Season 2, Game 5 – Tough Match.

Number 3 vs Nava Durga CC.
Loyola ‘B’, 25 June 2006.

#3 142 for 8 (Sriram 43, Jubbs 40) lost to Nava Durga CC 143 for 6 (Joy 3 wk, Sriram 2 wk) by 4 wickets.

We’re really getting better. Really. This couldn’t have been better demonstrated than in this game, the fifth of our second season. With most of the games we’ve played until now (with the notable exception of the lawyers), the script would actually become pretty obvious to us by about the fifth over of the match. We’d very quickly know how we measured up against the opposition, and would also know whether we’d win or lose, and even by roughly what sort of a margin. And, allowing for a few twists along the way, we’d inevitably be right. Not any more. After this, we know we’re always in with a chance.

Another feature of this one was the welcome return to fitness and action of Tayne. Ya, he’d played a game in Kodi, but the whole atmosphere and weather conditions there were so favourable, that it wasn’t really the harshest of tests. This was the real thing, blazing heat and all. And he came through it with flying colours. Some bowling in the nets, and a valuable all round player is back in action. The unavailability of Bulavar meant a return to keeping duties for me as well.

Won the toss again, which is getting to be very pleasant thing, especially as batting first is by far the better option in this league. As it is in most forms of the game, runs on the board and all that jazz. No Bulavar, no Anand, no Venkat. So no opener, and a slightly weakened batting order. Sriram decided to keep himself in the middle order and went back to one of our original opening options, Jubbs, along with Ramesh. This proved to be an inspired decision, as he gabbed his opportunity with both hands. Late arrivals meant that the opposition took the field with just seven players for the first few overs, but we were unable to capitalize, as their opening bowlers confirmed our initial impression that this was an experienced and capable team. They kept it on a very steady line, and occasionally got surprising lift off a length. The score had crawled along to about 10 runs in six overs, and the lack of scoring had gotten the better of Ramesh who played on, and things were looking pretty bleak as Narahoo went in. As usual, this was the cue for the turnaround, with around 25 coming off two overs. With Jubbs providing solid support, they moved the score along from two an over to five an over by drinks. Sriram tried to really turn it on after drinks, but was bowled for 43 just as he was getting down to it. Kishore walked in and played his mandatory Azhar-esque flick for four, and any fears of a slow down were banished by iii who slammed three successive fours in a subsequent over. By the time he was bowled, for an excellent 40, he was so tired he could hardly stand and spent a little time wandering around in a disoriented circle near the square leg umpire while the opposition waited patiently for him to take strike. Late runs by Rajesh and Joy took us to a competitive 142 for 8 in the 25 overs bowled.

The opposition seemed pretty cocky at the break, giving the impression that batting was their strong suit. They were talking amidst themselves that they’d walk it, with one guy in particular assuming the role of the senior batsman. We walked out determined to make them at least fight for it.

Vik’s opening spell was tight and in his second over, he induced an edge that I safely pouched behind the stumps. A great start! And Sriram, who opened with his off spinners again picked up the main man in the opposition, who was looking ominously relaxed, getting one to rip back into middle stump. The next guy played a few shots too, but succumbed to Sriram’s straighter one, trapped pretty plumb in front. Unfortunately, Vik was cramping up badly and his fourth over went for plenty. Joy immediately came on from his end, picked up the opener with a nasty lifter that looped to Tayne at gully, and Sriram continued wheeling away at the other end. The score was mounting, but the wickets were tumbling too. If not for too many misfields, which were heavily punished by the very rapid outfield, we’d have restricted them even further. A couple of dropped chances didn’t help the skipper’s blood pressure either. At drinks, we felt we were still in it, if only we could pick up a couple more quickly.

I flubbed a run out opportunity to end what ultimately proved a vital fifth wicket partnership, and they raced closer to the target. Suddenly, Joy pulled it back, breaking the partnership and then shattering the next man’s stumps with a superb inswinger. We were right back in it. But in the end the misfields and chances proved costly, as we just didn’t have enough runs to afford the mistakes. Even the skipper put one down towards the close, ending the day on a note of what might have been, as they gratefully scampered the winning runs. We left the field with heads held high, having given a very good team a real run for the money. The diasappointment at not pulling off the win only served as notice of how far we’ve come as a team. Rock on, #3.

#3 was supported at the ground, for the first time in its history, by absolutely no one. Pity, all you guys. You missed a great game.

In season2, Game 5, #3 was: Narahoo (c), Kataan, Joy, Hui, Druck (wk), Jubbs, Kishore, Vik, Tony, Lex and Narendra.

Season 2, Game 4 – Gotta love it.

Number 3 vs Philips CC.
Loyola ‘A’, 17 June 2006.

#3 143 for 7 (Kataan 28, Sriram 24, Bulavar 23) beat Philips CC 67 all out (Vik 5 wk, Sriram 4 wk) by 76 runs.

Remember Game 1 of the second season? Well, if you do, I might as well save myself the trouble of writing this report. Following what was an almost identical script, #3 brushed off the rustiness and turned in a tight, relentless performance that led to our second win in four games this season. At the midpoint, (this season consisting of only eight games) and a 50% record. Way to go.

Number 16 proved the unlucky one for Kishore, as he missed his first game since the inception of No.3, making way for the return of Narendra. At least we had some continuity in terms of the overall appearance of the team ;-)

At he ground, it all started with the rarest of rare occurrences, winning the toss and batting first. Continuing the desperate experiments, Bulavar went out for the toss, proving the lucky charm this time. He’ll have to do it several more times before we’re convinced, though, such are the scars. Having won the toss, he padded up to open with Anand and again, one of the opening bowlers marked out a really long run up. Perhaps another quick of the level we’d faced in the last game? Within three balls, he had demonstrated that the most serious implication of his long run up was how tired he was going to get, serving up four wides in his first over, and being easily picked off for runs whenever he did manage to get it on target. The other bowler wasn’t much better, and the batsmen back in the hut were licking their lips and queuing up to have a go. Anand sadly was so excited by what was on offer that he played across the line too early and was bowled, but Sriram wasn’t about to let this one go by. He continued his superb form from the last match and was soon stroking it silkily all over the park, adding some powerful blows to the mix every now and then. He raced along to the mid twenties, before succumbing to a poor stroke, edging one behind. We now had a platform on which Ramesh and Bulavar could build and build they did, Ramesh with increasing rhythm and Bulavar grinding it out.

By drinks, it was obvious that we weren’t going to receive the full 30 overs and so the instruction was that with wickets in hand, we needed to push it along. Bulavar went first, for a rather scratchy but valuable 23 and Venkat and Ramesh also fell trying to push the scoring along. Narendra Joy and I ensured that the momentum was not lost wirth some hard running (we even stole a bye to the keeper off the last ball, what fun) and we finished at 143 for 7 off 27 overs.

It was in the field, though, that the party truly began. Vik bowled the first over as usual, and induced an edge that Bulavar unfortunately put down. And Sriram bowled himself at the other end, opening with off spin a la Dipak Patel all those years ago. Again, a missed stumping by Bulavar, and we were a little tense as a couple of boundaries flew off the openers’ bats. But that was about all the opposition were going to get their way. Vik bowled unchanged for eight overs and Sriram for seven. And it was good stuff too. Vik bent the ball both ways and dropped it on a dime pretty much at will on his way to a five wicket haul, including two wickets off successive balls, leading to two slips, a gully and a point for the hat trick ball. By the end, he was bowling with only one fielder in front of the wicket, a mid off, like the famous West Indians of yore. Stirring stuff.

Sriram proved to have the Midas touch today, as bowler and captain. He matched Vik over for over and wicket for wicket. Bowling with a nice loop and sharp turn even with the new ball, he tied the batsmen in knots. Bulavar made amends with one sharp catch and a stumping, a field change produced a catch at the very spot two balls later and I even held my first catch at slip, confirming that nothing could possibly go wrong today. At the end of the 15 over opening spell, we had them 49 for 9. Perhaps the best indication of our total dominance was the fact that the second half of our new ball attack, Joy, bowled his first delivery in over no.19. And that first delivery was all he needed, searing one in at yorker length to pick up an lbw and wrap the match up at 67 all out. Gotta love these corporate teams. And with a beach house party planned for the Sunday, life just couldn’t be better.

P.S.- Continuing with this new sporting Avatar of bikang, the beach house party was highly football dominated.. Pl check out the pics on the bikang blog. Who are these guys?

#3 was supported at the ground by the sudden appearance of Bawb, providing company, commentary and assistance in scoring.

In season2, Game 3, #3 was: Anand, Bulavar (wk), Narahoo (c), Joy, Hui, Druck, Jubbs, Venkat, Vik, Lex and Narendra.

For posterity - and bragging rights

Ladies and gents,

We the good folk at the BCCB have begun to compile the batting, bowling and fielding stats for #3 games, beginning with season 2. We're using a tool called google spreadsheets to share this with the world.

If you cast your eyes to the top of the sidebar on the right of this blog, you will notice a new link there called player statistics. Clicking on this will take you to a google accounts login page (any email will do to create a login but if you already have a gmail account you can just use that). You should then be directed to the spreadsheet, which has separate tabs for batting and bowling/fielding stats.

You may however need an invite from me to view it (I'm still figuring this out). If it says so, pl tell me the e-mail id you've used to create your google account by way of comment to this post, and i'll send it right along.

If there's a simpler way to do this, I'm listening. The stats will be updated after each match report. Right now, the stats are actually one game ahead, beacuse the report for Game 4 isn't up yet, but i should sort that out by tomorrow.

bees.

Season 2, Game 3 – A Jolly but Disappointing Encounter

Number 3 vs Agasha Group.
Loyola ‘B’, 11 June 2006.

Agasha Group 219 for 7 (Hui 3 wk, Joy 2 wk) beat #3 158 for 8 (Joy 36*, Jubbs 32*, Sriram 25) by 61 runs.

Yet another build up marked by selection problems, but this time at the opposite (and worse) end of the scale. From problems of plenty to acute player shortage in the matter of two weeks, with reasons of work, travel and illness rendering Kataan, Narendra, Tony, Lex, Beer and even Arjun unavailable. So this game saw the addition of yet another player to the #3 fold, Sriram’s pal Mohan, a chap who has quite some cricketing experience behind him. Even so, only ten players assembled at Loyola by the appointed time, with Hui assuring us he’d make it as soon as he could.

Our best strategy obviously would be to win the toss and bat first, giving Hui two further hours to get there. Since we don’t win tosses as a matter of policy, however, that was out of the question, and we started the game taking the field with a man short. And continued from the last game in displaying rustiness in the field. Several wides in the first few overs from Vik and Mohan saw the score rattle along, and the openers were also demonstrating that they rather knew what they were doing. A steady flow of boundaries soon spread the field, and the fielding standards dropped. Even the normally reliable Jubbs put one down in the deep, and Vik rearranging one of the openers’ stumps was a welcome relief. The wides had stopped, but by this time, the ground fielding had touched some abysmal lows, enabling the one drop to just tip and run, feeding the strike to the remaining opener who smoothly progressed to a fifty. We went into to drinks having taken only the one wicket, and Sriram let us have it about the fielding. Almost everyone had messed up simple stops, with many of the balls going for boundaries. We had easily conceded over 30 runs more than we should have, and in 15 overs, that’s a lot of runs. Joy was bowling a tidy spell from one end, and he continued after the drinks break, and ended up bowling his 8 overs on the trot. Mohan took one sharp diving catch off Joy’s bowling after drinks, but runs flowed from the other end, Kishore having been expensive, and Sriram too unable to check the run flow though he did manage to dismiss the opener. Hui had arrived by now, and he was given another decently long spell after the last game. The opposing batsmen seemed determined to give Jubbs some catching practice, consistently picking him out with aerial heaves. He obliged by catching three and Hui turned in his best match haul for #3. But the runs flowed and we were left staring at 219 for 7 in 30 overs. The opposing team proved to be a jolly bunch though, not averse to having a word and a laugh and in particular keeping a steady stream of snide comments going at one of their own batsmen, every time he played a ball.

Anand and Bulavar opened, but our usually reliable opening pair didn’t fire this time, and Venkat was in early. He was displaying some nice form on the speedy Loyola outfield, and when Sriram joined him at the fall of Bulavar’s wicket, we were treated to some quality batting. The opposition’s response was to bring on a new bowler, a chap named Madan, who marked out a run up that was significantly longer than his predecessor’s. Sriram, who was on strike, watched as the keeper took several steps backward, and face up to some genuinely quick, accurate and hostile bowling. He lapped it up, and produced some rasping strokes square of the wicket on the off side, threading the needle even when they placed three men in a ring square on the off. Shades of Ganguly, all economy of movement and pure timing. The bowler responded with typical fast bowler’s aggression and we were being treated to quite a contest. In his third over, Madan produced the best delivery that’s been bowled at #3 in it’s short history and unfortunately it was to Sriram, and cut short an innings of immense potential. It reared up off a perfect length at tremendous pace and flicked the glove on it’s way to the keeper. Too good. We later learned that this young turk bowls for a first division team, and could certainly believe it.

Venkat’s rather promising innings ended in an lbw decision, and Madan then tore one past Kishore’s defences and the game seemed up. I survived a couple of his further overs, even taking a four off him and then wasted all that by getting out to a really dibbly dobbly spinner whose delivery took so long to reach me that I went through about four options in my mind before settling on a ridiculous swipe across the line. A terrible dismissal. But it did bring Jubbs and Joy together for a superb partnership. They started by smashing the spinners who were on at the time, and then handled everything the opposition threw at them, even a second spell from the fiery Madan. Jubbs even shimmied down the track and made to pull, but sadly didn’t connect well. They rained boundaries and even sixes, and though the target was well out of reach, remained unbeaten having taken the score to a very respectable 158 for 8 off 30 overs. Or maybe 32 or 33. By our count, more than a couple of extra overs were bowled, but no one was complaining. We were having a lot of fun watching and yelling at Jubbs to ground his bat.

The post match handshakes were full of joking and banter and bonding between the teams and we were all in a good mood. But somewhere, the nagging feeling that we were under performing, and mounting irritation at the lack of practice is certainly building up. We need a win, having gotten a taste of it a couple of times.

#3 was supported at the ground by Lodd, who left early, and the Wretch, who came late and really didn’t enjoy the sound of pigs being slaughtered. I tell you, the hazards fans have to face these days…Lex was there too, and drew inspiration from Madan to bowl faster in his next game.

In season2, Game 3, #3 was: Anand, Bulavar (wk), Narahoo (c), Kishore, Joy, Hui, Druck, Jubbs, Venkat, Vik and Mohan.

Day 1

Distance: 51 miles (81 km)
Time: 4 1/2 hours
Top speed: 43 mph (68.8 kmph)
Punctures: 1
Beers: 1 1/2
Rum and coke: 3
Death: complete

Season 2, Game 2 – Seaside Rendezvous

Number 3 vs Young Stars CC.
Marina ground, 28 May 2006.

Young Stars CC 167 for 9 (Ramesh 3 wk, Hui 2 wk, Narendra 2 wk) beat #3 134 all out (Druck 31, Bulavar 24, Anand 20) by 33 runs.

With a game so soon after our return from Kodi, there was bound to be a tour hangover. I’m not referring to us, but to the weather and surroundings. An afternoon game in Chennai in May is a scary prospect, but this one was played out in almost English conditions. Cloudy skies, a stiff breeze, end even a steady drizzle coming down at one point. A touch of the Caribbean was provided too, by the proximity of the sea, as the ground was just across the road from Marina beach.

We thought we were going to be playing Burma Bazaar CC, and were more than thrilled at the prospect, but the organizer let us down in the end, foisting a team called Young Stars upon us, who upon examination proved to be neither young, nor stars of any kind. Their captain, in particular, was a notably joyless individual, who was easily the surliest opponent we’ve faced in the league.

Another lost toss, and we were in the field as usual. Vik’s unavailability for this game saw Joy and Lex take the new ball, but the lack of nets and the hectic schedule began to tell in this game, I think. Quite a few wides, some misfields, and one boundary ball per over were frustrating the captain no end. Dropped catches saw the openers get a couple of reprieves, including two by me at slip and then Joy picked up one early wicket. The one drop batsman and the other opener then began to take advantage of our generosity in earnest. The one drop in particular looked good, and was turning it on, and by the drinks break things were looking pretty bleak. Narendra and Ramesh had taken over by now, and after Narendra turned in a good-in-parts kind of spell, picking up a wicket but being a bit wayward, he was replaced by Hornie. This was the point that things started to happen for us, Ramesh wheeling away at one end as usual and Hui bowling his longest spell for #3. Two run outs sparked things off, and Hui picked up two and could have had several more. But extras and boundary balls saw to it that even though we picked up wickets, the run rate didn’t fall critically, and we were chasing 167 for 9 in 27 overs. Desperate efforts to take the last wicket so that we’d have the full 30 to play proved fruitless. Still, the mood at the break was that we had a chance.

The opening pair of Anand and Bulavar was reunited, and started off quite well, with Anand in particular looking quite good. The score was moving along quite rapidly, well in touch with the asking rate. But as the bowlers slowed things down, and a steady drizzle started to fall, they started to get bogged down. The frustration built up, and told on Anand who was dismissed trying to pick things up. Sriram and Kataan didn’t fare much better, and both of them as well as Bulavar were dismissed, Bulavar to an lbw decision he didn’t particularly appreciate, but he did play across the line. All the major batsmen gone, and the asking rate well out of reach.

Hopes of victory had now receded, but Jubbs and I put a bit of a partnership together, and suddenly there was Sriram coming on to the field, telling us we needed 60 off 6 overs, and there was an outside chance. Sadly, wickets tumbled in the attempted slog/chase and I was last man out for 31, having only managed to get us in touch, but still over 30 runs away. A disappointing performance, really, and one that reminded us of how big a part nets had played in the rise of #3.

#3 was supported at the ground by the Lodd, dutifully clad in team T-Shirt, and a few clueless golts.

In season2, Game 2, #3 was: Anand, Ramesh, Bulavar (wk), Druck, Narahoo (c), Kishore, Joy, Narendra, Hui, Lex and iiii.

#3's tour of Kodai - The last day

The mandatory seven roads trip was carried out on the final day, the monday. Weekend over, the streets were safe again and we took full advantage of it with a leisurely walk up the slope and into town. We discussed various options of what we wanted to do, but the choice was no problem. There is a bar, on the road leading up from Taj Villa, we learned, and we set course for it straightaway. Quite a pleasant place, with an assamese bartender and a monitor lizard on the wall (only the lizard on the wall, not the bartender). Sank a few beers and went back to Tibetan Bros. for lunch, did our shopping (chocolates for the most part) and it was back to the lodge to pack for the trip down.The brotherhood of fruit buyers (Lex, self and hui) was initiated

How unlike normalcy the whole trip was (the fact that it happened at all, i mean) was perfectly illustrated on the drive down, as we asked the van driver to play whatever music he had. He played a live album of The Grateful Dead. So with Jerry Garcia for company, we drove down the hill, unleashed the fruit brigade on the town of Oothu, and reached Kodai road well in time. A fond goodbye to Sundar Anna, as we comfirmed with him that he would come down to Chennai and play one game for #3 this season. Watch out for that one, folks.

With no politician's funeral happening, we got our berths etc. with no trouble at all, and had a peaceful ride home. One clap for the whole damn thing. And let us leave the last word to Hui, who on seeing self standing with guitar, luggage and a small cloth bag said : "Look. A rock star, returning home with his fruits."

More Kodi Photos

More photos - from Jake this time. Very key.

click here.

requires you to register, sign in etc, but worth the blade.