Sagir's heroics go in vain: But what an inning and what a match!

Winning may be rated as the highest pursuit, but generally in competitive sports and particularly in cricket, winning the respect of the opponents despite losing, is equally important. Cricket goes beyond winning and losing. The history is full of team striving to secure a draw or even after the series is settled, the losing team playing for honor.

It is difficult to chose between winning a contest and winning the respect of the opponents. The matter is simple when you can have both. Winning the contest without winning the respect of the opponents is not as satisfying. Similarly, if you gain the respect of the opposition despite losing, the loss becomes more bearable.

Two batsmen and a partnership took the game away from us, when we were sitting comfortable having taken 5 wickets for 90 runs in 20 overs. While Janarden rode clearly on his luck to reach a hundred, as reflected in at least three dropped catches, in Umair's case the luck factor was not that  explicit. I think every bowler from our side knew what to bowl to Umair but somehow it took a little too long to get that one delivery. These two batsmen irrespective of there luck or our lack of that, took the match very far from us. By the time Umair's stumps were undone the damage has been done, and we did well to restrict the opposition to 251 runs.

Rajesh was our standout bowler with very effective support from Raghav. Vijay and Sagir chipped in their share. I had yet another disappointing match. It is time that I have a serious look at my bowling, my team needs more from me than few tidy, wicket-less overs in the first spell. Vijay's gamble of starting our bowling with Adnan seem to work when in his second over he took a wicket. But from then on it was a sharp fall downhill and he finished that successful over with seven wides.

When Janarden and Umair were taking apart our bowling, the situation in the field was very calm. Vijay had a great effect. He kept trying to rotate the bowling, adjust fielding, without any signs of panic in his action and neither did he let the team panic. I think that is what good captains are supposed to bring to the field.

Chasing 252 runs in 40 overs is not easy and we did not start properly. We lost Ratish one of our strong batsman, due to a terrible misunderstanding between Craig and him. It was Craig's call and he was yelling 'no' from the middle of the pitch. Rehan was promoted to bat at number three. We were seeing the effect of a new captain. Rehan reinforced the trust Vijay had shown in him in the best possible manner by scoring quickfire yet sensible 38 runs with four sixes. With him attacking it was a strange sight to have a quite Sagir on the wicket. But Sagir was determined not to be deterred by anything around him. After Rehan wickets fell at regular interval and at one point we were scoring at more than the required run rate but were left with only two wickets and more than 100 runs to score. Some poor calls (Purab and Najib) from the umpire did the damage.

Then started the best part of the match. Rajesh is hardly a batsman to rely on. But what an inning he played. All those improvised shots kept bringing very useful runs and for the first time generated realistic hope to pull off a great victory. When he left we needed 28 runs. I went in, survived a couple of balls and scored four runs. Next over, Sagir who for the first time lost faith in his batting partners, hit a powerful boundary only to be out on the next ball.

The opposition celebrate a well deserved victory. We finally has something to cling on to, despite losing. Admittedly, we did not deserve to win after dropping six catches -- basically everyone who had an opportunity dropped one. In addition, four of our batsmen did not score (Ratish, Vijay, Purab and Adnan). There were three players who deserved a win Sagir, Rajesh and Rehan. Their frustration was obvious.

Those in our team with less experience in playing 40 over matches, must have realized that there is nothing permanent in cricket, one partnership can take the match away irreversibly. However, the match is not over until its actually over and as long as you are on the wicket runs will come and take to closer to the target. Cricket is a team game where individual performances can override the team performance and that is what Sagir, Rajesh from our side and Umair and Janarden from the opposition, demonstrated.

The most important part of the match for us was the character our team displayed. They again reinforced the belief that we do have the ability and we are not just push overs. We may lose a match but we will fight and the opposition has to work extra to take the victory from us.

Everyone who was part of the match will remember it for a long time. Well done Nomads.

right arm over

Arvind

Then the Nomads Won: First victory of the season

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

So near yet so far: Nomads did not lose this time

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

Bowlers failed to rise to the occassion: One more loss for the Nomads

After the first loss in the league game, nothing much changed in our practice routine but players did not seem to be bothered with the loss and were very positive about the first friendly game against the Strasbourg Strollers.

The Freiburg Nomads have been playing the Strasbourg Strollers for many years. The two teams are pretty matched in terms of strengths. I dont know the stats but I am sure the balance between the two teams can be backed up by stats.

The day was not optimal for a cricket match but we decided to ignore the unhappiness of the German Rain Gods.

In rather testing conditions our batsmen did well and set up a formidable target of 179 in 30 overs. Ratish was pick of the batsmen. Sikander did much better than his previous outing. And the rest chipped in as the situation demanded. Given the weather and our wicket, it was a good target to defend. I was very positive that finally under Sikander' captaincy we will win against a decent team. We did start our defense in winning mode. In my second over I claimed my first wicket of the season. Rajesh was a bit flaky in the beginning but after first four overs we were looking safe.

The second bowling spell of Sagir (who actually bowled well) and Craig failed to capitalize on the start, and from the 5th over on we could never reduce the run-rate below six. It was a high quality undisciplined bowling. The fear of injury on a slippery mat, I think was the primary reason for the inconsistent bowling. The Captain also failed to read the condition and attacking bowlers were not brought in when we had a brief dry time on the pitch. In between the wides, there were really beautiful deliveries which did show that our bowlers have quality but they need to work on their strengths.

One of the main reason that bowling looked harmless, was the field placement. Most of our bowlers do not know what is a good field and how to bowl to the field. Such situation adds a heavy burden to the responsibility of the captain. We gave away so many runs in the point and square area and still we never had a proper field placement in that region.

To add to our woes, the umpire did not know that there is something called an LBW in cricket. 

One of the question raised to the umpire on the field was 'how low they could go to win the match'. The umpire refused to reply. I am sure he did not know his limits. 

Umpiring is a genuine problem at our level of cricket. Average human nature is to rate victory over honesty and impartiality. The reason is simple, a victory gets recorded, one way or other. Honesty on cricket field, most of the times brings animosity of the team-mates.

In the first match it was the batsmen who did not give enough to the bowlers and in this match bowlers failed to defend a formidable score. I hope that in the friendly match tomorrow, both the bowlers and batsmen will come together and win and make a good impression on the opponents who are due to play a league game in a couple of weeks.

The forecast says that the German Rain Gods are going to unhappy with us again but we will also continue to ignore them...very respectfully though...

Those who may be tempted to write us off after two consecutive loses ought to remember that, it is very dangerous to infer trends from two observations.

right arm over

Arvind

Just not enough numbers for the Nomads: The first league match

Its now six days since we played our first league game. Despite our very good preparation, enthusiasm and confidence we started the season with a loss.

Numbers as objective as they are, out of their context, they may at times convey a wrong impression. Particularly, when we try to reduce a complex phenomenon to one dimensional quantification. For instance, in this case of our loss by three wickets, numbers may suggest that we played a very tight game which could have gone either way.

The match was pretty one-sided from the time of the drinks break of the Pak-Freiburg's inning. We gave them a modest target of 144 runs in 40 overs. At the end of 20 overs Pak-Freiburg were about 73 runs with a loss of 3 or 4 wickets. Even though we took a couple of quick wickets after the drinks break, it was not enough. 

Din and Rizwan for most of their time on the pitch just showed a dead-bat to the balls and essentially killed the game for us. Our bowlers, particularly myself, struggled to get past the bats of Din and Rizwan. They could enjoy that luxury of batting like they did because the required run rate was never a real concern. They need some 3-4 runs an over if they could bat through the 40 overs. If we add to this the fact that at our level, most of our bowlers, on average concede ~1.5 extra runs (wides, mainly) per over, the effective run rate for the opposition was around two an over. 

For us the only chance to save the game was to bowl our the opposition. None of our bowlers look like doing that, Sagir, and Rajesh showed some promise by taking a few wickets. But we lacked a penetrative power in our bowling. We all were bowling very monotonous. There was not much to test the batting. If we were defending a score of 180 runs or so perhaps our bowling would have been sufficient. But with no pressure to maintain the run rate the batsmen never need to take any risk.

After the match I thought hard to isolate reasons for loss. All I could come up is rather trivial -- we lacked a good score on the board. With some 30 more runs on the board, same bowlers would have appeared to be doing the job right.

I am not defending the bowlers, just because I am one. In fact, I am first to blame myself. The three wicket difference between the two teams is actually my share of wickets. If I had taken a couple, we would have put up a better show and the tone of this post would have been very different.

Finally, it maybe just me but I somehow got the impression that we were in some sort of panic all through the match. I cite two examples. First, in so many years of cricket, against easy and tough teams, in important and irrelevant matches, I have never been a part of a team meeting (team talk) in the drinks break of the first inning while we were batting first. Second, after the drinks break when we were bowling, none of the bowlers bowled in a proper spell. Bowlers, need time sometime, particularly when their bowling is not along the expectations. None of our bowlers, myself, Sagir or Rajesh bowled more than one over spell in post drinks session.

To what extent this panic contributed to our loss cannot be quantified, as a bowler I share the responsibility of the lack of penetrative power in the bowling. But the batsmen have a big task ahead of them in this league. We cannot imagine to win many matched with scores of ~150 in 40 overs.

The great thing about the game was that it ended in more or less harmony with the Pak-Freiburg team. I think it was an achievement of sorts.

PS: The match started with a perfect 'desi' style of management. The umpires (neutral ones, provided by the league and cost us Euros 25 per team) failed to show up. I am sure that German Railways or google-maps were not responsible for this. The icing on the cake was that the main coordinator of the league does not like to take phone calls on a Sunday. Imagine this and add to this the fact that the guy is from Pakistan.  After half an hour of aimless discussion it was agreed that both teams will nominate a couple of players from both the teams to do umpiring.

Freiburg Nomads: Raring to go

Freiburg is one of the small towns in Germany. So, unlike big cities, it is not a popular place for expats. There are very few people from the commonwealth living here. Of those, I think about a couple of hundred are 'desis'. With such a demography, it comes as a surprise that in this little beautiful town in the back forest, there are two cricket clubs.

In mid 1990s, the first cricket club was started by the British and Australian expats and very rightly they named it Freiburg-Nomads. Sometime in late 1990's the Pakistani expats started their own club.

The Pak-Freiburg has always been a less organized but very competitive side. By contrast, the Nomads, have been more of a social club. However, in recent years with more Indian/Pakistani students joining the club, the Nomads have become pretty competitive side.

With Nomads gaining strength, in last few years, a sort of rivalry has developed between the two teams. So matches between the two teams are very hard fought - on field and on some occasions even off the field. The last time the two teams met, the match was abandoned because of a rather unnecessary on field verbal explosion between the two captains. 

After that match the general feeling among the Nomads was never to play the Pak-Freiburg again. However, this was not to be. Both the teams joined the newly formed Baden-Wurtemberg cricket league and as the fate has it, these two local rivals will be face-to-face for their first league game on the coming Sunday (April 25,2010). 

The last season for the Nomads was one to forget, in which we barely one a game. This year, did not start any better, however, the early defeat in a practice game did a great deal of good to the team. Since that defeat, in four/five training sessions, players have been more systematic and have  been working  on their weak points. Three new players have joined in, including a pretty solid batsman, who will be a big bonus after we lost Vijay to an injury. Sagir's presence in the last two training sessions have been very motivating. I am particularly impressed with the improvement of Raghav as a bowler. Rajesh is looking good. In batting other than the incumbent Ritesh, Sagir, Sikander and Craig are looking solid. So is Adnan. Today I took a couple of overs to get in the rhythm but overall I am very satisfied with my form. So far in training I did not focus on taking wickets, so I will have to switch gears.

Very importantly, the team is in very good tempo, things are gelling very well.  Everyone is in high spirit and confident. I think self-confidence is the most important things to go with in a cricket game. After all, cricket is a team game played by individuals. All in all the Nomads are raring to go and take on their local rivals and everyone wants to start the season and the league with a WIN.

Cricket is a great unifier. Or at least cricket can bring opportunities to resolve conflicts. So I look forward to a great game and independent of the result, I hope the two teams will be able to resolve their conflicts and return to a healthy rivalry.

right arm over

Arvind

Getting in the grove: Second practice session

After the start up bonus, the head count for the training was back to normal as some 10 players showed up. However, this was perhaps one of the most satisfying session. The stand-in captain Craig, took over the training in absence of our regular captain. Craig set some clear objectives for bowlers. The bowlers were strictly instructed to bowl on the off stump, similar the batsmen were asked to keep the ball on the ground and practice shot on the off. As a penalty, when a bowler drifted towards leg-side, he was to bring the ball. Similarly a wrong shot i.e. towards the on side required the batsman to run down and bring the ball. Finally, there was some discipline visible in the practice.  Every batsman got to play one pace and one slow bowler. These changes in the practice session clearly reflected out shortcomings that came to fore in the previous week's practice game. Also the little chat after the session was very useful, as all the players shared their experience. 

Personally I was very happy about how I was getting into rhythm. After some very inconsistent bowling in previous practice game I needed a good training and Craig gave me more than my share of time to work on my bowling and in the end I was able to get some visible bounce on our routinely dead pitch.

I think we should to stick to such more targeted training sessions where we don't focus on developing new skill rather spend more time on perfecting our already acquired skills. The issue of the wicket-keeper remain unresolved as yet. 

Hopefully the motivation of the players will continue and we will start the formal season on a good note.

right arm over

Arvind