Spirits played their first game of 2010 against local side Kaybee. Chiro was captain for the day and promptly lost the toss to ensure that we were in the field; Rajesh provided the first laugh of the season by turning up sans whites. Luckily for him Mike Mehaffey had a spare pair, although this did not mean that Rajesh would escape the first fine of the season.
And so to the game. Madhu took the new ball but his radar was clearly a bit rusty and opened with three wides. Guarav came in from the ‘completely vanished school’ end and was able to exert more control, although it was indeed Madhu who struck first, coaxing one of the openers into a slash outside off-stump that Mike gratefully snaffled at first slip
Glen came onto replace Madhu and produced an absolute peach first ball that caught the outside edge and went sailing through to wicketkeeper Vishal, who unfortunately wasn’t up to the task and down the catch went. In fairness to Vishal, he was not the only one at fault as our sloppy fielding let the Kaybee sloggers-sorry batsmen-off the hook a number of times. When a catch finally game the main surprise came with the identity of the fieldsman who clung onto the skier at deepish mid on-me! The catch was all the sweeter because I had only moments earlier been moved out of slips because of a perceived inability to catch even a cold.
Still, as the hoariest of old clichés go, “catches win matches” and the way we were fielding we weren’t going to win this one. Rakesh came on and bowled very tidily, and also took a catch at mid off from Sumit, at which point we were about three for fifty in the catching department. Rajesh came on at the other end and bowled neatly as well, perhaps inspired by the fact that he only normally bowls when he is captain. However, there’s no denying that we were pretty sluggish in the field and when the Kaybee innings closed at 198-6 it was clear that we had allowed them to score far too many runs.
Glen and Rajesh opened the innings, and I for one was glad to see them on friendly terms, a full rapprochement having been achieved since their run out debacle in the Jakarta sixes. Both looked in good nick and played a couple of nice shots before Rajesh was adjudged lbw despite having advanced half a mile down the track. Glen followed shortly after, playing all round a straight ball and the situation did not improve when Ravi came and went without troubling the scorers. Rakesh decided that all out attack was the way to go and smashed 21 off eight balls, including two huge sixes, before he too was clean bowled. Chiro and Vishal did last long either, the latter being run out by Mike, who presumably was somewhat frazzled at being non striker while all this carnage was going on at the other end; at drinks break we had been reduced to a pitiful 60-6, although we could at least claim that the opposition had a couple of decent spinners.
Mike and I managed to shore up the innings somewhat by putting on 25 or so in eight overs. Mike was then caught behind having top scored with a patient 27; shame his partners couldn’t give him more support. I was then caught and bowled which brought us to Sumit, Madhu and Guarav bringing up the rear. Guarav-perhaps piqued at going in at number 11-smacked a couple of blows to take us over the hundred mark but it was all in vain and we slumped to a crushing defeat.
Still, our spirits were anything but crushed as we sat on the C.S.C lawn, basking in the glorious early evening sunshine and sinking a few, obligatory beers. The overall consensus was that after a break of a month or so we were ring rusty, although that strikes me as a fairly lame excuse. Still, one thing is sure for as far as 2010 goes: to coin a phrase, things can only get better!
As a new policy this season the skipper is to choose a man of the match and a wooden spooner-or dud- of the match after each game. So after a lot of thought-six days, actually-Chiro game up with the following:
Man of Match: Not a highly competitive field this week, admittedly, but won by Mike Mehaffey for top scoring and actually holding on to a catch.
Dud of Match: While it might seem unfair to pick out one man in an ocean of mediocrity, Chiro was prepared to being unfair and picked out Ravi for his duck and some underwhelming bowling figures. So, well done both of you!
Match Summary. Kaybee 198-6
Spirits 106
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