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 7th 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 20th.  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 30th 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 29th 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 38th 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 7th and 9th as MP kept the slower bowlers on. There was a defiant huge six from the tail.  In the 49th 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 5th 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 11th over added 15 runs, the 100 came up in the 13th, and Rajat reached his own half-century.  By the end of the 16th 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
These large birds circle gracefully overhead - some kind of kite, I suspect. This one is resting.
Match Pix
Goa are in the dark blue.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!

Yapp Goes to Pachiyappa's

My view from the boundary

Hopperational details
Date & Venue	Friday 9 February at MRF-Pachiyappa’s, Chennai
Result	Madhya Pradesh bt Tamil Nadu by 8 wickets
Competition	Group C, Vijay Hazare Trophy (One day game, 50 overs per side, white ball).  An intense group phase with matches close together is followed by knockout quarter-finals and so on.
Hopping	First cricket game seen outside the UK.  With the admirable help of a tuk-tuk driver who earned himself a big tip, I reached the venue with about 15 minutes to spare.  The ground is within a college and was not easy to find.
Pre-match preparation
This would be a must-win for Tamil Nadu given disappointing results so far in the group stages.  Both sides are mid-table in their group of seven.
This match in one sentence
In the end, a comfortable win for Madhya Pradesh batting second, built round a second-wicket partnership of 209 between Rajat Patidar and Rameez Khan.
So what?
Tamil Nadu will now struggle to reach the knockout stage of the competition from 5th and a 1-3 record (it may already be impossible, as I have not had chance to check the remaining group fixture combinations), and Madhya Pradesh are now in 4th with a 2-2 record.
The drama unfolds
Two gentlemen of the press introduced themselves and patiently listened as I explained the twin obsessions of blogging live sporting occasions and investigating my family tree which had brought me here.  I cannot speak highly enough of the warmth of the welcome I received.  I soon had a seat under the spectator canopy, near the official scorer, and was involved in a conversation on English history, sport and politics with a reporter.  His knowledge on these matters was deeply impressive. On the field, Madhya Pradesh had won the toss and elected to field.  Their first breakthrough came with the first ball of the third over with a catch to the wicketkeeper down the leg side.  By half-way through the seventh over, both openers had gone, the second wicket coming with a leading edge and an easy catch at midwicket.  Both wickets fell to Ishwar Pandey. This brought Jagadeesan and Aparajith together, and with good running they got to 50 with no further losses.  Boundaries were hard to come by, even during the opening powerplay field restrictions.  The first six did not come until the 23rd over.  These two compiled a century partnership and Jagadeesan reached his fifty before Aparajith was bowled by Ankit Sharma for 43 with the score at 129-3, and just past the half-way mark in the innings. Tamil Nadu captain Vijay Shankar came to the crease, and the run-rate crept up to five-per-over but without many boundaries.  Jagadeesan was technically dropped on 91, though it was a tough chance, and he added insult to injury by glancing the next ball to fine leg for four.  With Jagadeesan on 96, Vijay needed lengthy treatment, and in the next over he pinched the strike with a single after five dot balls.  It had been quite some time since Jagadeesan had faced a delivery.  He reached 97 with a single, 98 with another risky one that led the umpires to consult the third official over a run out, 99 with a cut to third man and was then caught behind.  Not his day, and the end to a partnership of 65 runs. Jagadeesan nears the century that wasn't to be After that, Anirudh came in and made a rapid 39 as Tamil Nadu tried to accelerate.  Vijay Shankar himself was then sixth out for 84.  Would they now make 300? Scoring at around eight an over, they limped finally to 302-9 in their fifty overs.  Wickets fell regularly towards end, including Ravi Ashwin for 4, and two wickets fell in the last over, which only gave four singles.  Given the small size of the playing area and the lightning-fast outfield, it felt about 25 runs short of a par score, but runs on the board are always a good thing.  Ankit Singh Kushwah finished with 3-59.  Lunch was taken with both sides feeling confident.  A pre-prepared lunch tray appeared for me – the hospitality shown to me was wonderful. Vijay Shankar heading into the 80s Tamil Nadu looked sharp and alert in the field as they set about defending the total. To my untrained eye their opening bowlers looked a shade quicker.  Nevertheless an impressive 50 opening stand was achieved in the ninth over, before a low catch at mid-off accounted for Naman Ohja for 39 off the bowling of Aswin Crist. By the 14th over, the score was 85-1 in comparison with Tamil Nadu’s 57-2 and it began to look ominous.  Slower bowlers put a brake on the scoring rate to some extent, but a missed catch from a spiralling high ball was the first of several misfields that we were to see.  The batsmen at the crease, opener Rajat Patidar and Rameez Khan, occasionally had the rub of the green as lofted shots fell into space, but Rajat reached his century in the 29th over.  When a crazy bounce on the hard outfield resulted in another boundary, the Tamil Nadu confidence appeared to be evaporating in the heat.  Madhya Pradesh needed a fraction over 5 an over with 20 to go, and the run rate was to steadily decrease as the certainty of their victory increased. The quicker bowlers were brought back but were despatched to the boundaries. Rajat gets ready to resume, 100 not out  Rajat finally fell for 158 to end the partnership of 209 and Harpreet Singh Bhatia arrived to help end the contest.  Rameez was 78 not out as the scorebooks were closed on an impressive 8-wicket win with just over four overs to spare. For me, an absolutely fantastic day and a great feeling to add this to my life experiences.
Ground Pix
The equivalent of the Pavilion - players' and officials' area My shade from the sun on the right Pitch invader Exemplary work from the scorer Post-match care for the pitch itself The final scoreboard
Other Match Pix
Tamil Nadu in Yellow.
What Next?
Follow @GrahamYapp on Twitter for details!  A day of more conventional tourism for me tomorrow, but I'm taking one day at a time.