Arslan Vs Blitz CC - Match Report

Arslan 85 (Intesar 24, Razi 2/19) lost to Blitz 113/4 (Puneet 62*, Jigar 18)

Scorecard

Just like the Deccan Chargers Vs Mumbai Indians match, we had a so called "away" game at Braly Park, Sunnyvale. Adi won the toss, elected to bat first and it was me and Puneet opening for Blitz after a long time. Statistics did not favor us to have a decent opening stand, and it looked if history will repeat itself when we were just 8 runs at the end of 4 overs, struggling to find gaps.

I wont say the bowling was exceptional, it was two players trying to get back in form. Message came from the dug out to try up the scoring rate in next few overs, which I felt would fall flat, when i saw the opposition captain throwing ball to a spinner.

I had read sometime back on cricinfo that a Twenty20 match can be won in ten minutes of violent batting or inspired bowling. Fortunately it was former, and it took just one over for a complete momentum shift in our favor. Puneet smashed the spinner for a six of a no ball between long on and mid wicket boundary and I helped myself with a 4 to the square leg boundary. We picked him for 18 runs in that over, boosting the run rate and most importantly our confidence.

Sensible cricket backed up with some aggressive running in the following 5 overs, ensured we had a decent total at the end of 10 overs and a platform set for the hitters to come and blaze the opposition away. Scorecard read - 46/0 at the break of 10 overs.

We achieved a 50 run opening stand in the very next over after the break, i did not know in morning when i jokingly told puneet that let's have a 50 run partnership today would actually be reality in matter of few hours. Maybe, I should have joked about a 50 for myself too :D.

I got out the very next over bowled behind my legs, trying to play the ball fine, scoring 18 runs and we were 12 overs 50/1.

Mahendra was the next man in, he looked solid and extremely confident. He hit a brilliant shot bisecting the gully and point region for a double. Unfortunately he slipped and both the batsmen were at the non-strikers end. Mahi being a great team man sacrificed his wicket for the set batsman, before trying a valiant dive to make it at the strikers end.

In came Sriram, sensibly nudging the ball in gaps to take singles and handing over the strike to Puneet. I think watching some brilliant strokes played at the other end inspired Sriram to take on the bowlers, unfortunately top edging the ball for a simple catch to the keeper.

Montu was the next to follow, with last 5 overs remaining, there was only one way to bat from there on. He went for his shots but was taken by a brilliant catch in the deep.

There was a change in strategy and Satish was sent in to partially stabilize the fall of wickets and at the same time keep ticking singles and give the strike to Puneet.

Admist all these wickets and sensible batting, Puneet was playing his game at different level. Already in 4th gear by then he smashed couple of sixes before hitting a four at the mid-off boundary to bring up his fifty.

He followed up his fifty with a huge six at the mid off boundary in the next over. It was the biggest six i have seen in cricbay, we even had to replace the ball as the game ball was lost somewhere in the bushes near the wall.

We ended our innings at a score of 113/4, which meant two records were set;

one being the highest score for Blitz in its 21/2 - 3 year history. And the second being the highest individual score by a batsman for Blitz by Puneet 62* (68) surpassing Barry's heroic efforts of 50*(31) against RCPC to get us into pre-quarters of Gold Cup 2009 summer season.

It was going to be an uphill task for the opposition to chase this big score. It was required from their openers to build a partnership and put some pressure on our bowling attack.

It was an early setback for Arslan as Mahi found timber in the 1st over sending the captain of the opposition team for a duck. There were moments of brilliance in bowling department between some mediocre bowling. There were one to many extras bowled and part timers were taken apart by their batsman.

114 was always going to be difficult to chase and Arslan never looked if they will ever come close to winning, but in my opinion they scoring 85 runs with only 9 batsman was a little on a higher side. Some good teams, with decent batting could have come really close to give us a scare.

We can argue that our regular bowlers would have lifted themselves for the occasion, but I would like to take our part time bowling with a pinch of salt and as an area for improvement as far as discipline is concerned. There is nothing more exciting on the field than to see batsman struggle against some fiery bowling! (obviously this sight is pleasant when i am not batting!! ;) )

But there were plenty of positives which came out from this game, besides the batting.

Akshay was brilliant behind the wickets, collected everything cleanly and was always behind the stumps waiting for a throw. Good ground fielding, great catching (except couple of hiccups, which will be reflected in the point system :D) and an amazing run out by Vinay to seal the game in our favor.

Go Blitz!!

Jigar

Match Preview: Blitz CC Vs RCPC [Gold Cup: Pre-Quarters]

Last leg of the league starts this weekend where top 16 teams battle it out for platinum, next 16 for gold and others for silver and rankings. 

A year back making to Gold would had been considered as an achievement by the team but one year into competitive cricket, expectations have changed and not being able to make it to platinum still hurts! things cannot be turned back but lessons surely learned and there is no option for the team except to show the opponents what we are capable off in this gold event.

Match Details:

Home Game

Sunday, Aug 23rd

Start time: 8:30 am PST

Ground: Braly Park

Current form:

RCPC: L L L W W

Real Cricket Players Club (if you were wondering what RCPC meant :) ) has a 50% winning record in their stint so far at cricbay. They had a fantastic 1st round finishing with 32 points and a win ratio of 80%. They even managed to beat giants like Nemesis, Hattrickers to mention a few. However despite such promising 1st round RCPC failed to perform same magic in the platinum qualifiers. They fared miserably in the qualifiers managing to loose all their three encounters in Round 2 and managing to achieve a modest score of 39 in their last two encounters.

Blitz CC: W L L W L

Blitz on the other hand didn't fare too well either in the second round. They were humbled by Spartans CC and lack of application saw them loosing to Exterminators whom they had beaten convincingly in Round 1. Only respite to the situation was brought when they beat Nemesis on their home ground in their best ever run chase for a win.

Watch for:

Viral Vimawala : Highest scorer for RCPC in both round 1 and round 2, he according to me is numero uno in their batting ranks.This opener has managed to average at 20.4 and 11.67 in round 1 and round 2 respectively which is decent achievement for cricbay standards. Whenever he has given RCPC a good start they have either managed to pile on a big score or chase out the opposition score with rather ease.

Deepak Mehta: Wow! is what came out when i saw figures of 6/12 in 4 overs from this left armer in round 1 vs East Indies.

An interesting fact came out during analysis of his stats was that he tends to bowl Extras at a rate of 0.9 an over! i.e. 90% of the times he will bowl an extra in a over. This is quite a high number in any form of cricket, interestingly Blitz is not that far behind with the highest rate of extra being 0.86 (it is better i don't take any names :)

Criteria: Bowler has bowled 50 overs or more.

X Factor:

Darshak Randeria: Fellow USCite, have played with him outside libraries at school, always gave an impression of carrying loads of talent. In my findings i think this RCPC allrounder had a rather quite 2009 season, unlike his first season where he showed some fireworks with bat slamming 60 of 47 balls against HitnRun. Despite this on-off season it is not advisable to take this guy lightly, he is one player who can easily change the game in his teams favor with either bat or bowl.

Head-to-Head

Played: 1

RCPC Won: 1

BLITZ Won: 0

Scorecard

Last time both these teams played each other, it was nothing short of a disaster for Blitz! Playing with a team of 10, it was needed that every person puts in 10% extra to make up for a missing player. Keep that extra 10% aside, the team failed to even give their 100% after choosing to bat. Blitz collapsed like a pack of cards and were humbled out by RCPC for a meagre total of 32. 

It was chased without any sort of pressure and the game was over in half the time it should have.

However, Blitz did manage to get some pride back when they demolished RCPC in a practice game which followed after the actual match. But Blitz needs to set the 'official' record straight and return victorious this sunday.

Let's taste the sweetness of victory, to raise the stakes higher, a revenge-victory! 

Blitzz'em boys!

Go Blitz!

~ j

The X Factor

The game of cricket is filled with ups and downs, with elation and disappointment, and with tangibles and intangibles. One such intangible is the ability to focus when the chips are down. A team is chosen carefully by the management based on the players' form and talent. It is up to the player, to perform on the field and validate the management's faith in him. Though it is a valid point that every batting or bowling position carries the same importance before the game starts, the pressure indices change as the game progresses. Pressure can be felt by both the bowlers and the batsmen - for a bowler the pressure is higher if he has just been hit for a boundary, or if he is bowling to a 'set' batsman, and for a batsman its higher when the asking rate crawls up and/or the wickets on the other end keep falling down. Different people respond differently to adversity. There are some who are calm no matter what; some who play with a 'nothing-to-lose' attitude; and others who plain crumble and implode. The only way to get past the fear, and focus, is through experience. Focusing when under pressure, and the level of focus the players can conjure up during such situations is the estimator of how good a team is, or how far it will go in a tournament. Talent and form can only carry the team within inches of the finish line. To cross the finish line, you need the intangibles that are clarity, concentration and courage.

Play with heart, play with courage, and play with the will to win!

Go Blitz!

The Monkeys are Blitzing - Part 3 : highs and LOWS

Editor's Note : The reason so many people start their day reading the newspaper from back to front is probably because sport highlights human achievement and triumph, while the front pages are often a treatise on man's numerous failings. That's Earl Warren's thinking anyway. Whatever the reason, sport, much like music and poetry, has the ability to touch the human soul. Little wonder then that so many hundreds of individuals organize themselves into amateur sports teams to engage in pursuits that have little material gain. Blitz is no different.

Having received our Cricbay schedule, excitement pulsed through the group. In order to hit the ground running, Hardik had lined up a couple of practice games for us. The first of them was against a powerhouse team known as the Hattrickers. But, a fairy tale beginning wasn't ours to be. We came up second best despite putting up a tough fight anchored by Mountu's effort with the bat. Knowing it was our maiden game, one of the Hattrickers, Chakri, put in his 2 cents. He said we had what it took to make the Platinum cup while cautioning us that we were in the same group as The Kings - one of the strongest teams in bay area cricket. To top of the bitter-sweet nature of the day, Barry sustained an injury, keeping him out of the first two games. It was a big loss as he was the Monkeys' only known triple threat. But we had to work with what we had and believed we still had a strong and talented team. Filled with expectation, we eagerly awaited our Cricbay debut.

The Monkeys' first encounter was against the Chargers. Bankim and Akshay played the part of 'statsgurus' during the first season, providing us with valuable information on our opponents. I was a bit nervous given that this was my first 20 over tennis ball match and felt that I needed to lead by example. Lady Luck was to smile on me that day as the coin fell in our favor. Choosing to stick with our strength (it still remains), I opted to field first. Whether it was nerves or inexperience or a combination of both, our bowlers felt it and put in a below par bowling performance. The batting strength of the Chargers exacerbated the situation and we were staring at a huge score at the half way mark.

I gave the team a pep talk stating that we could chase down the target comfortably if we batted sensibly and applied ourselves. However, harmonizing thought and action wouldn't be something we'd achieve that day, losing our opening game. But the loss was not without its proverbial silver lining. Puneet, opening the innings for us, carried his bat compiling a fine 50 in the process. A new star was born.

Losses in our first couple of games notwithstanding, the energy levels were high as we headed into our game against the Raiders. Barry was making a comeback, but Rushabh, a bit down on confidence, chose to sit out. Missing our spearhead, we decided to give Avi a go at filling in the role. I was not completely sure about Avi then, as he was prone to bowling beamers and bouncers, and many of the umpires were quick to give a no ball even for a good bouncer.In his first full spell for the Monkeys, Avi bowled his quota on the trot. Bowling his heart out, he had the Raiders on the back foot. Avi's roar, after rearranging the woodwork was heard for the first time that day and to this day, he remains the most passionate and fiery Blitzer that I have seen. However, our inexperience showed as the Raiders hung on to claim a well fought victory. Amidst the gloom however, another star was born.

For the rest of the season, wins were few and far between. We learned from our losses and improved, but we were never quite "there". Mountu and Barry were turning out great partnerships, Kasat was Mr. Efficient and Hardik and I were trying our best to maintain our reputations as hitters. Puneet continued to impress, while Avi's pace was increasing by the ball and everybody was contributing their bit to the team. Our most memorable victory in the first season was against the Kings(http://tinyurl.com/l4staz), which remains our best victory ever.

One off wins and multiple losses took their toll on the team, with confidence slowly, but surely ebbing. On many occasions, the team management had trouble fielding a XI, and we had to beg and coax people to sign up. I have to commend Hardik for always keeping his cool, and must admit that my level of tolerance was much lower than his. His work behind the scenes for the Monkeys went unnoticed, but I would like to take this moment to express my gratitude to our first manager.

Tired of losing, the team's mantra had to change. It had to go from playing for fun, to playing to win while having fun. There had to be a feedback loop between winning and having fun. Hard decisions had to be taken. The performance of the team had to be assessed. New talent had to be recruited to push us to a higher level. An afternoon of light conversation with Puneet, Avi, Hardik, Shireesh and Mizzou would turn into one of our most important discussions.

Content : Arun

Editing : Rahul

Pre-Match Review Vs Syndicate CC

It is that exciting last phase of 2009 Round I playoffs, where some teams are battling till the last game to find a spot in Platinum qualifiers whereas some teams have comfortably made it to Top 32. With one game in hand, Blitz CC finds themselves them in the latter half; courtsey good team performance, some individual brilliance and inspiring captaincy. Sunday, June 28th promises nothing less than a cracker of a game, with it being a do or die situation for Syndicate CC whereas Blitz CC trying to get one up on all opponents who defeated them last season.

Match Details

Sunday, June 28th

Start time: 8:30 am PST

Ground: Cupertino Middle School

Current Form

Syndicate CC:  L L L W W

Stage is set for Syndicate CC to take up the challenge and overcome the defeats they have been suffering in their last three encounters. It is a must win game for Syndicate CC to keep their hopes alive for the platinum playoffs. A win for them will put the in the contenders list with Exterminators and Aryans CC for the last berth in platinum playoffs from Group F. 

Whereas a defeat ensures a certain exit.

Blitz CC:  L W W W L

Although a loss doesnot hurt Blitz's platinum playoff chances they wont be happy with anything less than a win. Especially after a defeat against GSCC, Blitzers have been eager to get back to their winning habits. A win against Syndicate CC will not only be a confidence booster but will also go a long way in putting Blitz CC in a favorable group for platinum playoffs.

Watch out for

Lokesh: With a total of 19 wickets at a staggering strike rate of 1.95!, he features as the leading wicket taker in the Cricbay Top 20 wicket takers for 2009 season. Not much information is available in his profile regarding his bowling style, scorecards reveal him being brought as first change by Syndicate CC.

Head-to-Head

Last time these two teams faced each other was Round 1 playoffs 2008 when Blitzers were called Bhajjis Monkeys. Electing to bat first after winning the toss, Monkeys displayed a miserable batting performance managing to score only 45 runs at the loss of 10 wickets in 16.1 overs, inspite of a convincing win & thus the confidence against Kings in their previous game! It was too easy a target for Syndicate who managed to score them off in just 12.1 overs with 

a loss of 5 wickets.

Scorecard:http://cricbay.com/scoresheet.asp?matchid=1807

This was a game when all the "Tambis"(5) from Bhajjis Monkeys made ducks! 

Finally, after a years wait, Blitzers have a chance to settle their score against Syndicate CC coming Sunday.

“It's not so much revenge, but I think you want to hold on to a little of that just for extra motivation.”

Go Blitz!!

Jigar

The Monkeys are Blitzing - Prologue

Of all the things said and written about victory, that it brings with it a sense of perspective is certainly our favorite. Perspective can be quite paradoxical. On the one hand, with it comes a clarity of thought that enables a rational dissection of a team's strengths and weaknesses, unclouded by emotion that often accompanies failure, paving the way for further progress. Little wonder then that teams believe winning can become a habit. On the other hand however, it evokes feelings of nostalgia - of days gone by, when things weren't necessarily as pleasant as they are in the present. With a successful season behind us, it is the nostalgic in us that looks back at the days gone by, when we were but a motley group of enthusiastic cricketers.


Rahul Iyer

The Monkeys are Blitzing - Part 2 : Make way for the Monkeys!

Our lukewarm performance in the Sixes tournament behind us, we were back to playing cricket on the weekends; the idea of an organized team far from anyone's mind. Akshay and Hardik had roped in friends from CMU and from USC - Mountu from USC, Rahul, Bankim and Sachin from CMU. Mountu, who was skinny at that time, had a penchant for coming down the pitch to slam straight 6s matching, blow for blow, Hardik's momentum with the bat. Bankim had the uncanny knack of generating swing with a hard tennis ball, and Rahul and Sachin seemed to bat sensibly. It was during my meeting with these folks that I heard about Arun 'Mizzou'.

Mizzou had "debuted" the previous weekend. A clean striker who cleared the boundary often, Mizzou had put the bowling attack to the sword. Out of town commitments meant I missed this encounter. When I eventually did meet him, I was not disappointed.

The next few weekends introduced us to Puneet. While obviously an excellent batsman and an able bowler to boot, the small boundaries we played with masked Puneet's abilities. We would have to wait until out first game against the Chargers in '08 to get a glimpse of Puneet's sheer talent. Puneet would later go on to captain us in our third season. Along with Puneet came his childhood friend Avinash. Shireesh, Kasat and Rushabh were our quickest bowlers back then. When Avi came on to bowl that first day, he upped the bar a few notches and then some! I have to admit that while batting, I largely swung blindly at him hoping that luck, divine intervention or anything in between would render my effort fruitful. Avi would later rank in the top four fastest bowlers in the Cricbay league. An unfortunate on field accident a few weeks later would keep Puneet away from the game for a couple of months. Avi wrapped up his internship and returned to NC State to finish up his degree. We also had Hardik's friend from work, Gaurav, join us. Gaurav was a bubbly dude who kept wickets, and was one of the most talkative (in a good way) keepers I had seen.

Back in the day, poker with my 'thambi' friends was a friday ritual. Two of my poker buddies Sriram and Ranjith were cricket enthusiasts and promised to show up, friends in tow. Ranjith declared that he was an opening bat and could bowl a little. Sriram, a person never short on enthusiasm, was clearly missing cricket a lot. He snapped up my invitation and that was our luckiest day. He is the foundation upon which blitz currently stands: a selfless individual, who puts team above all else, constantly striving to make us better.

One of Ranjith's friends was this reticent individual. Not saying much, he keenly observed the group, following whatever he was told. I asked him if he could bowl. He nodded and took the ball from me. Firing in six immaculate yorkers that over, he followed it up with an assault on the bowling that was nothing short of a massacre. I had never seen anyone assert themselves on the field like that. Our discussion later that evening centered on his talent, but much to our surprise and dismay, no one actually knew him. Two to three weeks later, we headed to Hot Breads on El Camino Real to top off an invigorating cricket session with some sumptuous snacks. It was there that we bumped into him again, and I wasted no time in getting his name and email address. He called himself Barry, short for Barathiraja, and said that he was interested in playing with us. At this point it occurred to all of us that we had a team! A team with no name was born that day at Hot Breads!!

Hardik took it upon himself to enquire about the leagues in the bay area and came up with the two options available: the TCA which had a few albeit strong teams, and Cricbay which was a relatively new league with more teams and more games on offer. I was misinformed about the TCA back then, and we decided to join Cricbay. I now play in both leagues, and feel that each league has something unique to offer, and claiming one is better than the other would only serve to do them both injustice.

The choice of name was left to the Iris gang, and they came up with the name Bhajji's Monkeys. Despite my initial reservations about the name, I agreed to back them up. Few of our team members, whose names I won't disclose, thought that the name was not one a serious cricket team should have. Having been voted captain in a poll that had all the fairness of a stereotypical Bihari election (or maybe nowadays, an Iranian one) courtesy Hardik and Rushabh, I laid down my stamp of approval. It was just a name and had nothing to do with our performance on the field, I claimed.

Our team was formed in January of 2008 -

BHAJJI's MONKEYS
Captain - Arun Ram
Vice Captain - Rushabh Vasa
Manager - Hardik

Our first team in no particular order

Siddharth, Akshay, Puneet, Avinash, Rahul, Bankim, Mountu,Sachin, Gaurav,Arun Mizzou, Shireesh, Barry, Sriram, Ranjith.

TO BE CONTINUED

Content : Arun Ram
Special Spin and Editing : Rahul Iyer