Winning Streak comes to an end - SOX loose against Tracy United by 3 runs

SOX and Tracy enjoyed an exciting game with a controversial ending involving an umpiring gaffe.

SOX lost the toss and were asked to bowl. Tracy's ground had incredibly short boundaries compared to some of the other grounds in the league however, grass in a few patches here and there was fairly thick so shots along the ground were not as effective in getting runs. Everyone expected it to be a high scoring game and not one to be dominated by the bowlers. Apparently Rajan begged to differ and started a top order slide for Tracy, the likes of which have rarely been seen. Rajan ended up with 4 wickets giving away only a handful of runs while Nikhul from the other end got into the act as well reducing Tracy to 55 for 6 at break. Rajan bowled with a lot of control and aggression and got the important wicket of Tarun. He also bowled out most of his victims with sharp incutters that were very accurate, one of which notably hit the top of the off-stump. Extras were well in control and SOX were looking to dominate the game. After the break, the picture changed just a bit when numbers 7 and 8 from Tracy hung around longer than they should have chipping runs into their total. Karthik and Anshuman bowled very well to contain the batsmen and after some struggle, SOX started the slide yet again where Tracy lost two quick wickets in the same over. Shahab and Puneet bowled the last few overs giving away minimal amount of runs and accounting for the rest of the batting line up. Harsh probably took the finest catch getting Raj's wicket off of Puneet's bowling and got a stumping resulting in a wicket for Shahab as well. Rajan contributed in fielding as well with an amazing catch off of a flat drive at the boundary. There were some dropped catches that elongated the Tracy innning (three in all) but Tracy was eventually all out for 125 runs.

 

SOX started out very well with Harsh and Prasad taking advantage of some loose bowling in the beginning. Harsh particularly looked good and was making steady progress when he got out with the total at 47 which turned out to be the best partnership from SOX for the day. He was followed by Nipun and when Prasad fell after a good knock and only due to a misunderstanding between him and Nipun, Rajan walked in and immediately started to dominate the proceedings. Nipun departed after giving a dolly of a catch to short mid-on. Karthik walked in and partnered with Rajan to push the score into the 90s. Rajan, after belting a boundary, tried his luck again and was caught out very close to the boundary. In walked Jagat at a point when SOX needed less than 35 runs and was not able to get going against Raj. He was out LBW on a ball that struck him curiously high above his knee roll. Shahab walked in to partner Karthik who at that point was trying to play along the ground without much success in getting runs. Karthik got out after his attempt at trying to go over the top of the infield resulted in a mishit. Puneet and Shahab got together on the pitch but the frustration of not being able to score with along the ground shots got to Shahab as well and he skied a short ball in an attempt to pull it to mid-wicket boundary. Anshuman walked in and ably assisted Puneet who was making the last stand against a charged Tracy line up. At the time, SOX needed about 24 runs in 4 overs however, with only one wicket in hand, Puneet was trying to help the situation without taking too many risks. Anshuman and Puneet pulled the game within a whisker of an advantage for SOX when they needed 6 runs in 6 balls. The equation then became 3 runs in 4 balls and that is when disaster struck. A ball that took the bottom edge of Anshuman's bat and appeared to have missed his pad completely went behind the wicket keeper. The bowler was the only one who appealed and kept appealing for an LBW. Everyone saw the umpire raise his hand registering 2 bye runs with the scorer. The scorer and half the SOX team acknowledged him and next we look up to see Anshuman walking back. Apparently the umpire had decided after giving the bye runs that it was not bye after all and that Anshuman was out LBW. Umpire later clarified that he made a mistake in thinking that it was a bye and re-considered his decision to reverse it. SOX still had 2 more balls to play to get the three runs however, it was not to be and SOX lost the game by a close margin of three runs.

 

The day did belong to the bowlers of both sides. From Tracy, everybody bowled very well and controlled the extras. Same from SOX as well. A little more application on the batting side of things could have seen more scoring from both the teams. However, that does not take away from an intense match up. SOX are 4-3 after playing seven games in total. The schedule shows SOX as being off for the next few weeks coming back on Jul 13th weekend against Mammoths in an away game.

 

This is hopefully a minor blip on the graph and SOX hope to continue the upward climb in the Team table.  

--
-----------------------------------------------------------
For my Tech Related Musings, go to:
http://simpleduple.typepad.com/techshup
For my Valley Related and General Reflections, go to:
http://www.wadiwallah.com/blog/author/afrasiyab