Here's a complete guide to the cast of characters and their nicknames. The cast will be updated as players are added or dropped or nicknames changed as the season progresses.
A good beginning makes a good end.Two batsmen, in completely contrasting styles, propped up the NCC innings suspension bridge-style. Between them they played 99 balls, scored 124 runs, with 11 fours and 6 sixes. While they were at the crease 190 runs (out of 206) were scored. Yet, lumping Thin Man's contribution with Bob Loblaw only tells part of the tale. Here is the rest of it.
-Louis L'Amour
Last year, as NCC romped through to the best record in the league-phase of the CLIA, they did so without beating Elite Cricket Club even once. Naturally, in the finals, ECC resisted all temptations to cede the advantage and took home the trophy, leaving NCC to lick its wounds. Like the seminal Ashes series of 2005, senior citizens who had contemplated retirement cancenled their plans to have one more tilt at the CLIA windmill this season. (So, thanks for nothing, ECC. All you did was stunt the growth of the NCC by preventing younger players from coming through).
Week 2 of the 2009 season featured a highly anticipated and eagerly awaited clash with ECC. Little Boy lost the toss for the second game in a row. Unlike the previous match, in this case he did not get away with it as NCC was asked to bat first.
Like a drunken man ordering a flurry of drinks before the bar closes for the night, Captain Ozone rung in changes. The Shadow, Little Boy, and Kingsize Dada made way for Doctor Kamikaze (Francis), Mind It (Quintus), and Gunmaster G9 (Gautham).
Belonging to the Shahid Afridi school of batting (see ball, thwack ball) has worked well for Thin Man (Bala) and this day was no exception. The very first over featured two huge sixes and the plundering began in full earnest. Setting fielders at long-on and long-off is like waving a red flag at this bull of a man (metaphorically speaking). Soon the fielders began chasing the ball around the outfield while the bowlers developed sprained necks from twisting their heads backwards as soon as the ball was hit. Unlike Boom-Boom Afridi, Thin Man does not get carried away with his hitting prowess. Of course, getting tired easily is also conducive to forcing a batsman to take singles while he waits for his second wind. And Thin Man did just that. (Amit) Tasmanian Devil's single focus was simple - take singles to keep Thin Man on strike and take two's when TM hits the ball. Alas, after an opening partnership of nearly 30 runs to which he contributed a solitary single, TD went on the backfoot and paid the price, out LBW. In walked Doctor Kamikaze (Francis).
As Kamikaze walked to the crease, all activity ceased along the outskirts of Omaha. The first ball of Kamikaze's innings is always the most gut-wrenching one. A digression here will probably explain why it is so. Virender Sehwag is famous for racing away from zero and reaching landmarks with big hits, usually for six. The reason for that, he says, is that he is nervous and tries to dispel the nerves by hitting out. Well, Kamikaze probably ascribes to the same school of thought, but we seriously doubt it. He is famous around the world (inside his head) for hitting the first ball be faces as hard as he can, most probably because the two working neurons in his brain have not yet finished processing the arduous task of making sure he is indeed wearing a box (true story: he has forgotten to wear one on multiple occasions).
Shashank, the ECC captain for the uninformed, came racing in to bowl, visions of first-ball dismissals and pending hat-tricks in mind. Kamikaze calmly flicked the the ball away for a single and had a big grin on his face as he turned to the audience once he reached the non-striker's end. My, my, wonders never cease.
Keeping Thin Man warm and rotating the strike like a seasoned veteran, Kamikaze made sure the scoring rate did not dip. So much so that he scored 29 in 21 balls. In the same duration, Thin Man had blazed past his 50 and was beginning to sight that elusive century. Numbers do not always tell the tale but in this case they vividly do. Thin Man got out off the first ball of the 15th over, having already scored 101 runs. At that point the score was 143 for 2 and Ozone was having dreams of crossing the 300 run mark in 30 overs. A much-needed break (for ECC) was taken.
While Thin Man was batting, all superstitions were rigidly enforced by the supporters. No one was allowed to move from his or her spot, including Bhishma, who had the misfortune of having moved to the bench just as the hitting spree began. Though he begged to be spared from sitting in the hot sun, he wasn't allowed to budge even an inch. Some relief, in the form of a duffel bag was very thoughtfully provided by Little Boy. What did you expect - an umbrella?!The superstitions worked as Thin Man's 101 was scored off just 48 balls, with 9 fours and 6 sixes. Thundering runs do not come much louder than this.
While we wait for the NCC innings to resume, here are a few fun facts to tide you over.
- A kiss lasting one minute can burn more than 30 calories.
- Women blink nearly twice as much as men.
- Right handed people live nine years longer than left-handed people.
- Sobering thought: There are six million parts in the Boeing 747-400.
- The shortest river in the world is D River in Oregon. (I was there yesterday. *sigh*)
We have already heard of Thin Man's tired attempt to clear midwicket. That was the second blow.
Kamikaze finally managed to swing for the fences and a high spiraling catch was taken about 10 yards away from him at point. Three down.
Chikna (Jatin) was caught in two minds - his and the captain's - and tamely top-edged a catch to deep midwicket, a cross between the sixer he wanted to hit and the consolidation shot that his captain urged of him. Four down.
Energizer Bunny (JJ) continued with his quest to give the off-side players catching practice by tamely blocking a ball back to the cover fielder. Five down.
Bhishma (Bhaskar) walked in with a new bat in hand. He still hit 2 sixes off the first two balls he faced but looked totally out of sorts at the crease, repeatedly going down on his knees to sweep the ball and not connecting. Finally on his 6th attempt he missed completely and was bowled round his legs. Six down.
Ozone lived up to his name (O3) playing 3 balls and scoring 0 runs, tamely testing mid-wickets catching prowess. Pretty good was the final verdict. Seven down 159 on the board, and 12 overs still to go.
Gunmaster G9 and Bob Loblaw had the onerous task of batting out 12 overs with just three wickets left. Even in the nets the players do not normally get such an extended session, and the duo feasted on the opportunity. Ignoring the scoreboard and eschewing all risks, Bob Loblaw set anchor - a role that he perfected to an art form in the PCA league, where he was the only batsman to score over 200 runs at a strike rate less than 100 (in fact, a strike rate of 66 was his proud accomplishment). G9 was not as quiet, looking to bash the ball if it was in his zone and defending it if it wasn't. The pair slowly raised about 30 odd runs in 8 overs before G9 got out looking to increase the scoring rate. An innings of 18 runs in 22 balls with 2 fours was his invaluable contribution to the cause.
King Warney tried to rein himself in for a couple of overs but then got carried away and lost his wicket to a cross-batted slog, not his strongest suit.
The last ball of the 29th over yielded the last nail in the coffin as Bob, in a thinly concealed attempt to farm the strike was stumped running down the wicket without connecting with the ball. As in the previous match, the #11 batsman, this time it was Mind It, remained not out on a spectacular 0 off 0 balls.
Bob Loblaw scored a ponderous 23 runs in 41 balls, with two fours. Contrast this with Thin Man whose 48 balls produced 101 runs. However, each man was equal to the task and the situation of the innings at that time. In the first match, Bob's goal was to take the team's score past 100 and he did, ensuring a tight 16 run victory. In this one he escorted the score from 150-odd to 206, a fighting total, and probably enough to ensure victory if he bowlers could hold it together.
The ECC openers began in a cautious manner, seeing off Energizer's prodigious outswing before setting the blueprint for the rest of the innings in Bhishma's next over. Two bad balls - two sixes, four good balls - four dots. Thumping the ball when width was offered and defending when it was not, the openers calmly played out the first 10 overs, reaching 60-plus without a fuss. Ozone rotated through his bowlers - Energizer holding one end up while Warney and Chikna continued from where Bhishma left off. The runs came in small spruts rather than extravagant bursts and neither team felt it was out of it at the 10 over stage. At which point, Ozone turned to TD and Kamikaze.
TD bowls medium-paced straight balls that were wobbling around enough to keep the batsmen and the keeper on the edge. Kamikaze is a different bird completely. He has one motto when he bowls - "if the batsman misses, he hits. If the batsman hits, he misses". Confused? Don't be. It makes sense only to Kamikaze's warped mind. Nevertheless, the very first ball he bowled to Ganesh was a short-hopper that deserved to be deposited in the next County and the opener tried really hard. However, he only managed to underedge it for Bob to pull off a smart catch going low to grab it. While the umpire did not deem that the batsman had edged it, in a magnanimous gesture, Ganesh walked. Kudos are due to him for it.
Once the breach was made, NCC did not need another invitation, least of all Kamikaze. If there is anything free on offer, Kamikaze is the first in line to clean up and with wickets it is no exception. To quote Ravi Shastri, wickets fell at regular intervals as the asking rate rose. TD joined Kamikaze in the festive spirit of the moment and between the two of them they snared 7 wickets, giving away 71 runs in 12 overs.
Gunmaster came back in the death and bowled at a stunning pace, repeatedly thudding the 25-plus over old ball into the distant keeper's gloves. On debut in the CLIA, G9 showed that the NCC had found a new weapon.
The final score was 180 for 9, a 26 run victory that looks closer than it was because of the 33 wides that were bowled. The bowlers are the ones that do the most work in the nets but do not seem to be able to control the umpire's tendency to display his wingspan when they bowl. Need to work on that. One of these days it will catch up to them. A heartening aspect for the team was that more catches were taken than dropped and the keeper did not let any extra runs go by on the wide balls, only blotting his copybook by letting a solitary bye slip through in the 29th over.
Not surprisingly, Thin Man was the unanimous Man of the Match. Centuries do not come easily in 30 over formats, and that too ones that are completed in just 14 overs! With their second win in as many games, NCC climbs to the top of the league table, but it is a long road and too many bumps lie in wait for complacency to set in.
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