It was total chaos with birthday boy Raja not able to wake up for the game, the Tiffs were lucky Naveen volunteered to save the day by playing. This was a ground we were familiar with, certainly not a batters paradise as we had a very low scoring game last time around. Only one team change was made with Pramod coming in for Mukesh, Anthony and Praveen were not fully available yet.
The toss was finally won by the Tiffs and a reluctant skipper chose to bat as we did not have an eleven to field. Rajesh and make shift opener Sadiq went in, Sadiq who was on a duck scoring streak squeezed a boundary through the slip area to get off that dreaded zero. Rajesh on the other end picked up from where he left last game, both batsmen looked solid but Sadiq was soon late to another full delivery and was out. Ramesh joined Rajesh and both ensured that another wicket did not go down for the next few overs; Rajesh was mixing defence with controlled aggression before he fell, 23 well-made runs against his name. The skipper joined Ramesh, asking the whole team to play as many overs as possible and himself not trying to stick at the wicket and spend some time. He seemed to be in a rush and soon got out slogging across the line, not the best of leading by example scenarios.
Ramesh soon followed, made a patient 16. Vinod was promoted up the batting order but this move did not work well as Vinod fell for 7, Dipesh on the other end was in an extreme rush, hit 3 consecutive boundaries before falling going for the fourth one. Chakravarthy showed some resilience and hung around for some time at the crease; Sudhakar’s poor run of form continued, played back to a full delivery and got out without scoring. Pramod went in with, started with all guns blazing and compiled a quick 23, this 23 is the joint highest score in our innings along with the 23 Rajesh had earlier made.
We had a quick break and went out to defend our puny target of 121. We started with the old ball which was very well maintained by Thames Ditton. Vinod and Pramod started out as normal and they bowled as if they were possessed, the swing and accuracy both generate was breathtakingly accurate. Not a single ball was wasted and every ball was a test for the opposition, especially the first wicket by Pramod and the third wicket by Vinod were one of the most joyous moments of the season for me.
Thames Ditton were hit and hit hard by our opening bowlers, for the Tiffs it was a case of keeping it going, luckily for us we had a Tea break in the middle. Vinod bowled with great stamina to block one end up, while the skipper chipped in with 3 wickets at the other end. Soon the wickets dried up and Pramod was itching to grab the new cherry, once he was given the new ball he displayed his skill by swinging the ball a long way, he cleaned up the set batsmen and soon the game was brought to a close with Vinod bowling their last batsmen.
It is extremely satisfying for us to beat Thames Ditton with the weakest team we have put out this season so far. Fielding was top notch with only one catch being dropped. Chakri seems to have rediscovered himself in the keeping department, with 0 byes for the first time in this season, it is a testimony to his capabilities as a wicket keeper, hope this continues and he becomes the permanent wicket keeper for the Tiffs.
Thanks go to Anthony for Photographic duties, Rodney for Umpiring. Thanks to Aravind, Swetha and Vineela for supporting the team. A special thanks to Naveen for helping out at such short notice.
Apologies for this late match report.
Recent Comments