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

Not a good performance

If there is one word to describe our batting efforts today it would be 'hmmm' and thats not even a word!! Buoyed by the expectation of a jersey the coming week, we set out against actually a weak opposition brought in by Suresh as a cover since our usual opponents were at it for the day. First things first, I wouldn't want to call names but the way a few guys held up the ground for their benefit and then the police coming to their aid after probably having had their pockets full, it is hard to cover in decency. Vicky and I had enough of it and we started to practice and everyone else followed our cue. The game started. The opponents were batting first and we had bowled 4 overs when the police came in to wag their tails. They did their job as per their pay package. Enough said about the manner in which things unfolded at alfonso. I leave the topic there and move on to more pressing matters. After the so-called 'Grand Finale' of the tournament got over, the match resumed and the opponents were getting themselves run out frequently. We somehow managed to give the last pair 15 odd runs and their score swelled to 65 in 12 overs, how different it could have been!!

I started the batting dismay with Sridhar, though I hung on for about 7 overs nothing came much off my batting and neither did from anyone in particular. We let the game from our control in the middle overs when we couldn't get runs at all!! From 25 off 5 to 30 off 8, it was an array of display of how batting shouldn't be, myself and Idli to be blamed for that. But those who came in next didn't fair well either. Struggling to find any rythm to our innings, we folded out for 60 runs in the last over.

I think it was much towards underestimating our opponents by their size and not sticking to basics that caused us the game on sunday. Probably a little blame could be transferred to the 'tournament's final game' for distraction and swaying the mood!!

A Poet's Dream :-)

First, the build up
Eleven freaks descend upon the mango
To taste sweet victory
And the bell misfires the flip, again
Start the show
Two wield the long handle
One takes risk to cross-over
The other, even I'm confused who that is
Pop goes the seed thru our guards
We find breakfast for quarter- meals
Road runner for a bolt- affair
A comedian who doesn't try hard
An elephant tries the flip
A blind scared man running just about
A jug head to complete the verse
Time to throw back the fire ball
Only doused with water in many parts
The elephant goes cock-a-hoop
Catch doesn't ring a bell
A very risky wall behind
Road runner running in circles
Breakfast becoming lunch
And I can't find words to finish
Alas! 'da freaks come out with passing bucks
To quench thy large trunks

Impressive

We won the game today and it was quite an impressive display with both bat and ball, the most important thing though was that our fielding was good in spite of a couple of errors. We tend to make more of them every game but it was a good turn around today. When Kaipilla didn't drop a catch, you might understand what I'm talking about.

Mani won the toss and I'm not kidding. We elected to bat. I opened with KV this time. Wondering the faith the guys have in me, at least for their's sake I'm not disappointing, except for the fact that I run out of gas very early!! KV and Kailash (no. 3) hit a few runs but didn't stay in the wicket long, neither did Idli. I got out trying to flick (for a change) the ball on side and got top edged. Vicky, Sridhar, Kaipilla and Raghu steered the boat for some time and Yogesh played a good hand at the end to enable us reach 74 runs off 12 overs.

Both the opposition openers got out quickly before Sriram and Dinesh put on a good partnership and got the run rate above 6. The turning point came when Vicky removed Sriram (bowled, inside edged) in his first over. That was when it looked as if Dinesh's team was running out of steam. When I ran Dinesh out, with good bit of fielding from Raghu, the score was reading 51 from 9 overs. I remember the over before when I asked Sriram how many wickets were left, he casually said that not many got out and got plenty in their tank. Three overs after when I asked him the same question, he was a little embarrassed to admit that this was the last pair, we probably got 4 wickets between those overs. It was not lateral thinking that I left the last pair try three runs off a very wide delivery, it was just that the ball moved in between the bikes and left itself without cover at the other end for Yogesh to effect a run out. Mani, Jug head, Vicky and Raghu bowled well within themselves, Jug head is turning in with good performances with the ball for the past few games, good for us. Yogesh and Sridhar though did not fair well with their bowling as one would expect from them but there is always the next game. Same opponents.

Until then, cheers

Maddy