Scorecard

CR Kings v Heartland Cricket League NEBRASKA CRICKET CLUB on Sat 01 Oct 2011 at 9:00 AM
Heartland Cricket League Lost by 18 runs

Match report
On October 1st, after many weekends during the season that featured sub-optimal cricket conditions, the Gods finally relented and provided the perfect weather for the HCL League Final played between the reigning champions, the Kings of Cedar Rapids, and the Nebraska Cricket Club.



NCC won the toss and elected to field first. When in form, Siva Sattanathan is a sight to behold. However, of late he has been providing too many cameos for a batsman of his caliber. Siva did not waste too much time getting things going, smashing a four to the cover fence off the second ball he faced. But he perished in trying to duplicate the feat, edging behind to the keeper, Prashant Paymal, off the bowling of Sushrut Kamerkar. (7 in 5 balls, 1 four)


Parvath Reddy likes to hammer the ball in the V and hit a couple of fours but, in general, found it hard to pierce the strong off-side field. Not surprisingly, in trying to manufacture a shot to the leg-side, Parvath lost his stumps to Janmejay JJ Tanwar (14 in 23 balls, 2 fours).


In the 2010 final, Alok Reddy Madasani and Mohan Kumar Kondapalli took on the pressure of a chase and calmly guided CRK to their first ever championship. With the benefit of past experience to fall back on, Alok began slowly, not scoring off the first 8 balls he faced. At the other end, Mohan also took a sedate approach, scoring 5 off the first 10 balls. But this was just the quiet before the storm. And what a perfect storm it was that followed. Without making any agricultural cross-batted swings the duo proceeded to scythe through the NCC bowling, peppering the boundaries with cover drives, flicks, and cuts of the finest quality. The Holiday Park ground was very fast and gave full support to traditional-looking cricket shots. Over 12 overs, the duo put on exactly 100 runs with both players contributing equally to the score.


Alok took up the onus of accelerating the scoring by threading drives through cover and mid-wicket before launching three sixes in the mid-wicket to long-on region to anything wayward in length. Alok was the first to complete his 50 but perished soon after trying to launch Phil Blake through the off-side to be safely caught by Sushrut at extra cover. (55 runs in 38 balls, 5 fours, 3 sixes).


Mohan bats with the type of elegance usually associated with left-handers (the Sangakkara variety not the Allan Border kind) and waited for the bowlers to come into his zone, driving through cover and flicking through midwicket-square leg when the ball was on the stumps. When in his forties, he flicked straight in and out of the fielder's hands at midwicket. rather then dwell on that drop, Mohan proceeded to start expanding his hitting zone and the run-rate picked up drastically.


Ganesh Krishnasamy and Mohan had a terrible mix-up with both batsmen looking at each other from one end. However, NCC missed two chances to execute the run-out, one from either side, and the horse had bolted. Ganesh looked uncomfortable handling the fastish pace of Phil Blake but took a distinct liking to the usually-dangerous Francis Origanti's dibbly-dobblers, who was hammered for 2 sixes and 3 fours by him. By the time Ganesh's inning came to an end, caught at the mid-wicket boundary by JJ off Amit Phatak's bowling, he had taken the CRK score past 200 with overs to spare. (49 runs in 30 balls, 4 fours, 2 sixes).


If the NCC bowlers thought they were in for some respite, they were in for a surprise. With the score already in the region of ginormous proportions, Kannan Sethuraman did not waste any time getting his eye in, hitting 4 of the first 6 balls he faced to the fence. Actually, why stop there? He hit 8 of the 12 balls he faced to the fence or over it. Just the type of finishing touch an inning needs.


Mohan was starting to tire after his long inning and skied the ball to deep cover where JJ took a good running catch off Amit's bowling. (82 runs in 66 balls, 6 fours, 2 sixes).


Rakesh Rao came in, launched a four and a six just for fun and the CRK inning was (mercifully for the NCC bowlers) stopped after the mandatory 30 overs. Kannan remained not out on 42 in 12 balls with 6 fours and 2 sixes. Rakesh was not out on 14 in 6 balls with 1 four and 1 six.


CRK scored 286 for 5 in 30 overs, the highest score in the history of HCL Finals. Chasing it down would require a special effort and NCC had the right-minded batsmen for just that.


287 to win in 180 balls, 10 wickets in hand. A walk in the park. In heavy rain.


The NCC inning got off to as disastrous a start as possible. After his lousy captaincy, C.S. Manish capped off a personally miserable day for him, showing neither the technique nor the skill to play the first ball off Shivaji Pokala, giving Kannan a routine catch behind the stumps. Career-ending innings typically come in such inadequate fashion. (0 runs in 1 ball).


Amit Phatak and Prashant Paymal then showed their ineffective captain exactly how to bat on this wicket, stitching together a 43 run partnership in the next 24 balls. Amit has been NCC's linchpin this season, providing launching pads that have been capitalized by JJ Tanwar batting down the order. Taking on the bowling in his inimitable style Amit brought some cheer to the camp but played all over a straighter one from Shivaji to bowled but not before launching a 6 and a four over mid-wicket that would have been boundaries on any ground in the world. (22 runs in 12 balls, 1 four, 1 six).


Prashant is an excellent batsman, especially square off the wicket, but was bogged down by the tight wicket-to-wicket line of Mohan. In an attempt to do something different, he charged at the ball, looking to chip it over the infield, and Kannan pulled off the easiest of stumpings. (15 runs in 18 balls).


Fresh off his death-defying batting feats in the T20 portion of the league, JJ pulled the first ball he faced to the fence and looked in as ominous touch as anyone on the day, caressing boundaries intermingled with hard-run 3's. Gaurav Patil was sent up the order to keep the boundaries rolling and he obliged with just that, hammering the straight and square boundaries off Mohan's bowling. However, in Ganesh's first over, he changed the entire nature of the contest when he hammered a straight drive back to the bowler. The ball deflected off Ganesh's hands onto the stumps, finding JJ short of the crease while backing up. Ominous signs do not come more ominous than this - NCC was in trouble. (JJ scored 24 in 16 balls with 3 fours).


In Mohan's next over, Gaurav missed a pull shot that harmlessly flew up and hit his helmet. However, Kannan had other ideas, scurrying around the batsman, tumbling and taking a catch on the second rebound. (27 runs in 18 balls with 5 fours).


At this point, the score was 100 for 5 in 12 overs. 108 balls left, 187 runs to win, 5 wickets in hand. A walk in the park. During a thunderstorm.


NCC's trump card was yet to come, Francis Origanti. Feared throughout the HCL for his thundering hits, Francis tried really hard to get some momentum going but had a very hard time connecting properly. It is a measure of Francis's abilities that on an off-day he still managed to score more than a run-a-ball. However, the lack of acceleration got to Francis and, in trying to keep the strike, got stumped by Kannan off Ganesh. (35 runs in 31 balls, 2 fours, 1 six). 145 for 6 in 19.2 overs.


142 runs required in 64 balls, 4 wickets in hand. A walk in the park. During a hurricane.


Shardul Sohani is a batsman designed for a different league with different grounds, maybe even a different era. Happy to bat on the back foot and punch the ball through cover and in the V, Shardul has struggled on grounds that have very thick grass, curtailing his scoring. On this day, however, the fast paced Holiday Park ground gave him just the arena he needed to showcase his skills. After a tough start where he was probably trying to hit the ball too hard, Shardul settled down and with Anish proceeded to bring the match back towards NCC. Flicking to fine-leg and driving on the up to cover, Shardul provided the spark needed to ignite a fire. Anish Mathew provided all the fuel. In the next 28 balls, the pair put on 63 runs in contrasting fashion. Shardul eased the ball into the gap while Anish hammered the cover off it, including two sixes over cover. However, in going for a tight third run, Anish was found short and NCC's chances took a big hit. (31 runs in 15 balls, 1 four and 2 sixes). The pair put on 58 runs in 26 balls and at one stage were threatening to take the game away from CR Kings.


79 runs to win in 29 balls, 3 wickets in hand. A walk in the park. In a tornado.


Phil Blake's ability to hit the ball appears to be thought highly of only by his captain with some teammates openly wondering whether he could even hit the ball. On this day, Phil showed that he could, indeed, hit the ball very hard and very long if it landed in his hitting zone. With every hit being cheered lustily and every boundary resulting in a mid-pitch consultation by the fielders, the pressure mounted. 11 runs came in the 27th over, 16 in the 28th, and 14th in the 29th. Suddenly, with 6 balls to go, 21 runs were needed.


Off the second ball, Shardul who scored an elegant 56 of 45 balls with 4 boundaries, launched a straight drive towards long-off. The ball hung in the air for a long time and Ganesh calmly took the catch on the edge of the boundary. A matter of inches and the game was almost decided at that point, though Phil batting on 41 off 18 balls with 2 fours and 2 sixes, still had to face the remaining 4 balls from the find of the season for CRK, Shivaji. The next four balls were dot balls & thus CR Kings lifted the HCL Championship for 2011.

NCC, true to their reputation put up a fight for the ages but, in the end, CRK very deservedly went on to win the match by 18 runs. A record 554 runs were scored in 60 Overs. All season long, these two teams had stood out over the rest of the league and it was a fitting finale to a very well-contested HCL 2011 season.

For his outstanding batting and tight bowling, Mohan was adjudged the Man of the Match.


The Man of the Series award was given to Ganesh Krishnasamy who was outstanding in all three departments for CRK.

Heartland Cricket League NEBRASKA CRICKET CLUB Batting
Player Name RunsMB4s6sSRCtStRo
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
268
(0.0 overs)		    
C.S. Manish Caught  (Kannan) b. Shivaji 0
Amit Phatak Bowled  Shivaji 22
Prashant Paymal Stumped  (Kannan) b. Mohan 15 1
janmejay tanwar Run out  (Ganesh) 24 2
Gaurav Patil Caught  (Kannan) b. Mohan 27
Francis Origanti Stumped  (Kannan) b. Ganesh 35
Shardul Sohani Caught  (Ganesh) b. Shivaji 56
anish mathew Run out  (Ganesh/Kannan) 31
Phillip Blake Not Out  41
Sushrut Kamerkar Not Out  0 1
Swarit Agarwal  

CR Kings Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Shivaji6.0057319.009.50
Kumar5.004900.009.80
Ashok4.004900.0012.25
Mohan6.0037218.506.17
Ganesh6.0036136.006.00
Alok3.004500.0015.00

CR Kings Batting
Player name Runs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
286 (0.0 overs)
Siva Caught  (Prashant) b. Sushrut 7
Parvath Bowled  JJ 14
Mohan Caught  (JJ) b. Amit 82
Alok Caught  (Sushrut) b. Phil 55
Ganesh Caught  (JJ) b. Amit 49
Kannan Not Out  42
Rakesh Not Out  14
Shivaji  
Ashok  
Venkat  
Kumar  

Heartland Cricket League NEBRASKA CRICKET CLUB Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
anish mathew3.001400.004.67
Sushrut Kamerkar5.0043143.008.60
janmejay tanwar5.0050150.0010.00
Shardul Sohani3.002600.008.67
Phillip Blake6.0041141.006.83
Amit Phatak6.0063231.5010.50
Francis Origanti2.002900.0014.50
Swarit Agarwal1.002000.0020.00