Arun guides NCA to their second victory of the Season.

Match Report by Srimanth Brindavanam

June 25, 2008

A masterful knock by Arun helped NCA pile 178 runs. Arun was at his sublime best scoring 65 runs of 61 balls, was slow to begin with but did not take long to find his groove. Winning the toss Srimanth elected to bat first, facing comparatively weaker opposition NCA changed their strategy by sending Srivatsan and Aniket. Change did not help NCA as Aniket did not trouble the scorers as he was adjudged lbw off Ananth’s bowling. This did not stop the rising star Srivatsan; he assessed the bowling well and started to play positively. A cold blooded pull of Sunny rolled NCA off to a decent start. Sunny started the fifth over well and bowled a tight line to Arun , who could not score any run but as always Sunny let slip a long hop on the leg side and Arun pulled it magnificently over square leg boundary for a Six.

Srivatsan as always was looking good but as always he threw it away when he had everything going for me, in fact that was the story of the day with NCA batsman. NCA were cruising along at 44/1 when they lost Srivatsan, in came Srimanth with lot of over’s to settle and pile up a big score. Started off with a loose shot but soon started to rotate the strike, Zameer was the only bowler in their team who was bowling good as he was using his height to his advantage and was able to extract some bounce of the wicket. Salman started from the other end, Srimanth got a wide ball on the off side and it was cut fiercely to the point boundary and in the same over width was offered and it was cut uppishly over point and it almost carried over the rope. With two good fours, Srimanth was looking good but in the very next over he played a nothing shot and was caught and bowled by Zameer for 16. In came Jaideep and even he started off punishing Salman with couple of boundaries and out of which one was a hook over fine leg. As he was looking good he got out to a ball which any batsman would have hit out of the park, a slow full toss and he tried to glance it to fine leg. And was adjudged lbw and this is not the first instance he has been out that way. One more batsman threw his wicket away when things were looking bright for NCA. Jaideep was out for 10, even though the wickets were falling NCA was always maintaining 5 runs per over, thanks mainly to Arun. Ravi joined Arun and they both stabilized the innings, they ran some quick singles and Arun blasted some superb fours by cover driving, leg glancing and front foot driving. Ravi soon joined the party by belting one over the cover for four and hooking the other over fine leg. 

Ravi was bowled by Ananth trying to play a cute short over fine leg and soon followed Shareef, sent in to do some big hitting he choose a wrong ball and did not trouble the scorers and was out for duck. With only couple over’s left, Arun tried to hit Ritesh over the top but some smart bowling by Ritesh and good glove work by Rajesh ended Arun’s brilliant innings. Last over was faced by Mridul and Bharat, they could not do much damage until the 4 ball but on the 5 ball Mridul heaved it with almighty power and the ball raced to third man boundary, which resembled the famous shot by Anil Kumble. On the last ball Mridul played it to mid off and with some poor fielding and good running between the wickets by Bharat and Mridul NCA got 4 valuable runs. NCA finished the innings on 178/6.

Chasing 179 to win NCC Seamers started of with Ananth and Dharmesh. Both batsmen who were strong over point and third man were in for a surprise as they had fielders set up on the point and third man boundary especially for the cut shot they would play. But still Ananth and Dharmesh raced to a comparatively good start. They were also helped by some poor fielding at the third man boundary and indiscipline bowling by Ramadass and Srimanth, both bowling couple of wides in each over. It was in the fifth over when Ramadass bowled a beauty which held its line and Ananth was clean bowled playing a shot with his feet in no man’s land. Vamsee was the next man in and he was sent in as a pinch hitter to improve on the good start they got. As expected he started to go after the bowling, Ramadass pitched the ball up and Vamsee hit it high over Long off and to every one surprise Srimanth grassed it which was a easy catch at this level and again in the same over it was like an action replay same bowler same batsman and the same fielder grasses it again. It was the worst fielding display by Srimanth and this was a game to forget as per his fielding standards. Srimanth was frustrated but his main aim was to make amends for the dropped catches and in the very next over he got Vamsee adjudged lbw by an in swinging yorker. In came Ritesh and after couple of balls he tried to hit Srimanth over cover but to his misery he was caught at covers by Jaideep. After dropping two catches it was a down slide for Srimanth but he held his nerve and got couple of good break thoroughs. Next over Ramadass gave little width to Dharmesh and as he could resist he played the cut shot which was right in to the hands of Sathish who took a brilliant catch. Seamers were falling like pins, Srimanth got Sunny out for duck caught by Ravi and soon Aniket came in to attack and priced the wicket of Adeel caught at mid off by Srimanth. With 67 /6 there was only one end to this game and it was NCA’s victory. 

But with next round of league games in mind Srimanth wanted to try the back up bowlers to improve the depth in the bowling department and in came Mridul, Sathish and Bharat to finish of the remaining batsman but as they lacked match practice they gave away few extras and offered few loose balls. Mridul priced out with a wicket of Zameer caught at mid off by Sathish. But in all this the match lost its charm as Seamers batsmen were happy blocking and never trying to chase down the target. Salman and Bhavesh had a decent partnership for a while, finally as the game was going no where Srimanth handed the ball over to Arun to finish off the remaining batsman, he soon took the wicket of Bhavesh caught at Long on by Sathish. It was the third catch of the match for Sathish, who as a fielder is doing an outstanding job for the team. Rajesh and Naveed were run out to hand over NCA their second win. Salman batted sensibly for his 53 and he remained not out in a lost cause for Seamers.

If NCA has to claim this season’s title they have to work on consistency in their bowling and mainly their back up bowlers must step up, players like Sathish, Bharat and Mridul they all have loads of talent but it is up to them to show case their talent on the big arena. Last but not the least the middle order must raise the bar and perform consistently to prove why NCA’s batting line up is rated so high in this league.

 NCA falls flat against NCC Seamers

Match Report by Srimanth Brindavanam

June 3, 2008

Winning the toss NCA opted to set a target, with Arun in good form and pairing with his old mate Pratik NCA looked to post a big score. But things didn’t seem so as Zaheer got the very first legal ball to swing out and got Pratik poking at it. With score at 1/1 in came Aniket. He countered a very good bowling display from Zaheer. Anish was pressed into attack at the other end, he began the over with a long hop and Arun was quick to punish it for a four. All was not good for NCA as both Arun and Aniket were tied up by some tide bowling from Zaheer and Anish. Aniket took a while to get off the mark but looked to be in good form with a whip for four over square leg but time and again he lost his cool and gave his wicket away by holing out to Alam at Square leg. Srivatsan was the next man in, both batsman stuck to basics and started to rotate the strike and get the momentum going for NCA and at drinks break NCA were 39/2.

With play ready to resume, skies opened their gates and rain interrupted the play. With the time lost due to rain the game was curtailed to a 23 over a side. The task was cut out for NCA to post a big score and both batsmen began to increase the tempo with quick running between the wickets and couple of big shots. NCA’s progress was short lived when Bimal got rid of Arun with a good caught and bowl effort. Arun made 27 hard earned runs; Srimanth joined Srivatsan and they both quickly rotated the strike and had a good partnership going between them, Srivatsan belted couple of good boundaries and Srimanth helped himself for a six over long-on off Bimal. Both Sri’s put on 40 runs in 34 balls when Srivatsan got out trying to up the run-rate when he tried to hit Alam inside out over cover. Srivatsan contributed 32 well made runs; soon the big hitter from NCA Shareef joined the party. 4 over’s remaining both the batsmen started to go for big shots, and Srimanth lost his wicket caught at the cover boundary by Alam. Srimanth made 23 runs and he lost his wicket at the wrong time and NCA started to throw away the momentum which was gathered initially. Rest of the batsman went for those never existing big shots and perished in the process. None of the batsmen followed the basics of rotating the strike which eventually cost NCA 15-30 runs and NCA folded out with 3 balls to spare and scoring only 19 runs from the last 4 overs.

Chasing 132 for Victory, NCC seamers started off well with Gideon and Sandeep adding 37 runs before Jaideep broke their partnership by taking Sandeep lbw for 15. Naseer was the next man in, he took couple of balls to adjust but launched an attack on Srimanth by Hitting him for 6 4 4 but with Jaideep bowling brilliantly at the other end, Naseer’s cameo was short lived. He mistimed a slower ball and was caught brilliantly at long on by Ravi. With Naseer gone Kishore came in and he was bowled the very first ball by a in-swinging beauty from Srimanth. With the match even poised at 61/2 after 10 overs. Alam and Gideon joined forces for NCC seamers to take them home and it was a game on as Arun was bowling tight from one end and Jaideep from the other end. Slowly but steadily they have put on 27 runs. Soon Gideon was caught and bowled by Arun when things seemed to slip away for NCA. But still NCC Seamers were looking good with Mithul joining Alam, both Alam and Mithul were rotating the strike and keeping the run rate under check and inching closer to victory but as always NCA was fighting hard to get a breakthrough. With Arun throwing one in the air and Alam not resisting the bait went for the big heave only to be caught at long on by Srimanth. With the danger man gone, NCA was looking to close the deal. With Zaheer joining Mithul it seemed for a tough finish, soon Mithul was sent packing to pavilion by a blinder at point and the fielder was none other than the super athletic Sathish, with Mithul struggling of Arun it was fitting that he got his wicket. And it opened the gates for NCA to finish off the lower order batsman, but some bad bowling by Mridul in the 20^th over and some courageous batting by Bimal took the equation from 24 runs of 26 balls to 13 runs of 18 balls. But Arun was at his best by giving only 3 runs in the 21^st over to give some hope for NCA. As it was for the entire day the momentum shifting from one team to the other but it was Bimal’s courageous batting which took NCC seamers home with 1.2 overs to spare handing NCA their first defeat in the TCL 2008. 

Alam Khan from NCC Seamers was Man of the Match for 2 catches, 22 runs and 1 wicket.

NCA Clinch Low Scoring Season Opener

Match Report by Srimanth Brindavanam