Back to winning ways
The match report is courtesy of Ramesh
On a cloudy Saturday afternoon and on one of the best grounds, Graces started the proceedings after losing the toss and were put into bat. Openers Dominic and Jonathan played cautiously as the both opening bowlers started to swing the ball at considerable amount. Unfortunately Dominic fell to a lovely out swinger. Abhishek joined the determined Jonathan and they started to open up once the bowlers erred their line and lengths. Jonathan was particularly impressive with his solid defence and shot making. After a solid partnership they both fell in the space of few overs. That brought the brittle middle order into play which couldn’t make up for lack of runs in their previous innings and Graces were in their familiar position of 97/6 at drinks.
Manish Modi who has arrived straight from work and even had very little time to pad up was in the middle with his usual defence and elegant left-handed drives. He was joined by Mr. Dependable Richard B to get the innings onto tracks and so they did by some solid hits to the boundary thus maintaining the run-rate. After an entertaining partnership they both fell in succession in search of quick runs in the death overs. The tail wagged as it has been doing for the whole season with some power hits and quick running between the wickets, and Graces reached a very defendable 183
Graces started their defence under the sunny skies, quite a contrast to start of the match. Ramesh started the innings with lively pace and swing and his three wickets inside 12 overs made sure the opposition never got to a decent start. Hemang bowled with tight line and length and ensured the run rate was well below the asking. Manish produced some magic with his spinners and picked up 3/14 and made sure not to waste the good start by the opening bowlers. He and other bowlers kept the runs in check with the fielders pumped up, result – determined ground fielding and auspicious catching. By the time of drinks FCO were down and out with only two wickets left for a petit score of 58. Richard B started the post-drinks session with two wickets in two balls ensuring an early end and jubilant mood with the team.
It was a solid team effort with very much improved showing in the ground fielding and especially catching, lack of these two in the past led us to few certain victories into defeats. But the main worry is lack of spine in the middle order. Hope we do produce the same effort in the field and middle order batting come good in the future.