Captain's view

I was thinking of writing just one summary for the whole tournament, but Shiva’s post in the ISA forum and Sushanth’s reply coaxed me to write this one. First I would like to congratulate Assassins for their magnificent win. We would have liked to bat first had we won the toss, but I don’t think toss made a difference on the final outcome. In a way we now know what to do if we are asked to chase again.

Our bowlers did a decent job of restricting the Assassins for 122. They got probably 10 more runs than we would have liked, but with wickets in hand they threw their bats at everything and credit to Sam and Pritish for connecting well. After scoring 203 against The Warriors, we were confident of chasing down 122 with ease even though Assassins have a much superior attack than The Warriors.

After the initial loss of Vivek’s wicket we did well and Vinay took advantage of the power play with some lofty hitting. Once Shiva joined Vinay at the crease, they took the game away from the Assasins and we were cruising along at 72/2 after 9 overs at the break. I’m sure Shiva’s unconventional stroke play confused their bowlers regarding what line to bowl to him. With only 51 more required in 9 overs we took the result for granted and felt it’s a question of when rather than how. That’s the mistake we made and started loosing wickets like a pack of cards. Still, I was firm that as long as Sushnath is at the crease we will win the game, but to our disbelief he mistimed his big swing and it was curtains for us. Jaidev kept us in the game but it was not to be ours in the end.

To me the turning point was Sushanth’s wicket, but I put the blame on the lower middle order batsmen including me for the disaster. Also, the set batsmen should try to finish the game rather than going for fancy shots when our requirement is less than run-a-ball. Next time hopefully our batsmen will try to score a few singles to ease the pressure rather than put everything in one shot. Jaidev’s wicket-keeping was first-rate and that helped us have better fielding inside the ring. Although our bowling and fielding was much better than the first game, there is still room for improvement.

In the end, it was an excellent game and the crowd could not have asked for anything more. This is the most amazing game I have been involved at KSU cricket tournaments in the last four years and for the first time we lost a game in three years. That speaks volumes about our team’s strength. First, we will have to beat the Jardine Internationals in our next game and book our spot in the final. With Piyush’s return we will have more options in the bowling. By the look of the tournament, we will meet the Assasins in the final. I’m sure they will need more tricks and definitely more than 122 to beat us again.