KCC Match Summaries 06-07 season

KCCB Vs JGR Summary

KCC B team bats first and gets bundled out for a meager 89 just before the break in 19.4 overs. This was one of the worst performances so far by KCC-B batters. So what chances would you give KCC-B team in this game against JGR given that only Rahul was the regular bowler in our team today? On paper this was the weakest team KCC-B have fielded this season so far. If you think the obvious then hold on and take a deep breath. To the surprise of all, showing great commitment, tremendous team effort and the so called killer instinct, KCC-B gets JGR bowled out for a meager 60 within 16 overs, thanks to a relatively long and arduous spells from Rahul and Bharath for whom this game was a debut as a bowler.

We might have heard that the probability of winning the toss for any team is 50% but I as a captain seem to prove this simple fact wrong yet again. We lost the toss but again happened to be in a win-win situation as JGR asked us to BAT. They were 8 players in total and they were still waiting for one of their teammates to join. Given this, their choice to field was rather illogical. We didn’t mind it though. Bharath opened the innings with Anurag and was looking well determined for a big one. Sometimes too much caution might play negatively to your plan and this is what happened with Bharath. He wanted to offer no shot to a delivery, which had pitched way outside the off stump but ended up finding his off stump uprooted. Perhaps this was the best bowl that JGR team had in their armory. So much was the swing of the ball that it was hard to believe what happened and if it were possible I would have loved to watch a replay of this ball a few times. We were 3/1 within first overs, a situation very unusual to which we have not been in the recent past. Rahul goes in to replace Bharath and he starts well with Anurag. Anurag on the other hand keeps playing his defensive and cautious shots in an effort to hold the other end. Rahul tries to accelerate the innings and in the process ends up giving a catch at mid on. Going by the standards of the fielding display that we usually see, it looked like a catch almost dropped but the fielder, Zahid, had enough time to take it comfortable at the end. Soon we were tottering at 14/2 in 3 overs and didn’t look an auspicious start by any means given the way we have batted in the previous two games at least. Sumit joins Anurag and both of them try to repair the damage cautiously. They looked for singles and doubles and waited for loose deliveries. Sumit hit 2 beautiful boundaries, which happened to be the only boundaries from KCC side at the end. They looked like all set for a big partnership before Anurag misread a middle stump ball which hit him right in front of the stump. The score was 62/3. Thanks to Anurag’s consistency, the damage at the top of the order was slightly repaired. He has been doing well as an opener but after starting well and being well set, he has not been quite able to convert those starts to a big one. He scored 18 of 28 balls. Nonetheless, given the duration and the outcome of the game, this was a class inning. Anand goes in to replace Sumit. If we remember, Sumit was battling with his 6th overs woes at the start of the season for the first two games, it seems like Anand is not battling with something which could be called 6th balls woes on the similar lines. This was the third time he got out of the 6th ball in the last 4 games. He played a cross bat shot to a ball, which was on middle and leg stump only to be adjudged LBW. Score read, 70/4. Hari was the new batsman in and he looked in good touch and determined perhaps drawing some inspiration from the last game against SPT that he played in the same ground scoring a fighting fifty. Sumit and Hair seemed to consolidate the innings and save KCC from blushes before Sumit did something, which at best was hara-kiri. He plays a shot direct to the short mid on fielder and calls Hari for a single and get out of a direct throw rather cheaply. He scored the highest from the KCC side, which would go on to become the highest from the match. 31 run off 39 balls. It was an inning typical of Sumit and he was the only batsman apart from Anurag who was able to handle those swings and pace deliveries from the JGR bowlers rather comfortably. If I look like praising him too much then, the praise from the JGR bowlers and the fielders alike is a testimony to the same. Score was 78/5 and the blushes didn’t look too far for us. I would not blame to anyone to what happened after this. Last 5 wickets were lost for 11 runs and we were bundled out for 89 in 19.4 overs. After scoring 304 runs playing 40 overs, just a week ago, it was like falling from sky to the land reality. Everyone looked down and a little frustrated with oneself for not doing the basic things. A lunch break was called for which was so uncalled for in nature.

During the break I happened to go and meet JGR players just to acquaint myself with all of them. They looked extremely happy with that they had done and they deserved it, after all they had also lost two of their games this season and the victory looked so close to them as if they were standing on the Kashmir border almost to enter into it. They praised a few players from our side and Sumit was a deserving candidate for the same. Apart from them they pointed our lots of weaknesses in our side and a few of them are obvious to us too. Perhaps the sight of a possible victory made them so confident that they passed on some comments, which were rather irritating. A few of them were:

I had heard a lot about KCC team.
It is hard to believe that the same team can score 300+ runs
The main problem with your batsmen was they missed the basic things. They didn’t apply themselves and went for big shots.
And an interesting one was, please have the lunch after the game is finished because it won’t take more than 12-14 overs for us to finish the game, so why waste time now?

I am not sure about the first three but the they did tried best to prove the last one albeit not to their likings. We did not take lunch as they were cribbing for time and all and we decided to take it after the WIN. Yes, we decided it in a light manner but there was some resolution hidden behind it. The boys looked all charged up when we set up our field and I was NOT required to do anything extra ordinary to motivate them. Rahul was the only regular bowler for us and he opened the innings for us and gave KCC its first breakthrough in the second ball itself when Imran hit it straight to Sumit at mid off and this time Sumit made sure of not getting blamed. A fantastic catch to give a much-deserved start to KCC. Sumit was tried to partner with Rahul but he didn’t look in good touch and proved costly in his first over going for 9 runs with as many as 4 wides. I replaced him with Bharath in the next over and this was a decision I would cherish for a long time. I had seen bowling Bharath during the practice and somehow I felt confident giving bowl to him even though I knew he didn’t have the pace as we desire. He started off well and soon gave us a breakthrough in his second over when he got Miaz out. It was a well-set plan as he had a tendency to hit the ball over the gully region. Thanks to Rahul and Sumit, I was right at the place to take the catch comfortable. Just before the ball, Rahul had asked me to move a little squarer and Sumit had suggested me to go at point in place of Mani. It worked and gave results. JGR captain Asad looked aggressive and in a mood to finish the game quickly played some good shots, which were a little discouraging for us as they were about 30 in four overs at one time. That was the only time they looked in command thanks to Rahul who intimidated them with his pace and bounce and Bharath who happened to beat them on quite a few occasions with his good line and length. Asad went on to play a lofted shot down the ground but ended up giving a very high catch to Anand again at the gully and point region. “Catch it” followed by “It’s mine” was the only words people heard before going into a pin drop silence and waiting for the ball to be comfortable caught. The danger man was gone and it really charged us and made us more positive. After that Rahul had his share to contribute and compete with his partner. He bowled the next two batsmen rather cleanly and attacked on their backbone. They were soon tottering at 45/4 and we knew just 4 more wickets, as they were only 9. This made us positive and we attacked them. Rahul and Bharath bowled as many as 13 overs continuously between them giving us crucial breakthroughs whenever a need was arisen and without showing any sign of getting tired. We bundled them out for 60 in 15.2 overs and won by 29 runs which is a huge margin given the paltry target that we had set for them.

Every win is special but this one is undoubtedly the best given the way we defended the paltry total of 89 to be chased in 40 overs and most importantly supposedly the weakest team fielded by KCC this season. I didn’t have many options in terms of bowling today and was mainly dependent on Rahul and Sumit. Since Sumit didn’t look good, my gut feeling went for Bharath who delivered to the best of my likings. They were hungry for wickets without showing any sign of fatigue or discomfort balling almost full of their quotas in a single spell. I knew that there would never be a second spell for any bowler so I had no other option too. I had options in Rana and Hari, but they haven’t been so regular in the past as far as bowling in a match situation in concerned so was also a little reluctant to give them a chance.

Well, Rahul and Bharath did win the game for us but this was equally backed up by a kind of strong and charged up fielding which was something new for us in this game. Singles were saved, catches were taken and they were made to run even for this paltry target. A few important contributions apart from the obvious ones, I would like to mention are:

1. Fielding was excellent. Vikram and Rana doing the job in the best possible manner at third man and the deep fine square leg boundary respectively. Bhanu did a good job in the square leg region with impressive throws. Initially Mani was a little shaky in the mid wicket region but he did a good job at the end saving a few singles. Sumit deserves a rather unusual mention in this department for a change who was quick and fiery in the long off region. No boundaries whatsoever even though the balls were hit with strong power, it was not sufficient enough to pierce through him.
2. Krishna missed a simple chance in the first over but he recovered from it and got one later on. He did superb stuff towards the end by saving us a few runs behind the stumps, which were not easy given the variations with which the boys were bowling.
3. Self-motivation was the key. Trust me, I didn’t do anything to motivate anyone in this game. When the boys become self-motivated and start applying themselves like this, the job of the captain is nothing. I really wish we had the same determination and attitude in the games to come and in all the departments.

We would have next weekend off because of thanks giving and in the mean time I would think something about the practice so that we give players like Hari, Bhanu, Vikram and Mani a lot more chances during the practice. Hari and Bhanu are the two guys in my mind right now who would be given chances to be groomed as regular bowler for KCC-B. Anyways that will happen after the break. For the time being everyone deserves a big hand for this win.

posted by Anand @ 12:18 AM