Thursday, March 4, 2010

Match Report: 02/28: vs Thunderdawgs

The Gold Cup definitely means a lot to the Immortals and it seems that as if they out-rightly dominate the game when it comes to winning it. It's kind of a supremacy which the Immortals have established since their inception by winning two Gold Cups in 3 seasons so far, and would not mind a third one up their sleeves. But to do so and come within one game of winning it, they had to surpass the Thunderdawgs in the Semi Finals, which they rightly did it in style, and march ahead to the finals.

The game once again was shifted to another ground as the showers had kept everyone checking for the weather the whole week. The game was played at Las Palmas park and it was Thunderdawgs who won the toss and chose to bat first. With the Immortals bowlers already boiling down the throat of the batsmen, it was the opposition's own mistakes that gave the Immortals the frequent breaks and with such opportunities, the Immortals made it sure to be on the top of their game by attacking constantly to put the batsmen under pressure. It yielded good results with the batsmen getting lured into creating half chances and succumbing to their own fall with 4 run outs and digging their own graves by the method of self-destructing. While the top 6 batsmen failed to deliver with no one making it to the double figures, the resilient fight came from their middle order batsman Srikanth who was in no hurry like his counterparts to return back to the dugout.

There is always an other side to the story too, and this time it was the Immortals fielding that took a hit. Sloppiness is what the Immortals encountered on the field, and even though it did not cost them dearly enough to make their opposition run away with the game, the fielding standards surely dipped quite low enough. There were three sitters dropped, one misjudged run out chance, and the Immortals were already looking out of shape, when their Captain leading by example, took a stunning catch and to add to it, Nirmam running backwards held on to a fantastic catch in the wet outfield to set the tone. The opposition luckily enough failed to seize these opportunities and eventually were all out for a mere 37 runs on the board. 4 run outs also does speak about how the Immortals do not look back to what might have just happened in terms of poor fielding, but their capability to make up for those failed chances by delivering the right blows at crucial times.

The Immortals batting was slow and steady and with a lot of help from the Thunderdawgs bowlers, who sent down 17 extras, the Immortals made it home by 7 wickets. With this crucial win the Immortals now would face TCC for the ultimate prize - The Gold Cup.

Score Card

The Immortals are all set for the Gold Championship Finals which will be played in a week's time and they are all pumped up to defend their last season's gold and more importantly cement their position as the Gold Champs once again to make it a 3-peat...

Go Immortals
Samy

No comments:

Post a Comment