The CouchExpert Staff
8th June, 2013
Match: AMD versus GE
Venue: CECG, Bangalore
Toss: GE won the toss and elected to field.
With the monsoons having set in, this probably is the best time of the year weather-wise to play cricket in Bangalore. As the tournament kicked-off under clear skies and balmy weather, Dheeraj won the toss and inserted AMD in.
Captain Dheeraj was in his elements straight away keeping the AMD openers, Kathik and Viswajeet, honest with his accurate left-arm swingers. However, Abhishek was wayward bowling from the other end. Abhishek, with his tremendous sprint to the wicket generated good pace but was too short and too wide to cause any discomfort to the batsmen. The aggressive Viswajeet was severe with cuts and pulls. Karthik joined in the fun too as both seemed to be putting in a fine exhibition of putting away short deliveries.
Dheeraj replaced Abhishek with Babu and he was immediately cut away for two boundaries in his first over. As the bowlers struggled to find lines and lengths, AMD brought up their 50 in the 8th over without breaking into a sweat. If anything the running between the wickets was the only unimpressive bit and eventually it was one poor call too many that accounted for the wonderful opening partnership.
Mallikarjun’s 1 for 21 brought GE back into the game after a poor start
The spin twins Mallikarjun and Arvind put the brakes on AMD scoring as they controlled the next 9 overs giving away only 37 runs with only 2 boundaries coming in this period. The lanky offie, Arvind, varied his trajectory well while the leggie Mallikarjun troubled the batsmen with the pace he managed off the wicket. He often had the batsman playing from the crease and often beat them with his sliders, one of which cleaned up AMD’s captain Prashanth.
Having managed to ride the rough waters, Vikas and Kiran were expected to launch in after the spinners gave way to the 6th and 7th bowlers of GE. However, Manish, coming in 6th change would have it all his way with his tidy medium-pace. He sliced through the under belly of AMD with the wickets of Vikas and Kiran in his first over and then accounted for Darshan in his second. AMD’s hopes were dented further when Arvind accounted for the big hitting Lohith. With almost 10 overs to go and already 7 down it looked unlikely that AMD would even bat out their allotted overs. They would eventually be bowled out for 143 in 26.1 overs.
“We were going at a good rate through the innings even when we kept losing wickets. Perhaps not utilizing the full quota of overs hurt us in the end. We should have capitalized better on the start we got and should have got to a 180 kind of score at least,” said Prashanth at the end of the game.
Chasing 144 in 30 overs, AMD had to make early inroads into the GE batting to put them under pressure to perhaps cause a panic. More so with Rajnikanth opening the innings. His last innings at this ground against Accenture in a practice game produced the only hundred at this ground insofar.
Rajnikanth and Rajesh had shared a massive 150-plus opening stand two weeks ago at this ground. They seemed to be in no hurry and in no trouble as AMD bowlers struggles to keep them in check.
Rajnikanth, a very powerful player who likes to hit the ball in the air got his stride in with three boundaries off Ravi in the second over. Soon, his trademark pulls, cuts and lofted straight drives scorched the CECG turf. His partner Raja did the smart thing by putting Rajnikanth back in strike as often as he could.
Rajnikanth cuts en route to a 51-ball 67.
Everything AMD threw at Rajnikanth was met with disdain. Cuts, back cuts, pulls and drives embellished his belligerent innings as the 50 was raised in the 7th over. Soon Rajnikanth brought up his 50 with a lofted 6 over long-off. He had broken open the game and when he was eventually dismissed in the 11th over, the score was 87 with less than 60 needed in almost 20 overs.
AMD fought back well with quick wickets but the game had drifted away too far for them to claw back. Eventually GE won the game in the 21st over with 5 wickets.
“The spinners brought us back into the game after their top-order really looked good to take the game away,” said Dheeraj at the post-match ceremony. He also credited his openers for chasing the total down easily.
“I feel very comfortable going after the bowling from the first ball. That is my natural game,” said Rajnikanth at the end of the game. He added, “It is like my home ground now.” With three fifties and a hundred in 6 games at this ground and with the promise of more to come, his team will feel good about their chances.
Scoring patterns for the two teams:
Full Scorecard
1st Inning Batting: AMD, AMD
R B 4's 6's SR
Karthik c Manish b Arvind 25 23 4 0 108.7
Viswajeet run out (Arvind) 25 30 4 0 83.33
Vikas b Manish 22 33 2 0 66.67
Prashanth b Mallikarjun 1 5 0 0 20.0
Kiran c Rajnikanth b Manish 12 20 0 0 60.0
Darshan b Manish 2 8 0 0 25.0
Lohith c Dheeraj b Arvind 3 4 0 0 75.0
Amit c Babu b Abhishek 24 22 2 0 109.09
Ravi lbw b Harsha 2 3 0 0 66.67
Chethan M c Dyaneshwar b Abhishek 0 4 0 0 0.0
Chetan not out 0 6 0 0 0.0
Extras(w 26, lb 1) 27
Total (10 wickets; 26.1 overs) 143 5.46 RPO
Fall of Wicket: 55-1 ( Viswajeet 8.1 ov ), 63-2 ( Karthik 9.6 ov ), 66-3 ( Prashanth 10.7 ov ), 99-4 ( Vikas 18.1 ov ), 101-5 ( Kiran 18.5 ov ), 104-6 ( Lohith 19.3 ov ), 107-7 ( Darshan 20.6 ov ), 135-8 ( Ravi 23.5 ov ), 142-9 ( Amit 24.4 ov ), 143-10 ( C M 26.1 ov )
1st Inning Bowling: G E, G E
O M R W EC AV EX
Dheeraj 4.0 0 21 0 5.25 - (w 3)
Abhishek 3.1 0 26 2 8.21 13.00 (w 3)
Babu 3.0 1 16 0 5.33 - (w 1)
Mallikarjun 5.0 0 21 1 4.20 21.00 (w 3)
Arvind 6.0 0 26 2 4.33 13.00 (w 1)
Manish 4.0 0 16 3 4.00 5.33 (w 1)
Harsha 1.0 0 16 1 16.00 16.00 (w 3)
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2nd Inning Batting: G E, G E
R B 4's 6's SR
Rajesh c Karthik b Lohith 25 26 2 0 96.15
Rajnikanth b Lohith 67 51 8 1 131.37
Kishore c Karthik b Prashanth 7 13 1 0 53.85
Dyaneshwar b Karthik 11 18 1 0 61.11
Harsha run out (Prashanth) 0 0 0 0 -
Arvind not out 19 16 0 1 118.75
Abhishek not out 5 1 0 0 500.0
Extras(w 12, nb 1, lb 1) 14
Total (5 wickets; 20.4 overs) 148 7.16 RPO
Did Not Bat:
Babu, Dheeraj, Manish, Mallikarjun
Fall of Wicket: 87-1 ( Rajesh 10.3 ov ), 107-2 ( Kishore 13.6 ov ), 113-3 ( Rajnikanth 14.6 ov ), 113-4 ( Harsha 15.3 ov ), 143-5 ( Dyaneshwar 20.3 ov )
2nd Inning Bowling: AMD, AMD
O M R W EC AV EX
Chetan 2.0 0 11 0 5.50 - (w 1)
Ravi 3.0 0 20 0 6.67 - (w 3)
Kiran 3.0 0 14 0 4.67 - (w 3)
Amit 2.0 0 24 0 12.00 - (w 1, nb 1)
Lohith 4.0 0 27 2 6.75 13.50 (w 2)
Chethan M 1.0 0 10 0 10.00 -
Prashanth 5.0 0 33 1 6.60 33.00 (w 1)
Karthik 0.4 0 8 1 12.00 8.00
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Full match report with individual performance details
You can download the pdf from here.
Post-match ceremony
Performer of the Match: Rajnikanth (Batting points: 19.23 Keeping points: 1)
Match Result: GE defeated AMD by 5 wickets
Points: GE (2) AMD (0)
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