Friday, May 14, 2010
For a few dollars more
There was no rush of blood or ugly stares at the batsmen. There wasn't any dissent shown by the opponents in crucial moments too. It was the spectacular visit to the old times when emotions always ran subdued. The team we played last week were not the obnoxious bunch we witnessed last week. Yet there was an intense game played truly in spirit and in character. Winning the toss earlier, it was the wise decision to bat first as bowling would have meant disastrous with the cold winds. Said that, we still had to bat out of the skin to post any decent total. We had a nice start to the innings but that was all to be content with as Praveen immediately holed one to long on. Strike one for Adroit CC. From then on we just stood like a leaf on a windy day perishing one after the other. On the other hand, Paresh looked like he was playing on a different planet. There was one shot in particular when he picked a ball angled in to his pads and dispatched it neatly over the mid wicket fence. Slight reminiscence of Moin Khan when he played that shot. Finally when he got out bowled by a spinner, he looked like a soldier being run over by a bicycle back home in his village after bravely combating a barrage of bullets in the battle. The innings ended when we were finally bowled out for 71. It was not a giveaway total but a very modest one to that of an Indian middle class family's monthly income. Our bowling started off well plucking three wickets early not before two catches were spilled down. At the break they were 23 from 8 overs and required 48 from the remaining 8. It was even worse when it climbed above 6 as 40 were required from the remaining 5 overs. Their batsmen were completely responsible for their team's predicament as they were moving the clock like snails. A wicket at that stage came a blessing in disguise for them as the next man, Srikanth, hit some meaty blows and made everyone in our camp look perplexed reducing the equation to a simple 6 from the last over. When it was down to three, we made a fumble that led to a mere one run from two balls. Thamizh beat the batsman next ball and Paresh standing at short square plucked one nice catch off the last ball to tie the match. Post match there were shouts in both the camps for a few dollars more that went begging. It was a tragedy as explained by Aristotle, one that could purge the twin emotions of pity and terror. Pity they had to tie when they could have won it easily, terror we almost lost it before the tie.
Tuesday, May 11, 2010
NJPCL Match 2 : Plainsboro Panthers Vs NJ STARS
This is one of the crucial match which was eagerly waited by not only both of us but also by the other teams. But unfortunately the match was not played.
NJ STARS gave walk over due to unavailability of players. We got the 10 points without playing the match.
Its more exciting for everybody not only to get 10 points but also for getting one morning off to have some more nice sleep.
NJ STARS gave walk over due to unavailability of players. We got the 10 points without playing the match.
Its more exciting for everybody not only to get 10 points but also for getting one morning off to have some more nice sleep.
NJSBCL Match 4 : Plainsboro Panthers Vs Adroit CC at Panthers Ground on 5/9
Thanks to NJ STARS, after a occasional unexpected one day off on Saturday, we were waiting to play the match against Adroit CC.
The climate was very awful; it was colder and windy and very contrary to last two weeks
Piyush was not available at the last moment and we had too look out for option and disturb other players who we gave off on that day. But fortunately we got Jeetu and it was bit embrassing for me to ask Jeetu or anybody to come and join the team immediately.Sometimes it is an issue if any of the player dont show up at the last minute or informing about the unavailability lately. But most worrysome part this kind of things are happening bit frequently this year. Due to such happenings whoever does give a word and not show up at the last minute not because of emergency, we are letting our team down.
I request our team players not to do such activity to let your team down.
Ok Lets come to the match.
Preparations:
Its our home ground match so we had to start preparing the ground. Thanks to all those guys who are giving hand defaultly to help ourselves during the preparations.I respect their dedication and commitment and want to extend my thanks to them wholeheartedly.
Toss:
Not again this time to lose the toss. Yes its too much surprise to myself and my team, i won the toss. We elected to bat without second thought as the climate was awful, back are the colder and windy days. Also because one of team member Jeetu was on the way.
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
I asked our regular opening pair Paresh and Praveen to start the innings unlike last week where Ram and Swamy opened the innings. We were targetting 100 atleast for this game as we thought the opponents were little weaker than our previous opponents.
Paresh started the innings well with 11 runs off Ranjith over who never bowled in the whole innings. It seems going well before Praveen got caught at long on, going for the short. He got out for 5 runs. From then on our batsman started practising Parade from Pavilion to Crease and back to Pavilion.
Paresh is the only player who single handedly took the batting innings for us. He scored 39 runs with couple of huge sixes and a four. We expected him to score 50 as he looked to be in a good nick that day. Other than that we no notable performance from any of our batsmen.Its a total batting mess that day.
We got all out for 71 in 14.2 overs. First time we scored less than 83 which was what our exact score for last three matches.
Adroit CC Batting Innings:
Adroit CC started their batting sensibly, not looking for big shots. They were slowly moving singles. First chance of Tanuj was missed in the gully by Jeetu which was bowled by Sathish. Next over i got the first break through by removing Parag Shah for 4 who hit the long off and caught well by Harieash.Very next ball was hit to sky by Tanuj and the chance by dropped by Varun.
Next Varun compensated this mistake by removing Tanuj with a good catch by Jeetu at point.
From there on played more sensibly but very slowly we continued to miss odd run out chances. At the break after 8 overs Adroit were 24/2. They needed 48 runs from 48 balls. We were were confident next three overs costed only 8 runs and they need 40 runs from 5 overs.
Next three overs costed 24 runs from me,Sathish and Arun and got one lucky run out after so many misses.They needed 16 runs from 2 overs same as last week match equation where we pulled the match comfortably.
The penultimate over from Sathish turned to be match turner. Srikanth hit a six over long on and that was a good hit nothing to be blamed off and they need 6 runs of final six balls.
I bowled the last over i tried to keep fuller or york length, first three balls conceded 3 runs. Next ball went for a double with fumble from Sekar costed us the extra run.
Adroit were very comfortable as the score were leveled and they need 1 run off 2 balls to take the match home. I changed my bowling to spin and coming around the stumps. the 5 ball was a dot ball. Now they need one run. Last ball i kept it too fuller and but it was on bit leg stump, the set batsman Ranjith, pushed the ball to short leg and i was shouting Paresh to throw the ball for run out without knowing that directly hit Paresh hands who took it on the second attempt.
Yes its unbelievable it was a catch and we tied the match without loosing it. Its fortunate that we tied inspite of poor display from us with batting and mediocre bowling. Excellent bowling from he was very economical.
I request everybody from our team to stand up to raise ourselves to avoid the mistakes and pust ourselves for a better performance.
Scoresheet :
Adroit CC Batting Innings:
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
Match Summary:
The climate was very awful; it was colder and windy and very contrary to last two weeks
Piyush was not available at the last moment and we had too look out for option and disturb other players who we gave off on that day. But fortunately we got Jeetu and it was bit embrassing for me to ask Jeetu or anybody to come and join the team immediately.Sometimes it is an issue if any of the player dont show up at the last minute or informing about the unavailability lately. But most worrysome part this kind of things are happening bit frequently this year. Due to such happenings whoever does give a word and not show up at the last minute not because of emergency, we are letting our team down.
I request our team players not to do such activity to let your team down.
Ok Lets come to the match.
Preparations:
Its our home ground match so we had to start preparing the ground. Thanks to all those guys who are giving hand defaultly to help ourselves during the preparations.I respect their dedication and commitment and want to extend my thanks to them wholeheartedly.
Toss:
Not again this time to lose the toss. Yes its too much surprise to myself and my team, i won the toss. We elected to bat without second thought as the climate was awful, back are the colder and windy days. Also because one of team member Jeetu was on the way.
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
I asked our regular opening pair Paresh and Praveen to start the innings unlike last week where Ram and Swamy opened the innings. We were targetting 100 atleast for this game as we thought the opponents were little weaker than our previous opponents.
Paresh started the innings well with 11 runs off Ranjith over who never bowled in the whole innings. It seems going well before Praveen got caught at long on, going for the short. He got out for 5 runs. From then on our batsman started practising Parade from Pavilion to Crease and back to Pavilion.
Paresh is the only player who single handedly took the batting innings for us. He scored 39 runs with couple of huge sixes and a four. We expected him to score 50 as he looked to be in a good nick that day. Other than that we no notable performance from any of our batsmen.Its a total batting mess that day.
We got all out for 71 in 14.2 overs. First time we scored less than 83 which was what our exact score for last three matches.
Adroit CC Batting Innings:
Adroit CC started their batting sensibly, not looking for big shots. They were slowly moving singles. First chance of Tanuj was missed in the gully by Jeetu which was bowled by Sathish. Next over i got the first break through by removing Parag Shah for 4 who hit the long off and caught well by Harieash.Very next ball was hit to sky by Tanuj and the chance by dropped by Varun.
Next Varun compensated this mistake by removing Tanuj with a good catch by Jeetu at point.
From there on played more sensibly but very slowly we continued to miss odd run out chances. At the break after 8 overs Adroit were 24/2. They needed 48 runs from 48 balls. We were were confident next three overs costed only 8 runs and they need 40 runs from 5 overs.
Next three overs costed 24 runs from me,Sathish and Arun and got one lucky run out after so many misses.They needed 16 runs from 2 overs same as last week match equation where we pulled the match comfortably.
The penultimate over from Sathish turned to be match turner. Srikanth hit a six over long on and that was a good hit nothing to be blamed off and they need 6 runs of final six balls.
I bowled the last over i tried to keep fuller or york length, first three balls conceded 3 runs. Next ball went for a double with fumble from Sekar costed us the extra run.
Adroit were very comfortable as the score were leveled and they need 1 run off 2 balls to take the match home. I changed my bowling to spin and coming around the stumps. the 5 ball was a dot ball. Now they need one run. Last ball i kept it too fuller and but it was on bit leg stump, the set batsman Ranjith, pushed the ball to short leg and i was shouting Paresh to throw the ball for run out without knowing that directly hit Paresh hands who took it on the second attempt.
Yes its unbelievable it was a catch and we tied the match without loosing it. Its fortunate that we tied inspite of poor display from us with batting and mediocre bowling. Excellent bowling from he was very economical.
I request everybody from our team to stand up to raise ourselves to avoid the mistakes and pust ourselves for a better performance.
Scoresheet :
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Paresh | Bowled | 39 | 1 | 2 |
| 2 | Praveen | Caught | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Ram | Bowled | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Sathish | Caught | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Arun | Caught | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Andrew | Caught | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Jeetu | Run Out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Sekar | Run Out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Thamizh | Bowled | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Varun | Not Out | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Harieash | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Adroit CC Bowling Innings:
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Ranjit | 1 | 0 | 11 | 0 |
| 2 | Gopal | 3.2 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
| 3 | Naren | 2 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| 4 | Sai | 4 | 0 | 14 | 2 |
| 5 | Ravi | 4 | 0 | 21 | 2 |
Adroit CC Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Tanuj | Caught | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Parag | Caught | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Ranjith | Caught | 29 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Ravi | Run Out | 20 | 1 | 0 |
| 5 | Srikanth | Not out | 11 | 0 | 1 |
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Thamizh | 4 | 0 | 19 | 2 |
| 2 | Sathish | 4 | 0 | 26 | 0 |
| 3 | Varun | 4 | 0 | 12 | 1 |
| 4 | Arun | 4 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
Match Summary:
| Team | Score |
| Plainsboro Panthers | 71/10 in 14.2 Overs |
| Adroit CC | 71/4 in 16 overs |
| Result : The Match was tied in last ball with wicket | |
Monday, May 10, 2010
Run outs, Call outs and Other outs
Great show – Good to see Paresh scoring those sixes and playing responsibly until the end, in the match against Adroit CC, during last weekend. Sorry to see none of the other batsmen shouldering support here (including myself). Our bowlers did an amazing job. Thamizh/Paresh, hats off to you guys for the last ball wicket and keeping your cool under pressure.
Run outs - Are we becoming team Pakistan, aping them on getting run out ? In the four SBCL matches so far, we have 10 run outs including mine. They are free gifted wickets to our opponents. What it means is that, we are not communicating and ignoring the basics. What the basics say ? It is always the call of the person running to the risky end, to judge the run. For eg. if the batsman cuts the ball to the gully position, the batsman initiates the call, but then the non-striker should decide whether to run or not, as he is running to the risky end. If he is not comfortable, he should shout “no”, immediately. Similarly, if the ball goes to mid on/off, it is the batsman's call and the non-striker should wait for the batsman, to start running. Please start saying yes or no, for every run. Click this hyperlink where, Ricky Ponting gives tips on improving running between the wickets. The fielders are not Johnty Rhodes, but at the same time we should not be Inzamamul Haqs. Some good players are getting run outs and it is hurting our targets and that in turn puts more pressure on our bowlers/fielders. Another tip is here.
Call outs – Another communication glitch, is not making calls when you try to take high catches. I know our team is good in fielding/catching. But rectifying this minor glitch, will help us a lot.
Other outs – I am going to take a pledge on behalf of Praveen, that he is not going to play aerial shots in the leg side until he is confident of his form. He is too good a batsman to get out to these aerial shots. As Paresh is in good form, if Praveen can rotate the strike by finding the gaps and play along the ground, that will help him regain the form pretty soon. Hope to see Praveen score a 40/50 pretty soon, like Paresh did, this Sunday. I know it is just a case of putting mind over matter. Think every ground as Geo Davison Park. You should get your form, pretty soon.
Thursday, May 6, 2010
NJSBCL : Match 3 : Maha CC Vs Plainsboro Panthers
Sunday (May 2),the match is against Maha CC the last year semi finalist. I kewn its going to be one of the most important for us. We want to keep the momentum going. Its away match for us. So we have started by 7:30 AM from plainsboro to their ground.The match is scheduled to start at 8:30 AM
By the time we reach the ground they were practising
Toss:
For the third time in this season, i lost the toss. But the opponents decided to bowl first and asked us to Bat first. Thats great we want to Bat first anyways as Andrew was on the way at that time.
Before we start our innings, the opponent captain, Aseem called me along with the umpires from Jersey Jaquars and asked me to check the pitch and boundary distances. I said its fine.
Plainsboro Panthers Innings:
Since our regular openers are not in a mood to open that day, I asked Swamy and Ram to open the innings. The first over was so nervous because we had 3 runouts chances. Thanks to our opponent Keeper Keshant, our both openers were safe.When things are going well Swamy got out in the same fashion. I dont know how many more times he is going to get out that way. He needs get himself realized before it matters a lot for us. Next i sent Sathish in to rotate the strike. Ram and Sathish played really well.But unfortunately Sathish got runout which we thought its a not out and in the break explained how he got out.
Next I sent in Paresh, we hope him to fire with given runrate in which we were proceeding the innings. but he got out for 5 runs. Meanwhile Ram was silently boosting our runrate by rotating the strike and hitting odd boundaries. Next Andrew went and asked to go for it as we had enought wickets. Ram was scoring in a good pace before Aseem bowled a full toss he tries to clear in field and caught superbly by shortish mid - on fielder.Praveen went in and looks to hit the ball clean but was getting mishits. He also got run out for 5 runs. Sriram went in tried to hit the ball and got out for fullish delivery from Aseem for 2 runs.
Sekar went in and played sensibly opposing to his style of hitting the ball.Andrew mishit one ball in the covers and dropped by some poor fielder.Then he made use of luck given and hit two awesome sixers at long on before got run out for 19 runs in 16 balls. Piyush went in got run out for 1 run. We were 75/8 in 14.3 overs that time. We sent Varun and asked him to rotate the strike and not to get out. This time sekar got runout for 8 runs when running for the call from Varun. We were 79/9 in 15.3 overs when i went in.
Varun told me he will take a single and give me strike. I asked him to play his shot and i will run. We converted the singles to doubles for next two deliveries and the last ball Varun got into pads and couldnt run for that.I was again not out without playing a single ball.
We scored 83/9 in 16 overs. All the three matches till now in NJSBCL we played first and scored 83 runs. Yes exactly 83 in all the three games. One more thing to point out here we had some 5 run outs in this game which is one of the worst running for us.Hope to call properly and run sensibly in coming matches.
Maha CC Innings:
Hemal Patel & Pranav started the innings for Maha CC. I told Sathish that we need to take Hemal's wicket as early as possible, as he is one of the good batsman in their team. I bowled the first and gave three without getting any wicket. Sathish started the second over and tried to catch the ball which is hit by Hemal but it was not reachable. In the third ball Hemal hit the ball towards which came to very low and dived full infront and took one of the superb catch.Yes we took the Hemal's wicket we planned for.From there on they started to loose wickets at regular intervals. they scored 34/4 after eight overs.They need 50 runs in eight overs.Varun bowled some excellent deliveries and took two wickets. I asked Piyush to bowl the tenth over where the dangerous hitter Aseem captain of Maha CC hit a six of piyush over. Then i decided to bowl the 11th over. First the season i am bowling to left hand batsman started getting wide balls. The one good ball which happened to be short ball was thrashed to six over the school building and the ball was lost. Then i changed my bowling to spin from around the wicket. The batsman was very cunning trying to disturb my concentration by taking more time before each. Everybody in my team was frustrated of his behavior. I gave 14 runs in that over. I felt really bad that i bring down my team with that over. They were in very comfortable position that time as they need only 23 runs from 5 overs.
I asked Sathish to bowl the next over. It was the first ball, Aseem was over confident and was trying to hit Sathish to six but as said over confidence will make you fall he got out with a superb delivery from Sathish which hit the middle stump. The batsman cant believe himself. We were enjoying and expressing ourselves angirily.
The next over bowled by Varun, he controlled the runrate by giving only 2 runs. Next over i bowled and took one wicket of full toss and gave 3 runs in that over.
We controlled the run rate in past 3 overs very well. AS a result they were in need of 16 runs in 2 overs. There was much confusion whom to give bowling either Sathish or Piyush. And we decided to go with Sathish. He bowled excellently, took one wicket and gave 4 runs in that over.
So in the final they needed 12 runs. I gave the ball to Piyush and told him to keep it fuller. The first ball was full toss and the opponents were shouting no ball from the pavilion and the next ball the same. Leg umpire shouted "this is not a no-ball and if anybody shouts one more time, i will give out". Then the opponents stopped shouting. Ball by ball tension keeps rising but we hope we had a definite chance. they need 7 runs in last two balls. The batsman hit the ball to Sekar he fumbled a bit and throwed the ball accurately to Andrew, and he took of bails before the batsman reaches the crease.
HOOOOOO!!!! We won the match. Big Celebrations all round. We knew it was big win for us. I should appreciate the fielding our team which was 200% opposite to the match we played the day before. Excellent fielding by everybody and especially by Praveen who throwed the ball every quickly and cut the runs to ones which were supposed to be twos.
Good Show guys!! I wish everybody to give the best effort here on to keep up the good work.
We were getting few appreciation mails and few stomach burning messages around. Lets not get it to head or toe.
Scoresheet :
Maha CC Batting Innings:
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
Match Summary
By the time we reach the ground they were practising
Toss:
For the third time in this season, i lost the toss. But the opponents decided to bowl first and asked us to Bat first. Thats great we want to Bat first anyways as Andrew was on the way at that time.
Before we start our innings, the opponent captain, Aseem called me along with the umpires from Jersey Jaquars and asked me to check the pitch and boundary distances. I said its fine.
Plainsboro Panthers Innings:
Since our regular openers are not in a mood to open that day, I asked Swamy and Ram to open the innings. The first over was so nervous because we had 3 runouts chances. Thanks to our opponent Keeper Keshant, our both openers were safe.When things are going well Swamy got out in the same fashion. I dont know how many more times he is going to get out that way. He needs get himself realized before it matters a lot for us. Next i sent Sathish in to rotate the strike. Ram and Sathish played really well.But unfortunately Sathish got runout which we thought its a not out and in the break explained how he got out.
Next I sent in Paresh, we hope him to fire with given runrate in which we were proceeding the innings. but he got out for 5 runs. Meanwhile Ram was silently boosting our runrate by rotating the strike and hitting odd boundaries. Next Andrew went and asked to go for it as we had enought wickets. Ram was scoring in a good pace before Aseem bowled a full toss he tries to clear in field and caught superbly by shortish mid - on fielder.Praveen went in and looks to hit the ball clean but was getting mishits. He also got run out for 5 runs. Sriram went in tried to hit the ball and got out for fullish delivery from Aseem for 2 runs.
Sekar went in and played sensibly opposing to his style of hitting the ball.Andrew mishit one ball in the covers and dropped by some poor fielder.Then he made use of luck given and hit two awesome sixers at long on before got run out for 19 runs in 16 balls. Piyush went in got run out for 1 run. We were 75/8 in 14.3 overs that time. We sent Varun and asked him to rotate the strike and not to get out. This time sekar got runout for 8 runs when running for the call from Varun. We were 79/9 in 15.3 overs when i went in.
Varun told me he will take a single and give me strike. I asked him to play his shot and i will run. We converted the singles to doubles for next two deliveries and the last ball Varun got into pads and couldnt run for that.I was again not out without playing a single ball.
We scored 83/9 in 16 overs. All the three matches till now in NJSBCL we played first and scored 83 runs. Yes exactly 83 in all the three games. One more thing to point out here we had some 5 run outs in this game which is one of the worst running for us.Hope to call properly and run sensibly in coming matches.
Maha CC Innings:
Hemal Patel & Pranav started the innings for Maha CC. I told Sathish that we need to take Hemal's wicket as early as possible, as he is one of the good batsman in their team. I bowled the first and gave three without getting any wicket. Sathish started the second over and tried to catch the ball which is hit by Hemal but it was not reachable. In the third ball Hemal hit the ball towards which came to very low and dived full infront and took one of the superb catch.Yes we took the Hemal's wicket we planned for.From there on they started to loose wickets at regular intervals. they scored 34/4 after eight overs.They need 50 runs in eight overs.Varun bowled some excellent deliveries and took two wickets. I asked Piyush to bowl the tenth over where the dangerous hitter Aseem captain of Maha CC hit a six of piyush over. Then i decided to bowl the 11th over. First the season i am bowling to left hand batsman started getting wide balls. The one good ball which happened to be short ball was thrashed to six over the school building and the ball was lost. Then i changed my bowling to spin from around the wicket. The batsman was very cunning trying to disturb my concentration by taking more time before each. Everybody in my team was frustrated of his behavior. I gave 14 runs in that over. I felt really bad that i bring down my team with that over. They were in very comfortable position that time as they need only 23 runs from 5 overs.
I asked Sathish to bowl the next over. It was the first ball, Aseem was over confident and was trying to hit Sathish to six but as said over confidence will make you fall he got out with a superb delivery from Sathish which hit the middle stump. The batsman cant believe himself. We were enjoying and expressing ourselves angirily.
The next over bowled by Varun, he controlled the runrate by giving only 2 runs. Next over i bowled and took one wicket of full toss and gave 3 runs in that over.
We controlled the run rate in past 3 overs very well. AS a result they were in need of 16 runs in 2 overs. There was much confusion whom to give bowling either Sathish or Piyush. And we decided to go with Sathish. He bowled excellently, took one wicket and gave 4 runs in that over.
So in the final they needed 12 runs. I gave the ball to Piyush and told him to keep it fuller. The first ball was full toss and the opponents were shouting no ball from the pavilion and the next ball the same. Leg umpire shouted "this is not a no-ball and if anybody shouts one more time, i will give out". Then the opponents stopped shouting. Ball by ball tension keeps rising but we hope we had a definite chance. they need 7 runs in last two balls. The batsman hit the ball to Sekar he fumbled a bit and throwed the ball accurately to Andrew, and he took of bails before the batsman reaches the crease.
HOOOOOO!!!! We won the match. Big Celebrations all round. We knew it was big win for us. I should appreciate the fielding our team which was 200% opposite to the match we played the day before. Excellent fielding by everybody and especially by Praveen who throwed the ball every quickly and cut the runs to ones which were supposed to be twos.
Good Show guys!! I wish everybody to give the best effort here on to keep up the good work.
We were getting few appreciation mails and few stomach burning messages around. Lets not get it to head or toe.
Scoresheet :
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Swamy | Caught | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Ram | Caught | 16 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Sathish | Run Out | 11 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | Paresh | Caught | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Andrew | Run out | 19 | 0 | 2 |
| 6 | Praveen | Run Out | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Sriram | Bowled | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Sekar | Run Out | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Piyush | Run Out | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Varun | Not Out | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Thamizh | Not Out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Maha CC Bowling :
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Sanjay | 4 | 0 | 13 | 1 |
| 2 | Rohit | 3 | 0 | 18 | 1 |
| 3 | Umair | 2 | 0 | 7 | 0 |
| 4 | Keshant | 3 | 0 | 21 | 0 |
| 5 | Aseem | 4 | 0 | 24 | 2 |
Maha CC Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Hemal | Caught | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Pranav | Caught | 12 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Dharmesh | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Vishal | Caught | 8 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Amin | Caught | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | Rohit | Run Out | 17 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Aseem | Bowled | 18 | 0 | 2 |
| 8 | Sandeep | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Umair | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Keshant | Not out | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Sanjay | Run Out | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Thamizh | 4 | 0 | 25 | 2 |
| 2 | Sathish | 4 | 0 | 16 | 3 |
| 3 | Varun | 4 | 0 | 12 | 2 |
| 4 | Piyush | 4 | 0 | 25 | 1 |
Match Summary
| Team | Score |
| Plainsboro Panthers | 83/9 in 16 Overs |
| Maha CC | 78/10 in 15.5 overs |
| Result : Plainsboro Panthers Won by 5 runs | |
NJPCL : Match 1 : Plainsboro Panthers Vs REBELS XI
Saturday (May 1) the NJPCL Red Hard Tennis ball tournament started with our match against
Rebels XI. The Rebel XI team is new to NJPCL but few guys are known to us personally.
Preparations:
The match was scheduled to start 8 AM as few of the Rebels XI team members are playing in Cricket Ball league. We went to the ground before 8 AM. since it is home game for Rebels XI we took a break from preparing the ground. The match was delayed 45 mins because the groundsman is cutting the grass with mower vehicle.
The pitch is newly laid one fresh for the match and we know its going to be on the slower side. The pitch is not so proper it needs more ground work to get it prepared fully.Its very uneven at the bolwing end. It was very hot and humid on that day.
Toss:
We had the toss around 8:20. The neutral umpire Mr. Ashok Diwaker was not there at the ground that time. So we decided to toss ourselves between me and Azhar(Rebels XI Captain).Azhar tossed the coin in the air, I called it "Heads" but it turned out to be "Tails". Rebel XI decided to bat but we have to wait for the groundsman to finish his work on the inner circle. This our first match of the season where we were chasing.
Rebels XI Batting Innings:
Thyagu and Venkat opened the innings for Rebels XI. They both dropped the anchors and played really. Hardly we have got any chance in the first six overs. The ball is really doing nothing on the dead pitch.Even the batsmen felt the effect of dead pitch.
Varun bowled an excellently in the middle. He dropped the first chance in 6th over. I tried Harieash for bolwing first over he bolwed good but second over costed us more 11 runs came from that over. So I tried Arindam as we dont have the regular fourth bowler on that day.
Arindam gave the first break through for us in the 9th over.After that Varun started materializing the change in the pitch and two wickets.They started hitting Arindam as they have enough wickets in Hand. We dropped three catches in Arindam's Spell.
Then me and Sathish finished the proceedings they were finally 88/9. The last run out was not given by the umpire.Our fielding was very bad that day. We dropped some easy chances and gave them more runs by fumbling at the fielding.It was one of the day we want to forget about our fielding.
Umpire was very pathetic. He hadnt given any easy calls. There were lots fo wides given which were not actually wide and they were no balls which were not given are actually no-balls.On the whole, I as one of the executive board of directors, advised not to use the umpire any more for the tournament.
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
As usual our regular openers Praveen and Paresh, out there in the middle. They both gave us
very good start that we were 38/0 in 4 overs with huge six from Paresh. Praveen got out for
4 runs unfortunately with the ball slightly brushing the end of the bails above the leg stump. Swamy went in as started running singles and got out with his usual style like Sehwag for 6 runs.
Since we lost 2 quick wickets, i asked Arindam to go next to drop the anchor. He did drop anchor but the scores didnt move and he got out in the point for 1 run. Then asked Sekar to go and move the score but to hang in there. He came back with same speed at which he swings the bat. Our top middle order collapsed totally. I sent in Andrew asked him to stay and move singles. And scores are moving only with the extras that opponents bowled.
Now its Paresh turn to get out. I sent in Sathish he played sensibly before he got out for 3 runs. Then i sent in Varun.Andrew and Varun played sensibily so that our target came down to 23 in 8 overs. Varun got over anxious to hit the ball and bring the match home and missed the ball which got him out by hitting the stumps. Varun got out for 7 runs. We need 16 runs in 6 overs with 3 wickets in hand. Though it seems a easy target we were loosing the wickets cheaply. I was very tensed and there comes our savior Harieash who played excellently without any fear. He got unforunately when we need 1 run to win. Then Srinivas went in there to finish the proceedings but the opponents bowled a wide and made us win before any more hiccups.
Finally we won but we had lot of mistakes that day. But our next day match performance made
us look differently about which i will post it soon.
Scoresheet :
The Legends Batting Innings:
Rebels XI Bowling Innings:
Match Summary
Rebels XI. The Rebel XI team is new to NJPCL but few guys are known to us personally.
Preparations:
The match was scheduled to start 8 AM as few of the Rebels XI team members are playing in Cricket Ball league. We went to the ground before 8 AM. since it is home game for Rebels XI we took a break from preparing the ground. The match was delayed 45 mins because the groundsman is cutting the grass with mower vehicle.
The pitch is newly laid one fresh for the match and we know its going to be on the slower side. The pitch is not so proper it needs more ground work to get it prepared fully.Its very uneven at the bolwing end. It was very hot and humid on that day.
Toss:
We had the toss around 8:20. The neutral umpire Mr. Ashok Diwaker was not there at the ground that time. So we decided to toss ourselves between me and Azhar(Rebels XI Captain).Azhar tossed the coin in the air, I called it "Heads" but it turned out to be "Tails". Rebel XI decided to bat but we have to wait for the groundsman to finish his work on the inner circle. This our first match of the season where we were chasing.
Rebels XI Batting Innings:
Thyagu and Venkat opened the innings for Rebels XI. They both dropped the anchors and played really. Hardly we have got any chance in the first six overs. The ball is really doing nothing on the dead pitch.Even the batsmen felt the effect of dead pitch.
Varun bowled an excellently in the middle. He dropped the first chance in 6th over. I tried Harieash for bolwing first over he bolwed good but second over costed us more 11 runs came from that over. So I tried Arindam as we dont have the regular fourth bowler on that day.
Arindam gave the first break through for us in the 9th over.After that Varun started materializing the change in the pitch and two wickets.They started hitting Arindam as they have enough wickets in Hand. We dropped three catches in Arindam's Spell.
Then me and Sathish finished the proceedings they were finally 88/9. The last run out was not given by the umpire.Our fielding was very bad that day. We dropped some easy chances and gave them more runs by fumbling at the fielding.It was one of the day we want to forget about our fielding.
Umpire was very pathetic. He hadnt given any easy calls. There were lots fo wides given which were not actually wide and they were no balls which were not given are actually no-balls.On the whole, I as one of the executive board of directors, advised not to use the umpire any more for the tournament.
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
As usual our regular openers Praveen and Paresh, out there in the middle. They both gave us
very good start that we were 38/0 in 4 overs with huge six from Paresh. Praveen got out for
4 runs unfortunately with the ball slightly brushing the end of the bails above the leg stump. Swamy went in as started running singles and got out with his usual style like Sehwag for 6 runs.
Since we lost 2 quick wickets, i asked Arindam to go next to drop the anchor. He did drop anchor but the scores didnt move and he got out in the point for 1 run. Then asked Sekar to go and move the score but to hang in there. He came back with same speed at which he swings the bat. Our top middle order collapsed totally. I sent in Andrew asked him to stay and move singles. And scores are moving only with the extras that opponents bowled.
Now its Paresh turn to get out. I sent in Sathish he played sensibly before he got out for 3 runs. Then i sent in Varun.Andrew and Varun played sensibily so that our target came down to 23 in 8 overs. Varun got over anxious to hit the ball and bring the match home and missed the ball which got him out by hitting the stumps. Varun got out for 7 runs. We need 16 runs in 6 overs with 3 wickets in hand. Though it seems a easy target we were loosing the wickets cheaply. I was very tensed and there comes our savior Harieash who played excellently without any fear. He got unforunately when we need 1 run to win. Then Srinivas went in there to finish the proceedings but the opponents bowled a wide and made us win before any more hiccups.
Finally we won but we had lot of mistakes that day. But our next day match performance made
us look differently about which i will post it soon.
Scoresheet :
Rebels XI Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Thyagu C | Caught | 21 | 3 | 0 |
| 2 | Venkat K | Caught | 28 | 1 | 0 |
| 3 | Prabhu R | Bowled | 6 | 1 | 0 |
| 4 | Afreen A | Bowled | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Praveen | Caught | 11 | 0 | 1 |
| 6 | Azhar | Bowled | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Sai M | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Rajasekar V | Caught | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Prasaath S | Not Out | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Vatsal P | Bowled | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Susheel K | Not Out | 1 | 0 | 0 |
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling :
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Thamizh | 5 | 0 | 17 | 2 |
| 2 | Sathish | 5 | 1 | 9 | 2 |
| 3 | Varun | 5 | 0 | 19 | 2 |
| 4 | Harieash | 2 | 0 | 14 | 0 |
| 5 | Arindam | 3 | 0 | 29 | 3 |
The Legends Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Paresh | Bowled | 20 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Praveen | Bowled | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Swamy | Caught | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Arindam | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Sekar | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Andrew | Not Out | 16 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Sathish | Caught | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Varun | Bowled | 7 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Harieash | Bowled | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | Srinivas | Not out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Thamizh | Did Not Bat | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Rebels XI Bowling Innings:
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Azhar | 5 | 0 | 21 | 1 |
| 2 | Sai | 5 | 0 | 26 | 3 |
| 3 | Afreen | 4 | 0 | 16 | 1 |
| 4 | Susheel | 5 | 0 | 26 | 3 |
Match Summary
| Team | Score |
| REBELS XI | 88/9 in 20 Overs |
| Plainsboro Panthers | 89/8 in 18.5 overs |
| Result : Plainsboro Panthers Won by 2 Wickets with 7 Balls remaining | |
Brain vs Brawn, VVV
Good to see that our team is performing so good so far. Kudos to all the members of the team.
Brain Vs Brawn - In our last 3 wins in the NJSBCL, noticed one curious thing. Most of us are impatient and can't wait to hit sixes and fours i.e. use our Brawn. As we learnt in the last season, Green ball do not travel that far. Should start using our Brain more and rotate the strike, if the ball is not in the slot to hit. The fielders are not from IPL and are bound to make mistakes, if we push them hard. All we need is good communication between the batsmen. Bad balls will come automatically, which can be thrashed for boundaries. But while waiting for bad balls, do not get bogged down and play dot balls. Rotating the strike is key here. Just my 2 cents. To prove my point, adding an article written by S Rajesh in Cricinfo on who is the leading international player, who plays less dot balls, etc and how it is helping their team.
VVV - Vastu Varun's Voodoo - Found out during our match against Maha CC, Varun doing some voodoo magic. In the middle of his spell, he placed his cigarette lighter below the off-side wide cone. After that, all the balls he bowled almost went so close to that cone, that the batsman started struggling to score and finally ended up loosing the match. Even one of his loose ball, which the batsman tried to hoick over deep mid-wicket, took the edge and went to the off-side cover fielder for a catch. Can we assume that whatever he placed under the cone, had some magnetic (voodoo) power to pull the ball towards it ??? Will Varun replace Vastu Venkatesan as the Uber Captain of Chennai Super Kings, next year. Only time will tell.
Btw, I am a CSK fan internally, but I was hedging myself by saying that they will loose. If they win, I have nothing to loose. Btw, we won this year not purely due to merit, but because of some graciousness from DD, RCB and RR, who lost the matches they are supposed to win. May be some vastu voodoo here, from the Uber Captain.
Brain Vs Brawn - In our last 3 wins in the NJSBCL, noticed one curious thing. Most of us are impatient and can't wait to hit sixes and fours i.e. use our Brawn. As we learnt in the last season, Green ball do not travel that far. Should start using our Brain more and rotate the strike, if the ball is not in the slot to hit. The fielders are not from IPL and are bound to make mistakes, if we push them hard. All we need is good communication between the batsmen. Bad balls will come automatically, which can be thrashed for boundaries. But while waiting for bad balls, do not get bogged down and play dot balls. Rotating the strike is key here. Just my 2 cents. To prove my point, adding an article written by S Rajesh in Cricinfo on who is the leading international player, who plays less dot balls, etc and how it is helping their team.
VVV - Vastu Varun's Voodoo - Found out during our match against Maha CC, Varun doing some voodoo magic. In the middle of his spell, he placed his cigarette lighter below the off-side wide cone. After that, all the balls he bowled almost went so close to that cone, that the batsman started struggling to score and finally ended up loosing the match. Even one of his loose ball, which the batsman tried to hoick over deep mid-wicket, took the edge and went to the off-side cover fielder for a catch. Can we assume that whatever he placed under the cone, had some magnetic (voodoo) power to pull the ball towards it ??? Will Varun replace Vastu Venkatesan as the Uber Captain of Chennai Super Kings, next year. Only time will tell.
Btw, I am a CSK fan internally, but I was hedging myself by saying that they will loose. If they win, I have nothing to loose. Btw, we won this year not purely due to merit, but because of some graciousness from DD, RCB and RR, who lost the matches they are supposed to win. May be some vastu voodoo here, from the Uber Captain.
Tuesday, May 4, 2010
Rebels quashed
Going by history every act of rebellion has invariably ended in a defeat and on Saturday there was yet another rebellious act, nothing more than shrill cries from a fledgling. Winning the previous two games in NJSBCL, we wanted to start the NJPCL with a bang too. The rebels showed positive intent initially by challenging us to chase, but their batting lacked any vitality to take our bowlers to the cleaners. If Satyagrahis can be called rebels, then Americans can talk English. Satish and Thamizh were economical checking all holes that made things miserably difficult for the home team. My form has also been good with the ball and Arindam took three wickets but he was robbed a five-for. We made regular inroads and they ended making a very modest total from their 20 overs thanks to some slipshod fielding by us. Still 89 looked ridiculous as we had some big hitters in Andrew and Shekar. They looked exhausted and some players camouflaged it with condescension towards tennis ball cricket to hide all their disbelief and frustration. Paresh played few pristine drives before getting out eventually triggering the classic Pakistani collapse. The middle order looked to play expansive shots but failed, as what looked like bed of roses suddenly transformed to crossing the Duraiswamy subway. I got out irresponsibly trying to go for a glorious straight six. Thanks to Harish's resurgence with Andrew we passed the test and averted danger. Lesson learnt was not to be complacent. Lesson taught was quashing a rebel in the bud (no one likes anarchy).
Thursday, April 29, 2010
The curious case of Praveen Sake and Andrew the bailer
Gone are the days of "Jack of all trades and Master of none". It is clearly an advantage to be a specialist and our Praveen has clearly illustrated why. It is very funny to check the NJSBCL profile page mention Praveen as a RHB (Right Handed Batsman) where a suitable title would be RHSC (Right Handed Square Cutter). There can be none better than Praveen to play the shot ( I even pip him slightly ahead of Sachin in terms of the power he generates and the ease at which he plays the shot. He would have played that shot off Akthar even if he had to chase it from 3kms outside the leg stump). Seeing the bowling charts for the games concluded so far, the PP's have clearly displayed better performances being very frugal and attacking (opponents being dismissed twice before the quota of 16 overs) it is highly confounding to the failure of this approach by PS as he has clearly found it advantageous playing his teammates this way in the practice games. In hindsight we can say that he has indeed failed to adopt this usual style to his batting. On an average any batsman is sure to receive 5/20 balls short and wide outside the off stump. If a stricter mind can enforce a rigid discipline to sway the arms for only those rank bad balls (eventually guaranteed to get dividends of at least 2 or more runs) and the rest quietly played for singles we are looking at an attractive 30 from 20 balls with a strike rate of 150 (an attractive strike rate comparable to any hedge fund manager's take home package). Shifting to last week's match against The Legends who showed no signs of having even one legend after a horrible display of batting eventually making the numbers in our bowling charts more miserly than a Chidambaram's budget. The statements would have well been forced to reverse had it not been for Andrew who in addition to matching his burly, gigantic figure and first name with the usual suspect from Queenslander (Symonds), also played a similar role in bailing the team out. Struggling at 38/4 from 9 overs it was a laborious effort made to look easy with his soaring sixers (now better known as DLFers). Rightly our captain has immediately addressed the top order to fire. The remaining show was all Satish's with wonderful accuracy (with the precision of a surgeon) and pace to dislodge the wood work more than once. A commendable effort. Tamizh was candid as ever with his usual teasing line which ultimately fetched him a wicket. Reward for good work. Arun was clinical and yours truly completed four overs with just one wide. Fielding was remarkably strong with Praveen taking one nice catch and Ram plucked one too. Not to forget was Ram's early contribution in disturbing the batsman between balls ultimately proving fatal for the willow man. To summarize it was a victory hard earned and well deserved. The weekend ended even better with Chennai Super Kings winning the IPL quite to the contrary from Ram's predictions earlier.
Wednesday, April 28, 2010
NJSBCL : Match 2 : Plainsboro Panthers Vs The Legends
This was the second match with more hype among us in the team about the opponents "The Legends".
Preparations:
The weather was far better than previous games. I thought the pitch would be little wet because of the rain couple of days before the match. But it was dried down and no wetness in the pitch. We started preparing the pitch by laying the mat, putting the boundary cones. Thanks to all the guys who helped in preparing the ground for the match. I would like to get same kind of co-operation from all of my team mates.
The opponents started to show up and involved some practice. The umpires from Devils11 team showed up on time. We havent altered pitch length it was same as last match. Thanks to the opponents for not raising some unwanted concerns about the pitch length and neither the umpires.
Toss:
It was toss time with Umpire Jaimin and two captains me and Jay Patel. Umpire tossed the coin and Jay called it as "Head".And it is head. My toss luck started to follow me. The opponents decided to field. We were happy because we decided to bat first if we would have won the toss.
Plainsboro Panthers Innings:
As usual our openers Praveen and Paresh opened the innings. I told Praveen to play his game freely and Paresh to hang on there for a while.Praveen came back to pavilion by scoring 2 runs,got out for a straight slower one. Swamy joined Paresh and started taking the singles. Swamy got out for excellent delivery from Jigar after steady innings for 10. Andrew went in and started resuming were Swamy left and we saw some excellent running from Andrew that day. Paresh got out after a long inning for 12. Paresh forgot that i gave him a bat to hit the ball and played all the balls with his body.Gosh!!! we would have scored 20 more runs if we had leg byes.
We reached 31/3 after 8 overs.Ram and Andrew started the innings after the break. Unfortunately Ram got runout for a excellent throw from the fielder for 2 runs.Sekar got out for a duck. He tried to hit ball over the mid wicket for six but caught out at the boundary.
Andrew started picking it up scored couple of sixes. Before that we havent got a single boundary. Sathish played well with Andrew moving single and hit a superb boundary. Andrew skied the slower one from Gary and caught by the keeper. Varun joined Sathish and started running for almost everything but unfortunately Sathish got run out for 8. Then we sent Krishna and asked him to move singles and not get out. He struggled a bit initially and then started moving singles. We were 73/8 by 15 overs.
Last over first ball from Gary went for wide and 2 bye runs. Second ball Varun and krishna ran for a quick single and we got two more in over throws. Third was a single. Krishna got out in fourth ball for 6 runs. I went to crease as a 11th batsman, scored 1 run of the fifth ball and last ball innings varun took a single and i pushed for the second to steal a run but he got out. We didnt mind about that wicket as the innings is over. Finally we score 83/10.
It is same as last match score but with a extra wicket.
The Legends Innings:
We were very confident to bowl them out. I took the new ball to bowl first over and gave 2 runs. Next came Sathish and bowled an extra-ordinary over he took a maiden wicket as last match. I gave 4 runs in the third over. Sathish again bowled excellently with another maiden for 1 more wicket.At the end of 4 overs ,the opponents were 6/2. Arun came into bowling and gave 2 runs, the last ball he bowled was a slower one, the batsman skied to long off and Krishna Mohan took a
superb catch. I asked Varun to bowl the next over and he bowled some extra-ordinary deliveries that the batsmen had no clue where ball is going to pitch and come.Arun took one more wicket in his next over.At the end of 8 Overs, they scored 17/4 wickets.
I came into bowl the 9th over after the break. During the break i told swamy that i will take a wicket at long off/on and got the same. Praveen took a excellent catch at long on. Sathish took one more wicket and gave four runs those four runs are only runs given by Sathish in this match. Next Arun over costs 12 runs, he couldnt get his line and length. But we had nothing to worry as it is very much tough task to get 50 runs in 5 overs. Next over Varun took one wicket with a superb zipping delivery. Next over i took another wicket of guys who was stuggling and we couldnt get his wicket before that over and the last ball of the 14 over from me, the batsman hit the ball the midwicket and a superb throw from Sekar cost them another wicket. Finally Sathish finished off their inning in the thrid ball of 15th over. They scored 43 with all their 10 batsmen out.
Celebrations all around. We won the match by 40 runs with some wonderful bowling from Sathish. The bowling figures doesnt change much from last match which is 12 runs and it was cut short by Sathish.
I wish our top order batsman to fire and to correct few mistakes in bowling.
Here are few snaps before you go into scoresheet.
Scoresheet :
The Legends Batting Innings:
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
Preparations:
The weather was far better than previous games. I thought the pitch would be little wet because of the rain couple of days before the match. But it was dried down and no wetness in the pitch. We started preparing the pitch by laying the mat, putting the boundary cones. Thanks to all the guys who helped in preparing the ground for the match. I would like to get same kind of co-operation from all of my team mates.
The opponents started to show up and involved some practice. The umpires from Devils11 team showed up on time. We havent altered pitch length it was same as last match. Thanks to the opponents for not raising some unwanted concerns about the pitch length and neither the umpires.
Toss:
It was toss time with Umpire Jaimin and two captains me and Jay Patel. Umpire tossed the coin and Jay called it as "Head".And it is head. My toss luck started to follow me. The opponents decided to field. We were happy because we decided to bat first if we would have won the toss.
Plainsboro Panthers Innings:
As usual our openers Praveen and Paresh opened the innings. I told Praveen to play his game freely and Paresh to hang on there for a while.Praveen came back to pavilion by scoring 2 runs,got out for a straight slower one. Swamy joined Paresh and started taking the singles. Swamy got out for excellent delivery from Jigar after steady innings for 10. Andrew went in and started resuming were Swamy left and we saw some excellent running from Andrew that day. Paresh got out after a long inning for 12. Paresh forgot that i gave him a bat to hit the ball and played all the balls with his body.Gosh!!! we would have scored 20 more runs if we had leg byes.
We reached 31/3 after 8 overs.Ram and Andrew started the innings after the break. Unfortunately Ram got runout for a excellent throw from the fielder for 2 runs.Sekar got out for a duck. He tried to hit ball over the mid wicket for six but caught out at the boundary.
Andrew started picking it up scored couple of sixes. Before that we havent got a single boundary. Sathish played well with Andrew moving single and hit a superb boundary. Andrew skied the slower one from Gary and caught by the keeper. Varun joined Sathish and started running for almost everything but unfortunately Sathish got run out for 8. Then we sent Krishna and asked him to move singles and not get out. He struggled a bit initially and then started moving singles. We were 73/8 by 15 overs.
Last over first ball from Gary went for wide and 2 bye runs. Second ball Varun and krishna ran for a quick single and we got two more in over throws. Third was a single. Krishna got out in fourth ball for 6 runs. I went to crease as a 11th batsman, scored 1 run of the fifth ball and last ball innings varun took a single and i pushed for the second to steal a run but he got out. We didnt mind about that wicket as the innings is over. Finally we score 83/10.
It is same as last match score but with a extra wicket.
The Legends Innings:
We were very confident to bowl them out. I took the new ball to bowl first over and gave 2 runs. Next came Sathish and bowled an extra-ordinary over he took a maiden wicket as last match. I gave 4 runs in the third over. Sathish again bowled excellently with another maiden for 1 more wicket.At the end of 4 overs ,the opponents were 6/2. Arun came into bowling and gave 2 runs, the last ball he bowled was a slower one, the batsman skied to long off and Krishna Mohan took a
superb catch. I asked Varun to bowl the next over and he bowled some extra-ordinary deliveries that the batsmen had no clue where ball is going to pitch and come.Arun took one more wicket in his next over.At the end of 8 Overs, they scored 17/4 wickets.
I came into bowl the 9th over after the break. During the break i told swamy that i will take a wicket at long off/on and got the same. Praveen took a excellent catch at long on. Sathish took one more wicket and gave four runs those four runs are only runs given by Sathish in this match. Next Arun over costs 12 runs, he couldnt get his line and length. But we had nothing to worry as it is very much tough task to get 50 runs in 5 overs. Next over Varun took one wicket with a superb zipping delivery. Next over i took another wicket of guys who was stuggling and we couldnt get his wicket before that over and the last ball of the 14 over from me, the batsman hit the ball the midwicket and a superb throw from Sekar cost them another wicket. Finally Sathish finished off their inning in the thrid ball of 15th over. They scored 43 with all their 10 batsmen out.
Celebrations all around. We won the match by 40 runs with some wonderful bowling from Sathish. The bowling figures doesnt change much from last match which is 12 runs and it was cut short by Sathish.
I wish our top order batsman to fire and to correct few mistakes in bowling.
Here are few snaps before you go into scoresheet.
Scoresheet :
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Paresh | Caught | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Praveen | Bowled | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Swamy | Caught | 10 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Andrew | Caught | 24 | 0 | 2 |
| 5 | Arun | Caught | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Ram | Run Out | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Sekar | Caught | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Sathish | Run Out | 8 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Varun | Run Out | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Krishna M | Bowled | 6 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Thamizh | Not Out | 1 | 0 | 0 |
The Legends Bowling :
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Ravin | 4 | 0 | 15 | 1 |
| 2 | Pintu | 4 | 0 | 16 | 0 |
| 3 | Jigar | 3 | 0 | 22 | 1 |
| 4 | Pankit | 1 | 0 | 3 | 2 |
| 5 | Gary | 4 | 0 | 27 | 3 |
| 6 | Zuben | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
The Legends Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Chetan | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Mayank | Caught | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Ravin | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Jay | Caught | 5 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Hardik | Caught | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 6 | Gary | Caught | 9 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Pintu | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Sonu | Bowled | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Tushar | Run Out | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Jigar | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Pankit | Not Out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Thamizh | 4 | 0 | 10 | 2 |
| 2 | Sathish | 3.3 | 2 | 4 | 4 |
| 3 | Arun | 3 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
| 4 | Varun | 4 | 0 | 13 | 1 |
Thursday, April 22, 2010
NJSBCL Match 1 : Plainsboro Panthers Vs Toms River XI at Panthers Ground on 4/18
Here I am with the review of our first match against Toms River XI. The match was scheduled to start at 8:30 AM. This is the first official match for us this year. Also this is first match we are playing in full cricket mat.
The climate was awful and windy. We all were dressed up in three layers.
Match was delayed for couple of reasons. The umpires from juggernaut team were late and the opponent team manager, Ketan was not happy with the size of the pitch. He felt 2 feet short.
Me and Ram(our Team Mangaer) were saying this is the correct length. Once the umpire reached the ground by 8:45 AM. the opponents complained about the length of the pitch, the umpires after measuring by foot they felt it is in correct length. But left to opponent for their satisfaction. They were trying to measure the pitch by Tape but unfortunately we didnt bring our tape that day and shops were not open that early.
So finally the opponent came down and agreed to play the match with the same length of the pitch.
Toss:
Though the toss is not that crucial we felt winning the toss would be great advantage. When it comes to toss I am not so lucky to win the toss barely I had won 25% of tosses last year.
Now back to toss,Umpire Deepti Ranjan from Juggernaut tossed the coin, the opponent captain called it a tail.It was head. Uh!!! I won the toss for the first match. I came down to the team resting area to check what we can choose. We decided to choose batting to take advantage of climate that time and hoped to improve over the day progresses.
Plainsboro Panthers Innings:
Our opening batsmen Praveen and Paresh were ready to make a mark.I asked them to go freely over the bowlers. Ketan started off the proceeding by bowling a wide ball of the innings.
Paresh hit a sixer on the quare leg for six.We were 9/0 in the first over with both Praveen and Paresh started off. Then comes the tragedy Paresh got out for a slower edging to keeper when he scored 7.
Praveen is back to pavilion in the similar fashion with 4 runs.We were worried with Swamy and Andrew getting out for 3 and 2 respectively and our score is 21/4 after 6 overs.And by the break time we were 29/4 after 8 over.
Right after the break, Ram and Arun shifted the gears carried our team. Arun got out for 22 with a six and four.It was a sweet coincidence when we were shouting Chennai Super Kings won the match and made it to Semi Finals, Ram hit a sixer. Sriram joined Ram and did a little cameo before he got out unfortunately for 9 by caught at the midwicket just before the boundary. Sathish came back to pavilion with 2 runs. I went in got a duck in 3 balls.Ram got out in final over for 21 with 2 sixes. Last one to go is Harieash to face the last ball.
So by end of 16 overs we were 83/9.
Toms River XI Innings:
I have taken the new ball in my hand for the first over. It was a pretty tight over with 1 run. Next over by Sathish provided the momentum with 2 wonderful wickets without giving any runs. Yes it is maiden and 2 wickets. From then on we conquered the game. Toms River started loosing wickets on a regular interval.
They were 5/4 at the end of 4 overs. Then Arun and Piyush started bowling. They also bowled very well.
At the end of 8 overs they were 24/6. Then we were to wrap it up soon but the Vijesh of Toms River was not giving away. He stood till the last over.We leaked some runs in between. Finally they scored 55/10 in 15.2 Overs.
Summary:
Overall its a great performance by Panthers in all the departments especially bowling and fielding. Thanks to Ram(21) & Arun(22) for excellent batting and Sathish for his wonderful spell of 16/4 from his 4 overs and myself(Thamizh) with some tidy bowling 9/2 from 4 overs.
We hoping to continue to do better and correct our small mistakes for the games to come.
Scoresheet:
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
Toms River XI Batting Innings:
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
The climate was awful and windy. We all were dressed up in three layers.
Match was delayed for couple of reasons. The umpires from juggernaut team were late and the opponent team manager, Ketan was not happy with the size of the pitch. He felt 2 feet short.
Me and Ram(our Team Mangaer) were saying this is the correct length. Once the umpire reached the ground by 8:45 AM. the opponents complained about the length of the pitch, the umpires after measuring by foot they felt it is in correct length. But left to opponent for their satisfaction. They were trying to measure the pitch by Tape but unfortunately we didnt bring our tape that day and shops were not open that early.
So finally the opponent came down and agreed to play the match with the same length of the pitch.
Toss:
Though the toss is not that crucial we felt winning the toss would be great advantage. When it comes to toss I am not so lucky to win the toss barely I had won 25% of tosses last year.
Now back to toss,Umpire Deepti Ranjan from Juggernaut tossed the coin, the opponent captain called it a tail.It was head. Uh!!! I won the toss for the first match. I came down to the team resting area to check what we can choose. We decided to choose batting to take advantage of climate that time and hoped to improve over the day progresses.
Plainsboro Panthers Innings:
Our opening batsmen Praveen and Paresh were ready to make a mark.I asked them to go freely over the bowlers. Ketan started off the proceeding by bowling a wide ball of the innings.
Paresh hit a sixer on the quare leg for six.We were 9/0 in the first over with both Praveen and Paresh started off. Then comes the tragedy Paresh got out for a slower edging to keeper when he scored 7.
Praveen is back to pavilion in the similar fashion with 4 runs.We were worried with Swamy and Andrew getting out for 3 and 2 respectively and our score is 21/4 after 6 overs.And by the break time we were 29/4 after 8 over.
Right after the break, Ram and Arun shifted the gears carried our team. Arun got out for 22 with a six and four.It was a sweet coincidence when we were shouting Chennai Super Kings won the match and made it to Semi Finals, Ram hit a sixer. Sriram joined Ram and did a little cameo before he got out unfortunately for 9 by caught at the midwicket just before the boundary. Sathish came back to pavilion with 2 runs. I went in got a duck in 3 balls.Ram got out in final over for 21 with 2 sixes. Last one to go is Harieash to face the last ball.
So by end of 16 overs we were 83/9.
Toms River XI Innings:
I have taken the new ball in my hand for the first over. It was a pretty tight over with 1 run. Next over by Sathish provided the momentum with 2 wonderful wickets without giving any runs. Yes it is maiden and 2 wickets. From then on we conquered the game. Toms River started loosing wickets on a regular interval.
They were 5/4 at the end of 4 overs. Then Arun and Piyush started bowling. They also bowled very well.
At the end of 8 overs they were 24/6. Then we were to wrap it up soon but the Vijesh of Toms River was not giving away. He stood till the last over.We leaked some runs in between. Finally they scored 55/10 in 15.2 Overs.
Summary:
Overall its a great performance by Panthers in all the departments especially bowling and fielding. Thanks to Ram(21) & Arun(22) for excellent batting and Sathish for his wonderful spell of 16/4 from his 4 overs and myself(Thamizh) with some tidy bowling 9/2 from 4 overs.
We hoping to continue to do better and correct our small mistakes for the games to come.
Scoresheet:
Plainsboro Panthers Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Paresh | Caught | 7 | 0 | 1 |
| 2 | Praveen | Caught | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Swamy | Caught | 3 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Andrew | Bowled | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Arun | Bowled | 22 | 1 | 1 |
| 6 | Ram | Bowled | 21 | 1 | 1 |
| 7 | Sriram | Caught | 9 | 0 | 1 |
| 8 | Sathish | Caught | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 9 | Piyush | Not Out | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 10 | Thamizh | Stumped | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Harieash | Not Out | 0 | 0 | 0 |
Toms River XI Bowling :
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Ketan | 2 | 0 | 13 | 1 |
| 2 | Teeku | 4 | 1 | 9 | 3 |
| 3 | Alpesh | 4 | 0 | 21 | 2 |
| 4 | Sunil | 3 | 0 | 18 | 2 |
| 5 | Vishal | 2 | 0 | 10 | 1 |
| 6 | Zuben | 1 | 0 | 12 | 0 |
Toms River XI Batting Innings:
| S.No | Batsman Name | How Out | Runs | 4's | 6's |
| 1 | Ali | Caught | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 2 | Vishal | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 3 | Tejas | Caught | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| 4 | Alpesh | Bowled | 1 | 0 | 0 |
| 5 | Sunil | Caught | 9 | 1 | 0 |
| 6 | Ketan | Caught | 4 | 0 | 0 |
| 7 | Zubin | Caught | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 8 | Rocky | Caught | 10 | 1 | 0 |
| 9 | Vijesh | Caught | 12 | 1 | 0 |
| 10 | Kumar | Run out | 2 | 0 | 0 |
| 11 | Teeku | Not Out | 7 | 1 | 0 |
Plainsboro Panthers Bowling Innings:
| S.No | Bowlers Name | Overs | Maiden | Runs | Wickets |
| 1 | Thamizh | 4 | 0 | 9 | 2 |
| 2 | Sathish | 4 | 1 | 16 | 4 |
| 3 | Arun | 4 | 0 | 16 | 2 |
| 4 | Piyush | 4 | 0 | 14 | 1 |
Tuesday, April 20, 2010
Tournaments
We, Plainsboro Panthers, are playing in two tournaments this year like last year.
One is NJSBCL (New Jersey Soft Ball Cricket League) comprises of 64 teams divided equally into two divisions base on perfomance and seniority. This tournament is played in green hard tennis ball. The tournaments started on April 17, 2010 which goes till October,10 2010.
The other tournament is NJPCL (New Jersey Premier League) comprises of 12 teams which is played in red hard tennis ball. The tournaments starts on May 1, 2010 and goes till September,2010.
I am glad and excited to let you know all that our team is promoted to play on Division 1 this year in NJSBCL tournament based on our last year's performance.
Its going to be exciting,busy and instense season of cricket for us. Its going to be as excited as IPL but without cheerleaders and mighty bank balance.
One is NJSBCL (New Jersey Soft Ball Cricket League) comprises of 64 teams divided equally into two divisions base on perfomance and seniority. This tournament is played in green hard tennis ball. The tournaments started on April 17, 2010 which goes till October,10 2010.
The other tournament is NJPCL (New Jersey Premier League) comprises of 12 teams which is played in red hard tennis ball. The tournaments starts on May 1, 2010 and goes till September,2010.
I am glad and excited to let you know all that our team is promoted to play on Division 1 this year in NJSBCL tournament based on our last year's performance.
Its going to be exciting,busy and instense season of cricket for us. Its going to be as excited as IPL but without cheerleaders and mighty bank balance.
It's Cricketing Season
Its always pleasure to do what we love. In sports,let it be watching or playing any game brings up 1000 Watts brightness in our faces. That too when it comes to cricket, we will do all kinds of sweet non senses like bunking offices, classes, appointments,fighting with wife or parents,etc to see the matches. The same is true for playing as well.
I am fortunate enough to play cricket after college days. It's possible in US where sports is one of body building activity and where you get time and people to play with.
I am sad that it is being missed out most parts in India after we completing our college days. I thought I might be wrong just deciding from my experience alone but it is true when i came across same stories.
Yes, I am delighted to say that our cricket season in New Jersey starts with small glimpse of spring. It is still cold and windy here in New Jersey. Its going to be tough and shivering weekends for the first few weeks of cricketing season. I am saying tough not to play intense cricket but to wake up by 7 or 7:30 in the morning.
Our team is Plainsboro Panthers located at Plainsboro,New Jersey.
As a captain of the team, I am starting the blogs to write about our matches, team performances, team standings share view and comment within the team and friends of team members.
I request your co-operation to this blog live, clean and motivated. I request if any your friends are commenting on the post, ask them to keep it clean without any foul language.
Also, please ask them include your name mentioning that they are friend of you, in their signature.
Thanks,
Thamizh
I am fortunate enough to play cricket after college days. It's possible in US where sports is one of body building activity and where you get time and people to play with.
I am sad that it is being missed out most parts in India after we completing our college days. I thought I might be wrong just deciding from my experience alone but it is true when i came across same stories.
Yes, I am delighted to say that our cricket season in New Jersey starts with small glimpse of spring. It is still cold and windy here in New Jersey. Its going to be tough and shivering weekends for the first few weeks of cricketing season. I am saying tough not to play intense cricket but to wake up by 7 or 7:30 in the morning.
Our team is Plainsboro Panthers located at Plainsboro,New Jersey.
As a captain of the team, I am starting the blogs to write about our matches, team performances, team standings share view and comment within the team and friends of team members.
I request your co-operation to this blog live, clean and motivated. I request if any your friends are commenting on the post, ask them to keep it clean without any foul language.
Also, please ask them include your name mentioning that they are friend of you, in their signature.
Thanks,
Thamizh
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