Cricket on a hot Saturday - 8 August 2009

It is quite unusual to see 'burning-hot' mornings in Germany but it was a very hot Saturday morning when we started our game. Though the game started a bit late, around 9:30 am instead of regular 9:00am, it was full of fun.

Teams:

Team 1: Pranav, Ishan, Saket, Mukesh, Pavan, Amit, Abhishek (later moved to Team 2, when Manish left after 2 games)

Team 2: Anoop, Shubhojit, Venugopal, Prakash, Manish and Jagraj

Match 1:

Manish and Shubhojit started the inning with a blast. Riding on Manish's swashbuckling inning (3 x 6's, 5 x 4's) their team put up a total of 65 in 6 overs. Credit for such a big score goes mainly to Mukesh who conceded too many runs in the only over he bowled on Saturday.

Saket's team started the chase but fell apart against superb bowling from Anoop. They lost the match mainly due to Manish's batting, Anoop's bowling and fielding and Shubhojit's all round performance.

Match 2:

After the embarrassing loss in the very first game, the strategy was revisited in Saket's camp. Mukesh was advised to confine himself to keeping and batting only ;). They won the toss and started the inning in a slow fashion with their tally reading 14 runs in 3 overs. But the next over from Venu (from opposite team) turned out to be very expensive and scoreboard was shining with 38 runs/4 overs. However, the bowling team returned back with tidy bowling again by Anoop and Shubhojit and at the end of 8th over, the target for them was 50 Runs.

Team 2 started the chase with caution..everything was on target untill Team 1 decided to bring his star bowler, Pranav, to attack. The nail-biting moment started when Pranav bowled superbly to give away just 2 runs. The target for Team 2 was 11 runs from last 6 balls. Saket took the responsibility of bowling the decisive over. It was again a tight bowling by Saket who gave 6 runs in first 3 balls. At the end, Team 2 surrendered when they needed 4 runs from last ball.

Match 3:

With Manish gone from the squad, Abhishek moved to Team 2. Team 2 batted first and made a modest 20 runs in allotted 6 overs. Pavan bowled really well to restrict the batsman. Team 1 achieved the target overcoming the initial glitch caused by Anoop's bowling. Pavan won the game for Team 1 hitting a huge six.

Player(s) of the day: Anoop, Manish

Other significant performer(s): Pranav, Shubhojit, Pavan