Unfortunately I have not been sent the scorecard yet from the Unilever boys however I will go from memory.
Excellent game on Sunday with a great effort from all those playing. The afternoon started with the toss being won by Spirits and taking the option to bat with the sun beaming strongly and not many clouds in the sky. The Unilever captain asked if we could split the innings so they wouldn’t have to suffer the full 30 overs in the sun and we had mixed responses when this request was relayed to the Spirits team. Patrick quite rightly suggested we agree due to the weather and Gaurav response was something along the lines of the ‘let them burn’! Anyway, after deciding to allow splitting the innings, the Unilever chaps opted to ‘burn’ – so that was decided.
A new batting order with Glen and Akash taking the field to open the batting. Both started well even when faced with the Unilever opening bowler who was kitted out in fluorescent green trainers. The great start didn’t last long with Akash losing his wicket and Gaurav taking over. Unfortunately Gaurav was walking off the field minutes later after being run out. A succession of wickets fell including Ashok (#4), Patrick (#5), Shubham (#6) and though some strokes from Laksh (#7) he also departed and Spirits were around 43/6 after 7 overs. Trouble indeed, though Glen was still going strong and scoring well along the way. I came in at #8 and opted to block a few balls hoping we could make it to 10 overs without losing another wicket. This transpired to be ambitious as a couple of overs on, Glen was caught in the deep after scoring 26 runs. I believe we were 50/8 when Abhishek came to bat and he immediately showed some form with a cover drive from the first delivery he received. Some great batting from Abhishek with a couple of sixes and a number of fours and he quickly reached 50* and forced into retirement.
Spirits batting revival continued with Ankit and myself, though I was run out going for 28. Yiqi came in and we had circa 5 overs remaining having scored around 150 in total. Abhishek did come back to the bat again when we were all out and helped Spirits to a total of 168.
Our bowling attack started with Gaurav and Laksh who both started well. Gaurav was getting some great bounce out of the wicket and Spirits fielders were waiting in numbers for a catch. Though we had a couple of slips, couple of gullies and a point we didn’t manage to catch one. Granted one or two catches were dropped!! On the other hand, a partnership was forming and it wasn’t a batting partnership. Laksh also bowling with good pace and accuracy had partnered with Ankit (fielding at long on) whereby a couple of identical high catches were taken from Laksh’s bowling. The Unilever batting line up started to crumble much the same Spirits top order and they were reduced to some 43/4. Wickets fell regularly with Gaurav eventually getting one and Laksh ending with 4 wickets. Some great bowling from Ankit and Shubham as first changes, both keeping the pressure on. Unilever middle order batters had put up some resistance with Spirits moonlighter Richard holding up the Spirits victory. The score eventually got to 100 and Unilever still had an outside chance of getting the victory. Without the scorebook, my memory gets hazy on who took the wickets however on the whole the bowling and fielding was excellent from start to finish, and special shout to Patrick behind the stumps as there were only a handful of byes conceded all game. With Yiqi also coming on to bowl, followed by Ashok and Abhishek bowling most of the final 10 overs. The final over was bowled by Glen, though he only needed one ball to get the final wicket – knocking over the off stump of the final Unilever batsman.
A job well done from the entire team – great effort. Batsmen 1-7 were fined after the game as well as Abhishek who put on a rather fine performance for his wife who came to watch him in action.
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