Looong time!

After a none too flattering summer season, we've just about managed to stay around in B division.

Today was our first T20 game for the season. Played against the "Stanford A Tigers" team

We scratch around to make a 113, thanks to a fantastic cameo from Anish.

I counted four sixers and a couple of boundaries. A subdued Shailesh also picked up and suddenly started cutting and slicing for singles and doubles, and suddenly the runs poured in, a 100 runs that seemed distant was achieved in no time. Thanks to a mix up, Anish got run out and the tail enders Omar and Prateek hit a few here and there to get us to 113 in 20 overs. Well, that's not exactly a winning total, and we didn't deserve to win, at this point, unless we bowled our hearts out.

Our bowlers started fine. Deval bowled a few wides down the first over, and Anirudh, our 13 year old, made his debut of sorts with a good opening spell. Though they managed to subdue the openers, there weren't any wickets until our new Jamaican friend Omar came in to bowl a beauty of a spell. Sweet little teasing bouncers, ball moving away from the batsmen, and one subtle and intelligent use of crease, got our first break.

Ankit came in for his spell, and immediately struck with two wickets in the same over, clean, no nonsense uproot of stumps. He got another wicket in the next over, but the Stanford middle order suddenly got aggressive, hitting some lusty sixers and boundaries. Yours truly got hit out of the attack, suddenly the game was slipping away.

Deval suggests Anirudh's name for the 16th over. I was petrified, it was a big gamble and I wouldn't want the guilt of a loss to lay on this kid's mind. The kid comes and bowls a cool line and length, and is immediately rewarded with a wicket, the batsman wanted nothing less than a sixer and it went down the safe hands of Deval. Next ball, just a tad short of good length and the new batsman is foxed, end up ballooning the ball for a simple catch. I could not believe it, suddenly the kid has the chance for a hattrick! In walks the Stanford A captain, and Ani bowls a cutter, to which the batsman goes across and swipes. What a take it was by Omar, he just plucked the catch out of thin air, we had a hattrick! From the comforts of 4 wickets down, Stanford A were tottering with 8 wickets down and still short of 35 runs. On the other end, Ashok, the Stanford batsman, remains calm and goes about his merry whacking. They came even closer, requiring 23 runs in the last 3 overs.

It took a Prateek "slower ball" to account for Ashok, a great catch by Anish. Stanford tailend still wagged and hit a few big ones, and we were looking at a sudden resurgence of the last pair, but luckily enough, they go for a foolish run and the last pair is broken.

This victory is sweet on many accounts, being our first T20 game, coming against a team that had beaten us blue in the recent past, and it took a hattrick from a 13 year old to get us home. Not to make light of the contributions of Anish in the batting, and a couple of great catches, Omar, with his awesome pace bowling, Ankit, with his lovely three wicket spell of nippy pace, and some terrific catching from Vaibhav, Omar and Amit. It was a real icing on the cake that the 13 year old is my kid! :)

Some images from our post-playoffs on 9/27/2009

Some post game venting and hydration at Britannia..

Championship game report for 10/4/2009

Gentlemen,
First and foremost.. Nandu and myself would like to thank everyone to make this one of the most memorable seasons for Spartan CC and we definitely could not do this without the help of each and everyone of you. So thank you!
It is official after 14 years if I am not mistaken, Spartan has official become the C-Division champions and have been promoted to the B-Division for the upcoming season. Yesterday was a game for the masses. It was a game where

everyone was tested and had to put in mere individual effort to be the best they could be.

Game Report:
C Division: Indus II @ Spartan CCDate: 10/04/2009Played at: Spartan / Caroline DavisUmpires: Naveen and Rajesh (No Idea Umpiring team)Toss: Indus by away team and elected to bat
Indus II: 257/6 in 45 overs
Praveen 58 (5 x 4)Vinay 59 (6 x 4)Preetam 39 (3x4) (1x6)
Rupal 4-0-22-1Ankit P 8-0-45-1Abhishek 8-1-53-4
lost to
Spartan: 258/7 in 45.5
Ankit P 30 (4x4)Shailesh 30 (2x4)Krishna 71* (6x4) (2x6)Jessie 57* (2x4) (4x6)
Vijay 9-1-52-3Ramesh 5-0-20-0Pranay 9-0-43-0
Match Report:
This game was definitely a nice way to end the season and will not be forgotten. After seeing Indus stack their team with roughly only 2-3 regular C-Division players, Spartan was STILL able to prevail. NCCA may want to look into this "loophole" But nonetheless, Spartan is crowned as C-Division Champs!!

Regards,

Anish Mehta

..And C Division champs, did I say!

If one were to read the mundane match summary, Spartans beat Indus-II to win NCCA C Division championships. But trust me, it was anything but ordinary today.

Venue: Spartan Grounds on 10/04/2009

Teams: Spartans vs Indus-II

Umpires: Naveen and Rajesh

Indus innings

Anish lost the toss again and I think even he'll be glad that he did so.

Indus had stacked all it's A division team into this 'C' division game. They started off well, making some bold strokes for that early in the game. Jessie and Rupal got a good line and length early on. Rupal created some early chances, one of them missed by yours truly, again.

But pretty soon he struck, and foxed the aggressive one with a tricky length ball, and it lobbed up in the air for Anish to take a lollypop catch.

In comes Vinay Suri, and he started off shakily, fishing at out going deliveries and did create a few chances. Again, I missed almost a sitter in the slips. Now whoever lets me loose in the slips must have his head examined. This cost us pretty dearly in fact, Vinay used the opportunity and made it into a fine innings. The second wicket pair put on almost a 130 runs (sorry, no score sheet here!), while Spartan fielding was atrocious at moments, and let go quite a few wicket opportunities.

At first break Indus were 91 in 15 overs and they looked set to make some big scores.

Ankit S kept bowling some amazing overs, while Ankit P did bowl well but couldn't make any inroads. First change bowlers came in. While the first few overs of mine were very restrictive, Abhishek got our first breakthrough. Atul bhai took an amazing juggling catch and sent home the nagging opener Praveen. That didn't deter Vinay on the other end, from continuing to punish bad balls while being respectful of good deliveries.

Some more Indus batsmen came in, slogged or perished, while Spartans continued to miss chances. T20 seems to have rubbed off on to some Indus batsmen, who tried to reverse sweep

every single ball. In the end, Indus made 257 for the loss of 5 wickets. A good 40-50 runs more than necessary.

Spartan Innings

Ankit P and Atul Bhai started off without much pressure, but Atul bhai fell soon when Vijay had him snapped behind the wickets. Ankit continued his batting form from previous game and did a fantastic job, until he ran himself out. Abhishek went in and had another marvellous innings, though he fell cheaper than he deserved, making some 30 odd runs, with some fine strokes including an audacious sixer (or was it two?)

Pressure began to build up, and soon Shailesh,Vaibhav, Anish and Rupal got out, some fishing outside the off stump, one unnecessary rush of blood shot and one genuine good catch in the covers. In the meantime, run rate which wasn't an issue until then started creeping up to almost 10 runs an over. After the second break, Spartans kept saying "We should make it, we will make it" but I didn't see much hope and conviction in there.

Spartans were 160ish for 7 down, and 96 required off 11 overs or so. At the crease are veterans Krishna, who is already struggling with his hamstring injury and has a runner, and our temperamental Jashandeep Deol "Jessie", who can on a given day show his grit and give it back to the opposition.

Krishna kept making some outrageous shots, while the runner did a good job of not getting him run out!

In one over from this guy they kept calling "Cheetah", Jessie opened up, and boy, how did he.

Three consecutive sixes, the last of which was finally decided to be a boundary, opened up the flood gates and there was no stopping. Some 24 runs came off that over and all of a sudden Spartan camp gets a jolt and see some hope! It was still a very tight situation, with 56 runs required in the last 7 overs or so. I have never seen Jessie show this kind of temperament and grit in his batting, he kept flicking and cutting for singles, giving strike to Krishna, and Krishna kept continuing his massacre at the other end. It was amusing to see Jessie walk over and talk to Krishna when he found himself struggling for a couple of balls.

The sudden infusion of energy and smiles in Spartan camp is something I am going to carry for a while with me. In no time the target is a piddly widdly 9 runs off last two overs. There was a bit of excitement when the penultimate over resulted in three dot balls and no big shots. "Cheetah", who must have gone for more than sixty-seventy runs in his short spell, comes in to bowl the last over, and there still aren't any big shots. Situation almost reminds me of the recent BOI T-20 game and how we couldn't make 5 runs with three wickets in hand.

Ankit falls down while trying to run, gives most Spartans a heart in the mouth situation, but with a couple of clever singles and one pull to the boundary off the penultimate ball, Spartans are home!

I have seen quite a few games go the other way all the time, and have watched some determined and aggressive cricket pull off miracles, but this was the first live in blood that I witnessed, and isn't something I can forget for some time. No doubt Krishna was a hero for the day, and I am glad his 20 Ibuprofens did not go waste! But the day belonged to Jashandeep Deol, the dude just made it count when it absolutely mattered and that too how. I don't see how if he didn't click, Ankit and I would have gone in there under such a pressure cooker situation.

Way to go, Spartans, C division champs and let's repeat this performance in B division next year!

Again, plenty of good support from the boundaries, with Hasu bhai, Uday, Chad and his lovely kids around.

Tan tana…. Tan tana…. Bye Bye C Division!

Sorry Nandu, I couldn't wait for you to send the match report! I don't have the score sheet and pardon any omissions or commissions!

The long and short of it is, Spartans beat Cruisers in their division playoffs and will now move into B division! And here's how it all happened.

Date: 9/27/2009
Venue: Spartans home ground

Cruisers won the toss and elected to bat. And oh boy, how wrong were they. Their openers started very shaky, fishing at every single ball that moved outside and prodding nervously at every single ball that came at good length.
Jessie was on fire and troubled both the batsmen, while Rupal did manage to create quite a few chances that were wasted by "some fielders", including yours truly.
Not to worry, pretty much in the third over of the game Jessie struck, clean bowling one of the openers. He struck again, pretty soon, and at the first break Cruisers were crawling at 29 for two.
We were then treated to some fine and fiery swing bowling by Ankit and Ankit, and they struck hard blows time and again, reducing Cruisers pretty soon to 66 for 7.
Two particular deliveries will stay with me for a long time, and this was a like a dream song in progress. Ankit P bowls a good length ball, just a tad wide of off stump, and the batsman lifts his bat, all in style, to leave it alone. I was standing behind in the leg slip area and got to see the horror in his face when he turned back to see his bails clipped and fly a good ten feet away, it was a beauty ball. Anybody that watched the 1983 World cup finals in which Balwinder Sandhu got rid of Gordon Greenidge would cry f0r joy, no kidding.

Ankit S bowled another beauty ball, lefthander coming from over the wicket to bowl to a right hand batsman, angled outside the offstump, just short of good length. Batsman leans completely forward in defence toward the ball, and the ball cuts right in, finding gap between the bat and pad and uproots the offstump. A sight to behold indeed.
From 77 for 8, the Cruisers tail wagged a bit longer than necessary, and by the time they were cleaned off in two consecutive deliveries by yours truly, they had made 123.

Spartan batting started slowly, but confidently. Atul bhai looked in fantastic form and hit a few lusty blows, before he got an inside edge and lost his wicket. Ankit P continued to have a fantastic day, batting very mature and holding fort on one end. Shailesh pitched in with a few runs but was snapped when he went greedy and fished at a lousy delivery. Abhishek joined Ankit and they ground the opposition to dust with methodical batting, picking singles where needed, punishing the bad deliveries and made sure Spartan batting did not fall to a created panic situation. Cannot emphasize enough on this awesome partnership.
Abhishek fell with Spartans cruising comfortably, edging a leg spinner to the keeper. Vaibhav went in and gave a few mighty blows, but fell soon, with only 20 odd runs required, while Ankit P went on to complete his half century. Finally walks in Nandu, and in one brutal over (or two?!) the ball going all over the park, it was all over.

It was good to see all the old blood come and root for the youngsters (and some not so young).
Hasu Bhai (Tan Tana Tan!), Mahendra Bhai, and Bhulabhai were watching every single ball bowled through out the game. Not to forget (Dr!) Sumeet Kumar.

Chad, "the 12th man", was a real pain in the rear for the opposition, he might have caused some permanent trauma for a couple of Cruisers. He does owe me a beer now.

Did anybody say my match report is now longer than the actual game (we finished off in 27 overs)!

Match Result - Spartan CC @ Indus, played on 9/13

Congratulations to Anish and company for a wonderful 2009 season. The best record that I have seen in the last 5 seasons that I have played with Spartan.

We won 12 out of the 13 games this season, kudos to each and every team member for their support and commitment to our team and the sport!

Match summary:

Indus II won the toss and elected to bat:

Indus II 200/10 in 44.2 overs.

Spartan's opening bowlers, Jessie and Chad did a good job considering the fast out field at Indus. Chad was unlucky to not have gotten a wicket in his spell. At the end of the first break, Indus were around 65 runs. Nandu bowled a very tight line and only gave 18 runs of his 9 over spell restricting Indus II to under 100 runs in the second session. Indus managed to score 100 runs in the last 15 overs before getting all out for 200. Ankit Patel and Srini M bowled very good spells and took 3 wickets a piece. As ever, Anish was a charm to watch in the field, he got 2 run outs, Ankit Patel hit a direct throw from the boundary to claim a run out. Chad was fantastic at slips, he made a clean catch at slips and then later in the innings, he took an overhead catch running backwards. Ankit Solanki (the sub) took a good running catch at the boundary. Sailesh Bhai was alert behind the stumps. Atul bhai looked superb with his ground fielding and nothing new, Nandu as usual, let couple of boundaries run by under his hand.. Thanks to Anirudh and Ankit S for fielding as a substitute.

And Chad, that was your catch at slips :)....

In reply

Spartan CC 202/3 in 22 overs. Atul M 71, Abhishek D 49, Krishna C 44*

Atul Bhia, Krishna bhai and Abhishek were a treat to watch. Their stroke making and the depth of shots coupled with exquisite timing destroyed any hopes for Indus. Atul Bhai fell short of a well deserved century thanks to a doubtful LBW decision.

Once again, this victory couldnot have been ours without a great team effort. Each and every member of the team contributed for the right cause.

Before I signoff, team we only have one hurdle left to claim a spot in the B-Division.

We will be playing Cruisers on this 27th in the play off game, this game is a must win game for us to get promoted to B-Division. I request each and every Spartan member who has played atleast 2 games in this season to provide their availability to Anish for this game, please dont make any assumptions of your own, each and every member at Spartan is equally capable, providing your availability will give Anish and me a larger pool of players to choose a well balanced team from. We are here today only because of the valuable contributions from each one of you and I want every one to participate one more time in the 2009 season playoff game.

Thanks,

Nandu

Match result: East Bay II @ Spartan CC played on 8/16

Congratulations to Anish and team on their 11th win of the season.

EB II were undefeated in the league so far but their run for glory was cut short by Spartans.

Match result: Much awaited game of C-Division, the battle of the champions, both Spartan CC and EB II are the top teams in C-Division and the better team came out victorious.

Toss won by EB II and elected to bat:

EB II innings: 164/10 in 35.5 overs (Saket 43 (2*4), Mukul 33 (2*4), Amitoj 20 (1*4, 1*6), Rajan 28, Jaspreet 2/22, Jessie 3/29, Urmi Bhai 2/41, Nandu 2/31, Anish 1 Runout)

EB II had a shaky start. They lost 2 wickets in the first 5 overs. Jessie duo were on fire. The inswing and outswing combination worked like a charm. Jaspreet took the first 2 wickets and Jessie bowled a very tight spell from the other end, he was unlucky though to not have found a wicket in his first spell. There were couple of drop catches but Saket and Mukul could not make full use of the chances and neither made a big score. EB II were 29/2 in 10 overs but managed to accelerate to 4-4.5 runs an over there after. Mukul and Saket had a 78 run partnership before Mukul as cleaned by a superb delivery by Urmi Bhai. Mukul tried to defend the ball as best as he can but the delivery was too good for anyone to handle. EB II batters didnot judge the situation well and were too aggressive in their stroke making. They lost too many wickets trying to accelerate the score where the key was to stay put and not loose wickets. EB II were 136/6 at 30. After the first break, Jessie returned for his second spell with some fire. Anish started off the damage with a run out from Long off when Rajan decided to take the third run, Anish covered the ground from Long on to Long off and with his quick release and direct hit at the non strikers, Rajan didnot stand a chance. After that, Jessie cleaned up the tail in his next 2 overs, one of which was a lightning fast stumping by Sailash bhai. The end result was EB II packed for 164.

In Reply:

Spartan CC innings: 165/6 in 35.5 overs (Anish 65* (4*4, 4*6), Jaspreet 19* (2*4), Sailesh P 13, Extras 41)

Spartan CC started its innings cautiously and were 38/2 at the first break. Harshal bowled a very tight line but all the EB II bowlers bowled way too many wides and the pressure was really never on. Spartan CC saw a top order collapse after the break and were reduced to 60/5 and then to 77/6 (thanks to a doubtful caught behind decision down the leg side). Anish played a captains knock with good support from Jaspreet at the other end. Spartan CC were 98/6 at 30 and required 67 runs from the last 15 overs. Required RR was never a problem with EB II bowling so many wides, it was about holding wickets and bringing the game home. Anish turned the game around alongwith Jaspreet and both ran like cougars taking singles, doubles and triples at will. Anish hit some big blows and within the next 5.5 overs, Spartan reached to victory.

EB II were very aggressive and were talking a lot on the field, there were a lot of appeals as well, but Anish silenced EB II with his brutal and well planned assault, a much required captain's knock.

Note: We dropped few catches in the field which could have gone either ways but what was annoying was a pathetic ground fielding by Nandu who could not stop straight ball hit to him. The first two misfields did work like a lucky charm for Jaspreet who took wickets immediately after the misfield :)..

Special thanks to Urmi Bhai who played this game for us as we were short of players.

Thanks to Ankit S, Vinod P and Hasu P who came to the ground to cheer us.

Thanks,

Nandu