What an excellent game today! Words can’t describe the euphoria but I’ll try my best.
We batted first. They had a very young team but still, we never expected their bowlers to be so good and were taken by surprise. Their balls were swinging so much that it was very difficult to play. At the end of first over, we were 0 for 1. At the end of 1.2 overs, 0 for 2. Runs were not coming and wickets were falling like house of cards. In third over, we got maximum runs, i.e., 10 runs and all were made by opposition 😀 (wide balls). That was a big boost to our score. From our own efforts, runs were just trickling in and we were steadily losing wickets. Their bowlers, I should admit, were very good. We were not getting any loose balls to play. We still put up a brave front and the game carried on till the last over. At 14.2 over, our last wicket fell. We made just 85 runs in total 🙁 It was such a low score but we put our chin up and decided to give a good fight nonetheless.
When we started fielding, we knew that every run counts and we can’t give away runs due to misfielding. We kept our fielding very tight. There were no dropped catches. Well, except one controversial one but I’d give benefit of doubt to the player as it wasn’t an easy catch. Getting the finger under the ball was a good enough effort 🙂 Our bowling was excellent and we had our first wicket in the first over itself. And 2 more in 3rd over. At the end of 3rd over, they were 11 for 3. That boosted our morale a lot and we were more determined that we won’t give away the game so easily to opposition. We kept the fielding very tight and they found it hard to find gaps. Their score was moving at a snail’s pace, just like ours. With our fantastic bowling skills, we kept taking wickets regularly and giving away very few runs. The target was still very easy for opposition to reach but we were giving a good fight. With every wicket down, there were shouts of jubilation from us and an increased hope that we may be able to win the game or at least lose the game with dignity. At the end of 12th over, they were 64 for 7. They just needed 22 runs to win from 24 balls (3 overs of 8 balls each) with 3 wickets in hand. Then they started taking singles by touch and go. So in 14th over, we came in to stop singles. That’s when they hit 2 boundaries (fours) and we thought that we’ve lost it now. But then we got a wicket and thought that we can still do it. We maintained our cool and carried on. At the end of 14th over, they were 81/8 and just needed 5 runs in the last over with two wickets in hand. The last over was very crucial, of course. They hit the second ball of the over and ran for double but with our expert fielding, we ran them out. They just got 1 run. We needed 1 wicket and they needed 4 runs, to win. Last batsman was in. We just gathered around the batsman so close that it was impossible for them to take singles by touch and go. They couldn’t take any run due to the pressure piled upon on them. Every dot ball increased our hope of winning. On 7th ball, we got our last wicket (clean bowled). They were all out for 82!!! We won by 3 runs. It was such an amazing feeling that can only be experienced when you are part of the game. Just amazing. We won an impossible game today.
Well done NOBs for showing your resilience and not giving up. |