Convincing victory to kick-start Summer 2009

Full Scorecard
by Rishit Shetty

Victoria's new captain, Sudhakar lost his first toss and the Victorians were asked to bat.

A well paced start by Sudhakar and Rajan. Focus was finishing the quota of 45 overs. Sudhakar fell in the 7th over to a delivery which probably 8 out of 10 times he would have dispatched to the boundary: a full delivery on the leg, to the naked eye which appeared to be going down the leg. Soon after, Kittu became a victim of a horrendous decision by the attention-craving "please keep waving to me" umpire. Rajan who was well set followed soon trying to pull a short ball which did not come onto the bat as fast as he expected. Word in the camp was "are we witnessing another land slide??".

Ravi and Sakthish had different ideas though. Excellent drives through the cover region, sweeps over wide mid on, straight drives, pull over mid wicket and good running between the wickets came next and Victoria's ship was steadied. In fact, it had picked up momemtum. Ravi fell caught behind, chasing a widish delivery; one rare mistake ended an excellent innings 5 runs short of what would have been a well deserved half century. Sakthish completed his half century and in his own shy way did show the bat to the Victoria camp. Nagaraj appeared a little off his own self but still managed 23 runs at close to run a ball in a 45 run partnership with Sakthish. Sakthish fell a little after his fifty, unselfishly trying to up the tempo of the game. It was time for some serious onslaught now. University had no idea that Victoria's new sensation: a lean and not too tall Nalin was going to crush their bowling attack. Surprisingly, Rishit who has been maintaining a 8 run average in the previous season gave him some serious company. Good length balls disappeared out of the park, ones were turned into twos, bowlers had their shoulders down, fielders didnt do much; except for collecting the ball from out of the ground and throwing it back to the bowler. University felt like they were hit by a bolt. The score soared from 190 in 38 to 277 in 45. Bharath joined in the party with only 4 balls left in the final over. Sunil did the bulk of the scoring in the score book while Madhu and his dog enjoyed the Candy from the Mexican guy. Couple of lady supporters in the camp were given a good batting display.



Nagaraj and Sudhakar opened the bowling attack. Fielding proceedings started off well. Ravi looked comfortable behind the wickets and an excellent diving stop by Bharath at square leg seemed promising. Sluggishness and over-confidence had sunk in tho. Two straightforward chances put down. However, Nagaraj struck soon and removed two of the openers. Rishit and Madhu were bowling in tandem. Madhu maintained a good line around the off stump but was unfortunate not to pick up any wickets. Rishit picked up two key senior University players at the other end and probably sealed the deal. Nalin was set to begin his demolition act. In between, Rajan deceived a batsman in flight and got him smartly stumped by Sakthish, there was a mix up leading to a run-out, Sudhakar chipped in with a wicket which he would like to believe was a key one. A late 8th wicket parternship developed but it was never going to be enough. Kittu bowled his leg spinners. Rishit tried his hand at fielding at short leg, but soon after running for his life while the batsman attempted a pull shot gave up the idea. Bharath got into his rhythm after a couple of overs and picked up a set batsmen with a nice away going delivery and was generating decent pace. Nalin, like he always does, ended the proceedings by disturbing the furniture and ended up with 2 wickets.

Overall, a convincing victory for Victoria. Batsmen stuck to their job. Fielding was disappointing (dropped catches by Sakthish and Nalin, a finger tip chance by Rishit and misfields by Ravi, Sunil and Rishit(half chance again,,aha!!) on the boundary). Bowling was not at its best, but at a required run rate of over 7 and top order cleaned up, it was more than enough to eliminate any chances of University even coming close to the target. Last but not the least, commendable job by Sunil in organizing everything, Sudhakar in organizing the team and the honest supporters in the tent and in the email threads on the groups.

Man of the match: Sakthish for his responsible fifty, 4 dismissals behind the wicket and also for juggling three keepers in the same match :) Going purely by statistics, Nalin is also a serious contender for the MoM but the pressure on Sakhtish's shoulders and the platform he set for the rest of the players gives him the edge.