This afternoon we had plenty of matches, hence plenty of action as well.
Good news for all you UnderDogs fans, we are through to the Semi-finals.
Our first match was against Team Delhi, who made their debut today, unlike the other teams, we did not underestimate them, and gave them due respect. They batted first, and put up a very respectable score of 46 runs. We always knew it would be a competitive score and hence a tight match was on our hands, but captain Vijay Purohit played a innings to prove his iconic stature, his 24 runs were very crucial, and by the time he was dismissed, we were cruising towards a victory. Amit and Anand took it from there and insured we were home and dry.
The next match was between The Blockbusters (our arch rivals) and 21 Centurions, which was a close contest, but 21 Centurions managed to win the match. Mudit Shah took the field instead of Sayan, and showed why he is my personal favourite batsman. I personally love his temperament, he refuses to get ruffled by anything or anyone when he is playing.
Nirav Meena's bowling also stood out, a thinking bowler in my opinion. Abhinav Saxena's batting has not clicked so far, but he is bowling beautifully as well. Pururaj's fielding and commitment showed why he deserved his place in the team.
21 Centurions then played against 16 Radians, second match in a row. They however lost, learning the important lesson, no matter how confident you are, don't play back to back matches.
Abhishek Chaturvedi then played a superb innings ensuring that the 16 Radians won comfortably, almost all his shots resulted in huge sixes.
The next match was touted to be the battle of the series, it was between the UnderDogs and The Blockbusters. We were riding high due to our victory against Team Delhi, and they were still upset about their loss against 21 Centurions. We were looking to continue our winning streak and they were anxious to start one themselves.
We won the toss and decided to field first, Kalpit was missing from the action, but they were confident about the team and decided to go ahead with 5 players. This decision probably came from overconfidence as earlier on in the day, Suvojit had commented that they could beat us with 5 players.
We could sense that they were in a low and in a defensive position, we gambled and went on to play aggressively, the decision paid off, because after Shreyansh Mehta was caught in the first ball of the innings, they withdrew into a shell. Suvojit was the second batsman and he played very defensively, finally getting dismissed with only six runs on the board at the end of around five or six overs. We went for the kill, they did not bat too badly after that, but at the end of their innings their scorecard read only 32.
We needed 33 to win, which is not usually a very tough target.
But then, Vijay, who was in good form, knocked down the stumps by mistake, and we were suddenly a bit nervous. Vineet came in and was playing quite well, before Deva Prasad got him, his usual delivery that stayed low, Vinit was unlucky, though Deva Prasad deserves all the credit. Amit Sharma, the anchor of the team was up next, but we couldn't help but feel a little panicky. He was scoring at a regular pace before he edged one outside, suddenly it seemed that the fortunes had turned, and we were snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
And then, magic happened. We decided to gamble a bit with the batting order, instead of Anand, who usually comes in that position, Kumar Janmejay was sent in.
His promotion worked like a miracle, he played sensibly, slowly, looking out for the loose balls. The target figure approached, but the mood was tense. Everyone knew that our lower order was not much to write home about, and the Blockbusters could sniff victory, they were charged up.
But Kumar Janmejay had other plans, he went on, steadily.
Finally, the winning runs were aptly scored by him, who hit a smashing six to knock the Blockbusters virtually out of the tournament.
The next match was between Team Delhi and 16 Radians. Team Delhi bowled first, and soon were in an enviable position, the score read 22 runs for 5 wickets. Everyone assumed that things could go only downhill for 16 Radians. But, they as a team, saved their best for last, Rajeev was the last batsman, and managed an unbelievably quickfire century..yes..you read that right, century. Though aided by some lackluster bowling on Team Delhi's part, Rajeev was in tremendous form, middling every shot, and rarely hitting anything apart from sixes. The crowd chanted in unison...."icon..icon". That sort of batting can be demoralizing for any opposition.
Normally, we the UnderDogs, like to see other players' batting, and try to find out any chinks in their armour, but sorry to say, we couldn't find any in Rajeev's batting.
After that innings, no one seriously believed that Team Delhi could win the match, but must specially mention Raunak Jain's batting was pretty good, they posted a decent score of 39, which is normally a satisfying total. In this case though, it was nothing as compared to the mammoth total of 16 Radians.
But, we must admit, the batting of Team Delhi is pretty commendable, and Ashwath and Shubham were pretty good with the ball as well. If they improve their bowling a bit, I think they could cause quite a lot of upsets.
Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (Player)
The next match was between The Blockbusters (our arch rivals) and 21 Centurions, which was a close contest, but 21 Centurions managed to win the match. Mudit Shah took the field instead of Sayan, and showed why he is my personal favourite batsman. I personally love his temperament, he refuses to get ruffled by anything or anyone when he is playing.
Nirav Meena's bowling also stood out, a thinking bowler in my opinion. Abhinav Saxena's batting has not clicked so far, but he is bowling beautifully as well. Pururaj's fielding and commitment showed why he deserved his place in the team.
21 Centurions then played against 16 Radians, second match in a row. They however lost, learning the important lesson, no matter how confident you are, don't play back to back matches.
Abhishek Chaturvedi then played a superb innings ensuring that the 16 Radians won comfortably, almost all his shots resulted in huge sixes.
The next match was touted to be the battle of the series, it was between the UnderDogs and The Blockbusters. We were riding high due to our victory against Team Delhi, and they were still upset about their loss against 21 Centurions. We were looking to continue our winning streak and they were anxious to start one themselves.
We won the toss and decided to field first, Kalpit was missing from the action, but they were confident about the team and decided to go ahead with 5 players. This decision probably came from overconfidence as earlier on in the day, Suvojit had commented that they could beat us with 5 players.
We could sense that they were in a low and in a defensive position, we gambled and went on to play aggressively, the decision paid off, because after Shreyansh Mehta was caught in the first ball of the innings, they withdrew into a shell. Suvojit was the second batsman and he played very defensively, finally getting dismissed with only six runs on the board at the end of around five or six overs. We went for the kill, they did not bat too badly after that, but at the end of their innings their scorecard read only 32.
We needed 33 to win, which is not usually a very tough target.
But then, Vijay, who was in good form, knocked down the stumps by mistake, and we were suddenly a bit nervous. Vineet came in and was playing quite well, before Deva Prasad got him, his usual delivery that stayed low, Vinit was unlucky, though Deva Prasad deserves all the credit. Amit Sharma, the anchor of the team was up next, but we couldn't help but feel a little panicky. He was scoring at a regular pace before he edged one outside, suddenly it seemed that the fortunes had turned, and we were snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.
And then, magic happened. We decided to gamble a bit with the batting order, instead of Anand, who usually comes in that position, Kumar Janmejay was sent in.
His promotion worked like a miracle, he played sensibly, slowly, looking out for the loose balls. The target figure approached, but the mood was tense. Everyone knew that our lower order was not much to write home about, and the Blockbusters could sniff victory, they were charged up.
But Kumar Janmejay had other plans, he went on, steadily.
Finally, the winning runs were aptly scored by him, who hit a smashing six to knock the Blockbusters virtually out of the tournament.
The next match was between Team Delhi and 16 Radians. Team Delhi bowled first, and soon were in an enviable position, the score read 22 runs for 5 wickets. Everyone assumed that things could go only downhill for 16 Radians. But, they as a team, saved their best for last, Rajeev was the last batsman, and managed an unbelievably quickfire century..yes..you read that right, century. Though aided by some lackluster bowling on Team Delhi's part, Rajeev was in tremendous form, middling every shot, and rarely hitting anything apart from sixes. The crowd chanted in unison...."icon..icon". That sort of batting can be demoralizing for any opposition.
Normally, we the UnderDogs, like to see other players' batting, and try to find out any chinks in their armour, but sorry to say, we couldn't find any in Rajeev's batting.
After that innings, no one seriously believed that Team Delhi could win the match, but must specially mention Raunak Jain's batting was pretty good, they posted a decent score of 39, which is normally a satisfying total. In this case though, it was nothing as compared to the mammoth total of 16 Radians.
But, we must admit, the batting of Team Delhi is pretty commendable, and Ashwath and Shubham were pretty good with the ball as well. If they improve their bowling a bit, I think they could cause quite a lot of upsets.
Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (Player)
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