Manivannan Gnanavelu 10 Aug 2002 (Scorecard)
Man of the
Match: Naren T
Best bowler: Krishna Prasad
Best Keeper: Zia Haque
Best Fielder: Madhu KV
|
Status: |
TrendSetters
13 |
NewWaves 14 |
NewWaves score 90/12 TrendSetters score 93/10
The unpredictable Texas weather was at it again. After last weekend’s scorcher, both captains had agreed to start the game at 6 am to beat the Texas heat. But when Saturday dawned it threw up perfect conditions for Cricket. An overcast sky with a cool breeze beckoned the two teams. The game did not start till 7 am due to some confusion about the venue. The FFCC grounds were too soft to play on and the teams moved on to the Old Shepard ground to play the 28 match of the season.
The New Waves Innings
New Waves captain Kudeep won the toss and promptly decided to bat first. This turned out to be a good toss to lose for the Trendsetters captain Kuljit, as one of his frontline bowler (Yatin) had to leave the game early. The New Waves started of with a new opening pair of Zia and Rajinder. Yatin and Chetan bowled beautifully using the conditions to perfection. Kuljit introduced Naren into the attack after just one over from Chetan, it immediately paid dividends. Naren got the break through with Ragu taking a well judged catch at point to dismiss Rajinder who played a swashbuckling innings and scored 8 runs. His strokes will not score points for elegance, but they were effective. In the next four overs New Waves lost 3 wickets with the ever-dependable “Mr. Foundation” Kishore was run out after an unfortunate mix-up with Zia. Yatin bowled his 6 overs on the trot and troubled all batsmen, he bowled a teasing line and was unlucky not to have got more the 2 wickets he had.
Though the Trendsetters bowlers were not bowling a good line (29 extras) they were troubling the New Waves batsmen. The bowlers were ably backed up a fired up group of fielders egging their bowlers on. The combination of electric fielding and nagging bowling piled up pressure on the New Waves batsmen, who tried to hit their way out and committed hara-kiri. Kuljit kept shuffling his bowlers and all his moves seemed to pay off. Zia played a lone hand and held one end up, top scoring with 34 valuable runs. The hold of the Trendsetters was such that Zia was the only batsman in double figures and 4 players got out without troubling the scorers and there were three run outs. Zia was the last man out caught brilliantly by Madhu of the bowling of KP. For the Trendsetters KP picked up four wickets, Naren 3, and Yatin 2. The New Waves innings was wrapped up for 90 runs from 20.2 overs.
The Trendsetters Innings
The talk during the innings break in the Trendsetter camp was full of optimism, Kuljit though cautioned his team against complacency. The Trendsetter innings started of disastrously with Shoban (who has been going through a bad patch), Mahesh, Satya and Kuljit getting out cheaply. The fired up New Waves smelt that they were within striking distance of victory. Kuljit has been having a torrid time with the bat, he played a rash shot and was once again bowled. Kishore, Uday and Sai toiled manfully, though they had to play with so few runs. The Trendsetters kept losing wickets at regular intervals. Kuldeep was switching his bowlers around frequently trying to bowl out the Trendsetters. The game was well set up at the half way stage with Trendsetters score reading 60 for the loss of 7 wickets. Both the teams had a realistic chance of winning the game from here on, it was clear that the team that kept its nerve would win this game.
This is where the New Waves captain felt the burden of not carrying more than four regular bowlers; it was really puzzling why Kuldeep or Zia never bowled an over. Dhananjay kept getting wickets at regular intervals but was erratic; he gave away 41 runs of his 5.5 overs. He did pick up 4 Trendsetter wickets. Praveen and Chetan were involved in a fruitful partnership that took the Trendsetters closer to victory. Praveen scored 19 runs with 3 fours punishing the loose balls. Chetan was playing cautiously nudging around and picking up singles. Praveen undid all his good work when he stepped out to Sai, and was smartly stumped by Zia. It did not make sense as it was Sai’s last over but Praveen had done a good job of getting the team closer to victory. Naren joined Chetan and both of them cut out any ambitious strokes and concentrated on staying at the wicket. Chetan was not going for his shots as he usually does and that spelt doom for him as he checked his shot to a rank bad ball from Dhananjay and was caught at mid wicket by debutant Srinivas Kolli. If Chetan had played his usual game, that ball would have been definitely ended up beyond the boundary. Naren deciding that the game was within range started playing his shots, he picked to attack Dhananjay and flayed him square of the wicket for a couple of braces and swung him to fine leg for a four to end the game.
The Trendsetters had finally won a game after a 3-week break and Captain Kuljit was a relieved man. Naren (16 not out with 2 fours) was adjudged the Man of the Match for his brilliant contribution with both the ball and the bat. Kuljit was full of praise for his bowlers, especially he was happy that the bowler he created KP has turned to be much more than what he had envisioned. He was quick to point out that there was too many extras being gifted to the opposition and the bowlers have to do a good job maintaining their line and length. Kuljit said that he already has some more changes planned for next game. When asked to be more specific, he smiled and responded that he did not want to tip his hand to his rival captain Kuldeep. Kuljit was once again questioned about his lack of form with the bat, Kuljit persisted that he was seeing the ball well and just that he is not making contact for right now and he was certain he is going to produce a magical knock pretty soon.
|
28th ODI: TrendSetters v NewWaves at FFCC August 10rd 2002 |
1st innings (NewWaves) 2nd innings (TrendSetters)Ov Score Ov Score
5 27/2 5 12/1
10 50/3 10 34/5
15 75/5 15 60/7
20 89/10 20 74/9
25 90/12 (Overs 20.2) 25 93/10 (Overs 23.5)
30 30
35 35
Hight lights
**********************************************************************************
**********************************************************************************
August 10, Year 2002: So far at FFCC 28 ODIs and 2 Test matches have been played
Newwaves have won 12 ODI and 2 Test Matches
TrendSetters have won 13 ODI and 0 Test Matches
3 ODI Matches have been abandoned due to rain.