How close a cricket match can go? Of course a tie is very thrilling and entertaining. Besides that single run can decide the winner. Likewise single wicket -- but with that it is a bit difficult to judge the closeness of the match. Today is a story of a match which was won and lost by one wicket.
We batted first. Arpit and Vijay gave us a quite but solid start. Arpit was strangely sedated today. Vijay in the other hand was in a good nick and scored 34 runs. They very well braced the challenge of neutralizing some very good and controlled swing bowling first from Faheem and later from Vickey. Balaji came in to replace Arpit in 10th over. He looked good enough to take on the bowling. After Vijay got out we had a little middle order collaps. Saghir was again unlucky.
I did not see the best part of Vibhore and Adnan's batting but they kept the score going at a healthy rate of 4-4.5 runs oer over. Adnan score 14 runs with only one boundary -- meaning he is getting his confidence. He I am told was adjudged LBW on an inside edge -- very unfortunate but such decisions happen and we cant do much.
But the row Zurich Nomads created on that decision does not suit their team and certainly does not reflect the quality of cricket that was played today.
Vibhore (who celebrated his birthday yesterday) looked to mix attack and defence. While they did score runs, they missed out on some single -- which could have made a difference.
Then came a cameo from Bala who hit some powerful blows and tried to accelerate the innings. Against a very good frontline bowling attack and average follow up 161 runs was a decent score. We would have wanted to few more. In fact the result left us asking of just a few more but thats always the case in tight matches.
Saghir and Rahul started our defence. The Zurich nomads batsmen looked quite but comfortable. I quickly replaced Rahul but leaked out too many runs in my first over. Actually me and Nila were not supposed bowl and I was really struggling to find my rhythm. In my third over two wickets fell to raise the confidence of our side.
Arpit topped it up with his peculiar start -- by claiming a wicket on his first ball. This was followed by a run out. But from here on we lost the grip over the match. Vickey steadily raised the score. Fifth wicket partnership was in range of 60+runs. He miscued a full-toss from Arpit to Shiva. Once again few wickets fell in that bursts. But again the eight wicket partnership was extended for too long. This was partly because of the some elegant batting from Faheem. He was also tossed one of Arpit's fulltoss to Nila. Thats the first time we smelled a victory.
Faheem was the difference today between the two sides, duely supported by Vickey. These two guys bowled well and them batted even better -- unfortunately (and fortunately for us) both fell to full-toss deliveries of Arpit. While fall of Vickey was a respite for the FNCC, it was Faheem's departure that gave use real hope. We needed to take 2 wicket and they needed 18 runs to win. Alas some poor fielding, indiscipline in the bowling and stubbornness of Sangam's batting the ninth wicket fell (a run out) when they needed three runs. Saghir tried his best to stretch the game but on the fourth bowl of the last over it was all over.
I talked about how every match is revealing new aspects of the FNCC character. It takes a great deal to accept the defeat gracefully. When the finish is so close as today's it is difficult judge who actually is the winner -- indeed the victory in such matches is largely a statistical fluctuation. We for instance won such a thriller against Strasbourgh in 2010. Nevertheless the margin of victory aptly describes the difference in the two teams in such matches.
This was not the first time that one/two batsmen took the game away from us. Almost a similar match was played against Winterthur last year. We lost that time in an attempt to defend 159 just because one batsman stayed for a bit too long and took the game away from us. We certainly needed to spot this trend and work to correct this. First we let Faheem settle and then gave him a field that he could score runs freely. I do not want to take anything away from him, he played a superb innings. But this is an area we need to work hard.
There were several positives of the match. This being a non-league game we experimented with out batting. We for the first time got to see Vibhore (who debuted) and Rahul's batting potential. Likewise Bala repeated his succeses of Uster game here as well with some towering sixes. Balaji showed some potential to bat at the top of the order. And very importantly Adnan reached to double figures after a long time. This positives when added can only signal the strength of our batting. Yes, Arpit and Saghir needs to lift their game. Saghir's bad luck continued and I hope that the law of averages will come in play for him. He cant stay away from real action for too long.
Bowling was ok today -- we almost defended 161 runs. But we are not effective against left-hand batsmen. Extras are still leaking -- today we gave away 24 runs as extras.
Fielding was excellent in patches. When runs started to flow we somehow became excessively defensive and accordingly the bowling. Guru needs to get his basics right for wicket-keeping. He does not talk and very importantly rarely appeals. With his appeal we can only dream of getting LBWs. But he has reflexes to develop in to a good wicket-keeper.
In any case, with this match we have known our limits. And now the challenge is to further extend them. Despite defeat I could the feeling of self-discovery on many faces and thats what we gained from this defeat (a defeat never leave uneducated).
right arm over
Arvind
PS: It was FNCC debute of Vibhore (who scored 33), Shiva (a first ball duck -- actually first ball ever he faced on the flix wicket), Eldho (How much did he score?). and Guru. Welcome to the club guys.
We batted first. Arpit and Vijay gave us a quite but solid start. Arpit was strangely sedated today. Vijay in the other hand was in a good nick and scored 34 runs. They very well braced the challenge of neutralizing some very good and controlled swing bowling first from Faheem and later from Vickey. Balaji came in to replace Arpit in 10th over. He looked good enough to take on the bowling. After Vijay got out we had a little middle order collaps. Saghir was again unlucky.
I did not see the best part of Vibhore and Adnan's batting but they kept the score going at a healthy rate of 4-4.5 runs oer over. Adnan score 14 runs with only one boundary -- meaning he is getting his confidence. He I am told was adjudged LBW on an inside edge -- very unfortunate but such decisions happen and we cant do much.
But the row Zurich Nomads created on that decision does not suit their team and certainly does not reflect the quality of cricket that was played today.
Vibhore (who celebrated his birthday yesterday) looked to mix attack and defence. While they did score runs, they missed out on some single -- which could have made a difference.
Then came a cameo from Bala who hit some powerful blows and tried to accelerate the innings. Against a very good frontline bowling attack and average follow up 161 runs was a decent score. We would have wanted to few more. In fact the result left us asking of just a few more but thats always the case in tight matches.
Saghir and Rahul started our defence. The Zurich nomads batsmen looked quite but comfortable. I quickly replaced Rahul but leaked out too many runs in my first over. Actually me and Nila were not supposed bowl and I was really struggling to find my rhythm. In my third over two wickets fell to raise the confidence of our side.
Arpit topped it up with his peculiar start -- by claiming a wicket on his first ball. This was followed by a run out. But from here on we lost the grip over the match. Vickey steadily raised the score. Fifth wicket partnership was in range of 60+runs. He miscued a full-toss from Arpit to Shiva. Once again few wickets fell in that bursts. But again the eight wicket partnership was extended for too long. This was partly because of the some elegant batting from Faheem. He was also tossed one of Arpit's fulltoss to Nila. Thats the first time we smelled a victory.
Faheem was the difference today between the two sides, duely supported by Vickey. These two guys bowled well and them batted even better -- unfortunately (and fortunately for us) both fell to full-toss deliveries of Arpit. While fall of Vickey was a respite for the FNCC, it was Faheem's departure that gave use real hope. We needed to take 2 wicket and they needed 18 runs to win. Alas some poor fielding, indiscipline in the bowling and stubbornness of Sangam's batting the ninth wicket fell (a run out) when they needed three runs. Saghir tried his best to stretch the game but on the fourth bowl of the last over it was all over.
I talked about how every match is revealing new aspects of the FNCC character. It takes a great deal to accept the defeat gracefully. When the finish is so close as today's it is difficult judge who actually is the winner -- indeed the victory in such matches is largely a statistical fluctuation. We for instance won such a thriller against Strasbourgh in 2010. Nevertheless the margin of victory aptly describes the difference in the two teams in such matches.
This was not the first time that one/two batsmen took the game away from us. Almost a similar match was played against Winterthur last year. We lost that time in an attempt to defend 159 just because one batsman stayed for a bit too long and took the game away from us. We certainly needed to spot this trend and work to correct this. First we let Faheem settle and then gave him a field that he could score runs freely. I do not want to take anything away from him, he played a superb innings. But this is an area we need to work hard.
There were several positives of the match. This being a non-league game we experimented with out batting. We for the first time got to see Vibhore (who debuted) and Rahul's batting potential. Likewise Bala repeated his succeses of Uster game here as well with some towering sixes. Balaji showed some potential to bat at the top of the order. And very importantly Adnan reached to double figures after a long time. This positives when added can only signal the strength of our batting. Yes, Arpit and Saghir needs to lift their game. Saghir's bad luck continued and I hope that the law of averages will come in play for him. He cant stay away from real action for too long.
Bowling was ok today -- we almost defended 161 runs. But we are not effective against left-hand batsmen. Extras are still leaking -- today we gave away 24 runs as extras.
Fielding was excellent in patches. When runs started to flow we somehow became excessively defensive and accordingly the bowling. Guru needs to get his basics right for wicket-keeping. He does not talk and very importantly rarely appeals. With his appeal we can only dream of getting LBWs. But he has reflexes to develop in to a good wicket-keeper.
In any case, with this match we have known our limits. And now the challenge is to further extend them. Despite defeat I could the feeling of self-discovery on many faces and thats what we gained from this defeat (a defeat never leave uneducated).
right arm over
Arvind
PS: It was FNCC debute of Vibhore (who scored 33), Shiva (a first ball duck -- actually first ball ever he faced on the flix wicket), Eldho (How much did he score?). and Guru. Welcome to the club guys.
No comments:
Post a Comment