Scorecard

Nebraska CC v Heartland Cricket League IOWA BULLS on Sun 25 Sep 2011 at 9:00 AM
Heartland Cricket League Lost by 1 wicket

Match report On Sunday, 25th of September 2011, the Bulls of Iowa drove into Omaha to play the Cricket Club of Nebraska (who really should have a mascot) in the final of the HCL T20 championship. The weather was picture perfect, in the mid-70's with not a single cloud in the sky. After the dismal conditions of the previous weekend, it was great to have such wonderful weather.


Damian De Rozairo broke the habit of a lifetime and finally won a toss and asked IBL to bat first. Vinod Patel and Achal Patel (not related, I think) came out bats swinging from the get go as Damian attacked with everyone inside the 15 yard line. Sushrut Kamerkar and Phil Blake thundered in and eventually got both batsmen caught at third man off a slash. However, Vinod took a while to dislodge, helped along the way by a dropped catch (the fielder claimed to have lost sight of the white ball because of a white cloud...a cloudless sky notwithstanding). Biren Desai and Asif Shaikh fell to the spin twins (in bowling speed only) Shardul Sohani and Swarit Agarwal. That brought Anand Chittoor to the stage and, boy, did he relish it. A fast bouncer was sent thundering onto the road, nearly decapitating a passing cyclist. Anand threatened to take the game away with a few more crushing hits to the fence, before he was caught in two minds and got out, off a leading edge, in Amit Phatak's first over. Amit, building on his reputation as the highest wicket-taker in the league, took 3 more wickets and Francis Origanti finished the inning off in typical fashion for NCC. IBL was all out for 137 in the 19th over. Between the two of them Amit and Francis took 6-0-31-6.


The NCC inning got off to a fast but stuttering start as the batsmen were taking runs quite freely but also getting out in the same fashion. Vinod Patel helped himself to three catches, while Francis provided the initial impetus with a 31 ball 38. At the other end, Janmejay JJ Tanwar was biding his time. Unfortunately for him, his team-mates had other ideas. A rash of run-outs coupled with atrocious batting by others suddenly left NCC with the task of getting 39 runs in 24 balls, with 3 wickets in hand. By this time the IBL bowlers, Shiva Kempaiah in particular, were keeping up the pressure and the boundaries dried out completely and the pressure got to the NCC batsmen. The next two overs featured two more dismissals and suddenly, 25 were required in 2 overs with only 1 wicket in hand.


NCC's sole hope lay with JJ. Keeping him company was the #11 Swarit Agarwal. Swarit is many things - a good writer, a great scorer, a fabulous cook - but hitting sixes is way down on the list of things he is particularly adept at. So, he settled for the next best thing he could do - run up and down the pitch every time JJ hit the ball. Six balls later, JJ had calmly reduced the equation to 12 runs needed, one over to go.


JJ and Swarit ran two, two, and two off the first three balls. Six runs needed to win 3 balls to go. JJ decided it was time to be a hero, and went down on one knee to launch Anand over the midwicket fence for the winning six, taking NCC to a 1 wicket win with 2 balls to spare. (A walk in the park. Never. A. Doubt. *phew*)


A measure of IBL's discipline in bowling and fielding was that, in the entire inning, the NCC batsmen were able to hit just 4 fours and 1 six. Anshul Kumaria's leg spinners were a handful and he ended up with the fabulous figures of 4-0-19-4 as batsman after batsman was clueless against his dipping deliveries.


The match was played in great spirits and both sides fought tooth and nail, ensuring the match was worthy of a final. Not surprisingly, JJ Tanwar was adjudged the Man of the Match. To put his inning into perspective, JJ scored 40 of the last 45 runs needed by NCC. He finished with 46 in 24 balls (2 fours and a six).




Heartland Cricket League IOWA BULLS Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
137
(0.0 overs)		    
Achal Patel Caught  Amit b. Sushrut 6
Vinod Patel Caught  Amit b. Phil 22 3
Biren Desai Caught  Phil b. Swarit 2
Asif Shaikh Caught  Prashant b. Shardul 5
Anand Chittoor Caught  JJ b. Amit 37 1
Mihir Gajjar Bowled  Amit 10 1
Shiva Kempaiah Run out  Peter 20 1
Anshul Kumaria Caught  (Prashant) b. Amit 2
CHIRAG SONI Bowled  Francis 7
Alok Epari Bowled  Francis 3
Shailesh Manek Not Out  1

Nebraska CC Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Phil4.0029129.007.25
Sushrut2.0027127.0013.50
Shardul4.0025125.006.25
Swarit3.0024124.008.00
Amit4.001735.674.25
Francis2.001427.007.00

Nebraska CC Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
138 (0.0 overs)
Francis Origanti Caught  (Vinod) b. Anshul 38
Amit Caught  (Vinod) b. Chirag 5
Prashant Bowled  Shiva 12
JJ Not Out  46
shardul Caught  (Vinod) b. Anshul 13
Manish Stumped  (Anand) b. Anshul 5
Damian Run out  Mihir 1
Phil Lbw  Anshul 0
Peter Bowled  Anand 0
Sushrut Run out  Shiva 3
Swarit Not Out  1

Heartland Cricket League IOWA BULLS Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Anand Chittoor3.4041141.0011.18
Shailesh Manek4.002400.006.00
CHIRAG SONI2.0020120.0010.00
Achal Patel2.001500.007.50
Shiva Kempaiah4.0019119.004.75
Anshul Kumaria4.001944.754.75