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

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

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