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
Tuesday, September 7, 2010
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!!...
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