Decline of ST Cricket

Once again we lost to a good team by a huge margin and the fact which is hard to digest is that we are unable to challenge any team in corporate world which are potentially better than us. We so easily gave up by just hearing the names of the teams which we are going to encounter at a later stage in the tournament. Cricket is a mind game and we are losing in our minds. The main problem with ST cricket is the un-togetherness of the teams: STCT and STCL. There was no point splitting the teams into two, when none of the teams is good enough to compete at corporate level.

STCT have all the big names that had represented ST in corporate cricket for years; Das, Sudip, Vij, Narwal, Jeswani, Indranil, Mudit, Hansie, and so on and STCL has just a few of them who has represented ST at a higher level, such as Gupta, Rudola, Maitee. So on paper STCT has the talent but they are always short of match practice because they do not believe in practicing hard( it seems..??). The problem with STCL is that they are short of talent but they are not short of either commitment or match practice. The enthusiasm associated with STCL is much greater than STCT. One thing that always impresses me about STCL is that they are very quiet and believe in playing rather than talking all the time. One thing that is missing in both the teams is aggression. I believe that without aggression , one can not beat a potentially better and more skillful team.

ST cricket is declining by each passing day with both the teams loosing regularly and even to oppositions which they used to thrash earlier. I still feel that there should be one team that should represent ST at corporate level and for selecting the players for that team , we need to play rigorously with each other, practice hard and even play friendly matches with other teams. I believe adopting this policy and playing with more commitment, passion and spirit, we can be successful at corporate level.

ST vs Multistar XI

21/02/05

We had a very decent match at AAI yesterday. Though *Multistar* proved to be the better side on the day, but none the less *ST* played a competitive match. Multistar won the toss, elected to bat first and made 216 for the loss of 7 wkts. The main contributors from their side were :
1.Bharat, who played a chance less inning of 62 runs off 48 balls.
2.Sagar , who compiled 26 off 27 balls
3.Charan , who made 26 off 21 balls and
4.Raju , who made a quick fire 44 not out off 30 balls
From ST side, Rudola and Prem were the only bowlers to have respectable figures.

ST 's reply was strong and they made 194 for the loss of 7 wkts in their stipulated quota of 25 overs. The main contributor from their side were :
1.Bipin , who made a lucky 81 off 69 balls. (Dropped thrice and mis-stumped once)
2.Prem , who made a chance less and quick fire 32 off 21 balls.
3.Lalit making 20 off 15 balls and
4.Sudip , who compiled 18 not out off 14 balls.
Multistar' s bowlers bowled well enough to defend the total.

Scorecard: 4's 6's
--------
1.Bharat - 62(48) 7 1
2.Vicky - 03(05) - -
3.Sagar - 26(27) 3 -
4.Vicky - 09(09) 1 -
5.Aman - 00(02) - -
6.Raju - 44*(30) 5 -
7.Charan - 26(21) 3 -
8.Dhiren - 00(01) - -
9.Vikas - 02*(02) - -


O M R W wi/nb
Jeswani - 4 0 36 1 6
Ashish - 5 0 31 1 3
Indranil- 4 0 43 0 4
Sanjay - 3 0 33 1 6
Sudip - 4 0 40 0 10
Prem - 2 0 11 1 0
Paras - 3 0 20 1 1

--------------------------------------------------------

4's 6's
1.Bipin - 81(69) 7 1
2.Maiti - 01(08) - -
3.Das - 01(03) - -
4.Prem - 32(21) 5 -
5.Lalit - 20(15) 3 -
6.Jeswani- 13(17) 1 -
7.Sudip - 18*(14) 2 -
8.Sanjay - 04(05) - -
9.Paras - 04*(04) - -
---------------------------------------------------------

Result: Multistar won by 24 runs

ST vs AMEX : Suntan Cup'04

Match : ST Cricket Team (STCT) 's 3rd league match in SunTan Cup, `04
Story till date : STCT had won prev 2 matches in league. 1 remained after this match. 1 out of 5 teams in each league will reach semis.
Date : 21st Nov, 04
Venue : Guru Govind singh college, Pitampura
Opponents : Amex
Match conditions: Lot of morning dew, forcing the match to start 1 hour late instead of the scheduled 8-30 am.
Toss : Amex won the toss and put STCT to bat (as if we would have chosen otherwise!!)

The STCT's innings started in style with our destructive pair of Bharat and Bandhu in the centre. The match was reduced by 2 overs to 23 overs a side. The ground was still a little wet and pitch a bit damp. The ball wasn't coming on to the bat that easily. And the odd ball was swinging miles ! Bharat made his intentions clear when he started pulling and cutting for boundaries. Bandhu on the other end could not defend a delivery that cut in and kissed the middle stump. Das joined Bharat who was playing brilliantly at the other end. Just when Das was looking to give Bharat a decent support from the other end, he got out leg before after his willow sent a couple of deliveries to the boundary. NarWall (Narwal) joined in next. He gave solid support to Bharat who still playing the game in 'destructive mode'. But in the process he got out giving a catch at midwicket. The score reached around 85 in 10 overs with 3 wickets down. Vice Captain Mudit joined Narwal when the need of the hour was both to save enough wickets for the end overs and also to maintain the healthy runrate. Both started a little cautiously.

After the drinks break after 12 overs, both the batsmen started playing some shots. They took the score to 150 in 18 overs. 200 looked possible if one of them would stay till the end. But soon Narwal ( caught at deep midwicket of a shot not well connected ) and Mudit ( caught behind ) were back in the pavilion. In the centre were Vij and Jeswani, who tried to make the most of the final overs. They finally took the score to 186 with Jeswani run out of the last ball. The score looked short by 10-15 runs after the good start and strong middle order partnership, but was nevertheless a great effort and a match-winning score on the pitch which assited seam bowling and where the ball was hard to come on to the bat.

Indranil and Ved, the opening bowlers provided a tight line and a tough time for the Amex batsmen. The very first ball from Indranil saw a sharp chance at point where Hansie (Hans) could not hold on it. STCT eventually earned their first breakthrough in the 4th over. On a wide ball of Ved , Bharat Chopra , last year's best wicket keeper in Suntan Cup, displayed great reflexes and stumped the batsman. It is noteworthy that Bharat has been keeping up most of the times to all medium pacers of our team.

Ved took the next wicket soon in his next over followed by a mix-up that led to a runout by ved-sudip combo (yet again). Jeswani, the first change bowler also took 1 wicket. After 10 overs, Amex were around 50/4. Sudip, the skipper, then took charge of the ball. He and later Hansie completely shattered the remaining wickets in no time. Sudip took 2 wickets in his first over and ended up with another impressive figures with 4 wickets. This is his 2nd 4-wicket haul this tournament and surely is in contention for the leading wicket takers of the tournament. Hansie took the last 2 wickets.

Amex could finally crawl up to a total of just above half of what STCT scored. STCT won by 92 runs and Bharat won the Man of the Match award. This match saw a very deciplined bowling and spirited fielding performance by all players. STCT looks forward to the last match of the league against Orient Craft next saturday, which effectively is the quarter finals, with Orient Craft also winning their 3 league matches.

Match summary :

BATTING
-------
Bipin 06(10) bowled
Bharat 43(26) ct at midwicket
Das 16(12) lbw
Narwal 39(38) ct at deep midwicket
Mudit 31(27) ct behind
Vij 17*(13) not out
Jeswani 12(12) run out

TOTAL 186/6 in 23 overs

BOWLING
-------
Indranil 3 0 17 0
Ved 5 0 28 2
Jeswani 3 0 15 1
Sudip 3 0 11 4
Hans 3 0 21 2

Amex 94 all out in 17th overs

Fielding: Bharat 2 stumping 2 catches, Das 1 catch, Vij 1 catch, Sudip 1 catch, Sudip/Ved 1 runout

MOM: Bharat Bhushan


RESULT : STCT won the 3rd league match by 92 runs.

Tournament till now
1. vs NCR - won by 10 wickets
2. vs Sapient - won by 45 runs
3. vs Amex - won by 92 runs

ST vs Sapient : Suntan Cup'04

Venue : Airport Authority of India (AAI) Cricket Ground
Date : 16th October'04
Match : ST Cricket Team (STCT) vs Sapient , SUNTAN CUP.

This was STCT's second match in pool B league matches. Since only one of the 5 teams in each pool is going to reach the semi-final stage, it was very important for STCT , last years semi-finalist in Suntan Cup, to beat Sapient, winner of Suntan Cup and Eventus Cup a couple of years back. STCT was playing almost the same team which played the first match. The only change was Lokesh who played for Bipin Bandhu, who was unavailable for the match.

The early morning dew ensured a delay in almost 30 minutes in the start of the match which was initially scheduled to start at 8-30am. STCT's captain won the toss this time and elected to bat. In the absence of Bandhu, our most destructive batsman, Rajesh Narwal was asked to open the innings with Bharat. Rajesh,the great wall of STCT and looking to regain his touch this season, started the innings a little cautiously. Bharat was playing freely before he was adjudged caught behind by the umpire, a rough decision that. S Das, who is enjoying a magical touch with his willow joined in next. He greeted the bowler with a first ball 4 and started playing freely. Just a couple of overs before drinks, Das got stumped out. Narwal who was keeping the other end intact with some safe shots was joined by Mudit. STCT was placed at a safe 89/2 at drinks.

The first over after drinks saw Mudit returning to the pavilion and Narwal was joined by Mohinder Vij. There was a need to change some gears. Vij knew and did exactly that. With some good hits around the ground, it seemed the score could reach well near the 180-190 mark. But once Vij got out, the scoring rate fell a bit. Narwal, Ved, Manoj and Sudip were out in quick successions in the process of making some quick runs. Narwal had accumulated a good 64 runs in his innings which was a good blend of caution and aggression. Lokesh and Prakash were the not out batsmen in the end.


STCT's score after 25 overs was 162/8. Possibly 15-20 runs short after the good start, but definitely a very competitive score at the end. Openers Indranil and Ved Prakash opened the bowling attack. After 3 wides, Indranil's first legal delivery kissed the top of the middle stump of the opening batsman. Score - 3/1. The next few overs saw some brilliant bowling from both the opening bowlers. Very soon the next 2 of their top order batsmen were back to the pavilion. One was runout by a good co-ordinated effort by Sudip and Ved. The other was caught at covers of the bowling of Ved. After the initial spell by these bowlers, captain Sudip and half centurion of the day Rajesh took charge of the ball. Sudip with his deceptive slow, dipping in-swing balls and Rajesh with his accurate, wicket to wicket stuff, gave Sapient batsmen a tough time. By drinks, Sapient were 62/4 in 14 overs, requiring another 100 in 11 overs.

Despite the comfortable situation, STCT did not get any complacent and wanted to wrap up things as miserly as possible. Manoj also bowled a good spell taking 2 wickets. Wickets were falling in regular intervals and when Sapient were some 80-odd for 9, Sudip decided to give some of his part time bowlers a chance. Vij's over gave Sapient something to cheer about in the ending moments of the match. Prakash also bowled one over before the end of 25 overs.

Sapient score after 25 overs was 117/9. STCT won by 45 runs .Rajesh Narwal was adjudged the Man of the Match for his performance with bat, bowl and two catches on the field. With 2 good victories under its belt, STCT looks confident of some good show in the next two league matches of the tournament.

Brief Scorecard :

STCT Won by 45 runs.

STCT 162 for 8 in 25 Overs

Narwal 64(72)
Bharat 12(11)
Das 28(23)
Mudit 5(12)
Vij 27(22)
Ved 2(2)
Manoj 2(2)
Prakash 3*(4)
Sudip 0(1)
Lokesh 1*(1)

Sapient 117 for 9 in 25 Overs

Indranil 5 0 18 1
Ved 3 0 12 1
Narwal 5 0 25 1
Sudip 5 0 19 3
Manoj 5 0 23 2
Vij 1 0 14 0
Prakash 1 0 03 0

Runout 1 (Sudip/Ved)

MOM : Rajesh Narwal

ST vs NCR : Suntan Cup'04

Date : 9th Oct, 2004
Venue : Ramjas Ground
Toss : NCR won the toss and elected to bat

It was a quite a hot and dry Saturday afternoon and NCR won the toss and elected to make first use of the wicket which was looking like a belter. ST team was playing this SUNTAN cup for the second time and they had good memories of the last edition with their team featuring in top 4 teams of the tournament.

ST Micro started the innings with their most trusted new ball bowlers (Ved and Indranil) and captain Sudip gave them relatively attacking field. Both the opening bowlers stuck to line and length from their respective first over and bowled some real beauties to unsettle the opponents. Soon one of the openers fell, runout,thanks to a brilliant piece of fielding by Sudip.

ST's star keeper (Bharat) contributed for next two dismissals with one outstanding stumping and a good direct hit run out. Ved and Indra bowled miserly and gave away only 9 and 12 runs respectively in their initial spells of 3 overs each. Sudip and Narwal came in as the bowling change. Sudip started with a maiden and in his next over broke the opponent's back by picking up 3 wickets, all of them clean bowled. Narwal soon joined Sudip in the wickets column and the rest of the wickets fell like 9 pins. The NCR team could only managed 34 runs ,loosing all their wickets in 14.1 overs with Sudip taking 4 wkts and Narwal picking up 3.

With such a small total to chase , ST captain decided to give their out of form players to have a knock in the middle. Bandhu and Vij were sent in to face the music , but there were no sign of nervousness or rustiness in their approach. The required total was achieved in just 2.3 overs with Bandhu smashing 25 runs off 10 balls and Vij making 11 off 5 balls. Bandhu really looked in awesome touch and hit 4 fours and a towering six in his short innings. Vij provided him the required support by picking up singles & also hitting two fours. In the end, it was turn out to be a one sided match with ST dominating the match throughout.

This is a very good start for ST team in this edition of SUNTAN cup with all their bowlers in good rhythm and all their batsmen in relatively good form.


The scorecard looked like :

BOWLING:
Indernil : 3-0-12-0
Ved : 3-0-09-1
Sudip :4.1-2-04-4
Narwal : 4-1-08-3

Extras : 1


BATTING:
Bandhu : not out 25(10)
Vij : not out 11(05)

Extras : 2

Total : 38/0 in 2.3 overs

Man Of the Match: Sudip Basu

STCT vs STCL : The Battle continues

23/09/04

Mohan Meakins Cricket Ground
Mohan Nagar
19th Sept. 2004

The ST Cricket team is gearing up for the new season and all the cricket enthusiasts were raring to have a go at each other. The two old rivals (STCT and STCL) chose the 19th day of Sept. to show their respective talent , skills and enthusiasm on the field. Both the teams were going into the match with a new captain and both the captains were eager to show their supremacy onto the other.

STCT captain ( Sudip) won the toss and decided to bat first on a wicket which has lot of juice in it and expected to give lot of help to seamers. Their openers (Bandhu & Bharat) started their innings cautiously and took the score to 34 without any loss , but then a rising delivery from Nand got the better of Bandhu and he gave an easy catch to STCL captain Ashish.

Bharat was then joined by Das . STCL bowlers were bowling the balls on the "corridor of uncertainty" but there was no uncertainty about the shots played by Das , who looked in a positive frame of mind right from the first ball he faced. Soon both of them started playing freely and took the score past 100 in less than 16 overs. It was really a display of true batsmanship from Das who made a fluent 38 ,before retiring hurt to give other batsmen a chance to have decent knock. Soon Bharat also perished in virtue of increasing the scoring rate, but not before taking 17 runs from one over off Devesh . Narwal , Mudit and Ved also contributed well with the bat and took the score past 200 mark . Mudit and Ved added more than 50 runs in last 5 overs and smashed the STCL bowlers to all the parts of the ground.The score card showed 213 runs at the end of 30 stipulated overs with the loss of 4 wkts. From STCL , Ashish bowled a brilliant spell in which he gave away just 28 runs and took 2 wkts in his quota of 6 overs.

STCL had a mammoth total to chase and they needed a solid partnership at the start of their innings ,but they were not able to keep their wickets intact as they kept on loosing wickets at regular intervals. One of their openers went in the very first over , thanks to a alert work by keeper. The other opener , Maiti, played some really good shots and belted Ved for a six and a four off successive deliveries. But wickets were tumbling from the other end. Indranil took three wickets in his opening spell and broke the back of STCL batting.

Then debutants Abhishek and Vijender took the charge of bowling and bowled some tight overs. Then Manoj was called for his bowling duties and he immediately gave the breakthrough as he took the wicket of Maiti , who compiled a well made 25. Manoj took 4 wickets in a short spell of 2 overs and score card read 67for 8. STCL captain then decided to give all his bowlers a chance to get some bowling practice. Sudip, Narwal, Vij, Lokesh and Das tried their hands on bowling and in the process took the remaining wickets. Only the last pair (Mattoo and Devesh) from STCL showed some resistance as they added some 30 runs for the last wicket before Devesh was brilliantly run out by Vij. Mattoo made a good contribution with the bat making 21. In the end STCT won the match by a huge margin of 101 runs and sadly the match was a one sided affair with STCT dominating almost the complete match.


Full Score-Card
---------------

Venue:- Mohan Meakins Sports Complex, Mohan Nagar
Date:- 19/09/2004, Saturday
30 over match

STCT Cricket Team
------------------------

1. Bipin Bandhu c Ashish b Nand 16(25)
2. Bharat Bhushan st Lalit b Ashish 62(47)
3. Sabyasachi Das retired hurt 38(40)
4. Rajesh Narwa c Lalit b Raj 17(20)
5. Mohinder Vij c Maiti b Ashish 04(08)
6. Mudit Bhargava not out 34(27)
7. Ved Prakash not out 14(12)
8. Manoj Sharma
9. Sudip Basu
10.Lokesh Pandey
11.Vijender Chauhan
12.Abhishek Kumar
13.Indranil Bhattacharya

Extra 28
Total 213/4 in 30 overs

Bowling (STCL)
O M R W
Praveen Ruhal 3 0 26 0
Nitin Panwar 6 0 37 0
Nand Kishore 6 0 41 1
Raj Shekhran 5 0 32 1
Ameet Mattoo 2 0 20 0
Ashish Rudola 6 0 28 2
Shashi Thakur 1 0 08 0
Devesh Paliwal 1 0 17 0


STCL Cricket Team
------------------------

1. S. Maiti st Bharat b Manoj 28
2. Nikhil st Bharat b Indranil 04
3. Lalit Gaur c Bharat b Indranil 00
4. Nitin Panwar b Indranil 06
5. Ashish Rudola c Bharat b Abhishek 04
6. Raj Shekran lbw Manoj 02
7. Praveen Ruhal c Das b Vij 08
8. Vaibhav Pathak b Manoj 00
9. Nand Kishora b Manoj 00
10.Ameet Mattoo not out 21
11.Shashi Thakur b Lokesh 02
12.Shekhar b Narwal 05
13.Devesh Paliwal run out (vij) 05




Extra 27
Total 112/12 in 23.2 overs

Bowling (IC)
O M W
Indranil 3 0 3
Ved Prakash 3 0 0
Vijender 2 0 0
Abhishek 3 0 1
Manoj Sharma 2 0 4
Sudip Basu 3 0 0
Mohinder Vij 2.2 0 1
Lokesh Pandey 2 0 1
Rajesh Narwal 2 0 1
S.S. Das 1 0 0


Result : STCT Cricket Team won by 101 runs

ST vs AMEX : Suntan Cup'04

23/03/04

The 20th day of March, Siri Fort Sports Complex, it was a breezy morning with little bit of moisture on ground and lot of grass and hardness on wicket , looking like a beauty of a wicket for batting and some help for seamers as well. The ground was full of people much before the match was scheduled to start, not because they were eager to watch our match, but they were there for doing their regular exercises.So our players had two fights on their hands ; one to play the match and other to ignore the beautiful girls(crowd) and concentrate on this beautiful game CRICKET.

Our captain lost the toss and the other team decided to bat first on that lively pitch. Our bowlers started well keeping a nice line and length, but the batsmen were playing cautiously. They took the score to 35 runs without losing any wicket, but then a beauty of a delivery from Rajesh Narwal got the better of the batsman and he was stumped by ever alert keeper Bharat.Then Rajesh got another wicket, thanks to a good stumping by the keeper.But runs were flowing from one of the batsmen who completed his fifty in no time at all , hitting Prashant for two sixes in two balls and then belted Sudip out of the attack by hitting couple of fours. Then the Hero of first match Vivek Hans took charge of the ball and with his disguise bowling took two quick wickets. Prashant and Sudip in their comeback spells bowled beautifully and took two wickets apiece to stop the outburst of AMEX batsmen. AMEX could manage only 130 runs in their alloted quota of 25 overs. It was a good comeback by our bowlers and all of them had good bowlingfigures in the end to show their efforts on the field.Once again the feature of innings was a great spirit shown by all the fielders and keeping was also good on a day when it was most needed.

ST Micro started off brilliantly by smashing 11 runs off the very first over.Bipin was hitting the ball so beautifully that AMEX captain was forced to change the opener bowlers within 3 overs, but to no avail.Runs were literally flowing from Bipin's bat and he was hitting boundaries at his will.ST completed their fifty in the 5th over with Bipin making 42 of them. He soon completed his fifty with a shot over covers. At the other end,Das was showing his class and maturity.He was making sure that Bipin is taking the strike on most of the occasions by picking up singles whenever he got the chance to face the music.They completed their 100 runs partnership in the 10th over with a boundary through the covers.

It was a great batsmanship shown by both of our openers as they made the required runs before the end of 16th over.Bipin was adjudged the Man of the Match for his 57 ball 87 hitting 12 fours and 2 towering six overs covers.Das also contributed well with the bat making 24 off 34 balls with 2 fours.It was an innings in which both openers showed lot of maturity and didn't loose their composure and made sure they are finishing the match in style with a 10 wicket victory.

Once again, this match showed that we are coming up as a team and we are in a position to lift our games and do a justice to our potentials and prove that we are a good team.



Full Score-Card
---------------

Venue:- Siri Fort Sports Complex, Khel Gaon
Date:- 20/03/2004, Saturday
25 over match

AMEX Cricket Team
--------------------



Total 130/9 in 25 overs

Bowling:
-------
O M R W NB WD
1.Rajesh Jeswani 5 1 21 0 0 1
2.Ved Prakash 2 0 12 0 0 6
3.Prashant Narang 5 0 31 2 0 2
4.Rajesh Narwal 5 0 23 2 0 4
5.Sudip Basu 3 0 23 2 0 2
6.Vivek Hans 5 0 19 1 0 1



Extras:17(1 lb, 16 wd)


ST Micro Cricket Team
----------------------

1. Bipin Bandhu not out 87(57)
2. Sabyasachi Das not out 24(34)
3. Rajesh Narwal
4. Bharat Bhushan
5. Mohinder Vij
6. Mudit Bhargava
7. Rajesh Jeswani
8. Prashant Narang
9. Ved Prakash
10. Sudip Basu
11. Vivek Hans

Extras 20
Total 131/0 in 15.2 overs



Result : ST Micro Cricket Team won by 10 wickets

ST vs EFUNDS : SUNTAN CUP'04

This match report was written by me after we lost to Efunds in Suntan Cup'04.
-----------------------------
22/03/04

The 14th day of March, Ramjas sports ground, it was a day of scorching heat, even in
the month of March. It is not just a cricket match, it is a clash of TITANS with Efunds
having an upper hand ,being winner of the last two matches played between them.

ST Micro won the toss and elected to bat first.ST Micro not started off well by loosing Das in the second over of the match.Then Rajesh Narwal joined Bipin and both started playing freely and reached around 35 in just 5 overs, but Bipin, while trying to play too far away from the body was clean bowled And in the next over Bharat also could not do much to his form and was out LBW. Their captain Vij followed them soon and the score card read 50/4 in just 8 overs.

Rajesh was then joined in by Mudit on the crease. Both played pretty sensibly and started building the innings. They both were looking invincible. They took the score past 100 mark in 18th over.But Mudit while trying to heave the ball over the in-field gave an easy catch ,but not before making a well compiled 25. Rajesh played beautifully for his 53 runs and was stumped while trying to accelerate the scoring rate. ST lost wickets at regular intervals and could manage only 143 runs in their stipulated quota of 25 Overs with the loss of 9 wkts. It was a good performance from Efunds in the field.

ST Micro had a mammoth task, with their bowling attack not too penetrating and Efunds having excellent batting lineup. Rajesh Jeswani bowled a brilliant first spell but didn't get a good support from Prashant at the other end. But the spirit of the team was very high and ST got the first wicket as a run out with Sudip affecting it from backward point. Then Rajesh Narwal and Sudip bowled excellent spells in tendem and Efunds started looking panicky. They lost 5 quick wickets with two of them run outs and Rajesh taking other two.At that time ,score card read 65/6 in 15 overs.But then Efunds started batting sensibly and they were able to take advantage of the fifth bowler.Vivek hans gave away 18 in one over and then Ved gave 8 precious runs in next. ST captain then had no choice but to give the ball to his main line bowlers .They were able to take two wickets ,one each from Sudip and Rajesh Narwal.But the runs were flowing from their bats and Efunds needing just 10 runs from 2 overs. But not having any overs left from their front line bowlers really put them off and Efunds was able to make required runs with 2 deliveries and 2 wickets left.

Nevertheless, It was a great game of cricket , played with lot of intensity and passion. Both the teams gave their best and the better team ,on the day, won. Good thing for ST Micro was that they played very well as a team and their fielding was excellent.



Full Score-Card
---------------

Venue:- Ramjas Sports Complex, Patel Nagar.
Date:- 14/03/2004, Sunday
25 over match

ST Micro Cricket Team
----------------------

1. Bipin Bandhu b 21(24)
2. Sabyasachi Das lbw 00(03)
3. Rajesh Narwal st 53(53)
4. Bharat Bhushan lbw 02(03)
5. Mohinder Vij lbw 01(03)
6. Mudit Bhargava caught 25(35)
7. Rajesh Jeswani caught 05(06)
8. Prashant Narang run out 08(07)
9. Ved Prakash caught 05(04)
10. Sudip Basu not out 03(08)
11. Vivek Hans not out 02(01)

Extras 18
Total 143/9 in 25 overs



Efunds Cricket Team
--------------------



Total 145/8 in 24.4 overs

Bowling:
-------
O M R W NB WD
1.Rajesh Jeswani 5 1 19 0 0 1
2.Prashant Narang 5 0 34 1 0 7
3.Rajesh Narwal 5 0 20 3 0 7
4.Sudip Basu 5 1 27 1 0 3
5.Vivek Hans 1 0 18 0 0 1
6.Ved Prakash 1 0 08 0 0 0
7.Mohinder Vij 1.4 0 15 0 0 4
8.Das 1 0 04 0 0 0

Extras:23(1 lb, 22 wd)

Result : Efunds Cricket Team won by 2 wickets

The Steve and Sachin Show

08/01/2004

THE LOVE OF THE GAME:
The Steve and Sachin Show


It doesn't get much better than that in Test cricket.

The absorbing final day of the fourth Test between Australia and India
in Sydney gripped two nations and intrigued much of the neutral sporting
world. The final three sessions were even beamed 'live' on STAR Sports
across Southeast Asia due to popular demand.

And at the centre of the drama was two men loved by both countries.

Stephen Rodger Waugh was playing his 168th and final Test match on his
home ground while Sachin Ramesh Tendulkar gave two thrilling displays of
batting.

Both men were under tremendous pressure and scrutiny yet responded in
the way that you'd expect from two of our generation's greatest players.

So it seemed inevitable that the long-time rivals would oppose each
other in the tense, final session when Tendulkar came to the crease to
bowl his part-time leg-spinners, and ultimately took the catch in the
deep that dismissed Waugh for a thrilling 80.

At the end of his eventful 18-year international career, no-one was
surprised when Waugh was called on to help rescue Australia from a
potentially dicey situation.

Dicey situations were commonplace when Waugh made his Test debut against
India in the 1985-86 season. Australian cricket was at one of its lowest
ever points after the recent retirements of players like Greg Chappell,
Rod Marsh and Dennis Lillee. Captain Allan Border was doing his best to
prop up a young and inexperienced side. Heavy home defeats against the
West Indies and England were soon to follow.

In 1987, Australia were surprise winners of the World Cup but it wasn't
until 1989 when they really turned their Test fortunes around with an
Ashes victory in England. That series coincided with Waugh's maiden Test
century and, after a moderate start, Tugga's career started to flourish.

That same year, at the age of 16 and 205 days, Tendulkar made his
international debut against Pakistan in Karachi.

In the almost 15 years since, the pair has enjoyed some epic duels,
opposing each other in the 1992, 1996 and 1999 World Cups as well as 13
Test matches. And, amazingly enough, they've both scored 32 Test centuries.

India's love for Waugh goes beyond his batting and captaincy skills.
He's the generous patron of the Udayan orphanage in Kolkata and makes
frequent trips to the sub-continent.

Tendulkar is so popular in Australia because of the sheer entertainment
value he provides every time he comes out to bat. In the ill-fated
1999-2000 series, he was one of the few Indian bright spots.

In the first three matches of this series, Sachin was dogged by bad luck
and the odd rough umpiring decision. It seemed only a matter of time
before the runs would come. If anyone showed up Australia's bowlers, the
Sydney crowd would prefer that Sachin did it.

On that nerve-jangling Day 5, Waugh showed typical nerves of steel. I
couldn't help but compare his final innings with the last stand of Sir
Donald Bradman back in 1948. Needing at least four runs at the Oval to
finish with a Test average of 100 or better, the Don was out for a
second-ball duck, reportedly because he had tears in his eyes.

There was apparently little or no emotion as Stephen Waugh strode out to
the wicket for the final time in a Test match. Typically, he appeared to
put the needs of the team above his personal concerns.

His brother, Mark, who recently retired from international cricket, was
watching from in the ESPN STAR Sports' commentary box. They played 108
Tests together.

"We're twins so I don't have to talk to him to know what he's thinking,"
Mark said. "He wants to be there at the end."

After a scratchy start -- he was very nearly caught after a mistimed
sweep off left-arm spinner Murali Kartik -- Waugh produced a trademark
innings of sweetly timed cuts and drives plus some daring bottom-hand
shots over midwicket.

While making sure that Australia wouldn't lose the game, Waugh stayed
positive in the hope that an unlikely victory might be possible in the
final session.

Saurav Ganguly could certainly learn from Waugh when it comes to
attacking captaincy. While the Kolkata left-hander is maturing nicely as
a skipper, he was too conservative at times during the fourth Test,
especially on the final day.

Rather than employing an all-out attack, Ganguly was overly concerned
with saving runs, allowing the batsmen to pick up easy singles with his
field placings. One feels that if Waugh were put in the same position,
he would take a more aggressive approach. But perhaps the extra
pressures on any Indian captain means the priority is always not to lose
a Test match.

Waugh will now finish his cricketing career by playing five first-class
matches and five one-day games with his state side, New South Wales.
Rather than linger after his memorable Sydney farewell, he's heading 150
kilometres to the northern industrial city of Newcastle for a four-day
Pura Milk match against Victoria that begins on Friday, probably in
front of only a few hundred spectators.

But that's the way that Steve Waugh likes it. No fuss. For him, cricket
has never been about the glory and the glamour. It's the competition,
the camaraderie, the challenge. For the love of the game.

IC vs IT Challenger Series Cricket - Match 6

This description of the match was written by Vivek Hans on 17/04/03.
Enjoy the match
Bharat
-------------------

The 15th day of April, Chilla sports ground, it was a scorching heat, but the tempo was even higher than the mercury.

As you all know, it is not JUST a cricket match. Previous matches have witnessed nerve wrecking situations. Though IC comprises of almost all the players who play for ST, and IT has just a handful of them, who have ever represented ST in corporate cricket, but IT has never let IC to go off easily. IT had another major disadvantage of not being able to play with their regular keeper Suman and ACE batsman Bipin, whereas IC was studded with all its ammunitions. Stage was all set for another IC-IT clash, with lots of odds against the IT team.

With so much of things happening around, IC grabbed another advantage by winning the BIG toss on the day when it was most necessary. Since the pitch was looking to play slow in the second half, IC elected to bat first.

IC started off well with Rajesh Jeswani and Rajesh Narwal playing quite freely and reached around 20 in just 2 overs, but Rajesh Jeswani, while trying to play too far away from the body gave an edge in the slips. And in the next over Das also could not do much to his form and was clean bowled off an excellent delivery by Raj, without even opening his account. Rajesh was then joined in by Nitin on the crease. Both played pretty sensibly and started building the innings. They both were looking invincible. Then the captain Mohinder Vij of IT tried his hands on the ball and restricted the runs, and in the process Rajesh was trapped leg before while heaving the ball over the mid wicket. Mohinder bowled an excellent spell. But the run rate at which the IC innings was going was quite an excellent one, and IC looked to score around 190-200 at one stage. Prashant fell short of his run, while stealing a single and was run out to some excellent work in the
field. Then Sanjay Gupta took charge of the ball, and with his deceptive bowling got rid off Ashish,Manoj and Nitin and produced a brilliant spell. But IC managed to score a stupendous total of 173 in mere 25 overs, which at one time looked like to cross the 200 mark.

IT had a mammoth task, with their batting line up not too deep and IC having excellent bowling attack with speedsters like Nitin, Indranil, Prashant,Rajesh Jeswani and few other good bowlers like Sudip, Das, Rudola, Nikhil and Manoj.

Bharat and Mudit started IT innings. Bharat started off in a great fashion and went in after the attack. He was blazing off the balls so wonderfully,that IC captain got into such a merciful situation that he was forced to use his four best bowlers in the first six overs itself, but of no respite. The score climbed to 72 in mere 8 overs. Then captain tried his hands on the ball and was successful in restricting the outburst of IT openers by his deceptive bowling. Mudit lost his patience and was stumped in 11th over off the bowling of sudip and the scoreboard showed 83/1. Bharat was then accompanied with Vij, who looked to be in altogether a different mindset and
edged one of the deliveries into the stump. Now IC was again on top as there were not many who were recognized as batsman were left. Prem a debutant joined in, and started a bit cautiously,
but was run out to an excellent fielding by Nitin. At this stage IT were 103 for 3 in 15 overs. But the target was not simple as it appears to be, as pitch started playing slow.

Call it the POOR LUCK of IT or lack of match temperament, which has gifted the last 2 games to IC, after having a big initiative in earlier stages. But Bharat had some other plans that day, his game from now on was a perfect blend of caution and aggression.IT then required 70 off 54 balls ... Bharat was joined in by Parveen who played without any panic and pressure and scored few good runs. On the other end Bharat was going in a great fashion. Parveen lost his wicket while trying to clear the inner circle fielder. IC TEAM started seeing some light on the other side of the tunnel, but..... Bharat was then joined in by Ashish Rastogi, another debutant, and both added few valuable runs to the total. Few good overs for IT and the required runs came down to 25 off 30. IC's effort worked in the second last over, when they got rid off Bharat, Ashish trapping him right in front. But with just 4 runs required of an over and a ball to spare, victory was in sight for IT. Vivek H and Ashish steered IT towards victory. IT has done ittt... and Bharat was the man of the day.

But irony is that our best attack could not even defend such a big target.
Nevertheless, it was a great game of cricket and cricket was the winner.

Full Score-Card
---------------

Venue:- Chilla Sports Complex, Vasundhara Enclave.
Date:- 15/04/2003, Tuesday
25 over match

IC Building Cricket Team
------------------------

1. Rajesh Narwal lbw b Vij 43
2. Rajesh Jeswani c hans b Praveen 06
3. Sabyasachi Das b Raj 00
4. Nitin Panwar c bharat b sanjay 53
5. Ashish Rudola st bharat b sanjay 01
6. Prashant Narang runout (Ashish/Bharat) 05
7. Manoj Sharma st bharat b sanjay 05
8. Sudip Basu 12*
9. Indranil 04*
10.Srijib Maithy
11.Nikhil Gupta

Extra 34
Total 173/7 in 25 overs

Bowling (IT)
o r w
Praveen Ruhal 5 25 1
Mayank Sharma 1 14 0
Raj Shekharan 5 31 1
Vivek Hans 5 35 0
Mohinder Vij 5 30 1
Sanjay Gupta 4 20 3

IT Building Cricket Team
------------------------

1. Mudit Bhargawa st Narwal b Sudip 25
2. Bharat Bhushan lbw Ashish 86
3. Mohinder Vij b Sudip 02
4. Prem run out 02
5. Parveen Ruhal c&b Prashant 14
6. Ashish Rastogi 07*
7. Vivek Hans 01*
8. Rajshekharan
9. Mayank Sharma
10.Sanjay Gupta
11.Deepak Tiwari

Extra 36
Total 174/5 in 24.2 overs.


Result : IT Building Cricket Team won by 5 wickets


Challanger Series Results
-------------------------
1. 28.04.2001 Chilla S.C. IC won by 9 wickets.
2. 02.03.2002 Chilla S.C. IT won by 70 runs.
3. 14.09.2002 Jasola S.C. IC won by 34 runs.
4. 26.10.2002 Chilla S.C. IC won by 3 wickets.
5. 05.04.2003 Chilla S.C. IC won by 5 wickets.
6. 15.04.2003 Chilla S.C. IT won by 5 wickets.

Archives

I think that my blog would be the natural place where I should archive some of the writing that I've done or those writing where I was involved.