IECC

Crucial Friendly WON against Indian Tigers.- by Kunal

2011-08-01T17:01:00.000-07:00

Yes, crucial was the one word that described the 'Friendly' match on the 31st of July. After losing to them in the previous 3 encounters, it was time for the redemption of the pride we take in being the IECC. With the weather Gods again threatening to play the spoil sport at the Moriya grounds, we eventually reached the venue by 9:30am.

After losing the toss and put into Bat by the Tigers, we were off to a fantastic start, thanks to some superb batting display by Anurag and Shailaj. With Anurag blazing guns at one end and the calm and composed Shailaj at the other end, it was a true display of what a true opening batting pair is supposed to be. Both Anurag and Shailaj eventually raised their bats in response to the loud cheers from the team sitting on the sidelines.

After the first wicket loss of Anurag, in came Dinesh and showed some classical stoke play along the ground on the off side to score 30 runs. Even Dravid would have applauded on some of those straight fluent strokes of our 3 opening batsmen i suppose. :)

After Dinesh, it was come and go for almost all the batsmen due to pitch not playing conducive to slog shots.A quick fire 13 from 5 balls from Kunal did help to cross the psychological barrier of 180 runs. The ball was keeping low and an occasional ball would just skid in without much bounce. The need for a pitch roller is getting more and more highlighted with every match. The final total after playing our quota of 30 overs stood at 193.

With the innings break taken, the drizzle started to come down harder every moment. Worth noting was the spirit of the Tigers to continue to play even in that drizzle. Eventually the second innings commenced amid doubts and fear of rains pouring harder any moment.

To say the least, the start was horrible. With the Tiger's openers slashing ball to every part of the ground and our opening bowlers struggling with their line, length and swing, it seemed for a while that even 190 was not enough on the day when it was rainy and the ball kept very low.

Then started the fight back IECC is known for. In came Sanjeeb and Anurag to the rescue. Putting an end to easy run flow and pitching in with occasional wickets, we slowly started to see the silver lining. The first wicket of Tigers came in the form of a run out with some swift fielding in the deep and superb efforts by the wicket keeper Vezly throughout the innings. Thereafter, it was all about containing the Tiger's batsmen and good ground fielding which we did exceptionally well. At the end, with Tigers eventually needing 22 from the last over, it was as good as done and Dinesh ensured it was done in style with us winning by 15 runs. Sanjeeb with 4 wickets was our pick of the bowlers, with Anurag, Dinesh and Kunal pitching in with wickets as well.

Shailaj and Anurag both adjudged joint man of the match award.

Overall, a superb winning team performance by IECC in a match where pride was at stake.

sore card...

20110626- Friendly with Sarendib

2011-07-06T04:54:00.000-07:00

Serendib wins over IECC in a thrilling finish - (By Silvi)

Rains had almost threatened to spoil another day of cricket; this time a friendly between IECC and Serendib played in a soccer field in Kashiwa, Chiba (close to Moriya). Indian engineers were the first to arrive at the ground and setup the flex pitch while waiting for the opponents. Sarendib captain won the toss and elected to bat in a 30 overs per side game.

The Srilankan openers (Sachinat and Sameera) batted cautiously in the early stages before IECC opening bowler Rajneesh got the first wicket (lbw) with the score reading 25 for 1 at the end of 5 overs. Biju was the other opening bowler followed by Dinesh, Sanjeeb, Vehzy, Raju, Shailaj. The ball was keeping very low, sometimes almost skidding. Our bowlers at times had kept a good line but almost all our bowlers bowled at least xx wides with grand total of 36 wides. The Srilankan batsmen had a hard time scoring under these conditions and the opener Sachinta even offered two straight forward catches but we failed to gab on those opportunities.(Unlucky Bowler being Dinesh). At one stage, Serendib were 51/5. We dropped few more catches along the way, Sachinta, riding his luck, gradually began to solidify his batting with some good strokes/boundaries while the rest of Serendib batsmen hardly scored, got out mostly bowled or lbw to some good bowling especially from Sanjeeb who ended up with 4 wickets haul for 13 runs. Serendib finished their innings with a low score of 139 of which the opener Sachinta remained not out on 53.

Indian Engineers opened the innings with Yogesh and Sanjeeb but lost Yogesh early on lbw to a swinging yorker from Sukitha. Dinesh came in with the score at 5/1 and started to attack the bowling. He hit some splendid boundaries (4 fours and a six) in just 15 balls before he tried to go for another big hit and was brilliantly caught by Arosh of the bowling of Dhanuka. While Dinesh was at the crease it appeared the match would be over quickly as we were scoring at an average of 8~10 runs per over and at one stage we were 46/2 in 5 overs. The middle order batsmen tried to hang in there scoring at an average of 4 runs per over but with some good bowling from the Sri Lankans and some sloppy shots from our batsmen, we kept loosing wickets at periodic interval. By the end of 20 overs, the score was 78, still needing another 60 runs in 10 overs and 4 wickets in hand, it was still anybody’s game. Around 25 overs with 2 wickets in hand and 30 odd runs required, Raju, our main hope, who was still at the crease but yet to get runs, started to open the face of his bat going for some hits. He managed to score some boundaries including a six (six coming off a fielder who failed to take the catch at the fence and the ball popping out of his hands and over the line. With the six in the 29th over, the match was now evenly poised and full of nerves with about 6 runs required in 8 balls and one wicket in hand. Raju went for another big hit (possibly to score a six and finish the match) but failed to hit it cleanly and was caught by the fielder at mid-on. Serendib won the friendly match by 5 runs.

Though the engineers lost the match, it was a good close game with lots of fireworks and excitement and good sportsmanship and team spirit by both teams. We gave more wides (36) compared to Serendib (20). Overall the wides and the dropped catches in our fielding has cost us the game.

Brief Scores:
Serendib:
139 all out in 30 overs (36 wides)
Sachinta (opener) 53
Sanjeeb 4/13

IECC
134 (20 wides)
Dinesh 23 off 15 balls(4x4, 1x6), Raju 29 (3x4, 1x6)
Asanka 3/14 in 6 overs

KCL Semifinal - Oct 17, 2010

2010-11-15T06:09:00.000-08:00

IECC prepared hard for this match with couple of practice sessions at home ground Koga. In addition President and strike bowler Biju was seen jogging 10 km in the morning and Captain Sanjeeb seen exercising hard at the Gym everyday to be able to bowl again. Raju almost didn’t eat anything for an entire month so that his hunger for run stays intact. While Kamal reduced smoking by 50%, Dinesh did not pick any mysterious phone calls that could turn out to be energy swapping in the end 
IECC won the toss and elected to field first. Biju soon trapped Alkaram captain Javed plumb in-front of the stump with a well disguised slower delivery on his 2nd over. However the other opener Chula was hitting the ball nicely and wasn’t giving any respect to any of the IECC bowlers.　Alkaram raced to 93 on the 8th over and were 107/1 by the end of 9th over.
Raju was brought into the attack and Sanjeeb decided to give it a try from the other end , after not bowling for the entire season due to a shoulder injury. Luckily the slow bowling worked and Sanjeeb managed to remove Chula with a flighted delivery. Raju had 2 quick wickets in his next over and the momentum slowly shifted towards IECC. Dinesh also contributed with couple of wickets towards the end but Alkaram managed to post decent score of 221 before getting all out on the 32nd over. Masood bowling the 32nd had his revenge when he clean bowled Omar on the 2nd ball after getting hit for a six on the first ball. Silvester as usual did a great job again behind the stumps.
Ageo ground is normally a high scoring ground. Though IECC would have liked to restrict Alkaram below 200 they seemed pretty happy chasing 222 given that they had a packed batting line up.
However Alkaram bowlers mainly the openers Chula and Yasheen bowled a fantastic opening spell to took the game away from us.While Yasheen was really good with his line and length and was managing some swing, Chula’s raw pace and bounce was disconcerting to most of our batsmen. Masood fell soon trying to put the bowlers under some pressure. Santosh manged to get a decent start. Dinesh and Santosh tried to forge a partnership but it didn’t last long as Santosh trying to accelerate the score miss-read a slower delivery from Chula and the woodwork got rearranged.
The first change bowler were not any easy to score of either. Even though they were not as threatening as Chula and Yasheen they were consistent with their line and length and managing to bounce the ball to chest height every now and then. The mounting run rate meant we needed to take risk and most of our middle order perished just trying to do that. IECC lost Dinesh(LBW) and Sanjeeb(caught at Short mid wicket) in quick succession. Only Kamal and Mohibul managed to bring some cheer to IECC camp and at that point IECC was still hopeful of a win. However Kamal got caught at the boundary trying to hit a six and Mohibul also fell in a similar fashion soon. Mohibul was the pick of the batsmen and top scored with a brilliant 44. Eventually IECC got all out on the 32nd over managing only 144.
There were few interesting incidents during the game. One of them being Amjad Mirza hit the ball in the air towards Masood, Masood could not find the ball for few seconds after dropping the chance as the ball got hidden under the grass. Amjad thought it was 4 and stopped running in the middle, Masood then found the ball and threw the ball to Ganesh who dislodged the bell to get Amjad run out.
The game was played with good spirit and both the umpires from Giants team were quite good at their job. Would like to take this opportunity to thank both Mumtaj and Javed for doing the job skill-fully.
Though we lost this game and it was disappointing, we should still be proud of ourselves reaching the Semi after 7 years. This new looking team has lot of potential and I am sure we should be able to achieve great heights if we play up to our potential. We should also plan to play few more friendly matches with Pakistani teams, to better prepare ourselves for big matches. Since we have our own pitch and ground now, it shouldn’t be too difficult next year.

Detailed Scorecard attached below….

IECC vs. YCAC, 18th July - Engineers clinch the nail-biter

2010-07-21T07:26:00.000-07:00

By Anurag...

Engineers continue their winning streak with their fourth consecutive win this season. With this win, the Engineers successfully defended the Pacific Friendship Cup and extended their winning streak against YCAC to four.

The game was played at the beautiful YCAC ground. With both teams looking to beat the heat and trying to avoid fielding first, Prashant, YCAC’s stand-in captain, called it right and decided to bat first. With temperatures soaring well above 30 degress, the Engineers started their attack with the experienced duo of Biju and Ashok. It only took an over for Biju to replace the opening batsman Kumara, who trying to up the ante, ended up giving a lolly to Masood at mid-on, who never drops any. A couple of overs later, the new guy Mohibul was asked to replace Biju, who started generating pretty serious pace from the beginning. Mohibul took out the other opener with a good Yorker, which brought YCAC’s best batsman and captain, Prashant, in. After that, Dinesh and Anurag started attack from the respective ends. Anurag took out the aggressive Chandana with a bouncer, Ashok taking the catch at fine-leg. In the same over, another slower one took out the leg stump of the new batsman, Richard, who was trying to duck thinking it was a beamer. The scoreboard read 69/3 after 13 overs.

After the fall of these few quick wickets, YCAC’s this year recruit, Amila(ex-SL Lion), joined Prashant in the middle. Both guys started building partnership, playing sensibly, mixing aggression with caution without taking unnecessary risks. Both batsmen, after seeing off the main bowlers and getting their eye in, started taking their chances. Prashant hit a couple of consecutive sixes off Kamal. After a big partnership of 131 runs, Amila fell to Naveen trying to accelerate after his half-century, caught at long-on by Naveen. The scoreboard read 200/4 after 30 overs.

Engineers ended up restricting YCAC to 267, with the help of some useful death bowling especially by Mohibul. Prashant, their star batsman stayed unbeaten at 112*.

The conditions were not favorable but the Engineers should have restricted YCAC to a much lower score looking at their bowling strength. Overall fielding was pretty good which is a big positive. There were a couple of dropped chances but those were really difficult catches. Silvester was as usual, exceptional behind the wicket. He’s a complete natural, he just didn’t know about his keeping skills earlier.

The Engineers started their chase with Masood and Ashok. Masood fell early to a quicker one by Brent, with the score reading only 3. The newbie Naveen came in and was looking in good touch, before he lofted one straight to Prashant at mid-on off Amila. The scoreboard read 7 for 2 after 4 overs. Dinesh walked in to join Ashok, who was steady at the other end. Both of them started building the crucial partnership. Ashok played a couple of beautiful and powerful cuts to YCAC’s best bowler, Amila. Dinesh survived a couple of chances, thanks to YCAC’s poor fielding, and started playing cautiously thereafter. Ashok played an absolute cameo, dealing mostly in boundaries. He looked and played solid throughout. Both the batsmen completed their half centuries and took the total past hundred. After drinks, Ashok fell to Sanjay, trying to up the run rate. This was the biggest partnership of the game, at 133 runs. Dinesh fell soon after, mishitting a long hawk by Tim. The score at that point was 162 for 4.

With another 100+ runs to go, the run rate was touching 8. After this, Engineers captain Sanjeeb steadied the ship with Vezly with a 25 run partnership. After Vezly fell down trying to accelerate, Anurag joined Sanjeeb for another useful 30 run partnership. Anurag fell the same way as Vezly with the score reading 217 with 7 overs to go. Sanjeeb on the other hand was hitting the ball well. He hit a couple of big sixes before getting caught at long-off after a well paced 31, with Chandana taking a superb catch.

At this point the Engineers needed another 39 runs with 5 overs to go. Silvester and Mohibul contributed with another meaningful partnership. After Silvester fell, Engineers needed another 29 with only two wickets in hand and less than 4 overs to go.

Kamal who was playing with the season ball after ages, joined Mohibul in the middle. The next over by Brent was the turning point of the game, both Mohibul and Kamal took a six each, both straight bat proper cricket shots right over the bowler’s head. The run rate eased down a bit but Mohibul fell soon after that, which brought Biju to the crease. Run rate wasn’t a big problem anymore but all of Engineers hopes lied with Biju. Biju rotated the strike right away and Kamal's straight drive reached the boundary even though Amila tried hard with a spectacular dive to stop it.

In the penultimate over Biju was again on strike, IECC was just needing 5 runs to win , and YCAC needing just one wicket. By that time IECC captain has already finished chewing all his nails and looking at other peoples nails:) and came what a relief; to everyone's disbelief Biju glanced a ball pitched on his leg to the square leg , the fielder there dived and managed to get a hand to the ball but failed to stop it reaching the boundary. The scores are leveled now. The next ball was a wide and the whole team rushed in and almost mauled Biju and Kamal to death in the process.
And for some strange reason the beer at YCAC seemed extra special that evening.

It was an impressive batting performance by the Engineers to chase down 260+. The best part was that it wasn’t a one man show and everyone contributed.

Special thanks to Mohan for being such a good sport. He fielded as a sub in the scorching heat and later umpired the whole innings.

Brief Scorecard: YCAC 267/5 (Prashant 112*, Amila 51, Anurag 2/37, Mohibul 1/38)

Engineers 268/9(Dinesh 64, Ashok 54, Sanjeeb 31, Kamal 19*)

IECC Vs Kytes KCL 06-Jun-2010

2010-07-21T07:19:00.000-07:00

By Sanjeeb....
IECC won the toss and decided to bat first. The wicket offered good bounce and pace and IECC lost their first wicket in Masood the score reading only 6. But a superb 94 run 2nd wicket partnership between Santosh(35) and Dinesh(55) gave solid foundation to IECC's innings. Both batsmen mixed caution with aggression and dominated Kytes attack.
However 3 wickets fell in quick succession; First Santosh was bit unlucky to be adjudged LBW, next Dinesh top edged a delivery,he could have easily dispatched to the boundary in another day. Anurag was next to fall trying to set a slower delivery into orbit.

Sanjeeb sensing danger went into a defensive mode and scored only in singles and occasional boundaries when he received a bad ball. However the fallen wickets had no effects on Raju and as soon as he joined Sanjeeb at the crease he dispatched three back to back sixes straight over the bowlers head. All of them being massive and landed deep inside the dry river. However Raju soon fell victim to an uneven bounce and had to depart.All other batsmen kept the scoreboard ticking and played freely while Sanjeeb made sure he holds one end till the very end. Some late big hitting by Harsha, Shailaj and Pankaj evetually took IECC to 260/8.

With bowlers like Anurag, Dinesh and Ganesh in their ranks IECC was pretty confident to defend this total. Pankaj and Sahilaj were trusted with the new ball, Pankaj bowled steadily and managed to remove Neil on his first over. Thanks to a superb catch at gully by Ganesh.Any body else would have certailnly dropped it, take my word for it. That catch went a long way lifting IECC's moral and the fielding remained top class through out the inning.There were couple of runouts and Ganesh even bettered his last effort by taking another diving catch at gully which would have made Jhonty Rhodes proud.

However most of our bowlers, apart from Anurag and Dinesh, got little carried away, and bowled too many wides. Though it was a windy day and the CA ball is little hard to control it is no excuse for giving 43 wides and no balls in just 23 overs. That is almost 2 extra deliveries each over.Must commend Silvi for negotiating those bad deliveries, if he wasn't a natural and someone with a long reach the extras would have looked even more ridiculous. Anurag was pick of the bowlers again and claimed 3/13 from his 5 overs.

Nevertheless this was a huge victory and will certainly do a lot of good to IECC's run rate. And of course the victory was celebrated in Engineers traditional way, at the highway beer garden :)

Brief scorecard
IECC: 260/8 (40 overs) (Dinesh Singh 55, Sanjeeb Sahoo 52)
Kytes : 128/10 (23.4 overs) (Sukitha Halambage 30, Anurag Singh 3/13)

Here is a link to the scorecard

Here are few pictures from the trip.

2010-05-22 IECC Vs Predators - an excellent begining to KCL campaign

2010-05-27T09:23:00.000-07:00

By Silvester Pereira....

The Engineers (IECC) and Predators KCL match in Shizuoka was welcomed with a bright, clear and sunny weather. The game began around 11:30 am with IECC stand in captain Anurag, winning the toss and electing to bat. Masood and Ritesh opened the batting for IECC while Saijash and Robin opened the bowling for the Predators. The Predators had only 10.5 players (0.5 being a 11 year young and enthusiastic Liam Hunt). It was rumored that the key player for Predators didn’t make it for the game which added to their misery.

The 1st opening pair gave a good start to IECC scoring 33 runs before Masood was out caught for 12 runs. Ritesh didn’t last long before being out lbw for 10 runs (score being 42). Harsha, our newcomer, joined Yogesh on the other end before he too, was bowled of the bowling of Saijash, their only and best bowler of the day. Raju joined Yogesh with score reading 49/3 (in 10 overs) and the two carried along making merry, enjoying their luck (dropped catches) and scoring from a weak bowling attack for a long and well deserved partnership. There were plenty of fireworks, mainly from Raju, who was well supported by Yogesh on the other end. The pair batted together for almost 25 overs setting up a new 4th wicket KCL record partnership of 251 runs. Saijash was the only dangerous bowler for the Predators who bowled a continuous 8 over spell starting from the first over, gave just 16 runs and took 2 wickets.

Anurag, our captain was padded and kept waiting for almost 25 overs before Yogesh got bowled (37th over) by Gardiner after a respectful personal best score of 65 runs with the score at 300. The Predators, at this stage, having almost given up the game experimented by bringing in the young Liam, who gave 25 runs in his 2 overs. Raju remained not out for 169 at the end of 40 overs with 46 extras in IECC score of 310/4.

The Engineers, after having a good score behind them, started to take charge of the bowling with Biju opening the attack and Anurag on the other end. Gardiner and Chanukha opening the batting for the Predators before Chanukha was beautifully caught at gully by Ganesh of the bowling of Biju with the score reading just 8 runs. Saijash joined Gardiner and the two gradually built a good partnership hitting some great shots before Gardiner, the danger man, missing the line was bowled of the bowling of Anurag for 13 runs. Saijash, trying for a pull shot, went immediately caught by Raj at mid-on again of the bowling of Anurag for well made 25 runs (highest for the Predators). The rest of the batsman didn’t last long, falling at short intervals of some really good bowling from Ganesh, Rajeesh and Shailaaj, most of them being “clean bowled”. Due to absence of our regular wicketkeepers, Yours truly was asked to do the honors of keeping wickets, something not done for 16 years since the club was formed! With failing light, the engineers wrapped up the Predators innings for 110 runs (33 of which came from extras!) with a victory margin of 200 runs paving the way for an excellent start to the KCL tournament.

Overall it was a good team work from IECC in all departments of the game with good batting, luck, bowling and being able to take over 95% of the catches whereas the opponents surprisingly appeared weak in all departments! Hopefully we can maintain such a momentum for the upcoming games.

Score Card

IECC Vs Tigers 2010/04/04

2010-04-05T03:28:00.000-07:00

IECC Vs ITCC

Date: April 4, 2010

Edogawa Ground

The game got off to a delayed start under gloomy skies. IECC started on the back-foot as they were 1 player short, were missing some key players and then went on to lose the toss as well. ITCC had no hesitation in batting first.

Despite taking the field with just 10 players the IECC opening bowlers, Rajesh & Shailaj, put up a fine show. They bowled an immaculate line & length and did not allow the ITCC opening pair of Anil & Rajeev to get away. Even singles were restricted as ITCC scored just 18 runs in the first 7 overs. With no option left but to take risks, Rajeev and Anil started taking risky singles. Rajeev beat a direct throw from Ganesh, but was not that lucky the second time as another accurate throw from Ganesh found him short. Mithun survived a very close run-out shout before even having faced a ball, but did not last long as he holed out to long off, of his first delivery. Rajesh held on to a well judged catch off Shailaj. Every batsman found the going tough as Raju and Saijesh con

With the asking rate at exactly 3 runs per over IECC opened with Santosh and Rahul. Rajeev operating from round the stumps, scalped Santosh caught at slip with the one that went across in the second over of the innings. Atul came out and hit a few lusty blows to keep the score ticking. Rajeev once again cut short his innings with a caught and bowled. Javed joined Rahul in the middle and kept scoring aggressively. He was trapped in front trying to play across the line to a straight one. Rahul fell trying to hoick one over long on. Raju and Sanjeeb were cleaned up by balls that kept low and suddenly a game which should have been an easy chase for the batting side was on the line. 26 runs were needed with 4 wickets in hand. Saijesh batted beautifully under pressu

It was a game which should have been won comfortably by IECC but were made to sweat by the Tigers. With the KCL starting next week, IECC have a lot of improvement to do if they are to advance in that tournament.

Brief score card
ITCC 89/10 in 26 overs Anil (38), Ganesh (3/10),Saijesh (3/13)
IECC 93/8 in 24 overs Saijesh(18), Atul(15), Rajeev(2/35)

Detailed scorecard below....

Mar21-2010 Engineers started season on a winning note

2010-03-22T23:49:00.000-07:00

By Raju.....
As this was the first match happening under lights, engineers esthetically reached the new Koga ground at 3:00PM on a quite uncomfortable weather, its windy and chilly than expected. The tigers reached the at 4:00PM, and quickly found the incompatibility between the mat and the ground soil. After some brainstorming sessions, our curator Dinesh took the lead in installing the pitch on new ground. Coin has been tossed after a delay of an hour, the tiger's leader called the wrong side of the coin, which leads to engineer’s openers to walk towards the pitch with bat. Cool headed Masood opened the innings with veteran opener Santosh. Things went good until Masood got out. Dinesh walked in as a replacement, and the engineer’s camp looks comfortable as the last years leading run scorer took the charge of rolling the score card. Soon he returned back after an LBW decision. On the other side, Santosh keep ticking the score. The new man PK looked pretty comfortable, but soon got run out. Raju walked in as a replace to him, a blow to engineers camp in the form of Santosh wicket. A pretty good half volley delivery, scattered the midwicket. By this time the score is 56/5. Situation looks quite similar to last seasons KCL league match with same counterparty. The young blood and the new vice captain walked in his style, as the back ground voices echoed as "GUYS DON'T LET THE LAST YEAR'S KCL STITATION REPAT AGAIN". They keep up their word, after a partnership of 30 runs Raju fell to an Yorker. By this time Anurag gave full thrust to the score card. The captain Sanjeeb joined him and made some valuable runs before returning back after a cough and bowl event occurrence. Bikash replaced him in order to give some strong support to Anurag, as he is one of the stake holder in high score partnerships. This time the partnership didn't go good. Biju replace him, after few runs contribution, Anurag fell in the process of accelerating the score as the innings reaching the final phase. Engineers scored 133 runs after getting all out in 24 overs in very unplayable conditions.

After a few minutes break tigers walked in, in-order to hunt down the 134 in 27 overs. Though the figures looks achievable, the path towards that looks not that easy at the end. The valuable weapon in our arsenal, with a perfect text book bowling action (Rajeesh) started the bowling attack, the very first one went like a rocket juts like on Koiwa pitch, which we haven't seen in our day's play until then. According to strategy, along with our veteran seam bowler Biju the pair has to damage or put the tigers on back foot. Biju took the first wicket and a lots of convincing shouts turned out against Rajeesh. After encouraging new talented players with the bowl, the captain thought its time to bring in Anurag. Due to leg strain, captain replaced him in the attack. The real Tiger’s down fall started as the ball came in to the hands of Dinesh. He cleaned the tiger’s middle orde. After Dinesh and Raju restricted the tigers from scoring in a log stretch of 12 overs, the asking rate has been climbed up for tigers. At the end Rajeesh, Anurag and Shailaj cleaned up the rest of the list and recorded the first win of this season just before the lights gone off at 21:00Hrs.

Key Points:

1. Ground is great. Playing cricket under lights is amazing, thanks to all stake holder in this initiation. A flix pitch may make it more interesting.

[Return driving to Tokyo just takes one hour, could not able to evaluate the time taken from Tokyo to Koga as we caught up in some unexpected traffic]

2. Though the playing conditions in the first half are unplayable, the bats men managed to score 133.Anurag and Santhosh contributions are impressive.

3. Bowling department: bowlers did good job in restricting the tigers.

4. Ground fielding is good, but we managed to miss few catches which my go costly in other situations. [As we all know this is a well known and well repeated statement :)]

5. Special thanks to new comer Shailaj who bowling the last over under pressure took the last Tigers wicket just before the lights went out to hand over the first win of the Season to IECC

6.Biju took the first wicket of the season, way to go President!

7. Dinesh took 5 wicket for just 13 runs to destroy Tigers middle order. Raju providing support from the other end.

8. Anurag top scored with 41 runs and hit few towering sixes. Santosh scored a patient 19.

11th Dec 2009- YearEnd Party, Bob's Farewell

2009-12-12T02:42:00.000-08:00

IECC held its 2009 year-end party at Ashoka Ginza in traditional style, with Indian food and Japanese beer. This time the party had an added significance as this was also one of our key member Bobby Philips's farewell party.

After many bottoms-ups and onegos it was time for IECC president Biju to reflect upon our performance this year. President was justifiably bit disappointed with IECC's performance this year. Pointing specifically towards the losses against ITCC a relatively new team in Japan he urged the members to do some soul searching and to do everything in their power to bring the past glory back to IECC. He drew attention toards the aging core members of IECC and stressed upon the importance of infusion of new young blood into the team and asked support of every existing members to help out in the recruiting process.

Next was Captain Sanjeeb's turn. Taking responsibility for the poor show of IECC this year and sharing the same view as the president Captain pointed out towards some achievements which IECC can take pride on. One of them being beating YCAC 3 times in a row in their own backyard. He also drew attention towards unavailability of enough players when it comes to travelling out of Tokyo. Captain also proposed a solution to the problem by suggesting to have a IECC's own ground near by area and briefed the team about the progress in that direction.

Everyone including the president and captain expressed a deep sense of loss considering that we will miss one of our most dynamic member Bobby next year. Not only he will be missed in the cricket ground we all will miss a really great friend and one of our great motivators. And of course we will miss his speeches and the curve negotiating skills on the Tomei:)

Next it was Bobby's turn to light the party with his fiery speech. Bobby spoke for several hours and did not stop until the restaurant manager requested him to stop as it was time to close the restaurant:) This time for a change it was a fiery come rainy speech. It made some the members to cry. In fact even the sky cried that night:).Sensing danger and possibility of a typhoon our treasurer Bikash intervened and distributed the special achievement awards in a hurry.

Following is the list of winners....
-MVP 2009 : Dinesh Singh
-Best Batsman: Raju Sidde
-Best Bowler: Anurag Singh
-Best Fielder: Masood Khan
-New comer of the year: Vezly Gracis

Here is a picture from the party. More pictures are in Bob's camera. he has promised to send them to us from Australia.

p.s. Thanks to Yogesh and Biju for making the arrangements for the party and to Bikash for arranging for the presents and prizes.

Sep 6th 2009-- IECC Made it a Hat-trick over YCAC

2009-09-11T01:06:00.000-07:00

Initially it looked like we can't play this match due to lack of players as the Kerla-Japan festival was also scheduled on the same day; But we somehow managed to get an 11 just before the match day. Even though this was not a full strength team and we were sure that YCAC will definitely field their best team following defeats in last two matches, the IECC captain was still hopeful of making it a hat-trick.

Winning the toss at YCAC is normally crucial as history shows team batting first normally wins, but IECC captain called it wrong this time.

Fielding first, IECC started the bowling with Ashok and Rahul. Ashok at his usual best produced a easy chance on his 4th delivery when YCAC opener Nick mistimed a pull. There was slight confusion between the shortleg and midon fielder and shortleg eventually dropped it.

Rahul bowling with the new ball for the first time for IECC, also bowled beautifully with accuracy and swing and scoring was difficult for both batsmen. Mostly the runs were coming via occasional extras.

There were many catching chances(at lest 5) that came our way but we managed to drop them all, and the openers survived until the 15th over when a direct through from Ashok caught Nick short of his crease.

IECC was on top at that stage as almost half the innings was gone and only 56 runs were on the board.

Next batsman Kamran, tried his luck and played some risky and some very good shots but eventually got out to a well judged catch at the fineleg boundary by Rahul.
Pramod being the bowler in this case. Prashant also did not last long as Pramod manged to swing a ball in the air to disturb his middle stump. Promod and rest of the bowlers Sanjeeb, Rahul and Ashok rapped up the YCAC innings by the 33rd over for the score of 151.

It should also be mentioned that Atul, keeping after a long time, did the job beautifully in Bobby's absence and saved some valuable runs and even managed one stumping.

Chasing a relatively easy target Masood and Atul opened the batting for IECC. Masood started promisingly hitting the first ball from Prashant for a boundary but got out LBW couple of deliveries later when he missed a flick. And when Atul also got out to a swinging delivery from David in the next over, the target suddenly started looking a competative one.

Next batsman Pramod playing for the first time for IECC displayed his cool head and sound technique when he negotiated the new ball with ease. On the other end Santosh batting at No 3 for a change was on his usual aggressive Viru(Shewag) mode when he hit Prshant for 3 magnificent boundaries on his 2nd over. However Santosh was the next to fall when he misjudged the bounce of a straight delivery that crashed into the stumps. By that time though he had made a brilliant 28 and has set IECC on course for a victory as IECC was crusing at 7 runs per over at that point.

IECC was needing another 71 runs to win the match on the 10th over. But some disciplined bowling from Kamran and Chatan reduced IECC to 113/6 by the 20th over and the possibility of a surprise IECC loss started to emerge. But Pramod's calm presence at the crease and knowing that the asking rate is not that great, gave strength to the batsmen at the other end.

YCAC was still in the money when Javed walked into bat at No8 while the score was reading 135. But some big hitting from Javed including a huge Six that almost crossed the net and landed on one of those houses, sealed the match for us on the 30th over.

In the end it was a interesting match with lots of ups and downs and a great team effort where everyone played their part to handover a record hattrick win to IECC agaist YCAC.

3 cheers for IECC.

Brief scorecard.....
YCAC 151/10 in 33 overs, Steve(31), Kamran(23), Pramod(4/31)

IECC 152/8 in 30 overs, Pramod (32*), Santosh (28), Javed(16*)

Detail scorecards below...

23rd Aug 2009 - IECC first ever lose to Indian Tigers in friendly match

2009-08-26T09:00:00.000-07:00

As Sanjeeb and bobby had some preplanned commitment on sunday, vijender was given the responsibility to captain the side and to gather the players for the friendly match against Indian tigers. We only managed to have 9 confirmed players for the match due to Ganesh Festival on the same day.

Match started at 1:3o with IECC again lost the toss and asked to field first. As we were short to two players, we had to compromise in the fielding. Tigers openers started their innings confidently and had a partnership of 27 runs in 6 overs. Raju did some excellent fielding to get rid of their opener as they tried to steal a tight single. Raju covered a lot of distance in competiton with Rajeev (Tiger's opener) with ball in his hand to remove the bail at non-striker end to give IECC the first wicket. Pramod(50) came next to continue Tiger's innings with his fluent hitting all over the ground. IECC poor fielding also allowed him to score at a fast pace. At the end of their innings Pramod and Anil(29*) took the scorecard to 139/6. Bala,the new joinee in the IECC team and Rahul did a good job to restrict the scoring in the middle overs.

Massod and Sagar was asked to open the innings for IECC. Both was playing extremely well to keep the scoreboard ticking at the required rate. Sagar was out to a loose ball giving straight catch to square leg fielder. Vijender came next but was forced to retire hurt when he hurt himself while hitting a fulltoss ball on his face just near the left eye. It was the luckiest escape for me as there was no harm in my left eye. Vizley(19) came next and started hitting the big shot straight away but was given out LBW. Javed(14) and Raju(13) tried to control the damage but IECC could not cope with the required rate and got all out at 121 in 19.5 overs. That was a first ever loss to Indian Tigers.

Captaining the side is really tough and i got this bitter taste in this friendly match.
Hats off to sanjeeb who is handling IECC team so well from past 2 years.

Aug 16,2009 - IECC prevails over YCAC in a close encounter

2009-08-16T16:25:00.000-07:00

By Vezly....

Driving along the bay bridge to Yokohama on Sunday mornings has become a way of life for IECC for past few months and so is winning!!! This time we were again playing our arch rivals YCAC at their fantastic facility for a record third time in a row.

IECC won the toss and elected to bat first. Santosh and Bobby opened the innings for us but the start wasn’t as solid as we would have wanted it to be , and we lost quick wickets in the first 2 overs and were 3 for 2 at the end of the 2nd over. While Santosh got out to a fine out swinger from David, Bobby once again ran himself out. Dinesh and Sanjeeb played cautiously and added 61 runs for the third wicket to stabilize the innings like last time.

Bad luck struck us again, when we lost 3 quick wickets for just 3 runs, in the middle of our innings, but Silvester and Vezly once again did the rebuilding act successfully. Valuable contributions from Vezly (49), Dinesh (42), Silvester (30), Kushal (16) carried us past the 230 mark. While Dinesh was looking good to score another century he got out to a superb caught and bold effort by Chetak. Vezly batted beautifully mixing aggression with caution but was unlucky again to miss out on his 50, this time getting out to a superb running catch by Farhan at long off. Silvester shouldering the responsibility remained not out and made sure we played out those 40 overs.

While our batsmen played well agaist the YCAC pace-men, it were the slow bowlers who did most of the damage. David was easily the pick of the YCAC bowlers, bowling with the new ball, for the first time in his carrier, he surprised everyone with his accuracy and variations.

In reply YCAC started promisingly scoring 12 in the first over for no loss. In fact they lost their first wicket only in the 14th over at the score 78, when Sanjeeb managed to swing a ball in, from outside off , to hit nick's pad in front of the middle stump. Immediately after, a brilliant fielding effort by Silvester got rid of the other opener Riaz (38) at the same score. But that didn't stop YCAC as the next batsmen Farhan(16),Richard (42) and Kamran (28) started scoring at a brisk pace and the game started slipping away from us.

By the 26th Over YCAC was 174/4 and it appeared that they will easily overhaul the target when captain decided to bring Dinesh back into the attack from the far end . Dinesh immediately obliged with two wickets in the same over, both crean-bold, to bring us back in the game. Bowling around the wicket in the next over Sanjeeb got rid of the dangerous Kamran, to put IECC back in the driver’s seat, thanks to a sharp reflex catch behind the stumps by Bob.

Other bowlers then wrapped up the innings in quick succession to hand over IECC a deserving victory. Mohan did an incredible job of bowling with the new ball and saved at least 10/15 valuable runs patrolling the whole fine-leg area, and who can forget the runout and difficult catch at short-square leg by Silvester which gave us crucial breakthroughs.

Even though 232 was not a very big and difficult target for our opponents to chase, our team came out with an all out effort to defend its position. Disciplined fielding, team work and focus were the key elements which kept the team going in an energy swapping hot day.

We then joined YCAC at the post match drinks session and thanked them for inviting us.Winning a consecutive second time against YCAC does give KAMPAI a different flavour doesn’t it!!! IECC guys lets make it a hat trick and do our best at the next occasion we play them.

Brief scorecard as mentioned below:
IECC
------
232/9 in 40 over , Vezly(49), Dinesh(42), Silvester (30*), Kamran(41/3), David (46/3)
YCAC
-------
205/10 in 35 over, Richard(42), Riaz(38), Kamran(28), Sanjeeb (41/3), Dinesh (22/2)

Few pictures and detailed scorecard below....

19th July 2009-IECC triumph at YCAC after 4 years

2009-07-19T16:01:00.000-07:00

In a fantastic all round display we managed to beat YCAC in an exciting high scoring game.

IECC captain Sanjeeb called the toss right this time and elected to bat first. Bobby was promoted to open with Santosh in the absence of regular openers. YCAC got 2 quick break throughs via runouts, Santosh on the 2nd over misjudged a direct through which unfortunately hit the stump and then on the 6th over Bobby sacrificed his wicket for Dinesh in a terrible mix up. Bobby's sacrifice did not go waste though as Dinesh went on to score a fantastic century.

Sanjeeb and Dinesh steadied the innings on the 3rd wicket and added about 70 runs, Dinesh doing bulk of the scoring.Then Vezly and Dinesh on the 5th wicket added 115 runs to put IECC on top. Towards the end a blistering 51 not-out, including a last ball 6 from Anurag, took IECC total past 300.

Chasing a mammoth total YCAC started in a steady fashion.Good pace bowling by Ashok and Mohan meant that they had to take risks to meet the asking rate.Ashok got through Nick difference on his 3rd over to give IECC the much needed quick break through.Steve and Mark batted well and put up 50 runs for the 2nd wicket.

The game was on balance at that point.But a brilliant fielding at point by Santosh ran Mark out and the momentum started swinging towards IECC. Then a good catch at Cover by Ashok got rid of Dangerous looking Steve to put IECC on top, Anurag being the bowler in this case.

Prshant(59) and Farhan(26) batted well for some time and gave IECC some anxious moments but the growing asking rate got the better of both batsmen. Anurag took a superb catch at long-on to get rid of Farhan and Vezley bowled a beautiful yorker to knock Prashant's middle stump out of the ground. Once Prashant was out it was just a matter of time before IECC became victorious.

Vezly bowling his 7th over got rid of the 9 and 10th wicket in 2 consecutive deliveries to get YCAC all out within the 40 over. He is on a hat trick now.

It was a disciplined effort at the field by IECC, we took some fantastic catches, caused run outs. Even though we dropped some catches too, still it was a far better performance than the last match. I must mention that Anurag and Sagar took two outstanding catches while yours truly dropped a simple one ;)

In the end we had a drink with YCAC and thanked them for inviting us to play in their fantastic facility, and wished well to Neil who was playing his penultimate game in Japan and the last one with IECC.

We then marched home with the satisfaction of beating YCAC which had remained as a dream for few years now.

Brief scorecard....
IECC 302/6 in 40 overs, Dinesh 114(14x4, 3X6), Anurag 51 in 26 balls(7X4, 2X6), Vezly(Hit-wicket) 43(5X4, 1X6), Prashant 3/49

YCAC 237/10 in 37 overs, Prahsnat 59,Cmitha 40*, Vezly 4/35

5th July 2009- Dissapointing loss in the Pacific cup Semi-Final

2009-07-05T17:32:00.000-07:00

Dropped catches and Batting collapse is always the story when we play YCAC. However this time we were hopping to do better as YCAC has a new pitch a Felix one, in fact they have a completely synthetic colorful outfield now.

YCAC own the toss and elected to bat first.

Ashok and Biju started the bowling well for IECC and given that we had fielders at the right areas the scoring was not easy for YCAC. Ashok bowled out one of the openers Horton on his 4th over and then got rid of Kamran on his 5th over to put IECC on top.

But then Prashant and the other opener Riaz batted well and put up 90 runs partnership to stabilize YCAC. Then Prashant stepped on the gas and went on to score 129 to take the score past 250 thanks to many dropped catches. Riaz had contributed with a patient 40.

Then our batting collapsed like a pack of cards and we got allout in the 24 overs managing only 112. Only 3 of our batsmen managing to get past 10. Raju did hit 3 huge Sixes during his short stay at the crease to entertain the crowd, one of those sixes almost landing in the swimming pool.

I might as well add that YCAC hold on to all the catches that came their way in sharp contrast to IECC.

brief scorecard.
YCAC 255/7 in 40 overs , Prashant Kale 129, Ashok 3/31, Raju 3/39
IECC 112/10 in 24 overs, Raju 24, Dinesh 24,Riaz 3/8

20th June 2009- IECC Bounces back in style beating Tigers by huge margin

2009-06-20T18:51:00.000-07:00

IECC won the toss and elected to bat first.
Tigers opening bowlers bowled beautifully and some accurate swing bowling and athletic fielding quickly saw IECC top and middle order relaxing back in the tree-shade.

At 36/6 by the end of the 6th over, IECC was at real risk of getting all out(or eaten alive) without posting a challenge total to the Tigers, a situation which got IECC president Biju and Vice Captain Bobby really worried.There was more than a loss at stake. Had IECC lost the game and got allout scoring their lowest score of the season both of them would have lost their rights to visit Nishi-Kasai, known as the den of the Tigers.

But the young stars of IECC, Raju and Anurag, who have certainly matured a lot over these years, had a different plan in mind. The 151 run partnership in the 7th wicket nearly killed the Tigers.

Raju initially started with caution, contrary to his nature, but soon got going with a huge 6 over midwicket. His 66 included as many as 5 towering sixes and 4 boundaries.Anurag initially concentrated on feeding the strike to Raju and taking risks only to bad deliveries. But after the 100 run partnership Anurag also became agressive and started hitting boundaries almost at will. His 76 included 1 towering six over midwicket and as many as 12 boundaries. It was really a treat to watch both of them batting in tandem, neutralizing the Tigers attack and saving IECC the blues.

Tigers chasing 232 to win crumbled under pressure and the pace of Dinesh , Anurag and Raju proved too much for them. Dinesh was pick of the IECC bowlers taking 3 wickets for 29.

This win should go a long way boosting IECC's moral after suffering back to back losses in their last two KCL games.

Brief scorecard..
IECC 231/10 in 35.3 overs, Raju (66), Anurag (76), Anil 4/19
Tigers 119/10 in 26.5 overs, Udayraj (23), Dinesh(3/29)

18 Jun 2009- IECC lost one of their very bests

2009-06-20T18:21:00.000-07:00

Vimal who played for IECC about 8 years had been a key member of the squad. Apart from being a rock solid opener he was a very good bowler and fielder. Also he was a very good friend and his gentle , friendly and selfless natures had made him really popular within the team. His 156* against Kytes is among one of the most memorable innings he has played for IECC.

He will be soon moving to Denmark on his new job assignment. IECC is hopeful that he will be back in Japan sometime in future and will be again playing for us.

Here are few pictures from the farewell party.

14th June - Photographs

2009-06-16T05:41:00.000-07:00

14th June 2009- Depleted IECC Lost to Kytes

2009-06-15T16:58:00.000-07:00

We won the toss and decided to bat first.

But we could only manage to score 124 before getting allout by the 30th over. Note here that we didn't have our full team and both our star openers were not playing this game.

Kytes bowled beautifully and took some acrobatic catches. On the other hand poor runing between the wickets didn't help IECC much, we again had couple of runouts.

At one stage we were 49/6.
But thanks to our VC Bobby , batting at no 3, he kept his calm and kept his wicket at one end and played almost 25 overs hitting some sublime boundaries in the process.

Atul played beautifully opening for IECC for the first time he scored 25 before getting out to a supurb low catch by one of the atheletic Srilankan fielders.

Silverster playing after a long layoff also batted beautifully and remained not out on 28 and some useful contributions from Jagan and Biju helped us go past 120.

While bowling we tried with everything we had, but the Kytes were not taking too many risks as we kept giving extras and the score was not a too chalenging one.

Dinesh took 2 wickets in 2 balls when the score was around 50 to give us some hope. But we could not manage any quick wickets after that and the game slowly drifted away from us.

Towards the end Biju bowled a gem of a delivery to get rid of inform Kytes batsman Mewan but it was too late by then.

Final score
IECC 124/9 in 32.3 Overs
Atul 25, Bobby 23, Silvi 26*, Arbab 3/31
Kytes 125/5 in 25.3 Overs
Chamberlain 29, Mewan 22, Neil 19*, Dinesh 3/19

31st May 2009- IECC winning streak broken by Sarendib

2009-05-31T17:29:00.000-07:00

Sarendib won the toss and elected to bat first.
We opened the bowling with Ashok and Anurag and Vijender took care of the keeping in absence of our regular wicket keepers.
We bowled well but Sarendib capitalized on the occasional bad balls.We also dropped several simple catches to let them of the hook. The weather also played its part. We had 3 breaks due to rain and each time we came back to bowl after the rain, we had a hard time dealing with the slippery pitch and ball. Sarendib batted intelligently mixing caution with aggression and post a challenging total of 248.

We had a packed batting line up and we knew 6 runs per over at Shizouka is gettable. We started promisingly reaching 50 in just 5 overs. Fresh from a 150+ partnership in the last game, Vimal and Viswa were batting brilliantly but both got out to some brilliant fielding and accurate bowling. At that stage we were still sitting pretty, but then some poor running between the wickets and some bad luck with the decisions took the game out of our reach. Finally we got all out for just 188 on the 31st over.

Brief score card....
Dhanuka(73), Ashok 4/39
Dinesh(29),Vimal (26), Ashanka 2/35

19th May 2009-IECC Defeated Predators convicingly

2009-05-25T20:40:00.000-07:00

Since the conditions were not good for KCL match the captains and the umpires agreed to reschedule the KCL match. IECC and Predators decided to play a friendly 20/20 instead in the rain.

IECC batting first scored 213/6 in 20 overs. Viswa(85) and Vimal(65) had a 150+ opening partnership.

Predators crumbeled under pressure of chasing such a high score and got allout for 113 in the 19th over. Predators captain Andrew(46) was the top scorer from their side.