Fresh Off the Boat! Juniors Vs. Juniors - Cricket Match

16th October, 2010.It was a beautiful Saturday morning and the FOB (Fresh of The Boat) week, organized by IMT, Dubai kicked off. The freshers were welcomed with the first extracurricular event – A cricket match between the two teams from the fall September 2010 batch. The venue was the IMT parking lot and the match was scheduled to start at 0700 Hours sharp.

The two teams assembled at the venue at 0630 Hours and all the prior arrangements had been done courtesy the Sports Committee. As the clock stuck 6:45, the two team captains Harsh Thaker and Shivankit Kumar were called onto the pitch by the two umpires Nakul Sharma and Sankalp Khanna. There was a flip of the coin and Shivankit Kumar won the toss and elected to bowl first. The match kicked off and Harsh Khanna and Vrishodhan Jhawar came out to open the innings facing Niaz Nain Ahmed with the bowl in his hand. Both the openers showed some defensive skills to begin with and there was a slow start to the game.

Out of the total 10 overs allotted for each side, the score stood at 31 runs for the loss of two wickets at the end of five overs. The bowling side showed some superior skills and the batsmen were evidently facing pressure. The batting team decided to gather some pace and was more or less successful at doing so, ending their allotted ten overs with a target of 61 to be chased by the other team. There was an interval of 10 minutes as the players were seen strategizing under the scorching sun now starting to take its toll on the players.

Team 2 came out to bat with its openers Rahul Mahanta and Sumeet Panda. Ankit Bharadwaj opened the bowling attack with a superb first over conceding only one run of it. Saurabh Mishra and Anjum Goyal decided to take charge and displayed some extravagant batting skills with some undisciplined bowling show from team 2.

The match entered the final over and team 2 required 19 runs to win, which seemed a daunting task. The first ball was hit for the longest six of the match by Team 1 instantly showed signs of pressure.

There were celebrations all around and signs of disappointment on faces of the players of Team 2. It was a well fought battle and the players shook hands and admitted the match could’ve gone in any Team’s favor. The atmosphere at the area was over whelming as both the teams showed true sportsmen spirit and finally shook hands with the two umpires. All the players were then taken inside the cafeteria and offered much needed refreshments courtesy IMT which was a big relief.

Match Statistics
Team 1 – 61/5 in 10 Overs.
Team 2 – 56/6 in ten Overs
Team 1 won by 4 runs.
Highest scorer of the match – Saurabh – 27 Not Out.
Scorer – Niket Garg

Team METH..!!