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.
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