Post date: May 1, 2016 12:50:04 AM
Match against: Echelon Cricket Club
Venue : Echelon's Home Ground, Voorhees, NJ
Time : 24th Apr 2016 12 PM
Toss : Titans won the toss - Elected to Bat
Team: Chaitanya, Varun, Madhu, Srinu, Shravan, Sivaram, Shanmug, Pavan, Manoj, Aneesh, Sourav
It was a good weather for cricket, because of home team did not have ground permit till 12PM, we had to wait till 12PM to start the game. Titans won the toss and without any hesitation opted to bat. Started with a new combination of Srinu and Aneesh, this was right-left combination. As expected, it was little difficult for opponents to change the line for this combination, We got few wides/ free runs up front. Pitch was little slower, it was expected. Aneesh, got out early trying to pull a ball short of length, it was more of a instinct shot, but since pitch was slower and lower, he couldn't get the lenght correctly and trapped LBW. Varun came in, within no time was able to adjust to the pitch conditions and both Srinu and Varun played beautifully, they had a good partnership. Highlight of this partnership was low-risk shots and brilliant running between the wickets, highlight of Varun's innings was scoop shot to SIX on fine-leg boundary. When everything was going good, Varun tried to flick a ball and got outside edge to covers, He was caught out for 22 runs. Shravan walked in, after a few glitches early on his innings, he was able to settle down and concentrate on his game, he played beautiful shots around the wicket, one bad decision to run for second run, costed Shravan his wickets, he was caught short of crease while taking 2nd run. Echelon's bowler Lalit was bowling good line and length with his off-spin, he had tied our batsmen, at the same end they brought in another spinner at the other end (Gary Singh), Srinu tried cover drive a ball and disturb the fielder who was teasing him by eating too many laddoo's, got an outside edge and popped the ball to point fielder for a simple catch. Sourav, joined Manoj after Srinu got out. But, Manoj had a bad luck, trying to hit Lalit, his good middled shot was converted into catch by close-in fielder, who caught took a sharp catch, score was 85/5 with this at the end of 18th over. Considering our good start, this was not expected. Madhu batted with Sourav next and tried to build the innings, Madhu playing more of a anchor role and Sourav was just playing his natural game, punishing the ball which were pitched up with ease. They did not try to run too hard between the wickets and cause any more damage, since runs were coming out freely. Sourav was at this personnel best, he did not hesitated to hit aerial shots, and true to that everything was middling and landing for SIXers only. Partnership was built again and that made opponents to try all their bowlers (they used almost 9 bowlers), but it didn't help. Titans reached 215/5 in 34 overs, it was a good partnership of 130 runs , then Madhu tried to slog out, was caught in slip. Anna joined Sourav in the middle, they ran good between the wickets, Sourav trying again for the big shot was bowled for a well made 79 runs in just 55 runs with the help of 7 SIXes. Sivaram joined Anna, Anna switched on his TURBO mode and started hitting, he got 3 nice looking boundaries, but got out LBW on a full ball which dipped in a little bit. Pavan went in next, both Siva & Pavan tried to accelerate the score, Pavan got out after scoring a boundary. Chaitu and Sivaram played remaining overs without loosing the wicket and pushed the score to 259/9.
Bowling combination also changed, we started with Pavan and Sivaram. Both had some issues early on controlling the swing of the ball and also had issues with the run-up. However, both got settled after couple of overs, and Pavan got the first break through bowled their attacking batsmen. Few free runs were shelled because of wides, opponents reached 50 without much trouble, Pavan got another wicket a high catch taken perfectly by wicket keeper Aneesh. To bring in some resistance to flow of runs we brought in experienced combination of Chaitu and Varun. They delivered it again, stop the flow of runs and Varun got 2 wickets (LBW & Bowled), Chaitu hold the other end by not giving any runs. Together they squeezed the runrate, giving only 20 odd runs in 8 overs. Anna and Srinu replaced them and did the same, Anna took one handed catch in his own bowling, it stuck like fevicol, he got 2 wickets in total. Srinu at the other end gave only 6 runs in his 5 overs, but got 2 wickets. Opponents left their hope of chasing runs, but kept loosing wickets frequently. Sourav and Madhu bowled to the tailenders and got couple of wickets. Finally Titans won by 128 runs.
Man of the Match is Sourav for his beautiful batting !!
Few points to be taken:
1. Partnership is really key in 40 overs game. We cannot loose too many wickets up front. This will make our middle order face lot of pressure. Place your innings better if you are playing top order. Avoid playing risky shots, try to use bread and butter shots more frequently than trying to invent new shots.
2. In bowling please check the run-ups before start of the innings, if you are un-comfortable please speak right-away, if not you are trying to put whole team in bad situation.
3. Good Middle order batting and bowling, good running between the wickets and good enthu in the field. Keep it coming for all the future games.
Scorecard - http://cricclubs.com/GPCL/viewScorecard.do?matchId=660&clubId=48