Absolute win for Neeraj XI

It was the 2^nd match of the MCL tournament, between Neeraj’s XI and Absolute XI (which had players from PGPCMX, RCM and CCC). Absolute XI was an unknown entity with very few players having played at MICA earlier. Neeraj XI boasted of a few good players like Ashish Rao, Neeraj and Gaurav. Neeraj’s team won the toss and elected to bowl. With the match starting before 7:30 pm, the dew and the wet ball was a bit of concern.

Absolute XI captain Varun and Manan opened the innings. Ashish Rao opened the bowling and started off well troubling the batsmen with his immaculate line and length. Varun was lucky to survive the first over. Neeraj who bowled the 2^nd over was good and soon Absolute XI openers were struggling to find some kind of momentum. Ashish then produced a beauty and had Manan clean bowled. Varun who was living a charmed life was the next to go caught behind by Abhay off Neeraj. As if this was not enough, the running between the wickets of Absolute XI was awful. It appeared as if they had never run between the wickets before. Rahul who came in next tried to run for a single that never existed and was run-out. In the next over, Jimmesh was also run-out with the stumps broken at the non-strikers end this time by Ashish. At this stage, Absolute XI was tottering at 10/4 with their top order batsmen back in the pavilion. Not taking away any credit from the bowlers, Absolute XI had only themselves to blame for not doing the basic stuff right and ending up in a deep hole. Sachin and Mihir then injected some life into the innings with both of them hitting sixers. Rohan went for 11 runs in his over and was replaced by Aneesh. Ankush who was also going for runs then picked up Mihir caught by Aneesh. It was a vital blow considering the fact that Mihir and Sachin were just building a partnership. Sachin tried a hit too many and was bowled by .Feroz, who came in next fell in similar fashion to Aneesh who was rewarded for keeping it full. With seven wickets down and not even 50 runs on the board Absolute XI was in an absolute soup. Playing out the full quota of 20 seemed quite a task at this stage and the pair of Raghu and Sudarshan was content in doing just that. They put on a useful stand before Raghu fell to Aneesh caught by Ankush. Sudarshan fell next caught by Gaurav off the bowling of Abhay. The last wicket pair of Abhijit and Sheetal batted sensibly with Abhijit hitting a four and Sheetal clearing the leg side boundary. The innings folded up at 86 when Abhijit was caught behind off Ankush. Aneesh finished with impressive figures of 3 for 13 for the bowling team.

Neeraj’s XI opened with Aneesh and Gaurav. Chasing a target of 87, Neeraj’s XI was off to a flyer with Gaurav hitting Varun for a couple of boundaries in the first over. With the power play restrictions in place the full tosses bowled by Varun proved to be costly. Sheetal bowled a tight second over giving nothing away. Varun took himself off the attack and gave Manan the third over. Gaurav went after Manan hitting him for 4s and 6s at will. The first 5 balls went for 25 runs. Manan finally had Gaurav caught by Sheetal but by then the damage had been done. Gaurav’s 34 came off just 17 balls and dented the psyche of the Absolute team. Sheetal at the other end continued to bowled well. Varun came back for a second spell and kept it tight but none of the other bowlers made any kind of impact. Abhijit , Mihir and Jimmesh leaked runs without making any impact . Aneesh went after the bowlers while Neeraj gave him good company at the other end. Jimmesh came and disappeared for 18 runs in 2 balls, bowling a couple of no-balls. Neeraj’s XI romped home in just 8.2 over. Aneesh scored 28 off just 20 balls and was rightly adjudged the man of the match for his all-round effort. Neeraj remained unbeaten on 19 off 18 balls.

Absolute XI will need to pull up their socks especially in their bowling department, to compete in the rest of the tournament. This was a good start for Neeraj XI but they will need to prove their mettle against tougher opponents awaiting them.