Saturday Cricket Club Blog

Tuesday, March 08, 2005


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Saturday CC v/s Dunford Devils Match Report

Excitement was in the air. The 2005 season was about to begin and Saturday CC had a new Captain. Ashish took over the captaincy and lost his first toss as the Sat CC captain. The field was soaking wet from the rain on Friday and surprisingly Dunford Devils opted to field. Perhaps, they had looked at our tendency to chase well.

Ashish opened the batting alongwith Nadeem. Dunford Devils opening bowlers bowled well. Sudhakar and Shree both had pretty decent overs. Nadeem and Ashish, quite sensibly, played them out without taking undue risks. In the 4th over, with the score on 7, Ashish hesitated just a little bit in responding to a cheeky call from Nadeem and was run-out. Naresh and Nadeem upped the tempo by working some singles and twos. 6 singles were taken in the fifth over. Just when it looked like Naresh and Nadeem will put up a big partnership, Nadeem dragged one on his stumps on the stroke of break. He made a very well compiled 21. The score read 36 for 2 after 10 overs. Naresh and Nadeem had stitched a nice partnership of 29 runs.

Kedar M joined Naresh in the middle. After facing a few decent deliveries, Kedar, as is his wont, tried to steer the ball towards the point/gully region and was caught at widish gully. Madan joined Naresh in the middle. But Naresh mistimed a pull shot to a rank long hop and was caught at deepish square leg. Madan started off as if he meant business by knocking a few singles and lofting one over mid-on for a couple. But he too tried to cut a very short ball and was caught at covers. Saturday CC had lost 4 wickets for 10 runs and the score read 46 for 5.

Shiv and Sanjay started the repair job by playing sensibly and running hard. Shiv was getting his first real opportunity to make a mark. And did he make most of it! He placed the ball beautifully on both sides of the wicket and ran hard. He had good communication with Sanjay as was evident when he just tapped the ball on the leg side and ran a comfortable single. Sanjay too looked in good nick. His trademark drives invariably found the sweet spot of the bat. Just when it looked like the partnership was going to take off, when Sanjay was run out to a direct hit from mid-on. Mid-on was brought in for that over and Sanjay could not beat his throw.

Shankar joined Shiv in the middle but was out without facing the ball as he took off for a non-existent run. Again, Saturday CC had lost 2 wickets in the space of 3 deliveries. Dunford Devils had their tails up and were expecting to wrap up the tail. However, they had no idea about the depth of Saturday CC batting. Kedar B walked in and immediately started scoring singles. Shiv was given out bowled for a very well made 14 while Alan got the best delivery of the innings. Kedar B and Wasim played intelligently and score 8 off the last over to take the score to 85 for 9. Kedar made a run-a-ball 7 while Wasim made 3.

With the ball not travelling on the very wet field, this was a pretty decent score.

Wasim started the proceedings and immediately found his rhythm and line and length. Kedar M complemented him very well and the Dunford Devils openers were already feeling the heat in the second over. On the last delivery of the second over, Sudarshan from Dunford Devils glided the ball in between Shiv who was keeping wickets and Sanjay who was fielding at widish slip. The ball ricocheted off the fence. Sanjay fielded it and flicked it to an ever alert Shiv who broke the wickets.

Wasim kept up the pressure by bowling a great maiden over. Naresh came on as the first change bowler and in his first over, the sixth of the innings, Shankar and Naresh combined to dismiss another batsman - out run-out. Kedar M then effected another run-out by brilliantly picking up and hitting the wickets from square leg. Sanjay followed suit by throwing the stumps down from gully and the Dunford Devils were running themselves out of the match. The score read 28 for 4 at the end of 10 overs.

With the required run-rate mounting, Dunford Devils started to become a little more aggressive. Some cross batted heaves to deep square leg and mid-wicket fetched them some quick runs. But they ran out of luck soon as they tried to hoist Wasim over mid-on. Kedar B ran and took a brilliant catch. It was the fifth wicket of the innings and it was the first for a bowler.

The run-out odyssey continued thereafter as Shankar got in the act and threw down the wickets from square leg. Alan and Madan joined the show. From the point of view of a non-playing observer, it was a combination of injudicious running and some agile and accurate fielding. There were eight run-outs in the innings and 11 in the match (probably a TCA record). Dunford Devils's innings folded at 50 and Saturday CC won by 35 runs.

Nadeem was adjudged the man of the match for his 21 runs. Wasim finished with the figures of 4-1-7-1 while Shankar returned the figures of 4-0-6-0

It was an easy victory over a weak opponent. However, we could have done a better job while batting. Somehow, we need to make sure we don’t get out to those long hops and full tosses. The positives were the emergence of Shiv and the accuracy displayed by the in-fielders.

Nevertheless, it was another win to cherish. Here’s to many more!

Saturday, March 05, 2005

Welcome to Saturday Cricket Club Blog

Today Saturday Cricket Club played the first match of the 2005 TCA season. (beat Dunford Devils by 35 runs).
We will post match reports here so that they are readily available. We can also attach some pictures to match reports if available for that match.

The official Saturday Cricket Club website will continue to be the one maintained by Vishal (on geocities).

-Abhay