Engineers score over Serendib
Nostalgic Engineers team shows off its might
By Biju Paul
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Well this victory is for the oldies. A team consisting of some of the Engineers
past performers got together to make a team for the first KCL match of the
season to be played at Moriya, which has now become the Engineers home ground.
When former Engineer Ashoke Sharma decided to make a weekend trip to Japan he
chose a date that coincided with a KCL match. Then came long time inactive
members Sriram Sampath and Jagan Panda to make it a nostalgic team, with the
exception of a few others such as Viswa Ghosh, Silvester Pereira, Santhosh
Ghadge and the self exiled Bobby Philips.
The party had already started on Friday night itself when Ashoke had lived up to
his old title of manoranjan vyavastapak (Entertainment Manager)
and led a team of Engineers in and out of Zest Mexican restaurant in Roppongi.
Having had a day to recover on Saturday, the Engineers set out to Moriya ground
on Sunday in sober state and the match got going at 12 noon.
Serendib won the toss and elected to bat first. Engineers knew that the score
could probably be around 200 given the small boundary infront of the batsman.
But the Engineers had Serendib soon in trouble at 4/17 in 9 overs, all the
batsmen perishing trying to score over the short long on/long off boundary.
Rajneesh had started the bowling along with Shailaj, who drew the first blood in
his 1st over when he trapped Arish in front of the wicket. Rajneesh had
his first wicket in his 2nd over when he had Dhanuka caught by Sanjeeb at long
off going for a big hit. Soon Serendib realised the reality that the wind is
against the batsmen and the ball doesn't sail over the bowler's head that
easily. They changed gears and it was a rebuilding effort from their side. The
5th wicket yielded a sensible partnership of 56 runs, the sixth wicket
partnership yielding another 56 runs and the 7th 30 runs. While Engineers
bowlers struggled after the initial success, their fielders didn't help them
either, dropping a few easy catches as well as some difficult ones. Engineers
have been dropping catches in bunches since the beginning of the season anyway,
so this performance was not a big surprise for them either. Seeing the frontline
bowlers suffering skipper decided to try the new comers of the season Jagan and
Ashoke but neither gave the Engineers any hope and only helped Serendib in their
quest of building the innings. The two together gave away 28 runs in 2 overs.
While Shailaj was the most successful bowler with figures of 3/32, Rajneesh was
miserly giving away only 17 runs in 7 overs with a return of 2 wickets.
Serendib really applied themselves here to make it a respectable total from a
near precarious situation and played all their 35 overs. Their most successful
batsman was Jayathura with 62 runs, the batsman benefitting from Engineers
butter fingers a few times.
The Engineers started their innings with newly promoted opener Bikash Mohanty
and Anurag Singh with Bikash given a specific instruction of seeing off the new
ball (grapevine, however, has it that he was assigned the
task of protecting the opener) after his success in the previous match.
In any case, Bikash didn't last long and fell for 1 failing in his unofficial
and undocumented task, giving fodder to Sharmaji for a series of jokes
for the rest of the day. The second wicket partnership between Anurag and Dinesh
proved to be decisive as the pair put up 94 runs. Anurag was always running
dangerously and his fall also came through such an effort. Backing up too much
for a single, he couldn't get back to his crease in time when Dinesh, the
striker, denied a call for a single. His 40 contained 5 hits to the boundary.
That brought Sidde Raju to the crease. He opened his account straight away in
the 2nd ball he faced with a hit to the boundary. Raju didn't bother to run much
and he mostly dealt with 4s and 6s. Both Dinesh and Raju troubled the Serendib
the maximum they could but Dinesh then fell to a ball that shot along the ground
after pitching taking the batsman by surprise and uprooting his middle stump,
for a personal score of 42(6x4, 1x6). In came Sriram Sampath, who was playing
after a gap of almost two years. But his lazy elegance was in full display
during his brief stay. His personal score of 21 off 13 balls contained three 4s
and one 6.
The responsibility of seeing the Engineers through then fell on to skipper
Sanjeeb and hard hitting Raju but the skipper could not give company to Raju
long enough. He left a ball that was on the off stump thinking it was on the leg
stump. The ball held its line and knocked back the correct stump in its path.
Mutters of "well left skipper" could be heard in the dressing room at this
point. Seeing the familiar middle order collapse, Raju decided to take matters
into his own hands and went berserk, and the bowler, Sameera, suffered. His
final over went for 18 runs, three 6s in a row. Needing only 2 runs for a win
and 3 runs for a well deserved half century for Raju, Shailaj who was at the
other end decided to stay to put and blocked out all the balls. Raju then hit a
4 at the next opportunity to seal a great victory for the Engineers. His 51(4x4,
5x6) came off only 28 balls.
Brief scores:
Serendib 201/9 (35 ov). Jayathura 62, S Lal 3/32
IECC 204/5 (29.1 ov). A Singh 40, D Singh 42, S Raju 51*
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Serendip scrape through
Engineers were not good enough to last the pressure
By Silvester Pereira
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Rains had almost threatened to spoil another day of cricket; this time a
friendly between IECC and Serendib played in a soccer field in Kashiwa, Chiba
(close to Moriya). Indian engineers were the first to arrive at the ground and
setup the flex pitch while waiting for the opponents. Serendib won the toss and
elected to bat in a 30 overs per side game.
The Serendib openers (Sachinat and Sameera) batted cautiously in the early
stages before the Engineers opening bowler Rajneesh got the first wicket (lbw)
with the score reading 25 for 1 at the end of 5 overs. Biju was the other
opening bowler followed by Dinesh, Sanjeeb, Vehzy etc. The ball was keeping very
low, sometimes almost skidding. Our bowlers at times had kept a good line but
almost all our bowlers bowled at least 30+ wides with grand total of 40+ extras.
The Serendib batsmen had a hard time scoring under these conditions and the
opener Sachinta even offered two straight forward catches but we failed to gab
on those opportunities.(Unlucky Bowler being Dinesh). At one stage, Serendib
were 51/5. We dropped few more catches along the way, Sachinta, riding his luck,
gradually began to solidify his batting with some good strokes/boundaries while
the rest of Serendib batsmen hardly scored, got out mostly bowled or lbw to some
good bowling especially from Sanjeeb who ended up with 4 wickets haul for 13
runs. Serendib finished their innings with a low score of 139 of which the
opener Sachinta remained not out on 53.
The Engineers opened the innings with Yogesh and skipper Sanjeeb but lost
Yogesh early on lbw to the opening bowler. Dinesh came in with the score at 5/1
and started to attack the bowling. He hit some splendid boundaries (4 fours and
a six) in just 15 balls before he tried to go for another big hit and was
brilliantly caught of the bowling of the first change bowler. While Dinesh was
at the crease it appeared the match would be over quickly as we were scoring at
an average of 8~10 runs per over and at one stage we were 46/2 in 5 overs. The
middle order batsmen tried to hang in there scoring at an average of 4 runs per
over but with some good bowling from the Sri Lankans and some sloppy shots from
our batsmen, we kept loosing wickets at periodic interval. By the end of 20
overs, the score was xx, still needing another 30+ runs in 10 overs and 3
wickets in hand, it was still anybody’s game. Around 25 overs with 2 wickets in
hand and 30 odd runs required, Raju, our main hope, who was still at the crease
but yet to get runs, started to open the face of his bat going for some hits. He
managed to score some boundaries including a six (six coming off a fielder who
failed to take the catch at the fence and the ball popping out of his hands and
over the line. With the six in the 29th over, the match was now evenly poised
and full of nerves with about 6 runs required in 8 balls and one wicket in hand.
Raju went for another big hit (possibly to score a six and finish the match) but
failed to hit it cleanly and was caught by the fielder at mid-on. Serendib won
the friendly match by 5 runs.
Though the engineers lost the match, it was a good close game with lots of
fireworks and excitement and good sportsmanship and team spirit by both teams.
We gave more wides (36) compared to Serendib (20). Overall the wides and the
dropped catches in our fielding has cost us the game.
Brief scores:
Serendip: 140. S Sahoo 4/13
IECC: 136(28.2 ov). D Singh 23, S Raju 29
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Engineers thump Predators
Understregth Predators no match against the confident Engineers
By Silvester Pereira
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The day had begun as usual at this time of the year -
bright, clear and sunny weather - but probably no one would have thought it
would end the way it did. Although a win was expected of the Engineers against
their KCL opponents, Tokyo Predators, the manner in which the Engineers went
about their task was very pleasing (Predators excluded). The game began around
11:30 am with the Engineers stand-in captain Anurag Singh, winning the toss and
electing to bat. Masood and Ritesh opened the batting for the Engineers to face
Saijash and Robin of the Predators. The Predators had only 10.5 players (0.5
being a 11 year young and enthusiastic Liam Hunt). It was rumored that the key
player for Predators didn’t make it for the game which added to their misery.
The openers gave a good start to the Engineers scoring 33 runs before Masood was
out caught for 12 runs. Ritesh didn’t last long before being out lbw for 10 runs
(score being 42). Harsha, our newcomer, joined Yogesh on the other end before he
too, was bowled around his legs of the bowling of Saijash, their only and good
bowler of the day. Raju joined Yogesh with score reading 49/3 (in 10 overs) and
the mayhem started. The two carried along making merry, enjoying their luck
(dropped catches) and scoring from a weak bowling attack for a long and well
deserved partnership. Raju was first dropped in his 30s and then once more
before he reached his century and a further three more times. There were plenty
of fireworks, mainly from Raju, who was well supported by Yogesh on the other
end. The pair batted together for almost 25 overs setting up a new 4th
wicket KCL record partnership of 251 runs, eclipsing the unfinished 177 between
Mayank Dabral and Ken Wadano of Tokyo Bay against Chiba Sharks in 2003. This has
also became the highest partnership for any wicket. The previous one was 240
runs for the 6th wicket between Aamir Ali and Shakir Khan of Friends XI against
Myoden in 2006.
While the fireworks were going on, there was agony off the
field too. Anurag, the stand-in captain, was padded and kept waiting for almost
25 overs. His chance came only in the 37th over when Yogesh was
bowled by Greame Gardiner after a respectful personal best score of 65 runs with
the team score at 300. The Predators, at this stage, having almost given up the
game started experimented by bringing in the young Liam, who gave 25 runs in his
2 overs. Raju remained not out for 169 at the end of 40
overs with 46 extras in the Engineersscore of 310/4. Saijash was the only bowler
who looked like doing anything for the Predators. He bowled a continuous 8 over
spell starting from the first over, gave just 16 runs and took 2 wickets.
The Engineers, after having a good score behind them,
started to take charge of the bowling with Biju opening the attack and Rajeesh
at the other end. Gardiner and Chanukha opening the batting for the
Predators before Chanukha was beautifully caught at point by Ganesh of the
bowling of Biju with the score reading just 8 runs. Saijash joined Gardiner and
the two gradually built a good partnership hitting some great shots before
Gardiner, the danger man, missing the line, was bowled of the bowling of Anurag
for 13 runs. Saijash, trying for a pull shot, went immediately caught by Raj at
mid-on again of the bowling of Anurag for well made 25 runs (highest for the
Predators). The rest of the batsman didn’t last long, falling at short intervals
of some really good bowling from Ganesh, Rajeesh and Shailaj, most of them being
“clean bowled”. Due to absence of our regular wicketkeepers, yours truly was
asked to do the honors of keeping wickets, something not done for 16 years since
the club was formed! With fading light, the Engineers wrapped up the Predators
innings for 110 runs (33 of which came from extras!) with a victory margin of
200 runs paving the way for an excellent start to the KCL tournament.
Overall it was a good team work from the Engineers in all
departments of the game with good batting, luck, bowling and being able to take
over 95% of the catches whereas the opponents surprisingly appeared weak in all
departments! Hopefully we can maintain such a momentum for the upcoming games.
Brief scores:
IECC 310/4. Yogesh 65, Raju 169*, Saijash 2/16
Predators 110(26.4 ov). Anurag 3/24.
Click here for the full score card. |
Engineers roar against Tigers
Tigers almost mauled Engineers
By Rahul Tiwari
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The game was a last minute arrangement and Tigers had a very good chance to avenge their defeat they suffered the repvious week in a D/N match. But their batting done
them in but the Engineers did provide a glimmer of hope, but just.
The game got off to a delayed start under gloomy skies. The Engineers started on the back-foot as they were 1 player short, were wihtout some key players and then went
on to lose the toss as well. Tigers had no hesitation in batting first. Despite taking the field with just 10 players the Engineers opening bowlers, Rajeesh and new comer
Shailaj, put up a fine show. They bowled an immaculate line and length and did not allow the Tigers opening pair of Anil and Rajeev to get away. Even singles were
restricted as the Tigers scored just 18 runs in the first 7 overs. With no option left but to take risks, Rajeev and Anil started taking risky singles. Rajeev beat a
direct throw from Ganesh, but was not that lucky the second time as another accurate throw from Ganesh found him short. Mithun survived a very close run-out shout before
even having faced a ball, but did not last long as he holed out to long off, of his first delivery. Rajesh held on to a well judged catch off Shailaj. Every batsman found
the going tough as Raju and Saijesh continued their tight line. Anil tried to up the ante and hit a couple of balls to the boundary but was did not last long and fell
with the score on 45. Saijesh and Ganesh scalped 3 wickets each as the Tigers were bowled out for 89 of which 23 were wides which could have proved crucial in this low
scoring affair.
With the asking rate at exactly 3 runs per over IECC opened with Santosh and Rahul. Rajeev operating from round the stumps, scalped Santosh caught at slip with the
one that went across in the second over of the innings. Atul came out and hit a few lusty blows to keep the score ticking. Rajeev once again cut short his innings with
a caught and bowled. Javed joined Rahul in the middle and kept scoring aggressively. He was trapped in front trying to play across the line to a straight one. Rahul fell
trying to hoick one over long on. Raju and Sanjeeb were cleaned up by balls that kept low and suddenly a game which should have been an easy chase for the batting side
was on the line. 26 runs were needed with 4 wickets in hand. Saijesh batted beautifully under pressure and hit a couple of boundaries to take the Engineers close. With
just 4 needed he was trapped infront. To their credit, Tigers kept up the pressure right through the innings and there were some close shouts against Saijesh and Shailaj.
Shailaj sealed the game in the 24th over to take the Engineers home.
It was a game which should have been won comfortably by the Engineers but were made to sweat by the Tigers. With the KCL starting next week, Engineers have a lot of
improvement to do if they are to advance in that tournament.
Brief scores:
ITCC 89/10 in 26 overs Anil (38), Ganesh (3/10),Saijesh (3/13)
IECC 93/8 in 24 overs Saijesh(18), Atul(15), Rajeev(2/35)
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Engineers start new season taming the Tigers
Day/Night match at Koga, Ibaraki Pref.
By Sidde Raju
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As this is the first match happening under lights, Engineers reached the new
Koga ground at 3:00PM with strong winds still blowing from the previous night.
The stadium ground looked excellent, full of grass except for the corner for the
baseball pitching, had a gallery that can accommodate around 100 spectators, a
dressing room each for both teams, flood lights available for nominal fees,
which the Engineers made use of, having the match played from 3pm to 9pm.
The Tigers arrived after prowling the city at 4:00PM, and quickly found the
incompatibility between the mat and the ground soil. After some brainstorming
sessions, our curator Dinesh took the lead in installing the pitch on new
ground. Coin has been tossed after a delay of an hour, the Tiger's leader called
the wrong side of the coin, which leads to engineer’s openers to walk towards
the pitch with bat. Cool headed Masood opened the innings with veteran opener
Santosh. Things went good until Masood got out. Dinesh walked in as a
replacement, and the Engineer’s camp looked comfortable as the last years
leading run scorer took the charge of rolling the score card. But soon he
returned after an LBW decision. On the other side, Santosh keep ticking the
score. The new man Kushal looked pretty comfortable, but soon got run out. Raju
walked in as a replacement to him. By this time the score looked 56/5, a
situation the Engineers are quite familiar with. The young blood and the new
vice captain, Anurag Singh, walked in style, as the back ground voices echoed as
"GUYS DON'T LET THE LAST YEAR'S KCL STITATION REPAT AGAIN". They kept up their
word, after a partnership of 30 runs Raju fell to an unintended yorker. By this
time Anurag gave full thrust to the score card. The captain Sanjeeb joined him
and made some valuable runs before returning back after a caught and bowled
chance. Bikash replaced him in order to give some strong support to Anurag, as
he is one of the stake holder in high score partnerships. This time the
partnership didn't go good. After few runs contribution, Anurag fell in the
process of accelerating the score as the innings reaching the final phase.
Engineers scored 133 runs in 24 overs in very unplayable conditions.
Knowing very well that any score above 120 will be difficult for the Tigers to
chase Engineers took to field after a few minutes break in order to hunt down
the 134 in 27 overs. Though the figures looks achievable, the path towards that
looks not that easy at the end. The valuable weapon in our arsenal, with a
perfect text book bowling action (Rajeesh) started the bowling attack, the very
first one went like a rocket juts like on Koiwa pitch, which we haven't seen in
our day's play until then. According to strategy, along with our veteran seam
bowler Biju the pair has to put the Tigers on back foot. Biju got the break
through when he had Tigers opener Anil caught in front of the wicket in the 2nd
over. A lots of convincing shouts turned out against Rajeesh though. After
encouraging new talented players with the bowl, the captain thought its time to
bring in Anurag. The real down fall started when the ball came in to the hands
of Dinesh. He cleaned up the Tiger’s middle order taking 4 wickets in 4 overs,
one in each over. After Dinesh and Raju restricted the Tigers from scoring in a
long stretch of 12 overs, the asking rate was too much for the Tigers and they
folded up soon with Rajeesh, Anurag and Kushal cleaning up the rest of the list
and recorded the first win of this season just before the lights gone off at
21:00hrs.
Key Points:
1. Ground is great. Playing cricket under lights is amazing, thanks to all stake
holders in this initiation. A flicx pitch may make it more interesting.
Return driving to Tokyo took just one hour.
2. Though the playing conditions in the first half are unplayable, the batsmen
managed to score 133. Anurag and Santhosh contributions were impressive.
3. Bowling department: bowlers did good job in restricting the tigers.
4. Ground fielding is good, but we managed to miss few catches which my go
costly in other situations. [As we all know this is a well known and well
repeated statement :)]
Brief scores:
IECC 133 (24 overs). S Ghadge 19
I Tigers: 104 (27 overs). D Singh 4/18
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