Washington Cricket Club

Scorecard

Chantilly v Washington Cricket Club WCC-WMCB on Sun 15 Jul 2012 at 10:00 AM
Washington Cricket Club Lost Based on NRR

Match report Washington slide to 4th in the overall standings with a NRR based loss to Chantilly.

Armed with an almost full strength side, Washington were hopeful and confident of getting past rivals and co-finalists from last year's title fight, Chantilly on a muggy Sunday. Palash lost the toss and we were asked to field. Sameer and Anil opened the bowling and gave nothing away for the first 8 overs, bowling consistent line and length and beating the openers often. 16 runs after 8. Jereesh and Rajesh took over and after 10, the score was 30/0. Either side was decently satisfied with the start.

Resuming after the first water break, their openers upped the scoring rate, in particular Sandeep. Batting aggressively, he hit the ball over the infield many a time. Spin was introduced in the form of Ankit and Viraal, who didn't bowl badly, but weren't at the top of their game either, which they are usually. Credit also to the batsmen who played good cricket, not giving any chances bar one for the first 20 overs. A sharp low offering to Viral at covers off Ankit being the only chance offered in all of 20 overs, which was not taken. At the second break, Chantilly still had all wickets in the bank with the score at 105. 70 odd runs between 10 and 20.

Taran, the bowler of the day for us, was introduced in the 21st over. He struck off his very first ball, the batsman Dharma lofting it to long off for Anil to hold on to a good catch. The partnership was broken and it was to be seen how we would curtail the middle order. Off his next over, he had their No.3 bowled off a beauty right after a missed stumping chance the previous delivery. Ashwin walked in at No. 4 only to return quickly due to good cricketing strategy and execution. The leg side was kept open inviting him to go against the turn. He did precisely that, uncharacteristically, to a perfectly pitched leg break, spooning a simple one to Viraal at short third. 3 wickets had fallen in quick succession, all to Taran, and we were back in it.
Meanwhile, Sandeep the opener kept hitting boundaries and sixes, and going for one too many, lofted Ankit wide off long on.
The ball seemed heading to the boundary with a 20 meter distance between it and the lone fielder in the vicinity, Palash. He made the ground, stretched, popped it up and caught it to complete probably the best catch of the tournament for Washington.
The batsman walked back to the hut only to find out he was on 98. The catch seemed even better now.

Their next two batsmen continued attacking and scored quickly, barely offering any chances, except a simple catch behind the wicket off Anil's bowling, which was not taken. the other batsman was bowled neck and crop by Anil's yorker. Still, at 30, we had again given away 75 runs. The last 10 didn't prove to be different either, again 70-75 runs given and Viraal took the only other
wicket to fall. So 254 it was, the highest we had conceded in a long time off 40 overs. It was a tough day for the bowlers. The batting was really good from the opposition, we didn't create many chances and our fielding was quite average after a good start in the first 10 overs. It kind of fell away overall. It is uncharacteristic for us and it has happened twice in two games, so there is something we can infinitely improve upon.

So 255 to get. It was a challenge for us and most everyone were confident of chasing it down and there was no reason not to believe so.

It was the 4th different opening combination for us in the last 4 games. This time, Sameer and Palash opened. Palash, looking confident, got a good one, moving away late. It found his edge and we had an early setback. Sameer batted fluently, the best he has looked in this season thus far, hitting boundaries and rotating strike with ease. Raj joined him and they carried us without
worry till the first break. 53/1 after 10.

We had gotten a good start and it was a matter of a couple of good partnerships. Raj played sensibly. Understanding that Sameer was in fine touch, he picked singles without wasting balls and gave the strike to his well set partner. More of this was what was needed to chase it down. It comes down to a matter of minimizing your bad shot selections as a batsman. Sameer played just one bad shot, shuffling across the stumps to pull an Ashwin ball, missed it and was given LBW. Soon after, Raj got a beauty. He played for the spin but the ball came in with the arm and disturbed his stumps. We had lost 2 good batsmen quickly. Viraal, going in at No. 4 got himself set within no time. Twice when the ball was pitched in his zone by Ashwin, he sent them into orbit. Particularly one of them went as far as I've seen them go in that area of the boundary at Mark Twain. He was looking good for more but unfortunately,
he got carried away and went for one too many. Missing a ball on the leg stump by shuffling across to sweep, he was bowled as well.
A premature end to an innings that promised a lot more. At 20, we were a 100 odd for 4. Well in the game.

Rajesh, playing his debut game for Washington, played just the right kind of innings for a chase of this magnitude. He got himself set, picking singles and keeping the good balls at bay, before going for his shots, most of which were well selected. He drove through the offside crisply, putting pressure on the bowlers consistently. At this stage, we needed 150 off 20. Just over 7 an over. Not easy, but very doable, particularly with Rajesh upping the ante. He needed an ally on the other end, who would not only rotate the strike consistently,
but also make some of the scoring thereby lessening the pressure on him to score off every ball. Unfortunately, that did not happen as Ravi struggled on the day to do either. He stayed at the crease and steadied it in the beginning but later could not up the ante.

The break was taken at 29 overs due to a miscalculation and we needed 91 off 11 to win, with 6 wickets in hand. Tough but still doable.

Post the final break, things did not go well for us. The pressure to score quickly told on the remaining batsmen, which was very understandable. Since we did not score enough between 20 and 30, we were left with a lot to do in the last 10. Though achievable, everything needed to go our way then on and we had to keep hitting consistently. Rajesh got out trying to score quickly and then Ravi got bowled soon after. Taran and Rahul had no option but to go for it immediately and they both perished in that attempt. Jereesh hit a mighty six that almost rivaled Viraal's in magnitude. At 196/8,with 67 needed off 6, lightning struck. I mean literally and figuratively.
The game was stopped and restarted in about 10 minutes. It struck once more and the game was called off for good. Chantilly were ahead
on run rate and they won based on that.

Last game, we were ahead on run rate but inspite of atleast 5 lightning sightings, the game was allowed to carry on. We lost.
This time, we were behind and the game was stopped. Such it goes.

With 2 losses in 2 games, we have come back to the pack. We haven't lost badly but we need to up our games in all departments to get back our
winning mojo. But that is the fun part of it this season for us. We will have to fight for it and I have no doubt we will.


Top 3 bowlers:
Taran - 3/39
Anil - 1/26
Ankit - 1/40


Top 3 batsmen:
Rajesh - 58
Sameer - 30
Viraal - 29

Chantilly Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
20w 4lb 
for 6 wickets
24
254 (40.0 overs)		     
Sandeep ct  Palash (B) Ankit 98
Dharma ct  Anil (B) Taran 27
Sumanth b  Taran 5
Ashwin ct  Viral (B) Taran 1
Pradeep b  Viral 42
Balaji b  Anil 22
Vijay Not Out  27
Amaresh Not Out  8
Ravi  
Ramana  
Roshan  

Washington Cricket Club WCC-WMCB Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Sameer Apte8.005100.006.38
Anil Kumar7.0026126.003.71
Jereesh Jose4.002400.006.00
Rajesh Raghunathan2.002500.0012.50
Ankit Aggarwal5.0040140.008.00
Viral Patel8.0045145.005.63
Taran Dhupar6.0039313.006.50

Washington Cricket Club WCC-WMCB Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
1nb 19w 4lb 
for 8 wickets
24
196		        
Sameer Apte lbw  Ashwin 30
Palash Sarkar ct  Vijay (B) Ramana 4 1
Raj Srinivasan b  Ashwin 11
Viral Patel b  Ashwin 29 1
Rajesh Raghunathan ct  Ravi (B) Roshan 58
Ravi Vellore b  Dharma 10
Rahul Bourothu ct  Roshan (B) Dharma 1
Jereesh Jose Not Out  11
Taran Dhupar ct  Pradeep (B) Roshan 5
Anil Kumar Not Out  0
Ankit Aggarwal  

Chantilly Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Ramana5.0026126.005.20
Dharma8.0047223.505.88
Ashwin6.002839.334.67
Balaji6.003600.006.00
Amaresh5.004100.008.20
Roshan5.001628.003.20