For probably the first time in our club history, we reached the ground a full 30 mins before start of play and had time to warm up properly. We lost the toss and were put into bat. We got off to a decent start till we reached 16 when we lost three quick wickets for just one run (all three bowled). Karthik and Raj gave us some hopes of recovering but Karthik was out with the score on 27. Junaid and Raj had a decent partnership of 20 runs before Junaid was bowled through the gap between bat and pad. We then had one of the better parnterships between Javid and Raj for 80 runs. Both of them were playing with great freedom hitting a few powerful shots. One shot by Raj was a huge pull over deep midwicket that landed on the road beyond the boundary (a good 65 - 70 yards). Luckily, there were no cars at that instant and no damage was done except to the bowler's morale.
Raj finally got out for a well made 77 (off 77 balls) trying to push the scoring (6 - 127). The tailenders chipped in a little bit and helped by 36 extras, we managed 155 for 9 (Satish getting run out in the last ball trying to steal a second run). One thing that helped us reach that score was the number of dropped catches. I can remember at least 5 at various stages of the game.
Our bowling got off to a good start when the FIT opener got out off the third ball of the inning. I was fielding at short cover and got a low catch off Javid's bowling. Karthik struck in the second over with a beautiful slower ball that knocked the stumps back, completely beating the batsman. They had a decent parnership for the third wicket worth 35 runs but tight bowling from Junaid was frustrating them. I was trying my best to give support to Junaid at the other end and except for the wides and boundaries, I think I did a good job. One of their batsmen finally gave in to frustration and tried to pull a shortish ball from outside off stump and Karthik took a good catch running in from long on.
Junaid bowled a beauty to their captain who was bowled first ball. The FIT number 4 batsman Sunil was hitting the loose balls for boundaries and kept the scoreboard moving. The fifth wicket partnership was worth 34 runs until Sunil was caught by Javid off my bowling. Amitoj replaced me at one end and picked up a wicket each in this two overs. If it weren't for the low required rate, we could have attacked a bit more. Junaid finally got a lbw decision after a few interesting "not out" calls by the umpires.
The score was 104 for 8 and with plenty of overs remaining, we knew that we had to bowl them out. Amitoj helped the team by getting a direct hit for run out when the score was 116. They needed 40 runs to win and had only one wicket in hand. Mission accomplished? No. We lost our grip on the game and Mayur was playing very well keeping the strike from the eleventh man. The fact that we had a left and right combination to bowl at did not help us at all. Runs started slipping away and the team morale was dropping. The team think tank decided to experiment with the slow off spinners of Raj since the batsmen were handling the medium pacers with ease.
This was a period of the game when the umpires stepped up. There were are few close lbw calls and a couple of thigh-high full tosses were knocked for four and called for no-balls. When 16 runs went of Raj's only over, the equation was getting dangerous. They had six runs to win at the start of the 30th over. Luckily, the 11th man, Megh was on strike but I could not get his wicket. To add injury to insult, he even managed to get an inside edge for four off a yorker. When they got a single of the last ball of the over, we almost gave up. Karthik had come back for his second spell and he got to go at Megh with just one run to win. A couple of nervous prods gave us some confidence and when Megh went for an almighty heave to score the winning run, it took the top edge and Junaid took a good one handed catch at midwicket. The scores were tied and a quick check with the league rules confirmed that we had won since we had lost fewer number of wickets.
It was a close call and even though we did not drop a single catch, we let them get back into the game. It is pointless to complain about the umpiring but we had to ask for one of their umpires to be taken out. We were also forced to pay for our own food. We went to an Indian restaurant and the $10 buffet was excellent. The team got a chance to talk about the game, Raj's shots (and my catch) etc.