Mixed results

I am gonna remember this game for some time to come, though that might change in a few weeks if we perform that damn well again. What happened on the field on 19th Dec 09 was some good batting performance backed up by some exceptional bowling and fielding performances. Together we comprehensively defeated Dinesh's side. I am not going into the intricate numbering facts because honestly I don't remember but what I can say is this: We defeated them by around 35 odd runs. This in a twelve over game was a huge margin. Everyone gave a good account of themselves. I opened the innings and got out in the 2nd over itself scoring just two. I gotta improve my judgment while taking singles. It was an awful way to get out. I wasn't even in the picture if it were to be reviewed to a third umpire!! Kept the wickets ok though. Again, a lotta room to improve.

We played this friday, 24th Dec 09 and the luck reversed and we were comprehensively beaten by around 25 odd runs, this being a 14 over game. Not the same opponents. Our initial burst with the ball was not maintained and we gave away too many runs at the end and we were facing 91 runs to chase at the end. Probably I started the the slide by giving away 12 runs in my only over. Chasing this huge score, I started off with Sridhar and the runs were coming without much ado, we were at 29 off 5 overs and both off us got out soon after that. Raghu hit some lusty blows at the end but that wasn't enough. No one really put their foot down to chase the score.

I think we are a very capable side but we just don't have the consistency as we would like. We keep repeating the mistakes. I think it would help if people start to listen than take decisions on their own. Raghu for instance insisted that he won't bowl when asked. Mani is inside the field always and let him take decisions. Everyone contributes no doubt, but it would be better if someone has the last word. Its just a thinking. What do the guys think?

A very good batting performance - 13th December 2009

It has been a while since this dashboard was updated. I thought I would have a go today especially after one of our finest batting performances, this story ought to be told. I am back and I am Madhavan, coming to you from the comforts of my home.

It was 10 on 10 today as both sides were unable to complete the grid. The pitch was different, diagonally opposite to where we usually used to play. That one is now a Mediterranean sea!! Guys, the building is fast getting complete and it won't be long before we are evicted! Screw those ass holes.

The pitch though was beautiful one for batting, I say this because it was clear of pebbles, hardly any sand, bounce was true and so it was coming on to the bat superbly. Mani won the toss and we chose to bat on that placid wicket, mainly because we thought it might rain later on.

The team was Mani, myself, raghu, sridhar, kaipilla, sudharshan, yo(gesh), Vicky's friend (I keep forgetting his name) and he brought two others with him. Some local lads I presume. Vivek opted out before the start and Vicky was down with.... nothing guys, nothing. He is fine. He doesn't have fever or flu :) (oops)

We are yet to find an opening pair, though we may like to give everyone a chance! I favour the author :) One of the local lads started with kaipilla and it was a really good stance. We were 20 in 2 overs and 31 in 3 and thats when kaipilla got out. The local lad was finding gaps even off sriram's bowling. Sriram was not as effective as he had been in other matches.

Sridhar, Raghu, Yogesh, Sudharshan all contributed with the bat and we were scoring somewhere close to 9 runs in an over, treating all the bowlers with disdain. The leg and straight were the usual targets. I scored five off 3 and raghu ran me out (he was my by-runner). We ended up with 98 off 12 overs, the last over (Sriram) was tighter in the context of the game. We were a little disappointed of not reaching the magical three figure mark.

Mani gifted Sriram with a full toss waist-high, the very first ball and as usual be obliged with a six. Mani leaked 14 in his first over and Vicky's friend leaked some more in his first and our second. Raghu bowled a magical over picking two wickets and one run out, including getting Sriram out caught behind. That was one of the two turning points of the match. Still the opponents were abreast of the run rate. Our only chance was by taking wickets. Dinesh played a very good knock till he ran himself out off Sridhar's delivery one that was pushed right back at him. Being in the non striker's end, he should have seen where the ball was heading. The other guy did not sacrifice his wicket strangely. This being the second turning point.

Regular wickets saw the opponents with a humongous task of scoring 14 off the last over with just one wicket available. Mani finished it off as usual and we won by 12 runs. It wasn't a big win in any way because we leaked so many runs, but I guess all bowlers were struggling to control the runs. Out fielding was superb. Kaipilla particularly excellent.

All-in-all, it was a satisfying victory.

'Da Freaks!!

P.S: Why we keep winning when Vicky is not playing?! :p

Lost by 12 runs - dt.25 Oct 2009

Hi everyone. Not great news this week. We were brought down to earth after a two match winning streak. It was a defeat by 12 runs. Our Team Owner and wannabe-pace bowler(Madhavan) was unavailable for the match as he was down with fever and says its because of his absence that we lost. :-) Also missing were Kaipulla Ram (fever) and Goutham (not in town). Sridhar and Yogesh, both of whom had missed a couple of games were back this time. We were also a man down and had only 10 on the field.

We lost the toss and the opponents chose to bat. I am not sure who went in for the toss this time around. I guess it was Raghavendran's turn to lose the toss this week and he promptly did just that. :-). Mani and Suresh started off the proceedings and it was a good first 2 overs in which we got wickets. Mani disturbed the stumps and Raghu brought about a brilliant stumping. Mani's second over went for 13 runs and that was, probably, the beginning of us losing control. Suresh bowled a decent spell of 2 overs without giving away too many. Raghu and Sridhar were the next set of bowlers and I thought they did a decent job at that. Sridhar was among the wickets but runs kept coming each over.

Our fielding demons of the past had returned to haunt us this week. Overthrows, byes, drop catches and what not? We managed to leak runs in every possible manner. I dropped a sitter at deep midwicket and so did Suresh at long on. Their innings meandered to a close at 75 after 12 overs. They were all out but had enough runs in the board.

I had decided to have some batting this week and hence I opened with Kailash. Kailash was dismissed after 2 overs when we had put on 8. Sudharshan joined me at the crease and started his innings with a four through point. We were getting 5-6 runs each over but there were quite a fair bit of dot balls. Sudharshan was dismissed when the score was 38 in the 8th over. We reached 42-2 after 8 overs, with Raghavendran and myself at the crease. 34 reqd off 4 overs and we were in with a chance. But both myself and Raghavendran got out soon after this. Raghu came in and hit a four but it was getting out of our hands. 25 runs were needed off 2 overs. Sridhar, Suresh and Yogesh did their best to pile up runs but in the end, we were short by 12 runs.
I felt the reasons for defeat was our poor fielding and the fact that we were a man down while fielding. Also, the fact that the batting order was shuffled didn't help and I had abstained from bowling just to test the bench strength. On a positive note, despite the above-said reasons, we had lost only by a small margin. But on the flip side, we lost the chance to build on a winning streak. Its all back to scratch again and we are facing the same team next week. Lets see if we can bounce back by correcting our mistakes.
See ya all next week,
Vignesh

Diwali Delight - A Team Effort

Hi everyone. It was Diwali weekend and we celebrated in style by winning this week. And whats more, it was unlike last week where one or two stole the show. It was a team effort where no one stood out. It really lifts the morale of the team when we snatch victory from the doors of defeat and I guess we did that perfectly.

For a change, Mani won the toss and he was proud. I guess he practiced a lot with the coin at home after reading my previous blog (pun intended) :-). I hope he practices some catching too. :-) We chose to bat as that seemed to be the consensus. No one seemed opposed to the idea of batting first. The opening combo was the same - Vivek and Raghu. Maddy was apprehensive about facing the "new ball" and he promptly declined the offer to open:-).

Raghu got into his groove well enough picking up singles and scorched a boundary over the covers. Vivek seems to have been hit by the Shahid Afridi Syndrome. He puts his foot forward and hits the ball as hard as he can. He didn't last long holing out at long on. Sudharshan went in at No.3 but there was no fireworks from him this time around. He was finding hard to get his touch.

We reached 17-1 at the end of 3 overs. When Sudharshan got out, Goutham went in. It was Vivek's sensational bit of intuition that led to Goutham going in and we all had a laugh about it. To make matters worse, it was Goutham's comeback game after a hiatus and he seemed rusty every inch. He didn't last long and the innings began to stutter after this. Raghu got out to a slower one. Freddie and Ram seemed to arrest the slide when Ram got out caught at long off.
The innings slid downward when I got run out soon after. For a change, Raghu (running for Fred) was conservative while running and he didn't respond to my call. Mani got run out as the ball struck someone close by and landed right into the hands of the 'keeper. Fred was playing well before lifting one straight to the deep midwicket fielder. The lower order comprising of Suresh, Maddy and Kailash stole a few singles and we scrapped to 55. Once again we were bowled out under 12 overs.

We started off with our bowling knowing we had a stiff task. Mani bowled a fierce spell of 3 overs giving away only 12 runs but unlucky not to strike. I bowled a couple of unconvincing overs and was taken for 12 runs as well though I managed a wicket. They had coasted 27 off the first 6 overs. Raghu stepped in and bowled a splendid over. He took out the tall and dangerous guy and took another wicket courtesy a good catch by Vivek and this really lifted our morale. They needed 25 of the last 5 and we backed ourselves. Suresh bowled an over that went for 9 and Raghu dropped a sitter at long off. 16 runs were required off 4 overs.

Raghu bowled another good over taking 2 wickets - one was a skier taken at deep midwicket by yours truly and the other was a spectacular bit of fielding of his own bowling. He ran out the batsman with the direct hit. It came down to 12 runs needed off 3 overs and Mani insisted on me bowling though I was against it asking him to bowl instead. I bowled a maiden and took 2 wickets and we were well and truly back in the game. After a long discussion, Mani bowled the penultimate over and gave away only 2 runs besides picking up another 2 wickets.

Alas, 10 runs off the last over and just one wicket needed. Me, Raghu and Mani had bowled our max quota and it was left to the Comeback Man Goutham to do the honours. He started off nervously to give 2 runs off the first ball but got a wicket the next ball as I held a low catch at long on bringing to an end a really thrilling encounter.

I must say we are on a high after back to back wins and lets hope the winning streak continues. Guys!! All hell will break lose next week as Maddy is willing to bowl and is serious about it. Wishing you luck, Maddy.

Cheers
Vignesh

Raghu - Sudharshan Show - dt.11 Oct 2009

Hi. This is Vignesh again. Looks like Madhavan wants me to persist with blogging and here I am posting this blog, albeit a bit late because of my procrastinating ways. I decided to get this done atleast by the time we begin our next game.

I was hoping for a better sunday in my last blog and we got ourselves exactly that, courtesy, some good bit of batting by Raghu and Sudharshan. As is the norm these days, we lost the toss. Mani's luck with the toss is no better to mine and he lost the toss again. Its high time we reconsider the right guy for the toss.:-)

We started off well with the ball. Mani and Suresh(My friend) began the proceeding and bowled the first 4 overs and gave only 16 runs and picked up a couple of wickets. They had scored only 21 off the first 6 overs and had lost 3 wickets. From here, things began to drift away from our control. They had a good partnership and their run rate was steadily on the rise. By the end of 9 overs they had posted 49 runs and were on the rampage till the end of the 12th over and piled up 73. We managed to pull things up in the last 2 overs giving away only 7 runs.

We needed 81 off 14 overs and I decided to stick on with Raghu in the opening slot but this time he paired up with Vivek. The partnership lasted only one over. Vivek got out and then the real show started. We sent in Sudharshan at No.3 and he found his rhythm with a hook which went for a Six and a cover drive for a four. Raghu was playing his part well with the ones and twos finding the gaps at will. They paced the innings so well that the run rate was always above 6 runs per over and the reqd rate was always under control. Raghu struck some meaty blows in the latter part of his innings. The two had amassed 60 runs off 9 overs and our score read 66-2 after 10 overs when Sudharshan departed.

Ram and Raghu finished off the target with more than 2 overs to spare. I must say, this was one of our comprehensive and dominant victories ever. I hope that this is the start of many more wins.

A Poor Display -dated 4th Oct 2009

Hey ppl.. This is Vignesh posting the blog instead of Maddy, who had to leave midway during the game because of his official commitments..

This was a day when we were not at our best. Our fielding let us down badly; the bowling was ordinary and the batting - the less said the better..

As a precursor of things to come, we lost the toss. I had asked Mani to go for the toss as I thought my luck was pathetic with the toss. Mani's luck was no better. :-) The opponents won the toss and chose to bat.. Nothing much happened in the first 4 overs (bowled by Mani and Jagan) except for the opponents scoring freely. I dropped a sitter standing at deep midwicket and my pals were generous leaking runs in the field. They had accumulated close to 30 runs in the first 4 overs.

The same trend continued during the middle overs - more runs and more fielding lapses..but in the last 4 overs we pulled things back a bit. I thought Mani and myself were good at 'the death'. So, after 14 overs, they managed to pile up 84 runs. It was an attainable target as the off side boundary was short and the hard ball was travelling.

We started our chase with our two best runners in the team - Raghu and Sridar. It was my idea to send them both together so that we could get off the blocks quickly.. but it was not to be. Both of them got out pretty soon. Idli (Fred) was meddling the ball well and we were maintaining a run rate of 6 per over.. Vivek was in pinch-hittin mood. He struck two boundaries on the trot. but we kept losing wickets almost every over.. I got out to a contentious decision and, to no one's surprise, lost my cool...:-)

Kaipilla Ram ws holding one end up and played a decent hand. But in the end, we were all out for 40-odd. It was a disappointing performance. We did not play to our potential.

Hoping for a better Sunday next time around..
Cheers..

A very good result

We won! We won! We won! Geez we have won many times but the way we fought till the end and the point that we never gave up was just amazing. Everyone was buzzing, everyone alert, though we could not sight the ball clearly (it was 6 pm and getting darker by the minute), we held on to our nerves and we came through true 'da freaks style :-)

Three cheers to our chutzpah!!

Ramakrishnan was back for the match since he was in chennai exclusively for this :-) Our opponents - Kumar's team. Won the toss and batted first. And Mani, stand in captain, agreed to ridiculous terms like only two by-runners allowed and what not :-p

We started off steadily, Sudharshan and Idli giving a good start, though I thought a lotta balls were wasted. Their bowling was not that strong at all. As usual when Idli and Sudharshan got out, we started losing a lot of wickets and not scoring that much at all. Vicky played crucial two overs and got us to 68 in 12 overs, though at one point we thought we might end up getting lesser.

How about our bowling? Poor start. One run out (I was involved) and one missed (I was again involved) and they charged off to 40 in just 8 overs. It was then a walk in the park for them. Mani and Sridhar were taken apart. Then all of a sudden two wickets in one over and the match was getting closer than we thought. We put our heads together and stopped the leaking of runs. Vicky bolwed pretty well and for us there was just one dangerous guy whose wicket we needed badly. At this point of time I got to say that there were more than the usual encounters and arguments between the sides. I never thought I would be involved in one. That crucial guy pointed a bat at me and asked me to stop the nonsense, the point being that he took three runs off a ball that bounced off his hip. I protested and he denied. I was furious after the bat-gate and charged towards him, nothing really happened except a few foul mouthed words. I never lose my cool on others like this, I do not know what happening to me. Point taken. I should start introspecting myself a little bit.

Anyway, I stumped him/ ran him out, however it goes and it was a very sweet revenge. I guess I did not do a bad job behind the stumps, lets see how far it goes :-) Anyway, I made up with him at the end. We agreed that this was just an one-off incident.

Last over. 6 balls, 6 runs to win. Who's the man? Vicky. Very good over. Though the batsmen were not particularly strong, still you need to keep your cool and bowl really good 6 balls. Thats exactly what he did. It was good that I took all the missed balls thoroughly without slipping it up, I just couldn't see, I stood a few paces behind than usual to give me some time.

One run scored off 5 balls. 3 missed. One off the shoulder, no run and the last ball was a run out, which was basically a given, I took that anyway.

And Vicky did a Freddie at the end :-) It was cool.

Overall a very satisfying performance on the field. Probably we should stop wasting balls and try to get at least singles to boost our total. But I am not complaining now :-)

'Da Freaks Rule

Farewell party for/by Ramakrishnan

The funny thing is, it was hosted by Ramakrishnan himself!! We ended up having vicky as co-host for clearing CA.

Deccan Plaza was the place, yesterday 8.30 pm was the time. Attendees were myself, ramakrishnan, vicky, idli, kaipilla, nathari anand, sridhar, mani and thala. Raghu, Dozer and Siva missed out. We gifted ramakrishnan with a Manchester United home jersey, No. 10 Rooney and a smiley ball signed by all the attendees as mementos.

Ramakrishnan is promoted as CFO? for HSBC and being posted at Bangalore, Hope he freaks out there. Here are some of the videos from the party.

Drawn match

Its been a while since I have updated this blog. After watching Micheal Owen missing a sitter, which could have been his dream start (funny that I mention that) to his Red Devil's career, I couldn't help wonder what it could have been if I had thrown the ball correctly to Ramakrishnan in the last over of the match!! Because thats was the difference between winning and a draw!!

Ya we drew. We drew a very winnable match. I dropped a catch and missed a run out opportunity (the one explained above) and since it was a very low target that our opponents were chasing, 65 runs in 12 overs, they scrapped thru to a draw, else I should say we scratched our heads to a draw.

Our bowling was good. Fielding ordinary. Batting bad but the batting order was not so bad.

Ramakrishnan and Kapilla opened the batting, hoping to emulate last week's performance. It was not to be. I came one down and lasted one ball, which I didn't even touch. Eager to move on, I just went about running without looking back when the wide ball got passed the keeper. Funny enough, the ball richoched off a bike and came back to the keeper like a dolly. That was as much performance as I gave the whole match.

Batting collapse meant we ended up with only 64 runs off 12 overs. It could have been worse hadn't Mani steered us pass 60 in the last 3 overs for the last wicket.

Our opponents were the ones I call "the big hitting knuckle head and 10 others" Once we got him out, not before he blasted 16 off a Mani's over, we knew we were very much in the game. Vicky bowled 3 overs on a trot and took 2 wickets? His fourth went for just one run. He was in his element. Raghu was pretty good and Kaipilla as wicket keeper was impressive taking 3 catches and pulling off some good saves. Ramakrishnan was inserted in the thick of things and he came up with a good spell. As I said, the problem was our low score, so even after good spells from bowlers, they were neck and neck. The last over came and the last pair was batting and Ramakrishnan was given the task. I gotta mention this little guy in our opposition's team, a lefty, he played REALLY well. Very calm and very composed. He practically steered his team close to victory. Needing 8 runs off 6 balls, they came up with 7 off the first 5. Mani pulled off a dramatic run out to draw the match off the last ball and what a relief!! We had almost been embarrassed!!

A quick run up of field juices and a little bigger one at the juice shop and of course the usual chit chat ended our day with I, Mani and Vicky were the last to leave. As always we weren't talking about cricket at the end of the day.

Thinking about a jersey for Da Freaks. Any suggestions?

Four in a row!! 15.03.09

Last week I posted something about our first ever winning streak. This week.... well its a whole different story

The day started as any other day for me. Who am I kidding? I woke up raring to go!! Partly because I wanted the dreadful trashing of Man U by Liverpool to get out of my mind. I hate Liverpool. By 3.30pm, alfonso witnessed our gathering. Mani as usual lost the toss. But its a blessing in disguise I guess as whenever he losses, we as a team seems to win!

We batted first. Our squad has pretty good strength in batting, but our problem lies in application. We seem to have turned a corner there as our batting didn't let us down for the third time in a row. In 11 overs we managed 70 odd, which is a very defendable score. Sridhar and Kaipilla were the main culprits. Mani was his enthusiastic self and just about managed to get off unhurt (we were ready to launch onto him, like always :-)) after he ran Kaipilla and himself out. We ended up playing one over short because of that.

There is this guy, one with an overgrown underwear, whom I was talking about last time in the opposition. Well his underwear had grown this time and also his reach for boundaries. He hit a couple of massive sixes, something we had never managed so far in this ground. I was virtually on the boundary line yet I could only watch the ball sail over me!! It was beautiful hitting.

It took a mishit from that guy and a pretty good catch from Sridhar to dismiss him. It felt as though there are no other batsmen to follow him in our opposition. Ramakrishnan (after a gap of 4 games?) and Raghu tore apart the batting line up as we went on to dominate and win the match convincingly.

That was not all....

We played another game. This time a 6 overs each match.

Our opposition batted first and scored 31 runs. The big hitting guy only turned to see his stumps uprooted by Ramakrishnan. Even I got to bowl. I took a catch of my own bowling and gave 6 runs in that over. Very economic :-)

For the second time in a row, I got run out. This time I thought that I had covered the stumps for the throw, but what a bad judgement that was! I really didn't know where my stumps were. Well, in the end, we romped home in the 5th over itself.

All in all, a very satisfying day.

As always, the bet money went straight to our stomach :-)

4 in a row machi.................

We are on a winning streak!! 8th March 2009

We are on a roll now.

I was on an official trip to Goa and so I did not take part in matches played in the month of February. I heard that we hardly played a competitive match and that we were shown the way out of Alfonso ground by broken glasses.

Now I am back to my playing self. Da Freaks has done something that was never done before in its life time. Winning two back to back matches! We are on a winning streak now. Though its just two games, but who can dispute? :-)

I forgot to mention that we won the second match of the two match day on 1st of March. And now, the big result today. We just didn't win, we won convincingly and that too a bet match for Rs. 50 (I, vicky and mani finished it of with a coffee and a couple of juices :-))

Here is the match analysis:

We batted first. We thought that was a weakness because without knowing the kinda total we should put on board (150 or 200), we end up getting confused and getting not even half of that!! We started off well with ganesh and ramesh powar (goutham) who put on a 14 run partnership for the first wicket, probably our highest in that category! Then, kaipilla and ganesh consolidated and after that ganesh with some bulky dude known to kaipilla.

After some lusty blows by them and some fly swatting by bharat (vv's close friend), we ended up scoring 83 off 12 overs.

Bowling second, we started off well. As usual our catching was a lot to be desired (with vv's close friend dropping a sitter), our ground fielding though was pretty good.

Alas came my turn to bowl. After so many excuses, which I ran out off at the end, I was forced to bowl. I can proudly say that I was the one who made the game alive!! My two overs went for 20 odd runs, vv & co probably wanting to tell me in my face that I was responsible for the loss, if we lost. But that was not to be, WE WON!! Except for one guy with extra grown underwear, no one else stood a chance against us.

I bowled the last over. I thought, well it doesn't matter if I run from half way of the diameter of the ground, I would still end up bowling short and slow. So, I tried to spin the ball and bowled a good over actually giving only 5 runs. I think I would stick to spin from now onwards, if at all I get a chance to bowl :-)

DA FREAKS RULE

January 18, 2009. We got ourselves a habit of losing

I come all the way from Mambalam to Mandavelli to get together with my friends, no doubt. But once in a while I would like to win the match with my friends. It is not happening.

We lost the match once again. Earlier in the week, on a Wednesday, I played with Vicky's colleagues and we won that match!! Riding high on confidence, I started the game in which we batted first. We got off to the worst possible start imaginable. We were down 3 wickets for 3 runs in 3 overs. Quite a feat. Kaipilla, Kailiash and Vicky got out cheaply.

We also had today, the best recovery we had so far. Sridhar, Anand and Idli came together for very good partnerships that took our tally to 71 runs at the end of 14 overs with only six wickets down.

That partnership gave us confidence as we prepared to bowl the opposition out. We were one man short on the field as Sheriff had to depart very early. The start we have while bowling, we are unable to carry the momentum. This happened today as well. I was taken for a lot of runs though I accounted for one wicket. Even in the fielding department we failed. I dropped one catch and missed a run out opportunity. My friends accounted for atleast 4 dropped catches and half a dozen missed run out opportunities. All in all we looked miserable and we lost the match yet again.

Some of the videos from our batting today:

Anand is ball watching:

Nice Comedy



Anand's Strategic Run



Idli's cover drive



Vicky's running habits

January 11, 2009. We lost again

The beginning itself sounded the change-in-fortune theme that would go well with today's match, as far as we are concerned. We lost the toss and were forced to field, but we had only nine players at that time, Ramakrishnan still missing. The opposition then graciously let us bat first. I got to play today. And our opposition were the team who beat us last time.

With only 10 players in toto, we started off poorly. Dozer got out very early but Ram on the other hand was looking good for the finish. We have a habit of getting a better batsman run out, which happened again to Ram. Anand in his comeback innings didn't look out of sorts and played a good hand. We brought-in Siva for today's match to replace Vicky, since Vicky had to work today, and he showed his all-round ability by getting quick runs and taking at least three wickets, he was the pick of the bowlers. Kaipilla and Sridhar got out cheaply. Ramakrishnan and Mani did not last long. Idli was the last guy to get out. I played last in today's game and I scored a run-a-ball three runs, which I consider as not bad. We ended up getting 62 runs with 4 balls to spare thanks mainly to Ram and Siva, but probably the opposition letting go of at least 5 catches also helped the matter.

We got off to an excellent start bowling second. The opposition were reeling under 17 for 4 in 4 overs. We let go off the momentum after that and we ended up losing by 3 wickets with 10 balls still remaining. We all thought that we were gonna win today, but it was not to be. We have to blame ourselves for the lacklustre bowling after the initial burst. I personally felt that we didn't try any other bowlers except the minimum four viz. Mani, Siva, Sridhar and Ramakrishnan.

Next game should have a different result.

Since I was playing, and umpiring for the better half of our batting, and also because my friends had no clue or interest about photography (even if its just amateurish) I got only four pics and those were just initial shots, but here it goes anyway.

For the record, Ram missed that shot :-)

That is Dozer getting ready to get out :-p

Anand (right) and Sri are awe struck by our batting prowess

Ram getting ready to face the music

January 4, 2009. A beautiful Sunday. Magnificent day to get an ass whoopin!

I didn't play today because of a knee injury, and i got to witness our team losing badly once again. We batted first and posted 64 runs, which the opposition reached very comfortably. Here are some of the snapshots and videos from today's game.

Dozer pulls one. I can't believe me eyes!!

Innovation is in our blood

Cappy can't figure out where the ball is!!

Kaipilla flicks one to square leg

Bowled!!!! Oh wait a minute.... not yet
but getting there :)

Ram clobbers one to the 'on' side

Vicky wants some attention

Two of the most laziest fellas on earth

I still can't believe how he played like Laxman there!!



Vicky never listens. You can't play a flick dude, come to reality :)



At last, Idli connects a sweep shot and it stayed hit!!

Hear me y'all

Hey everyone, this is Madhavan a.k.a Maddy a.k.a Risk a.k.a Gundan (and a lotta things as well). My team's name is 'Da Freaks. This was started by us, college buddies, when we thought of doing something worthy while we are in college. And this continues till date. The members are myself, Vicky, Raghu (Idli/ Freddie), Anand, Simha (Dozer) and Sunder (Thala). While Thala is missing most of the time from our meetings, others would most probably be present. Well, we do nothing when we meet anyway and thats when we decided to play cricket. Inagurated in the third year of our bachelor's degree, we play cricket on most of the sunday. At first it used to be on any ground, but now we have settled at Alfonso in Mandavelli.

This is our story....