A Big Thank You to Abhijeet S for ferociously defending Northwood for us and standing his ground in face of some abuse. Thanks buddy and sorry for not being there on time. Thanks to Chandru for being second on the ground and giving Abhi S some much needed support and also getting us some amazing tea. Today we had the pleasure of having two different varieties of flavorful tea. Satish got us some tea too. So we drank tea after the first innings, then after the second innings and then again after the second match lazily sitting on the grass by the Northwood parking lot. Feeling nostalgic we even called Prasad who promptly picked Prudhvi’s call. It was nice chatting with him after a long time.
We started the first game around 7:25 with 8 players. Winning the toss Abhi S chose to bat. Pankaj F started the innings with some fine drives scoring 4-5 runs from the first over. Unfortunately due to some misunderstanding with the non-striker he was caught shy of a few feet of his crease. Running to his left off his own bowling, Shrikanth quickly stopped the ball and threw to the keeper. Abhi S followed Pankaj F with some controlled batting. He played his shots very cautiously and came with the determination to stay back and play till the end. He was supported well by Raj. After 6 overs they made some 29 odd runs (for some reason I feel it was just 19 runs). Pankaj F opened the bowling attack He bowled some gems not giving enough time for the batsman to think. Raj and Abhi S too bowled very well. Standing in the covers Raj took a wonderful low catch to get rid of Amit. the ball nearly disappeared from everybody’s line of vision. The fielders jumped up in joy when they saw Raaj emerge from his squatting position with the ball safely secured in his palms and beaming ear to ear. Pankaj B got out early. So it was upto Chandru and Shrikanth. They both played very well rallying their innings, rotating strikes and scoring singles and twos. They needed 7 odd runs from the last over. Senthil took the ball from Abhijeet and went to his runup mark. Shrikanth was in great touch, he was lifting the ball effortlessly. It was going to be interesting to see a faceoff between S&S. Similar to earlier shots, in this over too Shrikanth went over the close-in fielder’ head and scored a couple of singles. He ensured that his tem was in the running till the last ball. Shrikanth and Chandru did their best to send the ball over the ropes, but Senthil proved to be a wily customer and he kept them guessing. Hardik, who batted only one ball (the last ball of the innings) tried his luck too. He was able to lift one over the mid-ff and he and Snrikanth made a dash but it was a bit late and Abhi S and his team won the match comfortably.
While Abhi S and Shrikanth were deciding the new team, as we had more players walk in during the first game, the rest were enjoying Chandru’s tea. Passing hot cups of tea in the dugout the players formed small groups having private conversations trying to avoid direct sun. It was about 8:20 and the conditions were still manageable. I think since Abhi S won the first game he was adjudged winner of the toss and he chose to bat. Sarvanan opened the innings with Sentil bowling from the non-striker’s end. The sun had a funny angle shining directly into the batter’s eyes and was especially bothersome to the left hander. This distraction proved fatal when Senthil ended the over with a yorker. Sarvanan couldn’t gauge the ball properly and got his stumps knocked down. Abhi S’ middle order did well. But today’s star batsman was Satish. Seeing him bat (and then bowl later), everybody was eager to drink tea from his thermos. They all wanted to get a taste of his medicine. He didn’t hold himself back today and was sending the ball on one aerial route after another. He hit 2-3 fours, missed 1-2 sixes by a whisker. Raj, Abhi S, Pankaj F and Prudhvi gave him good company. Amit S bowled very well. He kept Raj on the edge. He pushed the envelope a couple of times when he bowled just inside the cone . His variations were difficult to guess. On one occasion though he was not able to fox Prudhvi, who moved to the off, to give himself some room to pull the ball in the third man region. Despite Amit bowling a slower ball, Prrudhvi was still able to time it very well and get 2 runs from the shot. Satish’s blitzkrieg happened in the initial and then again towards the end. After 9 overs the scoreboard read 55 dd runs. Both Senthil and Srkanth Sentjil ran towards the ball to get a shot at bowling to the last batsman and stop the run flow. Since they couldn’t decide who would bowl they decided to split and bowl 3 balls each. This turned out to be quite lethal. The batsman couldn’t settle down to play the shots. Both the bowlers bowled a tight line and conceded just 4 runs in the over. Abhi S and his team had made 59 runs. We saw some good running between the wickets by Raj and Satish and some great bowing by Amit. While Satish dominated the first innings, the second innings was dominated by some excellent running between the wickets. Pankaj B and Senthil were the main pair who forced the fielders to be on their toes and quickly release the ball after stopping. Pankaj B started with a big hit. And then continued to score singles and doubles. His running between blossomed when Sentil joined him in the middle. They added some valuable runs. After Pankaj B retired Senthil paired well with Amit and Srikanth. On one occasion Senthil and Shrikanth ran 4 runs thanks to some overthrows. Amit, like Prudhvi and Senthil, relied on pulling in the third man region and was quite successful. The top order and the middle order batted really well and in the last 4 overs they needed just 8 runs to win. By now the heat was becoming unbearable and you could witness it in player’s flare-ups who were trying to be more responsible but were falling prey to the situation. Earlier Satish bowled an impeccable line and length. His bowling made the fellow players wonder even more about the tea’s ingredients and were eager for the game to finish and taste it themselves. Sarva came in to bowl the third-last over. His blend of leg spin and slow balls confused the batsmen and he conceded just 4 runs in his over. Needing 14 from the last 3, the pair of Senthil and Shrikanth scored 8 runs from this over, which meant they needed just 6 from 12 balls. The batting side was quite astute, as instead of going for glory shots they relied more on touch and go scoring some cheeky singles. Amit and Senthil demonstrated this more than others. The fielders were tired, the bowlers were of course tired. They were in fact now cheering the batsman requesting them to end the game sooner so that they could go sit below the tree and drink some tea. Somebody even joked that maybe in a few years we may just get tether to drink tea and that would be the main attraction and throw a few balls on our way back to home. Coming back to the game, needing 6 from the last 2 overs Pankaj B came back. The bowlers too hadn’t given up and bowled a good line, but Pablaj knew what he was doing and while the fiddlers closed in on him to stop the singles he hit over over their heads and won the game for his team.
Today’s comic relief was provided by Sarvanan while being the umpire and allegedly (by the bowler and the nontr-ker) sledging the bowler. It was so funny, Chandru was waiting to bowl and was able to start when Sarvanan quietly said ‘3rd ball’, but it sounded like ‘dead ball’. Chandru froze in his tracks and the nonstriker burst out laughing seeing the umpire sledge the bowler. It was all in good humor though. After realizing what he had said, he quickly clarified and the game quickly resumed. Overall we had 2 wonderful and entertaining 2 games and we kept pushing despite the unrelenting heat. Please join us next sunday to see who surprises us with 2 different thermos’ this time. Till then Have A Great Week Ahead.