Match report for game vs Bengals2 at Galway

Our 3rd match of the season (away game) was vs Bengals2 at Galways. Weather was good with being cloudy most of the time. Srini was not playing this match recuperating from his tooth surgery. The match started an hour later than scheduled under cloudy conditions.

Bengals2 won the toss and decided to bat. Our bowling innings got off to a great start with Vijay striking in his second over and Chandresh taking a smart catch. Deepak got the next wicket with a beautiful slower delivery and foxing the batsman completely to disturb the stump settings. We kept on chipping on at the Bengals2 batting line up and got 4 of their wickets during the first drinks break for under 50 runs. After the drinks break and some Dunkin Donuts we made further inroads into the Bengals2 batting line up with Chandresh, Preetham and Saurabh taking the wickets to get them 7 down for around 80 runs for

We were in good bowling form as but were bowling 1-2 loose deliveries that went for boundaries. Bengals2 batted solid with their batsmen defending well against the good balls and punishing the loose ones. The partnership worth more than hundred runs was finally broken by Deepak with a stunning catch by Vijay at long on. Pulling one Siddhuism : "The ball went so high it almost kissed the airhostess in the plane flying above" ;). They ended up with 242/8 in their 35 overs.

After a quick 2nd round of some donuts and good home cooked food from Vijay and Lali we started our chase with Deepak and Chandresh opening. We did not have a good start and lost both our openers cheaply. Lai and Vijay put on a good partnership with Vijay hitting some good big shots and Lali being solid at the other end. But once this partnership was broken our batting collapsed. Ananth was caught of a very close catch which did not look clean. The umpire did refer it with the leg umpire and gave it out. Umpiring in this game was very poor and inconsistent. But our performance in this game was not upto our potential and we need to apply ourselves better as individuals and as a team. We had some good performances from Vijay, Deepak & Preetham in the bowling and some good batting by Vijay, Lali and Preetham and these are signs of more good performances in the next games.

Good job on the filed and with more application and luck we will be back in our next match.

- by Saurabh