What does it take to win in sports? In all but one, it is sufficient to defeat the self-doubt and the opponents. Not in cricket. Besides everything else, the Rains Gods have to be on your side.
Because this season so far we have been carefully ignoring the German Rain Gods, they came hard on us and right when were almost there to win the first match of the season the heavens opened. Our rain ignoring tactic i.e. continuing to play in rain did not last long as the field and the pitch rapidly became impossible to play.
When the rain stopped the play, we were 122/3 in 17 overs chasing 164 runs in 30 overs. So technically if we had instituted the Duckworth-Lewis method, we would have won as I think roughly we were 20 runs ahead of the D/L revised target after 17 overs.
Well, win is not so important. More important is the fact to realize that we can win.
After a long time, we chose to bowl first. It almost worked. We started off like real winners. I was very happy after what I could do with the ball in my first overs. After that Raghav produced a very nice spell of medium pace delivery. Sagir was in usual form. Rajesh's seems to be losing form a bit but he also held himself well enough. It was also a good outing for the debutant Arpit. He has a very good bowling action. His short physical stature limits the speed but he is powerful and knows what he can do with the ball. If we leave out last five overs including my 15 runs over, we did extremely well. The opposition was not very strong but it was important that our bowling unit got a good feel of what they can do in terms of setting up a good total to chase for the batting unit.
My 15 runs over: It was very depressing but I have to give credit to Favad. The ball he sent for a straight six was just brilliant. It was not a bad ball by any means. I was of course not at my best while bowling that over, as my right elbow was hurting bad. I offered to bowl that over because we didnt have many options for the 29th over. I still dont know when and how I injured it.
The target was just over 5 runs an over. It is not an easy target but certainly within reach. However, we were soon greeted by a very high quality swing and pace attack. It was commendable that Ratish and Sikander managed to keep they wickets. There were many LBW shouts. As I was umpire during that spell I know that except for one, none was really a good shout. The bowlers were swinging the ball a lot (up to nearly 25 degrees). With such swing it is not easy to judge where the ball would have gone if it had not hit the pads. I was very fair and there was no shout declined because I was from the batting side. I am a bowler and I very much sympathize with them.
Rest of the attack was ordinary and we had no trouble in scoring a healthy rate until rain forced us to stop.
We bowled very well on average but inconsistencies still remain. I for instance bowled four over for 30 runs, 5 fours and 1 six, one wide. So remaining 18 deliveries went for a mere 3 runs. Besides this after the first spell our field opens up and that results in a leaking single. That is one area we need to work on. Next, it is high time that we settle for our batting line up. It was ok for a friendly game to have Najeeb and Arpit in higher middle order but not for serious game. Also Raghav's batting, though improving, is not good enough to score at a decent rate against an average bowling attack, so we should be careful in analyzing the performances for the upcoming league games. Similarly, in the next training session we need to give enough bowling to Rajesh to boost his confidence.
But we did not lose and given a good weather we would have won, gives a great feeling and I think we are now ready and peaking at the right moment. So go Nomads...
right arm over
Arvind
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