Thunders v/s VAS

Back to practice ....

Saw an innings from Parisheel which everyone waited for through the tournament, but came a wee bit late. It was an innings which had it all - grace , skill and aggression !!!
Thunders won the toss and elected to put up a score on the charts for VAS to chase. It could not have started better with Pari and Amit holding the innings to maybe the first 50+ runs opening stand this season. Pari showed why everybody has so much hopes from him, hitting the ball far and wide with exquisite shot selection. Amit played wonderfully for the opening stand giving Pari most of the strike. Akshay carried on the good work by standing tall with another useful partnership which could have taken us well past 175 with all the batting to come in. VAS however took the initiative away with some nice tight bowling and fielding effort. The middle order crumbled under bad shot selection and 150 also started looking a far thought with everybody playing in air and offering their wickets. Gaurav-2 (not me) and Midhun then took the last 3 overs nicely and did not let go of the oppurtunity to take us to final score of 149.
VAS took the field and did not let go of anything and scoring at every possible oppurtunity. Gaurav and Prabhu were tight in keeping the runs low in the intial overs bowled, but owing to the dropped catches, some sloppy fielding and n-number of extras the VAS made it a close match and played a fighting innings. In the end they fell short and were 140/8 at finish, however they surely reminded us that nothing is enough in this format of the game and we cannot let go of our guard even with such high totals.
The biggest highlight of the match was undoubtedly the innings of 85 by Pari under high heat, which is excellent for the team leading to the upcoming tournaments. We found some answers to the batting lineup but raised a few new questions on our bowling to the left handers. Sachin rightly said.....we need to make him bat more in the practice for him being left handed.....helping him along the way also....which he also needs !!!!!
Venue : Reston , 8th Aug 2009
Thunders : 149/9 (20 overs) : VAS : 140/8 (20 overs)
Thunders Won by 9 runs
MOM : Parisheel for stupendous 85 on the hot day.