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
Sunday, March 27, 2011
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!!...
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