India Vs Winward Islands

by Abhijit Kulkarni, 7.12.00

The game between the Windward Islands and India was played on a beautiful day at Franklin Field in
Dorchester. Team India were the hosts. The team comprised of Vishal Misra (captain) and Nish Patel for UMASS Amherst, Bikram Singh, Navdeep Aurora and Prashant Jalagam from Norwood Cricket Club, Abhijt Kulkarni (V. Captain), Sanjay Subhanna and Shailesh Naidu from Commonwealth Cricket Club, Suhas Bhanushali and Tushar Gupta from Dunstable-Lowell Cricket Club and Gautham Sundaram from the MIT cricket club.

The Windward Island team won the toss and chose to bat first. A bad choice that, because even though the team India Captain, Vishal Mishra, had not practiced coin flicks during the week, he had obviously practiced his bowling. In the fourth ball of the very first over, a vicious inswinger had opener A. Mathew's furniture in disarray. Next in for the Windward Island team was M. Newton. Sanjay Subhanna shared the new ball with Vishal and in his very first over had both batsmen struggling
to play their shots. By the end of the over Newton seemed to have decided that he did not have much of chance against this bowling and tried to chance his arm on nearly every ball he faced. So a streak of
rash, ill-advised and desperately in-elegant shots ensued. The Windward Island score did tick along but the ball was in the air on nearly all shots, all but ending up as a catch to one of the fielders. The end was predictable and well plotted though. With a fielder (Gautham) at leg slip, Sanjay bowled a beauty that moved late. Newton, who by now was setting a record for poorly timed shots jabbed at it late and handed Gautham an easy catch. Windward Islands 2-26.  Coming in to bat next was H. Durrant, who was obviously was not told by Newton what to expect. Sanjay trapped him leg-before-wicket on the very next ball. Windward Islands 3-26 and Sanjay was now on a hatrick. The new batsman, S. Robinson prevented the hatrick on the next ball. Sanjay having been denied the hatrick decided he wanted to have another go at it. In his very next over he had S. Robinson caught by Bikram Singh at deep cover (a very fine catch that). Next ball had A. Hinds holing out to Vishal at deep midoff and Sanjay was on a hatrick all over again. He missed it, but it was an incredible bowling performance. By the end of that over, Windward's were 5-30 and in desperate trouble. The new batsman for Windward Island was J. Enamuel, who played a great inning. A good timer of the ball, especially on the on-side, he hit some beauties over square-leg and over midwicket. His form appeared to be ominous for team India and A. Austrie on the other end seemed to be providing him with obdurate support. Fortune did favor team India though as he was declared leg-before-wicket to a late swinging ball from Gautham Sundaram that hit him on full-length. He might have been a tad unlucky because he was well forward to the ball, but umpire Rodriguez did not seem to think so and team India was not about to complain either. Windwards were 6-55. Team India were now playing with their tails up. Gautham bowled the next batsman, Terrance, for nought in the very next over and Bikram wrapped up the proceedings by getting Joseph leg-before-wicket and Leslie clean-bowled in successive balls. Windwards were playing a man short and thus the innings ended at 9-65.

Set a target of 66 to win the game, Team India started their innings with Shailesh Naidu and Nish Patel. Windward's opened their bowling with Joseph and A. Hinds, both bowling with considerable venom on the fast-paced pitch. The openers played true to plan though, patiently taking singles and letting the bowlers try that extra-bit harder to get some no-ball and wide-ball calls. Shailesh had his eyes in when the first-change bowler for Windward, A.  Mathew, bowled him for a score of 7. Team India, 1-18. Suhas Bhanushali was meanwhile in the midst of gorging some sumptuous lunch (Jerk chicken, goat curry, rice and beans...yummm) that Bikram and Navdeep had brought in. He had to cut it short and was the next batsmen in.  He had some hard hits and appeared to be in a mood to finish the game early when he had the misfortune to edge a ball from A. Hinds onto his wicket. Team India, 2-44. Suhas's team-mate from Dunstable Lowell, Tushar Gupta, followed. He was unlucky to get a leg-before-wicket decision against him for what appeared to be a bat-and-pad situation. So on the same score of 44, team India had lost a 3rd wicket. Next up for team India was Abhijit Kulkarni. He and Nish seemed to step up the gear, before in an early mixup Nish was run-out because of an ill-advised and un-necessary run. It was unfortunate way for Nish to go, especially since he had seen the new ball through and was enjoying a patient knock at the crease. Team India was 4-49 and the stylish Prashant Jalagam came in as the next batsmen. Abhijit meanwhile had decided that he could not trust Suhas alone with the food and and went for an inappropriate big hit only to find an edge to J. Enamuel at first slip off the bowling of A. Hinds. Team India was now 5-50 and clearly needed some steadying. Who better than the skipper Vishal Misra, who with Prashant saw the team through to victory. Final result: Team India won by 5 wickets.

The match was clearly won with the ball with Sanjay Subhanna being the unanimous choice for Man-of-the-match. His bowling was deadly. All other bowlers, Vishal, Gautham and Bikram were excellent too.  Hopefully, before the tournament is over, Sanjay will get his hatrick yet. 

Team India do need to get their batting act to improve though. They are unlikely to get away with such low-scoring  performances from their top-order batsmen. On the bright side though, the team does have good batting depth, so that it will never be over until the last person is out.

Behind the scenes:

The Team India outing was great fun for all involved. There was a great sense of camaraderie amongst the players.  The feeling of fellowship amongst the players, who on most other days play
on opposite sides portends well for the future of team India. The upcoming matches should be just great. 

Kudos to Bikram and Navdeep for organizing the mat and the food. Their efforts allowed the rest of the team to have a great outing. Bikram, in general, has done a great job with organizing the team, all the way from obtaining sponsorships to motivating the various clubs to have a positive outlook towards the team.

Stay tunes for more wins....

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