Match Report: Undefeated in the First Leg!

Before getting into the match report, I would like to cheer for the entire team for being focused on staying undefeated in the first leg of the season. 1…2…3… Go Glads…!!!

Special callouts:
Aryan is giving his final exams this week and last week, but still made the effort to fly from Raleigh and play. Big thanks – it’s not easy what he did in the past couple of weeks.

Rushi has been consistently flying from NJ to make sure we do well here. Just having him on the side gives the entire team a sense of relief. But again, what he does is not easy – managing family, NJ cricket commitments, and then taking care of his job. It’s a lot. We as a team need to figure out how we can contribute to the efforts and commitment from both Aryan and Rushi. Big cheers to both of them… 1…2…3… Go Glads…!!

There are multiple other players who are local here and are giving their 110% this year. Thanks to all, and big cheers for all of you. 1…2…3… Go Glads…!!

It was crucial – the pitch was wet, and it was obvious that winning the toss and bowling first would be an advantage. The ball was gripping, bouncing, but the track was slow and difficult to bat on early in the morning. We won the toss and put the opposition in to bat first. Honestly, a good toss to win.

As a new team, we are doing a lot of things right, and one of them is knowing our roles and delivering on those expectations so far. Let’s keep building on this.

Govind and Krishna provided a great start, and our fielders did a fantastic job supporting them and all the other bowlers. Akhil and Ansh made sure we kept their batsmen under pressure and kept getting wickets at regular intervals – we never let the opposition off the hook. Rushi bowled his 4 overs and dismantled the opposition by grabbing 3 wickets from the other end. Then our fast bowlers – Krishna, Govind, and Akhil – finished up the tail. Oh, by the way, Akshay also bowled one over and grabbed a wicket to his name. The variety of our bowling unit is immense – we even had a leg spinner in Aniket waiting on the sidelines if needed. Thanks for everything you did, Aniket, and I am sure your time will come soon.

I do want to call out that our field placement is improving as we bowled our 20 overs in the given time – even earlier – so we are starting to do a few things right, while still having room for improvement.

The job was half done with the way our bowlers bowled. Our discussion in the huddle was simple: don’t give them opportunities to catch, play everything on the ground, and punish the loose balls – and the game is ours.

Credit to the opposition team for bagging 2 of our top batsmen for less than 15 runs. Aiyaz bhai went in at number 4 and was looking good with Aryan. But soon, the 3rd wicket fell at 35. Batting was not easy on this track. Aryan and Ansh played very sensibly, knocking the ball around, running hard, and punishing everything in their range. We were under a little pressure at 35-3, but Ansh and Aryan saw us through. Great batting performance from them.