Result: ICCB-2 – Won by 37 runs
Location: ACC
Date: 31st July 2021
Author: Judson Daniel
Scorecard: https://www.crichq.com/matches/941016/1st_innings
With 1 win, 1 “No Result” and 3 losses, the Chevaliers had nothing to lose but everything to gain in the remaining 4 matches. Game 6 was against the familiar, but friendly foes ICCB who also did well in creating a 2nd Team this season.
With the Belgian “whether” giving a run to every gambler’s ruin, Bowling was the option to go for, if Chevaliers won the toss, even though the captain of 12 Stars secretly wanted to lose it. 🙂
12 Stars won the toss and put ICCB into bat, having analysed their previous scores which had not crossed 120. JD started with Vishal and even though the Opening bowlers beat the batsmen quite a lot, could not create any meaningful Chances in the first few overs. Rajesh was brought in, and a beautiful Cover drive off a juicy half volley was caught spectacularly by Nikhil to give the Stars the desired breakthrough. Shashi could not stabilize the innings when he was out for a well-judged running catch by Ganga. Devang was brought in and immediately saw Sagar sweeping over only to fall to an amazing catch at deep square by Rajesh.
With no official umpires around, a brief moment of madness evolved when the 12 Stars Captain was not happy with a childish decision that went against the Stars. Justice prevailed with Devang getting Manish’s wicket while the captain of ICCB, Sreekanth was anchoring their innings. Looking solid at 70/4, “Ice-Man” Vishal was brought in and provided the breakthrough, again with a lovely catch by Ganga. With Bharath, Nikhil and Avinash not able to make any impact, the Wily old fox Manoj was brought in, only to see another ICCB player bite the dust, this time LBW. The player apparently thought that the ball was already dead, since it took so long to reach him :-). Ganga burst out a very accurate spell that even took himself by surprise cleaning the tail off with Maddy, who took Sreekanth off his very first ball, with Barry making good ground (about a metre 🙂 ) to take the catch. ICCB finally ended up with “one eye, one arm and one leg [Nelson]”.
With 112 to chase, the Chevaliers started very confidently with Nikhil and Vishal. Their patient and steady 25 run partnership was broken when a double-minded nudge cost Nikhil his wicket. With Maddy taking a “Crucial” break :-), Rajesh entered the pitch to avoid Maddy being timed out. The Collapse began when Rajesh and Maddy did not trouble the scorers with Vishal and Devang following in quick succession. At 39/5, Manoj steadied the innings for a while with Avinash, before a loopy full toss on the leg, got the better of Avi. Ganga went with the “flow” while JD and Manoj momentarily gave Chevaliers some hope, before an unexpected bounce took out The Resilient Manoj. Formality followed and eventually, Chevaliers were bundled out for a paltry 74. It was once again a Batting failure, with the bowlers ever preforming. The highlight was the catches though, thanks to Ganga, Nikhil, Rajesh, and Barry. Even though, the loss did not dampen the spirit of the Chevaliers, a win would have made some good for them in the Division 6 table… [I can hear some of the Chevaliers go, “What table?” 🙂 ]. Thanks to Ishaq for stepping in as the Keeper who Kept very well in his debut match. And thanks to Jethro David [Junior JD] who ensured that Chevaliers do not lose 2 points in Scoring [as well 🙂 ].
Fielding improvement was a great addition to the whole team. While the consistent bowling performance remains a plus, the batting consistency is becoming a bit of a concern. Hopefully we can turn it around in the coming matches.
1 win, 1 “No Result” and 4 losses… well, all the 6 matches were played with 11 Players, 1 Scorer out of an unbelievable number of Availability. Win or Lose, as for the 2021 Season for 12 Stars , The Chevaliers is already a Roaring Success.
