MATCH REPORT - Spirits vs Overeasy 8th January 2011

Saturday saw the first game of the New Year against "Overeasy", a team that we have played a couple of times before with mixed results.
With Rajesh as captain we were lucky enough that he lost the toss and therefore did not put us in to bowl first.
After a solid start from openers Noel (12) and Trevor (12), the Spirts put on an impressive stand for the third wicket via the partnership of the attacking Rajesh (52 ret.) and the anchor Reddy (42). Rajesh's retirement brought on Gaurav who continued the onslaught with a couple of powerful sixes into the old school, collecting 18 runs off the bat in one over. After Gaurav was caught on 46 with three overs to spare, the call came from the captain for the remaining middle order to swing for the fences. Dan (1) and Chiro (2) obliged, however, greater success in this endeavour was achieved by Laksh (11 n.o.) and Tushar (5 n.o.) who rounded of Spirit's batting innings. All in all the Spirits ended up making 212, a good total off a CSC ground with an extremely slow outfield.
With a solid total to defend the Spirits took the field with Laksh (6/1/0/19) and Rajeev (4/0/1/34) opening the bowling followed by Trevor (6/0/2/41) as first change. By and large, the fielding from the Spirits was impressive but it took a while for the top order wickets to be snared. A bowling change in the form of Tushar (4/0/4/28) changed this as he quickly took 4 wickets in three overs to dispatch the Overeasy top order. Vasu (3/0/2/17) also had an impressive spell with the ball, bowling tidily and being rewarded with two wickets off three overs. Unfortunately there were the mandatory dropped catches, the most casual of these belonging to Reddy and the least belonging to Tushar which ended up in a trip to the hospital with a hand injury - we all hope you are alright Tushar and you can pay your fine for the dropped catch at the next game!  Dan (2/0/0/26) managed to make the game interesting by being hit for 18 of the third to last over, but Overeasy were eventually all out for 201 in the last over. It should also be noted that Chiro had an impressive game at wicketkeeper which was certainly reflected in the extras column.
Man of the Match - too many to pick just one:
Rajesh - A great 52 not out to start the season. Tushar - If he hadn't been injured he was heading for a certain 5 for. Gaurav - A good all round game hitting 46 and having bowling figures of 4/0/1/18
Wooden Spoon
Easily Dan for his misguided attempt to help Overeasy win with some woefully short pitched bowling.
Result
Spirits win by 11 runs - a good start to the year.