We had Unilever over this week for a 30-over match on a warm afternoon at CSC in what promised to be an evenly-matched battle based on the respective team rosters. Rammy, our captain, drew first blood, uncharacteristically winning the toss and putting the Spirits in to bat.
Glen and Kalpesh didn't take long to get going, hitting fours and running hard for twos. They were an impressive combination, with Glen hitting the on-side field while Kalpesh hit almost exclusively to the off side, which must have given the fielding side quite a headache. However, as the partnership was starting to get going, Kalpesh (16) was bowled in the 6th over, giving Vasu a chance to maintain the pressure on Unilever. Glen kept up with his punishing hits in the next over, hitting a ball that would have gone for 2, but Vasu declined the easy 2nd with Glen already halfway down the track. Glen retorted with a few choice words and a stare that was of such menace it could be felt by the rest of us at the pavilion. Obviously, Vasu wanted to take the pressure off Glen and keep strike, seeing that a few balls later, a similar 2-run ball was hit by Vasu and he opted to go for the 2nd, running as hard as he could so he could get back on strike. A few overs later, Vasu (7) and Glen (36) were out after a period of decreasing run rate, with Glen uncharacteristically picking up a fielder behind square leg. Akash and Ashok came in to take over, but in moment of excitement, Ashok (0) was caught for a duck off the first ball, leaving Rammy with Akash to anchor the inning. Rammy played a captain's inning with a high score of 44 with a number of hard runs and a sweet 6 hit off to long off. After Akash (19) got out after 12 overs with Rammy, Satish (12) came in to support Rammy for a couple of overs before Rammy got out. Dan (7) came in for a few hits, notably running 3 off a hit to square leg that wasn't misfielded or overthrown, which showed the commitment Satish and Dan had. After Satish and Dan got out, the tailenders, Andy (0), Jason (0) and Yiqi (0) showed why they were put in last to bat. The inning ended with a stumping from Richard Kohler in the last over, who decided to take advantage of the fact that Yiqi didn't know the line belonged to the umpire, to stump him off a dot ball. Spirits managed to get 172 runs, which was a decent total to defend.
Rammy started out our inning giving the captain's pep talk and got the side fired up. Andy (3/0/17) and Rammy (4/1/18) opened the bowling with relatively little fanfare and bowled 6 neat overs without giving too many runs away, followed by Dan (3/0/20) and Glen (4/0/26) with decent overs. Unfortunately, the Unilever guys in the middle had gotten it into their heads that they weren't going to give any wickets away. At one point, Unilever was 1 wicket down in the 20th over and the square leg umpire was telling his batsman to protect his wicket! Ashok (5/1/32) and Satish (5/1/34) then came on to take a wicket each over the next few overs. By the time the wickets fell, the required run rate was down to just above 5 an over. Jason (2/0/16) came on for a couple before Rammy came on to get a wicket on his last over. Yiqi (2/0/8) was given a couple of overs but the game was already over, with Unilever chasing down the total in 28.2 overs. Glen was the safest hands in the field with a spectacular dive to stop a definite 4 and a couple of catches for wickets, but in general, fielding was decent
Man-of-the-match - Rammy for the batting high score and the wicket.
After the match, the guys set around for a few beers and be entertained by some gems from Vasu. They are listed below in no particular order.
Top 10 Vasuisms from the little master himself.
1. (On why he could only run two if he was on strike) "They were very young and energetic today."
2. "Yiqi should play under lights, it will help him with the flight of his bowling."
3. "It may surprise you, but I was not playing too seriously today".
4. "Yiqi turns it better than Amar, especially his doosera"
5. "I fully agree with myself"
6. "Jason and I were in the same boat today. Jason bowled like Shane Warne, I used to bowl like that."
7. "I batted like Mike Gatting"
8. (Referring to Tiger Beer) "Do you know, when you drink this beer, it makes your piss turn white?"
9. "I can only drive straight after three beers"
10. (After drinking five beers) "I feel fully energised now".
1. (On why he could only run two if he was on strike) "They were very young and energetic today."
2. "Yiqi should play under lights, it will help him with the flight of his bowling."
3. "It may surprise you, but I was not playing too seriously today".
4. "Yiqi turns it better than Amar, especially his doosera"
5. "I fully agree with myself"
6. "Jason and I were in the same boat today. Jason bowled like Shane Warne, I used to bowl like that."
7. "I batted like Mike Gatting"
8. (Referring to Tiger Beer) "Do you know, when you drink this beer, it makes your piss turn white?"
9. "I can only drive straight after three beers"
10. (After drinking five beers) "I feel fully energised now".
No comments:
Post a Comment