SJSU Stars lead SatCC romp

Saturday CC cantered to an easy victory in their last round-robin match of the TCA Open 2005 First round. The easy victory was primarily achieved due to the batting exploits of two SJSU friends. One is a SatCC veteran of 3 years while the other is starting to make his mark in his first year as a SatCC player.

SatCC was facing WisdenCC this weekend, and were put into bat after WisdenCC won the toss. The team went in with a new look batting order with a view to trying a few combinations before the Knockout rounds. Two SJSU pals, Parag and Viral were asked to
open the innings.

Both started sensibly, picking up ones and twos, placing the ball into the gaps and running hard. The runrate was kept healthy and by the end of the 4th over the score was 21. After this, there was a shift in gears, as Parag started taking toll of the WisdenCC bowling. He hit two delightful boundaries, one to deep square leg, and the other to deep mid-wicket. Parag hit the ball cleanly and his drives were a treat to watch. He was also helped by WisdenCC fielders dropping a couple of cathces, and he cashed in.
Viral was a study in contrast, as he was content nudging the ball into gaps for singles. He had a lot of deft glances and cuts which helped rotate the strike, and never allowed any sort of rhythm for the opposition bowlers. Occasionally he had a few aerial hits over midwicket region.

Parag and Viral literally batted WisdenCC out of the game by the time their partnership came to a halt,thanks to a stunning one handed catch at deep-midwicket. Parag, who scored 30, was the victim. By then, the two had put on 60, easily the biggest opening partnership for SatCC (most probably the biggest partnership for any wicket in this club's young history) in just under 10 overs.

With this platform, it was always going to be easy on the following batsmen with no real pressure on them. Kedar M was sent next to join Viral. He however tried to hit a lofted shot without much conviction and was caught for 6. Viral followed soon after trying to up the runrate and was bowled for an astutely compiled 24.

Shankar and Madan then settled down a bit for an over or so, content with ones and twos, before they accelerated a bit. The two of them ran hard and hit a lot of 2s.
Both seemed to tire just as the partnership was beginning to look dangerous. Madan's call for a non-existent single caused the fall of Shankar's wicket, who was getting into form. He scored 10. The two put on 39 runs in 5 overs.

Madan scored 27 runs with his slogs and heaves. The remaining batsmen threw their bats around and SatCC ended up with 124 for 8 after 20 overs. While the Final score was really good, the team should have been able to put up a few more after the fantastic start.

The target was always going to be out of reach for WisdenCC, given SatCC's bowling performance the last few matches. However, on this day, the bowling was not upto the mark, and the WisdenCC openers were off to a decent start. Both Abhay and Shankar were finding it difficult to put the balls in the right areas and runs were easy to come by. But the huge target meant WisdenCC needed to take risks, and one risk too many resulted in a Run out.

This was just the fillip SatCC needed as Abhay got two quick wickets on consecutive balls in the very next over. This seemed to remove any fight that was left in the opposition ranks. Ranjeet and Kedar B replaced the opening bowlers and both got a wicket each. Kedar M, who came on to bowl after the break was spot on (despite a 3+ week break) and looked the only truly impressive bowler. He got a couple of wickets.

The innings soon folded for 53, leaving no doubt about the difference between the two sides in terms of talent and experience. The highlight was a nice diving catch by Viral at square leg. Shiv, another SJSU dude, had a couple of catches and a stumping to round off the incredible performances of his other two college-mates.

Parag was adjudged Man of the Match.

As we approach the next rounds of this very important and prestigious tournament, we need to iron out the flaws and shortcomings in our game. We still give away too many extras while bowling. We still let other team's lower order batsmen to get runs against us.

While Parag, Ashish, Shiv, Kedar M, Madan have been amongst runs, we are yet to hit peak batting form. Sanjay, Naresh, Kedar B, Nadeem have not spent a lot of time in the middle while batting and we need to get these people a lot of batting practice. We do have a more than adequate squad stength, with the luxury to choose from amongst 15 really good cricket players. We need to make sure every one of us is fit and fine, ready to contribute when called upon.

The real excitement begins in 2 weeks time. In the meantime, Hope all of you have a wonderful Labor Day weekend.

cheers,
Madan