Cricketing Glory
Gursharan Singh reports on the cricket match played by the school
against RIMC on Sunday, February 19
Our opponents won the toss and decided to bat first. Cadet Rudra Shish
proved to be an accomplished batsman. Using the bowler’s natural inward
movement he hit Jaiveer for 19 runs in the 4th over, including a six; all
good cricketing shots. He had a sharp eye, a straight bat, and was supremely
confident. Gurshant was steady enough from the other end but lacked
penetration. Jhunjhunwala was right in bringing on Samridh in the sixth
over, and Siddartha Sharma immediately afterwards. Samridh’s first ball was
hit flat through mid-off, and had Kinshuk positioned himself properly, it
would have been a possible catch. Cadet Rudra continued his assault on our
bowlers with gusto and abandon, giving a fine exhibition of batting in the
limited-overs style. The situation would have been a precarious one but for
the presence, at the other end, of one of the most strokeless batsmen seen
recently. He pottered and plodded around for several overs and kept the
run-rate balanced in our favour!
When Siddarth Sharma had Mahipal adjudged lbw, Bhavtosh joined Rudra and
took the score to 85 in fifteen overs. At this point Lady Luck deserted our
opponents. Rudra perished at the hands of Shukla, through Samridh, and then
a windfall of three run-outs reduced our opponents to126 for 5 in 24 overs,
a considerable swing of fortunes through some good fielding and controlled
spin and medium-pace bowling. The RIMC finally managed a score of 149, a
score not exactly paltry, but hardly daunting for our batsmen.
The school opened with Samridh and Ajmani, by now our established opening
pair. The two were cautious but confident, and were going along quite nicely
when Ajmani turned a ball towards the short mid-wicket fielder and took-off
for an extremely adventurous single which was refused by his partner,
leaving him stranded! The pressure was back on the school. Jhunjhunwala came
in and began at a brisk pace. The running between wickets was not the best
possible, but luck was on our side as several fielding lapses contributed to
our mounting score and the two batsmen played clinically, maintaining the
asking rate of a run a ball with little difficulty. Samridh played some
classic and delightful shots, but does need to learn the pull. Avyay was not
timing the ball really well, but was always on the look-out for runs, and he
is extremely fast between the wickets. The two piled on the runs with every
passing over, and had the match well in control. Finally, several lusty
blows by both batsmen sealed the issue in our
Scores
RIMC 149 all out ; Rudra Shish 62, Vaibhav 18, Bhavtosh18, Ankush16.
A.Shukla 3 for 22, Gurshant Singh 2 for 14, P.Baheti 2 for 25, S.Sharma 1
for 25.
The Doon School 153 for 1; Samridh Aggarwal 76 n.o., A.Jhunjhunwala
41 n.o., A. Ajmani 16.
