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