The Roving Reporter

57 for 6 chasing 200 and well and truly staring down the barrell. In these times, you need to be a real optimist to open your eyes when you wake in the morning. And that is surely what Srikant and Vishy did...wake up on the correct side of the bed. Vishy was throughout his ebullient self, chatting in his inimitable heavily 'Gult' laden Hindi and Srikant was just being...well Srikant! Drought became a trickle which inturn became a flow that metamorphosed into a rapid culminating into a barrage. It rained in Oxon Hill, the usual downpour and also the tonks from Srikant and Vishy’s bats. It certainly was a resurrection of implausible measures from the ‘22 yarders’. The main strength of our team ruminating on the past couple of performances is the fact that we bat really down the line and of course not to mention the Never say Never spirit.

Faisel got lucky with the toss again and I presume didn’t have a doubt in his mind to put the opponents in. Fairwood Cricket Club were a motley bunch of cricket enthusiasts from The Windies, Pakistan, South Africa and India. From what I could make out from their team was they comprised of about 4-5 quality cricketers and the rest were just fillers. Nevertheless Faisel got us an early breakthrough and relaxed a few nerves on the field as well as in the stands. But I jumped the gun a wee bit early and before the 10^th over a burly guy named Sargent (if I wouldn’t have seen his name on the scoresheet I would have asked for his autograph for he looked and batted like Clive Lloyd to the hilt!) was hitting us to all parts of the ground. They managed to put in 2-3 solid partnerships throughout the innings without ever going full throttle. If it weren’t for some sensational overs in the death by Rehan and Vishy, we would’ve definitely been chasing something in the range of 220 plus. But in the end it turned out that we had to chase only 199 in 40 overs.

The mood in the dressing room (if I could call 4 planks of wood fused together by Iron bars as dressing room then it is ;-) was pretty relaxed with all of us believing that a target of 200 or the bowling attack wouldn’t send a shiver down our batsmen’s spine. How very wrong we were!!! We sputtered and spluttered all the way mustering hardly anything sizeable to even contemplate a fight. Our frontline batsmen just couldn’t cope with their guile nor the swing; result we were 57/6 even before they broke into a sweat. Enter a piece of lard by the name of Srikant to join Chinmay in the middle with a plethora of runs to score. I’ve already talked a bit about Srikant and Vishy but I really have to credit Chinmay with the upheaval efforts. His defence his rock solid and when you’ve got a sharp cricketing acumen and a fantastic temperament to go with it, you’ve found Gold! He stood well outside the crease to negate the movement and was pretty successful in keeping the rampage in check. Once he got out it was pure mayhem from the likes of Srikant and Vishy. The spinner was treated with disdain and the part-timers with scant respect. Srikant swept and Vishy smote the bowlers to parts of the ground (and trees) where it never did travel in the first innings. Of particular importance is a shot that Vishy hit off a medium pacer that traveled over point for a massive six!!

In the end Rehan’s street smart running and the ever present figure of Vishy saw us through albeit leaving us with wrenched guts. Even though we won the match guys, I wanted to share a few points to ponder before our next match. I couldn’t see any fire on the pitch; the players have to play with their hearts on their sleeve. If we instill that aspect into our game then it would do us a world of good. Also we constantly need to keep encouraging our batsmen in the middle. We have a tendency that if things don’t go our way, heads start dropping. Even though I wasn’t part of the team for this match I thoroughly enjoyed the entire match and left with a contented heart and a twinkle in my eye. I would like to end with a very relevant quote from Black Sabbath :

There's no need to have a reason
There's no need to wonder why
It's a part of me that tells you
Oh, don't you ever, don't ever say die
Never, never, never say die again

BRING ON VIRGINIA CRICKET CLUB!!!!!!!!

-Balls