Hawkes Vs. Inglorious Blasters (RS4-04/24/11)

Kudos to Mitesh for writing this wonderful article.

It was a game without some of our star players like Pranai, Kartik, Raj, Vinod. We thought the game would be easy but it was not as we gave extra 21 runs. At the end we managed to chase 94 runs with 11 balls and 5 wickets left and continued to have the winning streak. It is 4-0 now. We are doing our best this time and we all can see the cup.

Ground conditions and Weather

The ground was in San Jose this time. It was surrounded by residential area. It was a baseball ground that we all usually do not like to play. Moreover on the leg side it was all bumpy and with had a lot of grass. We thought 75-80 would be a good total for any team to defend. It was little cloudy morning with slow wind. The sun was playing hide and seek.

Toss

I think no one is interested in reading this as we all know the result of the past and may be future games’ toss results. We lost the toss and were asked to bowl first.

Bowling

We were there to get going and give them a hard time. Sreenath opened bowling with Piyush at the other end (same end actually). In the very first over Sreenath took an excellent catch on his own bowling. As we took power-play other opening batsman decided to go after Sreenath and he was caught out by me at deep mid-wicket. Vinay was given the bowl in fifth over. He was very fast for them but the bad pitch caused few extras for him. Don took couple of wickets. After 10 overs they were 38/4. Then they started getting runs quickly. They scored 3 sixes and 3 fours which helped them to accelerate scoring rate and putting up a good total. One of their batsmen was given couple of chances in a catch and a run out. He took it and went after bowlers in batting power play. His 33 runs and 20 extras made them to reach the score of 93 which is a very good score on a baseball ground.

Batting

I and Purab went to open our innings. It was not an easy chase of 94 on a baseball ground. We took 3 runs in first over. As they took power-play Purab decided to go after their second bowler. Unfortunately, he got catch out on point in the second over. Anil joined me. He tried to go after the bowlers. He was swinging the bat very hard but was not able to connect. Meanwhile I got my eyes set and connecting well for singles and doubles. We were 41/1 after 10 overs. We needed 53 of last 10 with 9 wickets in hand. Anil got out soon after the break. Ravin joined me. We took few couple of runs. I was hitting hard on leg side but did not get a six or more than one boundary. But Ravin was pushing me hard for 2’s and 3’s as I was tired. I got out at the total of 65 and the equation was 65/3 after 14 overs. We needed 29 of 36 balls. Piyush got couple of good shots and got run out after that. Ravin was doing it smoothly by pushing it for 1’s and 2’s. It was getting closer and Vinay came in to bat. Effortlessly, he went for a big shot and it was an awesome flat six that took us closer and made the equation easy. After a long discussion b/w players, captains, and umpires Vinay was given not out. Soon he got out after that. Don went in and finished the game with Ravin in 19th over.

For his excellent performance Sreenath was declared PoW for third consecutive week. I was given MoM for the 40 runs I scored. Actually I wanted to get 50 but I think umpire’s bad decision on run out did not allow me to reach that. I will do it in some other game.

It was a good game. We were good on field except for couple of misfields. We need to be careful on extras it is not acceptable. Without extras they would have not passed the score of 80 which makes the equation very easy on any day.

- written by Mitesh Patel -