Match Report: 03/28: vs DarkHorse CC

The first game was a good success, played on a new home ground, and the tactics changing a little bit right from the field set, to the way how the batsman played utilizing the spreaded field advantage to their own benefits. Could The Immortals keep the ball rolling in their next home game, before they head off for an on road two away games stint which no doubt would be our toughest challenges of all this season. But first things first, as everyone now believes considering any opponent of equal or more importance and not to be complacent with just one good win in the season opener, The Immortals had to keep their heads down in the game.

This last weekend, The Immortals hosted the Dark Horse CC, facing each other for the first time ever, and this time to make sure we do not have any issues with the ground, we directly went to Cupertino Middle School where we played in the first game. After all, who likes to run around on a warm Saturday morning which is meant either for sleeping, or for playing cricket, rather than scurrying around to stamp some ground to our name, and later on find out as time goes by, that those kiddos with their parents start showing up for their little league. Mind you, the name, even though says little league, I bet they can be more smarter in the way they practice than most of us.

Again the same old story, where our Captain (Darshil, Dagga) somehow, always comes back with a remorseful face, and tries to explain that it is not that he is unlucky with the toss, it could be just due to the wind drifting the luck (and the coin) to the opposition's side. So once, again, we lost the toss, which was not new to us, and surprisingly enough we were put into bat first. As someone commented, looking to the excitement of the lustful players to bat first, that it would be better from now on instead of doing the toss, just ask outright to the opposite captain "What are you gonna do today buddy? If you guys want to bowl, our batsman have been holding the bats since their childhood days to get a chance at batting first, so is there a need for a toss? Why don't you guys bowl, and we shall bat !".

As always, two things that I mentioned, that The Immortals do not have control over is - finding a ground (which luckily this weekend, we stick to where we played before) and the Umpires section - this time, one of the umpire not gracing our game with his presence. When the umpire did arrive in the middle of the game, and when asked about being late (or careless), he just simply replied "MY captain told me the game was on sunday!". WTF was that about ? Lol. (Psst: We intend to get our captain (Darshil) a bashing from all the cricbay teams, by simultaneously not showing up at umpiring tasks and/or putting the blame on him lol ...)

For a change, this time and going forward, I decided to put my newly purchased Digital SLR Nikon Camera to great use, by clicking some moments from the game and archive them.. (I did not think I had this idea of uploading them as archives onto this blog later on...) But this game against the Dark Horse CC was such, that I did not want to miss a single moment, and luck was on my side (sarcatically), and I was not in the playing XI this weekend. A bit disappointed, but unlike old times did not want to create an issue out of it, but would have surely appreciated if The Immortals management would have atleast informed me 24 hours before the actual game (I am not asking for more than 24 hours)... After all I would have taken this opportunity to go and meet my fiance in LA, instead of showing up for practice, and then on late Friday night finding out that I was not in the playing 11 for the game on saturday. But anyways, I was not to be disappointed by being a spectator for the entire game as what was to come, no one would have thought of, even though some of us might have anticipated with the way The Immortals were finding their rhythm back.

The start was rock solid, with our Master Blaster - Ronak, and our Captain again opening for the second consecutive time, and this time pushing down Sanato down the order. Ronak was batting with great rhythm from ball one, and both the openers were going great, before Darshil mistimed a shot and a good catch was held to send him back to the dugout. Sanato, was up next, and he did hit some good 2's over his favorite region on the leg side, going over the fence. But he
too got out to a rising delivery, and came back sulking, with a sad face as always. All these shots, runs, moments were being constantly captured through numerous clicks.

Batti (karan SJSU) was next, again, with his Kookabura, which now has become a symbol of his exotic cover shots, and leg side boundaries. And boy, he did not disappoint us, as he dismissed the bowler for a four, the very first ball. More importantly, he played a waiting game, and faced a good 20 odd balls, giving support to someone, who just would not stop - Ronak the boy with the baton. Batti got out, and Jainip too was dismissed cheaply after that. In walked our VC (Aditya) as usual to drop the anchor and yet score briskly. Such has been the batting order, that on paper, it would surely look intimidating but we all know, that consistency is what lacks for us in terms of putting up a good display in the batting department, especially in the middle order, when a score of 80-90 looks comfortable, and suddenly we find ourselves on the field defending just a mere 60-65 runs.

Ronak and VC, got together in a great partnership stand, and made a mockery of the bowlers. Off side, straigt shots, leg flicks, and what not, in all a complete package, and the DSLR was just clicking itself to a record breaking 1000 pics... But what was it gonna be? Will there be another icing on the cake? Of-course, the Immortals can never stop surprising the opposition (or our own selves lol) ... Ronak found himself entering the 40s with some glorious shots for boundaries, and I myself was getting wet feet, when he was on 48-49 ... In came the bowler, a good ball, whack, hit on the leg side, and Ronak ran for a single, converted it to a 2, and there it was - the moment that we had never ever experienced before (and only seen in other team's scorecards, or heard on Cricbay) - a batsman hitting 50 runs - a half-century - and that too one of us - What a game, what a batsman, what an innings ... Everyone was on their feet, cheering Ronak and my DSLR was just clicking the entire run, right from his stance, to the completion of his run, his jump in the air, and a hi-fi punch with our Captain ... After all it was a very well fought 50 and all the credit goes to him for not making me regret of not going to LA. Speaking about our captain, he just could not hold his arse until Ronak completed his 50, just when Ronak set off for a single, Darshil went dancing on the ground and almost reached the point fielder, when he realized that the batsman are running 2, and LOL, he had to run back inside to the safety of the dug out... And he ruined the sequence in my camera, but the Sehwag type moment about the punch in the air, was captured nicely. (Psst: Co-incidentally, right from the stance, to his 50, and raising his bat to us, Ronak's 50 took exactly 50 frames - not one more or one less)...

Well you must be wondering what next? Well then as anticipated once reaching the 50 run mark, and taking the team to a respectable total, all hell break loose. Ronak and VC just started clobbering the bowlers all over the field, and got the team to cross the 100-run mark ending the Immortals innings at 102 for 5 wickets in 20 overs. Ronak, no doubt, standing out with 59 runs of 62 balls with 4 fours and 1 six. 102 looked a great score, especially if you know how these baseball grounds are and how Tennis ball cricket is played, but would that surely be enough ? Will Dark Horse CC come from behind to bite us ? Well read ahead as you will find a lot of action still unfolding.

As you would always find me shouting on the field, it aint over until its all over, and this time again, we were to experience something similar to that. Of-course a good 100+ total, would surely give our bowlers the necessary boost to try something new, and yet put pressure on the opposition. The openers gave a good start, and our bowlers were doing decent enough. There were some anxious moments in between but we held to our nerves and stuck to our basics of restricting the batsman. One of their players, Vivek was a good bat, and he was hitting our bowlers all over the park, but then an awesome throw from our VC resulted into a direct hit to send the batsman back to the pavillion. Overall the bowlers did well and the fielders were right up to the mark, with 4 runouts and all the catches held nicely. In the end, all that started well, ended nicely with The Immortals winning by 20 runs.

There were about 1700 odd photographs clicked and it would be impossible to share all of them, but I plan to atleast filter them and upload signiciant pictures for everyone to enjoy. It would be more fun if you can download and then go through them in a sequence to give you a real-time effect of actually wacthing the entire shot, or the bowling stint. Enjoy the pics and there are more to come down the line ... There are almost ball by ball pics, but I have tried keeping them to a bare minimum, and yet there are plenty to see ... I now understand how much hard it must be to concentrate on taking the pics, when there are some awesome moments in the game, by not getting carried away in the heat of the game ...

Random Fun Moments

Aditya's Batting

Aditya's Bowling

Aditya Run Out

Batti's Batting

Batti's Bowling

Bhupesh's Bowling

Darshil's Batting

Darshil's Bowling

Keka's Bowling

Nirmam's Batting

Nirmam's Bowling

Ronak's Batting

Ronak's 50

Ronak's Wicket

Sanata's Batting

Score Card

Cheers

Samy