prabhu was wasted. Who ever has the book can
send the card....
| Top |
League game against Regals last Sunday on a hot, sunny day at VCP. Madhura was buying food or taking a dump or something so Gokul, being the VC, decided to toss. Of course, he lost and we trudged out into the field. Madhura and Dileep opened the bowling with neither of them having much luck. Regals' openers didn't seem too keen on playing many shots or running hard between the wickets so despite the pitch not giving much assistance and Dileep complaining that he couldn't get any swing, the batsmen were not really troubling the scorer that often. Venu came on and bowled surprisingly well for his first 5 overs, before being carted for 12 in his last 6 balls. Dileep ended his spell very well, claiming that he was getting some reverse swing (I'm not convinced). Ajay bowled his usual bad ball every over, but was generally tidy. Unfortunately for Prabhu and Madhura, they were on the receiving end of some lusty hitting in the final overs (see below). Sunil, however, managed to tie down the other end with some effective medium pace.
Despite our inability to take wickets, their innings was meandering to a mediocre score until their big number 5 came in and gave Prabhu and Madhura a bit of stick. Unfortunately, he was dropped a couple of times. Once early on by Dileep - a particularly elegant piece of fielding that saw Dileep flailing about on his back on the mid-wicket boundary trying to prevent the ball going for four ("I may have dropped the catch but I saved one run!") - and once in the last over by Michael. In between he put on 40-odd with 3 or 4 sixes and the rest in fours. Still, they ended up with a gettable total of 201 from their 35 overs.
Our batting started with Prabhu and Sriram, and pretty early on it was clear that Regals' bowling was as run-of-the-mill as their batting. Our openers took the shine off the ball and Prabhu was disappointed to get out shortly there-after, reasoning that he blew a chance to score some runs. Michael went into bat for the first time this season and liked what he saw, too. Unfortunately, after swatting one ball to the boundary at wide mid-off, he got a thick edge trying to cut a ball off their tidy, but not threatening, off spinner (who, incidentally, had opened the batting for Regals and scored 70). Gokul also came and went quickly and it was up to Sunil and Sriram to steady the ship. At this stage Sriram was looking comfortable and playing some nice strokes, and Sunil settled in quickly and did the same. Unfortunately Sriram got out on 40, missing a chance to make his second half-ton for the weekend. Venu came and went due to a mix up while taking a second run, and Hassan went in to take on the bowling - which he did for a solid 16. Unfortunately, both he and Sunil (39) were out shortly after and what was a gettable total was becoming more difficult. The idea that the target should have easily been within reach was underscored by the fact that, having lost Ashok and Madhura, Dileep and Ajay in a last wicket partnership were able to get within 16 with four deliveries left. Needing to go for it, Dileep lifted his head and the innings ended. However, if one of the top order batsmen had stayed around to convert a start into a fifty, or instead of getting a few scored 20 or 30, then making the last 20 runs wouldn't have been a problem.
One of those games that got away.
PS Our opinion of the umpiring is not printable. There was one fairly clear nick that wasn't given, but that was made up for by another "edge" off the thigh that was given. There were at least one 7 ball over from Venu (The leg umpire told him, the scorers told him he just chose to ignore them), and there were a couple of long overs in our innings, too. Whatever, the best I can say is the umpiring didn't affect the result.
| Scorecard | Top |
Yesterday was pretty dismal so I’ll keep this short. Madhura lost the toss and we fielded for the second week in a row. Only two bowling figures are worthy of mentioning: Venu took 2/26 off 6 & Asad took 2/21 off 4. As for the fielding, well, um, we didn’t drop any catches. Better do some ground fielding practice, though. One of Melbourne’s batsman got 50 - the slow, short guy who we managed to play into some rare form by the end of the innings.
There seems to have been some mistake in the book with the extras. I mean, Gokul had a less that stellar day with the gloves, but 45 byes? I’m fairly sure it was 45 wides and 21 byes. Either way, the top scorer for the opposition didn’t have a bat in his hand!
The one bright spot in the day was a peach of an innings from Nabil. He scored a lovely 78 off only 58 balls including 3 sixes and 9 fours. Of the rest, Dixit batted well for 23 in a 67 run stand with Nabil, and Sunil, trying valiantly in the latter overs to get us close to their target, hit a well made 26.
Anyway, we had a pretty strong team and
unfortunately let another one get away that probably shouldn’t have.
| Scorecard | Top |
Well, as most of you know it was a bloody hot weekend in NY and CUCC suffered two losses as well as sunburn and heatstroke. I wasn’t there on Saturday, but I understand the team had a similar fate to the League team on Sunday – chasing leather for 3 hours in the heat and then failing to score the mammoth total required to win. I’m not going to expend much more energy on yesterday’s match except to say that good fielding and catching kept us in the game while they batted until about the 20th over. After that, the wheels fell off, a couple of missed chances, a plumb LBW not given and one thing led to another and we were chasing 240-odd to win. What a bitch! Some form shown in our batting, but the energy and concentration required to turn a 20 or 30 into a 60 or 70 had been drained out of everyone while we baked in the early afternoon.
Whoever was doing the scorecard at the
end (Madhura! The skipper!) didn’t take down many details of their batting/our
bowling, except for Ajay’s over, which I’m sure he’d prefer to forget.
I think I remembered all the catches taken, at least. Let me know if you
can fill in any addition details.
| Scorecard | Top |