Spirits Vs Media XI

The weather was very permitting and gave us a marvellous day for cricket. We were very fortunate to have this type of weather in November so the opposition were asked if the previously agreed two innings of fifteen overs
match could be changed to a thirty over match. They agreed, we won the toss and elected to bat.
Our two gallant openers Rajesh and Laksh took the crease and begun very well by scoring singles and doubles quite quickly and did not appear in any way to be worried about the Media XI's opening bowlers. However, in spite
of this, the Media lads were lucky enough to take the scalp of Rajesh who didn't quite get the middle of the bat and was caught scoring 7 runs from 13 balls. Laksh was then joined by Sandeep who did not muck about and scored a glorious 4 of his second ball faced. An excellent partnership then developed between Laksh and Sandeep which could have lasted the entire thirty overs if it it wasn't for the retirement rule that firstly sent Laksh back to the audience. Laksh innings finally ended after a second appearance at the crease scoring 43 runs off 38 deliveries and consisted of a well timed six and many other impressive shots.
Ralston then took to the crease, but was stumped after scoring only one run and looked quite disappointed as he made his way back to the pavilion. Oh well, these things happen and Akash then arrived at the crease. A good partnership between Sandeep and Akash was happening with Akash hitting a cracking six and several fours. A good foundation had been made however under the retirement rules Sandeep had to be retired after an excellent innings scoring 41 runs off 41 deliveries. I then came in for a very short 3 delivery appearance, missed timed the ball when trying to hit it out of the field and was of course caught for a duck. It was then Logu's turn at the crease and he didn't waste any time and hit a nice four to begin his innings and stayed around as Akash continued his lesson to the Media XI bowlers. Unfortunately, Akash was bowled after hitting a very handy 36 runs from 29 balls. The legendary Paul Mclean then made his way to the batting crease with everyone believing a great innings was about to be witnessed. It did indeed look that way at first with Paul hitting a well timed 4 however he was caught after scoring 8 runs off 9 deliveries. The next batter at the crease was Andy who reportedly made an overly ambitious call to Logu and unfortunately ran himself out for a duck.
The innings started to look a little shaky to some in the Spirits camp and now relyed on our tail end to hopefully hold together. Rammy came to the crease and literally stole the show. Even though Ashok and Seow went for 1 run and a duck respectively, we were able to bring Laksh back out of retirement to allow Rammy to put on a wonderful batting display. The Media XI bowlers were smashed all over the field with Rammy hitting three magnificent sixes and finally leaving the field not out with a score of 31 runs off 14 deliveries at the end of the Spirit's 30 overs.
A very defendable 194 runs was made which gave the Spirits confidence that this game may indeed be won. A good start was needed to keep the enthusiasm up so a pace attack was prescibed to deal with the Media XI's opening batters.
Rammy opened with the new ball and knocked the stumps out after his fourth delivery taking the first wicket. At the other end Laksh who was bowling with a slightly swollen ankle kept the run rate down and took the stumps of the next batsman in the third over of the innings. The Media XI batsman looked dismayed by the performance of our opening bowlers and were unable to score more than 20 runs from the first 8 overs. The good bowling continued with the inception of Ashok who although did not not get a wicket, kept a reasonable line and length and allowing 24 runs from his 4 overs. Logu too bowled a good length and after his four overs only 18 runs were scored. The run rate required of the Media XI to win was starting to look like a difficult task to achieve. Andy was then brought on to bowl and hopefully pick up a wicket. He did this in his second and again in his forth over making the Media XI look like their time was near, and it in fact was with Seow bowling out another sorry looking Media XI batsman. With the help of the team we were able to finish them off with a runout and two stumpings from my bowling giving the Spirits a sweet victory.
The Media XI were bowled out for 166 runs in the last over of the match. This was indeed a sweet victory for the Spirits and gave a very good reason for some after game cheer that was enjoyed by many and especially myself. Please forgive me if there are any inaccuracies in this report as my brain cell count decreased as the evening finally came to a close.