Thanks to Prudhvi for checking Northwood and Brywood before any of us were even out of the door. Thanks to people like him (and Radha, Shrikant, Satish, Abhi S, Pankaj F) we can play on Sundays otherwise we would be sitting at home wasting a perfectly good morning waiting for somebody to post the ground info and ‘on my way’ message. A Big Thank You to you guys. Besides being first on the ground, Prudhvi gave his team 4 other big reasons to acknowledge him today.
Abhi S chose to bat, we later came to know there was no toss so we are not sure what exactly transpired between Abhi S and Sameer. Mayur and Abhi S opened the innings. They started well, targeting the leg side and scored 2 near boundaries, but the fielder was able to stop the ball (otherwise it would have been an explosive start) and concede just a couple of runs. The real hitting happened when Prudhvi got to the middle. He pulled and lofted the ball over mid-wicket very easily. It being Deerfield the ball was either suddenly shooting after the bounce or turning in or going away. The key was not to let the ball bounce. Prudhvi mastered both, the bounce and the full toss. He was aided well by Abhi S and Sarvanan. The latter kept pulling and if the ball was in his arc, it fetched a couple of runs. Some fine hitting and good running between the wickets helped Abhi S and his team put 40 runs on the board at the end of 6 overs. Pankaj F bowled beautifully. He was able to move the ball in and out and also bowl the odd ball a bit faster (Sahid Afridi used to say, ‘faster’ ball is more lethal than the ‘slower’ ball. Today Pankaj F proved him right). He was supported very well by Sameer, Abhi J and Pankaj B. At one point of time Sameer asked Pankaj B to try fewer variations, letting the batsman some scope to play shots. It was Deerfeld after all, you had to be on top of the ball otherwise it got the better of you. Sameer and Pankaj thought that the score was a bit too much given the ground. Abhi S and his team trotted around in style and took their fielding positions. Little did they know that Sameer and his boys were just playing mind games and they had a perfect game plan in their mind. Pankaj F appeared to be in great touch with the bat too. I think he opened the innings with Abhi J. They both played contrasting styles. While Abhi J took the aerial route and concentrated on the leg side, Pankaj F played some fabulous ground shots. He is strong on the off and that part of the outfield is faster than the onside counterpart, so his ground shots were going the distance and they were able to get twos. Inspired by Abhi J Pankaj B too tried swinging his bat, but today he was not able to time the ball well. But the power was still there in the shots and he was able to get singles and twos. Sameer too was lofting the odd ball outside the park. I think Abhi J hit a couple of sixes, followed by Sameer. In no time they overhauled the total and won the game easily. Today all the bowlers went for at least 1-2 boundaries and some for a six and a boundary. Still Abhi S was able to keep the batsmen down for few deliveries. The batsman definitely had the upper hand today even though the pitch was not aiding them at all. Kudos to them.
After winning the first game Sameer’s batsmen opened the innings in the second game. They continued their devastating form and this time the same duo of Sameer and Abhi S wreaked havoc on Abhi s’ bowlers. There was one particular shot that both Abhi S and I remember, played by Sameer. Abhi S was keeping and I was at mid-off. Srvanan bowled a slightly slower delivery, but unfortunately for him he wasn’t able to fool sameer. The latter was able to gauge the ball accurately and even before the ball bounced on the ground his bat was up and had a big backswing. When it hit the ball on its way up , it gave the ball such momentum that it easily went over the midwicket for a huge six. Abhi J was pulling mercilessly and dealing in fours and sixes. None of the bowlers were spared. Abhi J went for a couple of boundaries, Prudhvi too couldn’t stop the ball from going over the rope. At the end of 6 overs Sameer and his team had made 57 runs. The task was difficult, but Abhi S later confessed that he didn’t think it was impossible. He told his batsmen to pay attention to the loose ball as it was rising and coming very nicely onto the bat. He further made the right decision by sending Prudhvi and Pankaj F to open the innings. Both the batsmen went about playing to their strengths. Pankaj F was driving the ball through covers and over long off and Prudhvi was pulling them over square leg and thirdman. He hit one so finely and low to the ground that it was one of the flattest six we had witnessed in IW going over backward square leg. He continued to hit and they both ran amazingly well between the wickets. In the first over they made 10 runs, in the second 16 runs and then in the third 7. The third over was bowled by Abhi J who was able to halt the scoring a bit. But they were still on target and were averaging a good 11 per over (above the asking rate). The middle order continued to run well. The big shots weren’t coming, but they compensated by stealing singles and converting singles into doubles. The great thing that Abhi S and team did was to not let the run rate fall below 10. They needed 18 from the last 2 and then 11 from the last over. Till now the bowlers had bowled a tight line and length forcing the batsmen to work hard for the runs. In this over they got some respite and got some time to relax and get some easy runs. Aer getting few extras, they finally needed 6 from 4 and Prudhvi finished the game in style by lifting the ball comfortably over long off finishing his innings with 4 sixes and 2-3 boundaries. He single handedly won the game for his team. Pankaj F complemented him superbly, relying on singles and twos and rotating the strike and letting Prudhvi unleash his shots. It was a great game, which saw nearly 115 runs being scored in 12 overs. Both the teams matched each other in bowling and batting. Abhi S took a great catch behind the wickets. Chandru staged a great comeback by getting the batsmen who had just hit him over the boundary. Awesome couple of games.
While Prudhvi was the man of the match (second game), which he stole from Abhi J (who was the anchor for his team and scored big hits as well as singles and twos and then bowled a superb third over). Pankaj F was easily the best bowler. His variations were great and he kept the batsmen guessing. Abhi J bowledd superbly too and was the lone bowler who was able to slow down the Prudhvi-Pankaj F juggernaut. Sameer, Pankaj B, Prudhvi, Mayur, Sarvanan and Abhi S bowled well too.
For the first time we saw Deerfield being tamed by the batsmen. It would be interesting to see what happens next time we play there. After the game we sat on the green and spoke about movies, Indian grocery stores (Punjabi attendants working in those stores). Radha paid us a surprise visit. Please join us next Sunday to partake in the fun.