From the Dressing Room: Statement victory over the league leaders
In our first report from the 3rd XI this season, bowler Sravan Kirakumar tells us the story of last weekend’s win over Nunholm.
The 3's faced the table toppers Nunholm Dumfries and we were ready for another exciting clash. I had a feeling we were going to win this game and many of us in the team felt the same, probably stemming from the close encounter we had with them in the reverse fixture.
As opposed to a traditional toss, Nunholm's skipper asked us if we would like to bowl or bat and they were happy to do anything and they don't really care. I'll let the readers decide if that's arrogance or confidence, a fine line separating the two. This set a fire within the group, followed by a proper team talk in the huddle by the senior players as we asked Nunholm to bat first.
Rory and Gurjit opened the bowling and kept things steady as Nunholm's openers looked to attack. A beautiful in-swinger from Rory (3 for 44) and an inspired bowling change from the skipper Moosa Vakil to bring on the golden arm of Mamoon Hussain (2 for 22) both resulting in rattling the stumps of their openers.
We rattled through between overs 10 to 20 and put a chokehold on the runs by operating our offies Shaheer and Mamoon from both the ends. A vital decision taken by skipper Moosa and the experienced Gurjit Singh that allowed us to create pressure, concede only a mere 25 runs, bring down the scoring rate and take two vital wickets in the middle overs.
A.Reed (48), Nunholm's top scorer chipped in with some important boundaries and some chirp before getting castled by me (I bloody loved getting him out). Another impressive outing with the ball from the skipper Moosa Vakil (2 for 20) providing vital breakthroughs in the middle and death overs and in restricting a strong Nunholm side to 209/10 in 39 overs on a beautiful batting wicket.
After feasting on some Nunholm wickets, we enjoyed the West teas at Stirling and had full belief in chasing the target of 210 down. Our openers Rehan 'Cobra' (21 off 28) and Shaheer (48 off 38) gave us another solid start before 'Cobra' yorked himself and Shaheer continued with his curse of 48. Arslan and the other middle order batters chipped in with some vital runs but the rock and the most important role was played by our No.3 Akshat Fondekar (47) who seems to have a liking towards Nunholm's bowlers.
The batters to come in and the bench were confident that we would pull this chase off with Akshat at the crease and his incredibly mature knock took us to the brink of victory. Akshat holed out to mid off and the match was heading towards a nervy finish.
Skipper Moosa's vital 12* runs and Mamoon's (15*) power hitting with precision at the end ensured that the 3's sailed to a comfortable victory over the table toppers Nunholm and we look forward to continuing this form and getting on a winning run.
