The opinions expressed in this post are solely that of the author who, on occasion, had an out-of-body experience and was able to watch himself play.
Also, in order to keep some suspense about the 2007 season, when I provide a link to a player's page I shall link to his 2006 stats.
Game 7: WVUCC versus Lumberjacks
The Lumberjacks are the other University-based team in the PCA (you can figure out for yourself which University they belong to). Last year they had a horrid time adjusting to the more experienced teams in the league, but soldiered on, nevertheless. They finished the season strongly, winning 3 of their last 4 games. Better things were expected from them for the 2007 season, and though by the end they did come close to a playoff spot, they probably underachieved.
Sohail Chaudhry won the toss and had asked Puneet Khandelwal to ask his team to bowl. For WVUCC, C.S. Manish's hamstring had flared up again and Ajay Nayak stepped into the breach. Arvind Thiruvengadam went quickly, but Ajay found the bowling to his liking. With a propensity to flick strongly off his pads, Ajay regularly peppered the square boundary and grew in confidence (or condifence, as his batting partner Abishek Muralidharan would say). Shrugging off the loss of Arvind, Ajay played his best innings of the season (6 fours and a 6) and was ably assisted by Abishek. Abishek, having unlocked the key to scoring runs, now displayed his penchant for bigger scores by effortlessly rattling up another 50.
Against the Lumberjacks, all the batsmen went in with an aggressive mindset, irrespective of the loss of wickets, so Sohail picked up the baton, passed it along to Sumanth, and when Abishek finally fell, Abhijit stepped into the void. Having discovered that he could bat, and bat well, in this league Abhijit went from strength to strength. Seamlessly mixing the attacking shots with defensive pushes for singles and two's Abhijit ensured that the WVUCC score went from an impressive one to an imposing one. Abhijit remained unbeaten on 43 (5 fours, 2 sixes) off just 30 balls and WVUCC put up 215 for 7 in 25 overs.
Raoul Pinto and Puneet began as if they believed they could overhaul the target and quickly brought up the 50 partnership. However, the old Lumberjacks showed up soon enough. 62 for no loss soon became 69 for 4 and the stuffing had been knocked out for all purposes. With the match well in hand, Sohail took the opportunity to give as many bowlers as possible (8 bowlers in all) a chance to bowl. In doing so he let the later order batsmen put up a few runs; never at a pace fast enough to threaten to take the game away, but nevertheless, delaying the inevitable defeat. Eventually, an umpiring error brought the final score to 172 all out, which was crucial as they needed to get to exactly 172 to prevent WVUCC from gaining a bonus point.
With this win, the 'Eers rose to 5-2 and next up were the Blitzers.
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