May 16,2010
So we had decided to form a cricket team at the work place. Not only that, we chose a corny name for it too. 'Willow Wizards' sounds like a name right out of a Harry Potter book of kid's dreams. But what the hell, we went for it.
Our overbearing captain Bala, is the heart of the team. He makes sure people wake up and turn up at the ground at 8 AM, and cajole people into turning up at training matches. So far, we've had wretched luck, stage fear, poor form, bad umpiring decisions and average players costing us matches. Last week for instance, we had bowled well, restricted the opposition to 80 runs, started off well and had to knock off 28 odd runs in 6 overs and we failed as our batting colllapsed.
Hermann Road, Piscataway
That's a short history of our Willow Wizards so far. This week, however, we were up against Mazda CC, and we were playing for the freedom of mankind. We told ourselves that the fate of every free man lies in our hands and if we lose against Mazda CC, machines will take over the world and we will be in slavery and bondage forever.
This ground has been a good one for us. Coz even though we lost the match last weekend, it was a heartening performance, compared to previous ones. We set off early morning and in my car, I had Abhishek, Mahesh (my room mate), and Ganesh with me. We had a good feeling about this match. Something felt just right.
Setting the target
Mazda CC won the toss, elected to field first, and our brilliant openers Sandeep and Abhishek took the field. Sandeep has been our most consistent batsman in the series, and Abhishek had proved his worth in the previous match with a brilliant knock. After a good couple of overs, Sandeep was tempted by a good ball and was bowled. Abhishek (Man of the match) however, was showing the Mazda guys who's the daddy. He hit some astounding shots on the offside, pick of the lot being a brilliant cut over point for six, the ball ending up in the parking lot.
Bala and Dev, promoted up the batting order to provide acceleration failed to do much in this match. Bala top edging a pull to wicket keeper and Dev was unluckily bowled. Umpire judged him out after consistent pressure from the Mazda CC players. Vivek and Biplav though, steadied the ship. Vivek getting the first runs of the tournament was a point worth mentioning while Biplav provided a steady hand with crucial runs. Mahesh and Bathal carried on the good work, and we ended up with 108 off 16 overs. The first time we had crossed the hundred mark in this tournament.
Defending the target
Just to piss the Mazda guys, we did a team huddle just before they came out to bat. Ganesh (aka Manoj Prabhakar) and Bathal opened the bowling. Although Bathal was wayward in the first over, we were able to restrict the run flow to a decent rate.
However, the turning point of the match was the introduction of the spin duo of Dev and Mahesh. Dev (aka Warney) was bowling his leg spinners to good effect. His first over was a wicket maiden (he got rid of a particularly nasty and loud Mazda opening batsman, don't know the name) and his second over cost only a single run. Mahesh (Aka Sakki, Sabbash Sakki, or Mages) also turned the screws on the other end, restricted the run flow and he took 4 quick wickets)
So far, which had been a comfortable defence of a good score however turned bad, when Bala and Dev had a couple of bad overs. However we managed to hold on relatively comfortably, as Ganesh (Manoj Prabhakar) and Magesh (Sakki) and Dev (Warney) bowled out the end overs. We ended up winners, and the evil Mazda CC was defeated badly. Humanity survives and we live to fight for another day.
Word of note for the brilliant fielding of Sandeep Patra, as well as scorer Pulkit. I must congratulate myself for being the owner of the car of the match ( 3 of the 4 players in my car played starring roles in the victory) and taking brilliant pictures of the match. Click here for pictures
Further team updates
Our team now boasts of a relatively strong bench. We have Ajaaz, who bowls well, and kicks the pitch and throws a strop when he fails to score singles off easy deliveries, and Swayam, who can play cheeky singles and keep the score ticking if he is promoted up the order. We have Pranab (Aka Inzy) and a couple of other blokes who can play well. We are looking forward to the next match and the knock out stages.
Hopefully, Bala will keep me in the team.
Youtube link of the day
It really is a brilliant song. I love it.
