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