Myoden blows away the Engineers

Engineers add one more to the list of losses

By Partha Sarathi

The friendly match against Myoden was scheduled on 21st Oct. The Diwali Day. The match started at 10 in the morning, 30 minutes late than the scheduled time. Both the team had 10 players each. After the Engineers were left rudderless for the past few months with the non-availability regular officials and and the stand-in captain, Bikash, withdrew himself from the match the day before the match, the heavy responsibility of turning the Engineers’ losing track fell on the next available choice, Biju. After winning the toss of the coin, Myoden elected to bat first.

    Biju set the field and the openers of Myoden were on their way to the field when suddenly it was realised that you need to have 2 sets of stumps on both ends to play cricket! A fielder was sent to the pavilion to fetch one set of stumps while Biju himself disappeared into the jungle of the Edogawa river bank to prepare some make-shift stumps for the bowler’s end. The thin sticks, just about the size of the sticks school masters use back home, less to scare the pupils and more to use it actually, were put up at the bowler’s end with the support of huge stones collected from the river. Innovation at tit best! went toweren’t set up.Biju and Sangan opened the bowling and kept the openers calm and also produces couple of chances. Myoden ring-in opener Graem was clean bolwed by Sangan in his first over and Biju trapped Karthik, Gream’s replacement, in front of the stumps in his second over. Myoden was 11 for 2 after 4 overs. The opening bowlers did a good job of containg the Myoden in their spell, giving away only 15 runs after their opening spell of 3 overs each. After the loss of two quick wickets, Kedar and Sagar put up a solid partnership of 97 runs. They were batting quite comfortably and the Engineeers’ bowlers couldn’t capitalize on the good start that Sangan and Biju gave. Loose bowling aided by poor take behind the wicket made the batsmen’s task easy. The dismissal of Sagar, brought Myoden captain Vezly to pair with Kedar. They kept scoring easily with lots of singles and occasionally clearing the boundary. Kedar was tired and was not able to steal the fast singles which upset his captain, who did not conceal his displeasure. They put up a 120 partnership. Biju tried all his options, but nothing worked out. Biju, brought himself in the attack, only to see his initial excellent bowling figures going for a toss. After yielding only on 7 runs in return for a wicket in his first 3 overs, his next second spell of 3 overs went for 30 runs while Sangan maintained his good show in his second spell as well. At last Biju tried the debutant, Anuraag Singh, the 19-year old rookie. Although he went for a few runs, his raw pace surprised everyone.  He bowled with good pace and kept the ball in place. In the end Myoden set a target of 234 to win. Partha and Anil opened the inning for the Engineers. The asking rate was very high 6.68 per over. To chase such a big total, one needed a good start. But, it turned out to be worst, when Partha was dismissed in the very first ball, given out LBW. Anil(38), put a good show and was playing freely, mainly concentrating on singles and doubles. No other batter could stay long and the Engineers reduced to 64 for 4 after 14 overs. Sangan and Anil put up a 41 run partnership. Towards the end of the innings, new blood Anuraag(35*) and the old fox Santosh(35*) started freeing their arms and hit the ball hard often clearing the rope. The Myoden bowlers didn’t have any answer to rampaging Anuraag and Santosh. But, there were not many overs to win the match. Eventually they put up a unbroken partnership of 70 runs but that could not help the Engineers. The scoreboard read 188 for 6 after 35 overs. One more defeat for the Engineers, which is not hard to digest these days. It was a friendly match and none of the teams had all their key players. But, still, some points must be noted. The Engineers conceded too many extras, 77 (45 wides, 32 byes/legbyes) while Myoden bowled 32 wides and 1 bye. That was the difference between the two teams. Nothing went in the Engineers’ way, but there is one good aspect. The match saw rise of a teenager who could be a valuable asset for the team. And of course, the Engineers their full quota of overs.

Brief scores: Myoden 233/4(35 ov). Kedar 50*, Sagar 50, Vezly 51 IECC 188/6(35 ov). Anil 38, S Ghadge 35*, A Sing 35*