Modus Hopper Random: Deja-Vu All Over Again at the Home of the Super Kings

Sunday, 11 February 2018

Deja-Vu All Over Again at the Home of the Super Kings

Hopperational details

Date & Venue

Sunday 11 February at MA Chidambaram Stadium, Chennai

Result

Madhya Pradesh bt Goa by 8 wickets

Competition

Group C, Vijay Hazare Trophy (One day game, 50 overs per side, white ball)

Hopping

This 38,000 capacity ground is the home of the Chennai Super Kings in the IPL T20 competition. Easily the biggest cricket venue that I have been to, an international venue in its own right.

Pre-match preparation

Madhya Pradesh kept their qualification hopes alive with their impressive victory over Tamil Nadu on Friday (see previous blogpost). Goa have two wins from three, having lost narrowly only to unbeaten group leaders Andrha. Therefore I chose this game both because of its importance to both teams as well as wanting to visit this venue. It should be a competitive match.

This match in one sentence

It wasn’t competitive at all, as the Madhya Pradesh spinners strangled Goa to leave an easier task for Friday’s big scorers Rajat Panidar and Rafeez Khan who excelled again.

So what?

It's going to go down to the last round of games next week. Andrha lead the group of seven with 16pts from 4 matches, so have two to play. An expected win tomorrow against Gujurat who are sixth from seven, will see them through with 20 points, which could only be matched by Mumbai. Goa play Mumbai tomorrow and will need to win to join them on a 3-2 record and 12 points. It's a must-win for them, since if Mumbai go to 4-1 and 16 points they should be through, but Madhya Pradesh could match that with a win against Rajhastan tomorrow. However, assuming that Andhra don't slip up in their last two fixtures, Madhya Pradesh could only finish second (I think) if other results go their way. Andrha's last game is against Mumbai so technically Mumbai could still finish level on points with Andrha on 5-1 records and so bringing the tie-breakers into play. It will be much clearer after tomorrow.

The drama unfolds

Madhya Pradesh won the toss, and, just as they had done on Friday, elected to field first. I missed the first over as the uniformed officials at the gate were not going to let in spectators before 9.30am. No-one told them the contest started at 9.00am. Thanks to a passing member of the Chennai Photo Bloggers who communicated for me. I took up a superb viewpoint in the shaded upper tier as the scoreboard showed 3-0. Phew, nothing of substance missed.

It wasn’t until the 7^th over that the fireworks started with three boundaries. The MP pacers would beat the bat occasionally, but Goa’s openers Swapnil Asnodkar and Amogh Desai reached the 10-over mark with the score standing at 48 without loss. Then the slower bowlers applied the brakes. Goa survived a run-out appeal referred to the third umpire and plodded to 86 by the end of the 20^th. Asnodkar completed his fifty before his partner fell lbw to Rameez Khan. He bowls too!

Asnodkar was caught and bowled by Anshul Tripathi for 85 in the 30^th over, and at the end of that over Goa had ticked along with mostly ones and twos and the occasional boundary to reach 134 for 2. The first six was not scored until the 29^th over. I made my first note that, having seen Madhya Pradesh bat on Friday, this wouldn’t be enough. The feeling was reinforced by the steady loss of wickets. Harpreet Singh Bhatia took one easy and one excellent diving catch before Goa reached 150. By the end of the 38^th I noted that Goa would need over 11 runs. per over to reach 300, which looked very unlikely now. A clean-bowled dismissal was followed by a catch on the boundary as Goa tried to force the pace, then ball magnet Harpreet took his third and fourth catches for 7^th and 9^th as MP kept the slower bowlers on.

There was a defiant huge six from the tail. In the 49^th over as the quick bowler Ankit Singh Kushwah returned, Darshan Mishal declined a single only to send a huge top edge to the keeper. He had added a valuable 23 but only 48.3 overs had been used as Goa closed on 220 all out. Daliwal and Tripathi had three wickets each.

I tweeted that it would need special bowling or notable batting indiscipline for MP to lose this game from here, and so it proved. Comparison of landmarks shows just how dominant they were. Goa chose a spinner to bowl the first over and a pacer for the second, with two slips in place. Reasonable tactics given the only way to win would be to bowl MP out. Before the end of the 5^th over we’d had more than one six, and the 50 came up with two more in succession. After 10 overs MP were 81-1, having just lost Naman Ohja caught behind for 50. This brought Rameez Khan to the crease to join Rajat Panidar, the pair that had done the damage to Tamil Nadu on Friday.

They continued in the same vein. The 11^th over added 15 runs, the 100 came up in the 13^th, and Rajat reached his own half-century. By the end of the 16^th the run-rate required was already down to around 3.5. With just the occasional edge or misplaced shot, the score rattled along. More colossal sixes were sent into the seats. It finally took a fabulous catch by Suyash Prabhudessai to see the end of Rameez for a rapid 29.

There was enough left to allow Rajat to complete his century, and the required run rate collapsed to farcical values as Madhya Pradesh passed the Goa total from only 26.4 overs with Rajat unbeaten on 124. Another 8-wicket win, and more dominant than Friday’s because this time the bowlers contributed too.

A gentle push for 100 after the earlier violence from Rajat

The early finish meant that I could grab a tuk-tuk to the Government Museum in Egmore, which had some other examples in the natural history section of a good stuffing. See what I did there?

Ground Pix