No 12932, Monday 11 May 2020, Lightning

Day 48 of 54 Stay safe at home

Solution to 28A has been deliberately left unsolved and is to be answered only by a non-regular/novice commenter, with proper annotation. Those who have answered earlier in the week, please give others a chance.

ACROSS
1   Unconventional man threw him a bone (8) BOHEMIAN*

5   Sketch is elongated somewhat by cheat (6) CHISEL [T]
9   Recall joke on husband with tie (8) WITHDRAW {WIT}{H}{DRAW}
10 California should remove leader that has been arrested (6) CAUGHT {CA}{oUGHT}
12 Lacking public relations, forecast order (5) EDICT prEDICT
13 Assume hard worker is eagerly waiting (9) EXPECTANT {EXPECT}{ANT}
14 Grilling aid Kelvin dropped inside gutter (6) SKEWER {S{K}EWER}
16 Brought to a standstill by mud, step all over the place (7) STUMPED*
19 Inactive communist protects flag (7) RETIRED {RE{TIRE}D}
21 Total liberal exiting fast with anger (6) ENTIRE {lENT}{IRE}
23 Almost certain to blame additional fee (9) SURCHARGE {SURe}{CHARGE}
25 After commencement, kid left stand (5) EASEL {tEASE}{L}
26 Dismissal of peacekeepers amidst utter defeat (3,3) RUN OUT {R{UN}OUT}
27 After two minutes, one goes back to the pavilion this way (5,3) TIMED OUT [CD] It's three minutes nowadays.
28 Repeats engineering tasks without resistance (6) E?H?E? (Addendum - ECHOES {E}{CHOrES} )
29 Not starting to pull cable on ship results in mess (8) UGLINESS {tUG}{LINE}{SS}

DOWN
1   Surprised by bird in mattress (6) BOWLED {B{OWL}ED}
2   Out thus, primarily celebrates with kite, going crazy (3,6) HIT WICKET {Ce...s+WITH+KITE}*
3   Middle of film overwhelms daughter (5) MIDST {MI{D}ST}
4   A friend you are texting is unskilled (7) AMATEUR {A}{MATE}{UR}
6   Leader’s inventory of people? (4,5) HEAD COUNT [C&DD]
7   Partial indication by mother in Greek letter (5) SIGMA {SIGn}{MA}
8   Scope to exchange top two in summit (8) LATITUDE (A<=>L)TITUDE
11 Shop used to carry musical work (4) OPUS [T]
15 Merchandise put up at godown (9) WAREHOUSE {WARE}{HOUSE}
17 Precise operation designed with optical instrument (9) PERISCOPE {PRECISE+OP}*
18 Maintain what’s before starting a point in tennis (8) PRESERVE {PRE}{SERVE}
20 Dead on boat — it’s sinister (4) DARK {D}{ARK}
21 Settled at home with German on time before night (7) EVENING {EVEN}{IN}{G}
22 Exercise where one wasted flat disks (6) PLATES PiLATES
24 Shoot, decapitate in farm (5) RANCH bRANCH
25 Jellies regularly manufactured at first with one resin (5) ELEMI {jElLiEs}{Ma...d}{1}

Reference List
Husband = H, Public Relations = PR, Kelvin = K, Liberal = L, Left = L, Peacekeepers = UN, Engineering = e, Resistance = R, Ship = SS, Daughter = D, Dead = D, German = G

Dr Rake's TalePiece

The ODI between India and Australia at Dharamsala was a stuff of legends. Even in May, because of the LATITUDE and altitude, there was a chill wind, in this small stadium, which was a PLATE of green, in the MIDST of an imposing background of cedar forests with the snow-capped Himalayas beyond. A local AMATEUR artist stood near the gate, with his EASEL, making quick sketches of the picturesque stadium and the cricketing heroes. For a SURCHARGE, he also could include your portrait in it, if you so wished. The match was to begin at 8.30am as it can get DARK as early as 3 or 4 in the EVENING in this city. The HEADCOUNT in the stadium was a record 15000. 

Having won the toss, Australia batted first. There was a vicious swing to the ball when the Indian pacers started the attack and runs came slowly at first for the men in yellow. The redoubtable top order had been reduced to 42 for 4, with 3 of them being clean BOWLED. Cummins and Finch did the rescue act, by CHISELing away at the odd loose ball. By the 46th over, the team was at 184 for 7. A rescue act by the tail-enders allowed Team Australia to set a target of 228 to the men in blue.

Team India began well with Gambhir and Sehwag putting  50 runs on the board in the first 7 overs. Sehwag, was STUMPED by Paine in a quick reflex act, when he went forward to make a big hit and failed to connect. Soon Gambhir was CAUGHT by Richardson at deep midwicket, who ran against the sun and leaped to grab the ball just inside the boundary, surely the catch of the match. A straight hit from Kohli lifted off the bails at the non-striker's end, and Raina was already 10 feet away from the crease looking for a cheeky single. So Raina went for a duck, declared a HIT WICKET! Kohli went cheaply in the next over and with the score at 132 for 5, the stadium was ECHOing with wild cheers as Dhoni walked in to bat. With Sir Jadeja at the other end, the duo steadied the ship and added 75 runs by the end of the 47th over, when Jadeja was RUN OUT by a quick throw from Starc. 21 runs in the last 2 overs, will Dhoni be able to make it, against the specialist death bowling by the Aussies- this was the question on the lips of everyone in the EXPECTANT crowd. Ashwin, scored a quickie off the first ball, letting Dhoni get the strike. A towering six and a trademark helicopter shot got Dhoni 10 runs. The first ball of the last over was a dot ball and there was a hush in the stadium. Tye bowled a short one next and Ashwin flicked it to the covers. Though they could have gone for a second run, Dhoni called off with a single so as to PRESERVE strike. Tye came up with a sharp unplayable inswinger. 3 balls and 9 runs. The next one was a full toss and Dhoni connected weakly getting him only 2 runs, where there should have been a six. The nation was praying. With a reverse sweep from the last-but-one ball, Dhoni looked for 2, but with Maxwell collecting it and throwing it to the keeper in a trice, they could get only a single. Could Ashwin get that 6 from the last ball? Tye, got understandably tense and delivered a short-pitched one. Ashwin, was already out of the crease and lofted it over long on, with a come-what-may attitude. Warner ran for his life and almost got his hand on the ball. It was left to the third umpire to decide if it was a four or a six, a life and death decision for the men in blue. The television replay clearly showed thar Warner had stepped over the boundary as he caught the ball. Dhoni, the Captain Cool, just waved out to the wildly cheering crowd, instead of the intense gestures one sees from other captains.