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
Monday, April 18, 2011
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
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