Story AirTel Deodhar Trophy, 2012- Match 4: High scoring game.

[Ahmad94]

Great work Binnu, Gangnam Style

 

[Prithvi]

Pitch Report:
Its a very hard surface, flat and the short boundaries make the decision easier, its a pure batsmen paradise. But this being winter, although it doesn't affect much here at Mumbai, but you might just expect some dew to play role. The pitch is expected to remain the same through out the game, so bowlers should bowl really well and try to keep their economy rates below 5. With the new rules of this tournament stating that the three OS players can be fielded, the managements will have some strong paperwork to do.

Toss:
Tendulkar tosses the coin up in the air, and Suresh Raina calls for heads. It lands tails, what means Tendulkar has won the toss. Tendulkar says "We'll chase. We do not want to take any sort of risks by fielding in dew." Raina is looking a bit disappointed, says "yeah, in winters, you never know how dew will play a role. Better to bat second, but someone has to bat first, and we are ready for the challenge."

| Western Wranglers ||versus|| Central Crusaders |
|Ajinkya Rahane||||David Warner|
|Sachin Tendulkar||||Mohnish Mishra|
|Cheteshwar Pujara||||Jacques Kallis|
|Rohit Sharma||||Mohammad Kaif|
|Parthiv Patel||||Ashok Menaria|
|Yusuf Pathan||||Suresh Raina|
|Irfan Pathan||||Naman Ojha|
|Graeme Swann||||Praveen Kumar|
|Zaheer Khan||||Piyush Chawla|
|Ajit Agarkar||||Brett Lee|
|Mitchell Starc||||RP Singh|

First Innings:
David Warner and Mohnish Mishra started off the innings carefully, made sure that they didn't lose an early wicket. They didn't score in a hurry, they both took their time, ran for quick singles and twos. David Warner was bit aggressive as he scored a boundary whenever bowler gave him a chance to score. In the meantime, as soon as the mandatory power play was done, the field was spread and spin was introduced in the form of Yusuf Pathan. With Pathan conceding just a run in his first over, the spin continued, what provided the Western Wranglers a breakthrough. Mohnish Mishra fell into the trap of Graeme Swann, as he was the first victim of the tournament.
Then came in Jacques Kallis, who tried to improve their run rate as they were scoring somewhere near 4 an over. He scored three quick boundaries. In the due course, Kallis received a slow bouncer from Irfan Pathan, what he tried to hit beyond the wicket keeper. But the ball took a strong bounce on the willow of Kallis, what made the ball travel straight up in the air, giving the wicket keeper Parthiv Patel an easy catch, what ended the short and sour inning of Jacques Kallis. Mohammad Kaif, the man with most patience in their squad walked in. Warner and Kaif played some strong defense as they lost two wickets in short amount of time. Warner came out of defensive mood with a huge six over long on, and Kaif's experiments of connecting the balls in unorthodox manner were successful, what earned him few boundaries. He hit two huge sixes in the due course. Meanwhile, David Warner reached his personal half century. Kaif and Warner added 76 runs to their partnership when Kaif fell to the perfect master plan of Western Wranglers, as Yusuf Pathan trapped him right before the wickets.

David Warner plays a shot on the way to his 81​

Ashok Menaria started off with strong defense, but David Warner went a bit aggressive, what made him lose his wicket on his personal score of 81. Ashok Menaria was mostly on strike, whenever David Warner got chance, he was aggressive. After the departure of David Warner, Suresh Raina supported Menaria to the most as Menaria gave the Western bowlers back what all he had to give. Boundary or a six was the policy. But Just at the time when Raina was seeming to be aggressive, Ajit Agarkar bowler a brilliant delivery, what made Raina give a simple catch to Rohit Sharma.
Menaria played his best, but Naman Ojha & Praveen Kumar looked rusty. They both scored 11 runs off 27 balls, what made Central fall short of definite 25 runs what they could have easily scored.

CENTRAL CRUSADERS innings

Player              Status                        Runs  Blls  4s   6s    S/R
David Warner                       b. Y Pathan     81   112    9    3   72.3%
Mohnish Mishra      lbw            b. Swann        18    37    0    0   48.6%
Jacques Kallis      c. Patel       b. I Pathan     12     9    3    0  133.3%
Mohammad Kaif       lbw            b. Y Pathan     39    33    4    2  118.2%
Ashok Menaria       not out                        64    67    4    4   95.5%
Suresh Raina        c. Sharma      b. Agarkar      19    17    3    0  111.8%
Naman Ojha                         b. Swann        11    20    1    0   55.0%
Praveen Kumar                      b. Y Pathan      0     7    0    0    0.0%
Piyush Chawla       not out
Brett Lee                                         
RP Singh                                          
 
 Total:  253/7       Overs:  50.0          Run Rate:  5.06      Extras:  9

WESTERN WRANGLERS Bowling

Player               Overs   Mdns    Runs   Wkts      E/R    Wds    NBs
Irfan Pathan         10.0      0      44      1      4.40     0      2 
Mitchell Starc        9.0      0      40      0      4.44     0      0 
Zaheer Khan           7.0      0      31      0      4.43     0      0 
Graeme Swann         10.0      1      63      2      6.30     0      0 
Yusuf Pathan         10.0      0      42      3      4.20     2      0 
Ajit Agarkar          4.0      1      28      1      7.00     0      0 
 
 
EXTRAS           Wides: 2      No Balls: 2      Leg Byes: 5      Byes: 0 

Total: 253/7          Overs: 50.0         Run Rate: 5.06      Extras: 9

 

[RPHKR]

Gangnam Gangnam Gangnam at Hyderabad

How much was he paid for the performance in a local tournament?

Looking at the pitch, the score wasn't enough. Good innings by Warner there. WW gonna win this. Waiting for Master's batting as he's playing for a domestic team after decades.

 

[Vivek7]

Presentation at it's BEST!

 

[RPHKR]

Presentation at it's BEST!

That's classy. Prithvi's story contains all of these.

 

[badvintage]

That's classy. Prithvi's story contains all of these.

Just hoping he will finish this with class

 

[Prithvi]

Second Innings:
Chasing 254, Western Wranglers started off their innings very carefully, so that they do not lose an early wicket. But their rustiness didn't last long as Tendulkar started going after bowlers just after the four overs of cautious play. Rahane at the other end was very careful, because he had the responsibility of supporting Tendulkar and take the strike whenever required. The hundred run partnership made everyone think that they're gonna have a 10 wicket victory. Both Sachin and Rahane completed their fifties and Sachin was trashing bowlers at all corners of the stadium.

With Sachin Tendulkar firing with his bat, his counterpart Suresh Raina, the captain of Central Crusaders looked oppressed. But finally, when Piyush Chawla struck twice in the very same over, alleviating his captain Suresh Raina. It was Rahane, who well to the magic of Piyush Chawla. His unexpected arm ball made Rahane do mistake by playing a wrong shot, what ended up a easy catch to Mohnish Mishra. It was Tendulkar after couple of deliveries, when Piyush Chawla bowled yet another unexpected arm ball, what landed right on the toe of Tendulkar, what could be described as "plumb in front of the wicket".

Rohit Sharma celebrates the victory and his personal fifty after a massive six came off his bat.​

Central were bang in the contention, but Chateshwar Pujara and Rohit Sharma played some sensible cricket and get well settled at the center. They both added yet another 100 runs, leaving Central Crusaders slimmest hope for victory. The cocktail what contained the classic shots of Chateshwar Pujara and master strokes of Rohit Sharma entertained the total crowd. However, Piyush Chawla picked up a consolation wicket of Chateshwar Pujara as Pujara trying to brisk up the innings, gave a simple catch to Ashok Menaria. Parthiv Patel entered the ground, made sure that he didn't lose his wicket down. Rohit Sharma got his half century along with the winning runs, as he hit a huge six over long on.

WESTERN WRANGLERS innings

Player              Status                        Runs  Blls  4s   6s    S/R
Ajinkya Rahane      lbw            b. Chawla       54    62    4    1   87.1%
Sachin Tendulkar    c. Mishra      b. Chawla       68    58    6    2  117.2%
Cheteshwar Pujara   c. Menaria     b. Chawla       49    72    5    0   68.1%
Rohit Sharma        not out                        54    78    2    1   69.2%
Parthiv Patel       not out                        12    17    1    0   70.6%
Yusuf Pathan         
Irfan Pathan         
Graeme Swann         
Zaheer Khan          
Ajit Agarkar         
Mitchell Starc       
 
 Total:  254/3       Overs:  46.2          Run Rate:  5.48      Extras:  17

CENTRAL CRUSADERS Bowling

Player               Overs   Mdns    Runs   Wkts      E/R    Wds    NBs
Praveen Kumar        10.0      0      50      0      5.00     1      1 
Brett Lee             7.2      0      60      0      8.18     1      0 
Jacques Kallis       10.0      0      52      0      5.20     1      1 
RP Singh              5.0      0      33      0      6.60     3      1 
Piyush Chawla        10.0      0      43      3      4.30     3      1 
Ashok Menaria         4.0      0      14      0      3.50     0      2 
 
 
EXTRAS           Wides: 9      No Balls: 6      Leg Byes: 2      Byes: 0 

Total: 254/3          Overs: 46.2         Run Rate: 5.48      Extras: 17

Post Match Presentation:
Suresh Raina said that they were completely out of the game. They needed to score around 40 runs greater than what they actually scored. He also agreed that bowling needed massive re structuring. Tendulkar was a happy man, who also received the MoM award. He said that the tournament was the best platform for the best domestic players to show what actually they are and he also insisted that these youngsters must be sent out to play leagues at different stages of the world.

Sachin Tendulkar with the Man of the match award.​

 

[Fenil]

Rohit Sharma can bat!

 

[Vivek7]

^LOL! Shocked to see the performance of Sharma! Tendli back in form?

 

[RPHKR]

Cricsim does wonders.

 

[Prithvi]

Pitch Report:
One this what looks clear is that bowlers will have hard day out here at Eden Gardens, whoever team he might belong. The team fielding second will have literal butterfingers because it has been observed that dew will affect the fielding effectively, what was seen numerous times too. With Kolkata being the Eastern city, sun will set half an hour earlier than what it actually happened at Mumbai in the last match, so the dew might just come into play right at the end of first innings. Captain winning this toss should blindly opt to bowl first and with fielding ability decreased, 350's can be chased down, if the chasing team plan and execute well.

Toss:
Eden Gardens welcomes Dhoni with a massive boo, reason is pretty clear, he was named captain ahead of the local prince, Dada. Not many times we see home team captain get boo'ed. Infact, Kolkata were against India once when Ganguly was dropped from the team. Dhoni spins the coin, Kohli calls it right, heads. Kohli opts to field first. He said "Should be interesting game of cricket, We're playing Angelo and Haddin as our overseas players. Waiting for the second innings for sole reason, solid batting line up on probably the best batting surface in this world." Dhoni said, "Well, I'd not mind any Boos as they'll support me when I come here to play for India. And good news for crowd who boo'ed me is Dada will bat in few minutes from now. We're playing all three overseas players, considering to start the things off at a high."

| Eastern Mustangs ||versus|| Northen Storm |
|Abhishek J'Wala||||Gautam Gambhir|
|Sourav Ganguly||||Virender Sehwag|
|Rajgopal Satish||||Virat Kohli|
|Manoj Tiwary||||Yuvraj Singh|
|Dwayne Bravo||||Angelo Mathews|
|MS Dhoni||||Shikar Dhawan|
|Laxmiratan Shukla||||Brad Haddin|
|Lasith Malinga||||Harbhajan Singh|
|Pat Cummins||||Ishant Sharma|
|Shabaz Nadeem||||Varun Aaron|
|Ashoke Dinda||||Harmeet Singh|

 

[Akul]

Loved all the things, btw you did injustice to Gayle.

 

[Prithvi]

Loved all the things, btw you did injustice to Gayle.

This is not even T20 format and how can you accuse me for that?

 

[Akul]

I mean you did not allow him to perform Gangnam Style.

 

[ved_]

Eastern Mustang look a strong team right now.