A 'Ball' of a Time

Dec 2nd, Dubai

Whether it's a cricket game at Safa Park or at the N.I.Model parking lot, Sheldon Serrao is simple boundaries ahead of the opposition and his teammates when it comes to batting. His classy innings helped PubliLink claim a 38 run victory against Pune XI.

In every respect, our approach to the game was superior to that of our opponents. After winning the toss I decided to have a bat first because we were a player short and I thought that would give us some time to get another guy in while the game started. Flinty [Ganesh] and Willy went into the middle and faced three tough overs from the opening bowlers who did not give an inch. Flinty departed playing down the wrong line and Ganesh joined Willy in the middle, but lost his leg stump on the second ball after shuffling across a little too much and Willy was caught at the extra cover boundary in the very next over.

That brought Shel and Dheraj at the crease and the two began to rebuild the innings. Nahid had just claimed the wicket of Willy and Shel dug out a first ball Yorker from him before sending the next ball straight over the bowlers head for a perfectly timed six. That broke the shackles and from there on it was a display of super batting. Shel bats like a combination on Dravid and Sehwag put together. He scores at the rate of Sehwag with the shots of Dravid. He epitomized the difference between the two teams - the bulk of his scoring came via boundaries and he rotated the strike effectively. He was batting with a view to lasting for 16 overs, and in the final analysis you could tell the difference between the two teams was his batting. Dheraj chanced his arm often and had the full nine lives of the cat as he kept teasing the fielders with lofted shots that fell tantalizing close to them. He lost his wicket to a yorker that castled his middle stump but by then a reasonable platform had been built. Vee and Shel seemed to be building a good partnership before a mix up between the two left Vee stranded in the middle of the pitch.

Naveen came in and from the word go he started upping the run rate with some well executed cover drives and straight drives that went past the ropes with a pendulum straight bat. Shel in the meantime suffering from backache used a runner but did the bulk of his scoring via hits to the fence. The two took the score past 120 and PubliLink for once felt in a safe zone. Naveen who was really looking good was run out trying to steal a two and that brought me in. Smashed the first ball for four and was out a couple a balls later caught behind trying to be too cheeky. Reghu hit a skier that the fielder made an absolute mess of and we got four runs for the error and was out bowled next ball. Tangles [Parvindar] the last man in and he started by belting the first ball he faced over long off for a six and the next one for a four at the same place in his unbeaten little cameo. Shel finished off with a single and was unbeaten on 80 odd runs that was the backbone of the innings.

I started the proceedings for our defence and had five wides in a first over that went for nine runs and my next over went for the same amount of runs this time also with five wides but with two dropped catches. Willy claimed a wicket in the next over with Flinty taking a good catch at Long On. Willy was exceptional with his bowling that was full of pace, swing and control. His slower ones could not be picked up by any of the batsmen and the batsmen never got off to a good start and were stifled from then on. Tangles was brought on first change and took a wicket with his first ball for a miserly over and Naveen was also bang on target with his first ball that got him a wicket. Tangles took a superb one handed catch at the cover boundary that seemed to be going over for a six and Naveen took another beauty of his own bowling, one that was skied up high. Tangles and Naveen bowled their quota on the trot and we had almost bowled the opposition out of the game by then. Tangles took some stick on his last over after Zaheer took him for fourteen runs of the first three balls, but I had that covered as I castled Zaheer the very next over, the first among my three wickets in the same fashion.

Our dominance at this stage was so total that all of us were able to burst out laughing after an attempt to take a catch by Reghu at the boundary that went for a four got nicknamed ‘Crocodile’ for the manner in which the attempt was made. Willy took two in his final over to end with three for seventeen off his four overs.

In the final analysis, the unrestrained splendor of Shel, the cameos from the lower order batsmen, coupled with the superior bowling skills that the four bowlers displayed proved decisive.