PUCC Natraj Iyer Memorial Indoor
Cricket League - Spring 2008 Season
All-Star Game
In
the All Star game played on May 3, All Star Team A led by Sachin
beat Neeraj's All Star Team B. Batting first Team A
managed to rack up 127 runs in 25 overs in spite of
losing openers Jagpreet and Yash
cheaply. Following the loss of the opening batsmen, Aditya
and Bidkar steadied ship and set the platform for
Team A to post a competitive total. Shiven and Kaushik bowled magnificently for Team B but some sloppy
bowling by their team mates did not help their cause.
Chasing
128 for victory Team B got off to a horrendous start thanks to some incisive
bowling by Adeel and the suicidal tendencies of Team
B batsmen in running between wickets. Neeraj and
Vijay's lusty hitting gave some semblance of respectability to the chase. In a
much closer finish than what one would have anticipated given the start of the
chase Team A All Stars beat Team B all stars by 10
runs.
All Star game Man of the
Match : Aditya Malhotra
Spring 2008 Indoor League
Honors Roll
Indoor League MVP : Jagpreet Chahal
Best Batsmen : Kaushik Balamukundhan & Vijay
Parmeshwaran
Best Bowler : Adeel Altaf
PUCC Indoor League -
Blazing Bullets crowned Champions of Spring ’08
One
could tell how much the game mattered, what with both teams practicing for a
full 45 minutes before the game! The Armory was feeling electric, a fitting
build-up to the Finals of the Spring Indoor Cricket League.
Grand Finale
Cut
to the Finals! The Speedsters won the toss and decided to put the Bullets’
batting to the test against their strength, their explosive bowling. Adeel roared once again to dismiss Haris
for a duck. At the other end Ibrahim was keeping it tight to keep the Bullet’s
camp silent as hell. But the unorthodox Ankit with Amit Paranjape braved the
Speedsters’ salvos. Ankit’s shoe-laces raised a few
guys’ blood pressure and what ensued was a bitter battle of tempers between the
two teams. The Bullets corner grew in support, crying hoarse as Ali tonked the bowling for a run-a-ball 23 to set up a
formidable 89 for victory.
Faraaz and Imran then faced Ali and Shiven steaming in. Faraaz fell
cheaply but Imran dealt some telling blows smashing
two clean sixes. Then came Haris
with his incisive bowling and yorked Waqas brilliantly. A terrible mix-up between Saad and Imran meant 2 quick
wickets for the Bullets.. The Bullets kept he pressure
with constant chattering, getting under the skin of the opposition. Haris finished with brilliant figures of 4-0-10-3 with the
Speedsters struggling to match up, and Saad running
out of partners. Ibrahim then came on to his own, attacking the bowlers to take
the equation to 16 off the last over. Shiven picked
up the ball and sent one down only to be smashed back by Ibrahim for a four. 12
off 5!! Shiven felt the pressure sending down two wides. Adeel and Ibrahim tried to
force the proceedings but 12 off 1 ball was too much of an
ask, and the Bullets clinched victory by 10 runs!!
Scorecard: Blazing
Bullets Vs High Flying Speedsters
Semifinals
Earlier
in the day, in the first semi-final, the ‘Comeback Kings’ Virtual Reality could
not continue their dream rum in the league stages, and caved in to an on-song
Blazing Bullets team. After losing Amit Paranjape cheaply, Captain Ankit
and Ali milked the bowlers before Ali smashed Appu’s
floaters with authentic golf swings, for 16 runs in one over. Appu came right back in the 14th over to grab 3 wickets in
a miserly 2 run over. The bullets could score only 7 off the last two, but any
total above 80 in a pressure situation is difficult to chase down.
Scorecard: Blazing
Bullets Vs Virtual Reality
The
Bullet’s sprightly fielding Vs. VR’s sensible touch
play did sound like a lip-smacking duel. Vijay Kumar and Venkat
raced to 36 off 6 overs. But then began the mayhem…3
‘Golden Ducks’ by Mummorthy, Appu
(brilliantly run out without facing a ball), and Bharath;
and Jaggu being dismissed for 1 meant doomsday for
VR!! Vijay Kumar fought on as he did throughout the semester, but Ali, Shiven and Haaris shot down any
hopes for a recovery, dismissing them for 59 to book a Final berth.
In
the second Semi-final, the fancied Overrated Underdogs clashed with the quietly
confident and yet fiery High Flying Speedsters. Ibrahim marked his return
snapping the dangerous Jaggi and Aditya
quickly, and Saad cleaned up Sachin
and Upjeet, the four top scorers for the U’dogs. With wickets tumbling in quick succession, it
looked like the U’dogs wouldn’t even complete their
15. But credit to Manish for holding one end up and some wides
bowled by the Speedsters set up a target of 67 runs for victory. Faraaz began in a typically elegant fashion despite losing Imran early. But the hard-hitting Kamran
with Faraaz, who carried his bat through the chase,
ensured that the Speedsters storm into the Finals of the
Scorecard: Overrated
Underdogs Vs High Flying Speedsters
The
Speedsters and the Bullets had very contrasting routes to the Finals, with the
former’s league stages resembling a sine wave of wins and losses and the latter
beating all but two of the teams (Golimaar and
Virtual Reality). But the Speedsters regained their winning ways by peaking at
the right moment and the Bullets avenged their defeats against the only two
teams to have beaten them, in the Quarters and Semis respectively!!
Tense
encounters to mark the end of a semester of exciting cricket! Looking forward
to having all the teams back the coming Fall to take
the competition two notches higher.
Hope
you and your team enjoyed playing in the Spring '08
Indoor
League - Cream of the crop
Top 6
Batsmen
|
Batsman |
Team |
Innings |
Not outs |
H.S |
Runs |
Average |
|
Jagpreet |
8 |
2 |
48 |
164 |
27.33 |
|
|
Vijay |
6 |
0 |
41 |
150 |
25.00 |
|
|
Amit Paranjape |
6 |
0 |
41 |
137 |
22.83 |
|
|
Kaushik |
6 |
2 |
43 |
127 |
31.75 |
|
|
Yash |
8 |
1 |
43 |
108 |
15.43 |
|
|
Waqas |
8 |
3 |
26 |
119 |
23.80 |
Top 7
Bowlers
|
Bowler |
Team |
Matches |
Overs |
Runs |
Wickets |
Econ |
Best |
|
Adeel |
8 |
29.3 |
120 |
16 |
4.07 |
3/10 |
|
|
Siddharth |
7 |
19.1 |
82 |
13 |
4.28 |
4/3 |
|
|
Saad |
8 |
24.2 |
142 |
12 |
5.84 |
4/14 |
|
|
Sachin |
8 |
22.4 |
107 |
11 |
4.72 |
3/21 |
|
|
Deep |
8 |
30 |
165 |
11 |
5.50 |
2/21 |
|
|
Ali |
7 |
20.4 |
101 |
10 |
4.89 |
3/8 |
|
|
Yash |
8 |
20 |
116 |
10 |
5.80 |
4/7 |
* For more individual stats
go to team pages under 'Quest for the Championship' in the Indoor League
page