Infernos' Flamed!!!

Cricket is a game of great uncertainities and the Finale of NPL 4.0 was a live demonstration.
Flame(98) defeated Infernos's(91) by 7 runs in a pulsating final becoming the NPL 4.0 champions, taking a sweet revenge of their league game loss against the same opposition.

Flame confined Inferno's a few steps short and snatched away NPL 4.0 top spot from right under their noses. Reeling at a paltry 38 at the loss of 4 wickets in 7 overs, Flame looked out of sorts before Saroj Sathapathy took centre stage and turned the tables for Flame. He played a whirlwind 28 off just 8 balls including two massive hits crossing the ropes by comfortable margins. Ramashankar kept the other end  intact, rotating the strike, playing a captain's knock of 28 including 3 boundaries making sure that their bowlers have atleast something to bowl for.
Infernos started well. Scorecard read 20 for no loss at the end of 2 overs. The stage looked set in their favor. At this moment, Rama brought himself and Ashish as first bowling changes and that changed all the equations; once and for all. Suddenly runs were difficult to comeby. Batsmen looked short of breath, short of runs and short of senses apparently. With Ashish (Kango) departing of the bowling of Ashish (Gupta), there was no body to hold the innings together. Easy twos were ones and ones were dot balls. Batters were coming to the crease and leaving as if it was walk on the ramp.
A Harakiri of sorts.
Srikant provided the last spike of any excitement by hitting a brilliant six in the penultimate over but gifted his wicket the very next ball, an unfortunate hit-wicket. Rama kept on rotating the bowlers intelligently so as never to let the grip loose.

The better team on the day took away the game and along with it the NPL 4.0 crown.

In the Super Over Game for third Place, Bob defeated Support Strikers without much fuss. Support Strikers could manage just 2runs in their alloted super over. Subhash clean bowled Himanshu on the very first ball. Rathiji did well to guide the ball over keeper's head for a smart single, but Sachin failed to add any more to the total. Amresh from BoB hit an elegant square cut for four to walk away with a consolatery third place.

That's all from NPL 4.0.
Prizes 'should' follow hopefully :P.

BoB bleeds...

It was a NPL4.0 weekend of closely fought matches, great individual performances and unexpected results.
Saturday saw Glory Hunters bowing out to Flame in the league matches and set the semi-final lineup with Flame vs Support Strikers and BoB against Inferno. Glory Hunters needed 129 in 10 overs to qualify (141 to win) but they could manage only 118. Flame had their moments of anxiety till the very last over but in the end it was a comfortable margin of victory.

Sunday was the day of the tournament. In the first semi-final Powerful BoB with seasoned campaigners were outright favorites against Inferno. But the fearless young bloods of Inferno had their own plans. Inferno created an upset by inflicting BoB with only their 2nd defeat in 3 NPL Seasons and effectively denying them any chance of wining NPL4.0 and completing a hatrick of Championships.

Inferno won the crucial toss and elected to bat. From the very beginning Inferno maintained a healthy run-rate with Ashish Kango providing the mainstay scoring an elegant 33 while Vipin, Deepak Pant and Shrikant making some useful contributions. Bhupesh from BoB was the pick of bowlers (6 wickets) breaking every partnership which could have taken Inferno to a mammoth total. Inferno finished with 135 in 12 overs a very good score but just something which appeared achievable on this Billa Bong high scoring ground.


Bhupesh and Subhojeet started the chase but couldn't keep up with the ever mounting run-rate. Some tight bowling spells by Ashish, Himanshu and others also did no good to BoB's chances and the pressure showed up when they lost some quick wickets. Deepak Soni(Captain Inferno) on the square leg boundary was spot on with his field placing and himself took 2 crucial catches. With Partha departing in an attempt to clear the boundary, the 'unthinkable' was just a matter of time.

A well deserved victory and a great team effort, spectacular and awe-inspiring, that very well summarises Inferno's march toward Final.

In the second Semifinal, Flame had a cake walk. Batting first, Support Strikers lost ground like a house of cards. Sanjeet took 5 wickets and Saroj took a fine reflex catch of Piyush (the only dangerous batsman in SS's armory apart from Himanshu) . Flame batsmen just had to spend time on the wicket and they did
exactly that leaving no room for any more surprises.

Be there on the BB's ground next Saturday's grand finale b/w fresh Infernos vs diligent Flame.

Don’t miss the Calypso!

Ula la la la le le oh! Yeah!

And if you miss it, blame yourself only; for missing out the NHST avatar of The Carribean calypso.
Sunday provided a glimpse of the same. Who could have imagined that we nurture such impressive, outstanding and phenomenal talent here? AB on the floor and Ash on the drums (popularly known as Abhijeet and Ashish among fans) provided the wholesome, magical combination of pure entertainment filled with sensuous movements and most original of music(s) ever created.

Luckily they will be performing once more at the special request of NPL organizers coming weekend @ BillaBong’s open theatre which will be set right next to the lush green cricket field.
So enjoy your weekend with NPL 4.0 and Calypso.

PS: Grapevine says Abhi and Ash have decided to take residency in Qatar for reasons which can’t be disclosed. All agree that it will be a bigger loss of talent than we had due to movement of MF Hussain. Let’s gather in BB to show our support to the talented duo and let them know we care;-).

First weekend results, NPL 4.0

The strategies and the plans which the different captains came up with as part of their NPL 4.0 preparations, were put to test last weekend. With Balls flying all over the ground in almost all the matches, it's highly doubtful if there was any team which didn't have their moments of ifs and buts.

Tournament opened with 'Shin Kamikaze' taking on 'Support Strikers'. Piyush and Himanshu made sure there was no upset and Shohils effort from Shin Kamikaze were just not enough.

In the second match Flame and Inferno challenged each other. It was supposed to be a tight match but Inferno managed to comfortably sail through with a disciplined batting, bowling and team effort. Himanshu Shivnani made a good contribution with the bat for Inferno while Sanjeet, though on the losing side, was still able to make a mark as an allrounder.

Sunday started with Inferno looking to seal their 2nd victory against 'Glory Hunters' and book their place in semis. But 'Glory Hunters' managed to give them their moments of despair with a decent batting performance from Vishal and Sanjay. It ended with a nail biting finish as Himanshu Shivhare took it till the last over blasting the boundaries at will. He fell eventually on the bowling of Sonam while unsuccesfully attempting to cross the boundary one more time.

In the last match of the weekend mighty 'BoB' were ruthless against Shin kamikaze. Professional approach clinically executed saw them complete their target in a little over 5 overs. Shubojeet managed to score some quick runs before running back to Dugout for shades.

Results:
Saturday

Support Strikers won 65 runs against Shin-Kamikaze.
Man of the match: Piyush/Himanshu Garg

Inferno won by 15 runs against Flame.
Man of the match: Sanjeet


Sunday
Glory Hunters won by 10 runs agains Inferno
Man of the match: Sanjay
BoB won by 8 wickets against Shin Kamikaze
Man of the match: Shubojeet

NPL 4 is round the corner!!!

6 fresh teams with a bunch of exciting new talents is all set to go berserk in this war of so called 'Gentlemen' (and 'gentlewomen' of course).
NPL 4.0 unleashes itself this weekend in the very familiar Billa Bong ground, so go, get yourself ready for another exciting season of breathtaking cricket.
Time for all the old guns to show they still hold some value and for the young blood to prove that the cannot be overlooked any more :P.

Watch this space for more updates....soooooon!!!

Block or Bleed, Champions Again!

Living up to the reputation and general expectation, BoB won the finals and lifted NPL 3.0 championship against NPL Blasters. This is their 2nd consecutive championship win and marks their dominance over other participating team.

BoB won the toss and selected to bat. NPL Blasters did well to pick up initial wickets and never really allowed BoB batsman to free their arms. Partha and Amaresh did well to give some stability in the middle order and helped achieve a modest score of 113 in 15 overs.
Till this time, NPL blasters were well in contentions. Piyush and team could well have smelt victory at this stage. But BoB bowlers had other plans. Subhash led the pace attack and provided initial blow to Blasters with the crucial wicket of danger man Himanshu. A series of wickets follwed including Piyush who carried all and any expectations for NPL blasters. Subhash's raw pace was too much for Blasters and for that matter for any team till now in NPL 3.0. He was ably supported by Rakesh and Amaresh.
NPL blasters were bowled out in 12th over itself with the score reading 75.
A nervous start but a clinical finish by BoB.
Congratulations BoB for the win.

For 3rd place match, Flame overpowered Swed Tigers in a thrilling SuperOver match.
Swed Tigers' Ashish hit the ball all over the ground to provide an apparently match winning total of 22 but to everyone's surprise, Superover resulted in a tie; courtesy some timely and smashing hits by Sarthank(Flame). What next? Another superover to break the tie. Flame required 18 of 6 deliveries and this time Flame's acting captain Rama hit a last ball six to pick up consolatory 3rd spot for their team.

That's all from NPL 3.0. Prizes will follow soon :).

SemiFinal Lineup

Let's hit the news straightaway. Bob Meets Swed Tigers in the first semifinal while Flame takes on NPL Blasters. The matches which were planned earlier on Saturday, Sep 12 have to be shifted to Sunday due to incessant rains.
For the ignorant ;), there is already a war of words heating up between Flame and NPL blasters which we hope will serve as the perfect build up for the action on the field.
FLAME vs NPL Blasters verbal volleys
It will be interesting to see which team can let their action speak louder than their words.

Keep your fingers crossed and make sure your presence at HPC greens before 11am, Sunday for the semis. Not to mention, snacks and lunch will be served right at the venue :).
Face your fear and get ready for the big fiest.