Pre-game
With no outside opponent available for the last 'free' weekend of the semester, the undergraduate members of WesCricket challenged the senior members of the club, namely, graduate students, faculty and friends to a full-length friendly. The two 10-a-side teams contained both current in-form players as well as past stars and a war of words began even before the teams took the field.

The UGs were led by current WesCricket captain Zaki. The grads were led by former captain Swarna. The grads, however, had players returning to the field after a long absence but they were determined not to let that hamper their game. On paper, the teams were balanced but the UGs had a definite edge in the fielding department.

Zaki won yet another toss and chose to bat first in the 25-overs game. The pitch at the Upper Long Lane Fields had uneven bounce and as a result both sides bowled several "bouncers".

The UG innings
Swarna struck in the very first over of the match when UG 'keeper-opener Jacob gloved his 5th delivery to 'keeper-allrounder Edwin (0/1). Phudorji joined surprise opener Amit Shah and got off to a very watchful start. Amit, having shown good form in the nets nearly hit Swarna for a six, amidst loud cheers from the UG bench. Sanjai ended his spirited stay by catching him off his own bowling (10/2 in the 4th over).
Inam, fresh from scoring 40* at Yale, joined Phu and the two began to rebuild the innings. The UGs took drinks at 36/2 (12 overs), the score already bolstered by several wides and no-balls.
Swarna returned to the attack after drinks and both Phu and Inam hit him for boundaries, indicating a change in strategy but before they could run away with a match-winning partnership, Swarna beat Inam in the same over and the umpire upheld the appeal for caught-behind to Inam's dismay. The ball had hit his thigh. He departed for 13 and the UGs were 46/3 in the 13th over.
Vuyani joined Phu but he didn't last long as Rajesh bowled him for nought (52/4 in the 14th over). Skipper Zaki and Phu rebuilt the innings with a 38 run partnership off 7 overs as Phu began to open up. Sanjai returned for his second spell and trapped Zaki lbw for 10 (90/5 in the 21st over).
The quest for quick runs saw wickets tumble as Kushan was run out (108/6, 23rd over) and Stewart was bowled by Edwin (109/7, 24th over). Phu hit Dave for two boundaries in the final over before he was caught-and-bowled for a brilliant 47 (69 balls, 5 fours). Arnab was run out off the final ball and the innings closed at 124. Amit Patel remained not out on 3.
The grads were a little slow on the field but didn't drop any catches. The UG score contained 46 extras. The four frontline grad bowlers (Swarna, Sanjai, Edwin and Rajesh) bowled well.

The Grad innings
An asking rate of 5 wasn't very stiff but the grads needed a good start and couldn't rely on just extras to take them to victory. The UGs had a formidable line-up with Vuyani, Phu, Zaki and the ever-improving Kushan spearheading the attack.
An out-of-form Edwin opened the innings with Dave while Vuyani and leg-spinner Phu shared the new ball. Disaster struck in the 2nd over when Dave flicked Phu into the waiting hands of Amit Shah at square leg (7/1). Edwin hit Vuyani for two fours in the next over, making his intentions very clear. Susmith was trapped lbw by Phu in the 4th over for a duck (19/2). Hari joined Edwin in the middle as Edwin proceeded to take the bowling apart, first with a six off Vuyani and then a sequence of 4/6/6 off three no-balls from Phu. The 6th over yielded 23 runs as the grads raced to 58/2 after 6 overs.
Zaki and Kushan entered the action and Edwin, after surviving a confident appeal for caught behind, dispatched Zaki for the maximum but in UG skipper's next over he was bowled by a ball which kept very low. He was gone for 55 off just 37 balls (5 fours, 4 sixes), having reached his fifty off 34 balls. The grads were now 82/3 in the 11th over and the UGs sensed an opportunity to choke them.
Kushan was bowling beautifully and Phu returned to the attack. Three wickets fell in the next four overs as the grads slumped to 102/6 but with the asking rate around the two runs per over mark, the pressure wasn't as high as the UGs would've liked. While they kept runs off the bat to a trickle, the extras started to build up. Vinodh and Swarna hung in there for 7 overs and added 23 runs, with just four coming off the bat. The uneven bounce resulted in the batsmen taking a few blows to the body. Zaki used up all his main bowlers with Kushan being the most economical (1/15). Although very expensive, Phu (4/51) picked up some crucial wickets in the mini-collapse, getting Hari caught behind and Srikanth lbw.
Inam bowled the 22nd over with three runs still needed and the grads got the runs through wides. In the end it was one "extra extra" that separated the teams, with both teams scoring 78 off the bat. But Edwin's cracking half-century set the stage for a comfortable grad victory, with a few hiccups resulting from a good fightback by the UGs. While tempers did flare at times, the game was played in a good spirit.

Swarna Basu
5.5.2002