259 day since we played the last league game as a team and that was in the Surrey Championship League last season, credit must be given to the fact that the team has hardly changed over the course of time and the enthusiasm of this team still remains as its greatest strength. On a rain predicted day, everyone turned up well on time and looked a complete professional side with some players choosing to do running while others stuck to catching practice.
This is and will probably be the strongest side we will field this season, with Chanuskha coming into the team, the fragile looking bowling department looked slightly strengthened. Vinod and Chakri started their first game as captain and vice captain and it all started well with the Tiffs winning the toss and electing to bowl.
Things got better with Chanuskha bowling a testing length and Pramod slowly but surely stepping into his swinging ways. Chanuskha got the first two wickets and some quick work from Vinod at square leg and neat a collection with the glove man Mukesh resulted in a run out. The score read 17 for 3. Things were looking glum for Wallington while the sun seemed to get brighter for the Tiffs. The Old Tiffs bowling work horse Vinod brought himself on replacing the impenetrative Pramod. Praveen and Jeewan bowled at the other end with no success and were taken for easy runs while Vinod kept pegging wickets at the other end. The score read 87 for 7 and the end seemed near for Wallington when their number one who had hung around joined their number nine in a crucial partnership to take the score to 157, this could have been a lot worse if Rajesh had not picked up the wicket to break the partnership. Vinod who ended up with 48 wickets last season picked up the last wicket to end up with amazing figures of 6 for 35.
Teas were excellent, as were all other facilities. Mukesh and Anthony went out to open, Anthony was steady as usual and so was Mukesh his usual self hitting the first ball he faced out of the ground over mid wicket. The opening stand produced 70 odd runs off the first 12 overs when Anthony who caught up with Mukesh pulled his calf muscle and had to be carried out of the ground. Praveen went in to accompany Mukesh, Mukesh by now had dropped anchor and it did not help the scoring when Praveen struggled to find his normal self and was finally given out leg before by the umpire. In went Jeewan at number four and straight away found the slow medium pacers to his liking, struck a quick 18 and fell to a pull. Rajesh went next and got out soon. At 123 for 3, this seemed like a walk in the park for the Tiffs as only 38 were required. To give Wallington some credit, they kept pegging with their very limited resources and smart field placements to contain Mukesh.
The next two Tiffs wickets went for ducks and the score read 124 for 5, this was when the alarms had been raised in the the Tiffs dressing rooms, with a limping Anthony padded up, Vinod strode out and made his intentions very clear, he was going to get these runs as quickly as possible, unfortunately for him, we did not have the six distance measuring facility as I belive, some of the sixes might have come close to some that Gayle has been hitting in the IPL. The game came to a close with Mukesh deservedly hitting the winning runs, a marathon effort from a man known for his aggressive hitting to have patiently shepherded the whole side to a very important win.
Wow’s and oh No’s
Sudhakars helicopter catch at midwicket off Vinod
Mukesh’s first ball six over midwicket
Vinods massive six hitting towards the end
Raja’s relentless sprints from fine leg to fine leg
Peter and Greer’s presence at the ground(includes special appearance by Athar)
Complte team on time and doing drills well in advance
Tiffs out fielding
Second line of bowlers performance is a worry
Middle order collapse