The match (or the mis-match) lasted 12 overs. We took 8 overs to take 9 wickets of the opposition and conceded 31 runs, of those at least 9 were from wides. Then chased the score in 3.5 overs with the help of 9 extras.
The visitors from Leonberg were not at all ready to play a match. They were short of one player. Their team was under-prepared and understrength. It is very likely that they failed to raise a full strength team for an away fixture on a Thursday (although a holiday in south Germany).
We have, in past played against much more ill-prepared teams than the Leonberg team. In all those attempts, having accessed the strength of the opposition we invariably reduced the intensity and tried to create a match out of a mismatch. I recall reducing a team to 11-6 and then Matt and myself were taken off the attack and multiple similar instances.
Not in this case. The reason -- well, we wanted to get our points for the Twenty20 league and on top wanted to make sure that we improve our average. So in this process we just ignored cricket and focused on mere numbers.
Did we do wrong? No, everybody in that situation would have done the same.
But are numbers greater than Cricket. My answer is that no. The competition in the league forced us to take on such ruthless approach which was clearly not within the spirit of Cricket. In being ruthless and clinical in our victory we just respected the league system.
At same time I would like to add that Leonberg did not act properly when they fielded such a team. It cannot be said that they had a bad day. They were just understrength. Except for a couple of player none of the opposition deserved their place. Teams that are part of the league should act in more responsibility and respect the fact that the league is in place to increase competition.
We did realize that our clinical attitude was perhaps not in the right spirit, so we did well to play a practice game with the guests.
It is difficult to find out what went good and not so good when we play such an opposition.
Tomorrow is a far more important game. We have only won one game out three for the 40 over matches league. The opposition is orders of magnitude better than the one we played on Thursday last, if rumors and score sheets have to be believed. So we really have to switch gears and secure a win tomorrow to remain in the hunt for the championship.
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