Allround Performance by the Engineers bring good result
Bidyut Sarkar,
28 September, 2014
The Engineers registered yet another convincing win in KCL, this time over AlphaQ, and confirmed their place in the final already with two matches to spare.
Winning the toss, AlphaQ decided to bat first. But their hope to score big got buried under a spotless bowling performance by the Engineers. The opening bowlers, Biju Paul and Rajneesh Shukla, started with probing line and created early discomfort for AlphaQ batsmen. The first success came in the 5th over when Biju bowled Nilesh for 6. There was no turning back from there for Engineers as they kept taking wickets at regular intervals. After top the order failed to score, AlphaQ concentrated on occupying the crease rather than scoring which was a sensible thing to do at that time. With the bowlers not giving any extras (till it was jinxed by Biju’s comment in 11th over ‘aaj ek bhi extra nahi gaya!’, followed by a couple of wides) runs were hard to come by. Biju bowled six overs on the trot and returned with the figure of 2/15. While, Rajneesh settled for 1/6 in four overs. The change bowlers Manvi and Anurag also bowled well. While Manvi was economical (7 runs off 5 overs), Anurag bowled with some fierce pace. Well, the smart bowling changes and excellent field placements from the captain Vinay also helped their cause. The Engineers spinners, Bidyut (2/19) and Prashant (1/7), also didn’t return empty handed. AlphaQ’s “Mr. dependable” opener Chandru (12 runs in 50+ balls), after playing for 22 overs got out to a soft dismissal to Bidyut. With the tail exposed Vinay decided to bring back Anurag for another spell. The raw pace from Anurag left the batsmen with the option of either saving their wicket or their ……(fill in the blanks!). The result was that the AlphaQ innings folded very quickly for 75. Anurug was pick of the bowlers with 3/10 in five overs. Even with just one AlphaQ batsman scoring 2 digit runs, they somehow managed to reach 75, a score worth giving a fight.
Well, the start to the batting the Engineers batting was not so fairy tale like. Two wickets fell in the first over itself. Atul got a fine nick to the keeper, while Abdul unfortunately got run out in a misunderstanding with the bowler (bowler !!??). Yes, bowler it is. As he went to listen to something the bowler was saying to him without grounding the bat (well, the ball was not dead), their fielder knocked the wickets down. Dinesh also fell cheaply and the score of the Engineers was 19 for the loss of 3 wickets in 5 overs. The other opener Ashok and the Engineers captain ‘cool’ Vinay lifted game from there. Both played some wonderful, eye-popping strokes and scoring briskly. With a win within sight, the Engineers slumped again. After Ashok’s departure the Engineers lost another two quick wickets (of Manvi and Anurag) and were reduced to 52 for 6. Possibly, for first time in the game AlphaQ could think that they can snatch the game away from the Engineers. But, Vinay had other plans. With debutant Bidyut’s (this writer) support, Vinay made sure no further hiccups happen. Vinay played a match winning “captain’s innings” (31 n.o.). Other notable contribution came from Ashoke (18 runs).
With this win the Engineers booked their place in the final. This makes the remaining two group matches against Indian Tigers mere courtesy matches.