2009/01/25: Burlingame United

champs batting:
Things started well today for us as the opposition team won the toss and put us into bat. Kunal and Sai were going to open the batting as planned. I believe both Sai and Kunal were going to open for the first time in an
official match.

Both of them started cautiously and slowly but steadily started picking runs in 1s and 2s. I think it makes for a very interesting combination at the top. Kunal looks calm and composed at the top and is already taking up the responsibility to score big with consistency. Sai on the other hand has always been under-used for whatever reasons and I think he deserves a fair run as an opener along with Kunal.

With Sai around, it is always fun to keep an eye on the running, he is so quick, there were a couple of yes-no calls but all in all they ran sensibly. Moving on, after a steady start Sai, 6(13), nicked one to the keeper and we were 13-1 at around 5 over mark.

In came Abhi. Kunal, 9(23), was starting to look good and just then his innings came to an end, thanks to a direct hit which resulted in an easy run out. Puneet came in next. Meanwhile, Abhi had started picking runs at ease and was moving along well. At 10 over mark, we were 28-2, a slow but a steady start.

After the break in the process of pushing the run-rate, both Abhi 11(22) and Puneet 4(11) fell, with score at 35-4. This brought along Sreeram and Nagesh. But before a partnership of any kind could be built upon, Nagesh on his very first ball hit the ball straight to cover and took off for a single. It was never going to be a run and poor Sreeram had to pay the
price, leaving us tottering at 35-5.

I think this is the problem with our batting, if we play cautiously then chances are we are not losing too many wickets but it also means we are only
scoring at 2-2.5 an over. And the moment we try to accelerate we start losing wickets in lots. In went our captain Gokul with a sense of urgency, he was looking in good touch and got off the mark with a nice shot for 2.

Nagesh wasnt looking in his best touch, struggling a bit, hitting it straight to the fielders and attempting a run, wasn't clearly his day with the bat. After a decent partnership, Nagesh managed to call Gokul, 8(12) for a run when there was none and yet another run out, we were 48/6 at that point. In came Mohit who was looking for fast runs and he was successful as he scored 7(10) and helped us reach a decent total it the end. We managed to score 65, not a lot but always a handful at our home ground with our kind of bowling.

champs bowling
Sreeram opened the bowling along with Gokul. Sreeram was struggling a bit with his run up but regardless he is always a difficult bowler to hit off. Gokul on the other hand was creating magic. He picked up 3 wickets, one each in his 3 overs opening spell to reduce Burlingame CC to 13-3 at the end of 5 overs. Personally I think Gokul is too good a bowler to not bowl regularly, if not more he should at least bowl a 2-over spell per match.

Nagesh was used first change. He too picked up a wicket in his 2nd over to put the opposition in further trouble with score showing 18-4. I was brought
into attack in the 8th over, started with a wide and an overall ordinary first over, but lucky enough to not go for more.

Burlingame cc went to break with 24-4 and needing 42 runs to get in the last ten. It was always going to be an uphill task to get 40 of the last ten
against our attack. Sreeram started the proceedings after the break and continued to struggle. In came Kunal and he struck immediately in his first
over to make it 27-5. Kunal picked another one in his 2nd over to make it 36-6, leaving them to get 30 off the last 6 overs.

After that point I think it was Kunal all over the place as he picked 5/8 to destroy Burlingame cc and we won comfortably by 11 runs in the end. All in all a clinical win for us after the platinum debacle.

We look almost invincible once we bat first and put a decent total around 70 on the board. Hope we continue the winning streak.

Composed by: Nimish!