First home game for the Tiffs and everyone was looking forward to this, what lay in store sprung us into chaos and surprise. The home team were not given the main square, we were allotted the school ground. After some deliberation and further confusion it was decided that the game will be played on the school square which was very good as a ground but lacked a pavilion and nearby changing facilities if we were to sound be very sceptical. I honestly thought it was not really fair on the opposition to play there who normally provide us with their main square and good changing facilities.
Cricket did get underway, some of the Chobham arrived just on time to start the game, Chobham won the toss and elected to field with, they started with 9 fielders but soon the other two players joined in. After scoring an early boundary, Mukesh went early as Anthony and Sadiq played a good hand in giving the Tiffs a good start with a solid 37 run partnership. Sadiq was brilliantly caught at gully. Anthony was next to go after scoring a good 30 runs, which would go to remain as the highest score in the game. Jeewan went to join Praveen and struggled with his timing and shot selection whilst Praveen was making the Chobham bowlers look mediocre. Jeewan was soon out for 3 and Praveen who was looking good for a huge one followed after hitting 3 boundaries and 2 sixed in his 25.. Vinod and Sudhakar put together a reasonable partnership with Vinod doing the bulk of scoring with 19 off 19 balls but Sudhakar’s poor run of form continued.
The scoreboard was reading 103/7 and it looked like we were going to be bundled out for our lowest score ever but Rajesh came to the rescue in the company of Chakri, Fareed and Raja. Rajesh scored 25 vital runs at the end along with the tail which bulked up the score to a respectable(only because of the result) 137 all out.
The Chobham bowling was not great, they did not posses anyone who really troubled any of the Tiffs batters, every other Tiffs batsmen spoke about missing out on a scoring opportunity against a weak bowling attack. I guess it was just a lack of application which saw Tiffs resign to one of their lowest ever scores batting first, although it has to be said that Silk and Arif who did the bulk of bowling for Chobham did hold their own for most of their spells.
Teas were below par.
Chobham had not won a game yet and they must have fancied their chances to win this one, scoring 138 in over 60 overs was just a case of surviving and getting under the skin of the Tiffs. During our batting and teas, references were being made with past games where Tiffs scored a similar score and lost comfortably. With Fareed coming in to the team as a left arm seamer, the bowling did look strong but no one sure how Fareed would bowl. Vinod who had to take the new ball along with Fareed bowled a tight spell, there was pressure from both ends as batsmen kept digging Vinods yorkers out and missing his length deliveries, on the other end Fareed kept a probing and consistent length. Once Vinod broke the opening partnership, the flood gates opened. In a marathon spell of 11 overs Vinod picked up 5 wickets for a miserly 28 runs while Fareed ended with a wicket from his 7 overs. The game was all but over when Praveen removed the annoying Silk who found Vinod and Fareed to his liking, Raja came into pick up the last wicket to wrap up the Chobham innings at 80 runs. Mukesh kept well.
The skipper Vinod bowled a magnificent spell and ended his tally of wickets at 14 in three games, the rest did bowl well, but Chobham was just a mole hill, we will have tougher challenges ahead as mountains await us which will certainly bring out the best in all of us. Although its too early to be looking at, the Tiffs are tentatively in the 2nd position on the league table.
Wow’s and oh No’s
Praveens slip catch off Vinod was one of the best ever
Vinod and Fareed strangling the Chobham batting line up
Bowling out the opposition for 80 Runs
Another middles order collapse urged me to pull up some figures…
Rajesh 3 Games 32 Runs Average 10.67
Jeewan 3 Games 30 Runs Average 10.0
Chakravarthy 2 Innings 12 Runs Average 6.0
Sudhakar 2 Games 5 Runs Average 2.5