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
Saturday, January 15, 2011
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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