Reds 40 over season report - part 2

Game 5: Reds vs Titans

The most important game of the season yet. The winner of this game was going to top the league table and would qualify to play a qualifier to get promoted to Superettan. This was it, the 2 strongest teams in the group going head on! We were set to play at Skarpnäck, but we were still the away team. The opponents set big boundaries, trying to make it difficult for us. The umpire even had to intervene and ask the opposition to pull one of the boundaries back in, since it was dangerously close to the outer fence. The Titans refused, but we weren’t bothered by this, since we always played with bigger boundaries ourselves, if perhaps never quite this big. Our opponents won the toss and decided to bat – clearly, they hadn’t seen that we were unbeaten in our last 7 games bowling first… Naturally, we were very happy with this decision and were pumped up for the big game.

As usual, we started with our pace/spin attack. Both Ben and Prashant kept things tidy and picked up a wicket each. At the end of 7 overs, they were left 24/2. We squeezed them in and kept things very tight in the field, not allowing them to score. They had to crack at some point. It didn’t take long for that to happen, the very next over Prashant dismissed 3 of their batsmen and picked up a hattrick. It was brilliant bowling from Prashant. He continued and picked up two more wickets and finished the spell with a fifer, 5/22 in 8 overs. The opponents were left reeling at 61 for the loss of 6 wickets. But with our strike bowler finished, the Titans dug in and fought hard to reach 127 without any further wickets. As they began to attack our spinners, the pressure was back on us. Up stepped Nabo, our medium pacer. He broke the partnership and pulled us back into the game. In came Shrikanth and cleaned up the tail, picking up 3 wickets in an over. He finished with good figures of 3 for 32 in his 4 overs. In the end, we managed to get them all out for 150.

We had a strong batting lineup, so we were confident of chasing down the target. Things didn’t go our way and we lost 2 wickets in just the second over with no runs on board. 0/2 soon became 17/3. Prashant joined Ankit, who was already at the crease and was putting on a fight. Finally, things started going our way and runs were flowing. We soon reached 50 in the 10th over. But then, disaster! Prashant was out caught. We were 50 for 5, and soon thereafter 60 for 6. Ankit was still at the crease and was playing well, but he needed support. In, I (Karthik) walked. We both planned that we would set small targets and work towards them, instead of looking at the actual target. We had plenty of time, since it was a T40 game. I just rotated the strike as Ankit kept batting brilliantly at the other end, respecting the good balls and making sure to put the bad balls away. Soon he reached his fifty and we were very much en route to reach the target. From 62 for 5, we reached 130. With the target in sight, I decided to go for it and got out for 31 off 40 deliveries. Shrikanth then came in and smashed a couple of sixes. In the end we won with 4 wickets in hand, Ankit being unbeaten yet again and finishing on 63. A well fought innings and an innings that deserved the man of the match award. This meant that we had qualified for the qualifier and we were just one game away to win our promotion to superettan. A few of us popped open some beers to celebrate the occasion. Well done boys!

Game 6: Reds vs SMI Mavericks

It was the day after midsummer. Yes, we had a game that day. A few boys were tired, the others a bit groggy. Nonetheless, we got going again. SMI won the toss and chose to bat. Again, we were at our strongest. We started off on the front foot, putting a lot of pressure on their batsmen and reducing them to 56 runs with 5 wickets down. In walked their allsvenskan players (one more than league rules allowed… a point we have duly raised with the SCF!), and they started counter attacking us. We rotated the bowlers to get a breakthrough, but nothing seemed to be working. But then in came Ankit and picked both their batsmen. They were 136/7. Keeping the qualifier in mind, I then tried bringing in a few bowlers, including myself, to gain some confidence ahead of the qualifier coming up in a couple of weeks. That was a big mistake, we let them off the hook. Their tail ender scored 38 not out and we only bowled them out for 191 in the 39th over.

Our chase did not start well, our top 3 falling cheaply. We were left struggling at 3 runs for 3 wickets. This was the time to show our mettle and we needed a partnership. This was exactly what had happened, in stepped our man in form Ankit and Aman alongside him. They started playing some brilliant sensible cricket, setting small targets and reaching them. They put on a partnership of 138 runs. We were flying and it was an easy cruise to victory. Then, Aman fell for a hard fought 45 off 79 balls. This triggered our typical DIF batting collapse, and we gifted the opposition with two more wickets in quick succession. We weren’t cruising anymore. With just 20 runs to win, Ankit fell, scoring a brilliant 89 off 90 balls. A superb innings! This was the final nail in coffin though, the rest of the batsmen falling very cheaply. We lost by just 13 runs, our first loss in 8 games and our unbeaten run coming to an end. What was disappointing was that we did this to ourselves rather than the opponents playing well. Maybe we were too complacent since the result of this game didn’t matter? A lesson learnt for the future.

It was still a brilliant effort from the boys, we won 5 out of 6 games in our T40 campaign. A brilliant job so far, but it’s not done yet.

We soon put our focus on the qualifier to be played on the 7th of July. We would be promoted to superettan if we win this game. Initially, this game was scheduled for the 6th of July. But, since we had the allsvenskan tour on the 6th, we requested the NLC to move this game, and eventually they agreed we could play on the 7th. We even booked the ground and my train ticket back from the allsvenskan tour a day early so I could play. Everything was set! But, to our surprise, the NLC decided to move the qualifier to a later date in September, out of nowhere, with less than a week’s notice. This was a very difficult date for us, as it is months since our last 40 overs game, and it clashes with the allsvenskan finals, which could leave us badly out of players given the myriad of restrictions SCF implement for finals… After a lot of back and forth, we managed to move the qualifier by a day. Special thanks to Pierre for constantly putting up with a lot of issues with the NLC and trying to fix everything for the team. It is very obvious that the odds have been piled up against us. Nonetheless, our team is ready!! We are all ready for the fight and looking forward to the qualifier on the 15th at Husby. Let’s go Reds!

Pierre Du Plessis Sekreterare