Hawkes Vs Kuch Bhi Xl (FO6-01/16/11)

Kudos to Pranav for writing this wonderful article.

On a very foggy Sunday morning, knockout clash between the teams Kuch bhi XI and Hawkes was played. Kuch Bhi Xi team failed to arrive on the ground by the scheduled time. Consequently, Umpires Suneel and Hamid forced the 2 over penalty rule against the Kuch Bhi Xi team. Both teams were riding high on their previous wins and confident to enter the Quarterfinals.

Team news:

Hawkes- Sreenath, Sarbajeet and Sankar were back after their injuries for this crucial match. They persisted with two new all rounders, Raj and Pranav, and middle order batsman Ravin to bring an element of surprise for the opposition team. On paper Hawkes seems to be a very balanced team, batting runs very deep, and always relying on Team Performance for winning matches rather than individual brilliance.

Venki is in his last leg of his professional cricketing career with Cricbay before he leaves for India. He has been an important asset to the team ,he has always scored runs in the top order with numerous MoM and PoW awards. Always cheering team from his Long position like a red shining beacon frequently reminding team to FOKUS (focus). His service will be hugely missed.

Good Luck!! Venki for your future endeavors.

Kuch Bhi Xi- They kept their winning match combination from their previous match. This team is a top heavy batting team with their star batsmen Sandesh whose batting average is among the highest in the competition.

Ground Conditions:

Due to very dense foggy conditions, outfield was very wet, which might have prompted the Kuchh Bhi Xi to send Hawkes to bat first and expect sunny conditions during later stages which could ease out conditions for them. Hawkes had their home ground advantage. Team captain Chai continued his losing toss streak. In the pre match team meeting Vice Captain Pranai stated that 80+ runs is a very good target on this pitch keeping in mind the current ground conditions.

Batting:

Hawkes started very well with our long time opening duo Purab and Venki. After the first 4 overs hawkes was in a very comfortable position at 24/0. But in the process of pushing the run rate up and capitalizing on the good start Purab got out to a simple catch on Mid On. This brought in Kartik to the crease, in a pursuit of a simple single in Mid On region and Kartik was given runout, although it was a bit harsh decision in the process he injured his leg. Two quick wickets in a span of 4 balls brought back Kuchh Bhi Xi right back in the game. Some extra pressure from Kuch Bhi Xi and some good bowling got Venki and Sreenath out in a quick succession. After 6 overs, the score was 26/4. New batsman Ravin, initially played cautiously and then got out to a blinder while trying to push the runrate. Meanwhile Pranai got in and provided some much needed stability and calmness in the middle with Sarabjeet. Pranav and Raj provided some good runs in the lower order to bring the score to 67 runs . Some wayward bowling by the visitors and three double digit scores helped Hawkes to reach a modest total. Extras contributed the highest runs for the match (16 runs with 14W and 2Nb). These 16 extra runs were little too many compared to 4 extra runs by Hawkes.

Bowling and Fielding:

Sreenath and Pranai opened the Bowling for hawkes with some very accurate line and length bowling. Constantly asking questions to the batsmen and creating chances for wickets. Kuch Bhi XI started very cautiously and due to good bowling by Hawkes, they could not score runs and their runrate althrough remained lower than the required runrate all through their innings. First run from the bat came in 3^rd over, which show cased the art of accurate bowling by the Hawkes opening bowlers. Home team was always ahead during the second half of the game and it was apparent by the constant chirping and enthusiasm shown by the home side on the field.

Pressure was building up on the Kuch Bhi XI batsmen to build up the momentum. Some edges and good shots in Raj and Pranav`s over gave them a hope of a birth in quarterfinal, they needed 30 runs of 30 balls. But their hopes were crushed by good bowling by Chai and Sreenath who brought the equation back in the favor of home team, requiring 19 runs of 12 balls. In the second last over, hell broke loose for the visiting team, they lost 3 wickets, 2 runouts one good running catch by Sankar and managed to score only 2 runs. In the Final over, the required equation was 17 runs from 6 balls, with one wicket in hand. This indeed was too much to ask for, from the last batsmen who eventually got run out for an elusive run which was never there.

Kuch Bhi XI lost the match much earlier in the game, when their top order batsmen failed to rotate strike and kept losing wickets at regular intervals. For picking up 3 key wickets at crucial junction Chai got the Man of the Match award.

Overall it was a fantastic team performance and winning those key moments in the match resulted in a comprehensive win, of which Hawkes are proud of.

Team Quotes:

Kartik-“we were low on runs but not on team spirit”. Kartik spirits were least hampered by his injury and was very positive after the match

Pranai- “We bowled very well, and it was good team effort, but batsmen need to perform better in coming games”. Pranai pointing out the flaw in the batsmen`s shot selection towards hitting the loose ball and throwing away wickets.

Chai- “Hawkes was the deserving team for the quarterfinal and for the Gold Championship” Chai was upbeat about the team performance and playing mind games against the next competing team.

-Pranav