Congratulation to NOBs team for winning the Cup. It was an exceptional display of batting, bowling and fielding skills yesterday. This cup is well deserved by the team!
It was a nice sunny evening yesterday, which was to our advantage as we batted first. Our players showed perseverance from the beginning itself by remaining firm on the crease and not giving away wickets easily. It wasn’t until 5th over that the opposition got their first wicket. As it was a cup format game, it was important not to lose wickets because it resulted in -6 in the score. All of the players played exceptionally well and some players exceeded the expectations by hitting massive sixes. There was one funny incident though, which I’d like to specifically mention. As we were playing in a very controlled manner and our score was steadily increasing, I think the pair of batsmen at the crease got bored and planned to bring some thrill into the game. One of them hit the ball towards mid-on and it was an easy single run. But they did not run. The fielder did not pick up the ball neatly and dropped it near his foot. It was then that our batsmen decided to leg it. The fielder was baffled with this sudden change in scenario. He quickly picked up the ball again and threw it to the wicket-keeper but he was so befuddled (it happens when you are in a state of shock) that it was not a good throw and our players managed to reach safety in the nick of time. Thanks for the edge of the seat thriller guys. We were literally at the edge of our seats shouting profanities at you. I hope you guys did not hear them. J Anyways, our players showed remarkable batting performance yesterday and we were 133 in total at the end. It is the highest score so far in this cup format game and we were confident that with this score, we will win the game.
Even though we gave them a massive target to chase, we decided not to take things lightly. Our bowlers were steadfast in restricting their run rate and to get wickets at regular intervals. In second ball itself of the first over, we got a wicket. The batsman nicked it to the wicketkeeper and it was nicely taken. We were jubilant with this early wicket and started celebrating. But the umpire was like, what’s going on? He said that he did not hear any sound. I was at the boundary at that time and I can hear that nick loud and clear. But the umpire refused to give him out. The batsman also kept mum about it and did not come forward to accept that he was out.
In another over, there was a full toss ball but the umpire did not think of giving it a No Ball. The players outside the boundary started shouting to the umpire to give it a No Ball and the umpire gave a no ball on their insistence.
Anyway, in a way, these incidents worked out well for us because our bowlers got so feisty that they started taking wickets at regular intervals. I don’t remember a single over where we did not take a wicket. As soon as they would hit a boundary, we would take a wicket to compensate for the score. The wickets were coming in abundance and I lost count of how many wickets we took in total. On the graph, their score was going up and down, like a person jumping up and down on a trampoline. They were not able to cross 30 runs. There were no dropped catches, misfielding or overthrows, which was an exemplary display of fielding skills by our players. In 7th over, they reached their lowest score of -2 runs. In 11th over, they were at their highest so far, i.e., at 26 runs. In 12th over, they were back to 23. It was then that we let it go and relaxed our attack. After all, everyone is entitled to a bit of fun. We took it easy for next 3 overs and they somehow managed to reach a total of 65 runs in the end. We won by a massive difference of 68 runs, which was even more than what they scored in total.
Once again, well done Team 10 of yesterday, to retain the Cup this year also. Also, congratulations to all of the players, who played cup format game from the start of the season and contributed in bringing us to the finals yesterday.
Attached are the (compressed/downsized) photos that was taken after yesterday’s game. If anybody wants to have original size photos, please let me know.
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