#REStart

First NCF Women Series game in 2022

The teams were called Vikings and Eagles. Farial and Pooja (myself) were captains for Vikings and Eagles respectively. Vikings won the toss and decided to bat.

Eagle’s went into the game, 1 bowler short as Raksha was injured. We planned to go with main bowlers (medium pace) for first 6 overs and then rotate between a spinner and new bowlers in the middle overs and bring back the medium pacers in the last 6 overs. The start went perfect as Hina bowled out Farial on the first ball the later faced. Then on Ramya and Bijeyata built a good partnership. We missed one catch at point (Farima), and two half chances (both Pooja), one by the bowler and one at short cover in the first 7 overs. Between 7^th to 14^th over, Pooja bowled at one end restricting the runs while we leaked several extras from the other end. Luckily, for us, both the batters did not change gears. We could restrict them by blocking there scoring areas with strong fielders. However, we failed to convert some runout chances to success. It could be because of the bumpy outfield but we have to grab those. Everyone need to get sharper in the field. We could not take any wickets during the middle over but the run rate did not go much beyond 6. After Ramya and Bijeyata were called back and our medium pacers came back to attack, we could extract wickets often and again stopped runs effectively. There second spell was much better than the first one. Overall, despite a poor outing with ball we restricted Vikings for 123 and 124 was an achievable target. We bowled 69 extras that mounted to more than 10 overs. In terms of time, we were 11 minutes late. However, thankfully the umpires did not give us any penalty otherwise we could have lost minimum 2 overs and could have been asked to chase 124 in 18 overs.

 

While batting our approach was simple. We wanted to build a partnership of around 14 balls and then look for scoring opportunities as much as possible. We also agreed that either Pooja or Ayesha should hold one end to prevent any collapse. After keeping for 30 overs, Anushka (our first choice opener) needed a little break. So, Ayesha and Reetika opened the batting. Consistent with the plan, they kept up to a run rate of around 5. Reetika was dismissed by an excellent delivery from Ramya in the fourth over. Anushka joined Ayesha and kept up the same run rate until Anushka got trapped LBW by Sana in the 8^th over. Next Pooja joined Ayesha and they spiked the scoring rate a bit, with two boundaries in the 9^th over. At 10 overs, Eagles were 70/2 with Ayesha and Pooja on strike and both scoring nearly run a ball. Vikings then brought back their strike bowler Farial. Pooja got beaten by one outside off but then put a shorter delivery to the boundary between square leg and mid-wicket. The chase was getting comfortable with 10 runs in 11^th and 12^th over. Amna then bowled a good over giving only 6 runs to control things a bit but by the 14^th over Eagles needed only 18 to win in 6 overs. At that point, Ayesha and Pooja were called back. Farima and Raksha went to strike and Farima faced a maiden over from Farial. Together they stayed for three overs where around 10 runs were added to the total. Then Ramya came to bowl and trapped Raksha LBW. Mirab went next with 8 more to win. She was stumped in Ananya’s over by Bijeyata leaving 4 more to score. Misbah next went to strike and hit a good shot for a double and then the chase was over in 18.5 overs.

Looking back, if Ramya and Bijeyata scored 10 runs each more, giving us a target of 144 and if umpires deducted those two overs – then we had to score at 8 runs an over. We could have been under a little more pressure and then may be our batting was challenged more. We should be prepared for such a scenario.