Elite Cricket Club | Des Moines

Elite Vs Reds - July 22, 2006

Player of the Week

Sudhir's solid 38 runs,jawahar's 28 runs and Saravie's quick 28 runs and 2 wickets helped Elite's to set competitive total aginst Reds. Chandra's 2 quick wickets and 2 splendid catches in the deep was highlight of the second innings.

Elites played Knights Reds on Saturday, July 22, 2006 in Des Moines. At least five of the regular Elite players were unavailable for this game as they were away attending a symposium. In the absence of Prakash, Sudhir led the Elites.

It seems like Prakash’s continued luck with the toss has rubbed off on Sudhir as well. Waqar of Knights called wrong and Sudhir without hesitation, elected to bat. This has been a good strategy for Elites this season, with reasonable success. Hari and Sudhir opened the innings and things seemed to be going pretty well for sometime before Hari (6) chopped a quick one from Utpal Patel on to his off stump. Jawahar walked in claiming that he was still asleep. If this is the way he plays when he is asleep, Elites would hope that he is always asleep. Sudhir was as solid as ever. Together with Jawahar, he built a fantastic partnership, which ensured that there were no further breakthroughs for Reds, as they expected. Sudhir built his innings on singles with an occasional boundary. Jawahar looked more aggressive and tried some risky shots in the air. Fortune favors the brave. Many of his shots fell in no man’s land and there was some shoddy catching by Reds, as well. What mattered to Elites – runs were coming and no wickets were lost. The pair carried through till the mid innings break, with Elites looking to take off from this excellent partnership. Couple of overs after the break, both Sudhir (38) and Jawahar (26) returned trying to increase the pace. Great knocks, Sudhir and Jawahar ! Phani walked in and was raring to go when he was given out lbw.

Srikanth walked in and tried to hit Elites to a big score and fell. Kumaresan did not last long as he completely missed an Utpal delivery, which shattered the timber. VC walked in facing a hat-trick and he did well to defend. When all this was happening, Saravie (28*) held the other end together and played sensible cricket pushing ones and twos, with the occasional boundary. Good knock, Saravie! When Elites needed it most. Elites looked like getting past the 150 mark. Aditya put the batsmen on check with his slowest bowling ever, probably. He tossed the ball up with absolutely no pace; it deceived Saravie most of the time. Elite finally finished with 139 for 6 in 30 overs. The important highlight being Elite lost just 6 wickets.

Set to score 140 in 30 overs, Reds started badly losing 2 quick wickets to good catches by Jawahar (latched on at second attempt) and Srikanth. Saravie and VC shared the spoils. Waqar walked in and pretty soon turned the match to Reds’ favor.Elites were feeling the heat and were sorely missing their main bowlers. Elites did not have Krishna, Prakash, Suren, Saravanan, Dinesh and Ganesh, their frontline bowlers, who have done so well this season.

There was a sort of mini crisis for Reds after the mid innings break, triggered by Chandra who took a good catch to dismiss Waqar of Saravie. In the process, he had a deep cut in his right hand. Chandra was not the one to lie low after his injury. He bounced back in action, this time with his bowling, hastening one through Aditya to knock back his leg stump. In the same over, the umpire turned down a huge appeal for a catch behind the wicket by Hari. Chandra and Elites could not believe their eyes. They thought they had their man. Chandra had sweet revenge taking a splendid running left handed catch at short third man to send the same guy whom he should have the previous over, Saravie picking up the wicket. Chandra was on a song. Just when Elites were sensing that something was coming their way, the next Reds pair played some sensible cricket and took them through. Overall, it was a good win for Reds but hats off to the Elites, whose reputation remained intact, even with this depleted team. Finally, the men who made the difference in the game: Elites: Sudhir, Jawahar – Sensible batting scoring 38 and 26 respectively. Saravie – Good all round performance scoring 28* and taking 2 wickets. Chandra – Excellent on the field taking two superb catches and a wicket. Reds: Aditya – Intelligent bowling not allowing many runs in the slog overs and sensible batting supporting Waqar. Waqar – Belligerent batting (50+) which took the game away from Elites.

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