The Wid Hunt Ends: RnW Jags Knocks RnW Pumas with a 4-1 Victory!

The RnW cricketing year is generally very packed. We are either playing tournaments or some practice matches with equal intensity. So most of the time we are seriously focussed on notching those victories up in the Chennai cricketing circle. Couple of times a year, we also focus our guns on our counterparts in Bangalore! :) That's also the only time when we have an united RnW Chennai team facing Bangalore. More often than not, we are seriously trying to win having fun. The bottomline though being that we enjoy our cricket! 

And that's exactly what happened during this Wildcats Series. We enjoyed the game we love the most for nearly two months (16th Oct to 4th Dec), 5 Sundays, close to 300 overs of pure and pristine cricket. This series was meant to be a space where we see people do what they love doing rather than focus on what is best for the team. And true to that, this series was awesome!

Let us see a few statistics concerning this series. (You know you have Sankar to thank for this!) 

Top 5 Batsmen across both the teams (Most runs scored): 

1. Bala - 168
2. Viru - 128
3. Anba - 88
4. Adi - 82
5. Sriram - 76 

Top 5 Batsmen in Jaguars (Most runs scored): 

1. Bala - 168
2. Viru - 128
3. Anba - 88
4. KK - 72
5. Karthi - 47

Top 5 Batsmen in Pumas (Most runs scored): 

1. Adi - 82
2. Sriram - 76
3. Murali - 66
4. Jayanth - 49
5. Rakesh - 47

This series saw only four fifties of which two came from Bala's bat. There was only one from Pumas and that was by me. But, there were eight scores in the range of 30 to 50 which is a significant contribution in a 30-over game. Of these, five came from the Jags. Overall, the Jags showed greater responsibility at the crease and it shows in the statistics. Top 5 of Pumas scored 305 among them and the top 2 of Jaguars alone scored 296!       

Special mention must be made of Viru. The way he bludgeoned the Pumas' bowlers was absolutely demoralizing. I ran out of options to confront him with. But looking at it as talent in RnW, it was very encouraging.

Top 5 Bowlers across the teams (Most wickets taken): 

1. Sankar - 13
2. Ram - 8
3. Pradeep - 7
4. Praveen - 6
5. Murali - 5

Top 5 Bowlers in Jaguars (Most wickets taken):  

1. Sankar - 13
2. Pradeep - 7
3. Praveen - 6
4. KK - 4
5. Shrinivas Iyer - 4

Top 5 Bowlers in Pumas (Most wickets taken):

1. Ram - 8
2. Murali - 5
3. Subbu - 4
4. Umapathy - 4
5. JP - 3
6. Mani - 3

Sankar was the pick of the bowlers in this series. He bowled with great intelligence. Maintained the irritating pace that got on the nerves of Pumas' batsmen. Was tough to get away for runs. And in my opinion, he has been the single biggest revelation of this series. Turning into an all rounder! :) Invaluable asset to any team. And just to connect this to the purpose of this series, I think this defines "grabbing your opportunity". Very well done, Sankar! 

Overall

 

The series went off well. It went well above my expectations. If you went back a bit in time and saw this as a 5-match series during the months of October and November, you might have laughed it off. We had around 10 people turning up for nets and rains were lashing the city so hard that it was tough to even walk down any decent road. But now, two months down the line, we have come to a point from where we know clearly that there are two extremely talented and distinct teams. Some grabbed their opportunities, some are waiting for more. Nevertheless, the series has been a success. Wildcats Series is where Opportunity knocks again! And again!  

The success of this series will be measured by the progress shown by these teams in the months to come. And I am sure RnW will script a fantastic and successful 2012.

 

This post is written by Adi (with few modifications).