2008 BlueSky Tournament - Match 3

Its been a week since the CSS cricket team won the Reddy's cup and the team was back in action at the CLRI, Adyar cricket ground for another match.

This time its for the Bluesky Tournament - Match 3 against Cambridge Solutions.

The "Think Tank" VVNA (read like DNA) of the team Veera, Vicky, Natty & Arvind had strategically given entry into this tournament in a specific group.

Anyways, this week the team arrived almost together, though not planned about 15 minutes before the toss. The body language undergoes such a change after winning :)

As usual, lucky charm walked in for the Toss and came back losing it. This was very fruitful for Cambridge as they did not have 11 at the time of the toss.

So with the new ball in hand Mr. Captain called for a meeting and had very few things to say this time, "No complacency folks. Lets finish the match and go home soon". Confidence huh? or "nakkals" to be vernacular :) ...Natty certainly had a few things planned in his mind.

Kiran, Arvind and Veera had to debate and decide on who was going to be the stumper for this match. Finally Mr. Captain stepped in and had Kiran on the job.

Vishy started the bowling and had a brilliant start to the match. Batsman played defensively and the ball rolled back to vishy, who casually threw the ball back to the stumps watching the batsman taking few steps after the stroke. Fortunately it hit the stumps and vicky from square-leg couldnt control his excitement and appealed and won it as well. Thanks Vicky .. not sure you knew it .. you were the only one appealing :)

After this it took a while for vishy to complete his long over with almost thrice having to stop his runup and have the umpire move back. It was a pain, trust me.

The other end the captain decided to bring himself on, guess he wanted to come back to what he was doing earlier.

Cambridge, not sure if they had their best team for the match as they couldnt score from the bat in the first few overs but there were runs coming from wides. They kept losing wickets at regular intervals.

Vishy changed ends and took a wicket. Vicky had 3 in his 6 overs. Seshan came on and bowled a few leggies. Prassanna, again, was unplayable litterally ran through the tail and completed a hat-trick we well. Cambridge Solutions was all out for 131.

Mr. Captain again called for a on-field meeting, "well done guys. Lets get the match over soon and get home. Vishy & Arvind open and veera 1 down. I want to complete in 10 overs."

So Arvind and Vishy started the chase. The plan was very simple, stay there and complete the match. The first few overs were very interesting there were lot of runs on the board but few from the bat.


Post that when both had their eye in starting stroking the ball well. Vishy in particular was sending sending the leather to fence regularly.


Arvind did a fantastic job to rotate the strike. He kept saying "Vishy Kaal naguruthaannu kekaadheenga .....mudichuttu polam.." he had to say this a few times as Vishy was litterally looking to hit very ball... even the ones that didnt pitch on the mat to play.



Well.. with both Vishy and Arvind going well in the middle the team back in the dugout was relaxed. Well a little over I would say, with some all set to go home. Check out the picture you would know why I say this. One tournament victory + the strategy of the VVNA ??? Well anyways I was enjoying my batting and it was a long time since I spent some time in the middle. If I remember right my earlier decent knock was a couple of years back.


With about 5 runs to win the match, Arvind wanted to finish in his own style, which now has become a habit, missed out and got bowled. Vishy completed the formalities with a couple of consecutive hits to the fence.

Congratulations CSS!!!

CSS in this tournament has played 3 and won 3, 5 more matches to go.

Team: Natz, Vishy, Seshan, Veera, Vicky, Arvind, Kiran (wk), Prassana, Karthik, Balaji, Dinesh.
Satish & Satish rested for this match.
Supported by Ranjit Rao.

Cambridge solutions 131/10 in 21.4 overs

Prasana- 4/10 including hatrick(3.4 overs)
Vicky- 3/21(6 overs)
One runout--vishy
Vishy 1/x runs (six overs)

CSS 132/1 in x overs
Vishy 78*
Arvind 26

Reddy's Corporate Cricket Tournament - 2008

Cybernet SlashSupport defeated Sutherland Global Services by two wickets in the final of the Reddy’s Corporate cricket tournament.

Natz, captain of CSS had everything set in his mind before even the team started its trip to the ground. He pretty much wanted everything to happen the same as it happened a week back on the semi-final day and replicate the events.
So the first challenge was the toss and he had sent Arvind (his lucky charm) for the toss. Arvind came back winning the toss. There was no thinking on the plan, CSS put Sutherland into bat and set a target to chase.

The team composition, this was again a no-brainer, though Natz had a couple of options this time. Natz called for a quick team gathering and announced "The same eleven is playing today, no change".

The three seniors in the team working with the umpire to select the ball to bowl with.

Toss is won and the ball is selected and the team is ready to go. One last bit that needs to be done. The team briefing by the captain on what is his plans and expectations on the field. The instructions again was pretty much a repeat of the semi-finals. Natz says "Its clear and simple, there will be one voice heard on the field and that will be mine. You all know your roles and do it. No over throws, no catch drops and mis-fields. We have 110 minutes and lets do it. Put your *beep* hands and lets go for it".

That was it. The team took the field and started their work as planned, should I say "as they did a week back" :)

Vicky started the bowling from southern end. As it happened a week back went for a few in the first over with the batman pre-determined to go for the shots, walked down and hit a few to the fence. Other end, Vishy started and then the things started to change from the week back. It wasnt a maiden :)

Both the openers from Sutherland were very comfortable in making runs at decent rate. Natz tried Prassanna and changed ends for Vishy. But no signs of wicket. Brought on Satish who bowled brilliantly and put the breaks on the scoring rate. On the other end Natz brought his lucky charm and it works. Arvind managed to take the wicket of Venkatakrishnan with the help of a great catch at short extra-covers by Satish.

Shankar from sutherland continued sending a leather to the fence pretty frequently and scored a very well made hundred, while there were a couple of wickets falling on the other end. Sutherland finished with a total of 210/5 in 25 overs.

Then came again the plan, repeat of semi-finals. Natz sent Kiran and Vicky to open the batting. Kiran started off his usual style knocking the ball and walking for a run. Vicky pretty much started the same way as he did in the semis, and could do that for almost the same time as in semis. During his short stay did managed to send the ball to the fence a couple of times. This gave chance to the inform batsman, Prassanna and he started from where he left off in the semis. It was pleasure to watch him hit with ease. Kiran fell LBW for a good ball and this time there was no inner edge. Vishy joined prassanna, and started off with 2 hits to the fence. There was a drop catch for vishy at point and followed by a caught behind appeal. This made vishy to realise his role and decided to give strike to "Prachu" (Prassanna's nick from his friends at Sutherland). Things were going smooth with runs coming at about 8/9 an over from prassanna's bat. Vishy tried to ease the pressure on prassanna and hit one onto long-on but failed to clear.

In came the captain and started off with a six over mid-wicket. Natz hit a few and fell cheap for a good catch. Which gave a chance for Veera to work with prassanna. Veera hit a few great shots, the one I specifically enjoyed was the straight six. The CSS dug-out was tensed and Natz had everyone nailed to whereever they were. The equation was almost run a ball and prassana mis-hit one to be caught. He made 87. The CSS dug-out was very tensed at this point without realising the fact that the "lucky charm" is the next batsman to go in. CSS needed 8 runs in the last over and what else can you expect when you have the lucky charm playing for you. 2 runs from the first ball, and six to complete the match. Arvind completed the match and the "revenge" he was waiting for over 2 and half years.

Well with many things happening the same as it did in the semi's, the result also had to be the same :)

Prassana was declared the man of the final for his 87 from the bat and 2 wickets.

Well played CSS, you deserve this one.

Congratulations!!!!

Team: Natz, Vishy, Seshan, Karthik, Arvind, Veera, Prassanna, Kiran, Vicky, Satish, Balaji, Paul, Hari, Dinesh.

Supported by: Sooriya, Jai, Mitran, VKB, Satish.

For complete scorecard and stats for this match click here