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)!
