Week 2 of The CouchExpert T20 Championship was marred with incessant rains on Saturday forcing the games to be pushed to a later date. On Sunday, GE and Boltz posted wins while IDM Cricketers won one of their two games on the day.
Match 4: UNISYS versus BOLTZ
21st July 2013 (7:30 am – 10:30 am)
UNISYS won the toss and elected to bowl
Having lost their first game last week, Unisys opted to bowl first on winning the toss on a slightly damp outfield – result of incessant rains throughout the week.
Boltz opened with Sachin and Aseem and looked confident against a steady Unisys new ball attack. Sachin was his free flowing self though Aseem seemed to be struggling to force the pace initially and it was not a surprise when a strike-deprived Aseem was snared up by Harish in the 5th over of the match.
The powerplay yielded only 31 runs, but the heavy outfield did indicate that the scores would be on the lower side throughout the day. Captain Sandeep joined Sachin and the pair seemed to have got used to the pace of the wicket as they found gaps with regularity. The pace picked up as the pair added a further 36 runs in the next 5 overs when Sachin fell.
The heavy outfield ensured that the new batsman had to grind his way to quick runs with running between the wickets and Jyoti and Sandeep tried to up the ante with 8 wickets still in hand. A combination of Karthik and Mallikarjun denied Boltz any easy runs as the run rate was brought down to 6 after 14 overs. The pressure told on Boltz as the captain Sandeep was run out looking for those extra runs.
Things changed for the better for Boltz as Vikas walked in and showed tremendous ability to clear the long boundaries with his powerful hitting. Hitting through the field was a difficult proposition with the heavy outfield, But Vikas’s 14-ball unbeaten 30 with three huge sixes to mid-wicket in the last two overs pushed the total to 140 and set-up a challenging chase for Unisys.
Vikas followed-up his tremendous finish with the bat with a fiery opening burst with the wall and accounted for Unisys’s opener Vivek for a duck in the fourth over. Bharath, on the other end played a good hand and found support from Sharath first and Sanjeev next only for both promising partnerships to be broken just as they threatened to cut loose.
With 71 needed off the last 8 overs and 8 wickets in hand with a well set Bharath at the crease, Unisys seemed very much in the hunt before losing 3 wickets in the next 2 overs that set their chase back badly.
Unisys found it hard to recover for those set-backs particularly, and not withstanding the late fireworks from Sandeep and Mallikarjun they were always going to be short of the total and lost the game by 11 runs eventually.
Brief scores: BOLTZ 140/3 in 20 overs (Sandeep 41 (35b, 3X4), Sachin 33 (42b, 3X4), Vikas 30 not out (14b, 1X4, 3X6), Harish 1/23) beat UNISYS 129/8 in 20 overs (Bharath 35 (39b, 4X4), Vikas 3/17, Aseem 2/22) by 11 runs.
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Vikas – MVP points 23.73 (Batting: 8.14 Bowling 14.59 Fielding 1)
Post-match presentationMatch 5: GE versus Unisys
21st July 2013 (11 am – 2 pm)
GE won the toss and elected to bat first
GE won the toss and elected to bat for the second time in a roe in this tournament. Soon, their free flowing and attacking opening pair of Shimjith and Rajnikanth found it hard to tackle the tall IDM Cricketers new ball bowler Sathish. Sathish managed to extract considerable lift off the wicket and had them GE openers hobbling. Sathish had Shimjith caught behind in the first over with another delivery that bounced from a length.
Things turned bad for GE when its captain Abhishek perished in the second over. It brought Arvind who managed a half-century in the previous game to the middle. The pair of Rajnikanth and Arvind seemed determined to see off the very impressive Sathish and cut out loose strokes and managed to stitch a few overs together playing smart cricket.
Just as Rajnikanth seemed to be getting the hang of things, he played on to another short ball from Sathish leaving GE 3-down before the end of the powerplay overs.
It required the calm head of Dheeraj and Arvind to put the innings back on track. They relied on singles and hard running between the wickets to tick the scoreboard along. The left-arm spin of Sudhanshu along with the other slow bowlers – Nitin and Asheesh – kept GE in check throughout the batting innings as they struggled to build momentum into their innings. It was again left to Arvind to pull them out of the hole and he did that with tremendous planning and execution.
He ground out the difficult early overs and rotated the strike admirably to build a platform and opened up towards the end of the innings with some innovative strokeplay as he manufactured 35 runs in the last 3 overs to push GE’s total to 127 which was a fighting score nonetheless.
IDM Cricketers seemed to be in a hurry in the chase as Sudhanshu seemed to be following up his good bowling performance with a rapid start to the innings as he went after Abhishek. Nitin provided good company as the openers plundered runs in excess of 8 an over in the first three overs. With 27 up on the board just after 4 overs, the game was slipping away from GE’s grasp very quickly.
Then Dheeraj bowled the over that changed the game on its head and irrevocably so. Dheeraj knocked over the aggressive Sudhanshu with his first delivery. He sent back the other opener Nitin and captain Kapil off the fifth and sixth ball of the over to have IDM Cricketers tottering at 28/3.
Dheeraj came back to clean-up Swayam in his next over to knock the wind out of IDM Cricketers’ sails. Dheeraj’s spell had changed the fortunes of GE dramatically in 20 minutes and had IDM Cricketers reeling. Bhaskar took over the mantle from Dheeraj and delivered the knock-out punch with four wickets of his own as IDM Cricketers were bowled out in under 12 overs for a paltry 60.
“We bowled well and then we collapsed with the bat after a decent start,” said IDM Cricketers’s captain Kapil at the end of the game. On the other hand, Abhishek said, “We knew we had the bowling to defend a smallish target. Am happy that the bowlers responded well.”
Brief scores: GE 127/7 in 20 overs (Arvind 50 not out (50b, 4X4, 1X6), Mayank 22 (33b), Sathish 2/23) beat IDM Cricketers 60 all out in 12.5 overs (Nitin 16 (18b, 2X4), Bhaskar 4/8, Dheeraj 4/23) by 67 runs
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Dheeraj – MVP points 24.93 (Batting: 2.5 Bowling: 22.43)
Post-match presentation
Match 6: EMC versus IDM Cricketers 21st July 2013 (2:30pm – 5:30 pm)
EMC won the toss and elected to field
IDM Cricketers were playing back-to-back games. And having seen them struggle against GE’s bowling, EMC’s captain Sreekrishna was quick to pounce on the low confidence of the IDM Cricketers’s batsmen and inserted them in.
IDM Cricketers made a change and sent Swayam to bat at the top along with Sudhanshu. The move paid off well as both Sudhanshu and Swayam got stuck into some very loosw bowling by EMC. Only EMC’s new ball bowler Robin managed to have any control over the batsmen as all others struggled for consistency in lines and lengths in the powerplay.
Sudhanshu seemed particularly in murderous mood as he stroked 8 boundaries in his 25-ball knock of 43. Swayam, on the other end, played a measured innings giving as much of the strike possible to Sudhanshu and opened up once Sudhanshu was dismissed.
The introduction of vice-captain Jeethendra paid dividends as he accounted for Sudhanshu and then Kapil and Asheesh in quick succession. Any intentions of a a EMC fight-back was thwarted by Swayam who paced his innings masterfully with fluent strokes on the leg-side in particular. He batted through the innings giving the much needed anchor it missed in the last game and branched out in the end to remain unbeaten on 73 while pushing his team’s total to 180.
Chasing 9 an over against a tough opposition was always going to test the depth and caliber of any batting side and EMC were now facing the issues IDM Cricketers found themselves facing in the last game. Their inability to string any substantial partnerships ensured that there was no constant pressure on the IDM Cricketers’s bowling.
Only Fredrick, Jeethendra and captain Sreekrishna got into double figures but none went past the teens as EMC wilted under the pressure of chasing a monumental target eventually folding up for 88 in the 19th over. For EMC Cricketers, they had their second straight game with the ball with all their bowlers having a good time of it with the ball.
“We were unable to execute out plans well,” rued a disappointed Sreekrishna summing up his team’s dismal performance.
Brief scores: IDM Cricketers 150/5 in 20 overs (Swayam 73 not out (55b, 11X4, 1X6), Sudhanshu 43 (25b, 8X4), Jeethendra 3/31) beat EMC 88 all out in 18.5 overs (Chirag 13 (21b), Asheesh 2/3, Sudhanshu 4/11) by 92 runs
The rains stayed away and The CouchExpert T20 Championship got off to a sparkling start with NSN, GE and CECC registering wins. Here’s how the games panned out:
Match 1: NSN versus ACT
13th July 2013 (7:30 am – 10:30 am)
ACT won the toss and elected to bat first
The game started under gloomy skies, the occasional odd drizzle and lazy soothing breeze best suited for a lazy weekend extended morning sleep. Yet, ACT openers Prashanth and Vinay started brightly punishing a slightly errant NSN opening spell by both Manish and Nitin. Prashanth, coming back from a shoulder injury shrugged off the indifferent form he showed in The CouchExpert Sunday League T20 two months ago and got into his stride with confident feet movement and strokes. If anything he seemed hesitant finishing his strokes showing signs that the shoulder injury was still preying in his mind.
The pair kept rotating the strike thereby ensuring that they were really under no pressure for any length of time to attempt a rash stroke. Runs flowed and by the time Vinay got out in the 10th over, the runs were flowing at 8 an over. Deepak joined Prashanth and the pair stuck to the formula of keeping the dot balls to a minimum. Deepak ensured that Prashanth got as much of the strike and Prashanth gradually opened up to up the scoring rate post the 12th over. Prashanth showed tremendous fitness as he pushed Deepak into taking many 2s and 3s well into the innings. Prashanth’s 57 set the platform up for ACT to get to 170-plus, but a late stutter meant they had to settle for a score of 152. As for NSN, barring captain Gangadhar, the rest struggled to bowl to their field or to a set plan.
NSN responded to chasing 153 quite brilliantly as openers Avinash and Jithendra started quite confidently against the pace-spin combo of Paddy and Thomas. The pair was measured in its approach keeping the risks to a minimum whilst always keeping abreast with the required rate. Only the extra pace of Rakesh seemed to hurry them up in an otherwise easily constructed opening wicket partnership of 61 in slightly over 8 overs. ACT, over time, have relied on their many slow bowlers to restrict opposition batsmen and quite successfully too.
The spin combination of Shithu and Rohit slowed down the innings with Shithu accounting for Jithendra and Arun while Rohit accounted for Prakhar. And when the captain Gangadhar was run out in the 14th over, the asking rate had crept up to 8.3. Anil, then, played a cameo taking ACT’s captain for 17 runs in the 15th over to reduce the chase to slightly over run-a-ball. In the span of an over Anil had turned the game on its head and Sharath was left to rue his decision to bowl a second over.
Sharath quickly turned to his quickest bowler Rakesh and he responded by knocking over the very dangerous Anil to even things out. With 25 still needed and Rakesh still breathing fire and NSN already 6-down, ACT still had a chance.
As it turned out, 10 were needed off the last over with 2 wickets in hand for NSN bowled by Paddy. In a remarkably eventful over, Deepak dropped a catch at covers that cost his team 2 runs and Paddy missed to collect a throw from the boundary to effect a run-out as well. With 3 needed off the last ball, Paddy bowled a wide down the legside. The batsmen then scrambled a 2 to long-off to round-off a remarkable win for NSN off the last ball.
Brief scores: ACT 152/4 in 20 overs (Prashanth Mathur 57 (51b, 5X4), Deepak 32 (27b, 1X4), Rakesh 1/31, Prakhar 1/34) lost to NSN 153/8 in 20 overs (Jithendra 36 (28b, 5X4), Anil 26 (21b, 3X4, 1X6), Shithu 2/28, Rakesh 1/19) by 2 wickets
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Prashanth Mathur – MVP points 16.45 (Batting: 14.45 Fielding 2.0)
Post-match presentation
Match 2: GE versus Unisys
13th July 2013 (11:30 am – 2:30 pm)
GE won the toss and elected to bat first
GE won the toss and elected to bat under skies that was bright for the first time in the day as daylight broke through the clouds seemingly vanishing the gloom with it. Having won The CouchExpert T30 Quadrangular only a fortnight earlier, GE started the game and the tournament as one of the title contenders. The opening pair of Shimjith and Rajnikanth that had served them so well in the previous tournament were in their elements as they went after Unisys’s new ball pairing of Prashanth and captain Harish from the word go. They rattled along at a rate of 10 an over in the first 4 overs before Rajnikanth was snapped up by Sanjeev off Murthy.
Abhishek joined Shimjith and the pair looked to keep the score rattling along. In the quest of scoring quick runs, GE lost quick wickets as Unisys clawed their way back with back-to-back wickets of Shimjith, Abhishek, Dheeraj and Mayank in a span of 4 overs. It required the calm and reliable hand of Arvind in partnership with Harsha to steady the ship as GE ground out runs with singles and twos and the odd boundary. Arvind opened out towards the end to play punishing strokes on the leg side as he took GE past 150.
Unisys had a horror of a start losing Sharath and Vivek in the very first over to Dheeraj. The GE bowlers Dheeraj and Abhishek kept the lid tight as Unisys struggled to score any runs at all. Almost every mistake of theirs was punished by GE with their wickets. Even slacking slightly between the wickets cost them their wicket as Harish found out while going for a single in the 4th over.
Sanjeev and Bharath then went about repairing the innings with a careful partnership. With the run-worm hardly getting off the floor, GE were firmly in control of the game by now, it was a case of minimizing the margin of defeat for Unisys. Gradually Sanjeev and Bharath found their touch and eventually the odd boundary as well once the opening bowlers gave way to slow bowlers. The pair managed to put on 58 runs for the 4th wicket in just under 10 overs before Sanjeev fell victim to another run out by Vinoth.
The introduction of Vinoth into the bowling attack also spelt doom for Unisys as he snapped up 3 wickets in his 1.1 overs. In between all this, Arvind managed to hit the stumps from deep point to runout Mallik to round off a miserable day for Unisys where nothing much went for them. Their captain Harish acknowledged saying, “we are a far better team than what we have shown ourselves to be today. Just about everything went wrong for us. We should be able to do a lot better in our coming games.”
Brief scores: GE 153/6 in 20 overs (Arvind 50 not out (41b, 6X4), Harsha 25 (16b, 3X4), Murthy 2/12) beat Unisys 89 all out in 17.1 overs (Sanjeev 33 (42b, 3X4), Bharath 21 (31b, 3X4), Vinoth 3/1, Dheeraj 2/12) by 64 runs
Full match report along with individual reports can be downloaded from here
Performer of the Match: Arvind – MVP points 16.62 (Batting: 13.27 Fielding: 4 Bowling: -0.65)
Post-match presentation
Match 3: CECC versus Wowzers
14th July 2013 (8:30 am – 11:30 am)
Wowzers won the toss and elected to field
CECC started the game without its captain and vice-captain as they were unavailable. After spraying his first handful of deliveries on either side of the pitch, Wowzers’s new ball bowler managed to land one on target that found the stand-in captain Goutham’s top edge to give Wowzers a tremendous start.
The pair brought up the team 50 in 5 overs and when Shoukath deposited one of his booming drives over the long-off boundary CECC seemed to be running away with the game very early. Things turned around when another screaming drive of Shoukath seemed heading to the boundary when Wowzers’s captain Ravi intervened to take a very sharp catch at covers. It cut open the skin on his thumb and had him tend to it and sit out for a bit, but there was little doubt that he had produced the magic his team needed in bringing his team back into the game.
The introduction of Karthik further dented CECC as he sent back Gokul and Bhargav off successive deliveries. Gautam joined Jobin and the pair resorted to milking the bowling while riding troubled waters. Just as Jobin seemed to be branching out into playing pleasing drives a break in concentration accounted for him. Gautam, then joined by his twin Gaurav, kept maneuvering the fielding with drives and dabs. The twins were busy between the wickets and they put on 45 runs in a little over 6 overs to put the innings back on track. Eventually CECC finished with 161 and Karthik was the standout performer for Wowzers keeping the CECC middle-order in check with his nagging accuracy.
CECC’s opening pair of Goutham and Gaurav kept Wowzer’s in check with their discipline and lines. Wowzers’s openers looked to shuffle to offside while looking to make runs on the leg side. Both openers perished in this pursuit. Captain Ravi walked in and played a watchful hand so as to prevent further damage. Bhargav, though, had Suresh caught pulling in his first over. The bowling hero for Wowzers, Karthik, came in and started out aggressively looking to play powerful strokes and looked the only Wowzers batsman looking to take the fight to the CECC camp.
The introduction of Dinesh changed all that. He rattled the Wowzers’s middle-order with his pace and soon sliced through the middle-over in a 3 over spell that fetched him 4 wickets. With Shoukath backing his thrilling batting cameo with 2 wickets with the ball, the innings hastened to an end in the 18th over giving CECC a comfortable 75-run win.
Brief scores: CECC 161/9 in 20 overs (Shoukath 31(19b, 3X4, 1X6), Gautam Rajagopalan 33 (36b, 2X4), Karthik 3/21, Pruthvi 2/33) beat Wowzers 86 all out in 17.3 overs (Karthik 18 (21b, 1X4), Ravi 14 (23b, 1X4), Dinesh 4/14, Shoukath 2/18) by 75 runs
The CouchExpert 