MPL 2015 Eliminator – Incredibles @ X-Men, August 12 2015:
Match Summary:
X-Men won the toss and chose to bat. Five wickets in the first six overs put X-Men on the back-foot and they never recovered enough. Rahul, playing his last MPL match, bowled his quota of three overs up-front, and got key wickets of Sandeep (bowled), Yashwanth (caught-behind), and Milind (caught at gully) – openers and one-down. He also get Anoop run-out shortly after.
Rohith and Venkat also fell soon after. Koundinya attempted to resurrect a sinking ship, but was out for 10(17). X-Men were 32/8 in 9.1 overs and in all sorts of trouble. Suresh and Krishna, along with some help from extras, stitched together the largest partnership of the inning – 21 runs – before they both fell in the last over of the inning. X-Men posted 53/10 in 13.4 overs, leaving two deliveries on the table.
Incredibles lost Adai in the second over of their chase, but got some momentum through Anuj – he got the only hit for a six in the match. Anuj fell with the score at 21/2 in 4 overs. Nachiket and Sriram kept the scoreboard ticking with singles.
Nachiket and Rahul were dismissed with the score at 37/4 in 6.5 overs. Rahul having had a great outing with the ball, would not have one with the bat – run out by Koundinya for 1(4). Sriram along with Koushik kept things simple, and took care of business, with plenty of extras, as they got Incredibles to 48/5 in 10 overs, before Koushik fell. Priyank and Sriram took care of the final rites, as Incredibles got their target of 54 with five wickets and 3.1 overs to spare.
Incredibles had lost to X-Men in both their round-robin meetings, before defeating them today in the MPL 2015 eliminator. Incredibles, having lost their first four matches in MPL 2015, have made it to the MPL 2015 final on the back of five straight wins – cornered tigers anyone?
They’ll take on the Transformers in the MPL 2015 final – Incredibles are the only team to beat the Transformers, who’d won seven straight at the time.
Player Spotlight:
Koundinya and Suresh lead the batting for X-Men, but clearly lacked support – 7(13) and 13(17) respectively. Yashwanth and Krishna were the only other batsmen to face more than 10 deliveries – 7(13) and 4(13) respectively. Yashwanth and Suresh struck a boundary each.
Rahul and Chaitanya lead the bowling for Incredibles in style – 3-0-11-3, and 3-1-11-2 respectively. They were ably supported by Priyank and Abhijit – 3-0-9-0 and 3-0-10-1 respectively.
Nachiket, Anuj, and Sriram took care of the tricky chase for Incredibles – 10 (20), 9(8) and 10(19) respectively. Anuj got the only six in the match; there were no four’s in the Incredibles batting.
Yashwanth and Krishna looked to keep the pressure on with the ball, but a target of 54 was never sufficient to test the Incredibles batting, especially in light of the extras the bowling unit leaked – 3-0-11-2 and 2.5-0-11-0 respectively.
Key Stats:
| Team | DBC | DBC % | ED | EDBC | EDBC % | RiB | 4's | 6's |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| X-Men | 57 | 67.86% | 11 | 46 | 54.76% | 8 | 2 | 0 |
| Incredibles | 37 | 56.92% | 14 | 23 | 35.39% | 6 | 0 | 1 |
Legend:
Dot Ball Count (DBC): Dot balls faced by all batsmen in the given team for this match. Includes any deliveries not faced on account of being all-out prior to the 14 allotted overs. Extra Deliveries (ED):The total number of wides and no-ball bowled by the opposition, during this team's batting. Effective Dot Ball Count (EDBC): Subtracting the sum of wides and no-balls bowled by the opposition, from the DBC. Runs in Boundaries (RiB): The total runs scored in boundary hits.
Incredibles conceded eight wides and three no-balls, along with two byes – 13 extras, including 11 extra deliveries. X-Men in turn conceded six wides, eight no-balls, and three byes – 17 extras, including 14 extra deliveries.
30 runs in extras conceded by the two teams, as compared to 77 runs scored off the bats, in 24.3 overs. Have to wonder how a tighter bowling performance by X-Men would have impacted the match.
Chaitanya has 14 wickets in MPL 2015, and the purple cap for Incredibles is secure in his hands – or, on his head. He needs three more wickets to tie Mayank, and four to become the highest wicket taker in MPL 2015.
Rahul finished with 34 runs at a SR of 51 for 69 batting points; 8 wickets at ER of 4, for 103 bowling points; and 4 catches/run-outs for 20 points.
Plays of the day:
- Yashwanth was off to a tentative start while batting, and had three difficult chances go-down. He got a boundary hit over Anuj at deep square-leg, who was standing a few yards in from the boundary line. Anuj back-pedaled but couldn’t take the catch. Anuj walked in from behind the boundary line for each delivery there onward, for the rest of the match.
- Sandeep looked comfortable while facing Rahul in the opening over. Rahul bowled a lose ball – a high full-toss – which turned out to be the best bowl of the over, for it clipped the off-stump, and knocked a bail over for the first of his three wickets.
- Rahul was bowling well, and bowled his three over quota up-front – three of the first five overs of the match. Yashwanth knicked the first ball of the fifth over through to Adai (wicket-keeper). Incredibles went up in appeal as one, and while the umpire took his time, Yashwanth had already walked off!
- The X-Men were in trouble at 23/5, but with Koundinya and Rohith in the middle, they were very much in the contest. They got to 27/5 after 6 overs. Run-rate seemed fine – it was the wickets lost that concerned them. However, a tight over from Abhijit where only one run came, was followed by a beautiful display in classical off-spin bowling by Chaitanya. He worked Rohith over, before breaking through his defenses to have him bowled. Flight, loop, spin, bounce, and all that jazz.
- With Rahul playing his last MPL match, everyone at the ground – players and spectators – gave Rahul a ‘Guard of Honor‘. An emotional moment was followed by a bear hug from Mayank – friends since their childhood. Rahul was also presented with a collage that carried photos across his six seasons with the club.
Player Rankings:
Yashwanth (482 points) and Koundinya (450 points) end their MPL 2015 campaign in the second and third spots respectively, in the Player Rankings.
Priyank and Chaitanya, along with Yeshwanth have 412 points each – in a three way tie for the eighth spot.
Rahul signed off of MPL, with 193 points this season, in the 22nd spot overall.
Stock Review:
Rahul’s was the only stock to post a significant gain – up $5.02. Anuj’s stock also rose up by $1.37.
Yashwanth, Priyank, Chaitanya, Dhruv, Koundinya, Rahul and Sriram’s stocks are now valued at $20.48, $17.98, $15.98, $14.77, $14.48, $13.18 and $12.91 respectively.
* Scorecard, and 'Points & Stock Price Reevaluation' links are now available off the Schedule page
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