In a breathtaking display of their skill and talent the 16 Radians ensured that all their detractors keep their mouths firmly shut as they went on to win the Challenger Series in a nail biting match against GJ 6.
But, more on that later, first the semi finals...
The First match of the day was between GJ 6 and The Blockbusters.
GJ 6 started off as the firm favourites, and they put up a respectable score for the Blocbusters to chase.
The Blocbusters started on a positive note courtesy Shreyans. From the first few overs, it appeared that GJ 6 would be losing once again to the Blockbusters (they had earlier lost in the league stage) but, a few quick wickets, and things appeared more than a little shaky for the Blockbusters. After, Shreyans, Mahendra, Suvojit and Deva departed, things were always going to be difficult.
Sarthak Guru gave them a glimmer of hope by hitting a couple of huge sixers, but soon he and Arjun departed in quick succession, succumbing to the pressure of the few remaining deliveries. And, thus GJ 6 was through to the finals.
The next semi final was between us (UnderDogs) and 16 Radians.
Our first blow came in the form of Kumar Janmejay's absence. His illness caused him to 'NOT ONLY' miss our crucial semi final clash but also his Class Test in the morning.
The fact that we came to know that he wasn't playing only a few minutes before our clash led to us panicking...however, hats off to Dhruv for playing for us in such short notice.
We won the toss, and after having a team talk, we decided to bat, going against our usual practice, the reason of this is because we perceived the 16 Radians as 'uncomfortable chasers' and we were hoping to post a 50+ total, which would have pressurized them.
Our plans however, remained just that, plans. Vijay got out in the first over itself by a wonderful delivery by Abhishek Chaturvedi. Vinit came in with one single thought on the teams mind, 'survive'.
Vinit did that, and more, he was scoring at an average pace, and he remained on crease, which was our sole intention, however sometime during the fifth over or so, runs slowly began to dry up. Vinit was playing brilliantly, and hitting shots with wonderful timing, but somehow the ball just refused to cross the boundary with as much regularity as it should have, sheer poor luck actually. Vinit himself was not comfortable with the situation, and he suggested that someone else do the batting. Which we all agreed to, at that point of time.
That proved to be the undoing, Amit, Anand and Dhruv tried their best, but they were pressurized to make quick runs, and fell in the process.
Vinit came back again, for the last seven balls, and tried his best, but the pressure to score runs coupled with brilliant bowling, restricted us to a measly total of 36 runs.
This was definitely not a total that would trouble the awesome batting lineup of 16 Radians. But, we sure as hell tried hard, our fielding was great (modesty be damned), and we tried our best to pressurize them into making some mistakes. But, Ajay Sah seemed invulnerable, until a loose shot placed outside finally ended his superb innings.
After Ajay, the enormously talented Abhishek Chaturvedi came to bat, but could only score six before Vijay took a superb catch to dismiss him.
Nirav Meena came in next, and kept his cool, despite the verbal volleys coming to him from the UnderDogs members, we were trying our best to distract him, but he was too experienced to take notice of all this. He kept the scoreboard ticking and finally was caught by me, but by then his job had been done. Khanjan came in next, and got the remaining runs in a flash, and we, The UnderDogs were out of the tournament. We tried our best, but we were beaten by a better team.
The final match was destined to be a run fest, with GJ 6 and 16 Radians both in prime form.
GJ 6 decided to bat first, and thanks to Nirav Bhatt and Parth Bhatt, set up a huge total of 62 runs.
Most of us assumed that 16 Radians had no chance, because of their tendency to choke while chasing.
However, an in-form Ajay Sah, who has blossomed from being a 'slam-bam' make do batsman to an enormously thinking, entertaining and reliable one had other plans. His 48 not out was beautiful and could not have come at a more appropriate occasion. Sadly though, in order to take no risks in the final overs, Abhishek Chaturvedi and Rajeev batted in his place so as to take the team home safely, thus denying him (and us) to a half century greatly deserved.
GJ 6 tried everything to defend their total, but could not do so, they tried everything in the books, but 16 Radians were too good, though I personally felt that Nirav Bhatt deserved to bowl both of his overs.
In the end, both the teams played good cricket, with 16 Radians playing 'just' a bit better than their counterparts to win The Challenger Series.
Contributed By : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)
But, more on that later, first the semi finals...
The First match of the day was between GJ 6 and The Blockbusters.
GJ 6 started off as the firm favourites, and they put up a respectable score for the Blocbusters to chase.
The Blocbusters started on a positive note courtesy Shreyans. From the first few overs, it appeared that GJ 6 would be losing once again to the Blockbusters (they had earlier lost in the league stage) but, a few quick wickets, and things appeared more than a little shaky for the Blockbusters. After, Shreyans, Mahendra, Suvojit and Deva departed, things were always going to be difficult.
Sarthak Guru gave them a glimmer of hope by hitting a couple of huge sixers, but soon he and Arjun departed in quick succession, succumbing to the pressure of the few remaining deliveries. And, thus GJ 6 was through to the finals.
The next semi final was between us (UnderDogs) and 16 Radians.
Our first blow came in the form of Kumar Janmejay's absence. His illness caused him to 'NOT ONLY' miss our crucial semi final clash but also his Class Test in the morning.
The fact that we came to know that he wasn't playing only a few minutes before our clash led to us panicking...however, hats off to Dhruv for playing for us in such short notice.
We won the toss, and after having a team talk, we decided to bat, going against our usual practice, the reason of this is because we perceived the 16 Radians as 'uncomfortable chasers' and we were hoping to post a 50+ total, which would have pressurized them.
Our plans however, remained just that, plans. Vijay got out in the first over itself by a wonderful delivery by Abhishek Chaturvedi. Vinit came in with one single thought on the teams mind, 'survive'.
Vinit did that, and more, he was scoring at an average pace, and he remained on crease, which was our sole intention, however sometime during the fifth over or so, runs slowly began to dry up. Vinit was playing brilliantly, and hitting shots with wonderful timing, but somehow the ball just refused to cross the boundary with as much regularity as it should have, sheer poor luck actually. Vinit himself was not comfortable with the situation, and he suggested that someone else do the batting. Which we all agreed to, at that point of time.
That proved to be the undoing, Amit, Anand and Dhruv tried their best, but they were pressurized to make quick runs, and fell in the process.
Vinit came back again, for the last seven balls, and tried his best, but the pressure to score runs coupled with brilliant bowling, restricted us to a measly total of 36 runs.
This was definitely not a total that would trouble the awesome batting lineup of 16 Radians. But, we sure as hell tried hard, our fielding was great (modesty be damned), and we tried our best to pressurize them into making some mistakes. But, Ajay Sah seemed invulnerable, until a loose shot placed outside finally ended his superb innings.
After Ajay, the enormously talented Abhishek Chaturvedi came to bat, but could only score six before Vijay took a superb catch to dismiss him.
Nirav Meena came in next, and kept his cool, despite the verbal volleys coming to him from the UnderDogs members, we were trying our best to distract him, but he was too experienced to take notice of all this. He kept the scoreboard ticking and finally was caught by me, but by then his job had been done. Khanjan came in next, and got the remaining runs in a flash, and we, The UnderDogs were out of the tournament. We tried our best, but we were beaten by a better team.
The final match was destined to be a run fest, with GJ 6 and 16 Radians both in prime form.
GJ 6 decided to bat first, and thanks to Nirav Bhatt and Parth Bhatt, set up a huge total of 62 runs.
Most of us assumed that 16 Radians had no chance, because of their tendency to choke while chasing.
However, an in-form Ajay Sah, who has blossomed from being a 'slam-bam' make do batsman to an enormously thinking, entertaining and reliable one had other plans. His 48 not out was beautiful and could not have come at a more appropriate occasion. Sadly though, in order to take no risks in the final overs, Abhishek Chaturvedi and Rajeev batted in his place so as to take the team home safely, thus denying him (and us) to a half century greatly deserved.
GJ 6 tried everything to defend their total, but could not do so, they tried everything in the books, but 16 Radians were too good, though I personally felt that Nirav Bhatt deserved to bowl both of his overs.
In the end, both the teams played good cricket, with 16 Radians playing 'just' a bit better than their counterparts to win The Challenger Series.
Contributed By : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)
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