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 12^th 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 4^th 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

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!!...

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