We let almost the entire February pass by without updating the blog and that is a mistake. But that is not gonna happen now that we are updating the last match of this month :) And what a game it was. Getting 11 in the team may not be a problem but getting their asses on the field maybe. Even I slept till I got the third call to get my ass moving, well I made it albeit after the 3rd or 4th over :D We were left again with just 10 members. 'Da freaks for the day were: Maddy, Mani, Vicky, Jack, Sri, Raghu, Sudarshan, Yogi, Ram and Laxman (is it?)
Our match was against Kumar's team. We were bowling first and their opening pair got off to a good start. One moment of madness made one of them to reverse sweep Jack and he was caught at point. I wouldn't say that we bowled very well because most of the deliveries that got us wickets were full tosses and not even low ones. Another day we would have been chasing a mammoth total but credit to the fielding unit which did a wonderful job of holding on to the catches. Most noticeable were Sridhar who took two good outfield catches, I took a couple more and Raghu's brilliant piece of individual skill to run out the non striker. But then again, we weren't without our usual glitches. We had three golden opportunities to effect easy run outs at the keeper's end but Yogi and Raghu didn't collect the ball cleanly that too without any pressure. Had we taken all our chances, two more catches went begging between myself and Sudarshan, we might have been chasing a very modest score. Instead we were left to score 83 off 14 overs.
We are a good all round unit and our strength with the bat doesn't always show. We got nothing but ourselves to prove how good we are and that is exactly what we did today. The opening partnership between Yogi and Ram gave a solid foundation upon which a good cameo by Sridhar and a brilliant batting display by Raghu, who scored 20 off just 11 deliveries, took us across the finishing line with an over to spare. Raghu and Sridhar's running between the wickets was just awesome and the opponents were clueless trying to contain the flow. Raghu's performance is a good news for us as his batting display will help us score more runs.
Overall a satisfying day not that we didn't have anything to complain about just that we don't want to :)
Cheers,
Maddy for 'Da freaks
Sunday, February 26, 2012
Sunday, January 15, 2012
Awesome batting makes it 2 wins in a row for Da Freaks.. 15 Jan 2012
Awesome is the word that comes to mind when i think of our batting performance today. Chasing down 87 runs in the 13th over against a team that has haunted us in recent times speaks volumes of our performance.
Team: Mani, Suresh, Sridhar, Jagan, Yogesh, Ram, Muthu, Krishnan, Madhavan, Sudharshan and Vignesh
Match Result: 'Da Freaks beat the Skippers by 5 wickets.
I lost the toss again this week and the opponents chose to bat. The opponents got off to a brisk start losing just 1 wicket in the first 5 overs and had scored 36 runs. Mani had got a strike in his rather unconvincing two over spell. Suresh was struggling with his rhythm.. I bowled the 6th over and picked up 2 wickets - one courtesy a good catch by Yogesh and another, a skier that i caught off my own bowling(Mani graciously let me take the catch..:)) after taking the catch i was almost near square leg although I dint realise I had ran that far..:) but it was a key wicket as that batsman (Thameem) has punished us in the past with his aggressive batting..:) and then me and Sridar bowled a couple of quiet overs though I was lucky not to get it with my full tosses. The turning point was Mani's over with 2 wickets.. Mani was simply too good in his second spell..in between I had bowled a two more overs, Sri and Jagan bowled one each.. The opponents scored 86 which was a good score but we should have stopped them between 70-75 runs.. our ground fielding was not upto the mark..
Ram and Yogi, our trusted pair, began the chase. Disaster struck when Ram was run out in the first over. Muthu joined Yogi and they kept the score ticking. Muthu, with his over the head shots through point/third man/fine leg was an able ally to Yogesh who was simply playing his role.. We had reached 23 in 4 overs. Yogesh has been consistent of late and did the same today.. But we lost a couple of wickets in the form Muthu and Krishnan quickly. Maddy joined Yogi and these two kept the chase going wit some common sense batting. Maddy took a bye runner (Ram) and seemed in good touch. We had reached 50 in 9 overs.. When Yogi got out, I chose to send Jagan. I had told Jagan that I am making him bat ahead of Sridar and that he has to come good. The guy didnt disappoint me.. after a couple of edges/hit and misses, he really took over with some powerful strokes through the leg side. Maddy was ticking the singles and twos and even scored a boundary. The best thing abt Maddy's innings was that there were very few dot balls. Jagan hit a straight six in the 11th over and after that the target came down to 16 runs off 3 overs. From thereon, we just had to play out the 3 overs to win and we finished it off in style. Jagan got out eventually and Sudharshan finished it off with a four.
Maddy's composure and Jagan's brutal knock are the two things that I will remember this game for.. Great follow up to our last week's victory.
Cheers
Vignesh
Team: Mani, Suresh, Sridhar, Jagan, Yogesh, Ram, Muthu, Krishnan, Madhavan, Sudharshan and Vignesh
Match Result: 'Da Freaks beat the Skippers by 5 wickets.
I lost the toss again this week and the opponents chose to bat. The opponents got off to a brisk start losing just 1 wicket in the first 5 overs and had scored 36 runs. Mani had got a strike in his rather unconvincing two over spell. Suresh was struggling with his rhythm.. I bowled the 6th over and picked up 2 wickets - one courtesy a good catch by Yogesh and another, a skier that i caught off my own bowling(Mani graciously let me take the catch..:)) after taking the catch i was almost near square leg although I dint realise I had ran that far..:) but it was a key wicket as that batsman (Thameem) has punished us in the past with his aggressive batting..:) and then me and Sridar bowled a couple of quiet overs though I was lucky not to get it with my full tosses. The turning point was Mani's over with 2 wickets.. Mani was simply too good in his second spell..in between I had bowled a two more overs, Sri and Jagan bowled one each.. The opponents scored 86 which was a good score but we should have stopped them between 70-75 runs.. our ground fielding was not upto the mark..
Ram and Yogi, our trusted pair, began the chase. Disaster struck when Ram was run out in the first over. Muthu joined Yogi and they kept the score ticking. Muthu, with his over the head shots through point/third man/fine leg was an able ally to Yogesh who was simply playing his role.. We had reached 23 in 4 overs. Yogesh has been consistent of late and did the same today.. But we lost a couple of wickets in the form Muthu and Krishnan quickly. Maddy joined Yogi and these two kept the chase going wit some common sense batting. Maddy took a bye runner (Ram) and seemed in good touch. We had reached 50 in 9 overs.. When Yogi got out, I chose to send Jagan. I had told Jagan that I am making him bat ahead of Sridar and that he has to come good. The guy didnt disappoint me.. after a couple of edges/hit and misses, he really took over with some powerful strokes through the leg side. Maddy was ticking the singles and twos and even scored a boundary. The best thing abt Maddy's innings was that there were very few dot balls. Jagan hit a straight six in the 11th over and after that the target came down to 16 runs off 3 overs. From thereon, we just had to play out the 3 overs to win and we finished it off in style. Jagan got out eventually and Sudharshan finished it off with a four.
Maddy's composure and Jagan's brutal knock are the two things that I will remember this game for.. Great follow up to our last week's victory.
Cheers
Vignesh
Saturday, January 14, 2012
Winning start to 2012
The year couldn't have started better for 'Da Freaks as we managed a pretty comfortable win against Arun CC.
'Da Freaks for the match were: Mani, Vicky, Maddy, Kailash, Raghu, Sri, Yogi, Ram, Jagan, Suresh and Sudarshan.
We bowled first and probably for the first time Mani did not bowl though he was in the team, he had just arrived from Kerala. so the bowlers used were Suresh, Sri, Maddy, Vicky and Jagan. Our bowling was tight and we ensured that we didn't give away easy runs in the beginning. The changes to the opening bowling pair were not as miserly and gave away a few boundaries that set up the opponents to a decent score of 70 runs in 14 overs. It was mainly upto a middle pair that Arun CC was able to get to that score. Our ground fielding was ok though we should have held onto some easy catches. I can think of two that were dropped.
Our batting: we have found a stable opening pair who have been doing a great job of late. Ram and Yogi started the proceedings briskly and though Ram was struggling with a few short of a length deliveries, Yogi was more than making up the scoring. Kailash joined Yogi in the middle when Ram got out but as usual he did not bother looking at the ball after hitting it and just kept running and got run out. He came back saying that he intended on running once he hit the ball no matter where it went and that's not the way to go about it, is it? Mani got his much anticipated run down in the middle but he looked rather lethargic than bubbly, but maybe because he was jet-lagged (coming in train, whatever you call that) With Yogi going great guns we were never in any serious trouble as the score kept on ticking. Yogi finally got out after making a brilliant 36 but we got the job done in the last over. We never were under any sort of pressure chasing though and we kept our cool till the end.
Its a nice start to 2012 one which hopefully continues a lot longer.
Cheers,
Madhavan
'Da Freaks
'Da Freaks for the match were: Mani, Vicky, Maddy, Kailash, Raghu, Sri, Yogi, Ram, Jagan, Suresh and Sudarshan.
We bowled first and probably for the first time Mani did not bowl though he was in the team, he had just arrived from Kerala. so the bowlers used were Suresh, Sri, Maddy, Vicky and Jagan. Our bowling was tight and we ensured that we didn't give away easy runs in the beginning. The changes to the opening bowling pair were not as miserly and gave away a few boundaries that set up the opponents to a decent score of 70 runs in 14 overs. It was mainly upto a middle pair that Arun CC was able to get to that score. Our ground fielding was ok though we should have held onto some easy catches. I can think of two that were dropped.
Our batting: we have found a stable opening pair who have been doing a great job of late. Ram and Yogi started the proceedings briskly and though Ram was struggling with a few short of a length deliveries, Yogi was more than making up the scoring. Kailash joined Yogi in the middle when Ram got out but as usual he did not bother looking at the ball after hitting it and just kept running and got run out. He came back saying that he intended on running once he hit the ball no matter where it went and that's not the way to go about it, is it? Mani got his much anticipated run down in the middle but he looked rather lethargic than bubbly, but maybe because he was jet-lagged (coming in train, whatever you call that) With Yogi going great guns we were never in any serious trouble as the score kept on ticking. Yogi finally got out after making a brilliant 36 but we got the job done in the last over. We never were under any sort of pressure chasing though and we kept our cool till the end.
Its a nice start to 2012 one which hopefully continues a lot longer.
Cheers,
Madhavan
'Da Freaks
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