Nail Bitter

The momentum that our team has right now is a beast that cannot be contained. A close match like this one has geared everyone for the big one next week. Teams who succeed are not always the ones who are the best on paper or the ones who have prepared the best. What matters is which team can develop the knack to bring out their best performance when they need it the most….

We have been having those performances when we really needed it…Buland, Bipin and Niloy have come good when we needed and that matters the most….We are good on paper but we are great when it comes to performing on that particular point of time….Vikas and Rajesh have played some good knocks but we still want our big guns to fire..Amit, Sandeep,Vijay and Abhisek all are big match player and they all will come to the party for the big one……The way Manish has been behind the stumps has been a revolution for the team…

It was an edge-of-the-seat match that would have dented all hard work we had been doing this tournament .To everyone surprise the opponents won the toss and elected to bat and the very second ball they lost their first wicket to a perfect throw from Niloy and Amit did the rest…We got our second wicket to a run out as the batsman played the ball to long off and wanted to steal a second as I was late in throwing the ball however I threw the ball on time and the batsman was caught short ….When I am writing this article, I think how silly was that on my part….

Amit and Vijay gave a perfect start with score reading 4 overs 9 runs and 2 wickets and good catches by Bipin at mid on and Vijay at long on of Vikas broke their back….Abhisek bowled a steady spell and kept everything within control….They got a good partnership going which dragged them for 14/4 to 42…Everyone was waiting for Girish to come and break this partnership but he looked a little rusty in his first over, though I am using the word rusty but still batsman had hard time figuring out what they were facing….

Next 4 overs conceded 13 runs and no wickets which was unusual for us but Vijay gave us the very required break in 15th over and then it was all in our hand .Last 5 overs conceded just 12 runs with 5wickets falling…..The way Manish has been stumping , the opponents might have the myth that our team is full of spinners….The way he stumped one of their batsman at Amit’s pace just kept me wondering how can he stump someone at his pace….The day is not very far when he is going to stump someone when Girish would be bowling ….Though everyone looked a little rusty after the picnic but the bowlers still did a pretty good job in restricting them for 56….

It was again the same story with our batting and extras being the highest scorer…..
I know it might be harsh but I really want to bring this to everyone attention that confidence is good but over confidence is suicidal….We have started thinking that we will play some overs cautiously and then strike the ball but this plan doesn’t seem to work …The ball has to be played on the merit it being the 1 st ball of the inning or the last ball…

Bipin and Sandeep opened for us but both of them seemed struggling and finally it led to debacle of Sandeep in the 4th over and the very next ball Bipin was run out which made the score 11/2 in 4.1 overs….To make situation even worse Umpire took one of the most dim-witted decision which saw Vijay ruled run out…He was well behind the wicket at the non striker end when a fielder threw the ball from point to hit the stump direct and umpire raised his finger …..I don’t know what the umpire was thinking and then walked in the captain to perish of the very next ball…He was tempted by the bowler as long on and long off both were inside ….The score was 16/4 in 6.3 overs..

Though Girish was not at his best with the bowling but he was determined to do it with the bat as he was the second highest scorer for the team …..the pull shot he played would have cleared any ground in this world but he just got 2 and the very next ball he smashed it for 4 over long on to make us feel a little better ….Himanshu hung in there with Girish and made sure no more wickets fall before 10 overs…

After 10 overs the score read 26/4 but it just took 4 balls for us to lose the 5 th wicket as Himanshu was run out….Vikas was given the job to finish the match for us but he was also caught short of the crease before playing some good shots…..the pressure was building even the wall of our team(Abhisek) had a little tough time in the middle as he was not able to middle the ball as he normally does….we lost our 7 wicket in Girish when he was trying to flick a ball and it caught the top edge for a simple catch……Then walked in the finisher Amit …everyone had a lot of hope from him and the very first ball he got his stroke going and got 2 crucial runs for the team ..It looked Amit and Abhisek will finish it off however they both fell in order to play a stroke….It was left for Manish and me to finish it off…with the equation reading 15 needed off 3 overs… We got 5 in the 18th over and the equation read 10 needed of 2….They brought their best bowler to bowl the 19th over and he just gave away 4 runs which left us with 6 needed of the final over….

Manish elegantly flicked the first one for 1 … I played the next ball towards long off and we stole 2 runs, the next ball was a no ball which left us 2 to get from 3 balls …and the bowler bowled a perfect length delivery outside the off stump which resulted in a dot ball which made the situation tense but the next ball I flicked the ball in air to get the winning runs and we won…………………..As the whole team embraced mid-pitch after the winning moment the emotion showed what this victory meant for our team

We have won 10 matches in row but still the big one is next week ……………

We are gonna rock guys….