Swastic teach IISc a lesson in cricket

5th Februrary, 2010, Indian Air Force Ground, Bangalore: Sometimes you play sport not to win or lose, but to learn. Friday provided one such occasion for team IISc when they played Swastic Union Cricket Club, the defending champions of the YSR Trophy. With little, if any, prior experience of playing on a turf wicket, and facing a challenging bowling attack, IISc was skittled out for 115. The most telling blows were inflicted by Akshay who dislodged Ganapathy and Ashith in his very first over and then came back later on to cut short Sunil's hard-hitting innings. There were flashes of brilliance shown by some of the IISc batsmen, most notably Vikram, Sunil and Sounik. The most entertaining moments of the match were when some of the Swastic fielders started doing a set of push-ups, rather ritualistically, each time any of their bowlers was hit for a boundary or a six.

Swastic's chase was professional and efficient on expected lines. Manjunath in particular played some cracking strokes to all parts of the ground on his way to a fluent unbeaten half century.

It's now time for team IISc to take a well deserved break after a long and gruelling season of non-stop cricket - a period when they took their cricket a notch higher. To summarize the performances in this season, IISc just missed the bus to the super-league stage of the KSCA IV Division league, reached the semifinals of the IIMB Invitational Tournament and reached the third round of the YSR Trophy. The team's record (excluding practice matches) starting from August 2009 up until today reads like this: Played-12, Won-7, Lost-4, No Result-1. Under Sounik's captaincy, the corresponding figures are 7-5-2-0.

Brief scores:

IISc - 115 allout in 33.4 overs

(Sunil 37, Vikram 28, Sounik 26*, Akshay 3/15, Udit Patel 3/21, Raju Bhatkal 2/12, Chetan William 1/18, Vinu Prasad 1/22)

Swastic Union CC - 116/1 in ~16 overs

(Manjunath 55*, Yuvraj 36, Ravi Teja 1/51)

Result: Swastic Union CC won by 9 wickets

Man-of-the-match: Akshay

Newspaper reports:

"The Hindu"

YSR second hurdle cleared

31st January, 2010, IISc Gymkhana Ground, Bangalore: IISc brushed aside a listless BMSCE and in the process booked a date with the numero uno team in Karnataka, Swastic Union Cricket Club - the reigning KSCA I Division as well as YSR champions - on Friday, 5th February, 2010 at IAF Grounds. That match would be IISc's third match in the ongoing YSR knockout trophy. That's perhaps the farthest they have ever progressed in the history of this tournament.

With the Duleep Trophy finals and a tour match between South Africa and Board President's XI in progress, it will be interesting to see if Manish Pandey and Robin Uthappa turn up for Swastic on Friday. The last time IISc played against Swastic was in February 2009 when they clashed for the KSCA T20 Knockout Tourney at Chinnaswamy Stadium. Swastic emphatically proved that they are at a different level in that match - IISc were bowled out for 77 in 19.4 overs and Swastic openers, Bharat Chipli and Thilak Naidu chased it down in a mere 5.1 overs! The scorelines in the upcoming match should be an indicator of how far IISc cricket has progressed in the past one year.

Talking of the match against BMSCE, IISc set a modest target of 233 but BMS made it appear huge when they had only 37 runs on the board with half their side back in the hut. For IISc, Ashith continued his rich vein of form scoring yet another typically unflustered fifty (54) while Arindam (48) and Sounik (36) also chipped in with useful contributions. But the standout performance was that of Ravi Teja who scalped five BMS wickets spread over two fiery spells of fast bowling. The nagging and accurate bowling from Teja and Sunil prompted Sounik to place the sort of fields you would associate with test matches - three slips, two gullies and a point. That was a sight to behold and a sign of IISc's dominance in the match. This was IISc's sixth win in the last seven matches they have played. Way to go!

Brief scores:

IISc - 233 allout in 48 overs
(Ashith 54, Arindam 48, Sounik 36, Nischay 3/35, Vivek 3/37)
BMSCE - 153 allout in 42.1 overs
(Abhishek 47, Chinnappa 35, Ravi Teja 5/35, Sunil 2/17)

Result: IISc won by 80 runs
Man-of-the-match: Ravi Teja

Newspaper reports:
"Deccan Herald"

IISc kickstart YSR with facile win

28th January, 2010, IISc Gymkhana Ground, Bangalore: The YS Ramaswamy Memorial Trophy, colloquially known as the YSR Cup in the Bangalore cricketing circles, is the most popular tournament in KSCA’s annual programme. It's one competition where KSCA teams from across all divisions (I to V) compete on a common platform and hence the format is a knockout one. This year a staggering 108 teams are participating.

In this year's edition, for once, IISc didn't face an imposing I Division team in the first round. Last year they faced fabled Social cricketeers who had, in their ranks, players of the caliber of Gaurav Dhiman and Ryan Ninan among others. Making the most of the opportunity, IISc kick-started their YSR campaign with a facile victory over Kapali Cricket Club (V Division).

Kapali CC batted first and their openers Manohar and Puneeth put together an attacking partnership evoking fears of a mammoth total. But once the alliance was broken, the rest of the batsmen collapsed like the proverbial pack of cards. Teja and Sandeep picked up three wickets a piece for IISc.

In reply, IISc cantered home riding on an assured and responsible knock of 74 unbeaten runs from the blade of Ashith who is fast developing into the most dependable No.3 batsman for IISc. On Sunday, 31st January, IISc shall play the winners of the match between Aristocrat CC and BMS College of Engg. Readers may note that, BMSCE had won the recently concluded IIMB Invitational Cricket Tournament after having lost to IISc in the league phase of the tourney.

Brief scores:
Kapali CC - 184 allout in 37.3 overs
(Manohar 60, Puneeth 43, Sandeep 3/11, Teja 3/46)
IISc - 185/5 in 30.1 overs
(Ashith 74*, Ganapathy 39, Vishal 3/49)

Result: IISc won by 5 wickets
Man-of-the-match: Ashith Shyam

Newspaper reports:
"The Hindu"