Season 2, Games 6 and 7 - The ones that got away
Sindhi College, 30 (i think) July 2006.
Teachers ‘B’, 13 August 2006.
As you all know, it's been a while since these games actually took place, so I'm summing them up in a combined post of sorts. Also, there was a bit of a common thread running through both games, the fact that we came away feeling that these were matches we could have, and should have, won.
Game 7, in fact was marked by acute problems in team selection, particularly the non availability of Bulavar and myself, leading to a lack of keeper. The plus side of this (as reported by those who played) being that it led to a heroic performance behind the stumps from iii, replete with two stumpings.
But let me try and retain some kind of sequence to all this. So we'll begin with game 6. Back at sindhi college again, against a team called holiday cc. We showed up in a very FIFA world cup inspired mood, and as opposed to the normal catches based warm up, we waited for the other team by playing some intense football. The oposition, as they arrived, surely thought we were either buffoons or consummate atheletes. Either way, we soon lost the toss (as usual) and were fielding.
The whole match was played in a sort of relaxed mood, and maybe this made the difference in the end. We actually started extremely well in the field, picking up wickets at regular intervals. But wides and dropped catches ensured they got a decent score, around 150 odd, with one partnership contributing most significantly. Lex pegged away for a five wicket haul, and Joy managed to break one of the tail enders' noses (granted, it had more to do with his attempt to impersonate Dhoni, but...).
Probably the best part of this whole innings, however, was a cry from the Holiday CC team hut exhorting their batsmen to run hard. In a perfect chom accent : "Make the singal into dubbal and the dubbal into trippal". It took all we had to keep from falling about the place.
Bulavar and Venkat opened, if I remember rightly, and the going was slow. The one thing the holiday cc guys did was set precise fields and bowl to them. This isn't as glamorous as it sounds, since the strategy was basically to pack the region behind square on the off, and consistently bowl short of a length and a foot outside the off stump. Being not so accomplished players, the cut shot was our only option and yielded only a single on most occasions. There's certainly something to be learned from the discipline, though.
Sriram pushed himself well down the order, as Tony and Kishore earned promotions, and didn't do too bad a job, but we steadily fell behind the rate. Sriram going in and playing a blinder was our only hope, but that didn't happen as he was caught playing.. you guessed it, the cut shot. We ended up about 30 runs short, the wides and the slow start contributing in equal measure to a loss where we felt there was a win for the taking. I do think that man for man, we were a more skilled side.
Since I didn't play game 7, at Teacher's 'B', I'm relying on second hand info and will therefore keep it short. I'm hoping the guys who did play will paint in the details.
The desperate scramble for players led to a second #3 appearance for Ling, and the late drafting in of a guy from Hui and Lex's office, whose name I don't quite recall. And the scratch team's fate was compounded by injury woes to the skipper, whose ankle wasn't anywhere near a hundred percent.
Playing Crown Tapes CC for the third time, we came away once again with their respect, but not the win. Got to change that next time around. Fielded first as usual, and the wides problem was worse than the previous occasion. The only points of note that were reported to me were iii's keeping, stopping the ball with hands, legs, body or whatever, and taking a catch and making stumpings to boot, and Joy scoring a direct hit on one of the opposiion and reducing their numbers for the second game in a row. The word's probably going out around the leagues that this #3 is a dangerous team to play, and not just for cricketing reasons.....
The target finally stood at a stiff 180 plus. But this was where the fun began, with the batters mounting a serious challenge. Lex topscored, with good contributions all through the order. I'm told Hui's colleague almost decapitated Jose (one of the crown tapes guys we're quite friendly with) with a blinding strike. Also, in response to calls from team members at meetings, there was much clearer instruction from the hut while constructing the chase.. so a real sense of purpose and excitement built up. The opposition were quite on their toes, and only the regular fall of wickets was the problem. We ended up less than 30 odd runs short, and one big innings of 40 plus could have made a huge difference.
So one game left, and a 2-5 record for the season. How will it all end?
Teachers ‘B’, 13 August 2006.
As you all know, it's been a while since these games actually took place, so I'm summing them up in a combined post of sorts. Also, there was a bit of a common thread running through both games, the fact that we came away feeling that these were matches we could have, and should have, won.
Game 7, in fact was marked by acute problems in team selection, particularly the non availability of Bulavar and myself, leading to a lack of keeper. The plus side of this (as reported by those who played) being that it led to a heroic performance behind the stumps from iii, replete with two stumpings.
But let me try and retain some kind of sequence to all this. So we'll begin with game 6. Back at sindhi college again, against a team called holiday cc. We showed up in a very FIFA world cup inspired mood, and as opposed to the normal catches based warm up, we waited for the other team by playing some intense football. The oposition, as they arrived, surely thought we were either buffoons or consummate atheletes. Either way, we soon lost the toss (as usual) and were fielding.
The whole match was played in a sort of relaxed mood, and maybe this made the difference in the end. We actually started extremely well in the field, picking up wickets at regular intervals. But wides and dropped catches ensured they got a decent score, around 150 odd, with one partnership contributing most significantly. Lex pegged away for a five wicket haul, and Joy managed to break one of the tail enders' noses (granted, it had more to do with his attempt to impersonate Dhoni, but...).
Probably the best part of this whole innings, however, was a cry from the Holiday CC team hut exhorting their batsmen to run hard. In a perfect chom accent : "Make the singal into dubbal and the dubbal into trippal". It took all we had to keep from falling about the place.
Bulavar and Venkat opened, if I remember rightly, and the going was slow. The one thing the holiday cc guys did was set precise fields and bowl to them. This isn't as glamorous as it sounds, since the strategy was basically to pack the region behind square on the off, and consistently bowl short of a length and a foot outside the off stump. Being not so accomplished players, the cut shot was our only option and yielded only a single on most occasions. There's certainly something to be learned from the discipline, though.
Sriram pushed himself well down the order, as Tony and Kishore earned promotions, and didn't do too bad a job, but we steadily fell behind the rate. Sriram going in and playing a blinder was our only hope, but that didn't happen as he was caught playing.. you guessed it, the cut shot. We ended up about 30 runs short, the wides and the slow start contributing in equal measure to a loss where we felt there was a win for the taking. I do think that man for man, we were a more skilled side.
Since I didn't play game 7, at Teacher's 'B', I'm relying on second hand info and will therefore keep it short. I'm hoping the guys who did play will paint in the details.
The desperate scramble for players led to a second #3 appearance for Ling, and the late drafting in of a guy from Hui and Lex's office, whose name I don't quite recall. And the scratch team's fate was compounded by injury woes to the skipper, whose ankle wasn't anywhere near a hundred percent.
Playing Crown Tapes CC for the third time, we came away once again with their respect, but not the win. Got to change that next time around. Fielded first as usual, and the wides problem was worse than the previous occasion. The only points of note that were reported to me were iii's keeping, stopping the ball with hands, legs, body or whatever, and taking a catch and making stumpings to boot, and Joy scoring a direct hit on one of the opposiion and reducing their numbers for the second game in a row. The word's probably going out around the leagues that this #3 is a dangerous team to play, and not just for cricketing reasons.....
The target finally stood at a stiff 180 plus. But this was where the fun began, with the batters mounting a serious challenge. Lex topscored, with good contributions all through the order. I'm told Hui's colleague almost decapitated Jose (one of the crown tapes guys we're quite friendly with) with a blinding strike. Also, in response to calls from team members at meetings, there was much clearer instruction from the hut while constructing the chase.. so a real sense of purpose and excitement built up. The opposition were quite on their toes, and only the regular fall of wickets was the problem. We ended up less than 30 odd runs short, and one big innings of 40 plus could have made a huge difference.
So one game left, and a 2-5 record for the season. How will it all end?
posted by koidy at 12:46 AM
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