Game with CCC

I had just written a long draft for the game and the computer froze!!!!!!!! I could not save the draft and now I will have to start all over again !!!!!!!!! AHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHHH. that sucks.

But anyway, i am not going to give the details like usual as I had already written all that in the lost draft and I am in no mood to repeat all the things.

We played the game with Colombus Cricket Club, CCC, on Sunday and we lost the game by 17 runs!!!!! The main reason for the loss are the 50 wides that we bowled on that day. we were very very disappointed that we lost and we were very angry with ourselves as we bowled 25 more wides than normal and we lost by 17 runs !!!!!!!!!!!!! I dont recollect such a bad performance by the Akron CC bowlers. I mean we bowled well and got them for 166 but 50 of those runs were wides !!!!!!!!!. The fact that Adi had single handedly brought us into the game with brilliant piece of work on the field. He got two top order batsman including Bharat (one of the biggest hitters and top scorers in mid-west) runout with direct hits to the non-strikers end. It was simply brilliant work and we thought that we had the game in our grasp after having them 78/6. It was really frustrating from then on, as the partnership bulit well and we were denied once again by the lower order. I mean, in almost all the games we have played, we could get rid of the top order without much damage but the lower order has been the problem all along. This has been a long time concern for Akron CC as we lost both the play-off games in the previous two years by letting the opposition to recover from 41/6 and 55/5. can u believe that !!!!!!!!!

Hari got the initial break through with an excellent ball, the batsman was all beaten and played all over the ball completely missing the line of the ball and was bowled comprehensively. Manpreet and Hari bowled 15-20 wides among themselves in the first 8 overs. In the mean time Adi got one of the openers with a briilaint pick up and through from his favorite covers position. We were all very excited and thrilled as that was our first run out of the season. In walked Bharat, one of the most feared batsman of the league, he was playing sensibly by taking ones and twos. I introduced Sirish into the attack, considering that the last time he bowled he had 3-1-4-1 figures!!!!!!!!! He had been working hard in the nets so I decided to give him the relatively newer ball. He started off with a couple of wides and I thought he would get a control sooner or later, but unfotunately for him he could not get his rhythm on that day and we was clobbered for a 4 by Abhi and a 6 by bharat. the over costed 16 runs....hmmmmm. who next. I had asked Kiran to start bowling and was thinking who should bowl the next over.....I had been thinking for a long time to come and have a bowl earlier on....I promoted myself up in batting the last game and I got my highest score so i decided to have a go. Kiran was bowling really well but he was having wide trouble too....I usually dont have that problem as I dont bowl that fast and I concentrate on the line and length. IN the mean time....Adi got Bharat with another brilliant peice of fielding at the covers position. he got another direct hit. thats it !!!!!! I thought, with Bharat gone we can restrict them for a small target. I started off with a wide down the leg side and I had a bad feeling that I would be bowling a lot of wides that day.....and how true by fears were...i bowled 9 wides in my 7 overs.....but I bowled well and finished with 7-1-22-1. So only 13 runs of the bat, I was very happy and I was glad that the short and rising ball that I had been practising in the nets was very useful. for the first time in 3 years at Akron my slower ball went for a wide down the leg side.....that must have summarised what a day the bowlers were having in the middle. At the drinks break they were 73/4 with 35 wides!!!!!!!!!!!!!! After the break I finished my spelll and Kiran was bowling well too....he bowled 7-0-27-1 with 8-9 wides so thats only about 19 runs of the bat. So it was good bowling by him. I brought on Adi and Raj, both of them have been very very effective for us this season, especially raj in taking wickets and Adi in restricting the runs.....so far he has played 3 games and in all of them he got a wicket in his first over. He got a wicket this game too. He got the well set Abhi who was playing on 41. Abhi had 10 lives in the game I think!!!!! the best was when he got a top edge and the ball flew to phani at the point position, the ball went high in the air Phani, Hari and Puneet all of them could have made it to the ball. But Phani called so the other two stopped their run towards the ball, he was judging the ball and was perfectly underneath it, then all of a sudden he slipped on the grass and the ball fell to the ground!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! can u believe that luck!!!!! well anyway, Raj got him atlast but not before some more action.....abhi pulled the ball straight to Avinash who was positioned just for that, he caught the ball but it popped up and went over his shoulder, I thought "One more life!!!!!!" but Avinash showed good reflexes and caught it with a brilliant dive on his second attempt. At last Abhi was gone. But the other guy who was looking very very uncomfortable in the middle came into life all of a sudden and started hitting 4's and 6's.

I brought Avinash and Hari into the attack and I guess lot of people on the team considered a bad decision. Adi and Raj were bowling well so why did I even think of changing the bowler????? Well, Avinash bowled very well in the death last week and Hari is our fastest bowler so I thought that would do the trick for us. but unfortunately both of them were hit for sixes on the off side and also for 4's. So the last 7 overs had costed 55 runs without a wicket. That was very very disappointing for us. they finished with 166/7 in 35 overs.....the only consolation I had was that I got a runout off the last ball of the innings and got the guy who was hitting sixes and fours. But he finsihed with exactly 50 runs!!!!!!!!! he played really well for his 50 and he deserved it. So all in all it was 166/7 with 53 extras!!!!!! 41 by Abhi, 50 by Manju and 53 extras=144 runs....the rest of the team 22 runs!!!!!!!

we had pizza for lunch for a change.....we were glad that the lunch wasnt from Subway :):)

our batting tommrow.........