Outplayed by a Thoroughly Professional Side

VA Lions won the toss and elected to bat first in DCU’s second game of the 2011 T20 tournament. Buoyed by the crushing victory the previous evening against Vikings, DC United would have hoped to erase the poor T20 performances from the previous season.

However, DC United’s weaknesses in the field were exposed very early in the game. VA Lions started steadily. While they did not get off to a flyer hitting boundaries, the ones and twos came with alarming ease. VA Lions stole singles in the inner circle with the DCU fielders too slow in getting to the ball. Singles were converted into twos and twos into threes in the outfield. However, DC United’s bowlers did not let VA Lions get away as the tight lines and regular wickets along the way ensured they did not get to a massive total. VA Lions scored around 70 in the first 10 overs and progressed to 166 in their allotted 20. Only 10 overs and 1 six were hit in the innings, underscoring the amount of running they did and the sub optimal DCU fielding. The one act of brilliance in the field from DCU was a catch in the first slip from Kiran, diving full length to his right.

166 was a gettable total on the Mark Twain wicket. However, DCU’s innings got off to a disastrous start with both Venkat and Sri departing in the second over. Venkat skied the ball and was caught in the 30 yard circle while Sri was out to a brilliant catch at third man with the fielder running backwards and covering good ground to complete the catch. VA Lions bowlers bowled wicket to wicket and did not let the DCU batsmen score freely. The stark difference in the fielding capabilities of the two sides were apparent as well. DC United batsmen were not able to get the singles and twos need to get push the scoring along. Moreover, VA Lions affected a couple of smart run outs to further put DC United back. DCU kept losing wickets at regular intervals and was never really in the run chase. At the end of 20 overs, DCU had only managed to score 85 runs, over 80 runs short of the target.