Today was one of the worst performances ever! We were playful but never really played the game, it was as though we never really turned up for the game. We played against Seena team.
'Da Freaks for the day were Maddy, Mani, Vicky, Freddie, Raghu, Sri, Ram, Jagan, Jack, Ganesh and Yogi.
We lost the toss and were asked to chase. Our bowlers were taken apart without any restraint. The first wicket fell on the fifth over which says a lot about the domination the opponents had. Most of our deliveries were in driving length and it was much easier for them to hit it with ease. Mani was hugely disappointing as he gave away a lot of runs and didn't pick up a wicket either. Jack bowled well but apart from that Sri, Jagan and Vicky were also leaking a lot of runs. Need to mention about our ground fielding as well, again very disappointing. We let a lot of over throws and there were a lot of conversions of 1 to 2 and 2 to 3. Usually when things are sloppy, Mani and Vicky give a earful to all those around but even that didn't happen. We were just going thru the motions trying to complete 14 overs. Seena team scored 103 runs in 14 overs! All in all today was just not our day on the field.
And we thought we might fair better with the bat. Not to be so as Ram took two wickets by running Yogi and Ganesh out. All the engaged dudes got out without scoring (that is Fred and Vicky, not sure about Jack though). I got out playing a rash shot just in the sixth over. The opponents mixed the deliveries well, either short, which we never converted or yorks, which uprooted our stumps. Well there was not much to talk about our batting as we ended up with just 46 runs! Again the usual spark was missing. We weren't totally committed to the match. Our batting performance was equally bad.
I hope we can look back at this match and say that we couldn't play worse than this and take some lessons from this match. Everyone (especially the author) need to be a bit more serious on the field and try to win the match. After all we come to play, lets play then.
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, December 11, 2011
Saturday, October 8, 2011
Two for tango as DA' FREAKS Complete twin victories in two days!!..
There was a chance for us to extend our winning streak with the pooja holidays on oct 5th and oct 6th as the DA' FREAKS made the best use of it to register back to back victories in two days.
Oct 5th:
Score: DA' FREAKS - 66\8 in 12 Overs
Opponent - 56 all out in 11 Overs
Result : DA' FREAKS Won by 10 Runs!!..
Oct 6th:
Score: DA' FREAKS - 73\8 in 12 Overs
Opponent - 61\4 in 12 Overs
Result: DA' FREAKS Won by 12 Runs!!..
The great thing of both these victories was how we managed to win inspite being down on players. The match on oct 5th was against a unknown opponent as we decided to bat first after winning the toss. As we did not have both our regular openers we had to gone in with new pair. The start was not excellent as we kept losing as the runs was also not coming. I got a chance to bat after a pretty longtime!!..I tried to keep the scoreboard ticking in the middle overs but it was towards the end we ended up scoring only 66 runs which was not a great score but was pretty decent.
The opponents got to a very bad start losing wickets and we were in control for most part of the game. But the runs kept coming as we kept picking wickets. Another bad over in the crucial stage by jagan resulted in the opponents requiring just 16 runs in 4 overs with 3 wickets in hand. I decided to bring myself on for the first time in the day which worked very well as i picked up 2 wickets and giving away just 2 runs. Sri bowled the next over and we managed to get a run out of the last ball of his over and hence winning by a narrow margin.
The game on Oct 6th was against dinesh team after a very longtime. It was a bet match of Rs.50 as well. We has only 9 players as we won the toss and batted first again. We had yogesh this time around opening the batting with prasad the start was not great as runs was hard to come by as we lost prasad in the very first over. Then Ganesh played a few dot balls in the middle leading to runs not flowing as expected. But we had some good overs towards the end thanks mainly to sriram,sridhar and freddie as they increased the run rate. We had a good finish towards the end taking our score to 73 in 12 overs.
The ground was pretty empty and with only 9 fielders we never felt comfortable with the score. Myself and maddy started off the bowling as we hardly had any bowlers to bowl. Sriram their main batsmen walked into open the innings. We had an excellent first 4 overs giving away only 16 odd runs but did not manage to pick up any wickets. Sri and yogesh bowled in the middle overs. Sri struglled a bit with his line but eveytime he pitched the ball up he was very hard to score off. Yogesh was a bit rusty but managed to keep the runs down. The opponents did not lose any wickets in the first 8 overs but scored only 35 runs. They lost their first wicket only in the 10th over.16 runs was needed of the last over which i bowled. I gave just 4 runs and picked up a wicket as we won by 12 runs.
There was great satisfaction as we won with such limited resources and what was commendable was even though we did not pick wickets we did not give away any boundaries even though sriram batted for long.
The teams we played on both days were different and we had different challenges but still we came out trumps!!..
THE STREAK CONTINUES!!....
Cheers,
Manikandan
Oct 5th:
Score: DA' FREAKS - 66\8 in 12 Overs
Opponent - 56 all out in 11 Overs
Result : DA' FREAKS Won by 10 Runs!!..
Oct 6th:
Score: DA' FREAKS - 73\8 in 12 Overs
Opponent - 61\4 in 12 Overs
Result: DA' FREAKS Won by 12 Runs!!..
The great thing of both these victories was how we managed to win inspite being down on players. The match on oct 5th was against a unknown opponent as we decided to bat first after winning the toss. As we did not have both our regular openers we had to gone in with new pair. The start was not excellent as we kept losing as the runs was also not coming. I got a chance to bat after a pretty longtime!!..I tried to keep the scoreboard ticking in the middle overs but it was towards the end we ended up scoring only 66 runs which was not a great score but was pretty decent.
The opponents got to a very bad start losing wickets and we were in control for most part of the game. But the runs kept coming as we kept picking wickets. Another bad over in the crucial stage by jagan resulted in the opponents requiring just 16 runs in 4 overs with 3 wickets in hand. I decided to bring myself on for the first time in the day which worked very well as i picked up 2 wickets and giving away just 2 runs. Sri bowled the next over and we managed to get a run out of the last ball of his over and hence winning by a narrow margin.
The game on Oct 6th was against dinesh team after a very longtime. It was a bet match of Rs.50 as well. We has only 9 players as we won the toss and batted first again. We had yogesh this time around opening the batting with prasad the start was not great as runs was hard to come by as we lost prasad in the very first over. Then Ganesh played a few dot balls in the middle leading to runs not flowing as expected. But we had some good overs towards the end thanks mainly to sriram,sridhar and freddie as they increased the run rate. We had a good finish towards the end taking our score to 73 in 12 overs.
The ground was pretty empty and with only 9 fielders we never felt comfortable with the score. Myself and maddy started off the bowling as we hardly had any bowlers to bowl. Sriram their main batsmen walked into open the innings. We had an excellent first 4 overs giving away only 16 odd runs but did not manage to pick up any wickets. Sri and yogesh bowled in the middle overs. Sri struglled a bit with his line but eveytime he pitched the ball up he was very hard to score off. Yogesh was a bit rusty but managed to keep the runs down. The opponents did not lose any wickets in the first 8 overs but scored only 35 runs. They lost their first wicket only in the 10th over.16 runs was needed of the last over which i bowled. I gave just 4 runs and picked up a wicket as we won by 12 runs.
There was great satisfaction as we won with such limited resources and what was commendable was even though we did not pick wickets we did not give away any boundaries even though sriram batted for long.
The teams we played on both days were different and we had different challenges but still we came out trumps!!..
THE STREAK CONTINUES!!....
Cheers,
Manikandan
DA' FREAKS Register their First Win in Gopalapuram as the Winning Streak Continues!!..
The Match played on 2nd October(Sunday)in the most unluckiest venue resulted in a big win for DA' Freaks!!..
DA' FREAKS: Mani,Sridhar,Jagan,Yogesh,Raghu,Ram,Sriram,Prasad,Sudarshan,Muthu
Score: Opponent - 84 all out in 13.4 Overs
DA' Freaks - 85\1 in 10 Overs
Result: DA' FREAKS Won by 9 Wickets with 4 overs to spare!!..
The week game itself was off to a bad start as we were running short of players and we somehow managed to have 10 people on the park. To add to it alphonso was not in good shape to play and the fact that we did not put a match with anyone made things even harder as we moved on to gopalapuram to play admist confusions. We managed to get hold of a team at last and the match was on!!...
The ground was very crowded and made life very difficult as we lost the toss and had to bowl first. The start was decent with myself and jagan sharing the opening spell. I bowled two quite overs as jagan leaked runs from the other end. Sridhar and Raghu bowled very well in the middle overs. Infact raghu picked up the first wicket of the day in the 6th over. We managed to keep the run flow down even though we did not pick any wickets. Sri bowled well in the middle to get us some wickets. Raghu took a couple of wickets as well. At the crucial juncture jagan leaked 16 runs in one over shifting the momentum. I managed to bowl a execellent last over which was maiden and had 3 wickets falling with a couple being run outs. We finally restricted them to 84 which was a nominal score in the huge outfield.
The openers ram and yogesh who have now become our regular opening pair started off the chase in emphatic fashion scoring 49 runs in 6 overs. Ram was particularly excellent on the day smashing the bowlers around the park. Yogesh kept the score board ticking before he was out with the score being 49. The life was lot easier for us as we even managed to even give few other batsmen a go by asking ram to cut short his magnificent innings. In the end we finished off the chase in 10 overs which was an excellent result.
Great effort by the guys as we march on with the winning streak!!..
Cheers,
Manikandan
DA' FREAKS: Mani,Sridhar,Jagan,Yogesh,Raghu,Ram,Sriram,Prasad,Sudarshan,Muthu
Score: Opponent - 84 all out in 13.4 Overs
DA' Freaks - 85\1 in 10 Overs
Result: DA' FREAKS Won by 9 Wickets with 4 overs to spare!!..
The week game itself was off to a bad start as we were running short of players and we somehow managed to have 10 people on the park. To add to it alphonso was not in good shape to play and the fact that we did not put a match with anyone made things even harder as we moved on to gopalapuram to play admist confusions. We managed to get hold of a team at last and the match was on!!...
The ground was very crowded and made life very difficult as we lost the toss and had to bowl first. The start was decent with myself and jagan sharing the opening spell. I bowled two quite overs as jagan leaked runs from the other end. Sridhar and Raghu bowled very well in the middle overs. Infact raghu picked up the first wicket of the day in the 6th over. We managed to keep the run flow down even though we did not pick any wickets. Sri bowled well in the middle to get us some wickets. Raghu took a couple of wickets as well. At the crucial juncture jagan leaked 16 runs in one over shifting the momentum. I managed to bowl a execellent last over which was maiden and had 3 wickets falling with a couple being run outs. We finally restricted them to 84 which was a nominal score in the huge outfield.
The openers ram and yogesh who have now become our regular opening pair started off the chase in emphatic fashion scoring 49 runs in 6 overs. Ram was particularly excellent on the day smashing the bowlers around the park. Yogesh kept the score board ticking before he was out with the score being 49. The life was lot easier for us as we even managed to even give few other batsmen a go by asking ram to cut short his magnificent innings. In the end we finished off the chase in 10 overs which was an excellent result.
Great effort by the guys as we march on with the winning streak!!..
Cheers,
Manikandan
Sunday, September 25, 2011
The Winning Streak Continues
It was a very good day at the ground for 'Da Freaks. Our batting and bowling were really good and our fielding too didn't disappoint us.
'Da Freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Sri, Jagan, Raghu, Suresh, Sudarshan, Ganesh, Muthu, Yogi and Ram.
The match was against Diwakar's team, we were on to the second match of the three match series. We won the toss and elected to bat first. Summary of our batting performance:
As you can see the start was steady from Yogi and Ram and we accelerated in the middle overs with Sri and Ram going great guns. But when we needed the real push at the end, we faltered. Something to learn from this.
Still with 95 runs we were confident of defending the score. I started the proceedings along with Suresh. My first over went for 8 runs as I was trying to bowl fast yorkers, which by now we can all understand that it never really happened. My second over went for 5 runs but picked up one wicket. Mani's first over resulted in a good bit of catch between Jagan and I, Jagan tried but couldn't hold on but made enough trajectory movement of the ball that made me track back and hold on to it. Between Jagan and Mani, they took five wickets. There were a couple of run outs and I took two more wickets in my second spell.
We went with the following field set ups:
The bowling statistics isn't complete, but lets try:
I bowled 4 overs for 18 runs and took 3 wickets
Suresh bowled 2 overs for 12 odd
Mani bowled 3.1 overs for 15 odd runs and picked up 3 wickets
Jagan bowled 2 overs for 10 odd and picked up 2 wickets
Yogi bowled 1 over for 12 runs
We bowled them out in 12.1 overs and they were able to score only 67 runs.
This is a good victory and the winning streaks continues to 4 games in a row now.
Cheers,
Maddy
for 'Da Freaks
'Da Freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Sri, Jagan, Raghu, Suresh, Sudarshan, Ganesh, Muthu, Yogi and Ram.
The match was against Diwakar's team, we were on to the second match of the three match series. We won the toss and elected to bat first. Summary of our batting performance:
As you can see the start was steady from Yogi and Ram and we accelerated in the middle overs with Sri and Ram going great guns. But when we needed the real push at the end, we faltered. Something to learn from this.
Still with 95 runs we were confident of defending the score. I started the proceedings along with Suresh. My first over went for 8 runs as I was trying to bowl fast yorkers, which by now we can all understand that it never really happened. My second over went for 5 runs but picked up one wicket. Mani's first over resulted in a good bit of catch between Jagan and I, Jagan tried but couldn't hold on but made enough trajectory movement of the ball that made me track back and hold on to it. Between Jagan and Mani, they took five wickets. There were a couple of run outs and I took two more wickets in my second spell.
We went with the following field set ups:
The bowling statistics isn't complete, but lets try:
I bowled 4 overs for 18 runs and took 3 wickets
Suresh bowled 2 overs for 12 odd
Mani bowled 3.1 overs for 15 odd runs and picked up 3 wickets
Jagan bowled 2 overs for 10 odd and picked up 2 wickets
Yogi bowled 1 over for 12 runs
We bowled them out in 12.1 overs and they were able to score only 67 runs.
This is a good victory and the winning streaks continues to 4 games in a row now.
Cheers,
Maddy
for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, September 11, 2011
Good Chase and a Satisfying Victory
We might start to have a good run of games at Alfonso, there wasn't any tournament so far. Today's match was against Diwakar's team and 'Da Freaks for the day were Mani, Maddy, Vicky, Freddie, Sri, Yogesh, Sudarshan, Ganesh, Suresh, Jagan and Muthu.
We lost the toss and we were made to chase a score, which in fact bode well for a lot of us as we needn't stand under the harsh sun. Mani and Suresh opened the bowling for us. Mani took a wicket in his first over but Suresh gave a few runs including a six. The start wasn't ideal but we got a couple of wickets and were hoping to peg them back in the middle overs. Freddie bowled a magnificent first over which was a maiden and he also picked up a wicket. We did not control the runs as we would have liked though. Even though there weren't many extravagant shots, the opponents were picking up twos at will and rotating the strike amicably. We did not change the field much and that allowed them to pick their spots. Jagan, Suresh, Mani and Vicky completed the quota of overs but by the end of 14, we let them score 76 runs. We need to tighten our fielding a bit more and reduce the number of conversions.
We started our chase with Yogi and Muthu. They started steadily and at the end of 4 overs we had scored 19 runs but lost Yogi in the process. Sri entered the frame as one down. Within the next over, Muthu was out caught near slip, which brought Ganesh to the crease. But he also did not last long and he got out caught behind. The familiar feeling of losing a bunch of wickets at the start or in the middle. I was given the nod ahead and when I went in I was clear about a couple of things: no run out (Sri and I had had a lot of mix ups) and I am running for myself no matter what. Sri and I were steadying the innings and we got the chase back on track. When Sri got bowled, in came Sudarshan and our partnership in the middle overs gave us the impetus towards shutting the game out. We quietly took 7, 7 and 11 runs in the 7-9 overs spell, no extravagant shots but good, sensible batting. By the end of 10 overs we needed 23 to win and that is when my slow running between the wickets was becoming a concern. Took a bye then. Sudarshan fell soon after but we kept abreast of the run rate. In an almost anti-climax the penultimate over from Bala produced two wickets, Vicky and Myself but Freddie came in and along with Jagan, calmly steered us through.
Correct me if I am wrong, nor run outs from our side today, which was great :)
We have won three in a row now and it feels good to be back on the winning ways. 'Da Freaks, as always, rulz :)
Cheers,
Maddy
for 'Da Freaks
We lost the toss and we were made to chase a score, which in fact bode well for a lot of us as we needn't stand under the harsh sun. Mani and Suresh opened the bowling for us. Mani took a wicket in his first over but Suresh gave a few runs including a six. The start wasn't ideal but we got a couple of wickets and were hoping to peg them back in the middle overs. Freddie bowled a magnificent first over which was a maiden and he also picked up a wicket. We did not control the runs as we would have liked though. Even though there weren't many extravagant shots, the opponents were picking up twos at will and rotating the strike amicably. We did not change the field much and that allowed them to pick their spots. Jagan, Suresh, Mani and Vicky completed the quota of overs but by the end of 14, we let them score 76 runs. We need to tighten our fielding a bit more and reduce the number of conversions.
We started our chase with Yogi and Muthu. They started steadily and at the end of 4 overs we had scored 19 runs but lost Yogi in the process. Sri entered the frame as one down. Within the next over, Muthu was out caught near slip, which brought Ganesh to the crease. But he also did not last long and he got out caught behind. The familiar feeling of losing a bunch of wickets at the start or in the middle. I was given the nod ahead and when I went in I was clear about a couple of things: no run out (Sri and I had had a lot of mix ups) and I am running for myself no matter what. Sri and I were steadying the innings and we got the chase back on track. When Sri got bowled, in came Sudarshan and our partnership in the middle overs gave us the impetus towards shutting the game out. We quietly took 7, 7 and 11 runs in the 7-9 overs spell, no extravagant shots but good, sensible batting. By the end of 10 overs we needed 23 to win and that is when my slow running between the wickets was becoming a concern. Took a bye then. Sudarshan fell soon after but we kept abreast of the run rate. In an almost anti-climax the penultimate over from Bala produced two wickets, Vicky and Myself but Freddie came in and along with Jagan, calmly steered us through.
Correct me if I am wrong, nor run outs from our side today, which was great :)
We have won three in a row now and it feels good to be back on the winning ways. 'Da Freaks, as always, rulz :)
Cheers,
Maddy
for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, September 4, 2011
A Perfect Day & Comprehensive Win for DA FREAKS!!...
You guys have read it right DA' FREAKS are well back to the winning ways in our favourite ground ALPHONSO!!..The perfect display in all three departments of the game makes this victory even special!!..
DA' FREAKS: Mani,Maddy,Vignesh,Ram,Freddie,Kailash,Yogesh,Suresh,Srini,Sridhar, Sudarshan
Opponent: Skippers
Scores: DA' FREAKS - 100/6 in 14 Overs
Skippers - 52 all out in 10 overs
Result: DA' FREAKS Won by 48 runs!!...
The day begun well with winning the toss and deciding to bat first which is always a sensible option here in alphonso. The pair of Ram and Kailash opened the innings and it was a collective decision to have kailash taking strike at the same time not have freddie being the umpire!!...The duo provided an excellent start scoring 19 odd runs in 4 overs with kailash getting out in the 4th over after playing a good hand and the most important thing for a change he got out being bowled rather than being run-out. Srini the new member of the team played a couple of good shots but unfortunately got himself run out and it was more due to the lack of experience playing in these grounds where you can hardly spot the ball. Ram continued his rich vain of form with another strokefull iniings of 19 of just 14 deliveries.
The pair of freddie and sudarshan steadied the innings in the middle after the dismissal of ram. There was one innocuous bowler and freddie really struggled in getting him away. But Few big hits from both the batsmen ensured that the runs were coming. The sixes started to come with a very short leg side boundary and both batsmen clearing them with ease. Sudarshan run out brought sridhar to the middle and he finished of the innings in style with some great hitting sending the ball out of the ground twice and it made teams around us stop and take notice of what we were doing, by the end of it all we scored 100 in 14 overs which was a fantastic target to defend.
Myself(Mani) and vignesh opened the bowling. I went for 10 runs in the first over owing to some poor fielding coupled with few loose deliveries but the run out of the last ball helped. Vignesh bowled a good second over for just 4 runs and a wicket. Sri bowled the 3rd over and he too picked up a wicket and keeping the runs down. I came to bowl the 4th over with a purpose and it was achieved which was a huge statisfaction for myself and vignesh who wanted me to bowl that over. I picked up 2 wickets one of which was that of their hard hitting batsmen. Vignesh then bowled another good over and we tried maddy,suresh in between both doing a decent job. Maddy bowled a very good second over picking up wickets. There was some floppy work in the field by sudarshan but we held on to most of our chances as the wickets tumbled. Vignesh picked up the important wicket of salim ending any chances the oppnents had in the game. Suresh finished of the tail with two good wickets.
A great victory a morale boosting one and the good days are back as we returned to our home ground. If the rain stays away and we continue playing here in alphonso the way we did today i am sure there are more exciting days for the team coming up. The most important thing was even in all the defeats we had gone through the past couple of months the spirit in the team never went down and the guys were eager to win. Never were they even convinced of the win we had last week against a very weak team which i felt was a great attitude to show.
DA' FREAKS are back!!..Beware!!..Come on Guys!!...
Cheers,
Manikandan
DA' FREAKS: Mani,Maddy,Vignesh,Ram,Freddie,Kailash,Yogesh,Suresh,Srini,Sridhar, Sudarshan
Opponent: Skippers
Scores: DA' FREAKS - 100/6 in 14 Overs
Skippers - 52 all out in 10 overs
Result: DA' FREAKS Won by 48 runs!!...
The day begun well with winning the toss and deciding to bat first which is always a sensible option here in alphonso. The pair of Ram and Kailash opened the innings and it was a collective decision to have kailash taking strike at the same time not have freddie being the umpire!!...The duo provided an excellent start scoring 19 odd runs in 4 overs with kailash getting out in the 4th over after playing a good hand and the most important thing for a change he got out being bowled rather than being run-out. Srini the new member of the team played a couple of good shots but unfortunately got himself run out and it was more due to the lack of experience playing in these grounds where you can hardly spot the ball. Ram continued his rich vain of form with another strokefull iniings of 19 of just 14 deliveries.
The pair of freddie and sudarshan steadied the innings in the middle after the dismissal of ram. There was one innocuous bowler and freddie really struggled in getting him away. But Few big hits from both the batsmen ensured that the runs were coming. The sixes started to come with a very short leg side boundary and both batsmen clearing them with ease. Sudarshan run out brought sridhar to the middle and he finished of the innings in style with some great hitting sending the ball out of the ground twice and it made teams around us stop and take notice of what we were doing, by the end of it all we scored 100 in 14 overs which was a fantastic target to defend.
Myself(Mani) and vignesh opened the bowling. I went for 10 runs in the first over owing to some poor fielding coupled with few loose deliveries but the run out of the last ball helped. Vignesh bowled a good second over for just 4 runs and a wicket. Sri bowled the 3rd over and he too picked up a wicket and keeping the runs down. I came to bowl the 4th over with a purpose and it was achieved which was a huge statisfaction for myself and vignesh who wanted me to bowl that over. I picked up 2 wickets one of which was that of their hard hitting batsmen. Vignesh then bowled another good over and we tried maddy,suresh in between both doing a decent job. Maddy bowled a very good second over picking up wickets. There was some floppy work in the field by sudarshan but we held on to most of our chances as the wickets tumbled. Vignesh picked up the important wicket of salim ending any chances the oppnents had in the game. Suresh finished of the tail with two good wickets.
A great victory a morale boosting one and the good days are back as we returned to our home ground. If the rain stays away and we continue playing here in alphonso the way we did today i am sure there are more exciting days for the team coming up. The most important thing was even in all the defeats we had gone through the past couple of months the spirit in the team never went down and the guys were eager to win. Never were they even convinced of the win we had last week against a very weak team which i felt was a great attitude to show.
DA' FREAKS are back!!..Beware!!..Come on Guys!!...
Cheers,
Manikandan
Sunday, August 28, 2011
We won but the competition was poor
Today's match was at Kozhipannai ground, which seemed like the only playable ground among the usual three for now and we played during the second half. 'Da freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Vicky, Fred, Kailash, Ram, Sri, Yogi, Suresh, Sudarshan and Jagan. Our opponents were a local team who we hadn't played against before.
As you would probably know by now, the ball doesn't come on to the bat in this ground and you have to grind for runs basically because this ground has more sand that any other. We lost the toss and were asked to chase in a twelve over a side match. The opponent's batting did not have power and they were able to score only 47 in their allotted overs, which speaks for itself. Our bowling was pretty good but most importantly we held on to almost all our catches. Mani bowled good three overs in which he gave away only six runs and one was a maiden. Sri and Jagan looked solid and took wickets, I was asked to bowl a couple of overs in which I gave away seven runs and picked up a wicket. Overall we didn't have much to complain on the field.
Chasing a modest total of 48, we started the innings with vicky and kailash but disaster struck as just in the second ball kailash got himself run out without even facing a delivery. Ram and Vicky played well in the next couple of overs but the field seemed distorted and without energy. Vicky was holed out soon after and Freddie didn't last long either as his stumps were uprooted. But Ram kept on playing well and along with Sudarshan we were cruising. With three runs remaining to get, the opponents withdrew and that says all about the enthusiasm with which they played today!!
Anyway, a win is a win and we need to kick start getting back into winning ways.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
As you would probably know by now, the ball doesn't come on to the bat in this ground and you have to grind for runs basically because this ground has more sand that any other. We lost the toss and were asked to chase in a twelve over a side match. The opponent's batting did not have power and they were able to score only 47 in their allotted overs, which speaks for itself. Our bowling was pretty good but most importantly we held on to almost all our catches. Mani bowled good three overs in which he gave away only six runs and one was a maiden. Sri and Jagan looked solid and took wickets, I was asked to bowl a couple of overs in which I gave away seven runs and picked up a wicket. Overall we didn't have much to complain on the field.
Chasing a modest total of 48, we started the innings with vicky and kailash but disaster struck as just in the second ball kailash got himself run out without even facing a delivery. Ram and Vicky played well in the next couple of overs but the field seemed distorted and without energy. Vicky was holed out soon after and Freddie didn't last long either as his stumps were uprooted. But Ram kept on playing well and along with Sudarshan we were cruising. With three runs remaining to get, the opponents withdrew and that says all about the enthusiasm with which they played today!!
Anyway, a win is a win and we need to kick start getting back into winning ways.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, August 14, 2011
This Losing Streak has Gotta Stop
Alfonso is witnessing a barrage of tournaments these days and therefore Gopalapuram ground will now speak of our folk lore. Today's match was against the Skippers team. 'Da Freaks for the day were myself, mani, vicky, freddie, kailash, sridhar, jagan, yogi, sudarshan, suresh and ram.
We lost the toss and we were to chase down their score. Opening the bowling was Sridhar and Ram, whose inclusion as an opening bowler I thought was questionable. But both of them did a good job in their opening over, picking up wickets in the process. Mani was one change in the third over itself and that was a smart move to keep the bowlers fresh and give ourselves more possibilities to take more wickets. But as it always happens, we lose out on our middle and end overs. Vicky's only over cost him about 10 runs but he produced a beauty to take Saravana's wicket, caught and bowled. Mani was not effective today as he gave away awful lot of runs including a straight six. The field placements was a lot to be desired too as there were a lot of easy twos. We need to find a way to plug the gap correctly. For the last 4 overs, I stood in the deep, something I liked a lot more than standing closer. Lets be honest, I do not have very sharp reflex and so I require that extra bit of time. Also I do possess a-not-so-bad arm, so this is something I think I should do in future games as well, it will be tougher but ok. Jagan's last two overs were really good as he picked up a couple of wickets but the problem was that every one was giving away at least 3 bad balls in an over and it costed double that. End of the first half we were faced with chasing a massive score of 99 runs in 14 overs.
We started our chase with Suresh and Yogi, both of whom progressed well and scored 21 in 3 overs. But after that we started losing wickets in a heap with Vicky, Ram and Yogi getting out within a period of three overs. Run outs are the highest. We need to curtail getting run out. After a period of brief shots and in-between wickets, we scored 52 in 10 overs still needing 47 in 4. When Freddie got out, I shared the crease with Sudarshan, just the second ball, he got out caught. Sridhar joined in and we started scoring runs more freely. But Sridhar gave away a maiden in the 12th over and that put the pressure on us more as we had to score 28 in 2 overs. Sri got out in the 13th over but we managed 11 runs off it because of some brilliant running between Ram (running for me) and Jagan. But with 17 needing off the last over, we managed to get only 3 and lost Jagan and Mani in the process. That is how we ended up with just 85. I was told that I scored around 22 runs but everyone knows that they deserve a better consistency from me and hopefully this is a start of something good.
We need to arrest the losing streak. So far it has not demoralized anyone as we are still raring to go as always but we need a win sooner.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
We lost the toss and we were to chase down their score. Opening the bowling was Sridhar and Ram, whose inclusion as an opening bowler I thought was questionable. But both of them did a good job in their opening over, picking up wickets in the process. Mani was one change in the third over itself and that was a smart move to keep the bowlers fresh and give ourselves more possibilities to take more wickets. But as it always happens, we lose out on our middle and end overs. Vicky's only over cost him about 10 runs but he produced a beauty to take Saravana's wicket, caught and bowled. Mani was not effective today as he gave away awful lot of runs including a straight six. The field placements was a lot to be desired too as there were a lot of easy twos. We need to find a way to plug the gap correctly. For the last 4 overs, I stood in the deep, something I liked a lot more than standing closer. Lets be honest, I do not have very sharp reflex and so I require that extra bit of time. Also I do possess a-not-so-bad arm, so this is something I think I should do in future games as well, it will be tougher but ok. Jagan's last two overs were really good as he picked up a couple of wickets but the problem was that every one was giving away at least 3 bad balls in an over and it costed double that. End of the first half we were faced with chasing a massive score of 99 runs in 14 overs.
We started our chase with Suresh and Yogi, both of whom progressed well and scored 21 in 3 overs. But after that we started losing wickets in a heap with Vicky, Ram and Yogi getting out within a period of three overs. Run outs are the highest. We need to curtail getting run out. After a period of brief shots and in-between wickets, we scored 52 in 10 overs still needing 47 in 4. When Freddie got out, I shared the crease with Sudarshan, just the second ball, he got out caught. Sridhar joined in and we started scoring runs more freely. But Sridhar gave away a maiden in the 12th over and that put the pressure on us more as we had to score 28 in 2 overs. Sri got out in the 13th over but we managed 11 runs off it because of some brilliant running between Ram (running for me) and Jagan. But with 17 needing off the last over, we managed to get only 3 and lost Jagan and Mani in the process. That is how we ended up with just 85. I was told that I scored around 22 runs but everyone knows that they deserve a better consistency from me and hopefully this is a start of something good.
We need to arrest the losing streak. So far it has not demoralized anyone as we are still raring to go as always but we need a win sooner.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
Monday, July 25, 2011
Almost pulled off a great run chase
We played the last game in Gopalapuram ground as Alfonso witnessed another tournament. 'Da Freaks for the day: Mani, Vicky, Maddy, Jagan, Sri, Freddie, Kailash, Yogi, Suresh, Ram and Sudarshan. We played against a team brought by Jagan and they meant business.
We lost the toss and so we had to field first, chasing has never been our forte. Suresh started the proceeding in his typical fashion, high over the head full toss which made even yogi a little angry. But somehow he ended up taking a wicket and not giving away a run. But the second wicket partnership of their's was superb. Ably helped by our poor fielding and catching, the runs kept flowing through their blades. Somehow if we had been a bit more sharper or held on to some easier catches, we would have won this match, the only silver lining was Sudarshan's magnificent running catch. Mani was apprehensive in trying something different and he ended up bowling at a driving length all the time, it made it easier for the batsmen to score. Vicky was trying some slow off spinners which were taken to the cleaners. Sri bowled his heart out and took a few wickets at the end but by the end of 14 overs we gave away 95 runs.
Chasing a mammoth 96 runs in 14 overs, Yogi and Ram opened the innings but Ram got out very early. Freddie and Yogi started a very good partnership and were scoring freely. Again the fielding was very poor, this time from the opposition as they dropped skiers almost every time. With a bit of luck the two were keeping abreast of the run rate. After Freddie's good innings, Sri got out cheaply and Jagan after hitting a beautiful four got out by trying to be a bit more defensive, all the while Yogi was going along nicely picking up the ones and twos. The temperamental nature of the game took an ugly turn when yogi's run out was in question. After a few unruly moments, the game was to continue as yogi was given out ending a very good innings, he almost took us home. Vicky on the other hand was trying his best, picking the gaps and keeping the chase alive. Sudarshan got ran out and that is when we all felt that we may have so much to chase. Needing 25+ in less than three overs, we got a bit of our belief back when Sri, running for Vicky, and I took 8 runs in one ball pressurizing the opponents to throw wild but the very next ball I got run out. Mani couldn't clear the fielder and holed out in the same over. When Vicky got out it was almost over with us needing 14 runs in the last over. Kailash took a single and gave Suresh the strike, who scored 4,3,0,1 in the four balls he faced and the last ball was not scored off and hence we were defeated by 4 runs.
I couldn't get over the thought that maybe if we bowled better and fielded better, doing the basics, we would have won this game but we didn't.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
We lost the toss and so we had to field first, chasing has never been our forte. Suresh started the proceeding in his typical fashion, high over the head full toss which made even yogi a little angry. But somehow he ended up taking a wicket and not giving away a run. But the second wicket partnership of their's was superb. Ably helped by our poor fielding and catching, the runs kept flowing through their blades. Somehow if we had been a bit more sharper or held on to some easier catches, we would have won this match, the only silver lining was Sudarshan's magnificent running catch. Mani was apprehensive in trying something different and he ended up bowling at a driving length all the time, it made it easier for the batsmen to score. Vicky was trying some slow off spinners which were taken to the cleaners. Sri bowled his heart out and took a few wickets at the end but by the end of 14 overs we gave away 95 runs.
Chasing a mammoth 96 runs in 14 overs, Yogi and Ram opened the innings but Ram got out very early. Freddie and Yogi started a very good partnership and were scoring freely. Again the fielding was very poor, this time from the opposition as they dropped skiers almost every time. With a bit of luck the two were keeping abreast of the run rate. After Freddie's good innings, Sri got out cheaply and Jagan after hitting a beautiful four got out by trying to be a bit more defensive, all the while Yogi was going along nicely picking up the ones and twos. The temperamental nature of the game took an ugly turn when yogi's run out was in question. After a few unruly moments, the game was to continue as yogi was given out ending a very good innings, he almost took us home. Vicky on the other hand was trying his best, picking the gaps and keeping the chase alive. Sudarshan got ran out and that is when we all felt that we may have so much to chase. Needing 25+ in less than three overs, we got a bit of our belief back when Sri, running for Vicky, and I took 8 runs in one ball pressurizing the opponents to throw wild but the very next ball I got run out. Mani couldn't clear the fielder and holed out in the same over. When Vicky got out it was almost over with us needing 14 runs in the last over. Kailash took a single and gave Suresh the strike, who scored 4,3,0,1 in the four balls he faced and the last ball was not scored off and hence we were defeated by 4 runs.
I couldn't get over the thought that maybe if we bowled better and fielded better, doing the basics, we would have won this game but we didn't.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, June 19, 2011
Our First Tournament, Good Experience
We lost in our very first match of our very first tournament that we participated in. Our bowling was good in the first half but disappointing later. Our batsmen were able to score only our par score while chasing, whereby we lost by a resounding 37 runs. But this is an experience, need to make this as a good one by improving. Here is a few snap shots.
Note: All videos are posted in: http://www.facebook.com/madhavan.kumar
Note: All videos are posted in: http://www.facebook.com/madhavan.kumar
Sunday, June 5, 2011
Remember that 'office team'?
I saw from a post that this team helped us back into winning ways and boy they were up to that again, ensuring we won. Not that they let us, just that they looked a tad less than mediocre. They gave it all, whatever they had but it just wasn't enough. Today looked like a practice match to say the least.
'Da Freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Sri, Jagan, Fred, Kail, Yogi, Suresh and Ram. Goutham smsed in tired late night and Jagan's friend did not turn up. Others were unavailable. Salim from Skippers were taken into our team and a guy from Captain's were given to the opposition, who also turned up with just 9, to have a sensible game of cricket.
We lost the toss but the opposition let us bat first. Kailash and I opened the innings and the runs were free flowing as we took 16 of the first 2 overs, basically running hard. Kailash especially looked good. I threw my wicket away in the third over, momentary lapse of concentration as I was hold out at deep cover, needless to say that I intended to hit it towards long off/ wide! But I was satisfied with the way I got out. It was my fault in the end and it wasn't a run out as it has been for numerous innings, either because of Sudarshan or because of a bye runner :) Anyway, Kail and Ram were at the crease and steadily picked up the runs. After Kail got out, Ram and Salim played very well and were there at the crease till 11th over. The runs were there for the taking and we were going at 7 or 8 runs an over, the opposition attack was devoid of zip and intent. When Salim got out, in came the master blaster Mr. Suresh. He hit his first delivery towards deep square leg and ran out for an unavailable second run! He was a man on a mission. At the end of 14 overs we ended up with 95 runs with some lusty blows by Sri at the end.
We started our bowling with Yogi and Suresh. First wicket in the first over. Jagan took a blinder of a catch at deep square leg off the bowling of yogi. By 4 overs the score read 19 for one. Sri came in as first change and immediately got another wicket. Mani wasn't interested in bowling and so we continued the second change with Jagan. A few in their ranks showed some capabilities to handle the bat but not very effective. After 8 overs the score was 40 for three. Freddie tried his arm around and was wacked for 10 runs but eventually got a wicket in his final delivery, a catch taken by Suresh. 10th over was bowled by your's truly, gave away 8 runs, 2 more because of some ordinary/ tired fielding but got one wicket bowled. Mani finally stepped up with a shorter run up was smacked in his first ball for four. Next five deliveries were with longer run ups but still leaked a lot of runs. Jagan bowled the 11th and took one wicket. With one wicket remaining and probably another 30 to score of 3 overs, Suresh put his hands up and got that wicket bowled in his first delivery of that over, you can't keep the man quiet in a game.
Next week against Diwakar and his team. Decided to participate in the tournament that is in place at alfonso on 17th and 24th of this month. 10 overs a side match. First tournament we are participating.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
'Da Freaks for the day: Maddy, Mani, Sri, Jagan, Fred, Kail, Yogi, Suresh and Ram. Goutham smsed in tired late night and Jagan's friend did not turn up. Others were unavailable. Salim from Skippers were taken into our team and a guy from Captain's were given to the opposition, who also turned up with just 9, to have a sensible game of cricket.
We lost the toss but the opposition let us bat first. Kailash and I opened the innings and the runs were free flowing as we took 16 of the first 2 overs, basically running hard. Kailash especially looked good. I threw my wicket away in the third over, momentary lapse of concentration as I was hold out at deep cover, needless to say that I intended to hit it towards long off/ wide! But I was satisfied with the way I got out. It was my fault in the end and it wasn't a run out as it has been for numerous innings, either because of Sudarshan or because of a bye runner :) Anyway, Kail and Ram were at the crease and steadily picked up the runs. After Kail got out, Ram and Salim played very well and were there at the crease till 11th over. The runs were there for the taking and we were going at 7 or 8 runs an over, the opposition attack was devoid of zip and intent. When Salim got out, in came the master blaster Mr. Suresh. He hit his first delivery towards deep square leg and ran out for an unavailable second run! He was a man on a mission. At the end of 14 overs we ended up with 95 runs with some lusty blows by Sri at the end.
We started our bowling with Yogi and Suresh. First wicket in the first over. Jagan took a blinder of a catch at deep square leg off the bowling of yogi. By 4 overs the score read 19 for one. Sri came in as first change and immediately got another wicket. Mani wasn't interested in bowling and so we continued the second change with Jagan. A few in their ranks showed some capabilities to handle the bat but not very effective. After 8 overs the score was 40 for three. Freddie tried his arm around and was wacked for 10 runs but eventually got a wicket in his final delivery, a catch taken by Suresh. 10th over was bowled by your's truly, gave away 8 runs, 2 more because of some ordinary/ tired fielding but got one wicket bowled. Mani finally stepped up with a shorter run up was smacked in his first ball for four. Next five deliveries were with longer run ups but still leaked a lot of runs. Jagan bowled the 11th and took one wicket. With one wicket remaining and probably another 30 to score of 3 overs, Suresh put his hands up and got that wicket bowled in his first delivery of that over, you can't keep the man quiet in a game.
Next week against Diwakar and his team. Decided to participate in the tournament that is in place at alfonso on 17th and 24th of this month. 10 overs a side match. First tournament we are participating.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, May 29, 2011
A comprehensive Victory!!..
Da Freaks: Mani,maddy,sridhar,yogesh,sriram,jagan,ram,suresh,muthu,sudarshan,jagan friend
Score: Opponent: 76\9 in 14 overs
Da Freaks: 77\5 in 13.3 overs
DA FREAKS WON BY 5 WICKETS!!...
One of the most complete performance from our team for a while now and the most satisfactory thing here was we won against a good side playing them for the first time.
We lost the toss and was set to bowl but there was undue delay due to ball trouble which lasted till the end!!...Finally the game began with myself and suresh starting off and we got a run out of the very first ball thanks to a good fielding effort by ram which was eventually his last peice of good work in the field. Even as i bowled my fisr couple of overs for 8 runs the opponents still managed a healthy 32 runs in the first 4 overs. Suresh leaked 13 in first over and jagan friend going for 11 runs but it was more due to some poor fielding. Jagan and sridhar bowled well through the middle picking up wickets and keeping the runs down. Jagan friend bowled very well even though his last over went for some runs. Yogesh bowled a good first over but gave away 9 in his second over which was the 12th over of the match. From 32 in 4 overs we stiffled them to 55 in 10 overs. I bowled a good 13th over yielding just a single and a wicket. In the end they finished off with 76 for 9 in 14 overs.
An excellent bowling performance i would say to give away 44 runs in the last 10 overs. The score was more due to some poor fielding more than anything else but cannot blame the fielders much with the crowd and sun beating down.
Sriram and sudarshan were the openers for the day and once agin a different opening combination something hard to digest. The duo played well even though sudarshan was very slow in the start of the innings and with his running missed quite a few runs. Sriram played beautifully with some lusty highting and kept the run flow. We manged 32 in the first 7, when we lost the first wicket of sriram to a run out who just had called jagan to run for him as he was tired. Ram was the next man in and he kept the tempo up with a nice little cameo which was required at that stage and another run out brought sridhar to the middle. He was out of form and worried about his batting going down today he batted where he wanted and was attacking right from the first ball which i personally feel is the way to go for him since he is a naturally attacking batsman. He along with sudarshan kept the chase under control. Sudarshan batted well through the middle. Sridhar fell with 17 needed to 15 balls and against odds i sent in muthu and he did more than what was expected out of him. He scored a crucial 3 at that stage and eventually ended up with 4 of the 2 balls he faced. Sudarshan got out in the last over. Yogesh went into the middle with 5 required. We managed to score the runs with 3 balls to spare!!..
It was an excellent chase where we had our noses infront at all stages in the match and with wickets in hand it worked wonders!!...Hopefully we can continue on this good form and start on the winning streak!!...Way to go guys!!...Keep it up!!..
Cheers
Manikandan
Score: Opponent: 76\9 in 14 overs
Da Freaks: 77\5 in 13.3 overs
DA FREAKS WON BY 5 WICKETS!!...
One of the most complete performance from our team for a while now and the most satisfactory thing here was we won against a good side playing them for the first time.
We lost the toss and was set to bowl but there was undue delay due to ball trouble which lasted till the end!!...Finally the game began with myself and suresh starting off and we got a run out of the very first ball thanks to a good fielding effort by ram which was eventually his last peice of good work in the field. Even as i bowled my fisr couple of overs for 8 runs the opponents still managed a healthy 32 runs in the first 4 overs. Suresh leaked 13 in first over and jagan friend going for 11 runs but it was more due to some poor fielding. Jagan and sridhar bowled well through the middle picking up wickets and keeping the runs down. Jagan friend bowled very well even though his last over went for some runs. Yogesh bowled a good first over but gave away 9 in his second over which was the 12th over of the match. From 32 in 4 overs we stiffled them to 55 in 10 overs. I bowled a good 13th over yielding just a single and a wicket. In the end they finished off with 76 for 9 in 14 overs.
An excellent bowling performance i would say to give away 44 runs in the last 10 overs. The score was more due to some poor fielding more than anything else but cannot blame the fielders much with the crowd and sun beating down.
Sriram and sudarshan were the openers for the day and once agin a different opening combination something hard to digest. The duo played well even though sudarshan was very slow in the start of the innings and with his running missed quite a few runs. Sriram played beautifully with some lusty highting and kept the run flow. We manged 32 in the first 7, when we lost the first wicket of sriram to a run out who just had called jagan to run for him as he was tired. Ram was the next man in and he kept the tempo up with a nice little cameo which was required at that stage and another run out brought sridhar to the middle. He was out of form and worried about his batting going down today he batted where he wanted and was attacking right from the first ball which i personally feel is the way to go for him since he is a naturally attacking batsman. He along with sudarshan kept the chase under control. Sudarshan batted well through the middle. Sridhar fell with 17 needed to 15 balls and against odds i sent in muthu and he did more than what was expected out of him. He scored a crucial 3 at that stage and eventually ended up with 4 of the 2 balls he faced. Sudarshan got out in the last over. Yogesh went into the middle with 5 required. We managed to score the runs with 3 balls to spare!!..
It was an excellent chase where we had our noses infront at all stages in the match and with wickets in hand it worked wonders!!...Hopefully we can continue on this good form and start on the winning streak!!...Way to go guys!!...Keep it up!!..
Cheers
Manikandan
Sunday, May 15, 2011
Back to Winning Ways!!..
A win atlast for DA'FREAKS!!...Thanks to freddie and sridhar not more so for their performance but for arranging a match against their office team who nothing but looked mediocre...
DA' FREAKS: Mani,Freddie,Sridhar,Kailash,Goutham,Balaji,Sudarshan,Mohan,Ram,Prasad
ScoreBoard: DA' FREAKS -- 92\8 in 14 overs
Opponent -- 68 all out
There was a scramble for finding enough players to play for the DA' FREAKS with few guys expressing their unavailability just a day before and maddy(owner) being one among the culprits!!...Thanks to freddie we had enough guys to proceed with the game for the week.
The opponents won the toss and decided to bowl first which was exactly our plan as well but our luck with the toss have never been great..We had prasad and balaji opening the innings and had a steady start in the first couple of overs before balaji had to retire hurt (do not ask why!!)..Goutham got in the middle and as usual we lost a wicket through run out and losing prasad. Ram and goutham batted sensibly and taking the score to a comfortable 36 in 6 overs soon after which goutham got out which was one of the very few catches the opponents managed to hold on to..Freddie,kailash,mohan all chipped in which nice cameos but ram batted very well to take as to a score of 92 in 14 overs. Thanks to some shoddy fielding which helped as in a great way!!..
The sun was not beating down and we had a nice breeze blowing across the ground which helped us when we started to defend our target. Myself and Sridhar started off the proceedings with the ball. I did not have a great first over giving away 11 runs more due to my complancency but came back strongly in my next couple of overs picking up 2 wickets as well. Sridhar bowled well at the other end but the spell by goutham in the middle along with balaji helped us to pick up wickets steadily even though runs were leaked through some poor fielding by us. Sudarshan came late and could not bat much so he wanted to bowl an over which went for 12 runs and making the match little tight with the opponents needing 40 odd runs in 5 overs but we managed to wrap them up with some good bowling towards the end by myself, sri and goutham.
DA' FREAKS won by 24 runs and the much needed win in the kitty. There are areas to improve hopefully with our full strenghth squad next week sans vicky(the coach) should do better and keep up the winning habit!!...
Cheers,
Manikandan
DA' FREAKS: Mani,Freddie,Sridhar,Kailash,Goutham,Balaji,Sudarshan,Mohan,Ram,Prasad
ScoreBoard: DA' FREAKS -- 92\8 in 14 overs
Opponent -- 68 all out
There was a scramble for finding enough players to play for the DA' FREAKS with few guys expressing their unavailability just a day before and maddy(owner) being one among the culprits!!...Thanks to freddie we had enough guys to proceed with the game for the week.
The opponents won the toss and decided to bowl first which was exactly our plan as well but our luck with the toss have never been great..We had prasad and balaji opening the innings and had a steady start in the first couple of overs before balaji had to retire hurt (do not ask why!!)..Goutham got in the middle and as usual we lost a wicket through run out and losing prasad. Ram and goutham batted sensibly and taking the score to a comfortable 36 in 6 overs soon after which goutham got out which was one of the very few catches the opponents managed to hold on to..Freddie,kailash,mohan all chipped in which nice cameos but ram batted very well to take as to a score of 92 in 14 overs. Thanks to some shoddy fielding which helped as in a great way!!..
The sun was not beating down and we had a nice breeze blowing across the ground which helped us when we started to defend our target. Myself and Sridhar started off the proceedings with the ball. I did not have a great first over giving away 11 runs more due to my complancency but came back strongly in my next couple of overs picking up 2 wickets as well. Sridhar bowled well at the other end but the spell by goutham in the middle along with balaji helped us to pick up wickets steadily even though runs were leaked through some poor fielding by us. Sudarshan came late and could not bat much so he wanted to bowl an over which went for 12 runs and making the match little tight with the opponents needing 40 odd runs in 5 overs but we managed to wrap them up with some good bowling towards the end by myself, sri and goutham.
DA' FREAKS won by 24 runs and the much needed win in the kitty. There are areas to improve hopefully with our full strenghth squad next week sans vicky(the coach) should do better and keep up the winning habit!!...
Cheers,
Manikandan
Sunday, May 8, 2011
Where are we gonna find one victory?
We have lost so many matches in the past few months, we probably lost count! We have now tried everything, even let Mani open the innings. Its like the stars have aligned perfectly to screw us. This match we posted a par score batting first but lost the plot while bowling and fielding. Only good thing while defending this total was that we spent less time under the sun as the opponents wrapped it up in 10 overs.
'Da Freaks: Maddy, Mani, Freddie, Sri, Jagan, Balaji, Kail, Sudharshan, Yogi and Sivaram. Raghu joined at the end, bowled a couple of overs and left. Sivaram left after the first 4 overs we bowled. so basically we were defending a total with 9 men.
We won the toss and we batted first. Mani and Sudharshan opened the innings and scored 8 runs in the first over, also we lost Mani to a run out in the last ball of the first over. Then came the consolidation. Yogi and Sudharshan batted well till the 10th over and we were 58 for one at that end. Yogi got run out and the impetus to the innings never really came as Sri and Freddie got out cheaply. So much was our inability that the penultimate over was a maiden courtesy Balaji, he got out the last ball. Jagan and I added 12 runs in the last over and we ended up scoring 78 in 14 overs, which as I said before is a par score with a good chance of defending.
We were one regular bowler short. We seem unable to track the ball in the crowd as we gave away so many runs in the deep. With just 9 people, we were having 5 within the ring, which was absurd but none of the bowlers wanted an extra protection or just wanted to get this over with as there was little conversation in the middle. The result was a clean "ass-whoopin"
When the chase got over within 10 overs, you should know what went wrong.
I don't know what else to say really.
Cheers,
Madhavan
'Da Freaks: Maddy, Mani, Freddie, Sri, Jagan, Balaji, Kail, Sudharshan, Yogi and Sivaram. Raghu joined at the end, bowled a couple of overs and left. Sivaram left after the first 4 overs we bowled. so basically we were defending a total with 9 men.
We won the toss and we batted first. Mani and Sudharshan opened the innings and scored 8 runs in the first over, also we lost Mani to a run out in the last ball of the first over. Then came the consolidation. Yogi and Sudharshan batted well till the 10th over and we were 58 for one at that end. Yogi got run out and the impetus to the innings never really came as Sri and Freddie got out cheaply. So much was our inability that the penultimate over was a maiden courtesy Balaji, he got out the last ball. Jagan and I added 12 runs in the last over and we ended up scoring 78 in 14 overs, which as I said before is a par score with a good chance of defending.
We were one regular bowler short. We seem unable to track the ball in the crowd as we gave away so many runs in the deep. With just 9 people, we were having 5 within the ring, which was absurd but none of the bowlers wanted an extra protection or just wanted to get this over with as there was little conversation in the middle. The result was a clean "ass-whoopin"
When the chase got over within 10 overs, you should know what went wrong.
I don't know what else to say really.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Sunday, May 1, 2011
Bad Run Chase
We lost today's match against Arun CC. This is the second straight time we have lost against them unable to chase 65+, today the target was 70. The loss itself would have been a difficult thing to grasp under the circumstances but the way we skittled out for 41 was preposterous.
There has been a lot of talk about our bowling and our batting and how it needs to develop a lot more to cope up with the competition. Today our bowling was good. Probably not against a great batting team but definitely good. The opening pair of Mani and Suresh wreaked havoc taking 5 wickets in the first 7 overs. Mani bowled his quota in one spell probably because he looked good and also the fact that he had enough steam to complete. Good but there are other things we need to consider. If the first change comes in at the 8th over, it becomes that much more difficult for others to complete their quota. Standing under the sun for so much time and fielding, other bowlers may not have that much stamina to complete 3 overs in a trot. We do have good enough options to complete 14 overs but it becomes that much more difficult if one is taken apart and also we don't have the strike bowler at the end. Probably today Mani went with the idea to get more wickets, good enough but just a thought that we can think of options best available. All in all we ensured that Arun CC were able to get only 69 in 14 overs, we bowled them out in 13 overs which is a good sign of continuing improvements in bowling. I still believe we need better fielding management though today was not bad.
There is one major concern for us when it comes to batting, our opening pair is not consistent and we don't seem to go out with any kind of plan. It was very evident today in the way we lost the plot completely. I didn't understand the requirement of Balaji to slog in the very first over!! He didn't connect but the bowler did with the stumps. Lapse of concentration led Vicky to be stumped. Freddie forgot where his off stump was and was cleansed. Jagan ran for a non-existent run which I played straight to mid-wicket, since the throw was bad at the bowler's end, I tried to get there but was run out. Jagan got out the very next delivery. It was safe at this point to say that our chase was in tatters. We lost 8 wickets within 7 overs before getting to 15. Mani and Sri provided some impetus but Sri got caught out to a mis hit. Suresh played his no nonsense type of cricket in which he even hit a four. There was a glimpse of hope with this last wicket partnership. When we were 41 and needing 29 in 20 balls, Suresh got his stumps castled and that ended our chase, right there.
We are not really this bad, we have enough players to take us though while chasing. It seems like a confidence thing right now. Most of our problems in batting will be solved if we can find a good opening pair. If we can go with some targets like where we would like to be in the end of 3 overs, 5 overs, something like that might help. If we could gather 20 runs in 5 overs without losing a wicket, it would be a great achievement and a good platform. Introspecting myself I can clearly see that I lack confidence to open the innings and somehow I feel that playing at the end comes without much expectations, don't ask!! Got something to do with the fact that I have not been scoring consistently, actually any good impact for some innings. I think as players we need to also be accountable, just need to put our hands up and be counted. Something to think about for this week.
And guys, too many run outs. If you are unable to see the ball even if someone is shouting at you to run, don't. Its better to have no run rather than have so many run outs. This is killing us. Are we being a little restless somehow? Maybe.
It was a bad day at play today, so just forget it and enjoy CSK beat Deccan. Come back next week with more vigour.
Cheers,
Madhavan
There has been a lot of talk about our bowling and our batting and how it needs to develop a lot more to cope up with the competition. Today our bowling was good. Probably not against a great batting team but definitely good. The opening pair of Mani and Suresh wreaked havoc taking 5 wickets in the first 7 overs. Mani bowled his quota in one spell probably because he looked good and also the fact that he had enough steam to complete. Good but there are other things we need to consider. If the first change comes in at the 8th over, it becomes that much more difficult for others to complete their quota. Standing under the sun for so much time and fielding, other bowlers may not have that much stamina to complete 3 overs in a trot. We do have good enough options to complete 14 overs but it becomes that much more difficult if one is taken apart and also we don't have the strike bowler at the end. Probably today Mani went with the idea to get more wickets, good enough but just a thought that we can think of options best available. All in all we ensured that Arun CC were able to get only 69 in 14 overs, we bowled them out in 13 overs which is a good sign of continuing improvements in bowling. I still believe we need better fielding management though today was not bad.
There is one major concern for us when it comes to batting, our opening pair is not consistent and we don't seem to go out with any kind of plan. It was very evident today in the way we lost the plot completely. I didn't understand the requirement of Balaji to slog in the very first over!! He didn't connect but the bowler did with the stumps. Lapse of concentration led Vicky to be stumped. Freddie forgot where his off stump was and was cleansed. Jagan ran for a non-existent run which I played straight to mid-wicket, since the throw was bad at the bowler's end, I tried to get there but was run out. Jagan got out the very next delivery. It was safe at this point to say that our chase was in tatters. We lost 8 wickets within 7 overs before getting to 15. Mani and Sri provided some impetus but Sri got caught out to a mis hit. Suresh played his no nonsense type of cricket in which he even hit a four. There was a glimpse of hope with this last wicket partnership. When we were 41 and needing 29 in 20 balls, Suresh got his stumps castled and that ended our chase, right there.
We are not really this bad, we have enough players to take us though while chasing. It seems like a confidence thing right now. Most of our problems in batting will be solved if we can find a good opening pair. If we can go with some targets like where we would like to be in the end of 3 overs, 5 overs, something like that might help. If we could gather 20 runs in 5 overs without losing a wicket, it would be a great achievement and a good platform. Introspecting myself I can clearly see that I lack confidence to open the innings and somehow I feel that playing at the end comes without much expectations, don't ask!! Got something to do with the fact that I have not been scoring consistently, actually any good impact for some innings. I think as players we need to also be accountable, just need to put our hands up and be counted. Something to think about for this week.
And guys, too many run outs. If you are unable to see the ball even if someone is shouting at you to run, don't. Its better to have no run rather than have so many run outs. This is killing us. Are we being a little restless somehow? Maybe.
It was a bad day at play today, so just forget it and enjoy CSK beat Deccan. Come back next week with more vigour.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Monday, April 18, 2011
No Change in our Fortunes
Think it is safe to say that we don't chase a score that well. Opening is almost always our lean period, which puts a lot of pressure on those coming in the next few overs. Our bowling was thought to be one of the best in the ground but we still manage to give away 80 runs these days. No matter what the opposition, what the situation, our strategy is to involve everyone in the game either with the bat or with the ball. It is terrific, it should not change and if we figure that we are not providing our better batsmen a lot of balls to play with, I think the better option is to restrict the runs that we need to chase. It comes out like this as of now; we bat better when we bat first, no pressure and we bowl better when we know what score to defend. Well, that is not how it pans out every time, in fact, we have been chasing scores a lot lately either by preference or by not winning the toss. So what is the answer? I am not even sure everyone of us reads these blogs. I do not see active participation in the dialogue process or even in the field. We are not a team gifted with 11 good players. We all have our bad time and for some (read: the author) it is a bad time almost all the match. We are bad, sometimes stupid, in our field placements and definitely lazy in our approach to correct it or cover it. And let us not forget that we are so so egoistic. We basically do the opposite of what everyone else thinks and tells. We cover up the problem areas and talk about individual performances. As of now we are 11 individuals who are so submerged in the self, don't deny it, it is true, it is for everyone to see and everyone has.
We have seen the team before, 'Da freaks were one bunch of crazy guys on the field before. Every now and then when we get a wicket, we come out in support of something amazing one of us have done. Give those extra legs every match to those who tire easily. We get the fluid going no matter what for everyone else unmindful of ourselves. Always a chatter box, if not on the field, every time behind. And hell, we care.
I started off wanting to talk about the match and express my disappointment at another loss, obviously I have lost track and I am just expressing random feelings now.
Here you go guys "blog updated. dafreaksrule.blogspot.com" only we are not ruling right now. But remember when we did?
A very jaded Maddy
We have seen the team before, 'Da freaks were one bunch of crazy guys on the field before. Every now and then when we get a wicket, we come out in support of something amazing one of us have done. Give those extra legs every match to those who tire easily. We get the fluid going no matter what for everyone else unmindful of ourselves. Always a chatter box, if not on the field, every time behind. And hell, we care.
I started off wanting to talk about the match and express my disappointment at another loss, obviously I have lost track and I am just expressing random feelings now.
Here you go guys "blog updated. dafreaksrule.blogspot.com" only we are not ruling right now. But remember when we did?
A very jaded Maddy
Sunday, April 10, 2011
Once you are down the losses just keep on coming
I look back at this match and I really couldn't fault the bowling or batting. We went with an under-strength team in terms of bowling and it showed. People didn't step up as we hoped but non-regulars giving away a few extra runs is always the case. The point that needs to be stressed is the fact that the part-timers actually bowled well but our fielding/ field positioning let us down. Immensely. When singles are converted into two/ threes regularly and we keep dropping catches of a set batsman, 4 I counted, you know what I am talking about.
The match was against Shankar's team and as usual they showed up pretty late. When we started by 8, it felt like any other typical 8 am on an April, very hot. They won the toss and chose to bat first, which was fine with us.
'Da Freaks for the day: Maddy, Vicky, Fred, Sri, Jagan, Kail, Kail's friend, Yogi, Sudarshan, Balaji and Vivek.
The fact that it took us till the 9th over to get the first wicket talks a lot about our performance with the ball and with our fielding. But as I said, our bowling was not bad but it could have been a lot better, the issue being the hot sun under which everyone was feeling the heat. With about 70% of our usual strength it was imperative that we back up our bowlers, that failed to happen. I bowled three overs and that should say a lot about our bowling woes. Surprisingly I looked a lot more comfortable and the yorkers were on target almost all the time. I gave away 17 runs in three overs, with 3 dropped catches of Aravind, who went on to make a solid half century for them and some pretty ordinary fielding allowing those extra runs. Vicky looked ragged with his only over in which he gave away 12 runs. Sri was as usual getting the wickets and he was our best bowler on the field today. Jagan too bowled his heart out especially in the last over of our innings. But with all our weak links we ended up giving 87 runs in 14 overs.
It was chase-able and this is the kind of test that we wanted to strengthen our batting. It was unusual to see Yogi open as he is someone who constructs innings in the middle. Sudarshan and Yogi opened the innings for us and they started out nicely by getting 10 runs in the first over, probably our best start ever!! But soon enough we started losing wickets whenever we were building partnerships and that dented our chasing. Vicky batting didn't look out of socks at all as he picked up the pace for our innings and looked at ease and dangerous. We were hoping that he stayed till the end and see us thru. After 10 overs we were staring at a target of 40 to score. It was asking for a bit too much and that showed. Vicky got caught out at long on and the remaining batsmen just wanted to whack the ball than getting a single. I was the tenth batsman but didn't get a chance to face a single delivery.
All in all a poor fielding effort which had cost us at least 20 runs more and making it that much more difficult to chase. Batting is something which needs to improve a lot but we are in the exercise of doing just that.
Bowling under this red hot sun is a difficult job, I ask the fielders to give their maximum effort to back the bowlers.
Win is around the corner, we are getting there. Chin up.
Madhavan
The match was against Shankar's team and as usual they showed up pretty late. When we started by 8, it felt like any other typical 8 am on an April, very hot. They won the toss and chose to bat first, which was fine with us.
'Da Freaks for the day: Maddy, Vicky, Fred, Sri, Jagan, Kail, Kail's friend, Yogi, Sudarshan, Balaji and Vivek.
The fact that it took us till the 9th over to get the first wicket talks a lot about our performance with the ball and with our fielding. But as I said, our bowling was not bad but it could have been a lot better, the issue being the hot sun under which everyone was feeling the heat. With about 70% of our usual strength it was imperative that we back up our bowlers, that failed to happen. I bowled three overs and that should say a lot about our bowling woes. Surprisingly I looked a lot more comfortable and the yorkers were on target almost all the time. I gave away 17 runs in three overs, with 3 dropped catches of Aravind, who went on to make a solid half century for them and some pretty ordinary fielding allowing those extra runs. Vicky looked ragged with his only over in which he gave away 12 runs. Sri was as usual getting the wickets and he was our best bowler on the field today. Jagan too bowled his heart out especially in the last over of our innings. But with all our weak links we ended up giving 87 runs in 14 overs.
It was chase-able and this is the kind of test that we wanted to strengthen our batting. It was unusual to see Yogi open as he is someone who constructs innings in the middle. Sudarshan and Yogi opened the innings for us and they started out nicely by getting 10 runs in the first over, probably our best start ever!! But soon enough we started losing wickets whenever we were building partnerships and that dented our chasing. Vicky batting didn't look out of socks at all as he picked up the pace for our innings and looked at ease and dangerous. We were hoping that he stayed till the end and see us thru. After 10 overs we were staring at a target of 40 to score. It was asking for a bit too much and that showed. Vicky got caught out at long on and the remaining batsmen just wanted to whack the ball than getting a single. I was the tenth batsman but didn't get a chance to face a single delivery.
All in all a poor fielding effort which had cost us at least 20 runs more and making it that much more difficult to chase. Batting is something which needs to improve a lot but we are in the exercise of doing just that.
Bowling under this red hot sun is a difficult job, I ask the fielders to give their maximum effort to back the bowlers.
Win is around the corner, we are getting there. Chin up.
Madhavan
Sunday, March 27, 2011
Staring down a barrell
We post ourselves a lot of questions when we get defeated and we come out with some sort of answers for the next match. What happens if we make the same mistakes? that means we are not learning. We might now say that this is like the worst period ever and we have gone for three straight games without a win. Let me reword this, we have been soundly beaten in the last three games. Even the match with Arun CC we managed to score considerably only at the end. This I say because before these games, our bowling unit looked like one of the best in the ground and batting was getting the job done atleast. Now we are giving away a lot more runs and getting back that many few.
It doesn't bode well when our main bowlers start leaking away runs. Sridhar gets the wickets but today he gave away quite a few runs. Jagan wasn't lucky at the wickets column tonight and also he bowled an awful over that went for 14 runs.
Let me summarize. The match was against Skippers. Start of a best of three match series. We have lost more than we won against them and this was a perfect opportunity to get the record straight.
Scoreline: Skippers 85 in 14 overs
'Da Freaks 64 in 14 overs
'Da Freaks for the day: Mani, Maddy, Raghav, Jagan, Sridhar, Yogi, Goutham, Balaji, Sudharashan, Anand and Vishwa. Its a given that it happened in alfonso. Should be more like 'Alfonso Diaries' or something.
We had decided before the match that we will start chasing scores for a few weeks as we wanted to improve our batting skills a lot more. Chasing would be tough and ideal. This seems to have gone well with everyone mainly because we will not be fielding in the second half when Earth feels more like Mercury.
Jagan and Mani started the proceeding and the Skippers were stroking along for 24 in 4 overs. Mani and Jagan were pitching it short mostly. The only highlight for us was that we managed to get one of the openers run out. Sridhar came one change and he immediately picked up a wicket but also gave away 7 runs. The momentum for the Skippers never diminished as the other half of the opening pair was on an assault mission. I was given the ball for second change and my first delivery resulted in a drop catch from Sudharshan at long on. I gave away 8 runs in that over including a four but the last four deliveries, I thought (and probably the only one) bowled well and with pace but somehow basically everyone thinks that I am a poor bowler. Goutham playing his first game after a while got to bowl two. I just don't understand this. It would have been ok if atleast the others were keeping it tight but runs were just flowing no matter who bowled. Only because of the last two overs where we gave away just 5 runs, we managed to limit the damage to just 85 runs.
Our ground fielding, overall, seems to have improved a lot and this is something that we should focus and do better as we seem to be dropping catches though. Sudharshan and Balaji today, the culprits.
There was a confusion when we started chasing. We settled on the first three as Yogi, Fred and Balaji. But Balaji and Fred opened the innings, which was just dull!! We managed to score just 5 in three overs and Balaji opting for an extravagant shot was bowled out. Freddie couldn't even hit a full toss in his innings and eventually got caught behind at the end of the fourth over. We read 8 for 2. Anand was given a chance ahead of Sudharshan and Goutham and he failed to capitalize on it. Mani got himself on but eventually retired as he was dehydrated. Vishwa tried and fell soon, but Sridhar and Yogi were battling hard as they got us into a decent position of 34 in 8 overs. Sri got out for a top edge to covers. Yogi got run out trying to force a fourth run but honestly no on-field umpire might have given that out except Jagan as everyone felt that Yogi had reached. Jagan got bowled out the second delivery he faced as the innings crumbled. Sudharshan, Goutham, myself and Mani tried some shots in the last few deliveries but it was all too late. We fell short by 21 runs in the end.
Again a lot of questions regarding bowling, fielding and batting. What we need to improve is our field placements. I think we are not anticipating correctly and seem to have wrong type of fielders in some places. I think if we can avoid the bad overs, got our positions right and hold on to the catches we can definitely reduce another 10 to 15 runs and that is huge. Batting as always in a concern. Mostly the opening pair. If we had made up our mind about the first few slots, lets stick to it no matter what. Also sometimes it is not practical to give a shot to someone just because he has not bowled/ he is there as a cover.
All is not lost guys. We can win the next match. Its just about confidence.
Cheers,
Madhavan
It doesn't bode well when our main bowlers start leaking away runs. Sridhar gets the wickets but today he gave away quite a few runs. Jagan wasn't lucky at the wickets column tonight and also he bowled an awful over that went for 14 runs.
Let me summarize. The match was against Skippers. Start of a best of three match series. We have lost more than we won against them and this was a perfect opportunity to get the record straight.
Scoreline: Skippers 85 in 14 overs
'Da Freaks 64 in 14 overs
'Da Freaks for the day: Mani, Maddy, Raghav, Jagan, Sridhar, Yogi, Goutham, Balaji, Sudharashan, Anand and Vishwa. Its a given that it happened in alfonso. Should be more like 'Alfonso Diaries' or something.
We had decided before the match that we will start chasing scores for a few weeks as we wanted to improve our batting skills a lot more. Chasing would be tough and ideal. This seems to have gone well with everyone mainly because we will not be fielding in the second half when Earth feels more like Mercury.
Jagan and Mani started the proceeding and the Skippers were stroking along for 24 in 4 overs. Mani and Jagan were pitching it short mostly. The only highlight for us was that we managed to get one of the openers run out. Sridhar came one change and he immediately picked up a wicket but also gave away 7 runs. The momentum for the Skippers never diminished as the other half of the opening pair was on an assault mission. I was given the ball for second change and my first delivery resulted in a drop catch from Sudharshan at long on. I gave away 8 runs in that over including a four but the last four deliveries, I thought (and probably the only one) bowled well and with pace but somehow basically everyone thinks that I am a poor bowler. Goutham playing his first game after a while got to bowl two. I just don't understand this. It would have been ok if atleast the others were keeping it tight but runs were just flowing no matter who bowled. Only because of the last two overs where we gave away just 5 runs, we managed to limit the damage to just 85 runs.
Our ground fielding, overall, seems to have improved a lot and this is something that we should focus and do better as we seem to be dropping catches though. Sudharshan and Balaji today, the culprits.
There was a confusion when we started chasing. We settled on the first three as Yogi, Fred and Balaji. But Balaji and Fred opened the innings, which was just dull!! We managed to score just 5 in three overs and Balaji opting for an extravagant shot was bowled out. Freddie couldn't even hit a full toss in his innings and eventually got caught behind at the end of the fourth over. We read 8 for 2. Anand was given a chance ahead of Sudharshan and Goutham and he failed to capitalize on it. Mani got himself on but eventually retired as he was dehydrated. Vishwa tried and fell soon, but Sridhar and Yogi were battling hard as they got us into a decent position of 34 in 8 overs. Sri got out for a top edge to covers. Yogi got run out trying to force a fourth run but honestly no on-field umpire might have given that out except Jagan as everyone felt that Yogi had reached. Jagan got bowled out the second delivery he faced as the innings crumbled. Sudharshan, Goutham, myself and Mani tried some shots in the last few deliveries but it was all too late. We fell short by 21 runs in the end.
Again a lot of questions regarding bowling, fielding and batting. What we need to improve is our field placements. I think we are not anticipating correctly and seem to have wrong type of fielders in some places. I think if we can avoid the bad overs, got our positions right and hold on to the catches we can definitely reduce another 10 to 15 runs and that is huge. Batting as always in a concern. Mostly the opening pair. If we had made up our mind about the first few slots, lets stick to it no matter what. Also sometimes it is not practical to give a shot to someone just because he has not bowled/ he is there as a cover.
All is not lost guys. We can win the next match. Its just about confidence.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Sunday, March 20, 2011
A humilating defeat!!...
Good teams never repeat the same mistake but we have made it a habbit of just doing the same mistake time after time...Will we learn?......
Da Freaks: Mani,maddy,freddie,jagan,sridhar,kailash,ram,sudarshan,sundar,suresh, balaji
Score: Da Freaks - 42 allout in 12.2 overs
Skippers - 43\5 in 8.3 overs
Result: Skippers won by 5 wickets
Blogby: Mani
A change in our toss captain as freddie won the toss and da freaks elected to bat first admist few oppositions to bowl first (reason hot sun..may be they should consider playing book cricket). Maddy and suresh opened the innings with the score ticking along but maddy started off the first run out of the day by running suresh out in the first over. Balaji then batted along smoothly before maddy created havoc by running himself out. No one really got going apart from balaji as the runs came in trickle. Ram hit a half volley straight to covers which followed by kailiash and suadrshan running themselves out making it 4 runs outs for the day. We hopped to 33 in 8 overs which was pretty decent but we kept losing wickets. Freddie was looking good before he got himself out by running for non existent 3rd run. We fell as a pack of cards as da freaks folded to a meager 42 runs and not even playing the full quota of overs. I just had to watch all this unfold before getting to bat as the last batsmen for the day.
We tried to do our best with the ball but the total was not good enough. We manged to pick up 5 wickets. I picked up 2,jagan had 1 and 1 for balaji and 1 through a runout. The defeat left me angry but the failure had little impact for other team members which was a shame.
Maddy was disappointing trying to accomodate his friend after the 11 was announced. Sudrashan was asked to sit out but play for da freaks. The worst part sundar wanting to leave by 9.30 luckily the match was not stretched beyound it. Maddy needs to make up his mind of playing cricket in the hot sun because if we need to play and need to win there is no other choice.
Batting owes what do you do abt it?..The response from the seniour folks has been poor..I believe people have a problem here nobodies commitment is being questioned but their failure to take responsibility for their performances has not helped us. Nobody wants to talk about any batting plans but just go out there and play but this has no worked.Either we work this one out or be prepared for more such humilating defeats.
Hopefully we will have our plans worked out soon and comeback with a good streak of victories!!..
Da Freaks: Mani,maddy,freddie,jagan,sridhar,kailash,ram,sudarshan,sundar,suresh, balaji
Score: Da Freaks - 42 allout in 12.2 overs
Skippers - 43\5 in 8.3 overs
Result: Skippers won by 5 wickets
Blogby: Mani
A change in our toss captain as freddie won the toss and da freaks elected to bat first admist few oppositions to bowl first (reason hot sun..may be they should consider playing book cricket). Maddy and suresh opened the innings with the score ticking along but maddy started off the first run out of the day by running suresh out in the first over. Balaji then batted along smoothly before maddy created havoc by running himself out. No one really got going apart from balaji as the runs came in trickle. Ram hit a half volley straight to covers which followed by kailiash and suadrshan running themselves out making it 4 runs outs for the day. We hopped to 33 in 8 overs which was pretty decent but we kept losing wickets. Freddie was looking good before he got himself out by running for non existent 3rd run. We fell as a pack of cards as da freaks folded to a meager 42 runs and not even playing the full quota of overs. I just had to watch all this unfold before getting to bat as the last batsmen for the day.
We tried to do our best with the ball but the total was not good enough. We manged to pick up 5 wickets. I picked up 2,jagan had 1 and 1 for balaji and 1 through a runout. The defeat left me angry but the failure had little impact for other team members which was a shame.
Maddy was disappointing trying to accomodate his friend after the 11 was announced. Sudrashan was asked to sit out but play for da freaks. The worst part sundar wanting to leave by 9.30 luckily the match was not stretched beyound it. Maddy needs to make up his mind of playing cricket in the hot sun because if we need to play and need to win there is no other choice.
Batting owes what do you do abt it?..The response from the seniour folks has been poor..I believe people have a problem here nobodies commitment is being questioned but their failure to take responsibility for their performances has not helped us. Nobody wants to talk about any batting plans but just go out there and play but this has no worked.Either we work this one out or be prepared for more such humilating defeats.
Hopefully we will have our plans worked out soon and comeback with a good streak of victories!!..
Game on March 13 -- Blame it on the bowlers!!
A great game of cricket and the longest day we had in the field but the disappointment was being on the losing side...
Da Freaks: Mani,maddy,freddie,kailash,jagan,sridhar,suresh,yogesh,sudarshan,mohan
Score: Aruncc: 94\9 in 14 overs
Da Freaks: 84\9 in 14 overs
Result: Da freaks lost by 10 runs
Blog by: Mani
It was a game against Arun CC and we were facing them for the first time...Actually i do not remember the last time we played a team where we hardly knew about anyone. The entire team of aruncc was completely new to us but that was not an excuse for the performance we put in.
We lost the toss and was bowling in a hot morning because by the time the opponent came and their batsmen started to play it was 8 and the sun was beating down. Jagan and suresh started of the proceedings for the day. They started of decently even though they did not pick up wickets. Myself and sridhar was bowling the next spell as runs started to galore with some very ordinary fielding. Not to forget the crowd we had on te field. Now that the holiday season has started we better be prepared for it. The openers really settled down i bowled good first over but the second over was a poor one neither did sridhar started of well. The drop catch by jagan in the deep added to our owes. They had scored 79 for the loss of one wicket by the 10th over. Yogesh got us the break through with his off breaks but he could not back it up in his next few overs. We were looking at a huge score in excess of 100 as they had 9 wickets in hand with 4 overs left. Sridhar bowled a spectacular 11th over in which he picked up a hat trick and brought us right back into the game. Then i picked up two in my next over as we picked up 5 wickts in the space of 7 deliveries. Tight bowling from sridhar and myself ensured that we kept the opponents to 95 which was a excellent result for us to pick up 8 wickets for just 15 runs.
The chase was on we felt we gave 10 more runs but believed we could chase it down since the ball was pretty hard and there was value for shots. We were off to a decent start but again failed to accelerate in the middle overs due to freddie's friend eating up the overs. The decision was made to get in freddie in place of his friend and it proved to work has freddie and sridhar started to play some attacking cricket and bring us right back into the match. Sri perished to an ambitious shot which paved way for yogesh to play an excellent cameo. He along side freddie batted in fantastic fashion to bring us close. The wickets of yogesh and freddie derailed our chase and left us to score 18 odd runs in the last over. We managed only 8 and lost by 10 runs.
It was a great chase but again we score 65 odd runs in the last 7 overs but still lost due to our poor batting in the first seven which continues to be our problem!!..A great effort by the guys in a hot day and with few heated arguments it took alomost 3 hours to complete the match!!...
Da Freaks: Mani,maddy,freddie,kailash,jagan,sridhar,suresh,yogesh,sudarshan,mohan
Score: Aruncc: 94\9 in 14 overs
Da Freaks: 84\9 in 14 overs
Result: Da freaks lost by 10 runs
Blog by: Mani
It was a game against Arun CC and we were facing them for the first time...Actually i do not remember the last time we played a team where we hardly knew about anyone. The entire team of aruncc was completely new to us but that was not an excuse for the performance we put in.
We lost the toss and was bowling in a hot morning because by the time the opponent came and their batsmen started to play it was 8 and the sun was beating down. Jagan and suresh started of the proceedings for the day. They started of decently even though they did not pick up wickets. Myself and sridhar was bowling the next spell as runs started to galore with some very ordinary fielding. Not to forget the crowd we had on te field. Now that the holiday season has started we better be prepared for it. The openers really settled down i bowled good first over but the second over was a poor one neither did sridhar started of well. The drop catch by jagan in the deep added to our owes. They had scored 79 for the loss of one wicket by the 10th over. Yogesh got us the break through with his off breaks but he could not back it up in his next few overs. We were looking at a huge score in excess of 100 as they had 9 wickets in hand with 4 overs left. Sridhar bowled a spectacular 11th over in which he picked up a hat trick and brought us right back into the game. Then i picked up two in my next over as we picked up 5 wickts in the space of 7 deliveries. Tight bowling from sridhar and myself ensured that we kept the opponents to 95 which was a excellent result for us to pick up 8 wickets for just 15 runs.
The chase was on we felt we gave 10 more runs but believed we could chase it down since the ball was pretty hard and there was value for shots. We were off to a decent start but again failed to accelerate in the middle overs due to freddie's friend eating up the overs. The decision was made to get in freddie in place of his friend and it proved to work has freddie and sridhar started to play some attacking cricket and bring us right back into the match. Sri perished to an ambitious shot which paved way for yogesh to play an excellent cameo. He along side freddie batted in fantastic fashion to bring us close. The wickets of yogesh and freddie derailed our chase and left us to score 18 odd runs in the last over. We managed only 8 and lost by 10 runs.
It was a great chase but again we score 65 odd runs in the last 7 overs but still lost due to our poor batting in the first seven which continues to be our problem!!..A great effort by the guys in a hot day and with few heated arguments it took alomost 3 hours to complete the match!!...
Sunday, February 13, 2011
Resolute batting performance
'Da freaks for the game: Maddy, Vicky, Mani, Raghu, Sri, Jagan, Raghav, Kail, Ram, Yogi and Suresh.
Jagan has been our lucky mascot and his toss winning habit continued. We elected to bat first as Mani believes it is our weak link. Our batting has a familiar pattern, slow start, lose wickets in the middle, break free in the end. So in order to break the routine, we decided to start with Raghu and Sri hoping to get an impetus. It turned out ok till the third over by which we had managed 19 runs without losing a wicket. When Raghu got out to a rash shot, the very next over, our scoring rate dropped alarmingly. Kailash, Ram, Raghav and Sri didn't last long and we were struggling to get any momentum to our innings. Yogi and Vicky played sensibly from then on, Yogi especially looking good at finding gaps thru the covers. We managed to score 61 runs at the end of 11 overs when Yogi got out. I stepped in and hit some blows and our running between the wickets also helped. The opposition were now struggling to control the leak and we managed to get 92 at the end of 14 overs.
Fielding in the deep is not my forte and I found out how hard it can be even to have the visual of the ball. Jagan and Suresh started the innings, and our bowling unit seems pretty set now. Jagan leaked some runs in his first over and so Mani brought himself as the first change. Soon enough he got a wicket. Though the runs were coming off their bats, it never really looked like a chase as we pegged them back with wickets everytime. Raghu and Jagan picked up a couple of wickets each. I was asked to bowl an over as part of the lets-try-the-second-string options. Though I managed to pick up a wicket, 9 runs were scored in my over as I persisted with bowling full tosses, then again we managed to put down two catches, one tough and another one a sitter. There was also a dubious run out when Raghav showed good awareness to throw the ball to me when the runner was just strolling back to the grease after the ball was bowled. We effected a run out and since the ball was not dead, the umpire also had to give that out. We once again managed to knock a team inside the 14th over as the opposition only managed 70 runs.
A victory by 22 runs margin in a 14 over match is quite a good margin. Vicky keeps tracking our winning streak, it has now stretched to five games!!
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da Freaks
Jagan has been our lucky mascot and his toss winning habit continued. We elected to bat first as Mani believes it is our weak link. Our batting has a familiar pattern, slow start, lose wickets in the middle, break free in the end. So in order to break the routine, we decided to start with Raghu and Sri hoping to get an impetus. It turned out ok till the third over by which we had managed 19 runs without losing a wicket. When Raghu got out to a rash shot, the very next over, our scoring rate dropped alarmingly. Kailash, Ram, Raghav and Sri didn't last long and we were struggling to get any momentum to our innings. Yogi and Vicky played sensibly from then on, Yogi especially looking good at finding gaps thru the covers. We managed to score 61 runs at the end of 11 overs when Yogi got out. I stepped in and hit some blows and our running between the wickets also helped. The opposition were now struggling to control the leak and we managed to get 92 at the end of 14 overs.
Fielding in the deep is not my forte and I found out how hard it can be even to have the visual of the ball. Jagan and Suresh started the innings, and our bowling unit seems pretty set now. Jagan leaked some runs in his first over and so Mani brought himself as the first change. Soon enough he got a wicket. Though the runs were coming off their bats, it never really looked like a chase as we pegged them back with wickets everytime. Raghu and Jagan picked up a couple of wickets each. I was asked to bowl an over as part of the lets-try-the-second-string options. Though I managed to pick up a wicket, 9 runs were scored in my over as I persisted with bowling full tosses, then again we managed to put down two catches, one tough and another one a sitter. There was also a dubious run out when Raghav showed good awareness to throw the ball to me when the runner was just strolling back to the grease after the ball was bowled. We effected a run out and since the ball was not dead, the umpire also had to give that out. We once again managed to knock a team inside the 14th over as the opposition only managed 70 runs.
A victory by 22 runs margin in a 14 over match is quite a good margin. Vicky keeps tracking our winning streak, it has now stretched to five games!!
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, February 6, 2011
Jinx Broken!!!!
We finally managed to win both the morning and noon match in a day. Its a fantastic achievement, not that we haven't won two games in a day, just not in different time zones. It looked like some kind of jinx and now its finally broken.
'Da freaks included Maddy, Mani, Vicky, Sri, Anand, Fred, Kail, Raghu, Jagan and Ram. We played a twelve over match and starting the game we only had seven players awaiting the arrival of Sri, Anand and Raghu. Jagan won the toss and we batted first. Ram and Vicky opened the innings and gave a steady start until a rash shot got rid of Ram. The ground looked half empty and so it was easier to judge runs. Vicky was in sublime form playing till the end, knocking singles and twos. He was ably supported by Ram and Fred. At the end of 12 overs we managed to get 61 runs, which was a decent score. Enough to stake claim for a victory.
All 10 of us were available for our defending. Mani and Raghu started the proceedings. Raghu looked fresh and was bowling fast. He picked up a wicket too in his first spell. Since I wanted to test my bowling skills, I opted out of batting and was given the ball first change. I picked up a couple of wickets in my first over but leaked 7 runs in my second. Looked a little rusty but thats what you get when you don't bowl regularly. Sri came in to the attack and carried on his fine form with the ball with pace that troubled our opponents. I am not quite sure but I think he picked up three wickets. One a good running catch at deep square leg by Vicky. Jagan finished off the innings as we looked to end this chase early. The opponents would have scored 50 odd, not more. Freddie as our wicket keeper and our overall fielding looked confident.
Since the jinx is finally broken we should reconsider playing at noon. Very soon it will become unplayable because of the heat. At least I am considering not participating, but lets see.
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da freaks
'Da freaks included Maddy, Mani, Vicky, Sri, Anand, Fred, Kail, Raghu, Jagan and Ram. We played a twelve over match and starting the game we only had seven players awaiting the arrival of Sri, Anand and Raghu. Jagan won the toss and we batted first. Ram and Vicky opened the innings and gave a steady start until a rash shot got rid of Ram. The ground looked half empty and so it was easier to judge runs. Vicky was in sublime form playing till the end, knocking singles and twos. He was ably supported by Ram and Fred. At the end of 12 overs we managed to get 61 runs, which was a decent score. Enough to stake claim for a victory.
All 10 of us were available for our defending. Mani and Raghu started the proceedings. Raghu looked fresh and was bowling fast. He picked up a wicket too in his first spell. Since I wanted to test my bowling skills, I opted out of batting and was given the ball first change. I picked up a couple of wickets in my first over but leaked 7 runs in my second. Looked a little rusty but thats what you get when you don't bowl regularly. Sri came in to the attack and carried on his fine form with the ball with pace that troubled our opponents. I am not quite sure but I think he picked up three wickets. One a good running catch at deep square leg by Vicky. Jagan finished off the innings as we looked to end this chase early. The opponents would have scored 50 odd, not more. Freddie as our wicket keeper and our overall fielding looked confident.
Since the jinx is finally broken we should reconsider playing at noon. Very soon it will become unplayable because of the heat. At least I am considering not participating, but lets see.
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da freaks
Satisfactory Run Chase
The match was against Cheena's team, for the lack of any other names. Alfonso saw 10 of the 'da freaks assembling today for the game with the likes of Maddy, Vicky, Mani, Vivek, Jagan, Yogi, Suresh, Balaji. Fred and Kail. We got one more guy on the field.
The opposition opted to bat first. A dream start as the first ball from Jagan yielded a wicket, clean bowled. I understand that the player who got out is an important player for them and often get them to a good start. As I had been saying, Jagan looks in great form with the ball and he proved his worth in this match as well. Suresh and Jagan bowled a tight first spell of 4 overs in which the opposition was able to get only 14 and losing a wicket. I was given the ball, looked like a test of skill, which I miserably failed as I gave away 7 runs including a boundary. To my defense, it was a catch that Balaji failed to collect and aided to the boundary. Other than that I could do a lot better. Back to the game, Vicky's first two overs cost him 15 runs but he managed to pick up a wicket, a beautiful low catch by Kailash at square leg, and there was a run out as well. Highlight of those two overs was the switch-hit six by one of the batsmen. Mani, Jagan and Suresh controlled the remaining overs and ensured that we were chasing only 70 runs in 14 overs.
Our batting has been our Achilles' heals. We are often criticized for losing too many wickets in the early overs. This game was different. Yogi and Fred started the innings very steadily. Freddie was looking fresh even after running for 5 overs without a bye-runner. Just when Freddie was looking dangerous, he got out bowled to a slow off cutter. And we read 22 for 1 in 5 overs. Kailash came in next and looked nervous as usual. I just told him that they were bowling at full length and if he wanted to swing, cover his stumps first so that if he missed, the ball will not hit the stumps. Not sure how much it helped, or if it helped at all but Kailash looked good, nervous but good. Highlight of his innings was a stunning pull for a boundary. Yogi was anchoring the innings and looked determined to be there and see us through. When Kailash got run out and we still needing 34 runs in 7 overs, in stepped our batting maestro, Vivek. The runs were still flowing without a problem for us and we hadn't taken any major risks either. Yogi eventually got out caught behind and in stepped Mani as we thought myself and Vivek in the middle would be a catastrophe waiting to happen. But Mani almost took Vivek's wicket off the very first ball he faced by trying to run for a non-existent single. But our batting maestro was unfazed. The moment he asked for a bye-runner, supporting role by Yogi, Vivek started teaching us all lessons on how to play cover drives, thru the ground or over the fielder's head, he looked terrific. When we needed 8 from 2.1 overs, Mani got out and I stepped in. Yogi and I ran like our lives depended on it and took our chances well. In the end we won by 6 wickets with 5 deliveries to spare. Vivek would have scored 12+ and I was there with 2.
It is always satisfying to chase and win and we managed to do just that. Hoping that our batting becomes more consistent.
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da Freaks
The opposition opted to bat first. A dream start as the first ball from Jagan yielded a wicket, clean bowled. I understand that the player who got out is an important player for them and often get them to a good start. As I had been saying, Jagan looks in great form with the ball and he proved his worth in this match as well. Suresh and Jagan bowled a tight first spell of 4 overs in which the opposition was able to get only 14 and losing a wicket. I was given the ball, looked like a test of skill, which I miserably failed as I gave away 7 runs including a boundary. To my defense, it was a catch that Balaji failed to collect and aided to the boundary. Other than that I could do a lot better. Back to the game, Vicky's first two overs cost him 15 runs but he managed to pick up a wicket, a beautiful low catch by Kailash at square leg, and there was a run out as well. Highlight of those two overs was the switch-hit six by one of the batsmen. Mani, Jagan and Suresh controlled the remaining overs and ensured that we were chasing only 70 runs in 14 overs.
Our batting has been our Achilles' heals. We are often criticized for losing too many wickets in the early overs. This game was different. Yogi and Fred started the innings very steadily. Freddie was looking fresh even after running for 5 overs without a bye-runner. Just when Freddie was looking dangerous, he got out bowled to a slow off cutter. And we read 22 for 1 in 5 overs. Kailash came in next and looked nervous as usual. I just told him that they were bowling at full length and if he wanted to swing, cover his stumps first so that if he missed, the ball will not hit the stumps. Not sure how much it helped, or if it helped at all but Kailash looked good, nervous but good. Highlight of his innings was a stunning pull for a boundary. Yogi was anchoring the innings and looked determined to be there and see us through. When Kailash got run out and we still needing 34 runs in 7 overs, in stepped our batting maestro, Vivek. The runs were still flowing without a problem for us and we hadn't taken any major risks either. Yogi eventually got out caught behind and in stepped Mani as we thought myself and Vivek in the middle would be a catastrophe waiting to happen. But Mani almost took Vivek's wicket off the very first ball he faced by trying to run for a non-existent single. But our batting maestro was unfazed. The moment he asked for a bye-runner, supporting role by Yogi, Vivek started teaching us all lessons on how to play cover drives, thru the ground or over the fielder's head, he looked terrific. When we needed 8 from 2.1 overs, Mani got out and I stepped in. Yogi and I ran like our lives depended on it and took our chances well. In the end we won by 6 wickets with 5 deliveries to spare. Vivek would have scored 12+ and I was there with 2.
It is always satisfying to chase and win and we managed to do just that. Hoping that our batting becomes more consistent.
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da Freaks
Wednesday, February 2, 2011
Bowling is becoming our greatest strength
Last Sunday we played two games in the morning session. One against Mahesh's team and the other against Kumar's. Our 11 was Maddy, Mani, Freddie, Jagan, Suresh, Balaji, Sri, Raghu, Sudarshan and Yogi. Raghu only played the first match.
Since this is not recorded on the day of the match, I am going to keep it crisp. Jagan is coming of age with his bowling. Fast and accurate, he is troubling most batsmen. You know about a good bowler when most of his wickets are by uprooting the stumps. He tends to bowl full deliveries some times, but he can only get better. His bowling was fantastic, equally impressive was Suresh. He started off bowling short as usual but came to his element pretty soon. He got a fiver in the first match. Both these guys were able to keep the opponents under check in both the matches.
First match - opponent's score: 15 for 6 in 4 overs.
Second match - opponent's score: 11 for 6 in 4 overs chasing 53 for victory.
That stat says a lot about the control we had over both the teams.
Batting is a worry, yes. But I guess we can afford to experiment on the line up so long as our bowling is on target.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Since this is not recorded on the day of the match, I am going to keep it crisp. Jagan is coming of age with his bowling. Fast and accurate, he is troubling most batsmen. You know about a good bowler when most of his wickets are by uprooting the stumps. He tends to bowl full deliveries some times, but he can only get better. His bowling was fantastic, equally impressive was Suresh. He started off bowling short as usual but came to his element pretty soon. He got a fiver in the first match. Both these guys were able to keep the opponents under check in both the matches.
First match - opponent's score: 15 for 6 in 4 overs.
Second match - opponent's score: 11 for 6 in 4 overs chasing 53 for victory.
That stat says a lot about the control we had over both the teams.
Batting is a worry, yes. But I guess we can afford to experiment on the line up so long as our bowling is on target.
Cheers,
Madhavan
Saturday, January 15, 2011
A Facile Victory
It was a commanding 100 runs victory margin for us today in a fourteen over game and that should say a lot about our opponents. I say this because the quality of our opponents usually are pretty good that such a disappointing match would have never taken place if it were the regulars. As it turned out our opponents does not seem like regulars and they were actually a bunch of kids, considering our age! A team made of Kailash's friends I suppose.
Our team today included Vicky, Maddy, Mani, Raghu, Raghav, Jagan, Sri, Ram, Suresh, Kailash and Sudarshan. It was at PM and a usual 14 overs a side.
I am not going to go much into details about what unfolded as I believe I would be doing injustice to all our other matches. We won the toss, chose to bat first and they had a keeper, first slip and a leg slip to try and reduce the byes for almost all the 14 overs!! Mani, Ram and Raghu had a field day with the bat but others did not do well, not that it was necessary, we scored a mammoth 146 in 14 overs. Raghu hit a couple of towering sixes in his innings.
We chose to take wickets at will. Raghav bowled the second over, accounted for a wicket of his bowling and three run outs, yes 4 wickets fell in the second over. Part timers got into the attack (myself included) and basically we wrapped them up in 8 overs. It was never a chase to begin with.
Positive things? hmmmm.... Ram and Raghu got scores under their belt. We were ruthless in finishing off a very weak side.
Ah well, we could use one facile win now and then I suppose. Closely contested, equally matched, that is the kind of matches we prefer at the end. Tomorrow is against Hari and we might need to work hard for each and every run. So lets not get complacent. Have a good night sleep guyz.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
Our team today included Vicky, Maddy, Mani, Raghu, Raghav, Jagan, Sri, Ram, Suresh, Kailash and Sudarshan. It was at PM and a usual 14 overs a side.
I am not going to go much into details about what unfolded as I believe I would be doing injustice to all our other matches. We won the toss, chose to bat first and they had a keeper, first slip and a leg slip to try and reduce the byes for almost all the 14 overs!! Mani, Ram and Raghu had a field day with the bat but others did not do well, not that it was necessary, we scored a mammoth 146 in 14 overs. Raghu hit a couple of towering sixes in his innings.
We chose to take wickets at will. Raghav bowled the second over, accounted for a wicket of his bowling and three run outs, yes 4 wickets fell in the second over. Part timers got into the attack (myself included) and basically we wrapped them up in 8 overs. It was never a chase to begin with.
Positive things? hmmmm.... Ram and Raghu got scores under their belt. We were ruthless in finishing off a very weak side.
Ah well, we could use one facile win now and then I suppose. Closely contested, equally matched, that is the kind of matches we prefer at the end. Tomorrow is against Hari and we might need to work hard for each and every run. So lets not get complacent. Have a good night sleep guyz.
Cheers,
Madhavan
for 'Da Freaks
Sunday, January 9, 2011
Lost by 2 wickets - A batting collapse
What transpired today could be best described as : 'Well begun; but not persistent enough'.. It happened in both departments - while batting,we were 38-3 after 6 overs; only to be all out for 54 in the last over. And we had them on the mat - 28-6 after 6 overs. But they eventually won by 2 wickets in the last over.
The Team: Vignesh, Raghu, Sridar, Fred, Kail, Ram, Jagan, Sudharshan, Balaji, Muthu and Suresh.
The match was against Stalin's team - they were touted to be a very good team. We won the toss, courtesy Jagan and chose to bat.
After a lengthy discussion between Raghu, Fred and myself, I opened along with Sudharshan. But Sudharshan went first ball (bowled). Ram and myself laid a good start wherein we scored 23 off the first 4 overs. I got out caught at long off. Fred got bowled around the legs soon. Raghu and Ram took the score to 38 after 6 overs. This is where the collapse started with Raghu, Muthu and Sridhar out in no time. Ram, after playing one of his better knocks, got out. He looked in good touch until he got bowled. We eventually huffed and puffed to 54.
Defending 54 in 12 overs (the opponents insisted in a 12 over game)was never going to be easy but we drew confidence from our last week where we defended 63 off 14 overs. Jagan and Suresh started the bowling and the opponents scored 21 off the first 4 overs. I must say those two bowled well but our fielding let us down here with some overthrows. A couple of run outs, a wicket by Sridhar and 2 wickets in my over meant they were 28-6 after 6 overs. But after that we just couldn't contain the flow of runs. They scored 5-6 runs of every over. What was needed was a couple of tight overs. They lost a couple of wickets in the penultimate over by Jagan but it was too late. They won by 2 wickets.
Though it hurts to lose, I feel we gave a good account of ourselves against a team which was supposed to be tough. Next up is the Pongal weekend.. We are contemplating to play atleast 2 matches. Lets hope we don't commit the same mistakes again. Our middle order needs to put up a better show. I know there is no fixed batting order but those who fill up the slots should apply themselves better. And those over throws could be avoided if the fielders in the ring do a good job of backing up and also calling out which end to throw..
Best wishes for Pongal...
Cheers
Vignesh
The Team: Vignesh, Raghu, Sridar, Fred, Kail, Ram, Jagan, Sudharshan, Balaji, Muthu and Suresh.
The match was against Stalin's team - they were touted to be a very good team. We won the toss, courtesy Jagan and chose to bat.
After a lengthy discussion between Raghu, Fred and myself, I opened along with Sudharshan. But Sudharshan went first ball (bowled). Ram and myself laid a good start wherein we scored 23 off the first 4 overs. I got out caught at long off. Fred got bowled around the legs soon. Raghu and Ram took the score to 38 after 6 overs. This is where the collapse started with Raghu, Muthu and Sridhar out in no time. Ram, after playing one of his better knocks, got out. He looked in good touch until he got bowled. We eventually huffed and puffed to 54.
Defending 54 in 12 overs (the opponents insisted in a 12 over game)was never going to be easy but we drew confidence from our last week where we defended 63 off 14 overs. Jagan and Suresh started the bowling and the opponents scored 21 off the first 4 overs. I must say those two bowled well but our fielding let us down here with some overthrows. A couple of run outs, a wicket by Sridhar and 2 wickets in my over meant they were 28-6 after 6 overs. But after that we just couldn't contain the flow of runs. They scored 5-6 runs of every over. What was needed was a couple of tight overs. They lost a couple of wickets in the penultimate over by Jagan but it was too late. They won by 2 wickets.
Though it hurts to lose, I feel we gave a good account of ourselves against a team which was supposed to be tough. Next up is the Pongal weekend.. We are contemplating to play atleast 2 matches. Lets hope we don't commit the same mistakes again. Our middle order needs to put up a better show. I know there is no fixed batting order but those who fill up the slots should apply themselves better. And those over throws could be avoided if the fielders in the ring do a good job of backing up and also calling out which end to throw..
Best wishes for Pongal...
Cheers
Vignesh
Sunday, January 2, 2011
Good Start to Twenty11
'Da Freaks were off to a winning start in 2011 and it was thanks to our bowling and fielding.
10 men: Madhavan, Mani, Fred, Sri, Balaji, Suresh, Sudarshan, Yogi, yogi's friend and Kailash. Vicky was in Sriperambudur, Raghu got into puberty (said he had a stomach ache), Goutham was asleep and hence Balaji, Jagan at Ooty. Good to see that we were almost able to pull off all 11 with all these changes and some of them last minute. Lets try and keep the last minute pull outs at nil guyz.
The match was against Hari's team sans Hari himself. Both the teams did not have a few regulars and so this match up was quite on an equal front.
We won the toss and chose to bat. Yogi's friend and Balaji opened and they had a steady start scoring 12 runs in 3 overs (another hari missed a simple catch at long on in only the second over though) but we failed to convert a good start, we never really had any momentum to the innings especially with Balaji incapable of playing other than a slog. He wasted too many deliveries and that put pressure on the other guys. Naturally it resulted in cheap wickets. Yogi, Sudarshan and Fred never really got going. We were 39 in 10 overs and that is when Balaji got run out, not his fault he had a bye in the name of Suresh and that kind of looked like a planned one, though he never agreed. Anyway his wicket helped as Sridhar, myself and Mani traded some blows in the last 4 overs to end our innings at 63 off 14 overs. Opposition's bowling never really had any bite neither did our batting.
Suresh and Sridhar opened the bowling for us. We got that extra fielder courtesy Sudarshan. Our bowling though looked rusty at the beginning found line, length and good rythmn soon enough. There is nothing much to talk about their innings as they never looked like chasing, struggling for runs. Suresh got a couple of wickets in his second, Yogi got three in his first as we kind of ran through their line up to leave them short of about 12-15 runs. Our ground fielding looked good and it resulted in a couple of run outs as well.
Our overall performance on the field trying to save the match was encouraging and satisfying.
To sum it up, we won this match because of Vicky. Why? He didn't play!! :) :p (Sorry dude, every one wanted me to write this, every one)
Hope to have a full strength squad next week with Vicky and Raghu back. Good start to 2011 overall. Keep up the spirit.
Cheers,
Madhavan for 'Da Freaks
10 men: Madhavan, Mani, Fred, Sri, Balaji, Suresh, Sudarshan, Yogi, yogi's friend and Kailash. Vicky was in Sriperambudur, Raghu got into puberty (said he had a stomach ache), Goutham was asleep and hence Balaji, Jagan at Ooty. Good to see that we were almost able to pull off all 11 with all these changes and some of them last minute. Lets try and keep the last minute pull outs at nil guyz.
The match was against Hari's team sans Hari himself. Both the teams did not have a few regulars and so this match up was quite on an equal front.
We won the toss and chose to bat. Yogi's friend and Balaji opened and they had a steady start scoring 12 runs in 3 overs (another hari missed a simple catch at long on in only the second over though) but we failed to convert a good start, we never really had any momentum to the innings especially with Balaji incapable of playing other than a slog. He wasted too many deliveries and that put pressure on the other guys. Naturally it resulted in cheap wickets. Yogi, Sudarshan and Fred never really got going. We were 39 in 10 overs and that is when Balaji got run out, not his fault he had a bye in the name of Suresh and that kind of looked like a planned one, though he never agreed. Anyway his wicket helped as Sridhar, myself and Mani traded some blows in the last 4 overs to end our innings at 63 off 14 overs. Opposition's bowling never really had any bite neither did our batting.
Suresh and Sridhar opened the bowling for us. We got that extra fielder courtesy Sudarshan. Our bowling though looked rusty at the beginning found line, length and good rythmn soon enough. There is nothing much to talk about their innings as they never looked like chasing, struggling for runs. Suresh got a couple of wickets in his second, Yogi got three in his first as we kind of ran through their line up to leave them short of about 12-15 runs. Our ground fielding looked good and it resulted in a couple of run outs as well.
Our overall performance on the field trying to save the match was encouraging and satisfying.
To sum it up, we won this match because of Vicky. Why? He didn't play!! :) :p (Sorry dude, every one wanted me to write this, every one)
Hope to have a full strength squad next week with Vicky and Raghu back. Good start to 2011 overall. Keep up the spirit.
Cheers,
Madhavan for 'Da Freaks
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