THIS GAME WAS PLAYED ON THE 29th of JUNE.....
SD3 had an outstanding day on the field today against Inland Empire. The week was a terrible week from personnel stand point as we had to recruit new blood to make up the team due to unavailabilities and injuries. We had 4 new players in the team and were without our captain Arshad, Sakthi stepped up to take the responsibility and did a wonderful job.
We won the toss and elected to bowl...as is usually the case with our side...better bowling team. Started off with a beautiful first over from Shiva with a wicket maiden....Fanil (new player) started off well too and complemented Shiva with some controlled and economical bowling, he was unlucky to not get any wickets (due to some dropped catches) but with Shiva leading the wicket taking effort all Fanil had to do was support him and he did a fabulous job. Shiva got another break through and by the end of their spell we had Inland Empire 10 overs..24/2....Suneel and Raju P (new player) came in as first change bowlers....Raju making his debut got a wicket with his third ball uprooting the middle stump....that was a treat to watch...little did we know that we were going to watch some exceptional stuff from him...he just took over the game and got a wicket almost in every over of his to finish with 7/17 in 6.2 overs....a stupendous effort for any level of cricket....beautiful piece of bowling from him...all of us were witness to a performance that is not a every day occurence on the cricket field. Ajay...the other new comer...didnt want to be left behind and added with a beautiful wicket of his own...he bowled the batsman with a peach...all in all we were able to get the opposition out for 58 runs !!!!!!!!!!!!! thats the lowest total in a game that I have been involved in (30 overs or more)......we got them out in 24 overs....a clinical performance on the field by SD3...
We didnt want to repeat the same mistakes that we made during our last low scoring loss against the same team in the season opener so Sakthi asked all the batsman to play positively. It was a great confidence booster to have the team's leading scorer, Raju S, back in the line up....the batting looks a lot more assured when he is in there....Ajay and he opened the innings and got us off to a good start before Ajay fell for a dubious decision. In walked Tejuswi..Another new recruit....he started playing some lovely drives and lofted the ball before perishing to a slower ball...all of a sudden it seemed to be a similar story of batting collapse when Vinit fell without scoring...and the bowlers bowling a tight line without giving anything away…..runs had dried up….Sakthi then made a smart move and sent Shiva up the order....Shiva played some attacking shots that brought the momentum back to SD with Raju playing steadily at the other end....they brought us home in 14 overs....for no more loss of wickets...all in all it was a well earned victory that the team has been waiting for....
August 07, 2008
August 06, 2008
SDCC3 registers a big win against Regal CC
The day started with the usual rolling of the pitch, laying of the match and running around to get supplies, it was a typical home game morning, with nothing out of the ordinary but turned events that unraveled from then on made the day special for the team. Arshad won the toss and as discussed prior to the game...elected to bat. He said that he wanted to challenge the team with the task of defending a total after it has failed to do that inspite of scoring 230 plus runs not once but twice and both the times against Brit & Dom. Coming off from the last ball thriller and morale killing last ball loss to Brit & Dom the team seemed all pepped to take on the captains challenge.
Arshad and Raju opened the innings for SD3....with Arshad looking more and more confident with each innings and Raju trying to make amends for a rare failure in the last game it was a perfect setting for a big score....Regal bowlers started off well by yielding only 19 runs in the first 6 overs with only 7 coming off t he bat....it was a slow but a steady start and the growing confidence in the strokes of both the players was apparent and it looked like a perfect platform for the two of then to launch....with the first bowling change brought the welcome relief that the bastmen were looking for an they turned around the scoring rate in an astonishing manner. Arshad was the first to up his scoring tempo with a brace of boundaries and Raju soon followed suit. In not time the score coasted towards fifty and at the first break the score was aorund 65 in 13 overs for no loss. Refreshed from the break the Arshad started scoring at a fast pace and started increasing the scoring gap between him and Raju...he was racing towards a well deserved fifty when he fell against the run of play for a slow bowler for 48. By then Arshad and Raju put together a Century partnership....thats was the first time I had seen a century stand for SDCC 3. It provided a perfect platform for the rest of the batsmen. With Raju playing the sheet anchor role Aman was sent in to hit some quick runs and he started off in a stylish manner with a couple of well timed boundaries but he perished to a slower bowler too...Raju on the other hand completed a well crafted fifty....Satish...our star from the last game....walked in confidently....he started playing himself in and runs started flowing at a brisk and steady pace...Raju perished trying to increase the scoring rate and fell for 61. Hari walked in confidently and it looked like a good setting for him to get back to scoring ways....the guys were rooting for him to strike form as he has been really unfortunate so far this season....but his bad seemed to continue as his lofted drive off the first ball he faced was plucked out of the air by the fielder....he stood there in disbelief....Suneel was sent in to stem the sudden fall of wickets....with Satish going great from the other end all Suneel had to do was stay at the crease....Satish was scoring runs at a brisk pace though not all from the middle of the bat....Suneel decided to go at the slow bowlers when they picthed the ball up and connected the first time for a four but the very next ball he persihed for trying to be over aggressive...he got LBW for completing his pull shot before even the ball reached him...yeah it was that slow....suddenly the 260-270 score started looking like a distant possibility....Tejuswi walked in and started off confidently driving down the ground and flicking the ball with ease....Satish was playing a composed innings and was begining to open out....Tejuswi fell in quest of quick runs for 10....in walked the man of the day...little did we know that Shiva was going to take charge of the game and dominate Regal. He started smashing the ball all over the place and that kind of even encouraged Satish for taking on the bowlers....score crossed 250...and was on path for a good score....when Satish played one lofted shot too many to fall for 49 runs to the surprise of all the SDCC players....Shiva finished with 22 runs off 9 balls...SDCC3 finished with 257/8 in 40 vers....seemed like a good score...but so did 237 in the previous game.
After the break, Shiva opened the bowling with Fanil....Neville...the opener for Regal CC started off well by pulling and cutting the ball with unbelievable power....after Shiva got the first break through with a swinging ball, the usually reliable Fanil was dispatched for a few runs mercilessly by Neville...which prompted Arshad to bring on Raju P...he was greeted by Neville with a monstrous six.... but Shiva kept pegging away from the other end and got wickets at regular intervals,....then Raju and Shiva settled into a rhythm and were working in tandem...and that paid dividends and Shiva teased Neville and forced him to play one shot too many.....Neville perished playing across the line...and with him the hope for Regal CC as well...as he seemed to be the only batsman that showed some sense of responsibility to stay at the wicket....Raju P joined the act and got a couple of wickets of his own....Shiva with 4 wickets was easily the pick of the bowlers... he could have had his fifth too but a misunderstanding between Fanil and Tejuswi resulted in a dropped catch....Renga and Suneel continued the restrictive bowling that Raju and Shiva had started....and were rewarded with wickets as well. Shiva was brought back into the attack and he struck straight away to grab his 5th wicket....in the mean time he also dropped a dollly...that even Boycott's mum could have caught.....all in all Regal was bowled out for 88 . The man of the moment Shiva was given the game ball and SDCC3 players finished day with a 171 run victory....now they have a well earned 2 week break before they head to Woodley grounds to take on Anaheim.
Arshad and Raju opened the innings for SD3....with Arshad looking more and more confident with each innings and Raju trying to make amends for a rare failure in the last game it was a perfect setting for a big score....Regal bowlers started off well by yielding only 19 runs in the first 6 overs with only 7 coming off t he bat....it was a slow but a steady start and the growing confidence in the strokes of both the players was apparent and it looked like a perfect platform for the two of then to launch....with the first bowling change brought the welcome relief that the bastmen were looking for an they turned around the scoring rate in an astonishing manner. Arshad was the first to up his scoring tempo with a brace of boundaries and Raju soon followed suit. In not time the score coasted towards fifty and at the first break the score was aorund 65 in 13 overs for no loss. Refreshed from the break the Arshad started scoring at a fast pace and started increasing the scoring gap between him and Raju...he was racing towards a well deserved fifty when he fell against the run of play for a slow bowler for 48. By then Arshad and Raju put together a Century partnership....thats was the first time I had seen a century stand for SDCC 3. It provided a perfect platform for the rest of the batsmen. With Raju playing the sheet anchor role Aman was sent in to hit some quick runs and he started off in a stylish manner with a couple of well timed boundaries but he perished to a slower bowler too...Raju on the other hand completed a well crafted fifty....Satish...our star from the last game....walked in confidently....he started playing himself in and runs started flowing at a brisk and steady pace...Raju perished trying to increase the scoring rate and fell for 61. Hari walked in confidently and it looked like a good setting for him to get back to scoring ways....the guys were rooting for him to strike form as he has been really unfortunate so far this season....but his bad seemed to continue as his lofted drive off the first ball he faced was plucked out of the air by the fielder....he stood there in disbelief....Suneel was sent in to stem the sudden fall of wickets....with Satish going great from the other end all Suneel had to do was stay at the crease....Satish was scoring runs at a brisk pace though not all from the middle of the bat....Suneel decided to go at the slow bowlers when they picthed the ball up and connected the first time for a four but the very next ball he persihed for trying to be over aggressive...he got LBW for completing his pull shot before even the ball reached him...yeah it was that slow....suddenly the 260-270 score started looking like a distant possibility....Tejuswi walked in and started off confidently driving down the ground and flicking the ball with ease....Satish was playing a composed innings and was begining to open out....Tejuswi fell in quest of quick runs for 10....in walked the man of the day...little did we know that Shiva was going to take charge of the game and dominate Regal. He started smashing the ball all over the place and that kind of even encouraged Satish for taking on the bowlers....score crossed 250...and was on path for a good score....when Satish played one lofted shot too many to fall for 49 runs to the surprise of all the SDCC players....Shiva finished with 22 runs off 9 balls...SDCC3 finished with 257/8 in 40 vers....seemed like a good score...but so did 237 in the previous game.
After the break, Shiva opened the bowling with Fanil....Neville...the opener for Regal CC started off well by pulling and cutting the ball with unbelievable power....after Shiva got the first break through with a swinging ball, the usually reliable Fanil was dispatched for a few runs mercilessly by Neville...which prompted Arshad to bring on Raju P...he was greeted by Neville with a monstrous six.... but Shiva kept pegging away from the other end and got wickets at regular intervals,....then Raju and Shiva settled into a rhythm and were working in tandem...and that paid dividends and Shiva teased Neville and forced him to play one shot too many.....Neville perished playing across the line...and with him the hope for Regal CC as well...as he seemed to be the only batsman that showed some sense of responsibility to stay at the wicket....Raju P joined the act and got a couple of wickets of his own....Shiva with 4 wickets was easily the pick of the bowlers... he could have had his fifth too but a misunderstanding between Fanil and Tejuswi resulted in a dropped catch....Renga and Suneel continued the restrictive bowling that Raju and Shiva had started....and were rewarded with wickets as well. Shiva was brought back into the attack and he struck straight away to grab his 5th wicket....in the mean time he also dropped a dollly...that even Boycott's mum could have caught.....all in all Regal was bowled out for 88 . The man of the moment Shiva was given the game ball and SDCC3 players finished day with a 171 run victory....now they have a well earned 2 week break before they head to Woodley grounds to take on Anaheim.
August 05, 2008
Olympics - India's eternal desire for a Gold...will it be fulfilled in 2008?
With the Beijing Olympics around the corner, only one thought is on most of the Indian people's minds....will we get a medal this time ?? (No...not a Gold...any medal would do). Thats been the sad story of the indian sports ever since Olympics have been established. The fact that India has never won an individual gold medal is surprising to believe when countries like Cuba, Jamaica, Israel & Saudi Arabia have managed to bag Gold medals. The fact the Rathore...who won a silver was considered pride of the country and was given a promotion in the indian army and was awarded all kinds of honors that take people a lifetime of excellence to achieve tells the sad tale of the current state of Indian sports. On the other end of the spectrum is USA...where they literally dominate the medals tally...what ever said about the competition from China, Russia, Australia etc....USA is the team to beat. Michael Phelps....the swimming sensation that won about 6 gold medals in the previous edition Olympics took a sabbatical because he couldnt achieve his goal of 8 GOLDS !!!!!! And he is back this year to take another shot at getting 8 Golds....1 more than Mark Spitz....and most of the people in the US wouldnt even know who Michael Phelps is....he has not been conferred with country's highest honor nor has been invited to every damn award ceremony organized in the country....and the most surpising thing is that he is not even 24 yrs old!!!!!!!!!!!!!
We as a nation cry or erupt in joy with the performance of the Indian Cricket Team...the "Alpha, Beta and the Gamma" of Indian sports. The kind of recognition, fame, money and media coverage that these cricketers get is envied by all the other sports men & women. People like Dhoni...who has not even achieved a lot in like is given Rajiv Khel Ratna award.....thats the highest honor given to a Indian sports person....was Kapil Dev awarded with that ? Sunil Gavaskar ? And ask any indian cricket fan....who has contributed more to Indian cricket (so far) Dhoni or Kapil/gavaskar/Dravid/Ganguly ? Dhoni has no doubt transformed the Indian ODI team but I think the government should have taken their time as they did in SACHIN's case....8 yrs !!!!!!! Same with Sania mirza....she is honored like crazy at all the award ceremonies and people turn a cold shoulder to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati who actually win tournaments....Sania no doubt has brought Womens tennis into limelight in India but she has done little of note to be honored with lifetime achievement awards.
I think the we should stop idolizing & creating media publicized demi gods like our cricketers, Anju George, Sania mirza and start concentrating and encouraging the guys that go unnoticed....Indian Hocket team, shooter, boxers, chess players etc....
As somebody said "We did our part by participating, thats what counts...winning is only a bonus"...unfortunately thats been the kind of attitude that has been inculcated in us since we are kids.....what we see is what we learn.....
the Olympics is not only about participating...its about winning too....I think we have participated enough...its time to start winning...atleast take the right steps towards winning.....
The classic example of how things have gone to worse can be seen by the sheer lackluster performance of the mens hockey team...once the Badshah's of the world with a lot of Gold medals...we had come to a stage where we had to play the qualifiers...and now we have hit the rock bottom....we failed to qualify for the olympics.....that should serve as an eye opener to a lot of people that something needs to be done....
Some might say....."in India we concentrate on studies and not on sports"....I would say "why not" sports are a form of expression....we need to have some kind of exposure to sports as it gives you a different platform to excel....why should we only excel in studies....as such most of the schools in the indian system only require you to memorize things and mechanically solve the problems from the last "10 years" to pass the final exam. Are we blind to believe that only people of india study, and others dont ? Look at China, germany and other major countries....they are developing as a nation....in research, education, manufacturing, sports etc....
The basic flaw I think is in the system that is not being able to identify and nurture the talents at an early stage....people get into sports teams with influence, bribing, seniority etc....that is not the right way to build you infrastructure...and more over we are teaching the kids that you can get anything with influence, bribe etc....and that hardwork is just one of the ways to achieve the goal when on the contrary it should be preached that HARDWORK is the ONLY way to achieve your goals....
I can go on & on....now I can only hope that we win some medals to justify the 1 billion population tag that India has.....
We as a nation cry or erupt in joy with the performance of the Indian Cricket Team...the "Alpha, Beta and the Gamma" of Indian sports. The kind of recognition, fame, money and media coverage that these cricketers get is envied by all the other sports men & women. People like Dhoni...who has not even achieved a lot in like is given Rajiv Khel Ratna award.....thats the highest honor given to a Indian sports person....was Kapil Dev awarded with that ? Sunil Gavaskar ? And ask any indian cricket fan....who has contributed more to Indian cricket (so far) Dhoni or Kapil/gavaskar/Dravid/Ganguly ? Dhoni has no doubt transformed the Indian ODI team but I think the government should have taken their time as they did in SACHIN's case....8 yrs !!!!!!! Same with Sania mirza....she is honored like crazy at all the award ceremonies and people turn a cold shoulder to Leander Paes and Mahesh Bhupati who actually win tournaments....Sania no doubt has brought Womens tennis into limelight in India but she has done little of note to be honored with lifetime achievement awards.
I think the we should stop idolizing & creating media publicized demi gods like our cricketers, Anju George, Sania mirza and start concentrating and encouraging the guys that go unnoticed....Indian Hocket team, shooter, boxers, chess players etc....
As somebody said "We did our part by participating, thats what counts...winning is only a bonus"...unfortunately thats been the kind of attitude that has been inculcated in us since we are kids.....what we see is what we learn.....
the Olympics is not only about participating...its about winning too....I think we have participated enough...its time to start winning...atleast take the right steps towards winning.....
The classic example of how things have gone to worse can be seen by the sheer lackluster performance of the mens hockey team...once the Badshah's of the world with a lot of Gold medals...we had come to a stage where we had to play the qualifiers...and now we have hit the rock bottom....we failed to qualify for the olympics.....that should serve as an eye opener to a lot of people that something needs to be done....
Some might say....."in India we concentrate on studies and not on sports"....I would say "why not" sports are a form of expression....we need to have some kind of exposure to sports as it gives you a different platform to excel....why should we only excel in studies....as such most of the schools in the indian system only require you to memorize things and mechanically solve the problems from the last "10 years" to pass the final exam. Are we blind to believe that only people of india study, and others dont ? Look at China, germany and other major countries....they are developing as a nation....in research, education, manufacturing, sports etc....
The basic flaw I think is in the system that is not being able to identify and nurture the talents at an early stage....people get into sports teams with influence, bribing, seniority etc....that is not the right way to build you infrastructure...and more over we are teaching the kids that you can get anything with influence, bribe etc....and that hardwork is just one of the ways to achieve the goal when on the contrary it should be preached that HARDWORK is the ONLY way to achieve your goals....
I can go on & on....now I can only hope that we win some medals to justify the 1 billion population tag that India has.....
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