Emily Dickinson wrote:
Success is counted sweetest
By those who ne'er succeed.
An illustration of this beautiful poem could be seen at the seepark ground, Freiburg on the afternoon of Sunday, May 16,2010.
Nomads took a full season and four matches in this one, under Sikander's captaincy to secure a victory against a decent side. What a shame that the team captain who had led the team through one of the worst patch, was not there to savor the moment. The players who were part of the team in the last season finally got to taste victory and it was easy to see the significance of the win.
In a somewhat relevant dimension this victory also meant that now we have won a match in two we have played so far in the BWCV league. It was important to win the match to keep the hopes alive in the league and not to dive too deep in the league table.
Finally Nomads showed what they are actually capable of. We defeated a team that had won two of it previous league game and was leading the points table. The victory margin clearly reflects how one sided affair the match turned out to be.
Starting with a run-out in the very first over, Nomads kept getting breakthroughs at regular intervals. To chase 154 runs in 40 overs is not difficult in our field, but rain was an obvious fear. For some strange reason, the organizers have adopted a two decade old rain-rule which has been proved consistently retarded and useless. There was a reason why ICC adopted the Duckworth-Lewis rain rule. But not the BWCV, they still want to live in the dark ages of rain-rules.
With the overcast skies, Nomads batsmen had a single minded goal -- to stay up with the required run rate. That is what exactly happened. For one the German Rain Gods helped us by forcing the opposition to conceded a heap of extra runs and at one point we were cruising along at a run rate of 9 per over. Although we lost a couple of wickets in succession, Vijay who was playing his first match this season after a string of 'self-invited injuries' ensured that the lower order was not exposed and without any drama he took the Nomads home.
Besides, Vijay and Sagir's batting in my opinion one aspect that won us the game was our fielding. It was just a superlative effort. Field placement was perfect. In the point and gully region several 10s of runs were saved. I think Vijay was again the hero of field setting. Sikander more or less gave the control of field to Vijay and Sagir and that worked for us. If not for that field setting we would have been chasing a score in excess of 180 and that would have been a tough target in rain and heavy ball.
In the light of the win I do not want to ignore the fact that our fast bowling attack is not looking threatening enough. In the last match, Rajesh did well to control runs but he failed to take wickets. My terrible form continued and it is getting worrisome now. I had a good spell in the start but then on I was completely useless. With every over I conceded more runs. My bowling in the middle over is a reminder of Ajit Agarkar, who has a knack of bowling 4 amazing deliveries and still he finishes an over with 6-8 runs. I need to work on it really hard. I think it is psychological, I just hate the cricket ball we use in these matches. The cricket balls that we got from the Deutche-Cricket-Bundes (DCB) are complete disgrace. As soon as you hit the seam on the wicket the seam opens up and after few overs there is no chance for seam bowlers.
I have to say a word for the neutral umpire. It is indeed a very good idea. It is true that it costs Euros 25 per team to have a neutral umpire but it is worth it.
They say winning is a habit. Nomads now have secured a perfect victory to inspire them for the next games. But Nomads ought to remember that winning a match is just one thing and give the nature of the game and the world, it may even be a chance. To prove that it is not chance and they have it in them, they must get on to a winning track now...
right arm over
Arvind
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