Match report: Glenmore 2nd XI v. United Warriors, April 27th 2013
The wind was angry that day. That day being Saturday, April 27 and a fine contrast to what had been our cricketing experience for the past few months. No more were we indoors, in a strangely lit tent, on turf, without facing the elements. Rather, we were in bright daylight, battling a very strong west wind, leaves rolling and bouncing, indeed flying across the field. But I don't think any one of us would have changed places.
It was with this background that Glenmore 2nds, captained by Wasim Naqshbandi, made their inaugural debut. Glenmore had a good mixture of talent, experience, and optimism evidenced by the Captain's choice of batting first: a wise decision in retrospect. Soon afterward, however, things became clearer as the opposition was recognised. There was a sense of frustration at the rules of the league, as well as the way in which they were, um, er, massaged to fit the circumstances. But nonetheless, Glenmore, being the stalwarts of good cricket, padded up and entered into what could be described as a Pyrrhic or Quixotic innings.
Trevor deFreitas and Anjan Singh were selected to open the batting. A good choice of the steadying hand and experience of Trevor and Anjan's ability to smack the ball around when he's not 'retiring' on bumped balls. After a couple of runs, a two and a four, and a nice wide, Trevor unexpectedly made his return to the bench when he was adjudged to be caught behind. Despite the dubious nature of the appeal and call, Trevor eventually made his way back after he stood in disbelief at the call and asking the wicketkeeper if it had hit the bat. The sheepish answer he received was enough for Trevor to hold his head high as he returned. If I recall correctly, Glenmore was at 7-1 at the time. And it was a harbinger of things to come.
Marcus Levermore, making his club debut, then joined the battery and looked poised to steady the ship until he ran himself out on what would have been a run had confusion, and possibly the wind, played a role. He was disappointed but the feeling was that it was one of those days. And that day was going to be a short one.
One of players that dropped down from the top flight to pad the stats in a Div III side, already on a wicket, decide to strike and bowled Anjan on what could easily be described as a Warne-like bowl, cutting in viciously from what might have been three feet wide of middle stump. It was
Anand came up and did a decent job of steadying the ship, staying in for longer than his 2 would imply. Then Sandeep went down on an lbw call that from the bench could have been described as a thigh-above-wicket.
Then it was the captain's turn to come to bat. It wasn't what he imagined as he was stumped by the keeper, who along with Farhan the left hand spinner, came down to raid the Div III, like Visigoths to Rome.
Hardeep came and did a great job of steadying the side, getting decent runs and taking some time off of the United squad. His good vision and runs helped him to the top scorer of the day for Glenmore, getting a respectable 16 on a difficult day on the pitch.
But Anand was bowled. And Nabeel was bowled. It was 10-6. Bijju came to bat and played well. And then Hardeep was given lbw. It was one of those days.
BJ then made an appearance, hoping that the tail of Bijju, BJ, and Shahid would wag. Bijju in quiet confidence announced that in one more over then Farhan the Visigothian slayer of Glenmore would have finished his overs. But the cruel cricket gods must have overheard and Bijju was bowled on the final ball of Farhan's overs, giving him an insane 7-2 from 7 overs!
Shahid then came and the plan of action was to play out the innings, the 10 or so overs that were left. Aside from some twos and singles and many, many wides because of United's inability to bowl to a left handed batter, Glenmore's score slowly rose. It wasn't pretty 35 over cricket but it was a Test-like, Alistair Cook inspired batting. The tail was loving the dot balls that day. Shahid blocking well and going for the occasional slog, and BJ getting the dots balls and bantering with the keeper and slips. Finally, the tail failed to wag in the 34th over with Shahid getting bowled after surviving a sure-catch scenario.
The goal of Shahid and BJ was to get to 100 before going for some hits but the duo fell at 98. But thanks to their love of dot balls, penalty runs were given and the total ended up at 104. While a respectable mid-August score at Riley, the team soon realised that in most cases, it would not be enough.
The bowling was hampered, to say the least, by the wind. The openers, used to the windless conditions of Absolute, and the fielders, used to the roof that used to be over their heads were out of their elements at Riley. The first two batsmen did well to hit Glenmore around, showing that it was only a matter of time before the game was over. Sandeep, who on a less windy day, would have been effective, had a few go's at bowling. Anjan, who should have announced he would be getting wickets before he did get the only wicket, had a couple of go's as well. Bijju, after a shaky start at bowling settled into his rhythm and got two maiden overs and an economy of 2.6. And the Captain then decided that the tail could get in on some bowling before the match was over with Shahid and BJ finishing off the innings with cameo appearances with the white ball.
All in all, it was a great day of cricket, if only because the season has finally arrived and there's a feeling that all the hard work in off season will pay off. There were glimpses of what the season can offer and it looks promising, at least in this scribes books. Overall grades: Batting: C , Fielding: B; Bowling: C+ ; Camaraderie: A+; Umpiring: umpire's always right.