CWCC Game

Date -- 06/19/2010
Location -- Lee Field, NCSU
Link to scorecard


On a high after the last game where a larger than life performance from Mahesh earned a much needed victory for Team DCC and a Player of the Week award for himself, Team DCC landed at Lee Fields in NCSU to take on CWCC.


Probably due to the record of CWCC or due to the powers that be at home, Sanjeewa decided to take a day off. Shrini thought his work was done after doing his bit to get the team across ANZACs hurdle and flew back to Jakarta, just a couple of hours before the game. In came Prasad and Divesh to slug it out in the middle.


The game was supposed to start at 9.30 am but it felt like the game began at 12 noon. The sun was beating up the field so bad that even though DCC had the luxury of not setting up the field, just sitting on that open uncovered bench was uncomfortable enough.


Neeraj lost the toss this time and still emerged the winner. We wanted to bat first and CWCC chose to bowl first. Everyone was happy, especially everyone at the DCC end, only until they realized that one of the two openers was missing. Ravi decided to live up to his standards and actually raise the bar a notch up this time. 


The umpires were ready at their designated positions, CWCC team was itching to get things going, Prasad was padded up and ready to step in but Ravi was nowhere to be seen. Eventually, his Highlander showed up, just in time to avoid being the first opener to be timed out in TCL. Neeraj then gave a testimony of why he is called the eternal team man of DCC. Everyone saw the fabulous scene where Ravi was tying his right pad and Neeraj was tying the left pad for Ravi. Neeraj carried Ravi's kit bag back to the team dugout. First time ever, one opener walked in from long on and the other opener walked in from Square Leg. Better late than never was the motto when Prasad took guard against Rupesh.


Rupesh drifted on to the pad at the first delivery and Prasad elegantly dispatched the ball to backward square leg boundary only for the umpires to play spoilsport and declare the ball to be dead since it pitched before the flix pitch started. DCC did not like this so the bowler obliged by bowling 3 consecutive wides in the first over itself. Prasad was patience personified, displaying solid defense and immense concentration. Sadly, Ravi thought that Prasad's virtues were good enough to carry the team through. He got out on the 2nd ball he faced nicking a wide one to the keeper.


CWCC got the perfect start to their innings and were on cloud nine. If there is a crash landing demo, Ivan gave the demo to CWCC on the first ball he faced. He thwacked the ball with utter disdain over mid off and CWCC realized that the game was on. A long off was placed from that point onwards, until the end of the game. Prasad continued mixing his defense with crisp hits to the off side and Ivan was rotating the strike prudently. All was well, or so it seemed, until Prasad was caught on the backfoot off one that slid off the flix pitch. The umpire took his time, mimicked Bucknor, and then raised the finger to send Prasad into the cozy confines of the dugout.


Neal was promoted at #4 and joined Ivan. He was middling the ball right from the onset and everyone was optimistic until Ivan decided to test out the long off fielder. Instead the ball took the outside edge and went all the way to sweeper cover for Milton to hold on to the dolly. Divesh went in and showed his presence of mind immediately -- he took the bat away from Ivan on his way in to ensure that there was no broken bat this time around. Immediately, everyone in the dugout scrambled to keep their personal bats in hiding and Ivan had to twiddle his thumbs instead. Neeraj was quick to mark this as the basic strategy for the next game -- Divesh has been nominated to steal the bat again, irrespective of Ivan's score.


Neal and Divesh started moving things again. Both were aggressive in their running and decisive with their calling. They were managing the run rate well -- Neal hit 2 boundaries to break a spell of 12 dot ball -- and the bowlers were sprinkling wides to ensure that the batsmen do not get too bogged down. Things again started looking rosy when Neal was tricked by one that came in. The bowler was consistently swinging the ball out but got one to drift in this time, to catch Neal unaware and castle him. Komal went in and started playing as if he was resuming his fluent innings after a drinks break. DCC was maintaining a run rate of 4 consistently, amidst all these wickets. At the break, DCC was 50/4.




Both Komal and Divesh continued the good work after the drinks break and took the score to 72 in the 18th over when a nicely tossed off spun one on the leg stump took the leading edge and lobbed ever so gently to the short mid wicket player. In walked the player-of-the-week. He was slightly short of numbers in the runs column off late but Pratik had demanded more runs frm him and how can anyone hurt an injured mate? Mahesh deposited a full toss all the way past the boundary and signalled his return to form. If Pratik was present on the field, he would have danced inspite of a operated knee.


Divesh and Mahesh were playing SO well. They were consistently scoring 6+ every over without taking any chances. Divesh was seeing the ball like a football right now and was smacking anything off the safe zone. Numan was greeted with 17 off his only over. DCC reached 123/5 by the second drinks break and everyone was dreaming of 200. The partnership reached 48 in less than 8 overs when Mahesh did a Komal. Same bowler, same ball, same shot, same fielder and same result. Another promising partnership ended abruptly, crashing all the dreams.


Rishi stepped in and began supporting Divesh in the same calm and assured way that we know of him. Things were about to look optimistic when a deadly misunderstanding on wide ball ended up in Rishi getting run out. In went Nikhil. If Divesh was seeing the ball like a football, Nikhil was seeing it like a ping pong ball. He could not connect the first 2, and when he did, he was lead footed to reject the single. Later he managed to connect ever so gently, but the wicketkeeper connected his gloves to the ball as well and sent him packing for a duck. If Nikhil was seeing it like a ping pong ball, Neeraj was seeing it like a ball bearing. He liked the duck so much that he wild-slogged his first ball to miss it completely. The ball did not miss the stumps though, hitting them right where it hurts the most -- base of the middle stump. Sid went in with no intentions to emulate the glorified N-power and actually gave good support to Divesh. Divesh smacked a six and rotated strike smartly but soon, his luck ran out. Sid was cleaned up by a searing yorker by Oni and DCC innings ended at 151 -- way below the high skyline of 200. Divesh played a mature innings of 62 of just 65 balls and stayed not out. He smacked 5 boundaries and 2 sixers, displayed the sort of innings we always expected out him. It was immensely satisfying to see him do justice to his talent.


DCC was confident after the stupendous bowling performance from the ANZAC game. So we decided to change something that worked last time. DCC opened the bowling with Neal and Rishi.


Sadly Neal had a tough time gripping the new ball and the openers took full advantage. Rishi had trouble at the other end as well. CWCC reached 29 off the first 2 overs. Nikhil was brought on in the 3rd over and got 2 wickets off the first 2 deliveries. The first one was a stroke of luck because the ball stayed lower than the ankle and hit the base of the leg stump whereas the second one was a genuine outswinger which gently kissed the outer edge and safely landed in Ivan's palms at first slip. DCC was all charged up and egging for the kill. Sadly he could not get his radar fine tuned and struggled with his wides as well. CWCC had reached 49 off the first 5 overs.


Sid was brought in and he too struggled to get the line alright. In his first over, he bowled a beauty to get Chetan clean bowled when he was in single digits but sadly, he had overstepped. Immediately, Mahesh had a chance to get a wicket when Chetan nicked one to second slip. The ball was travelling so fast and all credit to Neal that it was even attempted. Had he held on to it, it would have been a superb take. Chetan was surviving his luck when another one travelled through the slip. Mahesh flickered the DCC hopes when he trapped Ali LBW.


Bowlers were shuffled around without much success. Sachin came and struggled but Chetan held fort at one end. Mahesh finally ended Sachin's misery by getting him plumb. Sunny Motwani came in and played the innings that matched his reputation. He smacked one straight six and ensured that the pressure never mounted. Chetan was playing fluently at the other end, treating every bowler with utter disdain. Ravi was brought in and struck twice in two overs -- Komal held a nice catch at long on to send Sunny back and later castled Milton -- but it came too late to cause a flutter.


Chetan played very well to stay not out at 65, albeit with a few sparkles of luck early in the innings. But the important part was that his mates stayed on the wicket with him to give him company. However scratchy, the partnerships were very effective in blunting an inspired DCC bowling attack.


DCC batsmen need to learn this lesson, the sooner the better. In 3 out of the 6 games this season, we failed to cross 150, purely because we did not support the in form batsman (Neal in RCC, Divesh in this game). Its high time we understand and implement this.


Today, we probably were overawed by the demons in the flix pitch or we took CWCC for granted and they taught us a very good lesson by ending our playoff hopes, even mathematically. If we do not learn it, our subsequent games / seasons will not be any different. Presence of a Sanjeewa or a Pratik or a Faraz can not change this.


High time DCC, lets give more than our 100% for the next 3 games and end the season with our heads held high.