Cricket
Cricket Team ties with Macalester
A rare bright blue morning in St. Paul saw the Carleton College Cricket team led by Suhas Tummalapalli (So./Hyderabad, India) play two games of cricket against Macalester College on Saturday April 27, 2013. For five hours that day the Carls battled it out on the pitch for glory! A strong start and a steady battle saw the two colleges tied at the end of the day’s play at 1-1.
In the first game, Carleton lost the toss and was put in to bat first by Macalester. Carleton openers Munib Altaf (Sr./Lahore, Pakistan) and Suhas gave Carleton a good start before Suhas got out. Faress Bhuiyan (Prof./Lakeville, Minn) hit a couple of 4’s and scored 12 runs before he was also dismissed. Aditya Nagendran (So./Singapore) was the next batsman to walk on to the field, but his stay at the crease was short-lived as a quick Macalester fielder threw the ball to his stumps while he wasn’t back safely in his crease. Carleton was in a tense situation having lost 3 wickets. Adit Alreja (Jr./Mumbai, India) came in to bat next and he made his intentions clear when he hit a decisive 4 runs off the first ball he faced. The partnership between Adit and Munib was crucial in rebuilding Carleton’s innings as both the batsmen hit many delightful 4’s and 6’s. Notable batting contributions for Carleton were by Munib (45 runs) and Adit (32 runs), who ensured Carleton set a total of 106 runs for Macalester to chase in 10 overs.
After the customary innings break, the Macalester batsmen led by their captain Ahmad Chattha walked out to the center to chase Carleton’s score. Macalester scored some boundaries initially before some brilliant pace bowling by Prateik Madhavan (Jr./New Delhi, India) and Munib secured wickets for Carleton. Suhas and Faress bowled tight line and lengths which restricted Macalester’s run rate. For a while, Carleton appeared to suffer a setback when Macalester could score 32 runs off Aditya’s leg-spin bowling. However, Carleton’s pace bowlers ensured that Macalester were bowled out for 70 runs, and Carleton won the game by 36 runs.
After a break for lunch, Macalester won the toss again and decided to bat first this time. As the Carleton bowlers struggled to bowl good line and length, the Macalester openers took full advantage by managing to find the boundary. Wide deliveries and no-balls only made matters worse. The most economical over was bowled by Aditya who managed to concede only 7 runs and obtained a wicket. Carls in the field dropped a couple of catches of key batsmen, and this probably cost Carleton the game. Macalester’s final score was 180 runs in 12 overs, a tall order to match by any standards.
The Carleton batsmen clearly had their work cut out for them with a required run-rate of 15 runs per over. Munib and Suhas put up a fight and got off to a great start scoring 100 odd runs; but some good and tight bowling by the Macalester bowlers made it difficult for Carleton to keep pace with the required run-rate. Carleton still put up a fight and managed to build a score of 150 runs in 12 overs, but lost this game by 30 runs.
And so, as cricket is thriving again at Carleton, we welcome more Carls to join our cricket team.
