Omaha Cricket Association

Match: Season Starter
Date: 04/20/08
Time: 9:00 pm

Report:

Hello everyone! 2008 Cricket season is here!! The weather was on the chilly side to start off, with dew on the grass and a soggy ground. There were a lot of new arrivals to the club and everyone was in a cheery mood.

After introductions, the two captains, Damien and Nirmal chose their teams. It was supposed to be a 25 overs per side match. Damien won the toss and decided to bowl. With J.J and Jatin in his side, he might have felt confident, but Nirmal had his own trump card – Bhaskar!

Abhi and Bhaskar opened the innings, Jatin opened the bowling and the season was officially underway. The first four overs were sedate. Abhi hit a couple of nice straight drives but was run out.

As the sun came out, the day warmed up and the blitzkrieg started. Bhaskar tore into the bowling, hitting sixes and fours. Even the trees fell down at it. By the 13th over he had reached his fifty. The next over, he was caught first ball off Swarit, launching a full toss to deep square leg.

This slowed down the score as Shankar and Bala, a pair of newcomers, steadied the innings. Bala had introduced himself as a hard hitter. We all saw why. Two towering sixes and a few fours later, the run rate was back up. In the end it was left to Nirmal and Francis to finish off the innings in grand style. Almost 40 runs were scored in the last two overs. Nirmal XI scored 197/8 in their allotted 25 overs.

A short break later, the second innings started. J.J. and Jatin opened the batting and Abhi got the ball. Nirmal’s bowling options were few, but he seemed to have a plan.

The plan wasn’t working thou as the pair cruised to almost 70 runs in 7 overs. Dropped catches and mis-fields didn’t help. Then Jatin got lazy and looped a catch to cover. A steady doze of wickets later, JJ was in danger of running out of partners. He managed to strike along and scored a well deserved fifty. Trying to open up the run rate he was caught by Bhaskar off Malki.

Malki, bowling his version of medium pace, was brilliant again in getting Ramki bowled. Next, Damien hit hard but was out to a sharp catch at short cover. This left Devkanth and Raj to try and get the innings back together. Raj was his usual self – anything on leg and he smashed it. Once he was out, bowled by Bhaskar, the match was back in balance.

With 30 needed of the last 4 overs, things were a little tense. Apurva and Devkanth were at the crease and Damien’s team was getting restless. They wanted to finish the game of quick and were hollering for sixes. The batsmen couldn’t find the boundary due to some tight bowling and the match was won by Nirmal XI by 12 runs.

It was a great start to the season and everyone involved had a great time. See you all at the next practice.


Teams:
Damien XI: Damien, Raj, J.J., Jatin, Swarit, Jai Ganesh, Muthu, Devkanth, Ramki, Wes, Apurva, Jayapradhaban

Nirmal XI: Nirmal, Bhaskar, Malki, Francis, Jegan, Shankar, Kumaraguru, Bala, Sridhar, Sudhir, Abhi, Muthu