Its a good way to wind up year 2010 with a couple of victories. We backed up last week's win (which was not blogged) with another one this week.
The team : Vignesh, Mani, Sudharshan, Yogesh, Ram, Sridhar, Raghu, Sriram, Jagan, Suresh and Muthu.
The match was against Vimal's team but I don't know who Vimal is :-)... Having won the toss, we batted. Good job by Jagan to win the toss. We opened with Muthu and Sriram, the latter was looking good with some powerful hits. The bowling was not great and we scored close to 25 in the first 4 overs losing 2 wickets. We lost Sriram for a run out and Muthu sliced a catch to Point. Ram and Raghu came in with a good partnership. Raghu was playing really well and stuck a couple of boundaries too. And the running between the wickets between these two was good too. Ram played second fiddle and did a good job at that. Midway, there seemed to be a barrage of wickets with Raghu, Yogesh and Ram getting out. We were 57 at the end of 10 overs, But Jagan and Sudharshan played some good shots and ran well to get us to 89 in 14 overs.
Bowling was our stronger department and with 90 to defend, we were favourites. But nothing of note happened in the first 4 overs except a run out. Suresh was taken for runs as he sprayed the ball all around. Overthrows did not help the cause either. Jagan was introduced in the 5th over and he picked up 2 wickets, both off full tosses. When I took the ball, their score read 43-3 off 6 overs. But things turned for the better with my over where I picked 3 wickets and gave away just a run. From thereon, the opposition were not in a position to win but still they gave it a good fight. I bowled a tight spell of 4 overs for 15 runs and picked 4 wickets. Mani's last 2 overs were tight as well. They got all out for 76.
Thus ended 2010 with a victory. :-) hope we get off to a good start for 2011 and play consistently good cricket:-)
Wish you all a Happy new year....:)
Cheers
Vignesh
Sunday, December 26, 2010
Sunday, December 12, 2010
Team: Mani, Vignesh, Jagan, Fred, Vivek, Balaji, Sudharshan, Yogesh,Ramchandran and Raghu.
It was an overcast day with the threat of rain looming large. As usual, our team mates casually assembled around 7.30. When our guys don't stick to the timelines,its irritating, to say the least. The match was against a team whom we haven't faced earlier. Jagan's luck with the toss is running out. He lost again and they decided to bat. We started the game with just 9 fielders and Raghu came in by the end of the 2nd or 3rd over.
Mani picked up two wickets in his first over, both were bowled by good yorkers. However, their team had a left hander who batted well. They had posted 19 by the end of the 4th over. I bowled the fifth over in which I picked up a wicket but gave away 9 runs. Mani dropped a sitter and its usual these days for him drop easy catches off my bowling.:-) The ball went high in the air and I saw Mani getting under it. I knew what was gonna happen:-).
Balaji bowled a couple of overs where he picked up 2 wickets courtesy full tosses. One was bowled and the other was caught at deep covers. However his second over was a good one. I decided to give Vivek an over and maybe I had thrust too much responsibility onto him. He gave away 13 and was struggling to pitch the ball. The last 5 overs bowled by Jagan, Mani and myself. We gave away only 25 off the last 5 overs which I thought was decent enough. They had scored 74 off 14 overs.
Vivek and Sudharshan opened and Sudharshan's middle stump was uprooted in the first over. Mani joined Vivek and the two put on a decent partnership close to 20 off the 5 overs when Mani had a wild swipe and got out. Fred played a few shots (including 2 fours) and we were 32 off 6 overs.
At this point, we lost the course. Vivek, who was playing his best knock till date, got out. I must say he applied himself well scoring singles and twos. Fred and me got out back to back. It was frustrating that I got out without facing a ball and considering Ramchandran was at the other end, there was no run.:-) Lesson learnt. Ram got out after a couple of hits through the leg side. Yogesh and Balaji restored parity when they forged a partnership of close to 15 off 3 overs. We needed 27 off 4 overs when Balaji got out.
Yogesh was batting beautifully, scoring at will, running well and Jagan gave him company for a while. When Jagan got out, we needed 14 off 2 overs. Unfortunately, Yogesh got out the next ball leaving Raghu (who couldn't sight the ball and hence he played last) stranded as the last man. Lost by 13 runs.
Positives: Vivek's batting and Yogesh's good hitting.
Negatives: Poor fielding and Sudharshan's continued lack of runs
Needs improvement: Mani's catching (plssssssssssss Mani..)
Cheers
Vignesh
It was an overcast day with the threat of rain looming large. As usual, our team mates casually assembled around 7.30. When our guys don't stick to the timelines,its irritating, to say the least. The match was against a team whom we haven't faced earlier. Jagan's luck with the toss is running out. He lost again and they decided to bat. We started the game with just 9 fielders and Raghu came in by the end of the 2nd or 3rd over.
Mani picked up two wickets in his first over, both were bowled by good yorkers. However, their team had a left hander who batted well. They had posted 19 by the end of the 4th over. I bowled the fifth over in which I picked up a wicket but gave away 9 runs. Mani dropped a sitter and its usual these days for him drop easy catches off my bowling.:-) The ball went high in the air and I saw Mani getting under it. I knew what was gonna happen:-).
Balaji bowled a couple of overs where he picked up 2 wickets courtesy full tosses. One was bowled and the other was caught at deep covers. However his second over was a good one. I decided to give Vivek an over and maybe I had thrust too much responsibility onto him. He gave away 13 and was struggling to pitch the ball. The last 5 overs bowled by Jagan, Mani and myself. We gave away only 25 off the last 5 overs which I thought was decent enough. They had scored 74 off 14 overs.
Vivek and Sudharshan opened and Sudharshan's middle stump was uprooted in the first over. Mani joined Vivek and the two put on a decent partnership close to 20 off the 5 overs when Mani had a wild swipe and got out. Fred played a few shots (including 2 fours) and we were 32 off 6 overs.
At this point, we lost the course. Vivek, who was playing his best knock till date, got out. I must say he applied himself well scoring singles and twos. Fred and me got out back to back. It was frustrating that I got out without facing a ball and considering Ramchandran was at the other end, there was no run.:-) Lesson learnt. Ram got out after a couple of hits through the leg side. Yogesh and Balaji restored parity when they forged a partnership of close to 15 off 3 overs. We needed 27 off 4 overs when Balaji got out.
Yogesh was batting beautifully, scoring at will, running well and Jagan gave him company for a while. When Jagan got out, we needed 14 off 2 overs. Unfortunately, Yogesh got out the next ball leaving Raghu (who couldn't sight the ball and hence he played last) stranded as the last man. Lost by 13 runs.
Positives: Vivek's batting and Yogesh's good hitting.
Negatives: Poor fielding and Sudharshan's continued lack of runs
Needs improvement: Mani's catching (plssssssssssss Mani..)
Cheers
Vignesh
Sunday, November 14, 2010
Thrilling Victory
Last Sunday was a bummer because of incessant rains during the morning hours and we missed an opportunity to play against the Stallions.
Today's match was against the Skippers.
'Da Freaks assembled: Maddy, Vicky, Freddie, Jagan, Jack, Raghu, Sri, Muthu, Vivek, Yogi and Sudarshan
The match was played at Alfonso, this ground is getting ever so bad.
Jagan and coins, there seems to be some kinda connection. How else would you explain his winning streak?! Yeah, he won the toss and we decided to bat first. Sudarshan and Freddie opened the innings but it was not vintage Freddie as he lost his off stump in the second over. Yogi came on next. Sudarshan, for a change, was looking to attack the ball from the word go and he got himself to a bright start but it wouldn't last long as he was caught out somewhere between mid on and mid wicket. I went in next and the second ball I faced I scooped the drive only for the fielder to mis-judge it for a single. On the other side, Yogi was undone by a beauty, he was caught behind. Raghu was next and he meant business from the word go as his drives thru the off side helped our innings tick along nicely. I was on the other hand playing dangerously, skying almost every ball and eventually was caught out after getting 3. Vicky and Raghu bought parity back into the innings but it was not long before Raghu got out. It just seemed like one of those days where no one converted any kind of start that they got. And what about Sri? He is our main stay at the fag end who can deliver some lusty blows. But it just seems that he was destined to get out from the word go and he skied the very first ball to cover which was let-off and a fortunate one. But he couldn't capitalize on it as he got, guess what, run out again!! There was absolutely no communication between Vicky and Sri and he came for a non-existent second run. Actually both of them seem to have committed to the second run but mid way thru they just stopped. Here I have to say that the Skippers' throws from the outfield were simply amazing, most of them right on top of the stumps. Vicky was hanging in there rotating the strike and with some good hands by Vivek, Muthu and Jack at the end we managed a some what decent compilation of 60 runs from 14 overs.
Even at the start we were confident that we could defend this score. Jagan bowled the first over because he had done pretty well for us in the past. But today he was so rusty that almost all the deliveries he bowled were full tosses. Skippers capitalized and scored 9 of that over. Jagan's pair was Jack and he didn't bowl that great an over either except one delivery in which he castled the stumps of one of the opening batsmen. He was just too short but luckily for him all the short pitched deliveries were not punished and in fact it presented us with two run out opportunities. Raghu behind the wickets and Muthu at cover were ever so vigil to get those two wickets. 3 down at the end of second over, we were oozing confidence. Their fifth wicket partnership was steadying their innings. As we were defending a low total any one partnership could do the trick for them. Vicky got hold of the ball and dismissed two wickets but they were cheaply given away by Skippers. I held on to a low catch to my right to dismiss one but that was a full toss on leg stump! Freddie on the other hand held on to a stunner to dismiss Salim, one of their potent players, cheaply. With the fall of those two wickets and the partnership broken, we were back in the hunt. But you can always scrap ones and twos without any risks and still be able to chase 60. That is exactly what the Skippers were doing in the middle after the Vicky over. There were no absolute momentum to anyone for a while as we kept tightening the screws with some good bowling by Sri, Raghu and Vicky (Freddie managed another good reflex catch off Raghu), but the Skippers were grinding away the runs ever so precariously. The statement is a paradox but you'll know what I mean when you are playing. With 10 needed off 2 overs, Sri bowled a magnificent penultimate over giving away just one run. Six balls, 9 runs, 2 wickets and one of them was holding the innings from the middle overs. Raghu came up with the trumps to get rid of one of the tail. A couple of deliveries gave away 4 runs, we kept chopping and changing the field leaving a huge gap on the on side. It all came to the last ball in which the Skippers needed 3 and they managed only a single, leaving us victorious by a single run!! Yogi kept guard behind the stumps after a few overs and he did a wonderful job off it. Think that there is a run granted for every ball that goes behind, if the keeper misses it. Of course, the game is not without its fair share of controversies, Vicky judged out when we didn't rule him out, what the hell is a dead-ball, side crease judgement, a couple of run outs we effected but not given, etc.
But at the end of the day, 'Sathyameva Jayathe'
Kinda cheesy but we will take the victory any given day!!
Cheers,
Madhavan :)
Today's match was against the Skippers.
'Da Freaks assembled: Maddy, Vicky, Freddie, Jagan, Jack, Raghu, Sri, Muthu, Vivek, Yogi and Sudarshan
The match was played at Alfonso, this ground is getting ever so bad.
Jagan and coins, there seems to be some kinda connection. How else would you explain his winning streak?! Yeah, he won the toss and we decided to bat first. Sudarshan and Freddie opened the innings but it was not vintage Freddie as he lost his off stump in the second over. Yogi came on next. Sudarshan, for a change, was looking to attack the ball from the word go and he got himself to a bright start but it wouldn't last long as he was caught out somewhere between mid on and mid wicket. I went in next and the second ball I faced I scooped the drive only for the fielder to mis-judge it for a single. On the other side, Yogi was undone by a beauty, he was caught behind. Raghu was next and he meant business from the word go as his drives thru the off side helped our innings tick along nicely. I was on the other hand playing dangerously, skying almost every ball and eventually was caught out after getting 3. Vicky and Raghu bought parity back into the innings but it was not long before Raghu got out. It just seemed like one of those days where no one converted any kind of start that they got. And what about Sri? He is our main stay at the fag end who can deliver some lusty blows. But it just seems that he was destined to get out from the word go and he skied the very first ball to cover which was let-off and a fortunate one. But he couldn't capitalize on it as he got, guess what, run out again!! There was absolutely no communication between Vicky and Sri and he came for a non-existent second run. Actually both of them seem to have committed to the second run but mid way thru they just stopped. Here I have to say that the Skippers' throws from the outfield were simply amazing, most of them right on top of the stumps. Vicky was hanging in there rotating the strike and with some good hands by Vivek, Muthu and Jack at the end we managed a some what decent compilation of 60 runs from 14 overs.
Even at the start we were confident that we could defend this score. Jagan bowled the first over because he had done pretty well for us in the past. But today he was so rusty that almost all the deliveries he bowled were full tosses. Skippers capitalized and scored 9 of that over. Jagan's pair was Jack and he didn't bowl that great an over either except one delivery in which he castled the stumps of one of the opening batsmen. He was just too short but luckily for him all the short pitched deliveries were not punished and in fact it presented us with two run out opportunities. Raghu behind the wickets and Muthu at cover were ever so vigil to get those two wickets. 3 down at the end of second over, we were oozing confidence. Their fifth wicket partnership was steadying their innings. As we were defending a low total any one partnership could do the trick for them. Vicky got hold of the ball and dismissed two wickets but they were cheaply given away by Skippers. I held on to a low catch to my right to dismiss one but that was a full toss on leg stump! Freddie on the other hand held on to a stunner to dismiss Salim, one of their potent players, cheaply. With the fall of those two wickets and the partnership broken, we were back in the hunt. But you can always scrap ones and twos without any risks and still be able to chase 60. That is exactly what the Skippers were doing in the middle after the Vicky over. There were no absolute momentum to anyone for a while as we kept tightening the screws with some good bowling by Sri, Raghu and Vicky (Freddie managed another good reflex catch off Raghu), but the Skippers were grinding away the runs ever so precariously. The statement is a paradox but you'll know what I mean when you are playing. With 10 needed off 2 overs, Sri bowled a magnificent penultimate over giving away just one run. Six balls, 9 runs, 2 wickets and one of them was holding the innings from the middle overs. Raghu came up with the trumps to get rid of one of the tail. A couple of deliveries gave away 4 runs, we kept chopping and changing the field leaving a huge gap on the on side. It all came to the last ball in which the Skippers needed 3 and they managed only a single, leaving us victorious by a single run!! Yogi kept guard behind the stumps after a few overs and he did a wonderful job off it. Think that there is a run granted for every ball that goes behind, if the keeper misses it. Of course, the game is not without its fair share of controversies, Vicky judged out when we didn't rule him out, what the hell is a dead-ball, side crease judgement, a couple of run outs we effected but not given, etc.
But at the end of the day, 'Sathyameva Jayathe'
Kinda cheesy but we will take the victory any given day!!
Cheers,
Madhavan :)
Wednesday, October 27, 2010
Batting came to the fore
Raghu calls himself the fielding captain and I guess that is how it is now. He came into this match with a very poor form with his bat. To see him score freely last sunday was definitely a sight to rejoice.
Our Team: Maddy, Vicky, Mani, Sri, Raghu, Jagan, Kailash, Yogi, Balaji, Suresh and Goutham
Opponents: Wild Wings (Dinesh and co)
This is first of the two matches played last sunday and the other one will be updated by Vicky. Lost the second match I understood, now I am beginning to believe this voodoo s***
Anyway, our toss captain Jagan, won the toss again and we elected to bat first. Jagan and Kailash opened the innings. Disaster of the first ball as Jagan was bowled by a delivery that kept very low. I entered the scene as I wanted to play like Lance Klusener but right handed!!! Kailash soon got out caught behind in the same over without scoring. Balaji was tasked to build the innings with yours truly and we kept the score ticking and managed 28 runs in 6 overs and that is when I got run out, actually my bye got me run out. Either way I got out. Yogi and Raghu then steadied the innings with some quick running and some Raghu screamers. He played a captain's knock and would have probably scored 35 odd. Along with Sri and Goutham, we managed to get a big total of 94 in 14 overs.
Defending a big total like this, we had to worry mainly about Sriram and Dinesh as we know they are our biggest threats. Sri and Jagan bellowed some fast stuff down the track as we negated the Sriram impact. Gopi for them played well and Dinesh has improved his batting quite a lot it seems as he stood there till the end as they struggled to chase the target and fell short by 18 runs. We took the nine wickets as they played only 10 men.
Along the way, we got to see Mani as usual dropping a sitter but since we all kind of expect that Suresh kept a vigil and took the rebound. Vicky from the covers tried some Azar like throws to non existent stumps :p
Are we seeing a better approach to fielding these days? I know standing at long, we sometimes miss the ball but overall we were not that bad as we used to be in many matches. If we can improve upon this, we might be a really good fielding set up. Most important is to keep the right person in the right place. Something for our fielding captain to think about.
Who is getting tired of our jersey?
Cheers,
Madhavan
Our Team: Maddy, Vicky, Mani, Sri, Raghu, Jagan, Kailash, Yogi, Balaji, Suresh and Goutham
Opponents: Wild Wings (Dinesh and co)
This is first of the two matches played last sunday and the other one will be updated by Vicky. Lost the second match I understood, now I am beginning to believe this voodoo s***
Anyway, our toss captain Jagan, won the toss again and we elected to bat first. Jagan and Kailash opened the innings. Disaster of the first ball as Jagan was bowled by a delivery that kept very low. I entered the scene as I wanted to play like Lance Klusener but right handed!!! Kailash soon got out caught behind in the same over without scoring. Balaji was tasked to build the innings with yours truly and we kept the score ticking and managed 28 runs in 6 overs and that is when I got run out, actually my bye got me run out. Either way I got out. Yogi and Raghu then steadied the innings with some quick running and some Raghu screamers. He played a captain's knock and would have probably scored 35 odd. Along with Sri and Goutham, we managed to get a big total of 94 in 14 overs.
Defending a big total like this, we had to worry mainly about Sriram and Dinesh as we know they are our biggest threats. Sri and Jagan bellowed some fast stuff down the track as we negated the Sriram impact. Gopi for them played well and Dinesh has improved his batting quite a lot it seems as he stood there till the end as they struggled to chase the target and fell short by 18 runs. We took the nine wickets as they played only 10 men.
Along the way, we got to see Mani as usual dropping a sitter but since we all kind of expect that Suresh kept a vigil and took the rebound. Vicky from the covers tried some Azar like throws to non existent stumps :p
Are we seeing a better approach to fielding these days? I know standing at long, we sometimes miss the ball but overall we were not that bad as we used to be in many matches. If we can improve upon this, we might be a really good fielding set up. Most important is to keep the right person in the right place. Something for our fielding captain to think about.
Who is getting tired of our jersey?
Cheers,
Madhavan
Sunday, October 17, 2010
Victorious on Vijayadasami
Team: Maddy, Mani, Raghu, Freddie, Sridhar, Jagan, Suresh, Sudharshan, Goutham, Yogesh and Vignesh.
Result: Won by 8 runs.
Almost everything fell in place today; except the toss, which we won. Jagan won the toss and this is his second toss won in a row. And there was a lot of confusion after that. Mani gave a SWOT analysis of our team and just to stop him we decided to go with his decision – which was to bat first.
Fred and Sudharshan opened but Fred got run out in the first over. Sudharshan didn’t stay for long either. Raghu and Yogesh forged a mini recovery and both of them looked good until Raghu was caught and bowled. We were 23 for 3 after 4 overs. Good start in terms of runs but we had lost 3 wickets. Goutham was slotted at No.5 and he was finding it difficult to score initially as he was batting after a long time. Yogesh was at his usual run-scoring self picking up 2s and 3s. Goutham got into the act a bit later with a boundary through covers but got out when he was looking good for more and Yogesh was run out immediately after. But the two had put us on a position of strength. We were 48 after 9 overs.
I joined Sridhar in the middle and we found runs coming easily. Sridhar is turning out to be our “Finisher” and he seems to be getting better with every game. He struck some power packed blows. I decided to churn the strike and give it back to Sridhar but I found that there were a lot of over pitched stuff which fetched me lots of doubles. Together, we had got 41 runs of the last 5 overs. Our total was 89 at the end of 14 overs. Good total and Mani was happy that his decision was right
Jagan and Suresh started off the bowling. Jagan bowled a good spell with 3 tight overs. His pace was good and he was not bowling loose balls. Hope he continues this form with the ball. Suresh was struggling at the other end. He bowled a lot of wides and also taken for runs. Maddy replaced Suresh and he bowled a couple of overs which went for 6-7 runs. I had told Mani that his 4 overs would be the key and he delivered a fine spell of 2 overs. The opponents had only scored 37 off the first 8 overs and had lost some 2-3 wickets.
We brought on Suresh and he did bowl a better second over giving away only 6 runs. Jagan was taken for runs in his final over with a mighty 6 over long on. But something special happened too. Raghu held onto one of the best catches I’ve seen. He was at long off. The ball was hit flat and to his left. Raghu ran for a few yards, held out his left hand, dived and took a beauty. There was applause from all those who witnessed and we were over the moon. They needed 35 off the last 4 overs and Mani bowled a tight over for just four runs which was courtesy a misfield by yours truly. Suresh bowled another over for 8 runs. Mani was taken apart in his last over for 10 runs but he had picked 4 wickets for 21 runs in his 4-over spell. With 13 needed off the last over, Raghu completed the proceedings with two wickets.
The batting had clicked well with two well constructed partnerships. Mani and Jagan were good with their bowling. Hope we carry on from this as I feel the team is shaping up well.
Cheers
Vignesh
Result: Won by 8 runs.
Almost everything fell in place today; except the toss, which we won. Jagan won the toss and this is his second toss won in a row. And there was a lot of confusion after that. Mani gave a SWOT analysis of our team and just to stop him we decided to go with his decision – which was to bat first.
Fred and Sudharshan opened but Fred got run out in the first over. Sudharshan didn’t stay for long either. Raghu and Yogesh forged a mini recovery and both of them looked good until Raghu was caught and bowled. We were 23 for 3 after 4 overs. Good start in terms of runs but we had lost 3 wickets. Goutham was slotted at No.5 and he was finding it difficult to score initially as he was batting after a long time. Yogesh was at his usual run-scoring self picking up 2s and 3s. Goutham got into the act a bit later with a boundary through covers but got out when he was looking good for more and Yogesh was run out immediately after. But the two had put us on a position of strength. We were 48 after 9 overs.
I joined Sridhar in the middle and we found runs coming easily. Sridhar is turning out to be our “Finisher” and he seems to be getting better with every game. He struck some power packed blows. I decided to churn the strike and give it back to Sridhar but I found that there were a lot of over pitched stuff which fetched me lots of doubles. Together, we had got 41 runs of the last 5 overs. Our total was 89 at the end of 14 overs. Good total and Mani was happy that his decision was right
Jagan and Suresh started off the bowling. Jagan bowled a good spell with 3 tight overs. His pace was good and he was not bowling loose balls. Hope he continues this form with the ball. Suresh was struggling at the other end. He bowled a lot of wides and also taken for runs. Maddy replaced Suresh and he bowled a couple of overs which went for 6-7 runs. I had told Mani that his 4 overs would be the key and he delivered a fine spell of 2 overs. The opponents had only scored 37 off the first 8 overs and had lost some 2-3 wickets.
We brought on Suresh and he did bowl a better second over giving away only 6 runs. Jagan was taken for runs in his final over with a mighty 6 over long on. But something special happened too. Raghu held onto one of the best catches I’ve seen. He was at long off. The ball was hit flat and to his left. Raghu ran for a few yards, held out his left hand, dived and took a beauty. There was applause from all those who witnessed and we were over the moon. They needed 35 off the last 4 overs and Mani bowled a tight over for just four runs which was courtesy a misfield by yours truly. Suresh bowled another over for 8 runs. Mani was taken apart in his last over for 10 runs but he had picked 4 wickets for 21 runs in his 4-over spell. With 13 needed off the last over, Raghu completed the proceedings with two wickets.
The batting had clicked well with two well constructed partnerships. Mani and Jagan were good with their bowling. Hope we carry on from this as I feel the team is shaping up well.
Cheers
Vignesh
Saturday, October 16, 2010
The CURSE of not winning two games in a day
This looks straight out of a fiction. A team probably cursed with the non ability to win two matches in a day. Ok, probably not that kind of fiction, but this is getting to a point of insanity. We have never won back to back matches in a day, and that was the case last week too.
Our Captain Raghu was not available last week and we lost his insightful thoughts on the field :) The opening game was against the Skippers team, which had won all the games we had played against them and this match was for revenge. After losing the toss, we bowled first, which I personally don't mind considering the heat afterward. Mani was in his element in his opening spell, the highlight of which was a spectacular return catch of his own bowling. The only thought is he needs to consider if he wants to bowl all 4 overs all the time. But no complaints from the team so far as he doesn't gets to bat often. The skippers managed around 70 runs which we chased without any sort of problem with help from Fred, Sri and Vicky with 7 balls to spare.
A pretty good victory in the morning was overshadowed by a shoddy (bowling first and at the end of the chase) performance in the noon. It was against a local team, which with their slightly different approach to batting stance put up 72 to chase in 12 overs. It didn't seem like much of a problem for us as we put up a pretty good chase and set ourselves to chase 13 in 3 overs with 3 or 4 wickets still available. Thala had a game today and he batted pretty well. And that is when Sudarshan got himself into the crease, he seems to waste a lot of deliveries these days. With Sri at the other end, he could have taken a single, but no, trying to play aggressively he wasted the 10th over getting only 2 and 11th over for just 4. And with 7 needing off one over, he struggled to work the ball for a single and eventually got out 4th ball of the over. Vicky took the next two deliveries but unable to put up the required runs.
Who believes in Voodoo?
Unable to post the blog on the same day. So missing a lot of details. This is a problem.
Cheers,
'DaFreaks
Our Captain Raghu was not available last week and we lost his insightful thoughts on the field :) The opening game was against the Skippers team, which had won all the games we had played against them and this match was for revenge. After losing the toss, we bowled first, which I personally don't mind considering the heat afterward. Mani was in his element in his opening spell, the highlight of which was a spectacular return catch of his own bowling. The only thought is he needs to consider if he wants to bowl all 4 overs all the time. But no complaints from the team so far as he doesn't gets to bat often. The skippers managed around 70 runs which we chased without any sort of problem with help from Fred, Sri and Vicky with 7 balls to spare.
A pretty good victory in the morning was overshadowed by a shoddy (bowling first and at the end of the chase) performance in the noon. It was against a local team, which with their slightly different approach to batting stance put up 72 to chase in 12 overs. It didn't seem like much of a problem for us as we put up a pretty good chase and set ourselves to chase 13 in 3 overs with 3 or 4 wickets still available. Thala had a game today and he batted pretty well. And that is when Sudarshan got himself into the crease, he seems to waste a lot of deliveries these days. With Sri at the other end, he could have taken a single, but no, trying to play aggressively he wasted the 10th over getting only 2 and 11th over for just 4. And with 7 needing off one over, he struggled to work the ball for a single and eventually got out 4th ball of the over. Vicky took the next two deliveries but unable to put up the required runs.
Who believes in Voodoo?
Unable to post the blog on the same day. So missing a lot of details. This is a problem.
Cheers,
'DaFreaks
Saturday, October 2, 2010
Easy Victory
There is nothing negative to talk about our last week's match except the fact that we managed to field only 10 and many gathered pretty late.
We gathered with 10 men to challenge a local group. To be honest they never looked like any kind of challenge. As Suresh pointed out, we had played once against them in the triangle ground and won that game fairly easy.
Our team line up was: Mani, Fred, Maddy, Raghu, Sri, Jagan, Suresh, Yogi, Vivek and Sudarsh. It was a 12 over a side match.
Freddie lost the toss, since we didn't have enough guys assembled at that point, we were graciously asked to bat first. Jagan and I opened the innings with Jagan looking particularly in striking form and we got ourselves to a good start. Soon after Jagan and I were dismissed in a space of six balls. Raghu's poor form continued this week as well but he was unfortunate to get out the way he did, the ball hit the bottom left corner of his bat, thumped against his feet and lobbed in front of the fielder. He didn't score any run. Yogi, Freddie, Suresh and Vivek to an extent helped us cross 72 in 12 overs, which was a decent score in 12 overs.
Sri and Suresh started the proceedings with the ball. Except for the opening pair which occupied the crease for 3 overs, others did not bother us at all. Our fielding was pretty good as well as Raghu effected a couple of run outs. The bizarre sequence was that in the two overs that I bowled, 4 wickets fell, two credited to me and two run outs. Sudarsh bowled brilliantly was well, as we were checking our bowling options and he accounted for three wickets.
I don't now their exact score but surely they would have been 15 runs short at the end.
Good practice for all of us, a decent game.
Looking for much tougher matches in the future.
Cheers,
Madhavan
We gathered with 10 men to challenge a local group. To be honest they never looked like any kind of challenge. As Suresh pointed out, we had played once against them in the triangle ground and won that game fairly easy.
Our team line up was: Mani, Fred, Maddy, Raghu, Sri, Jagan, Suresh, Yogi, Vivek and Sudarsh. It was a 12 over a side match.
Freddie lost the toss, since we didn't have enough guys assembled at that point, we were graciously asked to bat first. Jagan and I opened the innings with Jagan looking particularly in striking form and we got ourselves to a good start. Soon after Jagan and I were dismissed in a space of six balls. Raghu's poor form continued this week as well but he was unfortunate to get out the way he did, the ball hit the bottom left corner of his bat, thumped against his feet and lobbed in front of the fielder. He didn't score any run. Yogi, Freddie, Suresh and Vivek to an extent helped us cross 72 in 12 overs, which was a decent score in 12 overs.
Sri and Suresh started the proceedings with the ball. Except for the opening pair which occupied the crease for 3 overs, others did not bother us at all. Our fielding was pretty good as well as Raghu effected a couple of run outs. The bizarre sequence was that in the two overs that I bowled, 4 wickets fell, two credited to me and two run outs. Sudarsh bowled brilliantly was well, as we were checking our bowling options and he accounted for three wickets.
I don't now their exact score but surely they would have been 15 runs short at the end.
Good practice for all of us, a decent game.
Looking for much tougher matches in the future.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
Slow wicket, bad adaptation
Saturday night turned out to be a dampner and forced us to cancel our Sunday's morning game. With Alfonso looking like a quicksand and triangle ground not in any better conditional, we were staring at a gameless Sunday. But as luck would turn out, we had our evening game at the triangle ground. There were sand in the good length area enough to build a home!! I think you get the point, the ball would bounce or keep low and it would be very hard to judge the ball as well as the pace of the wicket. wonder why we didn't play in our usual area, it looked deserted when I came in.
Our team: Mani, Vicky, Maddy, Raghav, Raghu, Sridhar, Jagan, Karthick, Ram and Sudarshan (only 1o this time)
Our opponents: Some local team
It was a 12 over match. Freddie is quickly turning out to be our lucky mascot as far as the toss is concerned. We won that and choose to bat as Mani came pretty late. We started off with Sudarshan and Freddie and the opening pair got us to a good start as we strolled to 36 in 6 overs, Freddie looking particularly good. As is the norm, once we start loosing wickets, we keep losing a bunch. When Sudarshan got run out without knowing where the ball was, Freddie soon perished trying to bludgeon the ball which was way too offside to where else but his favourite leg side and got caught out. Thats when the run dried down. Raghu's miserable spell with the bat continued as he got bowled. No one else came to terms with the slowness of the pitch and to make matters worse, the opponents weren't trying too hard to bowl and it looked like we didn't have any powerful hitters. A lot of deliveries were not connected by us and in the process we wasted too many deliveries. Sridhar too was unable to rapidly increase the score. Jagan's friend Karthick looked like a misfit for slow bouncy pitches like everyone else and he too misfired. Vicky stayed till the end running hard and even got a boundary that stretched the score to 59 off 12 overs. I kept Vicky company till the last over. You can imagine the way we lost the total plot after Freddie got out. We had two more wickets at the end, though Mani turned up only when we started to bowl.
We started off with Jagan and Sridhar for the opening spell and Jagan was impressive as he took a couple of wickets. Sridhar got one in his opening spell as the opponents were teeterring @ 16 for 4 in 4 overs. Mani then bolwed a wild 5th over but gave away not more than 6 runs. Vicky was taken apart for 14 in his first and only over as somehow they started adapting to the wicket well. Since we were only defending a paltry score, they were never under any sort of pressure for runs. So even after the initial hickup, they started flourishing. Raghu and Mani bowled 3 overs each, whereas Jagan only bowled two. I thought it was one over too many for Raghu, probably trying to make amends for his batting. He could have let Jagan bowl another over or looking at the wicket even I could have had a dig, not saying I am better bolwer than Raghu just could be a better option at this wicket. But at the end, no one really wanted to take any risk with me. Alas, we lost the match too. But it was already lost after the first 12 overs. Only we had a brief lifeline during their start of the innings but it wouldn't last.
It seems like our mind is set to one way of batting that we simply couldn't adapt. Either you need to be powerful enough like Freddie to not care about the wicket or sensible enough to pick the gaps and increase the score. We had one look at their bowling and we said to oourselves that we could hit basically everything outta the ground, which didn't turn out to be true.
We tried a 6 over game as an afterthought and we miserably failed in batting again. Raghu was again take to the cleaners though Ram hit a boundary I think. But we couldn't complete the match as the ground was taken over by football lovers.
Do not be hasty or underestimate the opponents or the pitch.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Our team: Mani, Vicky, Maddy, Raghav, Raghu, Sridhar, Jagan, Karthick, Ram and Sudarshan (only 1o this time)
Our opponents: Some local team
It was a 12 over match. Freddie is quickly turning out to be our lucky mascot as far as the toss is concerned. We won that and choose to bat as Mani came pretty late. We started off with Sudarshan and Freddie and the opening pair got us to a good start as we strolled to 36 in 6 overs, Freddie looking particularly good. As is the norm, once we start loosing wickets, we keep losing a bunch. When Sudarshan got run out without knowing where the ball was, Freddie soon perished trying to bludgeon the ball which was way too offside to where else but his favourite leg side and got caught out. Thats when the run dried down. Raghu's miserable spell with the bat continued as he got bowled. No one else came to terms with the slowness of the pitch and to make matters worse, the opponents weren't trying too hard to bowl and it looked like we didn't have any powerful hitters. A lot of deliveries were not connected by us and in the process we wasted too many deliveries. Sridhar too was unable to rapidly increase the score. Jagan's friend Karthick looked like a misfit for slow bouncy pitches like everyone else and he too misfired. Vicky stayed till the end running hard and even got a boundary that stretched the score to 59 off 12 overs. I kept Vicky company till the last over. You can imagine the way we lost the total plot after Freddie got out. We had two more wickets at the end, though Mani turned up only when we started to bowl.
We started off with Jagan and Sridhar for the opening spell and Jagan was impressive as he took a couple of wickets. Sridhar got one in his opening spell as the opponents were teeterring @ 16 for 4 in 4 overs. Mani then bolwed a wild 5th over but gave away not more than 6 runs. Vicky was taken apart for 14 in his first and only over as somehow they started adapting to the wicket well. Since we were only defending a paltry score, they were never under any sort of pressure for runs. So even after the initial hickup, they started flourishing. Raghu and Mani bowled 3 overs each, whereas Jagan only bowled two. I thought it was one over too many for Raghu, probably trying to make amends for his batting. He could have let Jagan bowl another over or looking at the wicket even I could have had a dig, not saying I am better bolwer than Raghu just could be a better option at this wicket. But at the end, no one really wanted to take any risk with me. Alas, we lost the match too. But it was already lost after the first 12 overs. Only we had a brief lifeline during their start of the innings but it wouldn't last.
It seems like our mind is set to one way of batting that we simply couldn't adapt. Either you need to be powerful enough like Freddie to not care about the wicket or sensible enough to pick the gaps and increase the score. We had one look at their bowling and we said to oourselves that we could hit basically everything outta the ground, which didn't turn out to be true.
We tried a 6 over game as an afterthought and we miserably failed in batting again. Raghu was again take to the cleaners though Ram hit a boundary I think. But we couldn't complete the match as the ground was taken over by football lovers.
Do not be hasty or underestimate the opponents or the pitch.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Thursday, September 2, 2010
Thrilling game of Cricket!!...But the Jinx Continues!!..
Team eleven: Raghu,maddy,mani,vignesh,ram,sridhar,freddie,kailesh,yogesh,suresh,jagan
Finally we managed to have a good day of cricket after rain playing spoil sport for a couple of weeks. We made the most of it had two great games, as usual we won one and lost one yet to break the jinx!!...
First game of the day was played in the kozhipannai ground after a struggle to reach the ground due to the Chennai marathon and the opponents found it even more difficult to reach and the game started as late as 8.30 but we managed to have a good round to practice before that which was a much needed one after a break of couple of weeks.
We managed to win the toss third time in a row courtesy our new toss captain Freddie!!..We opted to bat with the smaller dimensions of the ground coming into play we had our sights towards reaching a target around 80. We got to the worst possible start by losing quick wickets and with very little runs on the board. Ram made a comeback into the team after a long break but failed to open his account!!..We lost wickets to needless run outs with yogesh getting out by backing up way too far in the non striker end, then raghu ran for a non existing single when maddy stroked the ball straight to the fielder in mid wicket he just committed suicide considering the running potentials of maddy and his poor run of form with the bat continued....Soon after we lost Sridhar to yet another run out and maddy playing his part again this time around running for a second run which was not on and the throw had Sridhar well short of the ground!!..Lesson learnt never have these two guys batting together again because this might well be the fourth or fifth time this pair had resulted in a run out. Finally we managed to get some partnership going between myself and maddy but both of us got out at the wrong time and with wickets tumbling we just played 13 over’s scoring 55 runs.
A very poor total to defend considering the opponents bowling attach which was never potent to dismiss us for such a target and as i stated earlier considering the ground dimensions the bowlers had a tough task ahead. I started of the bowling along with Sridhar. I managed to bowl a brilliant third over where i got rid of two wickets of the successive balls including the key wicket of their team. It was a satisfying over and we were back in the match with Sridhar picking wickets in the other end and we managed to keep a check on the scoring and picked up wickets at regular intervals. Raghu and Suresh bowled well in the middle to maintain the pressure. They required 16 or so in the last 4 over’s when Sridhar bowled a brilliant over to just give away 1 run. With 10 needed of the last 2 over’s it was decided i bowl that over and thanks to some great wicket keeping by yogesh i picked up 2 more wickets in that over leaving 7 runs to win of the last over. Yogesh kept his cool bowled well for his first over of the match we dismissed them in 13.2 overs for under 50 which i felt was a remarkable bowling performance backed up by some good fielding and excellent wicket keeping by yogesh and he seems to become a specialist there!!...
All in all a great team effort and very satisfying win but leaving us to ponder upon our batting which has failed yet again to post a good target...
Coming to the second game of the day with couple of changes in the team sudarashan, muthu and jagan friend coming in place of vignesh, yogesh, suresh. I lost the toss and we were bowling first. Jagan started of the bowling and what could have been a great started was spoilt as i dropped an easy chance and what that triggered off was a very poor performance in the field where catches was dropped at will and misfielding in the deep we just lost control over the game. We managed to do well in the middle where i bowled a couple of good overs. Maddy came with two good catches in the deep and we finished off the innings well with all bowlers leaving the disappointment of the fielding behind to restrict the opponents to 72 in 12 overs which we felt was a another great performance from the bowlers considering the fielding display.
Batting was yet another let down with losing of wickets regularly and we were in a spot of bother when sridhar and jagan played well to bring us back in the game. But the turning point was the partnership between the most unlikely pairs of all Sridhar and maddy!!...with we needing almost needing 33 odd runs in 4 overs the pair really did well to keep us in the game it came down to 27 in the last two as sri played a one run over but could not blame him he tried to whack the ball. He made up for it in the next over maddy stroked the first ball for 5 runs and god did he ran well to make it may be the marathon in the morning inspired him since he did not want a runner in the morning and as well as in the evening game. Then sridhar took control of that over leaving us to get 12 runs of the last over with maddy and myself dismissed in that over. Jagan friend played well to smacked the ball around in the couple of balls he played and we needed 3 from 1 ball managed to get a bye of a wide and leaving jagan’s friend to face the last ball with 2 needed but he missed to get a bat on ball and we fell short by 1 run in wat was a great game...
The jinx of not winning two games in a day continued it was so near yet so far!!...great display there by maddy and sridhar with the bat and sri has become very well in finishing the innings for us or in chasing with his lefty blows may be if he could increase his range of strokes he could be far more effective...
A great day where we had two close games but our batting being a disappointment in both the games and for a while now we need to get it right now since the bowling is being put under pressure way to often!!...Hopefully we will have that corrected next week!!...Cheers!!...Well played guys!!...
Finally we managed to have a good day of cricket after rain playing spoil sport for a couple of weeks. We made the most of it had two great games, as usual we won one and lost one yet to break the jinx!!...
First game of the day was played in the kozhipannai ground after a struggle to reach the ground due to the Chennai marathon and the opponents found it even more difficult to reach and the game started as late as 8.30 but we managed to have a good round to practice before that which was a much needed one after a break of couple of weeks.
We managed to win the toss third time in a row courtesy our new toss captain Freddie!!..We opted to bat with the smaller dimensions of the ground coming into play we had our sights towards reaching a target around 80. We got to the worst possible start by losing quick wickets and with very little runs on the board. Ram made a comeback into the team after a long break but failed to open his account!!..We lost wickets to needless run outs with yogesh getting out by backing up way too far in the non striker end, then raghu ran for a non existing single when maddy stroked the ball straight to the fielder in mid wicket he just committed suicide considering the running potentials of maddy and his poor run of form with the bat continued....Soon after we lost Sridhar to yet another run out and maddy playing his part again this time around running for a second run which was not on and the throw had Sridhar well short of the ground!!..Lesson learnt never have these two guys batting together again because this might well be the fourth or fifth time this pair had resulted in a run out. Finally we managed to get some partnership going between myself and maddy but both of us got out at the wrong time and with wickets tumbling we just played 13 over’s scoring 55 runs.
A very poor total to defend considering the opponents bowling attach which was never potent to dismiss us for such a target and as i stated earlier considering the ground dimensions the bowlers had a tough task ahead. I started of the bowling along with Sridhar. I managed to bowl a brilliant third over where i got rid of two wickets of the successive balls including the key wicket of their team. It was a satisfying over and we were back in the match with Sridhar picking wickets in the other end and we managed to keep a check on the scoring and picked up wickets at regular intervals. Raghu and Suresh bowled well in the middle to maintain the pressure. They required 16 or so in the last 4 over’s when Sridhar bowled a brilliant over to just give away 1 run. With 10 needed of the last 2 over’s it was decided i bowl that over and thanks to some great wicket keeping by yogesh i picked up 2 more wickets in that over leaving 7 runs to win of the last over. Yogesh kept his cool bowled well for his first over of the match we dismissed them in 13.2 overs for under 50 which i felt was a remarkable bowling performance backed up by some good fielding and excellent wicket keeping by yogesh and he seems to become a specialist there!!...
All in all a great team effort and very satisfying win but leaving us to ponder upon our batting which has failed yet again to post a good target...
Coming to the second game of the day with couple of changes in the team sudarashan, muthu and jagan friend coming in place of vignesh, yogesh, suresh. I lost the toss and we were bowling first. Jagan started of the bowling and what could have been a great started was spoilt as i dropped an easy chance and what that triggered off was a very poor performance in the field where catches was dropped at will and misfielding in the deep we just lost control over the game. We managed to do well in the middle where i bowled a couple of good overs. Maddy came with two good catches in the deep and we finished off the innings well with all bowlers leaving the disappointment of the fielding behind to restrict the opponents to 72 in 12 overs which we felt was a another great performance from the bowlers considering the fielding display.
Batting was yet another let down with losing of wickets regularly and we were in a spot of bother when sridhar and jagan played well to bring us back in the game. But the turning point was the partnership between the most unlikely pairs of all Sridhar and maddy!!...with we needing almost needing 33 odd runs in 4 overs the pair really did well to keep us in the game it came down to 27 in the last two as sri played a one run over but could not blame him he tried to whack the ball. He made up for it in the next over maddy stroked the first ball for 5 runs and god did he ran well to make it may be the marathon in the morning inspired him since he did not want a runner in the morning and as well as in the evening game. Then sridhar took control of that over leaving us to get 12 runs of the last over with maddy and myself dismissed in that over. Jagan friend played well to smacked the ball around in the couple of balls he played and we needed 3 from 1 ball managed to get a bye of a wide and leaving jagan’s friend to face the last ball with 2 needed but he missed to get a bat on ball and we fell short by 1 run in wat was a great game...
The jinx of not winning two games in a day continued it was so near yet so far!!...great display there by maddy and sridhar with the bat and sri has become very well in finishing the innings for us or in chasing with his lefty blows may be if he could increase his range of strokes he could be far more effective...
A great day where we had two close games but our batting being a disappointment in both the games and for a while now we need to get it right now since the bowling is being put under pressure way to often!!...Hopefully we will have that corrected next week!!...Cheers!!...Well played guys!!...
Sunday, August 1, 2010
Two Games Today
Well its been quite a while since the last update. The week before this, we lost the match easily playing against Shanker's team. Not before we were treated to some lusty blows from Suresh (there ya go mate) We struggled past 60 runs and they quite comfortably reached the target.
Today we played a couple of games and the point was that we simply had to play more! I think we should probably stick with just one game, its usual that I get tired but it was the entire team today.
We played in the triangle ground as Alfonso looked a bit wretched from the rain. Since I understood that our opponents went hay-wire, we went to the other ground and it was pleasantly surprising that the ground looked good even after these rains. We got ourselves some opponents and we had to play with 10 as Ganesh didn't show up.
It used to be a joke but seriously, what is with us and the toss!! We might have lost it 90% of the time. Even today, twice.
Anyway, as is the case most of the time, we were to field first and it was a 12 over game. Mani felt the ground did not have enough supporters for him to bowl so the honours were shared between Jagan, Suresh, Sridhar, Vicky and Myself. We shed 71 runs in total.
Our captain, Mr. Raghu had the most torrid time of his entire match days today. He opened the batting, first ball he faces, he heaves and gets his off stump knocked off, exactly when I tried convincing the guys that this was going to be his day. Surely it was, but just in a very bad way.
Sudarshan and Yogi continued to make us crazy by getting the runs at a slow pace, for some time it looked as though there was no momentum to the innings, very uncharacteristic. When they eventually got out, we had Jagan and Sri to help us to get back on track. With every scamper and shot, we edged very closely towards 72 and thats when Sri got out. We still needed 3 from 2 balls. Vicky though misjudged the first ball he faced, was presented with a full toss gift and he gladly took us home.
Thats when I suggested we play another match, we got hold of Hari and were set for a 10 over game. I got to say that I was kind of lethargic behind the stumps in the second match, which could have cost us at least 6 to 7 runs. I was just a little too tired. By the way, Yogi kept wickets during our first match and I thought he did a brilliant job. Being it is Hari's team, Mani came out to bowl and except his last over where he gave away 10 runs, he did his job and took Hari's wicket as well. End of the day, we gave away 61 runs. Raghu and Suresh bowled pretty well too but our fielding let us down largely. But I guess we could be excused for our exhaustion level. No?
Anyway, we started off with Vicky and Jagan taking 7 runs in that over, but we were struck with tragedy as we went for extravagant shots and lost 4 quick wickets before the fifth over. Raghu at the other end just could not connect to the ball. We were behind the target right from the outset and the fall of wickets only worsened the situation. End of the day we were only able to muscle 42 runs.
We should find a way to beat Hari. Probably next time we get a chance.
Oh wait, and you should know that the way I got Vivek ahead of others in the first match and the way he got himself out, probably should make me the natural captain of our team!
Backlash expected.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Today we played a couple of games and the point was that we simply had to play more! I think we should probably stick with just one game, its usual that I get tired but it was the entire team today.
We played in the triangle ground as Alfonso looked a bit wretched from the rain. Since I understood that our opponents went hay-wire, we went to the other ground and it was pleasantly surprising that the ground looked good even after these rains. We got ourselves some opponents and we had to play with 10 as Ganesh didn't show up.
It used to be a joke but seriously, what is with us and the toss!! We might have lost it 90% of the time. Even today, twice.
Anyway, as is the case most of the time, we were to field first and it was a 12 over game. Mani felt the ground did not have enough supporters for him to bowl so the honours were shared between Jagan, Suresh, Sridhar, Vicky and Myself. We shed 71 runs in total.
Our captain, Mr. Raghu had the most torrid time of his entire match days today. He opened the batting, first ball he faces, he heaves and gets his off stump knocked off, exactly when I tried convincing the guys that this was going to be his day. Surely it was, but just in a very bad way.
Sudarshan and Yogi continued to make us crazy by getting the runs at a slow pace, for some time it looked as though there was no momentum to the innings, very uncharacteristic. When they eventually got out, we had Jagan and Sri to help us to get back on track. With every scamper and shot, we edged very closely towards 72 and thats when Sri got out. We still needed 3 from 2 balls. Vicky though misjudged the first ball he faced, was presented with a full toss gift and he gladly took us home.
Thats when I suggested we play another match, we got hold of Hari and were set for a 10 over game. I got to say that I was kind of lethargic behind the stumps in the second match, which could have cost us at least 6 to 7 runs. I was just a little too tired. By the way, Yogi kept wickets during our first match and I thought he did a brilliant job. Being it is Hari's team, Mani came out to bowl and except his last over where he gave away 10 runs, he did his job and took Hari's wicket as well. End of the day, we gave away 61 runs. Raghu and Suresh bowled pretty well too but our fielding let us down largely. But I guess we could be excused for our exhaustion level. No?
Anyway, we started off with Vicky and Jagan taking 7 runs in that over, but we were struck with tragedy as we went for extravagant shots and lost 4 quick wickets before the fifth over. Raghu at the other end just could not connect to the ball. We were behind the target right from the outset and the fall of wickets only worsened the situation. End of the day we were only able to muscle 42 runs.
We should find a way to beat Hari. Probably next time we get a chance.
Oh wait, and you should know that the way I got Vivek ahead of others in the first match and the way he got himself out, probably should make me the natural captain of our team!
Backlash expected.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Sunday, June 20, 2010
A Liberal Sarcasm
Today’s game was a centre piece of what looked like a staged satire in which both team’s shared the spoils. To begin to say that we had total control of the game and then let it slip away would probably convey the meaning but not the disappointment.
Here is how it unfolded,
Today’s game was the start of the tri-series involving ourselves, Dinesh’s team and Shanker’s team. We were pitched up against Shanker’s team today. As it happens a plenty of times, we lost the toss. Not that we were complaining of bowling first, it was really hot today @ alfonso. We had to field an under-strength team today as Sridhar, Raghav, Ram, Jagan, Mani and Goutham was not available for the match for different reasons. To be honest, I thought we were good enough on the day to beat that team.
Guys were Myself, Vicky, Raghu, Suresh, Yogesh, Anand, Vivek, Goutham’s Uncle, Ganesh, Suresh’s friend and Muthu.
We started the proceedings with Suresh and his friend. And boy did they bowl well! Suresh in particular was amazing as the opponents had no answers to our attack and they were tottering at 16 for 6 in 5 overs. But we didn’t tighten the noose after that, we probably shouldn’t have let them cross 50 from that position but some missed catches and lazy fielding let us down. Yogesh and Vicky tried their best with the ball but they crawled their way to 69 off 13.3 overs, we got them all out. Outstanding performance with the ball by Suresh saw him take 5 wickets, team’s first ever?
I started our chase with Ganesh. A huge controversy started early on when the opponent’s were claiming to have run me out as I wasn’t at the crease. What happened was that I played the ball close to the fielder and there was an over throw. Neither I nor Ganesh saw where the ball went so we were not prepared to run for over throws. After several cries, I did start to run when some one from our side said that the ball crossed the boundary, so I was up with Ganesh at the other end and chatting with him. In the mean time, it so happens that the ball hasn’t crossed the boundary, the opponents ran me out. It was just too crazy and after several arguments, they let me play.
Ganesh got out immediately afterwards and I was joined by Vicky. We two were laying a solid platform when Vicky got out caught behind. Our Mr. Dependable Yogi was next. What happened next was another howler, this time by the Umpire (Vivek). I slashed at a ball outside off stump and missed, missed it by a long distance. Some how Vivek heard a nick in between and gave me out!!
Raghu then partnered Yogi but, for a change, he got run out. We never really had any partnership afterwards as everyone else wanted to slog but not give the strike to Yogi. That included Suresh, Gautham’s Uncle, Suresh’s friend and Vivek, though he got some valuable runs at the end. We kept loosing wickets because the batsmen didn’t want to think. We needed just 16 off 4 overs and got Yogi batting brilliantly, but we were 8 down!
Vivek start was like watching a horror flick but he managed to get some very useful runs and we were comfortably placed at 62 in 11 overs. Vivek got out edging the ball back going for a flamboyant cover drive. At last it was Nathari Anand’s turn to have a go. Yogi got 5 runs off the 12th over and we needed 3 from 2 overs. Yogi defended the first three balls of the penultimate over and nearly got out Dhoni-style as against Pakistan in the recent match in the 4th ball but managed 2 runs off the next one. He should have finished it off having played so far but he defended the last ball and gave Anand the strike for the last over with the scores at level.
Anand played all around a straight one and his stumps were uprooted.
Cheers,
Maddy
Monday, June 14, 2010
No Suprises it was the Freaks day out!!....
DA 'FREAKS: Raghu(c),Maddy,Vignesh,Mani,Freddie,Sridhar,Yogesh,Goutham,Suresh,Jagan,
Ganesh
Score Card: Opponent: 62 all out in 12.3 overs
Da 'Freaks : 63/4 in 10 overs
Blog By: Manikandan
Another great day for the freaks as it was a comprehensive victory against an opponet we knew who had to play really well to beat us and as i had commented last week we came up with a great victory. Everything went right with captain raghu winning the toss and as usual we decided to chase even though the reason was more of due to couple of our players wanting to leave early. Myself and suresh started the bowling and we had to bowl to a new pair of openers the opponent seem to have got in their team from the last team we had faced them. The start was promising for them with their bastmen scoring 24 runs in the first 4 overs and just losing a couple of wickets. It was more due to some sloppy work in the field in the second over where we dropped a couple of chances and a missed run out opportunity and the unfortunate bowler was suresh with myself being the main culprit missing few straight forward chances!!... May be that was the only blemish in our otherwise good all round performance.
Goutham and Maddy shared a great bowling partnership by picking up 5 wickets between them!!...A big suprise when we decided to give our owner an opportunity with the ball even though the captain was not to keen on it but he proved everyone wrong with some tight stump to stump line troubling the batsmen with his slow medium!!...Goutham has been great for us in the last couple of matches with the ball but he will be tested in the coming weeks against better teams. The innings was then wrapped with ganesh,jagan picking up wicket a piece. It was a great bowling performance more due to the fact that we did not bother to use sridhar nor vignesh.
We began the chase almost immediately since both vignesh and sridhar wanting to leave. Sridhar tried his bit to wack a few around as he was getting late for him to leave which left us with a early loss of a wicket but vignesh at the other end was batting beautifully picking up the gaps and with some good running between the wickets. Freddie wacked a few around the park which gave a lot of momentum to the chase before he perished to a needless shot but he had done his job!!...We were coasting along to reach the target well but in the way lost ganesh and towards the end vignesh with only 10 odd runs to get. May be he spoke too soon about his flick shot which he managed to play well today but as always that has been his get out stroke and today was no different!!...Yogesh finished it off for us and we reached the targer in the 10 over with 4 overs to spare.
A great team performance and hope we can carry this winning moment forward as we take on shankar and his team from next week in a best of three clash!!...A know opponent so there should be no suprises and i am sure we should finish them off with a 2-0 win!...but i will be missing the match though the coming week but this is something which will spur the team on to win since the last time i missed a match they all know wat wat the result and to bear all my speaking, so they are all keen to set the records straight with a comfortable victory and i do hope so!!.. Keep Rocking guys!!...Cheers!!...
Ganesh
Score Card: Opponent: 62 all out in 12.3 overs
Da 'Freaks : 63/4 in 10 overs
Blog By: Manikandan
Another great day for the freaks as it was a comprehensive victory against an opponet we knew who had to play really well to beat us and as i had commented last week we came up with a great victory. Everything went right with captain raghu winning the toss and as usual we decided to chase even though the reason was more of due to couple of our players wanting to leave early. Myself and suresh started the bowling and we had to bowl to a new pair of openers the opponent seem to have got in their team from the last team we had faced them. The start was promising for them with their bastmen scoring 24 runs in the first 4 overs and just losing a couple of wickets. It was more due to some sloppy work in the field in the second over where we dropped a couple of chances and a missed run out opportunity and the unfortunate bowler was suresh with myself being the main culprit missing few straight forward chances!!... May be that was the only blemish in our otherwise good all round performance.
Goutham and Maddy shared a great bowling partnership by picking up 5 wickets between them!!...A big suprise when we decided to give our owner an opportunity with the ball even though the captain was not to keen on it but he proved everyone wrong with some tight stump to stump line troubling the batsmen with his slow medium!!...Goutham has been great for us in the last couple of matches with the ball but he will be tested in the coming weeks against better teams. The innings was then wrapped with ganesh,jagan picking up wicket a piece. It was a great bowling performance more due to the fact that we did not bother to use sridhar nor vignesh.
We began the chase almost immediately since both vignesh and sridhar wanting to leave. Sridhar tried his bit to wack a few around as he was getting late for him to leave which left us with a early loss of a wicket but vignesh at the other end was batting beautifully picking up the gaps and with some good running between the wickets. Freddie wacked a few around the park which gave a lot of momentum to the chase before he perished to a needless shot but he had done his job!!...We were coasting along to reach the target well but in the way lost ganesh and towards the end vignesh with only 10 odd runs to get. May be he spoke too soon about his flick shot which he managed to play well today but as always that has been his get out stroke and today was no different!!...Yogesh finished it off for us and we reached the targer in the 10 over with 4 overs to spare.
A great team performance and hope we can carry this winning moment forward as we take on shankar and his team from next week in a best of three clash!!...A know opponent so there should be no suprises and i am sure we should finish them off with a 2-0 win!...but i will be missing the match though the coming week but this is something which will spur the team on to win since the last time i missed a match they all know wat wat the result and to bear all my speaking, so they are all keen to set the records straight with a comfortable victory and i do hope so!!.. Keep Rocking guys!!...Cheers!!...
Sunday, June 6, 2010
Comprehensive Victory - Understatement of the year so far
Waiting for Sunday, it seems like an era!! Woke up with a bad temper knowing that it had rained all night but Mani confirmed the match and I headed right out. A pitch to play on was enough for me, forget the outfield, I just wanted to play no matter what.
'Da freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Raghu, Ram, Jagan, Suresh, Ganesh, Yogi, Goutham and Goutham's uncle. Sudharshan came only for the second half.
Opponents: (I leave this for Mani to fill-in)
The outfield was water logged. We won the toss today and elected to bat as we felt that it might rain again this morning. Ram and I opened the batting and we were scoring briskly, 27 off 4 overs. Ram got himself run out and that brought Raghu in. We added another 12 runs off 2 overs and I departed, another run out. It was an impossible run but I obliged!! Raghu did not last long holding out at point. We were scoring more than a run a ball and looked comfortable for 90 plus score. Everyone was timing the ball sweetly and with a closer off side boundary we thought we should at least score 100. Yogi and Goutham combined well in the middle overs and we were heading towards that score. Yogi got out, guess what, another run out and Goutham departed soon afterward. There was a little delay in the middle after the 10th over when it drizzled but the sky opened up soon enough. With some lusty blows by Goutham's uncle, Jagan and Suresh (6 runs off 2 balls, last one was a four!!!!) we ended up with a good score of 94 runs.
Since the climate was very conducive, we were raring to go at the opponents. Their batting display turned out to be a joke.
Suresh got three wickets in his first over, Mani cleaned one, Goutham got another three in his wickets maiden over, Ram as usual bowled 3 overs instead of one but got a wicket, probably the batsman got frustrated :) Jagan bowled one over and got one wicket and so did I and in toto I got three behind the wickets. Raghu too got three wickets but unfortunately they turned out to be our own players in the first innings!! We finished the match in the 8th over and gave away just 35 runs.
There were a couple of comedies in the middle while Mani was fielding but other wise it was not a bad effort on the field. But honestly we weren't chasing the ball much.
The match started around 7.20 and ended by 9.15. Pretty quick.
Winning is good, lets find some better opponents next time. No sweat.
Cheers,
Madhavan
'Da freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Raghu, Ram, Jagan, Suresh, Ganesh, Yogi, Goutham and Goutham's uncle. Sudharshan came only for the second half.
Opponents: (I leave this for Mani to fill-in)
The outfield was water logged. We won the toss today and elected to bat as we felt that it might rain again this morning. Ram and I opened the batting and we were scoring briskly, 27 off 4 overs. Ram got himself run out and that brought Raghu in. We added another 12 runs off 2 overs and I departed, another run out. It was an impossible run but I obliged!! Raghu did not last long holding out at point. We were scoring more than a run a ball and looked comfortable for 90 plus score. Everyone was timing the ball sweetly and with a closer off side boundary we thought we should at least score 100. Yogi and Goutham combined well in the middle overs and we were heading towards that score. Yogi got out, guess what, another run out and Goutham departed soon afterward. There was a little delay in the middle after the 10th over when it drizzled but the sky opened up soon enough. With some lusty blows by Goutham's uncle, Jagan and Suresh (6 runs off 2 balls, last one was a four!!!!) we ended up with a good score of 94 runs.
Since the climate was very conducive, we were raring to go at the opponents. Their batting display turned out to be a joke.
Suresh got three wickets in his first over, Mani cleaned one, Goutham got another three in his wickets maiden over, Ram as usual bowled 3 overs instead of one but got a wicket, probably the batsman got frustrated :) Jagan bowled one over and got one wicket and so did I and in toto I got three behind the wickets. Raghu too got three wickets but unfortunately they turned out to be our own players in the first innings!! We finished the match in the 8th over and gave away just 35 runs.
There were a couple of comedies in the middle while Mani was fielding but other wise it was not a bad effort on the field. But honestly we weren't chasing the ball much.
The match started around 7.20 and ended by 9.15. Pretty quick.
Winning is good, lets find some better opponents next time. No sweat.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Sunday, May 30, 2010
The despair of getting so close yet ending up so far
Let me tell you guys the scoreline first,
Wild Wings - 120 in 14 overs
'Da Freaks - 116 in 14 overs
This is enough to know that both sides bled runs.
Our ensemble happened before 7 today and that was great, add to that a opponent who has a habit of turning up late, we ended up having a good practice session.
Win the toss and field first has been our motto in the morning matches and that is what happened today as well. Mani started brilliantly. In his first two overs he have away only 3 runs. What then started as one bad over turned into a complete mockery. Jagan usually fields at deep cover, but he insisted on doing deep square leg duty today. What a mistake!! He dropped a sitter when Sriram was at naught. He would have definitely scored half of his team's total afterward. There was no particular effort that was worth mentioning after he got going. Partnering Mukesh, the duo added quick runs. Sriram was hitting boundaries at will. There were two really good hits I liked, Sriram's six on the off side and Mukesh's six straight back the bowler. We gave away a boundary every over, if not, we ended up giving 7 to 8 runs any way.
Nothing much can be said about our fielding, it was not bad but not good enough either.
Fred and Suresh started the run chase. Sriram picked up both of them in the second over. While runs were coming we also lost wickets in the process. Sudharshan and Yogi got going and when the score read 44, Sudharshan got out caught at cover. Gautham partnered Yogi for a few overs but he too didn't last long. At this point, we all thought this was a lost cause.
The push came from Sridhar and Jagan when we needed 47 off 4 overs. We made the opponents to err on the field and we profited a lot scampering for basically everything. Throw in a four here and there, we were very much on target to pull off something incredible. Needing 12 runs in the last over and with Sriram bowling that over, we only ended up getting 6 runs The target just proved a little too much to chase down at the end. But cheers to the efforts we put in.
Hoping there will be comments to this post and basically every other afterward. A blog is only as good as the comments it gets.
Ciao,
Madhavan.
Wild Wings - 120 in 14 overs
'Da Freaks - 116 in 14 overs
This is enough to know that both sides bled runs.
Our ensemble happened before 7 today and that was great, add to that a opponent who has a habit of turning up late, we ended up having a good practice session.
Win the toss and field first has been our motto in the morning matches and that is what happened today as well. Mani started brilliantly. In his first two overs he have away only 3 runs. What then started as one bad over turned into a complete mockery. Jagan usually fields at deep cover, but he insisted on doing deep square leg duty today. What a mistake!! He dropped a sitter when Sriram was at naught. He would have definitely scored half of his team's total afterward. There was no particular effort that was worth mentioning after he got going. Partnering Mukesh, the duo added quick runs. Sriram was hitting boundaries at will. There were two really good hits I liked, Sriram's six on the off side and Mukesh's six straight back the bowler. We gave away a boundary every over, if not, we ended up giving 7 to 8 runs any way.
Nothing much can be said about our fielding, it was not bad but not good enough either.
Fred and Suresh started the run chase. Sriram picked up both of them in the second over. While runs were coming we also lost wickets in the process. Sudharshan and Yogi got going and when the score read 44, Sudharshan got out caught at cover. Gautham partnered Yogi for a few overs but he too didn't last long. At this point, we all thought this was a lost cause.
The push came from Sridhar and Jagan when we needed 47 off 4 overs. We made the opponents to err on the field and we profited a lot scampering for basically everything. Throw in a four here and there, we were very much on target to pull off something incredible. Needing 12 runs in the last over and with Sriram bowling that over, we only ended up getting 6 runs The target just proved a little too much to chase down at the end. But cheers to the efforts we put in.
Hoping there will be comments to this post and basically every other afterward. A blog is only as good as the comments it gets.
Ciao,
Madhavan.
Sunday, May 23, 2010
Undone by Mongoose!!
Actually we were undone by our fielding rather, but the title was better :)
Da Freaks for this week were myself, vicky, mani, raghu, sri, ram, kailash, yogi, goutham, suresh and jagan, the opponents were some local 11 I don't remember and the match was played in Alfonso.
The team batting second always have an unfair advantage of escaping the heat. It was telling on the field as we were not quite in our top gear while bowling and stuck in neutral while fielding. It was a score that we should have defended. 78 in 14 overs is not as simple as it seems. The opponents let it very late till the last ball to finish off the match. The fact that we brought it till the last ball shows a lot of character but with 16 needed of 4 overs with 4 batsmen left and one on the field hitting the ball cleanly, it was the opponent's game to loose. They pulled if off by a whisker.
Here is how the match went. We lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Jagan and Ram opened the batting and it was Raghu who thought that a failure by Jagan at the top will keep him quite. To be honest, it is not about proving a point to ourselves but proving a point to opponents. Raghu is still learning his tricks as a captain. Ram and Jagan got out after the third over leaving Kailash and Yogi at the crease. Mani and I went to purchase a new ball for this match as the opponents were complaining about its condition. When we came back, the score card read, 48 in 10 overs and I entered the crease. Didn't do anything as I ran for a non-existent double and got run out without facing a delivery. Some lusty blows by Sri at the end of our innings brought some respect to our score card as it read 77 in 14 overs, we were all out. I think 7 of our batsmen got run out. We really need to work on this.
It was always going to be tough fielding second as it was simmering. The match was very well balanced till the 6th over when Jagan got hit for 14 runs. A guy was playing with the shorter mongoose bat and he remained not out till the end. We never really exploited its weakness as it would have been very difficult to pull. Most of the bowlers were pitching it in the driving length and it was so easy picking the gaps with a thick bottom of the mongoose. From then on it was just a matter of playing the 14 overs for the opponents as it looked an easy chase. We made it so much more easier by dropping all the sitters and giving away extra runs thru over throws. Ram was having a horrible day on the field. Also the intensity on the field was missing as we weren't attacking the ball. Probably its the heat, I keep saying that but we don't really have a choice and to be honest it should not be a big excuse at all. We should now be used to this.
Vicky and Raghu tried their best at the depth but with 16 off 4, it was never going to be enough. Although, the match had an unexpected turn at the end. The opponents kinda switched off needing 7 off 2. The chase went down to the last ball with the score tied. They would run for anything and I wasn't sure we could effect a run out considering our performance on the field so far. As it happened, we failed to hit the target and opponents won!!
We were at least 10 runs short. If we had taken at least one of the 5 missed catches, we could have actually won it, you never know!!
Need to vastly improve our fielding.
Cheers,
Madhavan
P.S: Unable to load the videos, it is taking so much time, might try to stick with just photos next time.
Da Freaks for this week were myself, vicky, mani, raghu, sri, ram, kailash, yogi, goutham, suresh and jagan, the opponents were some local 11 I don't remember and the match was played in Alfonso.
The team batting second always have an unfair advantage of escaping the heat. It was telling on the field as we were not quite in our top gear while bowling and stuck in neutral while fielding. It was a score that we should have defended. 78 in 14 overs is not as simple as it seems. The opponents let it very late till the last ball to finish off the match. The fact that we brought it till the last ball shows a lot of character but with 16 needed of 4 overs with 4 batsmen left and one on the field hitting the ball cleanly, it was the opponent's game to loose. They pulled if off by a whisker.
Here is how the match went. We lost the toss and were asked to bat first. Jagan and Ram opened the batting and it was Raghu who thought that a failure by Jagan at the top will keep him quite. To be honest, it is not about proving a point to ourselves but proving a point to opponents. Raghu is still learning his tricks as a captain. Ram and Jagan got out after the third over leaving Kailash and Yogi at the crease. Mani and I went to purchase a new ball for this match as the opponents were complaining about its condition. When we came back, the score card read, 48 in 10 overs and I entered the crease. Didn't do anything as I ran for a non-existent double and got run out without facing a delivery. Some lusty blows by Sri at the end of our innings brought some respect to our score card as it read 77 in 14 overs, we were all out. I think 7 of our batsmen got run out. We really need to work on this.
It was always going to be tough fielding second as it was simmering. The match was very well balanced till the 6th over when Jagan got hit for 14 runs. A guy was playing with the shorter mongoose bat and he remained not out till the end. We never really exploited its weakness as it would have been very difficult to pull. Most of the bowlers were pitching it in the driving length and it was so easy picking the gaps with a thick bottom of the mongoose. From then on it was just a matter of playing the 14 overs for the opponents as it looked an easy chase. We made it so much more easier by dropping all the sitters and giving away extra runs thru over throws. Ram was having a horrible day on the field. Also the intensity on the field was missing as we weren't attacking the ball. Probably its the heat, I keep saying that but we don't really have a choice and to be honest it should not be a big excuse at all. We should now be used to this.
Vicky and Raghu tried their best at the depth but with 16 off 4, it was never going to be enough. Although, the match had an unexpected turn at the end. The opponents kinda switched off needing 7 off 2. The chase went down to the last ball with the score tied. They would run for anything and I wasn't sure we could effect a run out considering our performance on the field so far. As it happened, we failed to hit the target and opponents won!!
We were at least 10 runs short. If we had taken at least one of the 5 missed catches, we could have actually won it, you never know!!
Need to vastly improve our fielding.
Cheers,
Madhavan
P.S: Unable to load the videos, it is taking so much time, might try to stick with just photos next time.
Sunday, May 16, 2010
Fourth win on the trot - win by 5 wickets
Playing 11: Mani, Maddy, Vignesh, Sridar, Jagan, Suresh, Sudarshan, Ganesh, Eshwar, Balaji and Muthu.
Opponents: Dinesh's team - Wild Wings
Blogged by:Vignesh
We did not update this blog last week. But it was a comprehensive win for 'Da Freaks. We defeated Shankar's team by 22 runs. We were back playing against the team which we play often. So much so that, we even know their strengths and weaknesses. And they were playing without their best player (Sriram), which should have made things easier for us. However, the way they batted and the terrible heat made it tough for us.
We won the toss and citing the heat, we decided to field first. We decided to hold back Mani for the middle overs and opened with Suresh and Sridar. Sridar was in his elements bowling well but Suresh was getting hit. And Mani gave him an extra over too as he felt he wasn't good at 'the death'. They lost two wickets (Suresh picking up one wicket and a run out) and were coasting at close to 6 rpo at the end of the 5th over. Jagan's introduction didn't make any difference as he was taken for runs as well. Mani bowled a couple of overs and I remember him picking up the wicket of their standby captain. That guy was looking dangerous. They were 52 after 8 overs. I bowled a couple of overs but my second one went for runs as my slower ball was hit for a six over square leg. I had gone for 20 off 2 overs. Mani and Sridar wrapped up the innings with a couple of decent overs. But our bowling lacked the sting. We managed to pick up only 4-5 wickets and had leaked 87 runs in 12 overs.
We began our innings with Sudarshan and Ganesh. Both of them were splendid in their strokeplay. Their bowling was mediocre to say the least. But credit should be given to our guys for taking full advantage. Sudharshan was severe on short pitched stuff and Ganesh was his usual self, scoring heavily on the leg side. They put on some 40 odd runs in 5 overs. Sudharshan was the first to go caught in the deep. We had a small collapse thereafter with Balaji and Ganesh getting out soon after. We were 58 after 8 overs. Maddy and Muthu were on the crease but Muthu got out in the next over. We promoted Jagan as he is a good hitter but he fell immediately too. I had joined Maddy in the middle and we needed 27 off 26 balls. From thereon, both Maddy and myself kept taking the ones and twos. But the heat was too much that I had to ask for a bye-runner. We needed 10 off the last 2 overs and we took 8 in the penultimate over, virtually sealing the match. It felt good to knock off the winning runs as I was happy that we didn't choke in the end.
Sudharshan and Ganesh set it up and it was closed out by Maddy and myself. I wish our bowling performs to its potential and fielding was not upto the mark.
Cheers to the 'Da Freaks for making it four in a row. Lets make it 5 next week.
Opponents: Dinesh's team - Wild Wings
Blogged by:Vignesh
We did not update this blog last week. But it was a comprehensive win for 'Da Freaks. We defeated Shankar's team by 22 runs. We were back playing against the team which we play often. So much so that, we even know their strengths and weaknesses. And they were playing without their best player (Sriram), which should have made things easier for us. However, the way they batted and the terrible heat made it tough for us.
We won the toss and citing the heat, we decided to field first. We decided to hold back Mani for the middle overs and opened with Suresh and Sridar. Sridar was in his elements bowling well but Suresh was getting hit. And Mani gave him an extra over too as he felt he wasn't good at 'the death'. They lost two wickets (Suresh picking up one wicket and a run out) and were coasting at close to 6 rpo at the end of the 5th over. Jagan's introduction didn't make any difference as he was taken for runs as well. Mani bowled a couple of overs and I remember him picking up the wicket of their standby captain. That guy was looking dangerous. They were 52 after 8 overs. I bowled a couple of overs but my second one went for runs as my slower ball was hit for a six over square leg. I had gone for 20 off 2 overs. Mani and Sridar wrapped up the innings with a couple of decent overs. But our bowling lacked the sting. We managed to pick up only 4-5 wickets and had leaked 87 runs in 12 overs.
We began our innings with Sudarshan and Ganesh. Both of them were splendid in their strokeplay. Their bowling was mediocre to say the least. But credit should be given to our guys for taking full advantage. Sudharshan was severe on short pitched stuff and Ganesh was his usual self, scoring heavily on the leg side. They put on some 40 odd runs in 5 overs. Sudharshan was the first to go caught in the deep. We had a small collapse thereafter with Balaji and Ganesh getting out soon after. We were 58 after 8 overs. Maddy and Muthu were on the crease but Muthu got out in the next over. We promoted Jagan as he is a good hitter but he fell immediately too. I had joined Maddy in the middle and we needed 27 off 26 balls. From thereon, both Maddy and myself kept taking the ones and twos. But the heat was too much that I had to ask for a bye-runner. We needed 10 off the last 2 overs and we took 8 in the penultimate over, virtually sealing the match. It felt good to knock off the winning runs as I was happy that we didn't choke in the end.
Sudharshan and Ganesh set it up and it was closed out by Maddy and myself. I wish our bowling performs to its potential and fielding was not upto the mark.
Cheers to the 'Da Freaks for making it four in a row. Lets make it 5 next week.
Sunday, May 2, 2010
Celebrating a team effort
Today we are celebrating a good team effort, which resulted in a comfortable victory.
Ground: Alfonso
'Da Freaks: Vicky, Mani, Maddy, Raghu, Sri, Jagan, Sudharshan, Suresh, Easwar, Ganesh and Balaji (Goutham's uncle)
Opponents: A local Alfonso group
The pitch was opposite to the one we usually play on and the leg-side boundary was kinda short as well. We lost the toss and the opponents decided to chase. This was the first time we were setting a target after we took the morning game call. I guess in the back of our mind we all wanted to know how we would fare bowling second when the heat is turned on, both on and over the pitch.
I started with Sri, some how Raghu and co think I can fare well opening the innings. I wish I get consistent enough. Today though was not a bad day at all. Sri and I complicated a simple two and according to Sri I got him run out. Either way, he had to go. Vicky came and gone without troubling the score as he hauled out to fine leg. This is when Sudharshan and I joined to get the partnership going. I was able to run for myself for 4 overs and Vicky ran for the rest of my innings. 4 overs is decent for my stamina, hopefully I can continue and improve on this. We got the score from 7 for 2 in two to 44 for 2 in 8 overs. Then Sudharshan and I got out to some poor shot selection, I was some how able to get the short pitched out side off stump delivery straight to the fielder and Sudharshan caught out at mid off.
Raghu and Ganesh steered the ship for a few overs, in between Ganesh lost the ball hitting it inside one of the building. After some dance shows from Suresh, we managed to get 73 off 14 overs. We didn't manage to play the full quota. Probably a ball or two short of 14 overs.
Mani and Suresh were opening the bowling, Mani as usual was in good form, but Suresh was taken to the cleaners in his first over though we managed to get a run out in that over. The turning point was Jagan's over when he got 3 wickets, two skiers, Vicky managing to hold on to a great catch, even fell over and Suresh running across to collect a stunner. One caught behind, I took a very simple catch. Sridhar combined with Jagan and bowled some good overs, unlucky for him the nicks behind were not given out. Raghu was not in his element bowling. Gave away 7 runs in his only over. Always leggish. The opponents resilience was good. They kept on ticking the runs. At the end of the 10th over, they needed 20 runs to cross home. Vicky and Mani bowled well to keep them in check and we effected two run outs at the end to get across the finishing line with their score card reading 63 all out. In toto, we effected 4 run outs, 5 catches and once managed to knock off the stumps.
Everyone played their part well. Everyone had a say in our victory today, which is nice. Hoping for another team effort next time around.
I was not in the mood to take videos. But the victory gave me enough to take a few pics at the end of the match. Will try to capture more in the coming weeks.
Cheers,
Maddy
Ground: Alfonso
'Da Freaks: Vicky, Mani, Maddy, Raghu, Sri, Jagan, Sudharshan, Suresh, Easwar, Ganesh and Balaji (Goutham's uncle)
Opponents: A local Alfonso group
The pitch was opposite to the one we usually play on and the leg-side boundary was kinda short as well. We lost the toss and the opponents decided to chase. This was the first time we were setting a target after we took the morning game call. I guess in the back of our mind we all wanted to know how we would fare bowling second when the heat is turned on, both on and over the pitch.
I started with Sri, some how Raghu and co think I can fare well opening the innings. I wish I get consistent enough. Today though was not a bad day at all. Sri and I complicated a simple two and according to Sri I got him run out. Either way, he had to go. Vicky came and gone without troubling the score as he hauled out to fine leg. This is when Sudharshan and I joined to get the partnership going. I was able to run for myself for 4 overs and Vicky ran for the rest of my innings. 4 overs is decent for my stamina, hopefully I can continue and improve on this. We got the score from 7 for 2 in two to 44 for 2 in 8 overs. Then Sudharshan and I got out to some poor shot selection, I was some how able to get the short pitched out side off stump delivery straight to the fielder and Sudharshan caught out at mid off.
Raghu and Ganesh steered the ship for a few overs, in between Ganesh lost the ball hitting it inside one of the building. After some dance shows from Suresh, we managed to get 73 off 14 overs. We didn't manage to play the full quota. Probably a ball or two short of 14 overs.
Mani and Suresh were opening the bowling, Mani as usual was in good form, but Suresh was taken to the cleaners in his first over though we managed to get a run out in that over. The turning point was Jagan's over when he got 3 wickets, two skiers, Vicky managing to hold on to a great catch, even fell over and Suresh running across to collect a stunner. One caught behind, I took a very simple catch. Sridhar combined with Jagan and bowled some good overs, unlucky for him the nicks behind were not given out. Raghu was not in his element bowling. Gave away 7 runs in his only over. Always leggish. The opponents resilience was good. They kept on ticking the runs. At the end of the 10th over, they needed 20 runs to cross home. Vicky and Mani bowled well to keep them in check and we effected two run outs at the end to get across the finishing line with their score card reading 63 all out. In toto, we effected 4 run outs, 5 catches and once managed to knock off the stumps.
Everyone played their part well. Everyone had a say in our victory today, which is nice. Hoping for another team effort next time around.
I was not in the mood to take videos. But the victory gave me enough to take a few pics at the end of the match. Will try to capture more in the coming weeks.
Cheers,
Maddy
Sunday, April 25, 2010
Average Bowling and Decent Chasing
Hi this is Maddy again, after a couple weeks of different dissections.
Ground - Triangle ground (we are fed up with this tournament business in alfonso, plainly sucks)
Opponents - Some local fellas
Our Team: Maddy, Vicky, Mani, Jagan, Raghav, Raghu, Sri, Ram, Yogi and Mr. Ambani (Suresh), only 10 this time
I am not commenting on who won the toss, we were asked to bowl first and it goes well for us in this heat. Raghu was asked to Captain the side and he seems to take it quite seriously, changing the field and bowlers around as he saw fit under the circumstances, not all his decisions were right but at least there was just one guy who was calling the shots today for us. He can only get better.
Our bowling for the first 6 overs were either quite brilliant or decent enough to suck the wind out of an ordinary batting team's sails. It even prompted Raghu to call on Raghav for an over, which started the landslide. It was simple equation. Pitch the ball, even if it is to a driving length and you get away with just a few runs. Full toss, leg stump, forget to run. It was raining boundaries in the last few overs especially of Mani and Yogi. Before that Sri and Mani did bowl some good overs to get a heap of wickets, we just lost the plot mid-way. From 27 in 6 overs to 80 in 12, the scoreline speaks for itself. Fielding-wise we were not bad, overthrows were controlled. Catches, most of them, taken except I remember Vicky misjudging one in the first over, but it did not cost us much.
Chasing 81 in 12 overs, we started off with Yogi and Raghav. Raghav ran himself out, but I guess we were not specific on a few things like a run being granted if it hits others inside the circle. Jagan joined Yogi for a few overs and the runs trickled. The push came when Vicky joined Yogi at the crease and they started running hard and we were abreast of the run rate. Raghu and Ram joined the party to take us close to the total, Raghu specifically was in good touch. With 8 runs to get in 2 overs, I joined Ram at the crease. Kaipilla in his usual self was trying.... something and thank god he eventually got run out. How did he ever think that I would run for a single to the danger end when the ball was in the keeper's hands, only he can answer :) Sridhar and I ran the next necessary runs in the end and I didn't get to face a single delivery :(
We won and overall it was quite good to be back to winning ways after the humiliating loss the other week.
I'll try to post a few more videos.
Ciao.
Ground - Triangle ground (we are fed up with this tournament business in alfonso, plainly sucks)
Opponents - Some local fellas
Our Team: Maddy, Vicky, Mani, Jagan, Raghav, Raghu, Sri, Ram, Yogi and Mr. Ambani (Suresh), only 10 this time
I am not commenting on who won the toss, we were asked to bowl first and it goes well for us in this heat. Raghu was asked to Captain the side and he seems to take it quite seriously, changing the field and bowlers around as he saw fit under the circumstances, not all his decisions were right but at least there was just one guy who was calling the shots today for us. He can only get better.
Our bowling for the first 6 overs were either quite brilliant or decent enough to suck the wind out of an ordinary batting team's sails. It even prompted Raghu to call on Raghav for an over, which started the landslide. It was simple equation. Pitch the ball, even if it is to a driving length and you get away with just a few runs. Full toss, leg stump, forget to run. It was raining boundaries in the last few overs especially of Mani and Yogi. Before that Sri and Mani did bowl some good overs to get a heap of wickets, we just lost the plot mid-way. From 27 in 6 overs to 80 in 12, the scoreline speaks for itself. Fielding-wise we were not bad, overthrows were controlled. Catches, most of them, taken except I remember Vicky misjudging one in the first over, but it did not cost us much.
Chasing 81 in 12 overs, we started off with Yogi and Raghav. Raghav ran himself out, but I guess we were not specific on a few things like a run being granted if it hits others inside the circle. Jagan joined Yogi for a few overs and the runs trickled. The push came when Vicky joined Yogi at the crease and they started running hard and we were abreast of the run rate. Raghu and Ram joined the party to take us close to the total, Raghu specifically was in good touch. With 8 runs to get in 2 overs, I joined Ram at the crease. Kaipilla in his usual self was trying.... something and thank god he eventually got run out. How did he ever think that I would run for a single to the danger end when the ball was in the keeper's hands, only he can answer :) Sridhar and I ran the next necessary runs in the end and I didn't get to face a single delivery :(
We won and overall it was quite good to be back to winning ways after the humiliating loss the other week.
I'll try to post a few more videos.
Ciao.
Sunday, April 18, 2010
Humiliating Performance........
Da'Freaks :
Mani,Vignesh,Maddy,Raghavendran,Raghu,Sridhar,Suresh,Yogesh,Ram,Kailash,Jagan
Blog by: Manikandan(Not a great time to post my first blog!..)
We Lost by 32 runs after winning the toss and electing to bowl which has been our strategy these days. I would rate our bowling attach right up there with the best teams going around in tennis ball cricket, very rarely you get to have the luxury of having people bowling at some serious pace just that if we can combine it with little more discipline and vastly improved fielding performance we would be easily able to restrict the opponents to even more below par scores.
Scorecard: South Madras Stallions---95/9 in 14 overs
Da Freaks---------------------------63/9 in 14 overs
The defeat margin should say the story and i can hardly remember a game where we have been beaten up so com promisingly..Starting up with the few good things that we did on a day we were literally thrashed!..Having decided to bowl first jagan and suresh started off the proceeding as i wanted to hold myself back just to stop the leakage of runs in the middle overs. They did a prety decent job in the first four overs even though we did not manage to pick up any wickets. Myself and Sridhar shared the attach for the next four overs but i was not able to hit my stride with the congested crowd hardly allowing me to have a run up but no excuses after playing for so long in this kind of environment should have done better even though i picked up 4 wickets including the all important wicket of hari clearly i could have done better,just gave away few free hits with some poor bowling. Yogesh and vignesh were the stars of the day with the ball both restricted the run flow and picking up wickets as well with the kind of start and the way they batted in the middle we managed to pull things back a bit and in the end we were set a target of 96 to chase which i felt was 10 odd runs too many. Our fielding was shocking in explicable would have easily gave away 10 to 15 runs with ram having a worst day in the field managing to misfiled in all the positons he was made to stand and myself too did misfield few shockers along with others we clearly need to back our bowlers who run in hard in the heat and put in a big effort and it should be backed up by the fielders.
What followed after all this was something terrible i am just in search of words for the batting performance we displayed. Ganguly had gone about and said his team played rubish after the loss against bangalore but wat we did today worst than all that. Vignesh and maddy opened the innings and after 6 overs it was all done and dusted the ball hardly went off the square our batsmen struggling to even get bat on ball clearly we lacked the skills to combat some very good bowling and hari was just too hot to handle for our batsmen with someone like yogesh who is better player in our team technically found it hard to even get bat on ball they kept firing the balls on our middle and leg stumps for which we had no clue. All the faces told the story they were all shocked and the worst thing is i had to see all this from the centre umpiring. We managed to score 63 just because they brought about few of their weak bowlers.
We lost the three match series 2-0 but we had our chances to win the first game made a mess of it. We need to be disciplined if we really wish to improve as a team or as an individual this is something i just wish our boys will realize sooner than later we can clearly work out on our weakness as i have said before got great bowlers we can bowl to each other on our weak ares improve ourself but for which we require that discipline of being there in the ground on time and practice before the match no point saying our middle order has not had enough chances we need to be in touch with some good practice.
We better convert this anger and frustration on our opponents next week and come with a spirited performance. May be the next time we meet hari & Co got to prove them few things but before that we need lots of soul searching to do and lift our performance!..Come on guys!..lets start doing it!..
Mani,Vignesh,Maddy,Raghavendran,Raghu,Sridhar,Suresh,Yogesh,Ram,Kailash,Jagan
Blog by: Manikandan(Not a great time to post my first blog!..)
We Lost by 32 runs after winning the toss and electing to bowl which has been our strategy these days. I would rate our bowling attach right up there with the best teams going around in tennis ball cricket, very rarely you get to have the luxury of having people bowling at some serious pace just that if we can combine it with little more discipline and vastly improved fielding performance we would be easily able to restrict the opponents to even more below par scores.
Scorecard: South Madras Stallions---95/9 in 14 overs
Da Freaks---------------------------63/9 in 14 overs
The defeat margin should say the story and i can hardly remember a game where we have been beaten up so com promisingly..Starting up with the few good things that we did on a day we were literally thrashed!..Having decided to bowl first jagan and suresh started off the proceeding as i wanted to hold myself back just to stop the leakage of runs in the middle overs. They did a prety decent job in the first four overs even though we did not manage to pick up any wickets. Myself and Sridhar shared the attach for the next four overs but i was not able to hit my stride with the congested crowd hardly allowing me to have a run up but no excuses after playing for so long in this kind of environment should have done better even though i picked up 4 wickets including the all important wicket of hari clearly i could have done better,just gave away few free hits with some poor bowling. Yogesh and vignesh were the stars of the day with the ball both restricted the run flow and picking up wickets as well with the kind of start and the way they batted in the middle we managed to pull things back a bit and in the end we were set a target of 96 to chase which i felt was 10 odd runs too many. Our fielding was shocking in explicable would have easily gave away 10 to 15 runs with ram having a worst day in the field managing to misfiled in all the positons he was made to stand and myself too did misfield few shockers along with others we clearly need to back our bowlers who run in hard in the heat and put in a big effort and it should be backed up by the fielders.
What followed after all this was something terrible i am just in search of words for the batting performance we displayed. Ganguly had gone about and said his team played rubish after the loss against bangalore but wat we did today worst than all that. Vignesh and maddy opened the innings and after 6 overs it was all done and dusted the ball hardly went off the square our batsmen struggling to even get bat on ball clearly we lacked the skills to combat some very good bowling and hari was just too hot to handle for our batsmen with someone like yogesh who is better player in our team technically found it hard to even get bat on ball they kept firing the balls on our middle and leg stumps for which we had no clue. All the faces told the story they were all shocked and the worst thing is i had to see all this from the centre umpiring. We managed to score 63 just because they brought about few of their weak bowlers.
We lost the three match series 2-0 but we had our chances to win the first game made a mess of it. We need to be disciplined if we really wish to improve as a team or as an individual this is something i just wish our boys will realize sooner than later we can clearly work out on our weakness as i have said before got great bowlers we can bowl to each other on our weak ares improve ourself but for which we require that discipline of being there in the ground on time and practice before the match no point saying our middle order has not had enough chances we need to be in touch with some good practice.
We better convert this anger and frustration on our opponents next week and come with a spirited performance. May be the next time we meet hari & Co got to prove them few things but before that we need lots of soul searching to do and lift our performance!..Come on guys!..lets start doing it!..
Sunday, April 11, 2010
Choked in the end - Lost by 16 runs
Though the margin of defeat is 16 runs, we had 10 balls to spare and it must be said we had lost from a winning position. We lost the last 6 wickets for just 12 runs. In short, we choked. How else could I explain the team getting all out for 68 when we were cruising at 56-4 in the 9th over?? We needed 29 off 5 overs and we just lost our way.
Maddy skipped today's game. Freddie lost the toss and the opposition decided to bat. Mani and Suresh started off. We got a wicket in the first over as I took a catch in the deep mid-wicket off Mani. Suresh/Raghu combo produced a run out and Suresh rattled the sticks for the third wicket. But runs were leaking and they scored 26 off the first 4 overs.
Jagan bowled an ordinary 5th over giving away more than 10 runs and Sridar, kind of, emulated Jagan. But Sridar picked up a wicket and they were 50/4 in 6 overs. I bowled the 7th over and managed to dismiss the big left handed guy caught and bowled. They were getting runs easily though the wickets were falling. They had posted 73-5 in 9 overs. Then Raghu produced what I call a "lucky over" because he got 2 wickets, both off useless deliveries. Suresh took a catch in deep point and I took a catch behind the wicket. The former, was a short ball and the latter, a full toss. They were 77-7 after 10 overs. Suresh got 3 wickets in one over, the 12th over - two were caught behind and the third one was bowled. We were lucky to get them all out for 84 as a total of 100 was not beyond their reach.
We started off the chase with Jagan and Sudarshan. Both wanted to leave home early and they left the pitch early. Jagan was run out and Sudarshan caught down the leg side. Ram joined Yogesh in the middle and before he could do any damage, he was run out, which he thought was not out. But Freddie gave it out. Yogesh was finding his touch after a sedate start and with Raghu, he found an able ally to begin the fightback. We had stumbled to 21-3 after 5 overs. Raghu was in good form striking the ball well. Raghu even hit a six through widish long on. It was a great shot considering how effortless it was. Yogesh got out trying force the pace and Freddie joined Raghu. Freddie was equally severe on the bowling hitting fours on the leg side and we cruised to 56-4 in the 9th over. Thats when Raghu called Ram(running for Fred) for a non-existent run and Freddie was out. Raghu got out in the very next over. This was the turning point as the batsmen who came in (Myself, Sridar, Mani, Kailash and Suresh in that order) jus couldn't finish it off. 25 runs were needed off 4 overs. Sridar went for a wild swipe and was bowled. Mani got run out as he tried to take advantage of an overthrow [he says it was my fault, but I thought there was no run:-) ]. Kailash tried his best but fell for a reverse sweep and Suresh was bowled to leave me stranded at the other end. We eventually were all out for 68 in the 13th over.
The positives were Raghu and Freddie's batting. But the negatives were our lack of finishing skills and our bad ground fielding. I think its time we nominate one wicket keeper and stick to him rather than playing musical chairs. Today, the byes were on the higher side. These little things matter a lot on hindsight.
Lets hope we get over these next week.
Maddy skipped today's game. Freddie lost the toss and the opposition decided to bat. Mani and Suresh started off. We got a wicket in the first over as I took a catch in the deep mid-wicket off Mani. Suresh/Raghu combo produced a run out and Suresh rattled the sticks for the third wicket. But runs were leaking and they scored 26 off the first 4 overs.
Jagan bowled an ordinary 5th over giving away more than 10 runs and Sridar, kind of, emulated Jagan. But Sridar picked up a wicket and they were 50/4 in 6 overs. I bowled the 7th over and managed to dismiss the big left handed guy caught and bowled. They were getting runs easily though the wickets were falling. They had posted 73-5 in 9 overs. Then Raghu produced what I call a "lucky over" because he got 2 wickets, both off useless deliveries. Suresh took a catch in deep point and I took a catch behind the wicket. The former, was a short ball and the latter, a full toss. They were 77-7 after 10 overs. Suresh got 3 wickets in one over, the 12th over - two were caught behind and the third one was bowled. We were lucky to get them all out for 84 as a total of 100 was not beyond their reach.
We started off the chase with Jagan and Sudarshan. Both wanted to leave home early and they left the pitch early. Jagan was run out and Sudarshan caught down the leg side. Ram joined Yogesh in the middle and before he could do any damage, he was run out, which he thought was not out. But Freddie gave it out. Yogesh was finding his touch after a sedate start and with Raghu, he found an able ally to begin the fightback. We had stumbled to 21-3 after 5 overs. Raghu was in good form striking the ball well. Raghu even hit a six through widish long on. It was a great shot considering how effortless it was. Yogesh got out trying force the pace and Freddie joined Raghu. Freddie was equally severe on the bowling hitting fours on the leg side and we cruised to 56-4 in the 9th over. Thats when Raghu called Ram(running for Fred) for a non-existent run and Freddie was out. Raghu got out in the very next over. This was the turning point as the batsmen who came in (Myself, Sridar, Mani, Kailash and Suresh in that order) jus couldn't finish it off. 25 runs were needed off 4 overs. Sridar went for a wild swipe and was bowled. Mani got run out as he tried to take advantage of an overthrow [he says it was my fault, but I thought there was no run:-) ]. Kailash tried his best but fell for a reverse sweep and Suresh was bowled to leave me stranded at the other end. We eventually were all out for 68 in the 13th over.
The positives were Raghu and Freddie's batting. But the negatives were our lack of finishing skills and our bad ground fielding. I think its time we nominate one wicket keeper and stick to him rather than playing musical chairs. Today, the byes were on the higher side. These little things matter a lot on hindsight.
Lets hope we get over these next week.
Sunday, March 28, 2010
A very good run chase - 28th Macrh 2010
We are beating the sun, or to say for early part of it at least we are escaping its heat, morning game is in order and that is quite a relief for us all. Leaving the obvious reason behind, we also get to rest and get charged up for Monday. Its the third week of our brand new odyssey and my first blog.
Team: Mani (Captain), Vicky (Captain/ Item), Maddy (Captain/ Owner), Raghavendran (Idli), Kailash, Ram (Kaipilla), Sridhar, Raghu, Yogesh, Goutham and Jagan (Jug head/ Broker/ Agent)
After a win and a loss (more like a throw-away) in the first two games, we went into battle with our favourite opponents, Dinesh's team. They even got jerseys, Wild Wings or something they call themselves. But the thing is Sriram is calling himself the 'Boss', someone is 'Ambrose' (looked like a moth) and one other is 'Ryder' though he had the structure as Ryder and did not get to bat at all, I guess he is ok.
I think its voodoo or something but its been a while since we won the toss, be it Mani or Idli to challenge our luck. But its always good to bowl first and escape fielding in the heat. Only problem is there are so many teams playing, its hard to concentrate and field.
We got a wicket first ball, bowled, Mani doing the damage. A couple of hits and a run out after, Sriram joined hands with Mukesh? Was his name Mukesh? Anyway, it was the partnership which gave momentum to their innings, from 4 to 8 overs, we were put to the sword, specially Vicky was taken for granted. Runs leaked and it took a good over from Raghu to peg back things. Still the impact was enough for them to reach 94 in 14 overs. Thanks to Mani's last two good overs, we were chasing a gettable total.
Yogi and Goutham started the innings and Gouti didn't last long. He hold out to a full toss. Raghu and Yogi kept the runs coming at a steady rate. the most important thing for us chasing a total is not to lose wickets, that looked like the sort of plan in their mind. We were 27 off 5 overs. Raghu felt thirsty and got out :)
The partnership of the game came after Kaipilla walked in. He was timing the ball as well as he had ever done, and soon enough, the floodgates were opened. Thats when the opponents took their strategic time out, the first ball after got the better of Kaipilla, caught mid wicket/ square leg, the guy was standing in the middle!!
Yogi kept on going, bludgeoning the attack with timely boundaries and to think he ran for himself till the end speaks volume of his energy. When Yogi got out we needed 4 tuns off 2 overs. I took three of them in as much deliveries only for Idli to change the innings into an almost anti-climax. He was helping the Chennai Corp by sweeping the pitch!! He almost got himself hurt by doing that. The message was pretty clear from Kailash, don't let my brother face another delivery please. Idli score the wining run nonetheless, actually it took a full toss and an accidental connection of bat and ball to pull us thru, I should say.
A good run chase, this was. We didn't feel the heat (of the moment, that is). Lets keep it tight in the coming weeks.
Adios.
Team: Mani (Captain), Vicky (Captain/ Item), Maddy (Captain/ Owner), Raghavendran (Idli), Kailash, Ram (Kaipilla), Sridhar, Raghu, Yogesh, Goutham and Jagan (Jug head/ Broker/ Agent)
After a win and a loss (more like a throw-away) in the first two games, we went into battle with our favourite opponents, Dinesh's team. They even got jerseys, Wild Wings or something they call themselves. But the thing is Sriram is calling himself the 'Boss', someone is 'Ambrose' (looked like a moth) and one other is 'Ryder' though he had the structure as Ryder and did not get to bat at all, I guess he is ok.
I think its voodoo or something but its been a while since we won the toss, be it Mani or Idli to challenge our luck. But its always good to bowl first and escape fielding in the heat. Only problem is there are so many teams playing, its hard to concentrate and field.
We got a wicket first ball, bowled, Mani doing the damage. A couple of hits and a run out after, Sriram joined hands with Mukesh? Was his name Mukesh? Anyway, it was the partnership which gave momentum to their innings, from 4 to 8 overs, we were put to the sword, specially Vicky was taken for granted. Runs leaked and it took a good over from Raghu to peg back things. Still the impact was enough for them to reach 94 in 14 overs. Thanks to Mani's last two good overs, we were chasing a gettable total.
Yogi and Goutham started the innings and Gouti didn't last long. He hold out to a full toss. Raghu and Yogi kept the runs coming at a steady rate. the most important thing for us chasing a total is not to lose wickets, that looked like the sort of plan in their mind. We were 27 off 5 overs. Raghu felt thirsty and got out :)
The partnership of the game came after Kaipilla walked in. He was timing the ball as well as he had ever done, and soon enough, the floodgates were opened. Thats when the opponents took their strategic time out, the first ball after got the better of Kaipilla, caught mid wicket/ square leg, the guy was standing in the middle!!
Yogi kept on going, bludgeoning the attack with timely boundaries and to think he ran for himself till the end speaks volume of his energy. When Yogi got out we needed 4 tuns off 2 overs. I took three of them in as much deliveries only for Idli to change the innings into an almost anti-climax. He was helping the Chennai Corp by sweeping the pitch!! He almost got himself hurt by doing that. The message was pretty clear from Kailash, don't let my brother face another delivery please. Idli score the wining run nonetheless, actually it took a full toss and an accidental connection of bat and ball to pull us thru, I should say.
A good run chase, this was. We didn't feel the heat (of the moment, that is). Lets keep it tight in the coming weeks.
Adios.
Sunday, March 7, 2010
Can we be any worse in bowling?
Its getting terribly hot out there and we are all feeling the heat. Excruciating heat. Mani was not available today, our opponents were Kailash's colleagues. For reason unknown, we opted for a 15 over match.
We were to set the target and what a start it was!! Jughead and I opened the batting, I was the mover and Jughead the shaker. For almost 10 overs, we didn't lose that partnership and scored 72 runs. Jughead scored the bulk of the runs, I would have definitely crossed 20
There was not even an iota of gas left in my tank half way thru. Jughead was running with his tweaked foot but I can't seem to help. I had to hand over the bat to someone. Retired.
The much needed impetus to the innings was given by Idli at the end. We amassed 117 runs in 15 overs. It was terrific batting.
We lost the match when we underestimated the opponents and made fun of them. We were planning to give Idli and myself a go at the batsmen even before the innings had started. Goutham, Suresh, Sridhar, Raghu and Vicky all went for runs. For a moment, when three wickets fell in quick succession, we thought we had a chance. But not to be. I dropped a catch, Jughead's misfield in the penultimate over, all cost us the match. Raghu and Suresh were bowling as if this was a match against kids. Very very bad.
Line and length went out of the window and we bleeded runs. The match was lost eventually in the last over. We got to give it to the opponents, they chased superbly. Never panicked. Hats off!!
We gotta bounce back next time, take the positives out of this game and come hard.
Cheers.
We were to set the target and what a start it was!! Jughead and I opened the batting, I was the mover and Jughead the shaker. For almost 10 overs, we didn't lose that partnership and scored 72 runs. Jughead scored the bulk of the runs, I would have definitely crossed 20
There was not even an iota of gas left in my tank half way thru. Jughead was running with his tweaked foot but I can't seem to help. I had to hand over the bat to someone. Retired.
The much needed impetus to the innings was given by Idli at the end. We amassed 117 runs in 15 overs. It was terrific batting.
We lost the match when we underestimated the opponents and made fun of them. We were planning to give Idli and myself a go at the batsmen even before the innings had started. Goutham, Suresh, Sridhar, Raghu and Vicky all went for runs. For a moment, when three wickets fell in quick succession, we thought we had a chance. But not to be. I dropped a catch, Jughead's misfield in the penultimate over, all cost us the match. Raghu and Suresh were bowling as if this was a match against kids. Very very bad.
Line and length went out of the window and we bleeded runs. The match was lost eventually in the last over. We got to give it to the opponents, they chased superbly. Never panicked. Hats off!!
We gotta bounce back next time, take the positives out of this game and come hard.
Cheers.
Monday, February 22, 2010
Victory from the doors of defeat - 21-Feb-10
Hi. This is Vignesh blogging as our official blogger Maddy (due to head ache) had to leave home midway during the match. As is our routine, the toss was lost..:) But today we handed ourselves a memorable win.
Mani and Suresh started off the proceedings and bowled 4 good overs for just 12 runs and picked up 3 wickets. I guess we lost the plot after that. Jagan was welcomed with a huge six over wide long on and was also dispatched for a four through the leg side. I bowled the next over and I gave away a couple of boundaries. A guy named Gopi batted really well and the score boomed to 32 for 3 after 6 overs.
Sridhar bowled the 7th over and he too leaked runs but picked up the important wicket of Sriram, courtesy a good catch by Mani at long off. It was a skier and Mani judged it well enough. In the next over bowled by Jagan, Gopi got out through a run out by Sudharshan. The back to back wickets kind of brought us back into the game as they were 53 after 9 overs. The last 3 overs yielded 22 runs as our death bowling was not upto the mark and Dinesh and co promptly scored freely.
The target was 76 off 12 overs and it was attainable. I opened the innings with Kailash and I decided to go after the bowlers immediately. I was successful to an extent as we fetched 12 off the first over. Kailash got out bowled to Sriram and Raghu came in at No.3. We batted for a while before Raghu’s pull went straight to deep midwicket. Maddy walked in at No.4 but did not last long as he was caught behind. I got out almost immediately trying to play a pull and edged it down the leg side to the keeper. It was disappointing as it was a soft dismissal and also, I thought I was meddling the ball well. I think the score read 25 for 4 after 4 overs.
Sudharshan and Sridar brought us back in to the game with some crisp hits. Sridhar hit a four through long on and Sudharshan struck one through point. The score read 45 runs off 8 overs. But the innings stuttered when both Sridar and Sudharshan got out. When Mani got out to a poorly judged single, we were staring down the barrel after with 20 runs needed off the last 2 overs. This was when Raghavendran and Jagan got together. Raghavendran found the perfect time to return to form with some muscular hits down the leg side. Jagan was his perfect foil and they plundered 10 runs off the penultimate over. 10 runs needed off the last over and Sriram was the bowler. The first one was a dot ball. Raghavendran pulled the next one for a four. He got out off the third ball caught in the deep. 6 runs needed off 3 balls. Jagan managed to get 2 off the fouth ball. He scored another 2 off the 5th ball thanks to some good running by Suresh and Raghu(bye runner for Jagan). The ball was deftly touched and they scampered for a single and there was an overthrow which let them take another run.
Two runs were required off the last ball. Sriram bowled a ball outside off which was smartly nudged by Jagan behind the wickets for 2 runs. The whole team, sans Maddy, celebrated madly. This has to be rated as one of our best wins. The key was that our batting clicked and no one let go many dot balls. It was fun to see the opposition camp dissecting what went wrong in the game..:-) ‘Da Freaks will have their new jersey this week. Hope it brings a lot more luck to us.
Cheers
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