Bowlers failed to rise to the occassion: One more loss for the Nomads

After the first loss in the league game, nothing much changed in our practice routine but players did not seem to be bothered with the loss and were very positive about the first friendly game against the Strasbourg Strollers.

The Freiburg Nomads have been playing the Strasbourg Strollers for many years. The two teams are pretty matched in terms of strengths. I dont know the stats but I am sure the balance between the two teams can be backed up by stats.

The day was not optimal for a cricket match but we decided to ignore the unhappiness of the German Rain Gods.

In rather testing conditions our batsmen did well and set up a formidable target of 179 in 30 overs. Ratish was pick of the batsmen. Sikander did much better than his previous outing. And the rest chipped in as the situation demanded. Given the weather and our wicket, it was a good target to defend. I was very positive that finally under Sikander' captaincy we will win against a decent team. We did start our defense in winning mode. In my second over I claimed my first wicket of the season. Rajesh was a bit flaky in the beginning but after first four overs we were looking safe.

The second bowling spell of Sagir (who actually bowled well) and Craig failed to capitalize on the start, and from the 5th over on we could never reduce the run-rate below six. It was a high quality undisciplined bowling. The fear of injury on a slippery mat, I think was the primary reason for the inconsistent bowling. The Captain also failed to read the condition and attacking bowlers were not brought in when we had a brief dry time on the pitch. In between the wides, there were really beautiful deliveries which did show that our bowlers have quality but they need to work on their strengths.

One of the main reason that bowling looked harmless, was the field placement. Most of our bowlers do not know what is a good field and how to bowl to the field. Such situation adds a heavy burden to the responsibility of the captain. We gave away so many runs in the point and square area and still we never had a proper field placement in that region.

To add to our woes, the umpire did not know that there is something called an LBW in cricket. 

One of the question raised to the umpire on the field was 'how low they could go to win the match'. The umpire refused to reply. I am sure he did not know his limits. 

Umpiring is a genuine problem at our level of cricket. Average human nature is to rate victory over honesty and impartiality. The reason is simple, a victory gets recorded, one way or other. Honesty on cricket field, most of the times brings animosity of the team-mates.

In the first match it was the batsmen who did not give enough to the bowlers and in this match bowlers failed to defend a formidable score. I hope that in the friendly match tomorrow, both the bowlers and batsmen will come together and win and make a good impression on the opponents who are due to play a league game in a couple of weeks.

The forecast says that the German Rain Gods are going to unhappy with us again but we will also continue to ignore them...very respectfully though...

Those who may be tempted to write us off after two consecutive loses ought to remember that, it is very dangerous to infer trends from two observations.

right arm over

Arvind