Season 3, Game 1 – Here we go again

Number 3 vs VistaSoft.
YMCA ‘A’, 1 October 2006.

VistaSoft 131 for 7 (Sriram 3 wk) lost to #3 132 for 5 (Indrabeer 21*, Mogee 20) by 5 wkts.

Ok, so on to Season 3 with all due speed. What will it bring? A rather different line up, for starters. Lex has moved to Bangalore, Vik’s got back issues, and Joy is also unavailable for the early part of the season at least. And Kishore, too was unavailable for this one. One positive was that Mohan, Sriram’s friend from a couple of earlier games had expressed his desire to be a part of #3 on a regular basis, and was even going to come for nets et al. A good scene, as was only reconfirmed by the events of this game. So Anand, Kabir and Mohan were all in, which in addition to Sriram, Kataan and Bulavar considerably raised the cricketing pedigree of the side, giving us a rather formidable batting line up.

The first game of the season was going to be at YMCA, a ground where our track record had been dismal but had also since become the home of our regular nets. So what was it going to be? To the complete surprise of absolutely no one, we lost the toss. The only plus of this was that Anand went out for it this time, and came back saying that now he well and truly knew that he was an integral part of #3, as he had completed his toss losing duties as well. That said, he took the new ball and settled into a nice spell, but for a few wides. Tony shared the new ball and things drifted along for a bit, before the first breakthrough came. The fielding had generally been tight, and a leg side wide from Anand (which he obviously later declared as intentional!!) was well fielded by Kabir and Tony in tandem. Tony whipped the ball in, and Bulavar caught one of the openers well short.

The second wicket partnership kept going for a while, without really getting away from us. But even though the rate was under control, we needed to pick up a second wicket as the remaining opener was setting himself for a long one. The wicket also came about by way of a run out, but it was a bowler who created it. Mogee (that’s Mohan to the uninitiated) had arrived late and was given the ball at first change and proceeded to work up such a pace that the one drop batsman was scrambling to get off strike. Venkat duly pounced on this uncertainty with a rifled throw to the keeper who completed the formalities. One further incident of note was when Ramesh came on to bowl…. He was on a hat trick, from the last game, remember? What’s more he even induced an edge of his first ball, but I couldn’t react fast enough at slip, denying him the hat trick. He didn’t really find his rhythm after that and by drinks we had only picked up the two wickets.

But directly after drinks, the final blow was delivered. The one guy who could really play, the opener, played one down to fine leg that he thought was four, and was just ambling to the other end. But it wasn’t a four, the ball was fielded and thrown to Bulavar who just rolled it in towards the non striker’s end , but amazingly caught him short of his ground. It was an extremely silly dismissal and we reined things back considerably after that, and they finished on 131 for 7 with Sriram picking up three.

A reasonable target to chase, as Anand and Bulavar went out to open. They started off ok, as the opposition bowling didn’t look too threatening and they fed us a steady supply of extras. But Bulavar soon played a poor shot and Anand too was dismissed by one that crept along the deck. A pity, he was really timing it nicely and looked good for a big one. Venkat also played a rather poor shot, and when Kataan too was out, things were just a little tense at 50 odd for 4. But Indrabeer was in by this time and played an innings that ought to serve as an example to many of us. He kept his cool, displayed excellent temperament, and casually milked the bowling for singles. He was joined by Mohan, who took the other route and smashed it about. One straight four off his bat was enough for Anand to sit back and pronounce the game won, even though there were still over fifty runs to get. He was proved right though, as Mohan smashed a couple more before getting out which then paved the way for Sriram to enter and after picking up a few singles, he finished the game off with a powerful six. A rather comprehensive win, greatly aided by the 47 extras the opposition conceded.

That being that, it was left to Beer to walk off the pitch, raise his bat, and ask us all with his characteristically bemused expression what the fuss was all about…. We were always going to win it, right? To him, we have only this to say: Beer, beer, indrabeer, kundrabeer, badamgeer, dilleku!!!!

In season 3, Game 1, #3 was: Narahoo (c), Kataan, Hui, Druck, Bulavar (wk), Jubbs, Mogee, Indrabeer, Venkat and Anand.