TCC vs MCC; @ MCC grounds; 19th July 1998
With 10 players and after a lot of posturing about who was going to drive to MCC- TCC reached the Mecklenberg grounds in the searing heat of Charlotte at 11 AM. The heat index was 110 F, and it felt even hotter in the ground. The ground was quite big (especially the offside boundary) compared to Shiloh standards. The pitch was bad- with the odd ball just rolling along the ground. As the grass was cleared for just half of the pitch- there was just half a mat. Any ball pitched short was determined (on prior agreement) to be a dead ball. There were a lot of these in the match.
We lost the toss and were inserted on to bat. Damodar and Ram opened the inning. Ram looked in fine nick and started timing the ball from the start. Damodar had trouble adjusting to the slower pitch where the ball does not come on to the bat. Both these batsman, though had no trouble in playing the odd shot for a four. This coupled with nicely run singles kept the score board moving at a health pace to 45 odd off 7 overs. Damodar fell going for a big shot to be taken by the fielder at deep long off.
Ramesh went in. Ram was really batting well at this stage, seeing the ball well and keeping his shots along the ground. Ramesh had his trouble settling down and mostly due to Ram the score moved along to 54 off 10 overs. A good run rate by any stretch of imagination. It was really surprising to see that during the drinks break that some folks thought that this was very slow batting. Granted that only 9 runs were taken in 3 overs after Damodar's start- but that is to be expected when a new batsman goes in.
It is tough to say whether Ram took it upon himself to increase this "slow run rate"- but after the break he began lofting the ball. Some nice shots especially the pulls in the leg side were as usual cool to watch. After a well compiled 32 he fell to his favorite pull shot - caught by the fielder at deep mid wicket. A lovely knock- but what struck me was that he got out when he had the bowling at his mercy. A "slow batting, pathetic, ill-timing" Ram is better than a lot of others. And him being back in the pavilion does not help any. TCC needs him at the wicket. Even if Ramesh was batting "slow" adding pressure, Ram should have stayed and taken his singles with the occasional four.
Anand came in and played a sweet cameo of an innings. There were some lovely shots on either side of the wicket. There was the flick off the hips, the pull over midwicket which was almost a six and the pushes for singles. Just when things were going very well, Anand fell to an inexplicable shot. A short ball was dispatched high towards deep midwicket to be taken well by the fielder right at the fence. A very similar dismissal to Ram's. Just two balls prior to that, Anand had gone for a similar shot but missed it. With runs coming at such a good pace (the run rate was around 5.8) there was no need for that as there were 15 more overs to be played. Again, by just staying there Anand and Ram can add 20-30 more runs to the total every 10 overs.
Vijay came in and wanted a score of around 200 ( a very attainable one at that stage) and showed that he meant business by his excellent running between the wickets. Ramesh was forced to run by Vijay and the score rate climbed up to 6 runs an over. Vijay's confidence in his abilities was back after that blistering knock against RCC and every shot was hit from the middle of the bat. Was fun to see him run and make me run between the wickets. The pick of his many shots was the pull for a lovely four between midwicket and long-on which he modestly described as the shot of the match.
At the second drinks break, the score was 120 for the loss of 3 wickets after 20 overs – 6 runs per over. Vijay looked in excellent nick. Again trying to do too much caused his downfall- this after a well struck 4. Moving away to swipe a ball over cover Vijay missed the widish ball to be caught out of his crease. An unnecessary end to a very good inning. We were 125 for 4.
Ramesh finally got out to a ball which kept low after scoring 45 in the 23rd over. We were 148 for 5.
Yeshpal after running some real quick runs with Khaleel lofted a ball onto the long off boundary to be caught at the line. Krishna was out -caught off the first ball. Naveen stayed and played some lovely shots- the pick being a bowlers back drive which went like a bullet to the fence. He played very sensibly running hard to keep the score moving. Unfortunately he got out to a ball which rolled to take his stumps. Amit and Khalil played 2 more overs with Amit giving the strike to Khalil.
Khalil was a treat to watch. With only 10 players in the team he kept his end up and played nudges peppered with some powerful shots to contribute 17 valuable runs to the total. We finished at with 169 with Amit getting out to one more "surra"- a good 20-30 runs short of what we could have got. This hurry to hit 250 ended up in us losing some of our better batsman who if present could have made a major impact.
As it turned out even 250 would not have been a good enough score…
The first over was, well, to put it diplomatically – slightly under par. It did produce a wicket when the batsman whacked at a ball which was a mile away to edge it back to the keeper. MCC was 0 for 1. This ball was preceded by 3 dead balls and was followed by 5-8 wides. Krishna ended this over by bowling the last ball with a one step run up.
Our atrocious bowling was only bettered by our "awesome" fielding; Right from Damodar's misfield to leave a 4 off a drive, to Amit's "should I field it or should I catch it- let me leave it for a 4" our fielding was bad. Ramesh looked comical trying to go for a line drive with one hand in the boundary line escorting the ball for a six. Simple things like putting your body behind the ball or trying to catch the ball with two hands were forgotten. Ramesh's dropped catch was to prove crucial as the batsman made TCC pay again and again. All these mistakes were done by some of the better fielders in the team proving that it was going to be a long day. Not everyone was bad. The inner cordon (Naveen, Ram, yeshpal and Vijay) did an outstanding job preventing singles (which MCC did not need anyway the way we were getting whacked).
There were so many full tosses bowled by the bowlers in the leg side-who I guess were trying to avoid the dead ball –that MCC took full advantage of. Ofcourse full credit to them for doing so.
The other opener looked in great form driving the ball beautifully in the off for some nice fours off yeshpal- who incidentally bowled quite well, but was not supported by his fielders. TCC's frustration was so much that Vijay came on in the 3rd over. TCC got a lucky break when the opener went for a non-existent run to be run-out by a good piece of work by Naveen and Vijay. Our only reasonable success of the day.
The next batsman in was in fabulous form and played some huge shots. His 50 came up in record time with atleast 4 sixes, including a towering one off Vijay. By the time he got out (caught Krishna off Vijay) the match was settled in MCC's favour. A great knock by a very powerful hitter, especially in leg.
TCC did grab a couple of quick wickets but they came between a lot of wides. Amit and Vijay bowled well with Amit being very unlucky to see some chances go past Khaleel. The normally dependable Damodar bowled 2 fulltosses in his only over, both of which were dispatched for towering sixes. That over (the 10th) really took the wind out of TCC's sails.
After enduring the the heat and torture for 18 overs MCC mercifully put an end to TCC's humiliation by finishing the match with a four past mid wicket. A very well deserved and comprehensive victory. Hearty congrats on some great batting by their higher order.
Post mortem:
Putting undue pressure on oneself while batting and trying to do too much made TCC lose three crucial wickets. It will be nice to score 200+ everytime, but we need a well settled batsman to stay for long at the crease to accomplish that. From 140 odd for 3 in 22 to 169 all out in 26 overs is definitely NOT acceleration. A guy coming in new is going to have trouble and cannot be expected to score the way a well settled batsman can. We definitely need to realize that. But batting definitely is not the problem- 169 is a darn good score. Bowling is… One of the TCC players was saying that he should not have drank till 4 in the morning as this hurt his bowling. I couldn't agree more- after all there are 11 people in a team and we need everyone to be able to be at 100% if we want to win. If that involves sacrificing one day of booze, so be it- the feeling of driving all the way and playing in the heat and then losing is definitely something we should avoid. And an early night once a week is worth it… Vijay coming on to bowl the third over of the match is pathetic. We cannot keep depending on Vijay to get wickets- our frontline bowlers have to contribute.