Date 9th March 2013
Place Virat Nagar, Virar West
Place Virat Nagar, Virar West
What a Match!
Jaw-Breaking; Nerve-Wrecking; Heartbeat-Exploder; Cliff-Hanger; Nail-Biter say whatever you have heard about the Great matches from the best of commentators, we had it all on 9th of March 2013 at Virat nagar, Virar West. Two Captains; one me and second Ankit divided equal number of players with different abilities to combat in the first ‘Two Innings’ match. The occasion was special as the veteran; Rajesh Narvekar visited Virar to takepart in this encounter. He accompanied his son who recently featured in daily newspaper Mid-day for smashing a century in Giles Trophy match. Ankit selected Rajesh while his son played under me. The toss was won by Ankit who decided to chase. Although the teams appeared equals in all aspects but Ankit’s team was more bowler heavy while my team had power hitters of the cricket ball.
The Teams:
My team: Me, Dinesh, Santosh, Selva, Vinay, Ajay, Dilip, Amogh, Sagar, Santosh (Security) & Tanay.
Ankit’s team: Ankit, Vijay, Rajesh, Nilesh, Sanjay More, Rahul, Sanjay (Security), *, Sandeep, Nandu & Guru.
Rule: 2 innings per team; 1st inning consisting of 10 overs while the second inning of 5 overs. The team scoring maximum runs combining the two innings will win. A bowler can bowl maximum of 3 overs in first inning and 2 in the next.
Santosh and Dinesh opened the innings steadily. Santosh made a brisk start while Dinesh was solid and usual. Selva turned the match heads-on with his uncanny stroke play. The drop catch at long on was followed by 3 consecutive sixes of Vijay’s bowling. The scoring rate gather momentum till the time he was on crease. Vinay supported him ably. While the rest made ample use of the limited batting opportunities.
The first innings total of 88 proved huge for Ankit’s team in initial overs till Rajesh bought time to settle; Sandeep struggled; Vijay caught brilliantly by Dilip and Guru by Vinay; until only Rahul and More took attack and got close to be separated by just 5 runs.
The second innings was hit and go for us with contributions coming from here and there. The skiers caught by Vijay and the dive from Sanjay insured we were short by atleast 5/6 runs if not more. More and Guru had a brilliant bowling spell which kept the chasers in the game. Ankit was terrific in his field placing and bowling changes and kept on trying various combinations while the odds were against him.
Came the fourth inning and a target of precise 50 in 5 overs with Vijay opening alongside Rahul, and a bowling opportunity trusted to Amogh. And the gamble that went horribly wrong with lots of wayward bowling and drop catches enabling a glimpse of victory to chasers for the first time in the match. I had no option but to bring myself on and leaving the final over to be bowled by Selva. Hold on, the wickets tumbled meanwhile with Rahul, Vijay, Sandeep and Nandu returning back that swung the pendulum in our favour once again. With 23 in 2 overs the match was tight in our clutches till the man of the moment Rajesh took command and demolished my penultimate over for 10 runs with his chips, pushes and cunning running between the wickets. Poor fielding although was a significant factor too.
The betters when saw Selva bowling the final over and 13 to get would have still gone with the bowling side but little did they knew about the ability of Rajesh who was supported well by More. A boundary, cuts and glances made the equation of 2 runs to get of a final ball with Rajesh on strike. Such situation demanded more of a Captain’s interference and intuition and I did receive it when I changed the entire fielding pattern. As Rajesh was scoring more freely on the off side I stationed myself on the cover boundary and prayed that Selva would ball short and wide of off stump. And yes he did. Rajesh applied a fierce full cut that landed the ball mere 10 meters in front of me. The spin took it away on my left which I covered, gathered and threw back in a flash aiming directly on the wicketkeeper’s stumps. It happened quickly that in no way in this entire world could Rajesh complete the second run in time as I was stunned to see Selva running from the bowling mark only to obstruct the throw which he failed to gather. Did Rajesh complete the run? Yes he did. A narrow victory for Ankit’s team. Cheers followed from behind with shouts and dances. And a snake-bite stunned silence for us.
That ended the best match I have ever played and Captained. The climax of Rajesh hitting the winning run and Selva making a mockery did flashed memories of the 99 World Cup semi-final match between Australia and South Africa. On this occasion the team chasing won. The handshakes, congratulations and commiseration followed by Vasai special Banana’s thus ending the energy sapping cricket match.
Sanjay More was my Man of the Match.
Cheers for VVCL.
Jaw-Breaking; Nerve-Wrecking; Heartbeat-Exploder; Cliff-Hanger; Nail-Biter say whatever you have heard about the Great matches from the best of commentators, we had it all on 9th of March 2013 at Virat nagar, Virar West. Two Captains; one me and second Ankit divided equal number of players with different abilities to combat in the first ‘Two Innings’ match. The occasion was special as the veteran; Rajesh Narvekar visited Virar to takepart in this encounter. He accompanied his son who recently featured in daily newspaper Mid-day for smashing a century in Giles Trophy match. Ankit selected Rajesh while his son played under me. The toss was won by Ankit who decided to chase. Although the teams appeared equals in all aspects but Ankit’s team was more bowler heavy while my team had power hitters of the cricket ball.
The Teams:
My team: Me, Dinesh, Santosh, Selva, Vinay, Ajay, Dilip, Amogh, Sagar, Santosh (Security) & Tanay.
Ankit’s team: Ankit, Vijay, Rajesh, Nilesh, Sanjay More, Rahul, Sanjay (Security), *, Sandeep, Nandu & Guru.
Rule: 2 innings per team; 1st inning consisting of 10 overs while the second inning of 5 overs. The team scoring maximum runs combining the two innings will win. A bowler can bowl maximum of 3 overs in first inning and 2 in the next.
Santosh and Dinesh opened the innings steadily. Santosh made a brisk start while Dinesh was solid and usual. Selva turned the match heads-on with his uncanny stroke play. The drop catch at long on was followed by 3 consecutive sixes of Vijay’s bowling. The scoring rate gather momentum till the time he was on crease. Vinay supported him ably. While the rest made ample use of the limited batting opportunities.
The first innings total of 88 proved huge for Ankit’s team in initial overs till Rajesh bought time to settle; Sandeep struggled; Vijay caught brilliantly by Dilip and Guru by Vinay; until only Rahul and More took attack and got close to be separated by just 5 runs.
The second innings was hit and go for us with contributions coming from here and there. The skiers caught by Vijay and the dive from Sanjay insured we were short by atleast 5/6 runs if not more. More and Guru had a brilliant bowling spell which kept the chasers in the game. Ankit was terrific in his field placing and bowling changes and kept on trying various combinations while the odds were against him.
Came the fourth inning and a target of precise 50 in 5 overs with Vijay opening alongside Rahul, and a bowling opportunity trusted to Amogh. And the gamble that went horribly wrong with lots of wayward bowling and drop catches enabling a glimpse of victory to chasers for the first time in the match. I had no option but to bring myself on and leaving the final over to be bowled by Selva. Hold on, the wickets tumbled meanwhile with Rahul, Vijay, Sandeep and Nandu returning back that swung the pendulum in our favour once again. With 23 in 2 overs the match was tight in our clutches till the man of the moment Rajesh took command and demolished my penultimate over for 10 runs with his chips, pushes and cunning running between the wickets. Poor fielding although was a significant factor too.
The betters when saw Selva bowling the final over and 13 to get would have still gone with the bowling side but little did they knew about the ability of Rajesh who was supported well by More. A boundary, cuts and glances made the equation of 2 runs to get of a final ball with Rajesh on strike. Such situation demanded more of a Captain’s interference and intuition and I did receive it when I changed the entire fielding pattern. As Rajesh was scoring more freely on the off side I stationed myself on the cover boundary and prayed that Selva would ball short and wide of off stump. And yes he did. Rajesh applied a fierce full cut that landed the ball mere 10 meters in front of me. The spin took it away on my left which I covered, gathered and threw back in a flash aiming directly on the wicketkeeper’s stumps. It happened quickly that in no way in this entire world could Rajesh complete the second run in time as I was stunned to see Selva running from the bowling mark only to obstruct the throw which he failed to gather. Did Rajesh complete the run? Yes he did. A narrow victory for Ankit’s team. Cheers followed from behind with shouts and dances. And a snake-bite stunned silence for us.
That ended the best match I have ever played and Captained. The climax of Rajesh hitting the winning run and Selva making a mockery did flashed memories of the 99 World Cup semi-final match between Australia and South Africa. On this occasion the team chasing won. The handshakes, congratulations and commiseration followed by Vasai special Banana’s thus ending the energy sapping cricket match.
Sanjay More was my Man of the Match.
Cheers for VVCL.
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