Aug, 2014 – Little Victories, But Sano Takes the Day

JLC T20, Sharks vs Sano,
24/08/2014 Tanuma, by Kris Bayne

It shows the depth and commitment of the Sharks that we could field this side today, and what it lacked in ‘star’ talent (and youth), it made up in enthusiasm – and we sprung a few surprises along the way. This was a ‘dead rubber’ for us. We had stormed into the National Finals with our win against YCAC. But we had the chance to maybe upset our fierce rivals, Sano, if we could knock them off.

The team today was led by Kris B and included Ashiq, Adeel, Sumon, Mairaj, Moto, Shakriya, Karthik (vc), Sankar, Navin and Atharva. The senior players on the train up had reached the same conclusion as the captain: to get a decent game in we should bowl first. And chase!! Kris duly won the coin call, teased Sano captain Seiji a bit then announced, “We bowl!”. And, ladies and gentlemen, we did!

Fielding

We opened with spin. Navin from one end and Sumon the other. StatNav was rewarded when Ashiq took a good catch coming in low and hard at mid-on to have Sano 1-3. Great start. Sumon could have had a couple of wickets as our inexperienced (and vertically challenged) field gave both openers a couple of chances early, but we were making those chances with good bowling. But Rana and Munir capitalized and it started to slip away.

After two overs each, Sumon swapped ball for gloves, but Adeel and Karthik could not break through in their set of two overs. Next up Sankar did in his first, nailing an LBW and then Munir in his next! The latter was a monster hit to deep, deep, deep mid-on at the school end. Mairaj waited patiently and made absolutely no mistake.

At the other end Kris put the brakes on the batsman for only nine scrappy runs off two overs. A third KB over got a bit of treatment, but Mairaj was in turn stingy and chipped in with is own wicket. This time it was Sankar returning the favour to Mairaj in the same deep, deep mid-on and he, too, took calmly held the catch. We were making chances and inroads fast and we were about to spring some more surprises on Sano and ourselves.

The ball was tossed to Shakriya for his first overs as a Shark. Intelligence had said he doesn’t bowl. Surprise! He does, quite well. Bowling a gentle pace he almost got a stumping in a 3-single over (lost his line a bit in the next). Rotating the bowlers, next up was Moto. We still had to deal with a set Bebe Miyaji. Moto dropped his first ball to him on a tempting line to get a very thick top edge. Sumon ran a short way to accept the catch! The field went ballistic! Now 5-142. We were not done yet with our little victories. Y

Young Atharva got ball in hand for the 19^th over. His first ball has hit high and hard to the waiting Ashiq right in front of the tents. He was not able to hold on, though. Next ball Atharva was!! The dangerous Raheel (got the final runs in the Final last year) was suckered forward and Atharva held the return pop up catch! He followed up with three more lovely deliveries.

The soon-to-be-U.K-bound Navin got the last over and after a few opportunist runs, he knocked back the middle peg of the Sano captain, Seiji. We made it another wicket last ball, with a calm return to Sumon for the run-out. Sano 8-161. At one stage it was 1-83 off 9 overs by our better bowlers, with two set batsman. For us to then get 7-78 off the next 11 overs was a fantastic effort.

We bowled 10 Sharks (Sorry, Ashiq!!!), almost all for one or two overs, and five different guys got wickets! There was a lot of joy and satisfaction in that. We fought back well. Great catches were taken and if we surprised ourselves we also surprised the opposition.

Batting

“This is gettable!” was the feeling going around. The Sharks were talking positively. Yes, we had a longish tail but our top five – Navin, Ashiq, Karthik, Sumon and the unknown Adeel – were a good combination of hitters and stroke players who could score and stick. If they got going and applied themselves we could do this. With only 10 minutes break (we were a bit slow in our overs and at 12:30 pm in August I was told it was getting dark…)

Navin and Ashiq went into battle. Things stated badly. Navin returned after the second ball caught (off his) behind down leg. Karthik joined Ashiq. Perennial Shark tormentor, Bebe Miyaji wound up for the 2^nd over. Ashiq whacked him all over the shop – which happened to be in a V between backward point and cover – for 12 runs!

The 3^rd over took an eternity as five wides were sent down and Karthik flailed hopefully at the other distant deliveries. No other wides appeared for the rest of the game – amazingly.

Karthik was sent back by Miyaji and Sumon joined the feisty Ashiq at 2-20. If these two could find their groove anything could happen. Sumon launched his second ball in a beautifully fluid stroke over square for 6. He found the boundary for 4 two more times magnificently down the ground soon enough after. He was looking in fantastic shape and his defence was solid and copybook. Ashiq also tempered his play to match. They both knocked it around and glided through gully. Ashiq took another monstrous 4. The Shark tent applauded every shot and you could almost feel Sano starting to worry a bit.

Sumon looked in no trouble at all and Ashiq was placing singles at will. Then disaster. Sumon just did not get enough to clear the man at long off and very next ball Ashiq reverse sweep paddled to gully. Double wicket to 4-50. Adeel and Sankar were to two brand new batsmen. Adeel slammed his first and third balls into the foliage at cow corner. Oh, yeah???

He was back in the tent after the next ball went up, up, up and down into Sano hands. 5-62. The rest of the innings went fairly quickly. Sankar pottered around for a short stay. Shakriya poked around a few runs. Mairaj sent his first ball beautifully to the same deep mid-on spot he took his catch for 4.

Atharva actually played very nicely. Good forward defence and some lovely shots to score. A very sudden change of pace and arm angle unsettled his stumps. Kris got the same pitch immediately (a slider, I think), still not bothering the scorers in 2014. Moto remained defiantly not out on 1. It was a bit disappointing not to at least get three figures. Different decisions with willow and on a variety of adjudications may have given us a chance, but we needed a couple of guys to score pretty big. It was not to be. Sharks all out 78.

We were, among other things, urged midweek to “make it as difficult for them as possible”, and that, “They will not know many of us. The unknown can make you nervous. They will be predicable. We will be unpredictable”, and, “You might bowl and bat, even one over (hopeful more!), so practice your techniques.” I think we did some of these things. Some surprises were sprung with amazing results.

We didn’t get the win, but all players did something positive, contributed and we all got a decent slice of cricket. The score doesn’t look like an honourable loss, but with a bit more luck – seriously, we could have won. We made a lot of chances in the field; we blew some chances with the bat. But we stayed positive throughout. It was a good game to play in. Great spirit and support.