Sep 09 2012 - vs NSQ-II (TCL Finals)

Match Report:

Titans recaptured TCL-I championship after three years in a most dramatic see-saw game against the undefeated NSQ-II. The story unfolded like this: NSQ-Titans-Titans-NSQ, but it was Titans who held the nerve and showed tremendous character to come on top. Last fall, against Hurricanes on TCL-II finals we were down and under after dominating most part of the game, it was Kalyan and Chen with their blistering batting performances took Titans (WCCC) to glory. This time, guess what it is Kalyan and Chen again who ran the final lap to take Titans to a bigger glory with the ball.

It was a nostalgic weekend for Titans, with dark rain clouds looming on the morning for semi-finals and a heavy rain the night before finals. History does repeat, but not this time, Titans overcame the rainphobia, thanks to our tall dedicated weather man who kept mum :-). Consistent performance from Mr Cricket Rajesh, sonic bowling performances by Prabhu-Kalyan-Sudhir trio, wicket to wicket bowling by Shanmug, Sourav’s sensible batting, Johnny’s quick fire and some inspiring catches by Prabhu during the playoffs helped Titans to reach the finals. Now I would like to take your permission to shut off my freaking soap opera and get to the details.

Before I went to toss I was advised with 10 different options about what to do when we win the toss, when there are only two choices :-). I promptly lost the toss as I wished and we were put in. Our plan was to start steadily and keep enough wickets so we could charge in the last 7 overs, as we did in semi-finals. Our top order did follow the plan, Vishwa and Shanmug applied themselves and resisted their natural attacking strokes and gave us a decent start. But with NSQ’s discipline bowling we were not gaining any momentum, we were scoring under 3 runs per over. In search of runs, I instructed Shanmug and Sourav to accelerate and “go for it”, my bad, that ended their innings. Shanmug made a useful 13. Johnny couldn’t repeat his semi-finals cameo. We were 29 for 4 in 10 overs and as always Rajesh was holding fort on one side. Scores: NSQ 1, Titans 0.

Enter The Kalyan, Enter The Prateek, buckle up: all hell breaks loose for NSQ from now on. Nudge here nudge there then bang: Kalyan’s hook took the ball sailing over fine leg to register our first boundary. Rajesh joins the party, not for a boundary party, it is a running party. Usain Bolt would have felt proud about this pair’s lightning running between the wickets. Only young blood could run like this. Titans in the pavilion went berserk, Tamilians chanting in Hindi, oh boy that is dangerous. “aatha hai aatha hai runs aathae hai” chant in Tamil accent irked the NSQ fielders and NSQ bystanders. Unfortunately Kalyan was given out for a caught behind, which is debatable. But Kalyan did enough damage to NSQ’s bowling Rhythm. Kalyan-Rajesh pair set an example of how to accelerate when the boundaries were not coming.

Here comes Sudhir, buckle up again, run frenzy continues, singles, doubles & triples kept flowing without any dot balls. Rajesh fine-fine-fine cut to third man would have made Tendulkar drop his jaws, 3 more runs added to the score. Couple of exquisite extra cover lofted boundary by Sudhir and another boundary by Rajesh took the run rate higher. Then Rajesh nicked one behind, and he was back in the hut with a well made 20 runs. Chen was promoted up the order and he joined Sudhir. Did I say only young blood can run, my apologies, young “at” hearts can run as fast, the only difference is “panting” :-). Chen scored a boundary after a few singles. Sudhir made a blistering 26 not out and Chen added useful 12 runs. Titans reached 101 runs by scoring 72 runs in the last 10 overs. For the first time NSQ has conceded more than 90 runs. Scores: NSQ 1, Titans 1.

Titans were pumped up but level headed and cautious to not screw up. I started the proceedings as usual and drew first blood on the fifth ball, thanks to Chen for an amazing forward diving catch in the slips. WOW! Shanmug on the other end kept the batsmen at check. Prabhu and Rajesh were entrusted again to bowl for the bowling powerplay. Thanks to Vishwa for taking a neat catch of Prabhu’s fast ball, considering he hasn’t kept in a year, and didn’t seem like out of touch at all. Rajesh used his short balls beautifully to setup the batsmen to take a simple catch of his own bowling. 2 wickets and 5 runs in the powerplay. Prabhu provided another break in his second over, Prabhu bowls an offside line, batsman cuts fiercely to gully Sakthi holds the ball inches off the ground in a flash. WOW!!! Then Sudhir and Kalyan bowled a tidy over, but it was Sakthi who gave the next break with his smart bowling. Copy-Paste-Replace: Sakthi bowls an offside line, batsman cuts fiercely to point Prabhu holds the ball inches off the ground in a flash. WOW!!! It reminded me off Francis-Sugu combo :-). Hi Sugu, in case you are reading this. In comes The Prateek. Sakthi almost sent Prateek back to pavilion on the next ball. A good length ball on offside line, Prateek inner edges it (my judgment from slip) and Vishwa took a super catch just inches of the ground. Umpire saw no edge nor heard any sound. At this stage NSQ were 30 odd runs with 6 wickets down in ~10 overs. Scores: NSQ 1, Titans 2.

Carefree Sagar and dangerous Prateek at crease, all Titans needed was one more wicket to get into NSQ’s “tail”. Prabhu was brought back to penetrate in to the tail and to keep batsmen at check for the batting powerplay. Sagar edges one to the slip, and the Guy at the slip moved late and misses a chance. No problem, Titans were under control, the required run rate for NSQ was close to 8. Kalyan was called in to bowl the next powerplay over. Kalyan vs Prateek: Dhoom 1. Both the batsmen started swinging, Kalyan and Chen misses couple of half chances, in that process NSQ scores 3 boundaries. In 15^th over we consumed 15 runs, momentum shifted towards NSQ. Dhoom 1: Prateek wins. Amazing batting display by Prateek and Sagar, they were relentless. They kept swinging, Titans was at the edge of panic. The Guy in the slip went to deep square leg and drops a dolly again, Sagar gets another chance.

We are now in 17^th over, 30 runs required for NSQ to win, and two set batsmen on crease. I turn to Chen who hasn’t bowled yet. He consumes a boundary in the first ball, and then creates a chance, but the Guy’s buddy drops a dolly in deep mid wicket, Sagar gets one more life. Oh boy tension all around. We took three top class catches and dropped three dolly catches!! Go figure. Chen decided not to depend on fielders any more and took the matter into his own hands and cleans up Sagar with a beauty. We got the break we wanted, Titans were pumped up again but still under pressure, because Prateek is still at the crease seeing the ball as football and finding the gaps at ease. The new batsman Rajesh seems to be a good bat too. Looked like there was no such thing as “NSQ tail”. Chen consumed 10 runs in the 17^th over and Sudhir consumed 8 runs in 18^th over, all in doubles. Scores: NSQ 2, Titans 2.

Prabhu was keep asking me to put Sakthi in deep square leg and replace the Guy, and finally I obliged. We were in to the penultimate over, 12 runs required for NSQ. Discussion all over, umpires screaming about over rate, we were debating who was going to bowl next. I turn to Chen again, he sets the game up for us, Chen beats Prateek four times and consumed just 3 runs. To me this is one of the defining moments of the game without much drama.

Down to the wire now, final over, million dollar question, who gets the ball next? My scrambled brain (believe it or not) was trying to process all the inputs that were coming from seven different players. I present two options to the team, one I take the matter in my own hands and bowl the last over and take the pace off, or I call Kalyan again. But I was not 100% confident on Kalyan, and even Kalyan didn’t sound that confident (he may not agree with statement). But Mr Cricket Rajesh had 200% confidence on Kalyan. I took Rajesh's word and tossed the ball to Kalyan, here we go again, Kalayn vs Prateek again, Dhoom 2. Kalyan bangs one in the off line on a good length, Prateek plays his trademark pull, ball goes miles high to deep square leg, our Super Star Sakthi charges towards the ball and covers an easy 30 yards and times the catch to perfection. To me, this is another defining moment with some drama. Thanks to Prabhu!!. Titans were all over Sakthi. Kalyan gets his man and has the final say. Dhoom 2: Kalyan wins. Good fight Prateek, you almost repeated your semi finals performance. Job still incomplete, 5 balls 10 runs required. Then a single, dot, wide, double, and another double. Last ball 3 runs to win, we have four in the circle and rest all in the boundary, Kalyan bowls a fuller and batsmen hits straight, which was stopped by Chen safely and restricts to one run. Titans prevailed, wins by 2 runs. Kalyan-Chen duo did it again but this time with the ball. Fitting finish to a grand finale. Scores: NSQ 2, Titans 2.1.

Sudhir’s blistering quick fire knock with the bat, gave us the cushion to defend our total, along with equally important knocks from Rajesh, Shanmug, Kalyan and Chen. Sudhir gets a well deserved man of match. Lately Prabhu’s bowling and catching has improved by leaps and bounds. Every single run scored and every single wicket taken and every single dot ball bowled by other players made the difference too. After all we won by 2 runs. All in all it was an excellent team effort with 11+1 heroes. Thanks to our beloved Godfather Sachin, for all his sacrifices and for showing up on the ground on time, and helping with substitution and encouraging and cheering from outside. Also thanks to everyone who sacrificed their spot to other players and being such a good sport.

In this tournament I would say that NSQ is the Best team, they know how to win. Winning the first 13 games in a row speaks for itself. Hats off to NSQ. Titans performance in the second half of the season was not up to our standards, we struggled in lot of areas, we were not the Best team, but we managed to hold our nerve. But guess what, I would like to be a part of The Champion team than to be a part of The Best team :-). Proud to be a Titan. GoT.

by Manesh