|
A beautiful clear warm summer day with a light
breeze blowing across the field at Johnson
Park at 1030 am as you could see a few
families of playing members of ECC strolling
in and taking their seats to watch them play
against Indus. It was an important game for
Edison Cricket Club as Indus has beaten them
in two consecutive outing in the past two
years. Atul Huckoo, the President of Edison
Cricket Club sat with Kevin Coyne of the New
York Times briefing him about the nuances of
the game of cricket which he was soon going to
witness.
Sriram Srinivasan, the Captain of Edison
Cricket Club and Akhilesh Singh the Captain
of Indus along with umpire went about the
process of the toss at center of the pitch,
I new at that very moment that we were in
for a good game today. Having won the toss
Sriram did not hesitated to announce that we
would like to Bat first.
To everyone's surprise Rizwan Bajwa was ask to
pad up and join Sriram to open the inning.
This was once again was a master move from
Sriram, as Rizwan was being used as pinch
hitter specially for the first 12 over's to
get a few quick runs and upset the bowling
rhythm of the oppositions good bowling attack.
Both the openers kept the score board ticking
with quick singles and the occasional four to
take the score to 47 for no loss at the end of
the 8th over at a rate off 5.87 runs per over.
That's when Sriram got out with his individual
score on 21. Disaster was to follow soon in
the next over when Akhilesh the Captain of
Indus bowled Rizwan batting on 18 with no
addition to the total score of ECC. Both
openers had done their job however for not
only did they see off Indus's best bowlers but
also got some runs at a brisk fashion. Now we
had two fresh batsman in the crease in the
form off Fahad Sultan and Mitesh Rajani.
Runs dried up as both batsmen were pinned down
by some accurate bowling by Vishal and
Akhilesh of Indus. Runs were also getting
tough to come by as both players play along
the carpet and the unmowed grass in the
outfield was not helping their cause either.
In the next 6 over's only 14 runs were made
dropping the run rate a bit when suddenly
Vishal struck again by removing Mitesh LBW for
just 5 runs. Suddenly, their was pin drop
silence in the ECC camp when once again Sriram
played a master move by sending Rakesh Shah
into bat. And soon the free hitting Rakesh got
things back into track with a couple of fours.
By then Fahad too had settled down and runs
were flowing from his bat too. Fahad's is
technically such a good batsmen as he plays
most of his shot with such sweet timing and
all along the carpet that he could have easily
got a few more boundaries if not for the grass
on the outfield which kept slowing down the
ball. Having said that he did play a few
aerial shots all the way for six runs and
couple of drives which pierced the gaps
towards the boundary. Rakesh gave him good
support till he finally got out on 14, but
Fahad and Chirag kept going till finally Fahad
was caught by Anil Prabhu of Ram's bowling
with his individual score at 37 and ECC's
score was on 113 in 25 over's. Chirag and
Sanjay Sharma put on 29 runs for the 6th
wicket when Sharma got stumped with his score
on 19. Soon after Chirag too joined him in the
pavilion with score on 11.
ECC was on 148 for 7 in 33 over's when they
were hit by a double whammy as they lost Manoj
Bagwe for naught and Vipul Patel for 5 in
matter of 2 over's and suddenly things were
not looking so good for ECC. Farrukh Khan
however had other plans as he made a quick
fire of 18 runs with the help of couple of
fours and a huge six. Finally, Neeraj Gehani
remained not out on zero as ECC's inning came
to end at the 37th over with the score on 167
giving a target of 168 in 40 over's to get at
a run rate of 4.2 per over. ECC fell 3 over's
too early and some 15 to 20 runs short of what
would have been a good score keeping in mind
the way the wicket was behaving and the
sluggish out field.
After lunch ECC went on to the field shouting
Yippee- Kai -Yay, yes exactly like the
character John McClane says in all his Die
hard movies. In just 13 over's Indus were
reeling at 29 runs for 5 with some accurate
bowling by Sriram and Rizwan. The first to go
was Ashwin Raghu caught in first slip by Manoj
Bagwe for just one run off the bowling of
Sriram. I only wish we had a video camera to
capture the way that catch was taken. It was
one of the toughest catches as it came so
quick and low, even the batsman was totally
shocked and stood his ground at the crease for
a moment or two in disbelief. However, he did
knowledge in the pavilion to his team mates
that it was a brilliant catch. Rizwan won the
battle with Anil Prabhu by cart willing his
middle stump for just 5 runs. Having taken a
wicket in just his second over riram was not
going to sit on his laurels and bowled a
wicket maiden in his third over and dismiss
Bhadra for 5, with a beauty with his 3rd ball
in that over leaving Indus @ 10 for 3 in 5
over's. Vikram and Srinivas from Indus slowly
dug in and played a few over's when suddenly
Sriram dismissed Srinivas in the form of LBW
for 11 in his 6th over. Vipul came to bowl the
next over and struck immediately by removing
Sanjay once again LBW for 2. All the bowlers
of ECC kept pegging in around the off stump
and not really giving any width to the Indus
batsmen to play their shots, that's where
their success lay. Drinks were taken in the
14th over and ECC were sitting pretty after
sending 5 of the top order batsmen back in the
hut for just 29 runs. Even Kevin Coyne of New
York Times could not hide is excitement at
this point as he spoke to Suketu Kothari who
was keeping the score. The bowling was so
accurate that ECC bowled its first wide in the
14th over. In all ECC gave only 6 wide's in
the entire match. There were many a
discussions going the around in the pavilion
during that time as the best pair of Vikram
and Akhilesh were on the crease. But I think
Edison had already won the game in the first
12 over's and mentally they were riding high.
The rest of the game was a mere formality.
Vikram from Indus was the lone fighter who
finally made 40 runs and was helped a bit by
Akhilesh who made 15 runs with help of two
sixers, Vishal who made 12 runs and Uday who
made 10 runs. But no other batsman stood his
ground as Farrukh and Fahad the 2 spinners
were weaving their web. Farrukh got rid of
danger man Akhilesh and Fahad got rid of
Vishal and Uday. Rizwan was brought back in
the 33rd over and took two wickets in
consecutive balls to finish the inning of
Indus when their score was on the Nelson
(111). Its was a convening victory by 56 runs
as ECC proved that we were a much superior
team on this day.
|
|
Over’s |
Maidens |
Runs |
Wickets |
|
Sriram
Srinivasan |
8 |
3 |
11 |
3 |
|
Rizwan Bajwa |
6 |
0 |
22 |
3 |
|
Manoj Bagwe |
5 |
0 |
13 |
0 |
|
Vipul Patel |
6 |
0 |
18 |
1 |
|
Farrukh Khan |
4 |
0 |
26 |
1 |
|
Fahad Sultan |
4 |
0 |
17 |
2 |
|
It was great all round performance from the
Edison team as everyone played their part
towards a great win. The Man of the Match was
awarded to Fahad Sultan of Edison Cricket Club
for his contribution with the Bat and the
Bowl. (37 good runs and 2 wickets for 17). The
families and friends of both clubs went back
home after the game happy after viewing a good
and competitive game of cricket on nice sunny
day.Even Mr. Kevin Coyne of the New York Times
had an enjoyable day and as he learnt a few
nuances of the game. Congrads to the Edison
Cricket Club on winning yet another game as
they take their win factor upto 72 % this
season in Conference B of the Cricket League
of New Jersey. YIPPEE-KAI-YAY !!!
|
Scorecard
Match # 2360
Edison Cricket Club vs Indus
Cricket Club
Johnson Park 1
7/7/2007 (40-over match) |
|
|
|
Result |
Edison
Cricket Club Won.
EDISON:167/10
in 37.0,
Indus: 111/10 in 33.0 |
|
Toss |
Edison
Cricket Club |
|
Umpires |
anand churi |
|
Man of the Match |
1. Fahad Sultan
2. Ramaswamy Hariharan |
|
|
|
|
Edison
Cricket Club Innings (40 overs
maximum) |
R |
B |
4 |
6 |
|
Rizwan Bajwa |
|
b Akhilesh |
18 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Sriram Srinivasan |
c |
b Vishal |
21 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Fahad Sultan |
c |
b Ramaswamy |
37 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
mitesh rajani |
lbw |
b Vishal |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Rakesh Shah |
c |
b Ramaswamy |
14 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Chirag Patel |
|
b Ramaswamy |
11 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
SANJAY SHARMA |
stumped |
b Uday |
19 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
FARUKH Khan |
|
b Vishal |
18 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Manoj Bagwe |
|
b Ramaswamy |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Vipul Patel |
lbw |
b Ramaswamy |
5 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Neeraj Gehani |
Not Out |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Extras |
(b 1, lb 0, w 17,nb 1) |
|
|
Totals |
(10 wickets in 37.0 overs) |
167 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bowling |
O |
B |
M |
R |
W |
|
Vikram Nadig |
7 |
0 |
0 |
24 |
0 |
|
Prem Vuthandam |
4 |
0 |
0 |
28 |
0 |
|
Akhilesh Singh |
4 |
0 |
0 |
16 |
1 |
|
Vishal Cheruku |
6 |
0 |
0 |
13 |
3 |
|
Uday Kumar |
8 |
0 |
0 |
33 |
1 |
|
Ramaswamy Hariharan |
8 |
0 |
0 |
38 |
5 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
Indus
Cricket Club Innings (target:
168 runs from 40.0 overs) |
R |
B |
4 |
6 |
|
Ashwin Raghu |
c |
b Sriram |
1 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Anil Prabhu |
|
b Rizwan |
7 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Bhadrachalapati Avantsa |
|
b Sriram |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Vikram Nadig |
|
b Rizwan |
40 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Srinivas Yatham |
lbw |
b Sriram |
11 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Prem Vuthandam |
lbw |
b Vipul |
2 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Akhilesh Singh |
c |
b FARUKH |
16 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Vishal Cheruku |
c |
b Fahad |
12 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Ramaswamy Hariharan |
Not Out |
3 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Uday Kumar |
c |
b Fahad |
10 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Nirmal Kumar |
lbw |
b Rizwan |
0 |
0 |
0 |
0 |
|
Extras |
(b 0, lb 0, w 6,nb 1) |
|
|
Totals |
(10 wickets in 33.0 overs) |
111 |
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
|
Bowling |
O |
B |
M |
R |
W |
|
Sriram Srinivasan |
8 |
0 |
3 |
12 |
3 |
|
Rizwan Bajwa |
6 |
0 |
0 |
22 |
3 |
|
Manoj Bagwe |
5 |
0 |
0 |
16 |
0 |
|
FARUKH Khan |
4 |
0 |
0 |
26 |
1 |
|
Fahad Sultan |
4 |
0 |
0 |
17 |
2 |
|
|
|
