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.

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.

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.

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