SOX keep it close at Spartans

SOX lost a close game yet again playing against Spartans. Earlier in the season SOX lost to Spartans at home by a handful of runs, a performance repeated yet again by the team that, in the spirit of looking at the silver lining, seemed to have found its bowling strength against quality batting.

 

SOX started by winning a crucial toss. The pitch was wet and the grass on the football field end was squishy in places with a big puddle on one side. It took a couple of big buckets to help clear that to a certain degree. Rest was left for the hot sun which was promising a warm day even during the early hours of the morning.

 

Spartans started with Jigar and another batsman (Name?). Rajan and Karthik started for SOX and while Karthik wavered a little he pinned down the batsmen just enough for Rajan to take advantage on the other end. Rajan kept his line and length for the most part making batting, which was already a tough task due to the pitch being wet, no picnic. Jigar batted well for Spartans and continued to take advantage of select few balls that were offered on the leg. Hasan kept wickets for SOX and did a phenomenal job behind the stumps. SOX fielding was just below par with a couple of catches going down. Bowling was substantially better than previous games where minimal amount of extras were given. Spartans kept loosing their wickets and were not able to score at an accelerated rate at any point in the game except for a couple of overs in the end. Spartans ended up with 167 on the board at the end of the 25th over. Rajan, Shahab, Sam, and Karthik were among wickets.

 

SOX started with Hasan and Shahab. Hasan was his usual self but the pitch continued to bother the batsmen. The ball was sticking to the pitch for just a touch longer than it should have and while Hasan managed to be more careful in his approach, SOX were finding it difficult to score. Hasan played some beautiful strokes though that included a six and three boundaries. Shahab and Hasan also ran some quick singles and twos while they were on. Eventually, he mistimed a shot and was caught by the short mid off fielder after scoring 29 runs. Rajan joined Shahab and showed a good deal of intent to fight with his intelligent batting. Just before the drink's break, Shahab was stumped after scoring 23 runs and with the total at 83 runs, and SOX needing 85 runs more, the slide began. Karthik was not able to get going and was out on the first ball he faced. Rajan and Sam got together but before a partnership could develop, Rajan got out mistiming a shot. Jagat joined Sam where Sam took centerstage and carted Mahendra all around the ground in one over. He scored 22 runs in an over with 2 massive sixes and 2 fours alongwith a couple of runs between the wickets. But just as SOX started to breath easy, Jagat got out trying to flick the ball on the legside, loosing his stumps in the process. Sandeep joined Sam in the middle and for sometime was not able to adjust to the pitch. Runs dried up once again and that compelled Sam to take charge. He tried to run one too many of the risky singles and unfortunately was caught short of his crease. Satish joined Sandeep in the middle and immediately set about the task of setting things right. Sandeep, in the meanwhile, was called back, and Gajja joined Satish in the middle. Both the batsmen were in the process of threatning to take over the game however, Gajja was not able to contain his instint to drive on the up and was caught in the covers. Satish was then joined by Saurabh. SOX needed 24 in 3 overs followed by 16 in 2 overs. At that critical juncture, Satish was run out and it was all over for SOX. SOX eventually loosing to Spartans after a tough fight. SOX have two crucial games coming up in August and the last game of the season is in Sept. In order to ensure a place in the playoffs, SOX have to win 2 out of the three remaining games.

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Fwd: Bees beat satnford-A @ gilroy - Match Report

---------- Forwarded message ----------
From: Sujesh Pulikkal <sujesh@santaclaracc.org>
Date: Aug 11, 2008 11:18 AM
Subject: Bees beat satnford-A @ gilroy - Match Report
To: members@santaclaracc.org

PS: AGAIN another outstanding knock by Amit. V well supported by
fareed, chandru, shiva.

I guess shiva got 11 wickets in 3 games playing for bees!! he is
goign to be another Imran in the making!! Great to have 2 leggies in
the team. Amit valia didn't bowl and we didn't use krishna at all.

Great to have 6 spinners in 1 team.

Great team effort fellas!!

A-Div: Santa Clara-II at Stanford A-1
Date: 08-09-2008
Venue: Winery, Gilroy, CA
Umpires: Sher Ali (Carribean)
Toss: Santa Clara-II - Elected to bat first

Santa Clara -II 203 for 7 in 50 overs (Amit. V 75, chandru 26, Fareed.
A 23, Shiva. V 18 not out, Ganesh 5/0/26/2, Abbas. R 8/0/41/2, chandra
8/3/21/1)

Beat

Stanford A-1 184 all out in 48 overs (Anwar. A 53, Ganesh. S 32, Saeed
22, Bilal 22 Not out, Shiva. V 7/1/23/3, Imran. M 10/2/30/2, Fareed
10/2/35/3, Sujesh 10/4/14/0)

by 19 runs

Santa Clara-II lost 2 early wickets to great bowling by Ganesh
removing Hassan. A and Krishna. Sujesh and Fareed had a 45 runs
partnership to take the score to 55 in 20 overs for 2 wickets. Fareed
and Amit valia had a small partnership. The big partnership of 76 runs
came between chandru and amit when they played aggressively. chandru
got out for a well made 26 runs. Shiva and Amit had another 35 runs
partnership. Amit valia played an amazing knock to take the score to
203 with the support of chandru, fareed, saad and shiva. Chandra and
Bilal kept things tight for stanford A. ganesh took early wickets and
abbas bowled well in the death. Bilal was unlucky not to get a wicket
but bowled really well. Abbas Jaffery is a good find and that kid
bowled with lot of pace.

Stanford-A were cruising @ 70 for 1 wicket @ 7th over chasign 204 .
Saeed scored 22 runs in 3 overs and got out. The score was 30 runs in
4 overs. Like usual spinners came on to bowl in the 9th over and the
game changed. Saeed and anwar were hitting sixes and made it look like
the groudn was small specially against the wind. They hit soem good
shots and weren't bad balls. Anwar was hitting shots @ will against
medium pacers and was unable to control it once the spinners were on.
Fareed cleaned up mushi, anwar and nishant. Ganesh was batting with a
hamstring injury and was unable to open up and santa clara-II
controlled the game from then on. They never looked to chase since
sikander, Nauman and Abbas were unable to score freely and pressure
got to them. Imran was unplayable on that wicket and middle order
struggled to have any momentum. Abbas looked comfortable but was out
played by a beauty from shiva and got stumped. Bilal and ganesh gave
some threat after Bilal playign soem good shots towards the end.
Sujesh supported from other end with a maiden on 45th over and run
rate climbed to more than 6 runs per over. Finally saad came back and
bowled few brilliant overs to finish the game @ 184. Shiva bowled
beautifully to take 3 wickets.

After such a great start santa clara-II snatched the game away from
stanford-A. Good game and beating a team with solid batting line-up
speaks volume of the performance as a team.Great game to be part of
and good win for Santa Clara-II

Good umpiring by sher Ali from carribean.

-Sujesh Pulikkal
santa clara cricket club

Bees lose to davis by 27 runs on saturday @ home - Match Report

From: Sujesh Pulikkal <sujesh@santaclaracc.org>
Date: Aug 4, 2008 11:15 PM
Subject: Bees lose to davis by 27 runs on saturday @ home - Match Report
To: members@santaclaracc.org

A-div: DAVIS @ Santa Clara-II
Date: 08/02/2008
Played at: Wilson Edu. Center, Santa Clara
Umpires: Brian Whitford and Vijay Goel (San Mateo -(certified)
Toss: won by Davis and elected to bat

DAVIS 167 all out in 46 overs[Jay. K 43, Anit 25, balbir 24,
Imran(10/2/32/3), Jwalant(9/0/42/3), Sathya(7/0/31/2),
sujesh(10/1/22/1)]

Beat

Santa Clara - II : 140 all out in 44.3 overs(Amit. V 40 nout out,
Sujesh 39, jwalant 19, sushant (8.3/0/24/3), Jay(8/0/20/2),
shevar(9/2/21/2)

by 27 runs

Excellent game and well deserved win for davis for the fight they
showed. Arun started with few good hits but jwalant cleaned up the top
order including shevar. Jay played sensibly and was keeping the score
board moving. Davis lost 5 wickets for 83 runs in 24 overs. Balbir
came in and chanced his arm against imran and hit few good shots and
the crucial partnership of 40 runs came between balbir and Anit who
held one end. Shehzad chipped in with few runs and they were all out
for 167 in 46 overs. Jwalant, Imran and sathya bowled well and picked
up wickets.

Santa Clara-II started the chase badly by poor shot selection and lost
4 wickets for 10 runs. This included the run out of Harsh who was
batting well by a direct hit from the super man RAY when batsman took
a start from non-striker end for a run. Dawood and sujesh had a 40
runs partnership and was looking on course to chase the score. dawood
got out to shevar who gave the break through with his off spinners
after doing his wicket keeping duty. In walks Amit the batsman in form
who have been scoring consistently for santa clara-II for the past 4
games. Amit and sujesh had a partnership of 30 runs and Aman got
sujesh out LBW. Jwalant and amit had a sweet little agressive 30 runs
partnership. This was looking good to seal the game with 12 overs and
60 runs on a fast outfield with 3 wickets in hand. jwalant got out LBW
and Sushant ran through the last 2 batsman to end up with 3 important
wickets to seal the game for Davis. Santa Clara -II got all out for
140 with 5.3 overs to spare and 27 runs required. Amit remained not
out @ 40 without any support.

All credit to davis boyz for fighting hard till the end and winning the game.

Good umpiring by brian and Vijay from san mateo.

-Sujesh Pulikkal