Location - Shiloh
A hastily arranged game... Everyone's cell phones buzzed at around 4.30 pm on Thursday when Mahesh "fixed" a game with TCC for Saturday afternoon... Soon he had 6 "Aye" and the game was a go... Slowly but surely, there were 11 ready for game... For that matter, before the game kicked off, there were 12 people on the ground ready to play for DCC... and if that was not enough, a realtor mysteriously appeared on the ground mid-game with his pads on and not just batted, but even graced the most coveted position on the field -- Main Umpire -- for most of DCC batting innings...
Yes folks, this is the story for the DCC's practice game against TCC held on Saturday 04/17 at the cricketing paradise of Shiloh... DCC twitched their palms anxiously on the sidelines while they watched Anzacs and KMCC slug it out in the middle... While Faraz failed to take KMCC to safety, Neeraj was making plans in his mind about how to tackle a new look TCC...
DCC won the toss and decided to bowl... The logic behind the decision was that we had failed setting up a good score, so lets put more pressure on us by chasing a big total and see how we perform... For geniuses, this might not make sense, but if DCC was made up of geniuses, we would have been working on patents and acquisition deals instead of match reports at 11 pm on a Monday night....
DCC started bowling with Niranjan and Trip while TCC opened with Arvind and Samir Tikare... Niranjan was bowling very well with his classic banana swingers and actually found a spot on the pitch where the ball bounced alarmingly... Shrini was competent behind the stumps against the pace of Niranjan but had some anxious moments keeping to the spin from Trip... First slip fielder Nikhil does not like his new fielding position and dropped another "almost held it" catch... Luckily this one did not cost a lost like the previous one... In the next over from Trip, Niranjan held a steepler from Samir off the bowling of Trip...
Newcomer Taran was tried at 1 down and had a few nervy moments... Soon Mahesh made it all cosy for him when his first ball was edged behind for Shrini to hold a good catch... Muki came down at #4 and by this time Arvind was very comfortable... He smacked a couple of sixes and a few fours... This partnership actually threatened to take the game away from DCC when the umpire came to rescue... He gave Arvind out with a dubious high delivery... everyone including the batsman, bowler, fielders and the keeper were surprised, but accepted it with glee...
Vijay joined Muki but this time Muki had to go when a outswinger from Nikhil took the leading edge and looped all the way to mid off where Rishabh judged it perfectly... Rajesh came in now and hoped to forge an alliance with Vijay... But Neal had other ideas... Though he was struggling with his line, he got one to uproot the sticks behind Vijay...
Suddenly a big chunk of TCC batters were resting in the shade and the other chunk got equally lucky... Kranthi (newcomer) had one edge of Nikhil go abegging while a few catches were lost in the sunshine... However ugly it looked, it worked... Finally Rishi did a Rahul and run Rajesh out off his own bowling... A very commendable athletic effort...
The rest of the batting story can be described in 4 words -- swish, connect, runs, wickets... Sid got one banana swinger to go around Bhavik's legs and hit the middle... There were a couple of smart runouts and TCC ended their innings on the last ball of the 18th over for 150 all out...
The mystic realtor wanted to open the innings with Prasad but cunning captain had some other plans... so Ravi was made the main umpire and he gave some wonderful explanations for denied LBWs... Mahesh and Prasad opened the innings in their trademark slow and steady fashion... Mahesh was out attempting a cute shot off his legs and was welcomed with the choicest words of wisdom in the pavilion... From that point onward, the PDA was Mahesh's best friend...
Shrini and Prasad continued the good work until Ravi had enough of being the good umpire and gave a questionable one... Prasad was not happy with the catch taken at covers, but probably Ravi thought that it was his turn to bat... That was not to be and Neal was sent instead...
This was the most exciting phase of DCC batting... Every bowler was carefully dismantled, some with clinical precision and other with brute power... They had a partnership of 60 in 6 overs when Shrini was bowled off Shantan's faster one... Nikhil went in, took one on the gloves and thought thats enough for the day... He swung wildly at the next one and Samir took a steepler ("Upar Ka Chakka" in DCC terminology) to send him back...
Neal came back soon after a well made 50 and Ravi finally had the opportunity to even the scores... He is still in Happy Diwali mode -- 1 boundary, 1 single and caught at the boundary... Suddenly, the wheels had come off the chase and DCC needed 32 of 18 balls with only Rishi, Divesh and Neeraj being the recognized batsmen remaining...
But this time, the tough got going when the going got tough... Rishi smacked one wonderful pull and Divesh got a four to calm the nerves... Rishi got sent back with a tricky caught behind when the ball was no way close to the bat but captain cool was still there... He gave a piece of his mind to Nikhil when the latter threw his wicket and now he walked the talk... Practicing what he preached, Neeraj was there till the end smacking 2 high pressure boundaries and getting the game done and dusted with 4 balls to spare...
Finally, DCC experiences the sweet smell of victory, albeit in a practice game... The timing could not be any better with a must-win game coming up this Sunday...
The bowling was good -- everyone was adequate and Rishi was fast... Fielding could have been better, especially the catches... Bowling at the death can be more clinical... The batting undid most of the mistakes done in the past games but this one should have been scaled without any hiccups... We need to learn not to throw it away especially when things are going our way...
Neeraj was admirable in his leadership and cleared any doubts that lingered in anyone's mind abt his captaincy qualities... He was clear in his instructions, unflustered on the field and had enough flexibility to cater to game situations... The fact that he had a lot of bowling options helped to one extent... Yet, he was impartial enough to give every bowler atleast 2 overs to bowl and selfless enough to to not bowl himself... In batting, he had a role for everyone to play and was there till the end to finish the game... And what more, he did what no other DCC captain has been able to do -- make Ravi the umpire... All in all, a very well executed job...
Having said that, alls well that ends well... And this one did end well... We have the first victory of the season... And if we do everything that we did right this game, there is no reason why the game on this Sunday will not end the same way...
So good luck DCC, lets even the parity this weekend... Its high time we turn it around...
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