Sssssmmmoookkkinnnggg!!

1)Pressure :  an oppressive condition of physical or mental or social or economic distress.

2)Sledging : a term used to describe the practice whereby some players seek to gain an advantage by insulting or verbally intimidating the opposing team.

If only Akshay Menon at mid on and the rest of the team that he was part of, cared to look up those terms to fully understand the nuances of on and off field antics, the embarrassment that followed following their mammoth 92 run loss could've been tweaked down.Only so.

Manas Makani was slow but stuck with Suku

Following a brief hiatus, MCL was back with a match destined to be a crowd puller. Smoking Joes went into the match, with the upper hand at least on paper and once in with the bat, looked in complete control even with Manas's opening partner Annamalai being a surprise choice. Anna refused to show the face and chose to slog sweep or hook deliveries of any length.The first wicket(Anna's) fell at 17 with a nice catch under pressure from Jaymin at an unorthodox deep mid on.Anna left with 11 against his board including two boundaries.

Meanwhile as Manas waited for the partners to swap, the sledging in the middle started to gain ground with Sahil Jhingon bowling in some fiery deliveries in the first couple of overs.
Vineeth S, the opposition captain, looked menacing with his leg breaks as the first couple of his overs beat the bat regularly.As Sukalyan started to settle, Vishal M was given the over.With words going back and forth like sniper shots, Vishal bowls a no ball in the first ball Sukalyan faces.

Sukalyan looked in imperious touch

Free hit time.


Sukalyan takes guard aka Chanderpaul, both limbs wide apart, pre-meditating with disdain and eying the area he wants to hit it as if daring the bowler.WHALLOP! Massive six over square leg.In the course of the next 5 balls, Suku dismantled Vishal's over with another massive six and a boundary to follow it up with a crunching four to finally end the over for 18.


"Wilting" under immense pressure, the Joes managed a second wicket partnership of 44 runs at a painfully slow strike rate of 122.


Manas's sheath anchor role was cut short by as Vineeth S caught him off Jaymin Trivedi. Suku also had to depart 6 balls later as Dhruv Sharma latched on to a difficult chance behind the wicket off Akshay Aggarwal, who was the only bowler who looked to have some command over the proceeding with 2-21 off his 4.Suku managed 28 off 25.

Nisarg Mehta left Navy Cut with minimal chance

With a couple of quick wickets falling over or around him, Nisarg Mehta was joined by Prasanna Ravichandran as the demolition shaped up.Nisarg Mehta batted like Shahid Afridi sprayed in the eye with a mace! Deft running between the wickets and marvelous shot making resulted in a partnership of 60 runs at an astonishing strike rate 143.As the icing on the cake, Gaurav Midha, who came in to replace Prasanna, made as many runs as him, using more than 2 overs fewer.

Nisarg and Prasanna put on 60 for the 4th wicket

Towering sixes over the bowler's head ended dramatically in a run out resulting from a mis understanding as Nisarg was busy watching the ball.A fuming Gaurav Midha was left short of the crease throwing the bat in frustration at the non striker's end as he marched off.The innings finally ended at 150 with the skipper remaining not out on 46 off 34 with 7 boundaries and a six.
The pressure in the Smoking Joe's camp, palpable.


Ravi Kumar opened with Vikesh Jain for the Navy Cutters and batted as if there was not a worry in the world.Aashish Sharma was greeted in his second over with a massive six and a boundary soon after, as wickets toppled all around him.Only Akshay Aggarwal showed more spine, this time around with the bat to keep up with his disciplined bowling.


The moment of the match for the Navy cutters was when Divyanshu B smacked consecutive sixes off the highest wicket taker for the Joe's-Rishi Jain, who had magnificent figures of 4 from 20.Akshay Menon showed immense character and played as if under no pressure whatsoever, crafting a tough 0 from 15 balls under tough conditions, before losing some of his timber to Nisarg.

Aashish Sharma was cannoned for a six by Ravi Kumar

Nisarg followed up his star effort with the bat with a clinical performance with the ball ending with 2-13 off his 4, which could have been more inclined on the left side of that equation, had some catching bloopers not occurred  on the field.


It was all over for the Navy Cutters as Jaymin T, the last one, was bowled by Rishi Jain for another duck of the innings as the Smoking Joe's won by 92 runs.


I got a chance to speak with Nisarg at the end of the match in the mess, as he sat there devouring the last bite of the Aloo tikki, and said with food still in the mouth)-" I just tried to keep the basics right.Throughout the match we were under immense pressure.The boys showed good concentration.I thought Ankit Govil would congratulate Akshay M at the end of his epic innings, but I couldn't see him in the spectators stand after Gaurav Midha launched one over the area where he was seated."

---Vasant Iyer, official blogger for SCAM

Well Pillaid!

Merely being a part not to mention being able to play a tournament MCL match at MICA on lazy autumn mornings is a trip destined for a select few.It becomes even more interesting when the first XL size batch size of the CCC course feature against the first timers of the MCL.

The first match of the MCL featuring the men from Kachnar V the Marlboro men from Year-1 was just one such match.

If Rahul Dravid could gift a cookie to a batsman who could play the way he does while in whites, he would have to buy up most of Reliance, Iskon to be able to honor the way the match panned out on Friday morning. 4 down for only 12 on the board, the Marlboro men seemed to be having the sort of a day that would put the a team of 11 Venkatesh Prasads to shame.

If anatomical appearances could really depict the potential of the impact a guy on the field could have on the outcome of the game, Pratik Pillai did more than a handsome job of burning the stereotype with a champion all round performance.

Pushed to the wall and bent over backwards with the elbows tied behind the back, Suhail started the repair work with some brilliant counter attack with two huge heaves and a snorter through the covers, in between steady singles and twos.Without his 24 made at an astonishing S/R of 160, the top 5 batsmen amongst themselves managed to score a paltry 6 runs.

Brick by brick,a target was constructed by Suhail who was ably supported by Karan C who managed a composed 13 at just slightly less than 3/4ths of a run a ball, as the pair managed to steer the team with a partnership of 24 between them that helped them turn the on goings into a position that from where the tail could cajole up 55 runs off the last 6 batsmen saving them from bundling up as a picture of utter humiliation to a respectable 102.The pick of the bowlers for the triple Cs was Ravi Kant for his excellent figures of 3-28 off 3.4.

Taking off from exactly where he left the field with the bat, Pillai got the guys with the all white smokes to a rampaging start getting both openers out cheaply.Things started looking pretty rosy for "photoshop boys" till around the time they got to the mid 40s where things just suddenly went from mild common cold to 'all hells gone wild' cardiac arrest with the team teetering at 45/ 6 requiring a mammoth 58 to win in way less than half the innings to go.

Suhail Kapoor was in the thick of the action while fielding too, effecting a run out, a catch and getting Tanupam out on the first ball.

As the team folded one by one like an entire refugee camp with bloody diarrhea, Aarish was left standing in the middle of the crease for a hard fought 23 at number 5 for another "Dravidesque" effort.The guys with the magic 'art wands' nose dived from there on to crash on mount 'all out' for a well fought 92.

The next match features the Lucky Strikers V India kings.With an afternoon start, this one will have photo features in them and detailed match analysis.Well not really detailed, but it's more fun when you could see someone being bowled while being told so at the same time!

-Vasant Iyer, official blogger for SCAM

Tail 'Khatam'!

If ever there was a way to start off a season opener with a bang, today was it.MCL 2010 got underway with the first match of the season played between '502 patakas' and 'Phantom'.And also, if some one, by some unfortunate stroke of bad luck didn't happen to know already of the scheduled clash today, they could easily notice the difference in the field with the way the spectators had lined up and taken up their places quite some time before start of play.Multiple cameramen including yours truly had lined up to cover the most feverishly anticipated day of the year.

'Phantom' bat first on a day that was slightly overcast after a strange fortnight of nauseating humidity and bright sun.Clouds were very clearly visible and threatened to open up at any time coupled with a speedily withdrawing light cover.As Kartikeya guided his fielders to get into position and as everyone eagerly waited for the umpire to drop his 'no-ball' showing arm down to call play, a sense of tense nervousness was palpable across the ground and the stands.

Kartikeya started off well and Siddharth Raman faced him in indomitable fashion-leaving, nudging and pushing for quick singles and boundaries whenever possible.The tempo of the 'Phantoms' was aided by some wayward bowling by the '502's with more than 19 wides and 4 no balls by the '502's.If the 'Phantoms' were to take off around 25 runs off their scorecard by the end of the day , considering mis fields and overthrows, they would've folded up for less than 60.

Siddharth was caught off a brilliant one handed catch at mid on by Shubby Yadav off a brilliantly timed jump to end his innings for 7.At the other end, Rinkesh seemed even more reluctant to make contact with the ball, regularly witnessing huge cries of appeal for his wicket.Vivek K finally rid him of his misery by coming up with a shocking seamer that nipped right back off the seam to clear all the furniture arranged behind.

Only Nitin M Shandiliya looked to be providing some sort of a respite for an otherwise despicable batting performance from the first time MCL contenders, only to be run out by some very poor calling by an hyper motivated Satyaprem Upadhyay at the other end.The '502's were wayward and generous with their bowling throughout the match with only glimpses of serious pace or length shown by the bowling attack led by an inspired Gaurav N who returned with figures of 3-15.

The surprise find of the 502s in the bowling department was Abhinav K carrying on his good form from the practice matches removing both top batsmen of the 'Phantom's-Svab and Chillar with his only over of the innings.The '502's had their work cut out for the next match as they can't probably expect to be cut as much slack against tougher opponents.

Set only 92 for a win, the '502's looked good to wrap up the chase before the drinks break, with Gaurav N pummeling every bowler over the infield or the ropes with disdain.Satyaprem was destroyed in the first over he bowled going for close to 20 runs before showing resilience to return with less off his other 3 overs than he did off his first.Although everything looked hunky dory for the '502's to start with-racing to 50 off only 8 overs, the 'Phantom's looked in no mood to give up.Ishan Kaul latched on to a blinder at long off to get rid of Shubby Yadav after both the openers were removed by Karam Jhambh off some quality bowling.

Sriram Narayan came into bat after Svablum M removed Vivek K for a duck with some classic old school pace bowling with lots of zing and carry.Sriram N 's patience paid off as he slowly got into groove before smashing the bowlers over his favorite mid wicket and square leg area before being outwitted by Svablum M for 20.For most parts of his spell, Svab looked like a man possessed ,zipping the ball around on whim.

For what initially looked like a chase for the 'kindergarteners', had gone from 52 off nine overs to the '502's needing 5 with only one wicket remaining.If it weren't for a mis-field off Ishan Kaul at the same long off position that he pulled a blinder earlier and that resulted in a boundary and the wide from Satyaprem that gave the 502s the winning run,the 'Phantoms' could've very well been the team celebrating amidst rancorous applause and sledging from supporters of both teams towards the end.

On hindsight, the match was deservedly won by the team that played better cricket for the better part of the match.

-Vasant Iyer, official blogger for SCAM

The curse of the No.11s

There's always ambiguity surrounding an early morning cricket match at MICA.For starters, a 7.30 start is agonizingly close to bed time for most.Also, for practice matches such as the ones featuring Lucky Strike V. 502 Pataka that was played today, is a nightmare for captains wanting their trusted war horses to be on field on time because of the apparent absence of considerable stakes.That gets guys like me a chance to sneak in!

Thus was played a match of much amusement between two quality sides on a day that hardly had anything to pick from either teams in terms of star value.Lucky Strike featured 6 second choice players(No.11s if I may) that included Kunal Boppana, Vasant Iyer, Abhisar Gaur, Rohit Goyal, Saurav Das and Dinesh Dulhani besides the captain, Aashish Sharma-the first choice spinner, Ashirwad Deb-the unflappable all rounder, Ankit Akhauri and Vineet Kanabar.Gaurav Puri-the mainstay of previous opening stands, Akshay Karanth-ruled out with a swollen ankle and Nimish Dutt were indisposed.

502 had some key players missing too including the opening fast bowler Pravar Peri, one of the key middle order batsmen in Ashutosh Wadhwani and the temperamental Sahil Chopra.They too featured a side seriously looking to test the bench including Sriram Narayanan, Nikhit Shetty, Kartikeya Malhotra (who was shown considerable interest in, in the auctions), Abhinav Krishna, Karan Kapoor and a high on sugar Udit Goel.

 Lucky Strike bat first and sent out Akhauri along with Vineet Kanabar.While Akhauri tried to painfully negotiate dot balls while nudging for a single every now and then, Kanabar ran out of luck as he hit the base of one of the stumps with the heel of his boot while trying to chase a wide delivery. A visibly upset Kanabar trudged off the field with nothing against his name to make the scorer work for.Akauri continued to nudge and prod with his agony finally ending on a "would make a Dravid clear his throat of" 10 from 29, all from singles.Rohit Goyal who came in to replace Vineet joined Ashirwad to switch with Akhauri.

Rohit Goyal made a strong statement in playing maturely, prodding around with a single here, a double there with more than a handful of boundaries spread out evenly in his innings of close to 30 runs.Ashirwad started fluently but departed just around the time he was fully getting into gear.

While a No. 11 was trying to sneak in a place into the final MCL XI with the bat, another surprise of the match, Kartikeya aka "Chubby" Malhotra eased into his McGrath'ish' run-up to find brilliant control with the ball, chipping in with crucial wickets.While he kept things tight at one end, a Sohail Tanvir clone in the guise of Vivek K kept things tight at the other chipping in with his own haul of wickets.Ashish Gupta, the captain wasn't the pick of the bowlers picking up a wicket before being hammered more than a couple of times in his spell.

The captain of the Lucky Strikers, Arpeet, was joined by Aashish Sharma with close to half the squad back in the dressing room and only around 50 runs on the board.Sharma departed quickly leaving Vasant Iyer to come in next at No.8 with the scoreboard hovering around the 60s.If there was ever a time to report conflict of interest, here would be a good place.I scored a couple of boundaries and a heave over deep mid wicket for six and a couple of singles before Arpeet sliced one to gully, leaving me with Saurav Das and Kunal Boppana and Abhisar Gaur.Saurav Das came and left before I could clear the sweat on my brow as Boppana truged in.

This was one for the records. Two of the biggest anatomies in the MCL together at the crease, making the scared turf reverberate with purpose every time a single was stolen.Moving towards the 20s and looking settled, nothing could have gone wrong for me.Except everything.

Which it did.

Abhinav bowled a tight line in the penultimate over and managed a maiden with me waving and flapping haplessly at the crease looking for a way to get more value for any connect I could manage.The last two overs was a blur of a couple of singles and repeated attempts by the keeper to get me stumped.Score read 91.We were 9 down.Every one of the 120 legit deliveries bowled.

The chase by 502 began with specific intent by the biggest find of the pre-tournament clashes with Sriram almost carrying his bat through with a well composed and controlled 37 off 49.Sriram's innings was special in the way he never looked out of sorts nor did it appear like an Ishant Sharma sent in as night watchman.He sprayed the infield with singles and twos and lofted with purpose, leaving the captain furious with mis fields and dropped catches in the mean while.

Nikhit Shetty stuck to the crease and gave good support as the score card accelerated to the 40s by the time the 7th over was bowled owed in parts to some very wayward bowling by Vineet and the opening bowler Abhisar.Arpeet, playing with a quadricep injury picked up from the last match and was not his usual self , suffering at the hands of the rookies.He let the 'No.11s' take charge and allowed everyone their fair share of chances with the ball, not letting the strike bolwer Ashirwad or himself on till will after 7 overs were bowled.

While Aashish Sharma continued to beat the bat occasionally, there was no real surprises from the Lucky Strikers in the bowling department.Ashirwad and Sharma got a wicket each while Vivek managed to get a  full toss to hit the top of off stump off my only over as the Patakas cruised to a 6 wicket win.

At the end of play, a consensus might have ruled for the match to not have been a visual treat but the only ones getting anything out of the encounter were the few bold unknowns who made statements with their intent and application over constitutive skill.

Perhaps this tournament might well be the first time a No.11 player proves to be the biggest head ache for oppositions to face or captains to choose from.

-Vasant Iyer, official blogger for SCAM

Curtain raiser!!

There's a buzz around.It's not just one of the most splendid autumns ingrained with a sparkling sun and hot moist winds by day and cool soothing breeze around by night fall.A palpable aura of revelry is hard to miss.Besides the   discernible exercises and drills of cultural programs and preeminent flagship activities in the background, one very significant period is shaping up.

It's cricket season.And that can only imply one thing-MCL!It's back and back with a bang! All new teams, player rosters and owners.Franchised neatly and auctioned to the last penny.Just like on TV! MCL announced it's arrival today in style with three new teams from the second year and three from the first.Captains of each team followed from the previous year with two star players allocated to each team members from last year after everyone agreed upon them.Fresh auctions for the rest of the players were announced with pre-set base values of players ranging from 30 to 90.

Each player was allocated a base price during a meeting of the captains earlier and values assigned based on evaluating factors such as form,experience,performance and skill.A total of 1000 points were distributed each amongst the teams for captains to choose from to make a 14 member squad and choose 11 of them excluding the captain and the two star players.A player could be bid for openly for up to 200 points in multiples of 5.Example, for a player with a base value of 50, he could be bid for by the captains for 55, 70, 90 etc. till 200.After which, a closed paper bid was staged and the highest bidder won the player.

Before the auctions began, tenders of interest to purchase franchises were made by some of the top female business brains on campus!Amongst teams that were up for auction were 'Lucky Strike', skippered by Arpeet Kumar of the 2009 MCL champions 'Inglorious Bastards'.Teams '502 pataka', 'Smoking Joe's' skippered by Ashish Gupta and  Nisarg Mehta respectively from PGP-2.

Teams 'Marlboro reds', 'Phantom',' Navy square cut' and 'Indian Kings' were led by Mayank Prakash, Svablum Malhotra, Vineeth S and Gyan Prakash respectively of PGP-1.Team owners of these teams submitted a closed chit expression of interest prioritizing their interest in the aforementioned teams.Winners of the teams were Navya, Kavya, Swarna,Archana Ritu for 'Lucky Strike', Sheena Mahajan for '502' and Charu, Gayatri K, Sayantika for 'Smoking Joes'.


Whilst for year 1, 'Phantoms' went to Apoorva S , Jayati and Sania while 'Navy Square Cut' was grabbed by Kruti, Anuradha, Samyukta, Meeta,Divya, Manasi, Pankhuri, Akruti and Barsha.'India Kings' were royally gobbled up by  Luxmi, Nupoor, Apoorva V and Sonali only for Supriya, Cheryl, Satya,Sukesha,Taniya and Neha to tame the Marlboro men!


Each bid was monitored carefully and some players were fought over for with vendetta by the captains as the aides and strategists fought over the numbers and worked out all the permutations.After a long simmering duel of hard core auctioning, some key players that left the audience stunned with the interest shown in them by the bidders were Ashish Dua for a mind boggling 480 points while Ashirwad Deb and Rishi Jain made their base prices of 90 dwarf in comparison to their bid prices of 310 and 320 immediately after the start of bids were announced.Gasps and rapturous applause followed each player bid as everyone got a feel of what a board room of the multi billion enterprise IPL must feel like with all the real money and pressing tension!


The dice have been rolled, the decks have been cleared and the outfield mowed to perfection.MCL 2010 is here.Game on!

-Vasant Iyer, official blogger for SCAM.