GAME 5 - A Christmas gone sour

Number 3 vs Kotak Mahindra Bank
25 Dec, 2005, YMCA 'A', Nandanam
Kotak Mahindra won by 84 runs

The horror, the shame. An abysmal batting performance, shambolic running between the wickets, a spectacular collapse, the worst session of the season. As batsman after batsman walked back, we could scarcely believe what was unfolding before our eyes - a great chance to notch up our second victory was disappearing before anyone could say "Hui-yappa" (which Jubbs did, repeatedly, much to the amusement of the other team and the bemusement of ours.)

It could have all been so different. What a pity I titled the match report for game 3 “A game of two halves”. If any game merited that description, this was it.

With the yuletide spirit (and probably the remnants of several other spirits) running strong within #3, we lost the toss and were put in to field. And right from Ganesh's first "come oun, come oun" it was a blast. Loud chatter, and a searing first spell from Vik kept the mood right up there. 'Dizzy' Zeb shared the new ball and but for a surfeit of wides, turned in a decent spell. The runs weren’t coming, the batsmen’s frustration levels were mounting and things got heated up. A diving stop from Arjun on the boundary led to a long and unnecessarily protracted argument between their batsman and the umpire about whether the ball had crossed the line (the first of several, actually. All the ICC directives about dissent haven’t made in impact on the Blue Sky league, it would appear). As with any argument with an umpire at any level of cricket, there could only be one winner. The batsman duly played a frustrated swipe to be trapped plumb in front – dizzy picking up his first of the season. And so it continued. Sriram wheeled away at one end, picking up a six wicket haul including an unnecessarily juggled catch by iii for which he copped a memorable earful from the skipper. Tight spells from Tony and Ramesh backed up by an excellent fielding performance saw us dismissing them within the stipulated time, giving us the full thirty overs to bat. Vik completed an all round good day in the field by holding a tough high catch and then cleaning up the last man to leave them 122 all out, which would have been evenm less, barring the unforgivably large number of wides- again.

A chaseable target, we thought. We’d get there coasting at four an over, we thought. Job done, we thought. Never again. Lesson well and truly learned. Since you’re reading this, I’ll assume you’re a part of or a friend of #3, and mercifully keep it short.

Ganesh and Ramesh started out steadily enough, moving the score along to 18 in five overs of innocuous bowling. Then Ramesh played a cut shot a little too early and gently lobbed it to point. And that, so to speak, was that. That was all it took for the whole damn house of cards to come crashing down. In the blink of an eye, Ganesh and I were sent back to the pavilion in identical fashion – run out in the complete absence of calling, inexcusably bad cricket on all counts. Sriram walked in livid, and then the unthinkable happened. He completely lost sight of a straight one and was bowled. For a duck. I guess it had to happen sometime, and it only goes to prove that as a batting side we rely too heavily on too few. One more run out and less than fifteen minutes later we were shaking hands with a group of spectacularly happy bankers who had just received a totally unexpected Christmas present. A pathetic 38 all out, in less than fifteen overs.

Slowly picking ourselves up, we left the YMCA grounds – stunned, feeling lower than ever before as #3, and having been brutally made aware of the long road ahead. Halfway into the league, and a 1 – 4 record. Back to the trenches, boys. We’ve got a lot of hard work to do.

#3 was supported by silent cheers and messages from Lodd and the wretch, and very vocal input from the inimitable Sanjeev Singh. Thanks for being kind after the match

In game 5, #3 was: Ganesh (wk), Ramesh, Tony, Druck, Narahoo (c), Kishore, Hui-yappa, I, Ling, Arjun and Vik.