Season 14 - A fantastic season gets a finale befitting it!!

I should have written this on game day to remember facts of the game. So apologise in advance if I misinterpret or ignore certain key moments of the game. 

Saturday January 18th saw a motley group of 25 line up to play the much awaited finals for Season 14. The weather was outstanding, the ground was slightly damp due to overnight watering and there was a nip in the air. The Hurricanes won the toss and inserted the Wolves in to bat. 

You would think this was the perfect start for the Hurricanes knowing what total they needed to chase rather than setting one which has been a bane for them all season. Soon it became 3 down for barely anything and you Satya's smile was getting wider and wider. 

But the meat of the Wolves batting was yet to come. Though their anchor man Kings was lost cheaply, Kiran was has played some gems all season joined forces with HK. Very quickly the early loss of wickets became a distant memory and run started flowing. HK was snared almost against the run of play but Kiran kept going and got great support from Aashish, Gopi ( who had a spectacular season with the bat) and the rest. 

The Hurricanes fielding floundered at some key moments and a final charge by Chaitanya meant that the Wolves ended up at 122 in 15 overs. This was a tall score and coming in a final meant that it was a cushion of 15 runs that the Wolves took into the break. For the Hurricanes, Dhruv and Arjun bowled well with Satya bowling a great last over. 

The Hurricanes were clearly facing a mountain to climb but it was not all lost because they had in form batters and some smart batting would make this an interesting match up. There was some unwanted drama up front with regular opener Pranav being bogged down by a finger injury and he was replaced by the man who came into the game with a broken finger, Anantha. Dhruv was promoted to open which was mainly done to provide a quick fire cameo and upset the lengths of the new ball bowlers. 

However before you could blink an eye, Dhruv got run out to a call he made thanks to some outstanding fielding from Aashish. Arjun came in at one drop and the noise levels and chirping increased. He started with a few mishits and misses and the run rate was going no where. Harsha joined Arjun and this was the pair that was expected to stabilize and get the chase back on track. Things were going well till a tight HK over made Arjun call Harsha for a tight single and Ahaan calmly enforced a run out at the non strikers end. You could sense a hush amongst the Hurricanes, almost like all the wind was sucked out. 

Samir came in but was unable to get going and soon hit out. It became a bit of a procession after that with Vikram also trudging back before Hari joined Arjun. By now the run rate was a steepling 12 an over and something had to give. The batters finally took charge and a few lusty hit later the ask had come down to 48 of the last 4 overs. Arjun and Hari were gone but Satya and Pranav took tbe battle to the opposition without buckling down. 

The Wolves finally did not doubt victory as the gap between the asking run and the RR never really came down. It must be noted that the Hurricanes hit 4 potential boundaries to the straight fence which unfortunately came right back into the maidaan. In a game of margins, the trees had a final say but this does not take away from the fact that the Wolves played better on the day. Aashish bowled very well, HK kept mixing it up and Susmit who was under bowled and played his part. In the end the Wolves won the match by 9 runs. 

We did not do a MoM. 

However the Player of the series decided by the opposition teams went to a well deserved trio. 

Wolves Player of the Series: 

Sameer Mohanty who had a fantastic season with the bat and behind the wickets taking body blows as a keeper. 

Gopi Reddy, the man does not age and like fine whiskey had a season to remember. His ball striking was awe inspiring. 

Hurricanes Player of the Series: 

This was one stitched up before the finals. I am sure Samir Mishra feels bad about how the finals went but he had a truly special series scoring in almost every game. 

Thanks Satya and Chaitanya for leading your teams so remarkably well.