Rhine Cup To Stay in Freiburg for One More Season

At the very core of it, Cricket is a game played in the brain, the show on the ground is a mere manifestation of the tussles going on in the brains of the players. The FNCC and Basel CC encounters have become a perfect illustration of this fact.

Otherwise, how could a team which is currently at the top of the swiss league, has players who boast of amazing individual feats in the ground, continue to lose to FNCC, in most cases, without really putting up a fight.

FNCC has entered in that phase of season when the team is always short of players. But then there are those bravehearts like Feyas who come in to just to field despite his serious leg injury, or the passionate ones like Rajesh, who came to Freiburg to see his 'non-cricketing' friends (I wonder why do people have such friends!!) and ended up bowling his quota of six excellent overs. 

Vijay lost is customary toss to Basel and we bowled first. This is what we had planned anyways. Both Rajesh and Shubhu started cautiously  but firmly. We waited for the first change for the first wicket. Raghav was bowling really good. I started off well but then I pulled-off after two overs. Rajesh was sopt-on. We curtailed runs and wickets fell regularly. At the drinks break agter 15 overs the score was 68 for four wickets. Not too bad. But then after drinks Vijay brought in Rehan who took the Basel CC by surprise and claimed four wickets with his precise and cunning slow bowling. His bowling effort meant that Basel folded for 107 runs with about four overs remaining. Adnan and Nila provided good support to Rehan but were unlucky not to have have picked wickets. Adnan was particularly unluck as he took two wickets of no balls. But I think it must have given him a nice lesson. 

We started positively with Rehan and Raghav. Basel opening bowling was good. Inspired by Rehan's success Sunny started with a slow bowler. And he started the damage right away and Rehan mis-read his slower and straighter delivery. Pandiyan started as if nothing has happened and threw his bat to everything that came on the way and hit some very powerful blow. But his inning was rather erratic and he could have been out multiple times. Finally he was caught at the long on -- but the fielded (the slow bowler who opened the bowling) almost made a mess of it before making it a stunning catch. Raghav continued to grow in confidence (after my error -- read on), very well supported by Vijay and Angelo. Angelo was erratic like Pandiyan but he was a touch more careful. His inning was not pretty but very productive and that is what we needed. Sunny relied too much on his slow bowlers who were very effective but the target was too small to defend and FNCC players are very good on their front foot. We romped home with four wickets in hand. 

Yes, we could have done better, but the victory was very sweet as this meant we will retain the Rhine cup until the next season. Congratulations Nomads. 

I guess now Basel CC will have some time to reflect on the games and break the shackles that lie only in their brain. Good luck Basel CC for your remaining season. We are very lucky to have to you as our friends and we hope to continue our good relationship.

This victory should not go into our heads. The challenges ahead are tough. We have a strong opposition (the Winterthur team) visiting on 2nd Sept. After that we go to Geneva for a weekend trip to play two unknown teams in unknown grounds. We understand the game of Basel CC so we sometime get away with our mistakes. Clearly, FNCC is capable but they will have to work hard to maintain a clean record for the remaining season. 

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I made an umpiring error early on when I failed to judge whether Raghav's bat touched the ball or not, at least I did not hear anything, neither the leg-umpire objected. Our visitors behaved as perfect gentlemen and the match went on. Since Raghav was our makeshift opener in that I do not think that the end result was influenced by him but I know that wickets in quick succession can change the tempo of the game. Moreover, Raghav carried his bat, so maybe my reprieve to him did play a role... my sincere apologies to the Basel team.

Freiburg Nomads start the season with a win over Basel CC

Summer has been very hesitant this year and only in the end of April we got to play the first game of this season. Basel Cricket Club very generously accepted our invitation as they were also looking for a warm up game. 

Have you ever seen a cloud pattern like this before. I hadnt.
It was a beautiful day to play cricket

It was a perfect day to play cricket. Early on it was a bit clouded but the landscape of clouds presented a beautiful and rare spectacle. Correction: I am not that romantic to see beauty in cloud landscape, it reminded me a phenomenon in neuroscience thats why it was so beautiful and I consider it worthy to put to picture here. As sun climbed up in the sky or actually as the earth moved around the sun the day got warmer and a bit windy.


On such perfect day Vijay won the toss for the FNCC and decided to bat first. BAsel showed signs of rustiness as their strike bowler sent in two wides. But they quickly corrected and it was FNCC who were looking rusted. This time Purav nicked the first legal delivery in the hands of the wicketkeeper. Cricket Season 2012 had just begun in Freiburg...


Pandiyan and Rehan did not let Basel take the advantage and built a good partnership. Pandiyan was in great touch. He was middling every ball and those were powerful shots. Rehan also matched him and as he fell we were out of danger but just yet. Saghir got runout with very little addition to the score.  Then came Raghav and changed to match completely. He was a bit circumspect early on but as his eyes set on the ball he and Pandiyan punished every delivery, literally. They were just damn good. Very deservingly both made half centuries. Pandiyan fell in an attempt to play a reverse sweep. It was not needed but it just shows the level of his confidence and it was very good to see him take risk in a safe situation. Later Adnan had a go on the bowlers. Although we did not play our full quota, the target of 210 in 30 over was quite good.


Basel bowler Amit who second time opened his bowling by conceding a six off the first delivery later said that they were happy with their bowling as for the first time they bowled us out on our home pitch. Indeed, they did well just that it was a day of Pandiyan and Raghav. Only thing they could have done better is in terms of saving some extras. They had a very  quick and correct fielder who ranout Saghir and who easily saved 20 runs in the cover and point area.


We  obviously started our bowling with great confidence. There was a confident appeal on the very first ball just to even up the things (as we lost our first wicket on the first legal delivery). Saghir took a wicket in his first over and then at the end of my first over I also had a wicket (LBW) and both openers were back. 


Then started a phase when Basel for the first time looked like set to take the advantage. Just like Raghav another left hander Beau [more on him later] started very cautiously and soon dominated every bowler. He got a good partner in Adeel. At the drinks break they were in a position to take a shot at the match. 

Vijay brought in Saghir after the drinks who took Adeel out. Then I came in for one over and Beau who by then had become the prized scalp, fell LBW. Now the match was all but over. Saghir continued and finished with a five wicket haul. Last wicket hung around a bit too much to our taste, but then thats cricket all about. Even when all looks set and certain you still have to finish it. Rehan took that honor. And with some super batting effort of Pandiyan and Raghav and excellent bowling of Saghir FNCC won the match quite comfortably.


I do not want to draw too much from the victory. Basel were short of several of their key player. It was their first match of the season. In fact they bowled us out only goes to show our weakness of not been able to take advantage of a good start. Next time when we play Basel in the second warm-up at their home pitch will bring a whole new challenge. Facebook updates from Basel CC are good indicative of how seriously they are preparing. So it is great that there are new challenges. 


One of the best things of the match was Beau (pronounce as 'Bow'). Although he played from the Basel CC this match he is the newest member of FNCC. He batted excellently that too against our match ready bowling attack, meaning he is very very solid batsman and his lefthandedness only adds to the advantage. I am very confident that he will strengthen our batting considerably.


The most negative aspect of our bowling was that they second highest scorer in the Basel CC inning was Mr. Extra. Everyone sent in too many wides. And if our training has to be trusted yesterday they was no real improvement. This is an area where we have to improve a lot. 


The knowledge of cricket still remains very sparse in Freiburg. Many visitors to the seepark stopped by and watched the proceeding but then gave up and moved on. This has been the usual. Sunday last was unusual as one indian lady whom we do not know took a lot of effort in trying to explain the game to some of the visitors. Thank you Ms. Anonymous. We need more like you who can educate Freiburg people to appreciate that the mostly brown guys in white clothes are doing something more than just amusing e.g. winning for Freiburg against Basel.


Victories only show weakness of the opponent and not the strength of the winner. And that is why, FNCC should set up their own targets, to reveal their weakness to become better and there is no doubt that they can do better...better than the last season 


Good luck nomads.

A taste of indoor cricket in freezing cold

In western europe once season closes in September or in early October, virtually there is n chance to play until April. Some places are luckier as they have more enthusiastic players who go all out to find some possibility of playing cricket. When I played with the St. Columbas Cricket Club in Providence, USA, we  used to rent a baseball batting cage for training. Main land Europe has no baseball (and how nice is that) so opportunity to find such batting cages.
Some teams are lucky enough to find indoor facilities to stay in touch with cricket. Our friends in Basel have access to an indoor gym which has three basketball courts laid side-by-side. And they very generously invited us to try out their indoor cricket facility. 
Cricket is an amazingly scalable game. The indoor practice game with Basel Cricket Club was an example of that. The playing area was slightly more than two basketball courts, something like a 24x24 meters^2. Height was perhaps 10 meters. The floor was soft rubber but most of us had to play barefoot as we did not have indoor shoes (no one thought about that). But playing barefoot brought old memories of from my village when on a wet field it was more convenient to take off the shoes to get a better grip on a socked field.
So how do you play cricket in such limited space. That too with 20 guys. Well, exploit the fact that cricket has no rules only laws and within the laws anything is possible. This makes cricket and amazingly scalable game. So we agreed on following conditions:


- we will play with a red rubber ball, which could bounce and swing but not hard enough to hurt you any bad. Also because there was air in the ball, so it wouldnt carry too much in the air
- The side walls counted for one run by default and on top the batsmen could run any number of runs. 
- The front wall counted for four or six (i.e. a direct hit)
- Rebounds off the two side and the front wall were legal and batman would be deemed out
- The ceiling did not count for default runs but rebounds were legal
- With so many fielders and such hard restriction it is obvious that wickets will fall. So batsmen will bat in pairs. Each pair will bat for four overs. For each wicket five runs will be deducted from the score
- Each bowler can bowl maximum four over.


Initially we were a bit uncertain of the playing conditions, but we trusted our hosts that wickets would just tumble. Small field with 9 fielders were bound to make field runs difficult and rebound catches of the wall meant that hitting sixes was a not safe either. On the top of that the rule that wickets will reduce the score by five runs made it all the way more interesting. 
We batted first. Reading the ball was difficult enough but right in the first over we learned that running on that field was also a skill. Without proper shoes it was not easy to stop. Most cases there was a danger of running into the wall. 
But it was all fun. Batsmen were getting out as it was a norm. Every wicket costed few runs, one or two wickets. Score was always going up and down. We at one point were 44 in 16 overs, which we thought was very good. But then few wickets brought it down to 17. Somehow we managed to get 35 on the board.  We were not sure if was good or not. But in the process we had had so much fun and laugh while watching our guys getting out in a funny ways, that nothing really mattered. My favorite was Saghir's fall to reach the batting crease to avoid a run out and when a ball rebounded off a fielder and beat Vijay and hit the wicket and yet another runout. I was fooled when a shot hit the bowling side wickets directly and I thought I was out but someone suggested for an overthrow and I got myself runout. List is long I cant count.

We lost at least 18 wickets, so the final score of 35 wasnt that bad. Most wickets were run outs, a testament of Basel's superb fielding and our poor judging of what should be a run in that field.
We bowled well, kept the Basel CC clamped to single digits until 13 overs. The a partnership too the score to 26 in next four overs. But we knew that a couple of wickets will bring it back to us. And thats what exactly happened. In the end we won by 10 -12 runs. But it was a long time any of us was playing cricket of any kind.
Winning was good but that was not the main concern. It was important to get together, meet friends in pur team and in the Basel team and enjoy the game. We certainly reached that goal. A couple of new guys showed up. They have a big task ahead to replace Rajesh and Arpit and soon Purav. Lets see how the season will unfold. But this indoor experience ignited a desire in us to find a similar facility in the neighborhood of Freiburg. It is going to be difficult but lets see...
Cricketers in Switzerland are far more adventures compared to those in Germany. For instance, Winterthur cricket club have tried playing in the Alps during winter. Other clubs have tried frozen lakes. All this because we love this game, we live this game and life goes on and so does cricket...outdoor in cricket field, football field, lawn, indoor, frozen lakes and in Alps.

Clinical Nomads retain the Rhine cup

FNCC will retain the Rhine cup until next year.
Vijay receives the Rhine cup from Jason, secretary
and a deadly spinner from the Basal CC.

Success tastes sweetest to those who never succeed wrote Wordsworth in his famous poem. But a victory tastes sweetest and counts most when it comes against worthy opponents. It was not a surprise when Nomads shouted three cheers after completing a clinical victory over Basel Cricket Club at their home ground.

In the beautiful settings of the Basel CC ground the match started when the hosts invited us to bat first. Given the unknown nature of the wicket we had decided to bowl first. But Purab and Rehan stood to the challenge of an unknown wicket.  They played out first couple of overs and then started to play their shots. When after 7 overs the score board read 45 without loss another big score was in the sight. But then Purab was hit in his groin as he tried to play across the line. After that Purab seemed out place and was soon LBW.

The winners...

At one point after Purab was gone, FNCC played out 18 deliveries without a run and losing the wickets of Rehan and Pandiyan, both caught in the slips. Then Raghav who had joined Saghir played a lofted shot, the ball rocketed in the sky and FNCC was about to lose one more wicket.  But the catch was dropped and we scored a run after 18 deliveries. Raghav took advantage of his luck and hit two superb sixes over perhaps the longest long-on boundary. But then too got carried away and was out caught in the cover region. Before his wicket Amit Purohit had surprised Saghir who was caught in the slips. With this the responsibility to keep the scoreboard ticking was on Vijay who looked in great touch right from the first delivery he faced. He used this opportunity to show his class as a batsman. He missed a well deserved half century as he got run-out for 46. But he had done his job. He took the score from mid 60s to  140s. In the process, Arpit, Pathubhan and Adnan supported him. Later Nila and I also added some 15 runs for the last wicket. We failed to play our 35 overs but in the 33 overs we scored 165 runs, which was well below our expectations given over start, but it was a very competitive score given the outfield and our bowling.

Among Basel bowlers, Amit Purohit was the clear pick. He used his height and bounce in the wicket and troubled every batsman in his first five overs and took the prized scalps of Pandiyan, Purab, and Saghir. At the other end Neal was teasing the batsmen. Although he took only two wickets but he bowled than his bowling figures show. In general none of the bowler was easy to play on that wicket and 165 was a great effort from FNCC.

That smile... he took four key wickets to win the match for the FNCC.

The Basel CC chase started with a maiden over. After first four over did not yield a wicket, Vijay brought in Arpit, the new found left-arm spinner and who struck right away. In the next over Saghir cleaned up another opener. After that Neal and Zaheer held the Basel CC batting together. Once again Arpit with his left arm spin claimed Neal LBW. After that wickets fell regularly. Arpit added two more to his name. Nila took the prized wicket of Zaheer. Interestingly, couple of over earlier he had dropped Zaheer of the bowling of Saghir. After Zaheer was gone we knew how the match would end. Other batsmen did not stay long enough to cause any serious damage, except perhaps for Rudy who showed very strong resistance. Raghav who came in to the attack rather late showed his class as a bowler and claim two wickets in the two overs. Sunny and Rudy tried to do some rebuilding and took the score to 121.  By that time run rate had climbed to more than 7 an over and there was clear pressure to score runs quickly. At that time Saghir produce an unplayable deliveries and Vijay took a very good catch of Sunny in the gully area, third time he was not lucky. Next over Rudy was caught by Nila off my bowling and Rhine cup was retained for a year.

It was a true wicket, the ball was doing what it was asked to do. It was a treat to bowl on such a wicket. I struggled to get a proper line. Nila and Adnan struggled a bit with their wides. But we have such strong bowling attack that such problems do not become big issues for the team. This time Saghir and Arpit kept things in control. In between Rahul who finally played a game for the FNCC bowled some beautiful deliveries. Nila as always improved with every ball he bowled and his last two overs were class act. This guys seriously needs to work on his stamina.

Overall we were too good for the BCC. But this match once again revealed some cracks in our sides.  We struggled on the bouncing track. Most of our batsmen have developed their game around front foot batting as the ball does not bounce much on our wicket. This was accordingly reflected in the way Pandiyan, Saghir and Rehan were out. Purab was also doing the same mistake. Among us, Rehan and Vijay are the two natural back-foot players and they were very successful.

In bowling we gave too many extras. In fielding we were sloppy on many occasions and brilliant on others. We need to bring consistency in our fielding and bowling.

Nevertheless, this win showed something else of this new fabric of FNCC cricket. Thus far every victory was anchored around one stellar batting performance like one of many half centuries of Saghir, Purab and Parthibhan, or Centuries of Rehan and Pandiyan. Today, there were no such performances except for Vijay's. All the batsmen contributed 10-30 runs. The score of 165 was a team effort. Similarly, certainly Arpit's performance was the corner stone of our victory. But all other bowlers and fielders supported him well.

Good bye Rajesh. Do well as you did when you were part of the FNCC

We finished the game before rain could play a role, this meant we were also able to return to Freiburg and see off Rajesh on the station. He will be dearly missed by the FNCC.

As it stands now, FNCC has won eight of the nine games played this season. Things could have been better and thats what we are aiming for now. It is clear from the attitude that FNCC is not just satisfied with winning, they are now setting up their own standards independent of what opposition they are facing and thats how teams develop.

Basel CC were a great host. The food was delicious as all FNCC player were ready to return to Basel only for food.

Rehan hits his maiden century to win the first match of the Rhine Cup

Basel CC took the initiative to install the 'Rhine Cup' as a rubber between the Basal CC and Freiburg Nomads. Its a great idea that two close neighbors have a defined reason to play cricket regularly.

The weather had earlier abandoned the first match between Basel CC and FNCC. Sunday last again weather threatened to cancel the match. But few weather websites gave us some hope and we decided to play. But as always happens, predictions about cricket and weather dont usually work. The sky remained overcast all through the match, the start was delayed and twice the play was interrupted. With this I wonder if we should name the 'Rhine Cup' as 'Rain Cup'.

The tone of the match was set on the first ball of the second over. Amit overstepped, and Rehan showed his intentions and launched that ball over the head of the bowler for a six, without moving his steps. From that shot on the batsmen grew in confidence and bowler became increasingly defensive. The fact that we did not lose a wicket until the 22nd over says all. 

Rehan is a seasoned player and we are well aware of his potential as a batsman. Often he is unlucky to fall to some superb catches. But today his luck was with him on more than one occasions. And naturally he grew in confidence with every shot he played and went on to score his first hundred, an inning studded with some glorious cover drives, cuts and straight drives. 

Parthibhan was a surprise. He was sent in as a cover to save the main batsmen in otherwise difficult looking batting conditions. His start was a bit cautious but after his first gentle push gave him a double he knew he was in business. It was a great show of temperament from him as he carried on with patience and controlled aggression. He has a very straight bat and powerful arms. When the ball was not bouncing much, it was a perfect technique to score runs. His success once again had added to the problems of Vijay (only in a good way), who will struggle now even more to find a proper batting order. Nearly everyone who has been tried had delivered in a big way.

After such attacking start, it was obvious that few wickets will go cheaply. Pandiyan who came at no. 3 was fresh but Rehan was not and in process of maintaining the run rate of 8 an over, Pandiyan ended up getting himself run out. Saghir was licking his lips when he came to bat as Jason and Saj, two spinners were bowling. His first scoring shot that ended up outside the the mid-on boundary showed his intentions. But he failed to read a low flighted one from Jason and was bowled and he was the most disappointed person in the world at that time.

Arpit and Rahul kept their heads down and supported Rehan and FNCC continued to score at a healthy rate of 6.5+ per over. After Rehan was run-out Vijay and Rajesh took scoring at a different level. Rajesh's smart running between the wicket converted ones into threes. it was great to see Vijay into runs again. He ended with well deserved 30+ not out. In the last over they scored 25+ runs. We finished with 298 on the board. As such we could have scored more. But it was a very satisfying scored. 

All through the innings we scored with at least 6 an over. In the first spell we scored 8+ an over when medium pacers were bowling. Then in 17th over came the smart move of bringing in the slow bowlers. Jason added a new dimension to the bowling, literally. He would toss the ball in the air very high, but with a great control such that the ball would drop sharply near the good length area. It was very difficult to play him. Both Rehan and Parthibhan were batting so well and they were completely tied. Saj supported Jason very well and both reduced the scoring to 6 an over. Only when Saghir launched the two bowlers that the run rate went back to the 'normal' 7.5+ an over.

Basel started off with two boundaries off the first two balls. Zaheer, their star batsman who had scored a double century in the previous game, gave them the first real hope. But it was a false dawn. I took two more balls to adjust my length and then the fifth ball came into kiss the stumps and took the bails along. Two overs later, Saghir bowled a super delivery that again kissed the middle stump and Shubhu was on this way back to the pavilion and it was clear how the match would end. There was a short rain interruption but it did not change the conditions much. After the break, Arpit, who once again bowled orthodox left-arm spin took three wickets at regular interval. He was duly supported by Nila, who had a bad first over, but returned strongly to end up with three wickets.  Rajesh, who is still nursing his knee injury, took the one remaining wicket. There was some resistance by Saj and Rudy but the score was too much and asking rate was too high and confidence too low and wickets too few. 

The rain meant that conditions were not good for cricket. In the end FNCC score indicated that it was a batting wicket but no, it was just the brilliance of Rehan and Parthibhan. The way Basel failed to read the wicket while batting suggests that it was a bowling wicket. But a pitch cannot be friendly to both bowlers and batsmen at the same time.

Basel team had a completely off day. First they struggled to find proper field placements. Earlier in the innings Rehan and Parthibhan and later Vijay and Rajesh completely exposed the poor field placements. Second, they were completely surprised as the ball started to bounce in the second inning. But they have shown all the signs of a good team and this match has no indication of how they will play when they host us next week. If at all they will try to bounce back strongly and the next match of the Rhine Cup would be a much close one. 

For now, Freiburg Nomads are more than happy to keep the Rhine Cup, Rehan and Parthibhan are happy to relish their 100 and 50, respectively. Well done Nomads.

Records

- 298 is the highest score in a 35 over match at the Seepark Freiburg Ground.

- First wicket partnership of about 150 runs is highest for the FNCC

- This is the first time that FNCC did not lose a wicket until 22nd over

- 225 is the highest margin of victory for the FNCC in terms of runs.

- Rehan's 121 is now second highest scored for the FNCC after 128* by Pandiyan.