When the touring Dubai International Academy cricket came to play two cricket matches against GDGWS our boys bowled fantastically well and batted with utter disdain. However, the problem was that they couldn’t do both of them together. As a result the scoreline read 2-0 in the favour of DIA.
While in the first game bowlers started exceedingly well the same was done by the batters in the second game. Unfortunately we couldn’t continue with the same intensity through out both the games. Our bowlers ran amok in the first game getting them out for just 104. Pratyush Purvar, the 13 year old playing this under 19 game gave an inspired performance and took 2 wickets for just 19 runs in his 5 overs. Ujjwal Yadav, Lalithesh Yadav and Tarif Khan also took 2 wickets.
We should have wrapped up the match easily but our batters chose to go in a sleep mode. Some careless batting meant we were 35 for 7 and staring down the barrel. But our lower order was not ready to throw in the towel. Pratyush (16), Manish Kumar (18) and Anchit Oberoi batted out of their skins and almost took us to the victory. We needed 14 off last two overs and eventually lost by 13 runs..
In the second match our top order finally rose to its potential and we scored 80 runs in 10 overs. Arpit Gupta was simply brilliant as he remained unbeaten on 40 off 31 balls. Now we just needed our bowlers to replicate what they did in the first match. It was not to be as almost the entire bowling unit failed to perform. As on cue, even the fielders joined the party and there were number of spilled chances. No wonder we lost the match by ten wickets in the 9th over.
It has been a tough learning curve for our senior team as the victories has been few and far in between. At the same time boys have showed moments of brilliance which gives lot of hope for the future. Hopefully we would be able to turn the corner sooner then later.
