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
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