Thursday, November 12, 2009

Match Report: 11/08: vs Warriors

Two teams filled with brothers of the same neighbourhood, most of them coming from the same locality back in India with almost a major chunk speaking the same language, this clash of the Immortals vs Warriors was going to be exciting right from the beginning till the end. The Immortals paid a visit to the Warriors home ground in South San Jose, only to dent their opposition's debut season, and above all and more importantly get back to winning terms with some convincing cricket. With already a tie and a loss on their minds, it was a self-built pressure on the clads in the Immortals camp, the pressure of not losing, but delivering and winning this important game.

The Immortals won the toss, and once again choose to bat first on hostile conditions, with a belief of reviving the batting maestros and on the way get a chance to witness some fireworks. The start was quite solid, a bit shaky and timid in the beginning but catching up the pace as the match progressed. For one more fine day, Nirmam's batting talent and ability to play long innings was at display as he scored 30 odd runs with just 1 hit to the fence, and more importantly dropped anchor to stay until the 17-18th over of the Immortals batting innings. The rest of the batsman once again failed to deliver as they fell down like bowling pins in and around Nirmam's laid out innings. The result, Immortals managed to score a decent 68 runs on the board facing comparatively some fresh, new, naive and inexperienced bowlers, which could have been exploited well.

With Dhruval Shah, a good bat in the business, someone who had two half centuries to his name coming into this game, and someone known for his flurry of stroke play, the Warriors looked confident enough to chase the total easily. But what they might not have experienced before was the great bowling display from some of the league's premier bowlers from the Immortals. The 10 over break said it all and summed it all up. Warriors were reeling and licking their wounds as they found themselves shattered at 22 runs for the loss of 7 wickets at the break. Their top 7 batsmen had failed as a team, and no one even managed to cross 5 runs with Dhruval out for 1. This meant someone else would have to take the responsibility and play a macho innings to give the Warriors some glimpse of hope if they had any intention of winning this bout.

This turned out to be Sanket, their # 8 batsman, who surprisingly came so low down the order once that we all witnessed his batting display. Crawling at 22 for 7, Sanket, played his natural game, hit some exquisite strokes and managed to remain not out on 30 runs, as the opposite end did not give him support as he was inching closer to the winning target. With 10 runs needed of every over for the last 4 overs or so, it seemed the game was favoring the Immortals, but with Sanket on the crease things could go haywire. But then, the Immortals boasts of some great talented group of bowlers that they carry, who not only managed to put the brakes on the run chase, but also managed to bowl the Warriors out for 56.

Scorecard

A much deserved victory for the Immortals, and a relief to see a "W" on the charts. The Immortals had come together as a unit, as a team who even though defending a low total, managed to rattle the opposition with some fierce spells of bowling and some great work in the field. Catches were held to perfection, crucial boundaries and runs were saved with precision, and it seemed the game was quite one sided at the end.

This important victory shall bring back the confidence that the Immortals needed to romp ahead and march past the other opponents. With 50 games to their names, the Immortals achieved yet another milestone as a team.

The Immortals look forward to celebrate their home coming in Cupertino on their home ground with many more victories, as they now host 3 games, with next up being Wisden CC.

Go Immortals !
Samy

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