We kicked-off the season with a win in the first game against Zhakaas - yes the team we played in the finals last season, they looked like a tired lot, we didn't see a couple of their regular players. I was rested this game along with Mushtaq, we gave Adeel a chance to play in the '8'. Jay Nair found a place in the '8' as well (ofcourse).
Zhakaas won the toss and put us into bat :-) , Muneer and Amogh opened for a change, Amogh couldn't keep one down and was out caught at short mid-wicket, I think he should play to his strengths which is the cover region where he has that natural tendency to cover drive anything full or straight to him which is top class stuff, but he should be careful playing in the mid-wicket region to a ball anything on middle or leg - hit it really hard when you want to play in the mid-wicket region if not play with soft hands and keep it down and nudge it to square leg or backward square leg or even play in the 'V' into the mid-on/long-on region.
Nazeer came in next and settled down well with Muneer walking into the bowler and playing it straight for singles, Muneer was at his best - great pulls to the backward square leg region for twos, both of them did well until the 8th over, I felt that Zhakaas figured out Muneer really well later on as the innings progressed and began to bowl to him fuller on the off and managed to get dot balls, since the scoreboard was not ticking Nazeer began to take risks and was missing as well, 8-12 overs fetched only 10 runs total, something we should think about going forward. Muneer got out after the 12th over to a well made 28 off 39 balls. Sumit came in next to join Nazeer and began to accelerate - good decision to send Sumit ahead keeping in mind the batting conditions and the ball not coming onto bat we needed someone technically sound as well as someone who could hit boundaries and Sumit was perfect. Nazeer soon fell trying to accelerate the scoring, another fine innings from Nazeer - 29 off 33 balls. Sumit ended up unbeaten with 18 off only 12 balls and we made a total of 88 off 16 - I would say 12-15 runs short off target but nevertheless a respectable score.
Zhakaas began their run chase well, milking singles and twos, but we didn't wait too long for the first wicket, Amogh scalped the first one caught brilliantly by Suhail at cover, wickets began to fall at regular intervals, but one of their batsmen looked threatening and almost took the game away from us, he hit two sixes one of them a full toss and another one which he converted into a full toss, but thanks to Jay who bowled Prashant the danger batsman with a beauty which came in and took the bails off, the batsman had no clue on how to play that delivery he was trying to defend and still missed it - classy, Jay bowled brilliantly and gave away only 3 runs off 3 overs for 1 wicket - Jay Ho! :-), we wrapped them up at the end for a paltry 57, Amogh took 2 wickets and Jay, Nazeer and Suhail took 1 each, the other two wickets were run outs one from Nazeer and the last one from me when I sub'ed for Muneer in the field.
Good start to the season, Go Sarfarosh!
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