Match Reports - Season 2013


Here is the report of the matches we played this season.

Current

Archives

Spectacular batting collapse!

92/3 to 110 all out, Engineers prove they can do anything anytime!

By Atul Joshi

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

Engineers defend paltry total

Batting fails; bowling clicks

By Biju Paul

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.

Engineers thump Nagoya

Prshant Kale's century deflates the opposition

By Sanman Koyande

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*.

Engineers concede season opener to Tigers

A Rare win for the Tigers over the Engineers

By Biju Paul

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.