Spectacular batting collapse!
92/3 to 110 all out, Engineers prove they can do anything anytime!
By Atul Joshi
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It was the occasion of the big clash in KCL between the top 2 teams in the competition at Ageo. Early morning rain had made the
ground wet and soggy. Nonetheless, the toss was done with both teams uncertain about having a full game. Trouble started
immediately after Engineers captain Biju Paul had, apparently, won the toss after calling Heads to the home team captain's
spin of the coin. As the coin landed on the ground with the flower side of the 500 yen coin facing up, Lalazar skipper declared
he won the toss saying the flower side is the Tail and number side of the coin, Heads. Thinking that the opposition captain was
trying to play a prank, skipper laughed off the claim but soon it became apparent that opposition skipper was serious to the
shock of Biju and the entire Engineers. Having played all his cricket regarding number side of a coin as Tail and the other
side Head, a stunned skipper almost walked out of the ground but his team mates persuaded him for a re-toss, this time deciding
to call the actual image on the side of the coin instead of Head or Tail. Skipper called Flowers this time and indeed it was
Flowers but as the coin fell hard on the soggy ground, the ground was so soft that a small part of the coin went inside the ground
making it standing at a slight angle(probably about 5 or 10 degrees) but with the Flowers clearly and fully visible. Jokingly, or
may be half seriously, the opposition captain tried for a re-toss but Engineers skipper controlled his tongue to keep it to
himself what he was about to mouth off and brushed off the second claim. Anyways, the Engineers chose to bowl first on a wet
ground and uneven Flicx pitch relying on the forecast of the sunny weather later in the day.
The decision of bowling first seemed to be correct initially. With a wet outfield and a slippery pitch and trying conditions
Rajneesh and Biju broke the top order of LaLazar in the initial opening burst with the score reading at 8/3. Hard hitting opener
Barqat was clean bowled by Rajaneesh and Ashiq Hussain, the other opener was caught at square leg by Ashok Kumar off Biju.
Ibrar, the centurion in their previous match, with skipper Gulzar did try to stabilize the innings but Ibrar fell before the score
reached 50, clean bowled by Rajaneesh. Even though the top 4 were back in the pavilion in less than 10 overs and half the side
was sent back by the time score reached in the 90s, the Engineers had a big task in their hands. As the Engineers entertained
the thoughts of finishing off Lalazar's innings quickly, Adil and Noman had other ideas and their partnership for the sixth
wicket brought some respectability to the total and with some late big hitting from the low order saw
Lalazar reach 226. Rajneesh
bowled his heart out to earn 4 wickets. Engineers bowled well in patches but the fielding was below par, which can be partially
blamed on the wet outfield.
226 was a good score but not a impossible total to chase at Ageo where the engineers have already chased down a similar total
this season against Nagoya. Skipper assigned Abdul as opening partner to regular opener Sanjeeb and boy, did they provide a
wonderful opening stand. Abdul's aggressiveness sent shock waves through Lalazar camp as he dispatched the opening
bowlers to all
part of the ground. Abdul was very severe on Lalazar spearhead Mubashar hitting 17 runs in one over. But against the run
of the play, Engineers lost Sanjeeb when he attempted a suicidal run and an accurate throw from mid-off hitting the batsman's
wicket as Sanjeeb tried to got back to his crease. But 30/1 in 3 overs is not a bad score and the Engineer kept up the scoring
rate till the 12th over with the score was 94/3, well above the asking rate. However, the introduction of spin on both ends
resulted in a batting collapse. The pitch, which until then looked like a batsman's paradise suddenly became a devil's den for
the Engineers. Wickets started tumbling every over and the Engineers yet again witnessed a spectacular collapse as they lost
the next 7 wickets to the spin of Gulzar and medium pace of Barqat. Their innings folded up quickly and the journey from 94/3 to
110 all out didn't take very long. 5 overs, to be precise. That, my dear friends, is the story of a spectacular
collapse! The
Engineers lost the match from a winning position - not the first time - by a margin of 126 runs. Gulzar was pick of the bowlers
taking 6 wickets as he had a perfect game as caption(except for the controversy over the toss) with an all around display with
bat and bowl.
Lalazar are well placed in the competition as they are yet to be defeated this season. The Indian Engineers needs to find a
solution quickly for its repeated batting failures. Even though they are in second spot but they should win the last game to
confirm their place in the semis without being subject to complex calculations of run rate.
Brief scores:
Lalazar: 226 (33.2 ov). Adeel 80, Nomnan 41. Rajneesh 4/37
IECC: 110 (17 ov). Abdul 27, Gulzar 6/15, Barqat 3/28
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Engineers defend paltry total
Batting fails; bowling clicks
By Biju Paul
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After a successful chase of 200+ runs in the previous KCL outing, the Engineers
had all the confidence in the world to do anything they wanted - bat first and
put up a huge score, or chase any big total. So when the skipper won the toss,
he had no doubt to elect to bat first so that all the batsmen get a chance to
swing their arms. Everyone indeed got a chance and swung their arms but not
probably the way their skipper would have liked. The Engineers indeed were aware of Alpha Q's(why did they name
their team like that?) bowling prowess, but what they got was more than what
they expected. Alpha Q almost lived up to their club's name and pha Qd up
Engineers chances but for the partnership of final two wickets.
Engineers were jolted when former skipper and opener, Sanjeeb Sahoo, who was
successful in the previous match, was the first to return caught behind for duck
in the 5th ball of the innings. His opening partner, Sanman Koyande,
returned in the 5th ball of the next over, again for a duck. So we have 2 new
batsmen, in the name of Yogesh Chandwadkar the vice captain, and M Karthik, the
all rounder, at the crease in the 2nd over of the innings but with their
reputation as fine players, the Engineers hoped that the early loss of two
wickets was just a fluke, the result of an uneven Flicx pitch. The hope,
however, was short lived as the vice captain was judged LBW, in the 5th ball
(not again!) of the 4th over by AQ skipper Mohan. That brought another all
rounder, Mohubul Hassan, to the crease. With two all rounders, both with a
reputation of hard hitting at the crease, the Engineers again hoped that batting
collapse was just a flash in the pan. As no wickets fell in the 5th ball of the
next few overs and the Engineers began to heave a sigh of relief, a sudden rush
of blood overcame Karthik, he stepped out and heaved at a delivery only to be
caught by the bowler himself in his follow through. Karthik out for 4. It
was the 2nd ball of the 9th over and the beginning of another strange pattern.
That brought the daring Prashant Manvi to the crease. He indeed relieved the
pressure by hitting a boundary right away but was clean bowled by Venu in the
2nd ball of the 10th over. In the 2nd ball of the 11th over, Mohibul Hassan was
caught in the middle of the wicket by Dinesh. Next batsman was Rajaneesh Shukla,
who normally doesn't play aggressive shots but hangs around to make his 20s and
and 30s. He too fell to a strange pattern, caught at mid-wicket in the 2nd
ball of the 13th over making the score line look a precarious 7/41 in 13.2 overs.
Old timer Jagan too returned in the 15th over with the score at 44 and the
Engineers batting lineup that looked so marvelous just a few weeks ago looked
like they are not going to cross 50. With the score looking 44/8 your writer
walked in to give company to debutant Vinay Mohan who was batting solidly at the
other end. The pair didn't exactly set the the stage on fire but showed some
sensibility in batting and took the score to 76 before Vinay slogged at delivery
but was brilliantly caught at deep mid-wicket, the fielder having had to cover
quite a long distance and the catch was taken with fielder still running. That
brought the last man, Taka Morimoto, to the crease and Taka provided a good
support to this writer. What pleased the eyes of yours truly was the opposition
spreading the field wide and deep after two boundaries were hit :-) Soon the
innings wound up when Nanda clean bowled this writer but the score at that was
97, not exactly a defendable total but a far cry from 44/8.
In the pre-fielding briefing, skipper encouraged everyone to do their best and
Jagan reminded the team of successfully defending a score of 48 against the
British Embassy a few years ago. With only confidence in their hands and a pride
to defend, the Engineers set about their task. Rajaneesh opened the bowling with
a tight line and length. Yours truly made the first break-through in the 3rd
ball of his over by clean bowling the opener, Anirudh, the bastsman missing his
off stump. New batsman, Shafiq was also sent back the next ball, again the
batsman missing the offstump. A hat trick was denied when an edge fell
agonisingly fell short of gully. With their tail up, the Engineers continued to
attack the AQ and their batting line-up could not withstand the sustained attack
although there were patches short partnerships(details in the scorebook are
sparce). The last wicket partnership did do their best and came close to 10
runs of victory but Mohibul had Dinesh caught plumb in front of the wicket and
the Engineers won by 10 runs.
Brief scores:
IECC: 97 (29 ov). Dinesh Kumar 3/17, Nanda Kumar 3/17
Alpha Q: 87(26.5 ov). Mohibul Hassa 4/14.
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Engineers thump Nagoya
Prshant Kale's century deflates the opposition
By Sanman Koyande
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Two weeks before, it was like the Engineers could not even catch a football on the field. Two weeks later it was like the
Engineers would even catch a falling mustard seed. Two weeks before, the Engineers dropped the same batsman five times. Two weeks
later the Engineers proved that catches win matches. Two weeks before, the Engineers struggled to cross 100 runs. Two weeks
later it only took four Engineers to cross 200 runs. Two weeks is a long time in cricket!
It was a sunny and hot day at Ageo, one of the KCL grounds with probably the fastest outfield. The Engineers arrived at
the ground on time in three luxury cars, two BMWs and one Merc, but the question that troubled the owners most was where to
park these expensive piece of machines. While the Merc's owner didn't take a chance and parked his
new purchase in someone else's property
nearby, the owners of BMW took a bit of risk and parked these German products near the cow corner, hoping that Nagoya boys
would not hit the ball that far.
After everybody settled down and the Flicx pitch was laid, toss was taken. After winning the toss,
the captain did the most
unthinkable which can be called a cardinal sin - elected to bowl first. The batting lineup must have given the captain the
confidence to chase down any target but the batsmen were not all pleased with the skipper's decision as everybody wanted
to go out and swing their bats but now they got to field. "Captain ka Hukum sar aankhon pe". The Engineers first
spell of bowling started by one of the extra talented seamers, Rajneesh Shukla. Rajneesh proved himself with
a first maiden first
over. The opening bowling pair never allowed Nagoya to open their shoulders with a super spell
although it didn't produce any wickets. Karthik replaced the skipper himself after an unusual wayward spell that saw more wides than runs off the bat. Although Karthik
produced the first breakthrough by knocking down the middle stump of Qaiser(15) by sheer pace, he too was replaced soon as he
started leaking runs. On the other end, though, Rajaneesh kept a very tidy spell of 4 overs, 2 maidens and gave only 3 runs. The
ever-reliable Manvi was brought in to replace Rajaneesh and Himanshu replaced Karthik. Himanshu was taken off quickly as he too
leaked runs. While Manvi wasn't at his economical best he took wickets at regular intervals. Seeing the Nagoya batsmen hitting
the pace bowlers with ease, skipper brought in a change in the form of former captain Sanjeeb but that didn't make any difference
to the Nagoya boys. Captain then showed a flick of his captaincy again by introducing his trump card, Mohibul Hasaan, who along with
Manvi on the other end proved captain's decision correct by taking 4 wickets each. While Nagoya's Faisal and Qaiser looked
threatening with frequent hits to the ropes and over the ropes, these two bowlers kept things
largely in check. With "Manvi ka Jadu
Chal Gaya", a superfine out cutter took edge of dangerous Kanwal, your writer took a cool catch behind the stumps. Hard hitting Qaiser then flicked one off Mohibul but the well placed Sanjeeb took an excellent catch on the mid-wicket boundary. In the very
next ball, Shahbaz followed Qaiser but this time Karthik placed at long off aided Mohibul his second wicket.
Suddenly, a score that was looking to go beyond 250 runs seemed unlikely to hit the 200 mark. From this point onwards the
Engineers never looked back, although Afridi did some lusty hits and scored 22 off 13 balls but both him and Shahbaz(33 off
25 balls) were taken care off by Mohibul in successive overs. With all the frontline bowlers having finished their quota,
skipper brought himself back and immediately produced results, thanks to a smooth outswinger,
although the keeper fumbled a
few times before taking it one handed, ending the Nagoya innings for 228 runs. The best thing was that the entire team
was completely dedicated to game and none dropped a single catch.
After a short lunch break captain decided to promote Sanjeeb as the opener to give company to Ashok. That sounded
like two big names at the wicket. Ashok gave a good start with a fine cover drive for four, like a churi running through
butter. Opening pair returned to the dugout within short intervals of each other after giving opening partnership of 35 runs.
The fall of Sanjeeb's
wicket(17) brought Prashant Kale to the wicket. The third wicket partnership between Prashant and Atul
yielded a valuable 58 runs.
Prashant showed everyone some superb drives and swing of the bat. As Atul lost his wicket, the hard hitting Karthik joined
Prashant, who was in super form and was hitting the ball like it is a football.
Runs flowed from his blade like an unstoppable river. He hit the ball all around the ground with ease. Fielders didn't move a bit for some the shots. Drinks were taken when Prashant was on 47. Soon after the break, Prashant scored his half century with a six and he then celebrated that with a four in
the next ball. At that time it seemed like nobody wanted to bowl to Prashant. Not to be left behind, Karthik too showed that the
aggression happens not only from one end and hit some lusty blows that included some stunning shots in the cover region. Both
Parshant and Karthik showed superb batting shots. Karthik stood cool and played a patient innings and gave strong support to
Prashant. Prashant's second 50 came in quick time - in just 20 balls, that saw six 4s and three 6s. He raced from 62 to 100 in
only 13 balls. He did give an outside chance to the Nagoya in his nervous
nineties but that didn't deter him to hit boundary over
long on while on 97 to bring up his century. Finally when he got out for a personal score of Zakkas 123 and partnership of 119 runs with
Karthik for the fourth wicket, he had put the match well beyond Nagoya's hopes.
IECC 220/4 in 26.2 overs and needed only 9 runs. However, nobody hit the winning
runs as it came by way of a wide that went to the boundary.
The Engineers won the match in great style loosing only 4 wickets and with 8 overs remaining. Surely entire team
wanted chilled beer to cool down and surely the skipper didn't disappoint his mates. A couple of beers in stomach, winning
heat in head, only one statement remained in everybody's mind "Dare anybody stop us, KCL is ours!". Well played boys!!
Brief scores:
Nagoya: 228 (32.5 ov). Manvi 4/49, Mohibul 4/43
IECC: 229/4(26.4ov). Prashant 123, Karthik 27*.
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Engineers concede season opener to Tigers
A Rare win for the Tigers over the Engineers
By Biju Paul
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The first match did not go the Engineers way. With many regular members not being available the captain, your writer,
had to hunt around hard to find eleven players. Multiple reminder emails and phone calls following the regular roll call
resulted in having eleven players ready by Friday and the match was on. The Engineers batting lineup must have been a pleasant
site for the Tigers.
Tigers captain, Sujit Kulkarni, won the toss and expectedly chose to bat first. Tigers gambled their opening pair with
sending Gijo Sivan as a partner to former captain, Rajeev Nair. Knowing both batsmen's style of play Engineers' opening bowlers
Rajaneesh Shukla and yours truly adjusted their line and length and set the fields accordingly. Regardless, Gijo, as usual,
stuck to the only way he knows to play - swing his bat at every ball making contact with the ball rarely. The Engineers
opening attack was successful in controlling the run rate, giving away only 17 runs in 7 overs without a single wide or noball,
with Rajeev grinding his way to 3 off 28 balls while Gijo's wild swings resulted in some success with the balls meeting
the boundary ropes twice in those 7 overs. First change, Manvi Prashant, brought the first breakthrough by clean bowling Rajeev for 3
while Gijo continued his bat swings. Tigers' no.3, Nishant, looked nervous at the crease and it almost resulted in
a wicket when he lobbed a simple catch to mid-on but the usually reliable Ashok Kumar spilled it.
Soon after, Manvi clean bowled
Gijo too in the 10th over for an individual score of 16 leaving the Tigers at 2/26. Good tight bowling by the Engineers
was on display here. That
brought in the skipper Sujit but he also didn't last long as he was run out for 9. Nishant continued his lucky ride with one
more life being given to him when the skipper himself dropped a catch at point, with his age-defying dive going in vain :-).
While Nishant continued to manage his stay at the wicket with some nudges here and there, wickets continued to fall at the
other end with no significant contribution from the other batsmen. Nishant got two more lives that helped his individual
score to 39, which, in the end, proved to be difference between the two teams. He was finally caught in the deep cover point by
Himanshu off Jeetu. Ragesh Nair came in at no.10 and managed to hit some lusty blows and remained not out on 21. A surprising
under-performance of Himanshu, who made an impressive debut last year, resulted in leaking 18 runs in 2 overs which included 11
wides and one noball. He was able to generate good pace but could not control his line. Jeetu was the most successful bowler
for the Engineers with figures 4/39 off 5 overs while Manvi took 2 wickets. The young Rakesh Jaiswal impressed everyone
with his raw pace and line and bowled 6 overs conceding only 16 runs. May be another Anurag in the making! In the end the
Tigers' scoreboard read 146 in 34.3 overs, thanks to the four lives that Nishat got.
After lunch the Engineers went in with Sanman Koyande and Ashok Kumar taking the strike. Rakesh trapped Ashok in front of
the wicket in the 3rd over. Gurdeep Dua was sent in at no. 3 but his nervousness resulted in his own downfall, gifting Udayaraj a wicket. Sanman, like Gijo, continued his swing at every ball but unlike Gijo didn't find much success and was bowled
by Ragesh for 2. One of the lucky wickets for the Tigers and a key loss for the Engineers was when Vezley was caught at point
spectacularly by Mani with the fielder plucking an absolute beauty in the air. That definitely showed in the Tigers camp as they lifted up
Mani on their shoulders in celebration. Engineers were 4/17 in 6 overs. Himanshu and Rajanessh
then put up a fight and took the score to
53 when the former gave away his wicket to debutant Tiger, Mani, with Rajeev
taking a catch at cover point. Rajaneesh soon
followed leaving the Engineers tottering at 8/74 but a rear guard fight back by Manvi whose "never-say-die" attitude took
the Engineers to 110 with his captain giving him support at the other end. The partnership of 36 runs ended when Manvi was run
out at the strikers end going for a risky run in their attempt to give the free hitting batsman most strike. Manvi's 35 runs
came off only 33 balls with the help of two 4s and a 6. Soon the Engineers folded up for 111 when Taka was caught behind off
Rakesh, who bowled well for his decent figures 4/24.
In the final analysis, the number of lives that the Engineers gave to Nishat, two of which was when the batsman was in his
single digits, made the difference between the two teams.
Brief scores:
Tigers 146 (34.3 ov). Nishant 39, Jeety 4/39
IECC 111(29.5 ov). Manvi 35(2x4, 1x6), Ragesh 4/24, Mani 3/12.
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