AGE OVERCOMES YOUTH - Boys In White vs Team Bong

2005, Sharjah

With age comes wisdom. Not true I say. I say with age comes experience and that was exactly what lifted us yesterday to a huge 61 victory over Team Bong.

In a dashing display of skills and wits the senior players of the Boys in White showed the way its done. After winning the toss and electing to bat Faisal and Kannan gave a steady start putting on 21 runs in 5.3 overs. After the departure of Kannan Mahesh joined the company of Faisal who looked in no hurry to come back and was happy taking the singles. Mahesh soon departed without a major contribution and Vydya begun his stay at the crease with a first ball boundary clubbed over the fielder at square leg. He soon opened up himself and a six and another four soon followed much to our delight in the dressing room. Vydya has become the mainstay of this batting line up and he is quite in the mode of Zulu when he bats. Unluckily he departed and Mohan was promoted up the order.

Mohan[uncle] has never really been given a chance to display his wares and he made best use of this opportunity with an innings that simply took the match away from the opposition. He paced his innings to perfection with singles initially and as he begun to cut loose he looked even more elegant. Well I had the best seats in the house first watching him from square leg and later on being his by-runner which was almost like watching the ball from his point of view. Two huge consecutive sixes and he had stamped his authority over the bowling and he never once did let up after that picking up the gaps regularly while always threatening to clear the ropes. Faisal departed and Shabbir walked in and he too wasted no time and joined the elite club by clubbing a big but simply sweetly timed maximum over long off.

Shabbir departed with just an over to go and Vimal joined Uncle Mohan who offered that he sit out to give another batsman a look in but with the form he was in there was no way I'd let anyone else have a go. We finished off in style stealing 3 runs off the last ball and ended up with 127 in twenty overs. A great finish to the innings and almost 50 runs were yielded in last 5 overs.

The defence began well and but for a dropped catch that yielded two runs the over was uneventful. Anwar bowled two tight overs and picked up a wicket. Amin too kept it simple and quick from his end and they were in a stranglehold that they couldn’t seem to break free from. Wickets kept falling at regular interval and we awaited the arrival of Gangadharan the only person capable of giving us some competition. He did arrive and we had the perfect plan set up for him. I had a first go at him that he just kept poking at and immediately the unused Vimal was bought on. He totally softened him up with short pitched stuff and the occasional pitched up deliveries and one such delivery knocked the wind out of his sails and literally brought him down on his knees.

Next over Faisal was introduced and he picked him up first ball with a low full toss that was hit straight to Vydya. Faisal has been awesome with his slow stuff and he is getting squarish turn off the seam which Gangadharan has not been able to come to terms with. Vydya slipped in maiden wicket unnoticed and it was just a matter of finishing off the match from then on. Shabbir came good again with his leg spin and this bowling attack is looking menacing with the variety we have. I came back for my third over and had the batsman scoop the ball up towards point but a little away from the fielder and to my surprise I see Jameson run backwards and take a brilliant catch two handed after judging the ball to perfection. What a catch that was! Next ball I had Jerry bowled and was on a hat trick and missed out by a whisker. Rajesh, Murali, Jameson and Kannan bowled an over each at the death and picked up easy wickets.

Kannan again was brilliant behind the stumps and pulled of a cunning stumping. His keeping has helped the bowling as the batsmen seem very reluctant to leave the crease and use their feet against the bowling while he is behind the stumps. Another aspect of our game that stood out was our fielding. Four direct throws resulted in run outs. Amin broke the stumps with his accurate but powerful one from cover and Vydya wrapped up the innings with another one at the non strikers end.

The batting was a revelation and I am very impressed with the senior guys who took up the challenge of pulling us out of the slump of the last two games. A lesson well learnt that experience does count and sometimes is more valuable that youth and energy. The batting has been dominated by the Uncles and the bowling by the Fresh Bloods. I have an embarrassment of riches available at my disposal when it comes to the bolwing department. Vimal, Vydya and myself all ended up with an economy rate of fewer than 2 and it is going to be some task giving everyone a chance to be part of the action.

A lesson well learnt also when considering the order of the batting line up and from now on the emphasis will be on winning rather than giving everyone a chance. Great game guys and there was no better result that I could have asked for. Uncle Mohan is going to cherish this innings for a long time and UncleJameson is going to be remembering that catch for eternity. Well done all the Uncles of the team. Jameson made a great gesture to sacrifice his place so that others may get a chance to play and I hope everyone learns from his gesture and places team interest over everything else.

If we continue playing in this vein the time is not far when we will soon have to rename ourselves as “THE UNTOUCHABLES.”