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

Milestones

Instead of doing the usual match analysis, I thought of covering some milestones which 

our players are approaching. Probably we all can celebrate it on the field with our famous wide chant when they achieve it. 

Puneet - This Captain of ours (called Captain Charisma by few ;) ) crossed 400 Cricbay 

career runs in the game against Cougars! Congrats captain, way to go.

Milestones:

1. He needs 12 more runs to reach the 100 run mark this season.

Akshay - Mr VC,  is definitely one of the well behaved player on the field. I have never seen 

him loose his temper on field, always calm and collected. 

He has in fact, crossed quite a few milestones in past few games. 

Milestones:

1. Crossed 50 Cricbay career runs in game against Daredevils.

2. Game against Cougars was his silver jubilee game for Blitz. 

3. Already achieved 25 fielding dismissals!

Kudos VC, way to go!

Kasat- I don't know whether to call him Right arm leg-break/off-break or medium pace, I think it is fair to address him as 'Right Arm Unplayable'  ;)

Milestones:

1. Needs 4 more wickets to achieve 25 Cricbay Career Wickets & 15 wickets this season.

Avinash - Hit Avi-Lee for a good shot and don't expect the next ball to be any lower than your 

face ;). I guess we are missing those beamers and especially what I call the 'Avi-Roar'. Get 

well soon dude and start roaring.

Milestones:

1. Needs one wicket to claim 50 Cricbay career wickets.(Now who doesn't know that!!)

Aditya - Kickass allrounder! He is one intimidating bowler any batsman can face, especially 

when he bowls a beautiful ball to you, he will walk towards you like a bull and look at the ground where the ball had pitched! 

If i have to give him a nick it would definitely be 'Mean Killer'!

Milestones: 

1. Needs MOM in the game against GSCC to make it a Hatrick of MOMs.

2. Needs 20 more runs to achieve 50 runs this season.

Kartik - He claims his nickname to be Kaata, but personally i would like to call him Practice man ;). There are times when i reach home after a game, check my mails to already see a practice invite for next weekend from Practice Man :D

Milestones:

1. Needs 26 more runs to achieve 200 Cricbay Career runs

2. Needs 6 more wickets to claim 75 Cricbay Career wickets

Satish - Likes to be called Jonty & has lived up to it by some marvellous effort in the field apart from his Wall-like defense techniques and pre-meditated leaves ;). 

Milestones:

1.Needs 1 more run! to achieve 100 Cricbay Career runs

2. Needs 3 more runs to achieve 50 runs for this season (hoping to see him achieve both in 

the next game he plays)

Montu - I enjoy watching this swashbuckling batsman in full flow. Though most times i have 

to watch him from dug-out :(, i bet it is lot of fun to be on other end and watch him 

run-blazing.

Milestones:

1. Needs 15 more runs to achieve 200 Cricbay Career runs

2. Needs 6 more runs to achieve 50 runs for this season.

Arun - Now we all know and have talked about "Coach-Arun-Captain's"six hitting abilities. 

it is given that he can connect and clear fields at will .But what is interesting for me is 

his "Coach (read agony aunt)" role. I think i know a few players who were/are using his 

coaching services.(I think he will kill me for this ;) )

The list of players has been kept confidential for privacy reasons :D

Milestones:

1. Needs 2 more wickets to achieve 25 Cricbay Career Wickets

2. Need 32 runs to reach the 200 Cricbay Career runs mark.

Go Blitz!!

~j

The Monkeys are Blitzing now - Part 1 : The Birth of 'Beasts'

I will use our blog to describe our cricketing journey from the 'Beasts' in 2007 June to Blitz currently. I am writing this blog from my perspective. The facts I present might be off the mark, and I urge you to correct them. After all, memory is not perfect, and history is written by the winners. This is part 1 of the series.

It was June 2007. I had just landed in the bay area, and wasn't feeling too good about leaving all my friends in Ohio. After all, I had spent 5 winters in Ohio. In Ohio, you get to play cricket only for 3-4 months because of the weather, and I had heard my friends in the bay area boast about the weather here. I was looking forward to a weekend of casual cricket. I was sharing an apartment temporarily with Arul who was my grad school buddy, and asked him one saturday if anybody he knew played cricket. He made a few calls and we decided to leave for the ground in the afternoon. I used to play organized cricket in Cincinnati even thought it was only for 3-4 months, and we usually played with our corporate teams, which meant that the whole setup was very formal. We drove to this park, called Washington park, and I saw 5-6 guys playing cricket there. They were using the end of the baseball ground as the wickets and it was 3 times as wide as our regular stumps. I was first introduced to Arvind (who plays for Dazzlers), and then to our first fast bowler Shireesh Mettapalle. Apart from these 2, I also met the now famous Iris Gujju gang : Hardik, the huge guy, Rushabh, the tall dude, Siddharth the quiet chap, and Akshay the puny one :). There was also GG who was the butt of jokes in that gang. It was a good enough crowd for casual cricket and they went over the rules, and we started playing. Thats when I realized that these guys were all really good. Hardik was especially very agile, and that was something I did not expect. We had a good game of cricket with Kasat and Rushabh hitting the stumps on multiple occasions from various angles, and Hardik swatting every loose ball for a boundary. We met again for cricket a week later and I got to know the gang a little better. I found out that apart from being good cricketers, this was a really fun gang, mainly due to Hardik who always kept things light with some good natured ribbing directed towards GG. We decided to meet regularly on weekends to play cricket, and we played on both days on a few weekends.

Arvind came up with the idea of registering for a 6s tournament called the Bata cup, and he felt that we had a decent team to compete for that tournament. There were 7 of us - Arvind,Shireesh,Hardik,Rushabh,Kasat,Akshay and myself and we decided to use a rotation system to play the games(the birth of rotation!). Arvind registered our team name as 'Beasts', and Monkeys version zero was born. Shireesh was the captain of this team, and he was the first captain of the Monkeys! Kasat pulled out of the tournament due to issues at work, and we roped in Tarun who was here for his internship from USC (Thanks to USC for sending so many quality cricketers our way). Tarun was a hard hitter of the ball, and could clear any boundary. We were confident about a good show in the tournament. As we were unaware of the level of competition in the bay area, we thought we would advance easily. Our first game against FUN 6 was an easy victory with Shireesh taking a hattrick, and Akshay picking up 4 dismissals behind the stumps (this was the birth of our current keeper for blitz). We were elated then, only to walk back dejected 5 hours later, as we lost to the eventual champs, the spartans in the next game. Hardik and Tarun batted really well to get us out of an early mess, and Rushabh bowled his heart out, but in the end we were short. Apart from a minor mishap where Hardik wanted to pummel a particular dude wearing a blue tooth headset, we were reasonably satisfied as we were 1-1 at the end of the day.

This created an interest to play competitive cricket in the bay area. Sunnyvale cric group was formed. Our group grew from 6-7 on the weekends to 20-30 at one point. We got in friends, friends of friends and passersby to play with us. There was this dude, who used to play with us, also got us water bottles for one session, but nobody knew who he was. One fine saturday...

TO BE CONTINUED

Pre Match Analysis Vs Cougars

Last match between Blitz CC and Legends was expectedly won by Blitz as they claim the much deserved 3rd spot in the Group F rankings. 

Coming Sunday it is a different ball game, better opponents and platinum in sight, it surely promises to be an exciting weekend for cricket!

Match Details

Sunday, June 7th

Start time: 8:30 am

Ground: Monta Vista High School 

Current Form

Cupertino Cougars: W L L A W

Having won toss only once in their 7 games, it is fair to say their luck is running little low in that department. But little luck and lot of hardwork is surely helping Cougars in points accumulation this season.Cougars bat really deep and back themselves to chase any score posted by the opposition. Having chased scores around 75-80 with ease (more than once!) probably explains their choice to field first in their only Toss win. 

Win for Cougars might see them end up at either of 4th,5th or 6th position whereas a loss will definetely mean 6th position for them!

Blitz CC:  W W L W W

A win against Cougars this weekend will almost ascertain a place in Platinum for the Blitz.

Blitz would definitely want to seal the Platinum deal this weekend rather than leave it till very end!

A win for Blitz might see them grabbing either of 1st, 2nd or 3rd spot whereas a loss might even see them slip to 6th spot! 

Watch out for

Sridhar Rs: This middle order batsman is the highest run getter for cougars this season. He has scored 69 runs this season with an avg. of 13.8 which involves 3x6's. 

What makes Cougars a great batting team is the fact that in the games they have played so far, there is always a new batsman which rises to the occasion. He gets his highest score, takes them to victory and claims his MoM while rest of the batsmen like Sridhar Rs. play support role.

Head-to-Head record

These two teams have never met each other.

My 2 cents

Majority of the wins for Cougars have come against weaker teams,they have failed to beat better teams like ChampsXi and Skiers11.

Cougars have to still prove themselves to be a force to be reckoned with!

On the other end, Blitz is missing some key names from the squad, either due to unavailability or injury. It will be true test of the team's character and fighting spirit.

Go Blitz!!

~j

We are already in platinum

Guys,

Based on the 3 more games left for us and other teams and also including abandoned games we are 100% into the platinum league of 32 teams. We qualify as 4th place team at the worst from our group and 2nd place at the best.If I read the rules right then the next round is a fresh start with two wins expected from 3 games to progress to platinum cup knockouts. I think we should utilize the last 3 games to bat first and put pressure on opposition. At the moment, our batting is still bit jittery and we need to focus on it as well as our running between wickets before the big games ahead.What say you folks?

Kartik

Selecting Playing XI for a game

Guys,

I was reading articles about how other cricbay team's decide on forming their XI for the game. It looks like Performance-Participation-Commitment index should be a good model to follow with captain and VC rating these factors for the playing XI on a scale from 1 to 10. There are times when players don't perform well but they do participate and committed to the game/team which sometimes goes against their selection. Just curious what blitzz janta things about this.

Kartik

Blitz CC vs Legends Pics

Source: Sriram

Check out this link for more snaps:http://www.pbase.com/sriram_g77/blitz_vs_legends

Calling all Blitz Bloggers

Sorry for veering OT, but I found this to be an interesting piece to cover. I am immensely happy to see the growing interest in Blitz cricket this season, mainly due to our improved performance. There have been more discussions about team dynamics, talks about getting uniforms, people contributing to logo designs, and last but not least, the launch of this blog. We are committed to playing cricket on game day, and to practice a bit before the game to attain a confidence level with our teammates and with our own game. Blogging is a bonus. All our contributing bloggers have blogged because they wanted to express what they blogged, and have done so in a fine fashion. I believe there is a writer in all of us; eloquence is not a prerequisite, subject matter expertise is not a prerequisite; the only prerequisites are interest, and a topic under the sun. Its an open call to all the blitz bloggers. The blog need not be about cricket. It doesnt have to make the people who read it happy; there is no pressure to perform on a blog like on the cricket field . I would like to use our blog to call all the dormant bloggers - you want to be heard, here is a platform, and blitz is the audience. Make yourself heard.

Pre Match Analysis Vs Aryans CC

Race to Top 5/Platinum picks up pace in Group F with Aryans CC and Blitz CC, placed at 7th and 4th respectively,take on each other at Mountain View this Saturday.

A win is important for both teams to stay in hunt for platinum, as every game in this group has resulted in a drastic change to table positions.

 

Match Details

Saturday, May 16th

Start time: 8:30 am

Ground: Whisman Sports Center, Mountain View - Baseball field (not 360).

 

Current Form

Aryans CC   WLWWL

Riding on a comprehensive victory against Chargers, Aryans is looking determined and confident to face their next challenge.

Victory for Aryans will push them up to 5th/6th place whereas a loss will see them maintaining 7th position or at best go up one spot (6th), end of this weekend.

 

Blitz CC   LWWLW

Although Blitz is coming into this game after a loss to YuvaXI. I don't think this team will let that game affect its performance on Saturday!

In fact I wont be surprised to see the team fully charged and super aggressive this weekend.

Victory for Blitz will push them up to 3rd position or maintain 4th position whereas a loss will see them slip to 6th/7th place end of this weekend.

 

Watch out for

Roshan Shanbhag: Having already crossed 100 runs this season at a healthy average of 20.6. This opening batsman from Aryans is in tremendous form.

He has smashed 2x6's and 3x4's in 5 matches, which is excellent for Cricbay standards.His ability to score runs at a fair pace has most definitely came in handy for his team's batting performance this season.

 

Ashwin Kolhe:Although he bats at number 7, this all rounder from Aryans scores at a phenomenal strike rate of 92.2!

Having accumulated 76 runs in 5 matches @avg. of 25.33 which involves 2x6's and 5x4's !! he finds himself on second spot for both Runs and Wickets this season for Aryans CC.

 

Head-to-Head record

These two teams have never met each other.

 

Aryans have won toss 3 times this season, electing to defend in one of them and chase in other two with latter being their preferred choice lately.

So, be prepared to bat first and put up a total for first time this season, if we end up on wrong side of coin this Saturday!

 

Go Blitz!!

Rambling on about Trust, Roles and Responsibilities

We always talk about batting, bowling, practice, opponents and strategy before a game. We decide a batting lineup and a bowling lineup. We are only tested when things do not go according to plan. We learn a lot more about each other if we are tested, and a bit more if we are tested, and we lose. Bouncing back from a loss shows character, and it means not just bouncing back with a win in the next match, its bouncing back and enjoying the game, bouncing back and getting the basics right, and its bouncing back and trusting the 10 other guys that play with you on the field. Lack of trust can manifest itself in many different ways - team members not very happy with the captain's field placements or batting/bowling lineups,a captain not really experimenting with the team he has, a striker not really responding to a non striker's call, a non striker not really trusting the striker to score runs, and hence attempting an inopportune single, a fielder not really trusting a call to throw at a particular end, a player who is more interested in finding faults in a non encouraging way, than on improving his own game and providing inspiration to his teammates, and finally a team not trusting in itself to bounce back. The above examples were only cited to explain my point and not to poke fingers at anyone.I myself am a victim of lack of trust,(for writing this blog in the first place :) ) and am no better. I remember, that after the win against champs XI, there was a call to practice on Monday itself, people were discussing their next opponents starting Sunday evening. I see nothing of that this week. I hope we all realize that we lost to a quality opponent , and we must not forget that just more than a week ago, we beat one of the other great teams in the bay area. You win some, you lose some, but you must always trust the other 10.

The second part of my blog is about roles and responsibilities. Everybody in the team needs to understand his role and responsibility. Everybody cannot be a batsman, and everybody cannot be a bowler. You might even have been selected purely for your fielding. We are a motley crew, and each of us brings something special and different to the team. The selection committee tries hard to be fair while selecting a team, and I am sure that one or 2 selections might be questionable in the eyes of others, which is natural. Fair rotation while maintaining the
chemistry is something that the team is looking for. Each player in the team needs to know the reason he has been selected. This will not happen without clear communication between the captain and the player. Tell the captain what your strengths are and let the captain make the call on how he wants to use you. Once the call has been made, the team members and the captain should trust the call and act responsibly. In an ideal situation, win or lose, the team always returns home happy, having enjoyed recreational cricket. Our aim is to win, but at what cost? I welcome comments and additions to this blog. Please feel free to rip me if I said something out of line (I always do, thats what I bring to the table ;) ). Looking forward to more wins and more trust!

Go Blitz!

Arun

What Went Wrong!!

So the match dint go according to our plans. Yuva XI showed us, why they are considered as a top team, and we were given a tough learning lesson today, as to where we stand against top opponents. Changing match avenues did not help our cause. We were caught napping in our field placements in a full 360 ground and by the time we could learn from our mistakes the match was already lost. The first 7 overs of Yuvas innings decided the match today. They had scored 59 runs and the damage was already done. Although our main bowlers pulled it back in the next 3 overs, the remaining batsman in Yuvas team had the confidence and the runs to go for their shots right from the beginning. We were already playing catch up after such an horrendous start.

Bowling wise, there were too many loose balls in the offering today. A strong batting unit as Yuva should not be given such juicy fulltosses in any grounds and that too in a 360 made it all the more easier for them. The abundance of left handers in their team dint help our cause either. Some of our bowlers had a tough time adujsting to their lines when bowling to a right left combo. Anyway some food for thought there. Bowlers have to really think and get everything right when we are playing such a tough opponent. Its one thing bowling one fulltoss but its a completely different situation when we keep dishing the same stuff out.

The ground fielding was very very ordinary to be polite. I myself am a culprit in couple of occasions. To start off, we were very lethargic and they were stealing runs underneath our noses. There were couple of dropped catches, couple of catches where ppl cud have gone for it but decided otherwise. The energy levels had to be really high when playing Yuva, but it looked as if we were going through the motions right from the first ball. And once they started going hammer and tongs it made the situation even bad. We need to pull up our socks, fielding wise if we really are harbouring any thoughts of being in the top 15 of this league.

Well after having been set an imposing target of 131, you never really can fault the batters if the chase doesnt go according to the plan, but our batting also lacked a strategy. We did get off to a decent start, courtesy Jigar,but we kept losing wickets in regular intervals and the chase never really got off up front. It dint help the cause that the set batsman couldnt bat longer, including me and there was too much to do in the last 10 overs. The running between the wickets was really bad, here again me being a culprit. Definitely room for improvement there and as Yuva XI showed, we need to show more urgency while batting or stealing those 1s and 2s and put more pressure on the fielders. Amar played really well to take our team score to 95 and it was really good to see him come good with the bat.

The one good thing from todays game was, we all know that we played badly and hence the result. It is not like we gave 100% but still ended up losing. I guess that kinda game would have satisfied our effort part but it would have been even more harder to digest, since u know u gave your best shot. But today we lacked discipline and a strategy bowling as well as fielding wise and we definitely know that we can do better. A lot more games to come and from here on we would be playing not so tough opponents, but that should not make us complacent in any way. We have been performing really well this season and today happened to be just one of those days, where we were outplayed or let ourselves to be outplayed by a good team. But i have confidence in this team and i for one surely know that we will come back harder, and this defeat is going to make us a even more tougher unit as the season progresses by.

I strongly encourage the team management to enforce the half an hour practice session before the match, as i do believe that gives us more confidence than the extended practice session that we have a day before the match. So we should make it a rule and expect players to turn up at 8 am and have a good 25-30 mins pracice before the match starts.

Anyway keep your chin up guys, more victories coming along the BLITZ way for sure ;)

GO BLITZ!!

Satish

Analysis - Prediction - Preview for this weekend

Before the 2009 season, I never cared to look at the points table before or after the game.

There was no motivation to look at the table, because neither were we contending for the top spot in our group or making it to platinum group!

But things have changed and changed for good :)!

With great form shown by the team, I cant stop myself from doing pre-match analysis.

 

Here is one for this weekend:

 

Group F : Matches and Points Table

I read in Cricbox, that top 5 teams from every group make it to platinum and currently 7 teams from group F are closely contesting to take these slots.

Although we will like to make it as top team....WAIT....we WILL make it as top team in our group and go to platinum:) , It is still important and interesting tit-bit on how the points table might end up after this weekend.

To start with, lets see how the table looks like right now.

 

Team        Matches        Points

YuvaXI           5                     18

Skiers11       5                     16

Blitz CC        5                     16

Cougars       5                     14

ChampsXI    5                     12

Aryans          5                     12 

Syndicate     5                     12

 

All teams having played 5 games each.Yuva is leading the table with 18 points, closely followed by Skiers11 and Blitz CC with 16 points each taking second & third position respectively. With other teams within striking distance to topple the current top 3.

Following is my prediction and hence the points table after the matches that are going to be played in Group F this weekend. 

Legends Vs Champs XI:  Considering the batting potential & bowling stability of ChampsXI, with Legends managing to win only 1 game out of their 5 encounters. I will give ChampsXI an upper hand to win this one and gain 4 points.

Daredevils Vs Skiers11:  This might be one of the most interesting game for this weekend. And result in favour of Daredevils might be good news for teams trying to make it to Top 3/Top 5. Although Daredevils shocked us with a win,  I will still bet on current form of Skiers11 to bag 4 points from this game.

GSCC vs Syndicate CC:  Cricket is a funny game, upsets happen when you least expect them. But going purely by statistics and current form, this should be an easy win for Syndicate CC.

Chargers Vs Xterminators: Result of this game does not affect Top 7, so i will reserve discussion on this game for future blogs.

Blitz CC Vs YuvaXI: Depending on who will win this game and the predictions above, this is how the points table should look end of this weekend.

Blitz CC Win

-------------------

 

Team        Matches        Points

Skiers11        6                   20  -- Better RR than Blitz CC

Blitz CC          6                   20

YuvaXI            6                   18

ChampsXI      6                   16

Syndicate       6                   16

Cougars         5                   14

Aryans            5                   12 

 

Yuva XI Win

------------------

 

Team        Matches        Points

YuvaXI            6                   22

Skiers11           6                   20

ChampsXI       6                   16 -- Better RR than Blitz CC

Blitz CC            6                   16

Syndicate        6                   16

Cougars           5                   14

Aryans            5                   12 

Blitz CC Vs Yuva XI Match Preview

Here are some of the important tit-bits about Yuva XI

 

> Ranked # 7

> They have only lost 11 of 45 games they have played and with 2 Ties and 1 Abandoned game, they hold Win %         of 68.88.

> The only time they won a Toss they elected to bat First, so again we might be looking at bowling first - our strength.

 

Players in Action

Yuva XI - Batsmen:

> Samrat Deb: Captain & leading run getter for YuvaXI this season (51) , he is definitely a player to look out for. Sitting at 736 cricbay career runs with an average of 16.36! , he is one consisten middle order batsman.

> Kiran Josyula: Opener & second highest scorer for Yuva XI, has managed to gather 37 runs this season at an average of 12.33.His cricbay career statistics read 436 runs at an average of 10.14

YuvaXI - Bowlers:

> Dinesh Jalisatgi: Leading wicket taker (6) at an Economy of 2.42 bowls first/second change for Yuva XI and has given away only 1 Wide and 0 no-balls! He is new to Cricbay and YuvaXI, having just bowled 13 overs in his cricbay career out of which 12 were bowled this season.

 

Blitz CC - Batsmen:

> Puneet Shetty: Just like his opposite number, he is the leading run getter for Blitz CC (51) at an average of 25.5. With 363 career runs at an average of 15.12, is warming up for some big innings this season!

 

> Arun Ram: With an average of 37! he holds 5th position in  2009 Cricbay Top 20 Batting Averages. & having already hit 3 sixes this season, he also holds 10th position in 2009 Cricbay Most 6's.

 

Blitz CC - Bowlers:

> Avinash Kumar: This quickie is joint leading wicket taker this season (6) at an economy rate of 2.46. He just needs 3 more victims to complete 50 wickets in his cricbay career.

> Siddharth Kasat: Joint leading wicket taker this season (6) at an economy rate of 1.20, features in 2009 Cricbay Best Economy and holds second spot!

                         

As far as my analysis go, Yuva does have experience on their side but we should win this one on current form!!

Also, all our Wins have been convincing! whereas Yuva has had some close games.

Like,

 - They took 19.1 overs to chase down 68 runs with fall of 7 wickets despite being assisted with 17 Extras!! by the bowling team (Daredevils).

To top that, they are still to face teams like ChampsXI and Skiers11, so i don't think we should read too much into their unbeaten record!

 

Lets Blitz! em with our performance

 

Go Blitz!!