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!!

 

Yuva XI vs Blitz CC (Match Preview by Samy from Immortals)

Once again Blitz CC makes it to my Cricbox, and why not, after all they truly deserve to be where they are currently placed in Group F two spots behind the group leader Yuva XI. This game will bring out the best of both the teams, with Blitz o n a dream run of their own winning 4 out of 5 games, and would surely come out all guns blazing to dimantle the furniture of Yuva XI who are unbeaten with 4 wins and 1 abandoned game. This group should be the most closely fought in terms of points, where 7 top teams are hunting for their 5 spots for the Platinum. Meeting for the first time in Cricbay, these two teams are surely bound to put out some fireworks of their own in the race to the top. It would be interesting to see who gets under the skin of whom.
Quote: If you can dream, you can believe it. If you can believe it, you can achieve it. If you can achieve what you dream of, your belief grows even stronger.

Scenes from Group F:
Some of the big names of Cricbay, and this group finds itself fighting till the end. A big game above, and another one with Skiers, the fight for the top 5 aint over yet in this group. 7 teams are still fighting to qualify for the Platinums and each game from now on shall bring interesting twists and turns for the table.

Source - Cricbox on www.cricbay.com

Confidence in Batting

Blitz has always been a bowling team in the eyes of its members, and it was viewed as a bowling team with a couple batsmen by the cricbay community until May 3rd, 2009. Few years from now, the happenings on May 3rd, 2009 will attain even more significance, and we will always look back at May 3rd as the day when the batsmen came out of their shell. The talent was always there, the sky was the limit, but did the batsmen from blitz have confidence in themselves? - hard to answer that question; but I am ready to announce that our batting has arrived, and what an arrival it was! In Braly park, under difficult batting circumstances, with the wind against the batsmen, facing a top 10 cricbay team - Jiggy slams boundaries and goes above the field, Tushar picks the gaps at will and goes through the field, Mountu plays his shots with alacrity and leaves the bowlers clueless, and all this while the pillar of our batting, and captain extraordinaire Puneet watches. For once he didn't have to carry the batting on his shoulders. Little did the Champs know that there was more batting waiting in the dug out, and, had we played first on Sunday, we could have set an unattainable target.

Do we have a complete team? - hard to answer that question too. Can we win games with just batting, when the bowling attack has an off day - HELL YEAH! Hopefully, this performance inspires everybody to step it up a notch and focus, not get overconfident, and make the Platinum round.


Go Blitz!
Arun

The new Champs :)

05/03/2009: Blitz CC vs Champs XI

Bad weather did not play a spoilsport at Braly Park as rain was predicted over the weekend.

The scene was set for a great encounter ahead with Champs XI, a Top 10 ranked team, doing well in 2009 season VS Blitz with their new found form and confidence. 

Toss seemed irrelevant as Champs prefer defending and Blitz chasing. So when Champs won the toss there was no money for guessing the obvious.

Champs started well with the opener Anand slamming three boundaries and some sloppy work in the field was not helping the cause for the home team. A brilliant run out by Akshay got rid of the opener and a great catch under pressure by Sriram saw the back of Anand.

Three wickets down at the end of 10 overs and 40 runs on board, Champs were yet again looking to set a big total with some in form batsmen still sitting in the dug-out waiting for their turn to smash some biggies.

But Siddhart aka 'Kasat Bhai' had some other plans for them. A great 11th over saw Champs loosing 3 crucial wickets, two to some lethal bowling by Kasat and one a brilliant run out by the Captain Puneet. 

No wonder, Kasat Bhai (KB) finished with a great spell of 4 overs 1 maiden 5 runs for 3 wickets. KB is the second most economical bowler this season in all groups and I guess all of us who has seem him perform before are not surprised by this feat!!

Staring at 41/6, Champs were looking for some consolidation whereas Blitz were confident of doing what they do best - demolish sides!!

But, a calm innings by Captain Gokulnath and some clean hitting by Amol saw champs reaching a respectable total of 79/9 at the end of 20 overs.

As decided I went opening with Tushar, the only left hander in the side.

I enjoy opening the innings with Tushar, if nothing more the Right hand - Left hand combination brings some nice gifts from the bowler :-)

Chasing 80 in 20 overs, we had to beat our previous succesfull run chase of 76 to bring home victory.

We started off really well. I was able to dispatch the first ball for a boundary - a nice juicy short 

slow ball from their opening bowler Sreeram. With a score of 10/0, @ the end of 2 overs, we were on our way.But the opening bowling pair tightened up the screws and with some brilliant ground fielding singles were tough to come by.

Myself and Tushar knew that we just have to play out their opening bowlers with some caution and with wickets in hand and a strong batting line up, there was no stopping us from winning this one.

At 23/0 in 8 overs, momentum was slipping away from Blitz and there was a need to step up the scoring rate. Fortunately I was able to connect a full toss from Mohit for a six and Tushar hit a beautiful pull shot for 2 runs. With 11 runs coming in that over, momentum was shifting back our way. Tushar was looking in great touch, able to pick gaps and rotate the strike at will.

With a score of 39/0, at the end of 10 overs, we could see Champs under pressure.

After the break, I realized I had woken up from the lucky side of my bed today; with two skiers dropped I felt we cannot lose!

Myself and Tushar put up a 50 run opening stand, the first one for Blitz, before I got out for 31 to a neat catch by the Champs skipper Gokulnath in the deep.

Tushar was quick to follow in the next over after having scored 16.With both openers out and the score reading 51/2, Champs felt they had a chance to make a match out of it which they had given up long back.

But little did they know about Montu's hitting capabilities. Two awesome boundaries by Montu scoring at more than a run a ball there was hardly any doubt which way this game was going.

With 11 runs needed in 3 overs to win, Montu got out at 15 to a sharp catch by the keeper & Dug out got a little tense.

In walked Arun, and with 11 needed of 17 balls he smashed two huge sixes of the first two balls he faced.The tension gave way to cries of victory and the whole dugout ran onto the field.

This was a great victory for Blitz beating one of the best teams in cricbay.

This victory will definitely go a long way for the team to start believing in their batting abilities and confidence to chase or put up big totals in the future.

I was honoured to be presented with Man of the Match, which was truly a team performance.

I will like to take this oppurtunity to thank my team members and management for showing trust in me and giving me opputunity,advice and support.

Go Blitz!!!

Legendary Article by Mizzou about the Kings victory

Kings dethroned by some monkey business

The greatest sports films involve stories about underdogs - be it a Lagaan, or a Chariots of Fire. These are the stories that arouse emotions, and offer a true measure of the spirit of the underdog. This Sunday's match between Kings XI and Bhajji's Monkeys was no less dramatic.

o­n paper, this was David vs. Goliath. And as happened in the most famous underdog victory, it was won by David. o­n paper, Bhajji's Monkeys vs. Kings was a no contest, but as the cliche goes, matches are not played o­n paper.

Bhajji's Monkeys may not have put together a string of consistent victories o­n the pitch, but as far as the toss is concerned, they have strung an impressive run of wins. Sending the Kings in, they were looking for a few early wickets to put the pressure o­n the favorites.

A stellar direct-hit by Mountu in the fourth over set the tone for the Monkeys. A few balls later, a good catch, albeit with an exaggerated dive, by Barry gave the Monkeys their second wicket, sending Pradeep back to the pavilion for no score.

What followed was a fiery spell of fast bowling by Avinash that ended in a maiden over, increasing the pressure o­n new batsman Kishore. This over set up the next wicket, as Kishore went for a straight drive to rotate the strike and Siddharth pouched a fabulous o­ne-handed catch to continue the pattern of good fielding by the Monkeys.

The Kings then put up their best partnership of the day with some intelligent cricket, and smart running between the wickets by Tridivesh and skipper Sai K, pinching singles at will. Their partnership yielded 30 at around four an over, and it seemed the Kings would bat the Monkeys out of the game. The Monkeys were now beginning to look a little erratic in the field, also giving away a few no balls, thereby removing the pressure built up earlier.

A pivotal moment in the match however, came when least expected, as Tridivesh stuck a full toss, off Puneet, straight into the hands of Sriram at square leg. At 53 for 4 the Kings were still in the hunt to get a score of around 85. However, Kings' Skipper Sai followed soon thereafter, and the Kings ended up losing their last 6 wickets for 7 runs, two of them to run-outs. What started off as intelligent running between the wickets, then turned into suicidal running, as Shashi and then Siva Kumar were sent back to the pavilion by some individual brilliance from Arun Ramchandran. Avinash Kumar ended as the outstanding bowler with three wickets in 3.2 overs conceding a measly 10 runs, with figures of 2 for 10 for Barry.

A total of 69 still seemed too high for a Monkeys team that had never chased anything above 44. Opener Sriram fell in the second over as the Kings were buoyed by a superior opening spell of fast bowling by Kartik.

In strode Mountu and released some of the pressure with a quick-fire eight off eleven balls. A mistimed flick off Ramakant ended Mountu's stay at the wicket. The o­nly southpaw of the game, Arun Venkataraman, then joined the other opener Puneet Shetty and put o­n a steady partnership of 26 which put the Monkeys o­n track for an upset win.

Puneet Shetty, the top-scorer among the Monkeys, put in yet another Man-of-the-match performance with 30 runs off 51 balls. His ability to pierce the field at will marks him out as a special talent, with o­ne particular square-cut splitting three fielders o­n the offside. A classic off-break by Ganesh was enough to end Arun's stay at the wicket, but another vital 27-run partnership between Puneet and Barry, brought the Monkeys to the brink of a famous win.

With three runs to win, Puneet top-edged a ball off Kartik's second spell, and it was left to Barry and skipper Arun Ramchandran to get the Monkeys to the end zone. The Kings however were not prepared to relinquish their crown as the sole undefeated team in the second round, and piled o­n the pressure with some tight bowling by Kartik and the wily off-spinner Ganesh.

With three balls remaining and a run to win, the captain of the Monkeys swept a low full-toss over midwicket to end the match and complete an upset as remarkable as any seen in Cricbay. A team of motley first-timers had outwitted a hardened professional outfit such as the Kings. While the Kings are still competing for the Platinum trophy as division leaders, the action now shifts to Encinal Park, for a do-or-die game between tonights victors and the Invincibles, with a spot for the Gold shield playoffs at stake.

- Arun Venkatraman

Previous posts on Cricbay when our team was covered in the cricbox

GROUP F Blitz CC vs Daredevils
Two new names in my Cricbox for a change, and why not. After all, Blitz CC have truly lived to their name this season, by pulling off great upsets. First they humilated Chargers with a stunning performance and then they repeated the same with Skiers 11. Both the oppositions were left dumbfounded about this newly found form of the Blitz CC (Although I liked their previous name a lot - Bhajji's Monkeys). Blitz who is yet undefeated this season, unlike their previous stints, would be facing Daredevils for the first time, who yet have to register their first ever win in their Cricbay stint. They are a new team, with and would love to take their first win home to taste the real success of tennis ball cricket in Cricbay.
Facts: Blitz CC was ranked # 54 in the opening ranking table for this season, when Skiers were placed at # 18 and Chargers at # 30. Daredevils are placed at # 66.

GROUP F

Skiers XI vs Blitz CC

Sunday 04/05 @ SGI Park, Mountain View

The Big Picture

Skiers XI took a break for the 2008 Fall Open which means that they have played just o­ne regular season in Cricbay. But in this short time they have give a fair glimpse of their potential by managing to make it to the Platinum group in their very first season. Getting past the pre-quarter stage is just a matter of time and experience.

Blitz CC entered Cricbay the same season as Skiers XI but are a little more experienced having played the 2008 Fall Open. They did beat Kings last regular season, but since then they have struggled to beat any team in the top half of the league when provided an opportunity to play them. But every new season is a fresh beginning and Blitz CC seem to be charged up, coming off a crushing victory against a Chargers team at pretty much full strength. Whether this is the trigger they were looking for to reach greater heights, o­nly time will tell.

Form guide

(last five matches, most recent first)

Skiers XI - WLWWL
Blitz CC - AWWLL

Watch out for ...

Avinash Karthaveerya (272 runs) and Suryanarayanan D (284 runs) were in prolific form during last years regular season. They were ably supported by their lead bowlers in the form of Shankar Narayanan (40 wickets eco. 2.84) and Prudhviraj (26 wickets eco. 2.94). They will be counting o­n these guys to keep a choke-hold o­n their opponents again.

For Blitz CC their batting mainly revolves around their leading man Puneet Shetty (343 runs) with others looking to stay with him and chip in with whatever they can. The bowling is well led by Kartik Ramaswamy (63 wickets) and Avinash Kumar (42 wickets). But restricting the opposition scoring rate has always been their primary concern.

Home/Away Realities

Skiers XI know how to make use of their home ground very effectively. They have managed to win 8 of the 11 games that they have played at home, but defeats at home have been pretty comprehensive as well. This will be their first home game of this season and will be interesting to see if they can maintain that winning touch at home.

Blitz CC had a bad start to both their previous seasons and have a win % of o­nly about 34%. In the 15 odd games that they have played away from home they have managed to win o­nly twice game, this is a dismal record by any standards. Beating Chargers in the season opener is just the start they would have been hoping for if they want to move to the upper half of the league.

Approaching milestones

Avinash Karthaveerya (Skiers XI): Requires 28 runs to complete 300 runs.

Suryanarayanan D (Skiers XI): Requires 16 runs to complete 300 runs.

Arun Ram (Blitz CC): Requires 5 wickets to complete 25 wickets.

Group F:
Blitz CC Vs Xterminators @ San Jose:

This is a contest between 2 teams which are both a year old in Cricbay and have played almost the same number of matches. Over the 3 seasons they have played they have never faced o­ne another. Players to watch are definitely both the captains since they both have a healthy average above 10 and they will be looking to start the season o­n a positive note. Xterminators have a couple of very exciting players but there is inconsistency of them being available throughout the season which sometimes makes them unpredictable. They are also now under a new management team. We will wait and see if these changes would give them the edge to terminate the blitz theyll face from Blitz CC.