Last
Sunday a friendly cricket match was played between our XI and the Grammar High
School XI on our field. The GHS won the toss and decided to at first. But the
pitch unexpectedly favored our bowlers. They were able .to dismiss the openings
batsmen for only five runs on the board. One of them was run out for a single
while the other was given out, hit wicket. The third and fourth batsmen tried
to play cautiously. They held the fort for nearly half an hour without making
any serious attempt to score. Two no-balls two byes and one leg bye however
raised their total to 10 for two. Then one of them was in trouble with a good
ball sent down by our captain, Ali a fast bowler. The batsman fumbled with the
ball and the bowler shouted How's that the umpire allowed the appeal and put up
his hand to indicate that batsman was out leg before wicket. The fourth wicket
fell to a 'Yorker'. The ball hit the central stake and dislodges the bails.
Things were pretty gloomy for the visitor when their captain Rahim
came in to bat. 80th the batsmen played calm, cautious cricket. They took no
risks with good balls out went all out to punish the losses one. Rahim hit a
six off a no-ball and followed it with three boundaries in the same over. Off
the last and sixth ball of the over five runs were scored as a result of two
successive overthrows by our fielders. From now on our fielders were kept
constantly on the run.If the field was spread the batsmen resorted to running
between the wickets and scored many singles, which could not have been scored
with the fielders being near. When the fielders closed in on them hit out or
placed the ball over their heads for boundaries.
Seeing that the batsmen were too firmly dug into be dismissed
easily, our captain made a new move. He called for drinks. After the drinks had
been taken he took himself and the other bowler off and put in spinners. The
move paid hand some dividends. In an attempt to bring off a big hit off the
third ball after the drinks, Rahim who had so far played a real captain's
innings, mistimed the ball, skied it to the silly mid-off who took an easy
catch. The fifth wicket partnership had contributed exactly 60 runs to the
total of 70 for 5. Rahim' individual score was 45.
Since it was a. one-day match the remaining batsmen were directed
to score as fast as they could so that their innings could be declared closed
at, or soon after, lunch. The sixth batsman who had given valuable supports to
Rahim soon followed his captain to the pavilion without any further addition to
his score of 15. He left the batting crease to hit the ball, missed it and was
stumped out by the wicket keeper. The tail Enders most 0 them bowlers, tried to
score from every ball bowled to them. If they stayed on to face more than one
ball each and, even scored few runs, it was because our bowling was not very
accurate. One of them was caught by the twelfth man who was fielding in place
of Raza on the boundary line. Another was caught in 3rd man region. The last
two were clean bowled. Thus their innings came to close to a close at 75. For
the home side Ali took seven wickets for 50 including 2 hat tricks. It was
already time for lunch and our team escorted the last batsmen to the pavilion.
The crowd gave a big hand to them as they approached the stands.
While lunch was being taken, the sky was suddenly overcast with
dark clouds. Soon it began to rain heavily. The second half of the day's play
was thus washed out and the match ended in a unfinished draw.
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