THIS IS SPARTA...: Redbirds vs. Spartans

Detailed scorecard and videos coming soon...

On a rainy and overcast day Spartans turned in an emphatic performance to spank and thrash the Redbirds by 108 runs, the biggest margin the Redbirds have lost by and probably the biggest margin any team has lost by in the Super 12 stage this year. Sateesh and Madhu Reddy set up the victory for Spartans with rambunctious half centuries and a partnership of 119 runs for the 3rd wicket. This partnership helped Spartans amass a score of 205 from their allocated 20 overs. Kiran and Madhu wiped out any opportunities that the Redbirds might have had of chasing such a mammoth score by claiming 3 wickets each during the Spartans bowling spell.

After having moved the game to the following day, Spartans and the Redbirds took the field on Sunday morning. The Redbirds loss the toss again and Spartans elected to bat under overcast conditions. Dheeraj and Imran opened the bowling for Redbirds and failed to control the batsmen from scoring runs. The bowling was not consistent and the batsmen took advantage of this from the first over itself. Saravanan and Vijay put together an opening partnership of 46 runs for the first wicket. Imran broke the partnership again with a slower full-toss delivery that bowled Saravanan.

Sudheer was brought into the attack in the 8th over and he had Vijay caught behind as Dheeraj took a brilliant low catch moving quickly to his left. Madhu and Satheesh were at the crease after that and what happened next can only be described as the worst spanking any team could have received. They both put together a partnership 119 runs for the third wicket in 9 overs. None of the Redbirds were able to trouble these two batsmen and they scored at will hitting power shots all over the ground. Sudheer was able to break the partnership as he had Satheesh bowled on 56.

Ashish, who was playing his first game of the year for Redbirds, was brought in to bowl in the 19th over. This was the most entertaining and productive over for the Redbirds. It almost made it appear as if Ashish should have been brough on to bowl in the 9th over rather than the 19th over. He picked a wicket right off the first ball of his spell and kept doing so pretty much for the rest of the over. He picked up 4 wickets in his over and gave away only seven runs. He sent the dangaerous Madhu Reddy back by bowling him out with a slower delivery and earned the wickets of Kiran, Desigan and Joel.

However, the damage had already been done at this stage. Kedar bowled the final over in which two more batsmen were out, one to a run out and the other caught brilliantly by Imran who took the catch sprinting from wide long-on to deep mid-wicket. Deepesh closed the innings for Spartans by hitting the final ball for a six deep square leg as the Spartans raced past the 200 mark, scoring 205 from their 20 overs.

Facing a ginormous target of 206, the Redbirds lost a couple of quick wickets as both the openers, Neeraj and Kedar were out in quick succession. Dheeraj and Mani (new batsman) provided a sense of decency to the Redbirds batting with a 51 run stand for the third wicket. Except for Mani (scoring 29 from 23 balls) and Dheeraj who scored 13 runs, none of the Redbirds were able to even reach the double figures. Madhu Reddy continued his excellent form and picked up 3 wickets and was declared Man of the Match. The redbirds were bundled up for 97 runs in the 20th over and consequently lost by 108 runs, their largest margin to have ever lost by. The Redbirds were outdone by Spartans in every department on the field and the Redbirds had no answer for the attack of the Spartans !

With this loss, the Redbirds made a hurried exit from the tournament, while Spartans earned the much deserved 2 points and also the critical run-rate. This victory that the Spartans have earned by such a huge marging poses problems for Beetles now, who have to do their best in order to qualify for the semi-finals ahead of Spartans.

A few weeks ago, the Redbirds thrashed Spirit and scored 203 runs in 16 overs to storm into the Super 12 stage and now the Redbirds were thrashed by Spartans who scored 205 runs in 20 overs to storm into the semi-finals. Oh the irony...

A shimmer of hope - Redbirds vs. Bindasht

Detailed scoresheet and videos coming soon.....

The Redbirds took on Bindasht in their fourth game of the Super-12 stage. Redbirds were desperate for a win and Bindasht appeared to be quite confident after having almost chased down a decent score against Beetles a week ago. Vinod joined the Redbirds and ffter some initial conflicts with player availability and a last minute of bout minor concerns, the playing XI from the Redbirds took to the field as Bindasht elected to bat first.

Kedar and Vinod opened the bowling for the Redbirds, while Abhijit and Manish kept the scorecard ticking for Bindasht. Both batsmen kept rotating the strike without taking any risks and cruised to 28 for no loss at the end of the 7th over. The first bowling change came in the 8th over and Bindasht scored their first boundary in that over as well. At the end of 10 overs Bindasht were placed having scored 42 with both the openers still at the crease.

Imran got the first breakthrough in the 11th over for the Redbirds, as he bowled Manish out. After taking some wood in the next over, Dheeraj took a beautiful catch off of his own bowling to dismiss Abhijit after he had scored 41 from only 39 balls. Dheeraj secured another wicket when he had Sudhir caught behind in the 15th over. Vinod and Imran took a wicket each in the 17th and 18th over respectively as Bindasht scored 128 runs from their allotted 20 overs. This was the highest total that the Redbirds have had to chase (or scored) so far in this tournament.

Kedar and Varun opened the batting for the Redbirds and took on the bowlers quite comfortably. As Varun played deft shots and intelligently rotated strike, Kedar went for some hitting. He hit Manish for to back to back sixers in the 4th over that got 17 runs for the Redbirds. As the Redbirds seemed to be all set having scored 34 runs for 4 overs, Varun was run out in the most unfortunate manner as Kedar hit a ball back to the bowler who unfortunately deflected it back to the stumps (as a result of missed catch) and caught Varun out of his crease.

Kiran was the next one to go as he stood outside his crease after missing a shot only to be cleverly stumped by the wicket-keeper. Imran didn't trouble the scorers either as he played another impatient shot and sent the ball straight into the hands of the fielder at the leg-slip. Kedar went next as he missed the line and was caught with his back foot infront of the stumps. Dheeraj and Vinod kept the ball rolling for the Redbirds after that and put together a 52 runs partnership for the 5th wicket. Vinod played with a lot of patience and kept rotating the strike as Dheeraj hit a couple of sixers and a boundary as he scored 31 runs.

Dheeraj was caught attempting to play a huge shot. Ramakanth (RK) was up next was out without even facing a delivery as he was run-out. Sudheer lasted for only one delivery and got out without scoring anything. Neeraj came in next and displayed some beautiful shots as he chased down the score with Vinod with a boundary with four balls to go. Vinod remained unbeaten having scored 26 runs.

This victory has given a chance for the Redbirds to secure a place in the semi-finals. Even though this chance is thinner than Nicole Richie's zombie hands, this was a well deserved victory by the Redbirds. Neeraj appears to be a bright young player and an invaluable addition to the team. Inspite of other committments, Kedar finished his committment to the Redbirds and played a wonderful knock of 25 runs from 16 balls. Dheeraj was declared as Man of the Match for his 31 runs that he scored during a 52 run stand for the 5th wickets and 2 wickets from his bowling.

The Redbirds face off against Spartans on Saturday, August 18th.

Shorthanded - Redbirds vs Veterans

Click here for a detailed scoresheet
(Please note that the number of balls played by the Redbirds batsmen does not count up to 20 overs. We just went with what was available on the scoresheet. The information was not put down well and in some places its hard to read. So our apologies for any inherent discprecencies.)

In what was going to be a decisive game for both the teams in order to claim a spot in semis, the Redbirds and Veterans faced-off in their third match of the Super 12 stage. The schedule and the venue for this match were changed, but fortunately it was re-scheduled for the same day. The Redbirds took to the field as a depleted side due to the non-availability of Vinod for this match. After winning the toss, Veterans wisely elected to field under the conditions, which were not the most ideal for batting.

Kedar and Imran opened the innings for the Redbirds and took on the Veterans’ bowling in a defensive fashion. After Suraj bowled a tight first over, Sunny sent down four consecutive down the leg side as wides for the Veterans. However this was not to be a sign or representation of what was to follow for the rest of the match. The bowlers kept the tabs on the batsmen and Lenin earned the first wicket as he had Imran trapped leg before off the first ball of his spell.

Lenin struck again off the first ball of his second over as Kiran pegged a fullish delivery back on to his off-stump. Dheeraj and Kedar managed a decent partnership from this stage on and added 28 runs for the third wicket. Dheeraj went for a wild slash and sent the ball soaring high over the covers only to find a fielder. The ball would just not travel due to the east bound winds breezing through the ground.

Along with Varun, Kedar put together another valuable partnership for the fourth wicket and added 27 runs to the scoreboard. As Varun and Kedar kept fighting the conditions and took on the bowling, Redbirds appeared to be in a comfortable spot to reach a score around high eighties or even low nineties. This wasn’t however meant to be as the middle order and tail made a mess of the contributions from the top order and the Redbirds lost 5 wickets towards the close of their innings for a meager 7 runs. Veterans did extremely well by restricting the Redbirds to only 73 runs from 20 overs.

The Redbirds started their bowling without having the services of Vinod and this was to be a crucial factor in how they were going to defend their score. Kedar and Dheeraj opened the bowling for the Redbirds and kept things extremely tight with Kedar bowling two consecutive maidens. Kedar sent Andy back to the bench after bowling him out in the third over (click here for the video). Imran was brought in as the first change and was able to send Vinny back after RK latched on to a blinder at silly mid-on (click here for the video). Imran sent Lenin back as well after he edged one back to Kedar (click here for the video).

The Redbirds did well until the first break to keep things under control as the Veterans score was 16 for the loss of 3 wickets. It was at this stage that the Redbirds felt really shorthanded due to the unavailability of Vinod as a fourth bowler. As Krishna and Dinesh played sensibly, Dheeraj was running out of bowling options. Sudheer and Kiran were used for a couple of overs and as expected the batsmen were able to take advantage of the conditions.

Krishna took on Kedar in his penultimate over and hit him for a six and a boundary in consecutive deliveries over short fine leg. Kedar however avenged those shots as he sent Krishna’s leg stump cart wheeling after one delivery (click here for the video). The damage had already been done at this stage and everything that followed was just a formality as Dheeraj claimed the wicket of Dinesh who was caught at mid-on by Sudheer (click here for the video).

With this loss the chance of Redbirds to move on the semi-finals stage have virtually been erased. Even though the Redbirds were shorthanded due to various factors: non-availability of players, horrendous batting conditions at the start of the game, credit should be given the Veterans’ bowlers who didn’t allow the batsmen to gain any room. A special mention should also go to Kedar for his brave and amazing knock of 37 runs from 24 balls given the conditions. His innings included 2 sixes and 2 boundaries. He also bowled his best so far in the Super 12 stage giving away 15 runs from five overs and claiming 2 wickets. Inspite of incurring a loss, Kedar was adjudged as the man of the match.

The Redbirds face-off against Bindasht this weekend.

Updated Player Statistics

The player statistics have been updated.

Please click here for the updated statistics.