I never show my emotions on the Cricket field. But this tournament changed it and brought out a mix of emotions. After all, this tournament will be known for breaking the stereotypes.
Being the last tournament for me in Tampa and for MB United, I wanted to go out with a bang by winning the tournament. But I never once thought I’d get the opportunity to hit the winning runs with a boundary.
Honestly, I didn’t think we stood a chance at winning the tournament. But I certainly knew we had a good team and we can put up a good show. As soon as I came to know about the league fixtures and that we are playing MatchFixers in our first match, I was raring to go.
In the last 1-year, these guys have defeated us in all tournaments that we played. To add salt to the injury, they lured my cousin (who is as explosive as Jayasuriya) from our team. So my sole objective was to win the game against these guys.
League Round Match 1
MB united Vs. Match Fixers
MB united – 86 in 14 overs
Match Fixers – 87 in 13 overs
I scored 16 runs, which is the top score in our lineup. I had a good time in the middle rotating strike and occasional boundaries. Almost always when I go into bat, we would be in a bad position and Harish and myself stick in the middle and steady the innings. That’s what happened in this match too. We put up a decent score of 86 in 14 overs. We bowled well, with Kaushik bowling my cousin Srikrish on the first ball. We played well till the last 4 overs of the match where we lost concentration and let their lower order batsmen snatch the game away. This was a huge disappointment for me personally.
Our next match was against a Pakistani team (Waterford Cricket Club). We knew they aren’t a strong team. But we need to win convincingly enough to maintain a high Net Run Rate in order to qualify for the quarterfinals incase there is a tie between the teams in our group.
I don’t exactly remember the scores but they batted first and scored some 70 odd runs in 14 overs. Our star opening batsman Varma thrashed them and we were able to win convincingly. I went in when we were 2 runs short of victory and Varma was 6 runs short of a 50. I decided to play out the remaining balls in the over so that Varma can finish off the match with a six. But a bad decision by the umpire had me out for 0. I didn’t know why I was given out and I asked the umpire how I was out. I was told I was out caught by the wicket keeper. Three reasons I was disappointed although we won the match. I scored a duck, against a Pakistani team and most importantly we lost one more wicket, which brought down our NRR. (And No, Varma did not score a six to get a 50. They bowled wides). Highlight of the game was, Arun, our temporary wicketkeeper took 6 catches.
Our last league match against Aryans has nothing much to discuss except that we again scored a convincing win. Aryans scored around 90 and we chased it with 2 overs to spare. I scored 14 runs and got out trying to the win the game by hitting a six. Lesson learnt. Also, Jags, our mainstay batsman was back in team.
And yeah we were through to the quarterfinal next day. But we were going to face the toughest team in the competition, Hyderabad Tigers. They are the defending champions and against whom we lost the finals last year.
Muzza, our captain had different strategies going into the quarterfinal game. Our team, which had the fastest bowlers among the total 16 teams that played, cut down the pace. Nik, our top bowler and ex captain, did not even bowl a ball. But he did not even utter a word of disappointment and that showed the rest of the team how he put the team first. Our slow bowlers were disciplined and we were able to contain the hard hitters of Hyderabad Tigers for 96 runs in 14 overs. Pradeep playing the first match in the tournament was a great find. The batsmen had no answers to his skilled bowling. I got one run out to my credit on the field.
This time, Jobin went to open the batting with Varma, since Arun who usually opens the batting with Varma had to sit out of the match for Tijo. Varma got to business right away, hitting the bowlers out of the ground. Jobin was quietly rotating the strike for the first few overs. And just when Varma was slowing down, Jobin hit an extraordinary six. That got everyone in the team pumped up. We needed around 50 runs from 7 overs. After a couple of mistakes that cost us a few wickets, Jags and Tijo were trying to build a partnership. I was the next man to go into bat and I was sitting away from the rest of the team trying to concentrate. That’s when Tijo exploded with 3 sixers and we won the game with ease. And luckily I caught the moment in my camera. This win meant a lot to us and gave us confidence that we are a good team and we can beat anyother team.
We were now pitted against UCF Eagles in the Semi Finals. None of the guys have played against this team for about 4 years. So we had no idea about their team composition, strengths and weaknesses. Just when the match started I had a scuffle with the UCF Eagles team and I was all charged up. They batted first and took the game away from us from the word go. They had quality batsmen and they used every loose ball to score a six or a four. When their innings came to an end, they had a huge total of 118 runs in 14 overs.
We had to score 8.5 runs an over to win the game. It was a tough task and our openers Jobin and Varma had to give us a good start. They did and we were cruising along. Just when everything was going fine, Varma was given run out, a pathetic decision from the leg umpire. We were all shell-shocked and started to shout abuses at the umpire. Nik ran into the field to argue with the umpire and I, lost my temper and ran into the field with a stump. I had no intention to hurt anyone but just going in with the stump will create a fear among the opposition and pump up our guys. It did and we were shouting for each and every ball bowled. We were determined to win the game at any cost (even by abusing the opponents). And then again there were a few quick wickets, including that of Jags, our main batsman. I joined Tijo in the middle and we were starting to build a partnership. I was rotating strike while Tijo was going after the bowlers. And one poor judgment in running cost my wicket as I got run out. Now for the turning point of the match, just when the run rate was dipping after I got out, Arun went in to bat (honestly he wasn’t in the best of forms and wasn’t timing the ball correctly). We were shocked when he hit a huge six and a four in one over and plundered 15 runs of it. That got everyone confident that we were gonna make it. Tijo responded with 3 sixers. And within no time, we chased what seemed to be an impossible target with 1 over to spare. As soon as Nik hit the winning boundary, we all ran into the field as if we won the finals. And I threw in some abuses at the opponents, which in retrospect was a bad idea. They complained about me but Muzza and the senior players covered me. However I duly apologized to Muzza after the match. Actually we were so aggressive and passionate about winning this match that we were celebrating the current victory ignoring the fact that we were through to the finals.
After a quick drive to the nearby Dunkin Donuts, we were back in the ground for the grand finale against the SriLankan Lions. Just to give a quick history about this team, they all play like Jayasuriya. Last year when we played against them, we scored 90 odd runs in 14 overs and they were on the verge of defeat with their score reading 20/5. Then came Hemantha, the most powerful batsman I have ever seen. Scored 7 sixes and snatched the game right out of our hands.
The Lankans are a fine team outside and inside the field. Its always fun to play with them and to watch them play, especially when Hemantha bats.
This was the fifth toss that Muzza won and chose to chase, except for the first game when we batted first.
Lankans started of well, with their supporters waving SriLankan flags and drumming outside the ground.
We had our own supporters, the TCS guys from Preserve, who were all drinking apple juice (atleast that’s what they told me.) We had to sit out our wicket-taking bowler Pradeep since he was too tired to bowl.
And Muzza had plans to use Nik this match.
Lankans started off well scoring 60 runs in 7 overs with just one wicket. Tijo, who changed his bowling to quick spin was awesome, taking their already settled opening batsman. I caught him at gully to kickoff the Great SriLankan Collapse. They started to loose wickets at regular intervals. Then came the formidable Hemantha. We had 4 men in the boundary line on the leg side. And Hemantha still hit on the leg side with the ball carrying landing on the floodlights. I, who was standing in the boundary had no choice but to look at the ball going 25 feet above my head.
Just when Hemantha was starting, Denny bowled a real quick ball that bowled Hemantha. Right then we knew we have the game. From 60/1 in 7 overs, they were able to make only 96 runs by the end of 14 overs.
We were pretty confident that we were going to win when Varma started off the innings with a huge six. Varma and Jobin again gave us an awesome start before Varma fell caught behind. Jobin played well to and he was out caught behind as well. I went in when we needed 35 off 36 balls. Jags was my partner. I started to play sensible by giving strike to Jags who was a settled batsman. Our equation came down to 31 from 30 balls. That’s when Shriyan came to bowl. His action is somewhat similar to Muralitharan. I launched into his first ball and hit a straight six that erupted our team on the field. That’s when I called Muzza and asked him to be ready with the camera for capturing the winning moment. Jags played his shots too and we needed 5 runs to win in 3 overs. First ball was a wide. The second ball was a short pitched ball and I pulled it over the head of the square leg fielder. Voila, a boundary and we won…The entire team rushed into the ground and hugged Jags and me. I couldn’t have asked for more. A win and an opportunity to score the winning shot, that’s more than wishful thinking.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J4J0kfJvLwI
