this is not confirmed but in the weekly management meeting, league decided to ban mucc team for 2 games for sending threatening email to management. lets wait to see when they will make announcement. hopefully not on friday evening.
rup you probably did not read mucc's email. it is in the previous thread. tariq only likes to threaten but not receive - uno communicado or uno-threatenado. yes i said i will start rumor but this is inside news---andar khabar. lets wait for announcement on friday the 8th - 888.
-------- SpeedSensation said... Finger of death said... but when an MCC team goes out to play the CER, I want it to be the *best* damn players, regardless of age. Let the best 18-year-olds play in the U19 team.. they can be part of the MCC team when they are actually the *best players* in MCC, not when theyre the "best young players" in MCC. ----------------------------------- I can not even begin to say how wrong that comment was. When Tendulkar was brought in at age 16, was he expected to be the best in the indian team? It takes proper exposure to groom youngsters.. what will a 30 year old do getting to play at such a high level..it is the youngsters that absolutely need exposure! How will they get better unless the opposition also gets better?! ------
I suppose we just have a fundamental disagreement here, then :-) I *do* think when Tendulkar was brought into the team at 16 he was brought in because he *was* good enough to play.. not to be the *best* in the Indian team, but good enough to be in the "best 11" in India at the time. He was brought in not on "promise" or as a "prospect", but because he had *performed*.. he had averaged 60+ with the bat over a full Ranji season (including a century on debut), and also scored a century in the Irani Trophy (Ranji champs vs Rest of India, what was the "selection match" before the team was picked for that tour of Pakistan).
I agree that young players should be given exposure - all the exposure we can possibly give them. They should be allowed to play freely IMHO, whenever and for whoever they want - especially Div One games, where they can get high level exposure and improve (you improve more with 14 Div1 games over a season than you do over one weekend of games against anyone IMHO). We should coach them, send out U19 teams to play against other leagues (both within the midwest and outside, to California etc).
But thats as far as it goes, for me. Nobody who is not good enough to be in an all-star-MCC side should ever be picked for an all-star-MCC side, no matter if he is young or old. The all-star-MCC side that goes for the CER tournament should be the *best 14 players* in the MCC, IMHO. The all-star-MCC side, the CER team that goes to the Western Regionals, the USA team itself.. those teams, if there are 2 players who are equal, then you can choose the younger.. but only if they *are* equal to start with. Those teams, IMHO, should consist of the *best* possible players, regardless of youth. Youth can be allowed to develop at the U19 level, at the league level, with as much exposure as possible.. but IMHO you dont devalue the strength of your top team, ever - let the young guys make it on ability and performance, let them not be handed spots just because theyre young.
c8w
P.S. The Mini-World-Cup idea, I agree with entirely - its a fun tournament, an exhibition, we should have a special youth team in it if we can, always. Thats different from the CER tournament or the Western Regionals - those are the Holy Grail, and should be treated as such (something our league and our region has never done, much to our detriment).
good job atif kya khandala, i will be there. rup can you bring music and the big cooking pot. can someone also bring grill. shashi, can we video tape event???? also, any sponsors??
Thanks so much for organizing the blogger's game. What exactly is the plan? Uniforms - white or colours? How are the team going to be picked? Since it's 5 hours, are we doing 30 or 20 overs? Who is our ump? Are there any more questions I should be asking? :)
8/9/2008 Springfield CCI - CCI 8/9/2008 Q.C. Kings Chicago Fire - Q.C. Kings 8/9/2008 Eagles Chicago Giants - Eagles 8/10/2008 Jolly Rovers Arena - Jolly Rovers 8/10/2008 Collinsville IIT - IIT 8/10/2008 Madison Illinois - Illinois collins will deliver the goods this week 8/10/2008 Evanston Jaguars - Evanston 8/10/2008 Hammond Lucky XI - Hammond
Adi said: Are there any more questions I should be asking? :)
Yes, "What do we do for dinner?"
For the All Star Bloggers game, we can get biriyani and side dish to cater to both veggie and non-veggie players (+ spectators) from a nearby rest...we can try to get it sponsored by MCC.
For prize distribution, can we conveniently ignore the word "Bloggers" from the event name?
This game was a great thriller with all the drama and suspense involved....
Flames won the toss and elected to field first, the outfield at Heritage park was heavy with some rain before the game, and WC started their innings slowely. WC was about 25 for no loss when the first wicket fell(Sweth), and in the same over Sumeet was also out bowled. Romeen got out to a ball from Yousuf and wildcats were suddenly 30/3. WC was 52/3 at 20 overs, and ajit n vikram started slowely but began to hit some good shots to accelerate a bit, and when we thought the game was under control Ajit holed out to long on trying to clear to boundary. Krishna played a small quick knock and got out getting a couple runs. Nikhil joined Vikram and they played sensible cricket, and once vikram got out to a well made 40 or so WC started loosing wickets, and we ended up getting 128 runs in 38 runs all out.
WC came out hard in the field throwing their bodies at everything as the score to defend was only 128, but Flames opening pair was playing well with Ram and Fahad playing well and aggressive, and after about 4-5 overs the spinners were brought on, and all of a sudden the runs dried up, and in one over ram was lured to come down to a flighted delivery and he missed the ball, and Vikram took the bails off, but he was given not out which was a bit harsh on us, but it got even as the next ball ram gave a catch at square leg where Giri took a good low catch, then in the next over i got Fahad to shuffle across to be plumb. Suddenly Flames lost 2 quick wickets, and that was the time Venkat and Kiran came to the wicket, and they started playing sensible cricket as the score to chase was not big. Flames were going very well not taking any risks and happy to get 2-3 an over, and out of no where Venkat played one ball in the air and Krishna at point took a very good catch flying high into the air and jugling his catch to perfection.
At this point we thought that we had a chance as flames still needed around 80 runs, but Krishna joined Kiran and they started playing well, Krishna was taking his chances, and krishna got 2 chances which were a bit tough ones, and one of them hurt Nikhil's left hand. At that point Flames needed 45 runs in about 11 overs with 7 wickets in hand, and at that point once again the partnership breaker was krishna(WC), moving fast and sending a direct thorw to the bowler to get Kiran runout and this was a crucial wicket. WC had a spring in their feet all of a sudden, Prakash bowling full payed dividends as he yorked Krishna, and at this time Flames needed around 35 runs with 5 wickets remaining, Sanjay and Krishna cleaned up the tail and WC won by about 22 runs... This was absolutely one of the best games i have played, we put our heart out on the field to defend the score.....
We had a few arguments on the field but all in all a good game .... Sorry fellow bloggers if this summary was a bit longer than usual...
QC Kings v/s Chicago Fire -------------------------
QC Kings beat Chicago Fire by 135 Runs. Hari Kiran scored his second successive hundred (119 off 75 balls 7x4 9x6) of this season. Balaji and Madhu scored 23 and 24 respectively. Rest of the batsmen chipped in to make it 244 / 7 in a 35 over game.
Chasing 245 Chicago fire were bundled out for 109 courtesy Arun Kumar Sharma AKA Raj 4/15 and Dimpy 3/21.
Madison won the toss and elected to bat first. ICC started off with 8 fielders and got to 10 when the couple of guys who were lost made it in.(I don't know when ICC will be able to Field a full 11..21 guys on the rooster).
Madison look to be agressive off the bat with Julius swing for the stars. I got him caught behind in the 3rd over and then got the #3 Lb in the next over. With Kevin getting the # 4 shortly after Madison were about 30 for 3 in 10 overs. Then there was a great partnerhip on the go with some sensible running and smart hitting. Madison went in at 96 for 3 20 over. The came out Firing and soon they were about 160 before we got the break through. I Brought Collins on to pull a Murali for ICCand that he did. 2 wickets in his first over including the open bat who made about 75 with. Madison was sittin at 178 for 5 with 10 overs to go. The struggled in to be all out for 220 in 38 overs. The new turf look like a Batting Paradise so i told my guys we will get this runs easily if we play smart crciket as the bowlers will not get any help. I opened the innings with our #9 & 10 bat. Youdeo and Raj. Youdeo played agressive while Raj played the anchor. Youdeo got out in the 5th over with a quick 20 and I went in at 3 feeling I can set my team up for the chase. Like i said a batting strip and bowlers not getting much help. Well. I took it to the bowlers and got out in the 18th over for a slow 67 with the score at 131. Collins got bowled First ball and ICC camp looked derailed. I told the guys we need 4runs per over to win from here and the ground is fast. So the Guys took it from there in 1 and 2's and the odd boundry and we were sitting nicely at 180 for 3. Dan got out and energy Madison. All this time Raj was playing a gem of an innings. Aaron got out leaving us needing 27 to win and 4 wickest in hand. when George got Run out from a superb bit of fieldind and direct hit we need 22 with 3 wickest, Game on, and I was chain smoking now. Overs were plenty so Raj took it in ones and twos with the Kid Kevin and brought us home with 4 overs to spare.Raj not out 62. What an innings from Him.. the best one he has played for ICC as a memeber. I hope he keeps this up and.
Yep Guys, It was a win ICC needed badly. Congrats to all the winners. May There be better days for the loosers as the race to the playoffs is here.
Sheky how ya do'n. Man am gonna mis the party tomorrow.. Have fun and a cold one on me guys.
Guys I was pushing hard for this so i will feel bad if i don't contribute. $25.00 on me for food, drinks, whatever. Adi/shekhs can one of you cover this $25.00 for me and i will gladly re-imburse you on our next night game??.
Madew, Unfortunately, that game got postponed....as Faisal and salman's father was seriously ill and was on the ventilator. It will be rescheduled for another day....
I can get ya too. We can square it up over a few cold ones at the night games.
ps. What happened that day of the Royal's game? We went to Fox n' hound and played some pool, ate some wings, and got some nice tall ones. Where were you?
yay india won a gold in the olympics. It was great to finally hear the anthem during prize distribution:). sheki u have to wait to get a hello from me, i am flying this week.
Deep.. That sucks man.. come and say hello the next time you bump into me.. did you send a note to Atif, so that he can get someone else to play instead of you..?
Good win rup and good knock too. Did Jack play ? He said you would do it this time. Congrats ! Does anybody have an update on IIT/Collinsville game. 35 all out. hmmn! They almost beat our record. We played Chicago Giants. It is nice to play against teams like Chicago Giants. Good people. Games played with a friendly atmosphere is always nice. Glad we got Atif out. we would have been in trouble otherwise. Good luck with the rest of your games, Giants.
Thanks Preetam. ..It's was a fighting win and boy did we need that in ICC.. We were starting to think we ain't gonna beat anyone anymore after loosing 4 in a row.. No, Jack did not play in this one.. had to work but he was cheerleading all the way. hope he has free text messaging???
also sundays game was the best weather i played in a long long time. san diego's weather today reminds me of chicago on sunday, perfect to play cricket or any outside sport.
sheki, it looks like its only two of us that are chatting. also, i want mucc to thank me for making sure they did not get suspended. since i broke the news before they said anything, the management decided to not take action. in trying to prove me wrong, a team has been not fined. i think i am proud of that.
i go with my friend sheki, his team will win toss and score 174. shiraz team will lose toss(elementary my dear watson) and score 156 for 8. umpire sadiq will give 2 lbw decisions and 12 not out lbw decisions.
------- DeepDownWithin said... umpire sadiq will give 2 lbw decisions and 12 not out lbw decisions. -------
12 poor appeals being turned down, Id actually be quite happy with that ratio :-)
Actually, I didnt "officially" reconfirm the committment to umpiring, cos Iam uncertain of making it there for a 6pm start. But I'll defn be there a bit after that and happily take over umpiring then (or, if necc, commentary or just cheerleading :-) Should be a fun evening..
sheki can you kick my dear friend romo for not being active on blog??? just for that he should bring his girl friends to todays game, or should he(since i am not there)???
Deep/Shekhs, I'm not active on the blog cuz I'm spending every waking moment either working or playing cricket! Hope to be there tonight if work and my old legs permit.
After a year of planning, the Bloggers Cricket match was finally played at Hanover Park this evening. The turn out was great and boy was it fun!!
The two captains, Shekhs and Shiraz picked the teams (pick up style) and then Shekhs won the toss and chose to bat. The batting card is shown below - Aditya played some good shots, while Naren and I added some valuable runs at the end.
Shekhs XI Farhan - 4(10) - LBW Atif Shekhs - 13(9) - Bowled Atif Ram - 0(1) - Ct Wajid, Bowled Atif Aditya - 22(15) - Ct Wajid, Bowled Asim Ehsan - 11(9) - Ct off Sameer Jaggi - 0(2) - R/O Romeen Asmar - 18(26) - Ct Wajid, Bowled Shiraz (Have to hear about it for weeks now!!!) Preetam - 0(2) - Ct off Usman Chirag - 0(4) - Ct Wajid, bowled Ali Naren - 16(16) - Bowled Amir Sajid - 3(4) - N/O Bilal - 10(10) - Ct off Asim
Total - 130
In response, it was the Shiraz show with Sameer putting the final touches. They reached the target with couple overs to spare.
Shiraz XI Romeen - 9 - Ct Preetam, Bowled Ahsan Shiraz - 54 - Retired (good thing cuz i would have got him :-)) Amir - 14 - Ct Chirag, Bowled Naren Samir - 30 - Retired Wajid - 0 - R/O Usman - 8 - Ct Adi, bowled Asmar Imran - 0 - R/O Farhan Ali - 5* Atif - 5*
It was a good game played in great spirit and it was loads of fun. Hopefully we can avenge the loss next year :-)
Thanks to Shekhs, Atif, Shiraz and all other bloggers who helped put this together. It was fun!!
Asmar - Thanks for putting up the score card right away and thanks for everyone that participated. Turnout was great (30+), good food, drinks and VIP beverages thanks to (T Man).
Lets work together to make this a annual event. Also congrats to Alpesh on his HATRICK.
lively game. Atif, thank you for the meticulous organising. Shekhs, thx for the food, Shiraz, asmar, ram, alpesh etc thank you for bringing the rest of the stuff. C8w, thank you for umpiring. All others, thank you for making this a fun event. We really need to make this an annual bash. Alpesh, i left at 1.15 am. And when I left Shekhs and Sadiq where still going at it. Nice catch Adi. Well bowled Asmarand Ihsan. Well played everybody.
Thanks, but the highlight of our fielding was your keeping. I had not idea you were that good!!! Good to know... :)
Good batting from Shiraz and Sameer.
Thanks T-man for the VIP beverages. Good catching up.
Shekhs, Tushar, see you guys on Sunday. Looks like the weather forecast is clearing up, so hopefully we will get a good game in. Looking forward to it.
Another smear campaign against arguably the greatest indian batsman ever. Only Gavaskar compares.
Ram, the fact that the W.I loss was blamed on Tendulkar is another case of people not understanding the concept of team. A test loss, let alone series loss (same for win), is not the responbility of the individual. It is always the team.
But noone will ever blame Ganguly or Dravid or Laxman because they are all secondary. None shoulder the expectation of millions, the adulation of millions, and the blame of millions. It is only Tendulkar.
If cricket is a team sport, then let's not glorify individuals as the world's best or greatest ever batsman/bowler...or whatever..it doesn't make sense at all if their individual achievements do not benefit the team. When I say "benefit", I don't mean victories against Bermuda, Kenya or Zimbabwe. Such victories/centuries are inconsequential.
If you glorify him/her in a team sport, then you HAVE to calibrate his personal achievements against the success of his/her team.
Ram, Seriously dude...last night...at least I thought you were high on beer...whats your excuse now.. :-) Its like me trying to make Dravid play alongside Prabhakar.. now, if you say cricket is a teamsport, why are you so bent on putting the blame on Tendulkar and why do you single him out..
going back to World cup 2003 (since we talked about that last nite..), I cant believe you said - Tendulkar got out the first over irresponsibly.. He almost single handedly brought India to the finals..and our man Ganguly threw it away by opting to bowl instead of bat in johannesburg.. what did the other guys do? What did your GOD - Rahul dravid do? :-)
Your criticisms, like others, is only because you hate to see him fail in the big games. But if Dravid fails, it's ok. Again, Tendy gets the blame always!
Here is an important statistic that was posted by a cricket fan on cricinfo recently:
"Since 1999, India has won 36 test matches. Most surprisingly Sachin Tendulkar was not man of the match in a single match. It shows he is not a match winning player. On the other hand man of the match award in these winning matches have gone to: Kumble -7, Dravid - 5, Harbhajan - 5, Sehwag - 3, Ganguly - 2, Laxman - 2 and Zaheer Khan - 2."
I'm not sure how many matches Sachin has saved for India and played a solitary role in the games that we lost during this period. But, the above statistic clearly highlights how much we're in awe of a single player and how the real match winners in the team are not recognized and appreciated as much as Sachin Tendulkar.
Shekhs is right. Let me remind you of a match winning innings against our rivals - Pakistan. With arguably the best bowling line up in the world - Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib. Or his knock against SL. Or England!
Ram, you forget all that he has done and how well he has done it - alone, in a team of 11.
I'm just one of those guys who think Tendulkar doesn't deserve the "demi-god" status and that he's just one of the greatest cricketers alongside Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and many others.
Dravid did had a very good World Cup 2003 ... He was very consistent in that world cup ...
Again ... it is because we had Dravid, Sachin, Saurav, Laxman in the middle order ..our middle order has been really solid from 2000-2008 ... Earlier when Sachin alone was there .. our middle order was not cosidered that solid ... It is the combination and variety these 4 brought to the team .. that scared the other teams ...
Maverick, The Demi-God status was thrust on him by the mass and the media....
I agree that he's just another great cricketer, but why does he get singled out the moment he fails in one series....?
What most people dont realize and contemplate is that each cricketer and their assigned role for the team is different...so your career shapes up with respect to that role.. You cannot compare Dravid to Tendulkar.....as their roles are entirely different..
But, my beef is when people pull out ridiculous numbers to just put down Tendulkar when he has spent the last 18 years of his life playing for the country..and puts more than 200% every game... beat that...
Ram, You just did blame Tendulkar for not performing in the finals... What do you expect out of donald bradman to do when you are chasing 349 in 50 overs against the 2003 Australian side..
Aditya said: Time for one of the greats to retire with dignity.
Adi - Its time all the greats retire with dignity within a span of a year or two. It cannot happen overnight simply because of a series loss to Srilanka. Just look at what happened when Yuvraj was fitted into the test team in Australia recently?
I suspect Tendulkar will be the last to retire and I don't have an issue with it. But it will be poetic injustice (for Rohit Sharmas of the world) if he waits to become the player with most test caps. We all know, and I know you won't agree, he is precisely waiting to get that record in his bag before he retires.
Shekhs said... Ram, You just did blame Tendulkar for not performing in the finals... What do you expect out of donald bradman to do when you are chasing 349 in 50 overs against the 2003 Australian side..
Your criticisms, like others, is only because you hate to see him fail in the big games. But if Dravid fails, it's ok. Again, Tendy gets the blame always!
Yes, I agree. If Dravid fails it NOT ok for me.
Tendy gets the blame because of the blind adulation he carries over his "match winning" capabilities. He has to win big games.
You go to the Olympics, you do extremely well in the qualification rounds and miss out in the finals? Would you be crowned champion?
I agree, the masses and the sensationalist media are to be blamed for the demi-god status, not Tendulkar.
What I don't understand is why the comparison between Tendulkar and Dravid inevitably comes up when talking about either Tendulkar or Dravid.
On second thoughts, it's good that Ram and Aditya have brought up the Tendulkar vs Dravid comparison. One, it made the blog lively and two, I started writing on this blog. I wish this debate was started yesterday so that I could've played in the blogger's game last night. Now, I'll have wait another year to display my cricketing skills to the blogger community :)
Maverick, It was one of the issues raised last nite that we dont talk any interesting topics any more.. I'm glad you found a reason to write ... We all need to make good effort to come up with something interesting and positive to keep the blog going..
thanks to Ram and Adi.. :-) Ram, Did you know that Satha named his son after Sachin... :-) And he is Sri Lankan.. :-)
Maverick said: What I don't understand is why the comparison between Tendulkar and Dravid inevitably comes up when talking about either Tendulkar or Dravid.
Maverick, I did not start the comparison. This is for Adi & Shekhs to answer.
Tendulkar isn't playing and has never played for any records. I'm sure he aspires to them, and as long as his body lets him, and he is averaging over 50 (before the SL series :)) then why not? Let him get the records. What I will point out to you is that I cannot think of even once instance when Tendulkar cost us a game going for records or personal glory. If anything, personal glory has come because he has done so well for the country and won so many games.
Next, you say he is not a match winner, but that is not true. He has won the most test matches for India. He has won the most one day games for India. Check the records. He has been India's best player for years. All this on sub-par teams where the likes of Manoj Prabhakar opened the batting and bowling!!
If you said, he is not a match winning T20 player, then I could agree with you. He is not.
As for the comparisons, it's because the closest Indian player to him is Dravid, and even he pales in comparison. But Dravid in his own right is/was great.
And before the Tendulkar discussion came up, I said this earlier to Sadiq (a few weeks ago on the blog) about Dravid earlier. He needs to retire and with the dignity he deserves for truly being one of the all-time greats. Soon after, Kumble , then Ganguly, and Laxman. All this over the next year or two. But Dravid should be at the end of the next series. I think Tendulkar can keep playing for the next 2-3 years if his body allows it.
Basically, lets not diminish Tendulkar's amazing achievements based on our lofty expectations. And lets not do the same to Dravid, though it hardly happens.
damn, i missed out on the fun yesterday. i think you have all covered all points, but failed to address one point. can someone ask sachin to stop acting in commercials????? in my last trip to india, sachins ads came up every other minute in every other channel, trauamatised my tv watching experience. and so did amitabh. the latest is that he has signed up for a bollywood movie. stop this insanity !!!!!
also, i cannot watch any more kolkotta ipl matches.... cannot see SRK. can we stop bollywoodising cricket????????? i have stopped watching tv, movies in an effort to not see SRK......now, does he want me to stop watching cricket???
This goes for all Desi actors and celebrities. They whore themselves for money and that includes print ads and tv commercials. With that in mind its possible that we may still see Inziman do a add for condoms Sathi and Azhar for Nirodh.
when people refer to sachin as god, they say bcos Good On his Day. there is no god or anything. the concept of god was created to bring fear in people lives. they are all players like you and me. they have a little more talent than you and me and are lucky to play cricket as a full time job, thats it. all i expect is a full hearted effort, sometimes u score and sometimes you dont. the only time i get mad when someone gets out is when they are too casual about it
Guys, I thought we were suppose to talk about "Predictions and Results" of midwest games or least thats what the title says. But I hardly see 3 to 4 coments regarding that. Otherwise, we should change our blog titles to Int. Cricket Talks, rather than "Predictions and Results"
touchpoint dont get too touchy about this. we bloggers are chilled about any topic. as a case in point, your comment also did not contain any value for the topic. so just blog, no whining
"Not sure if leg-umpiring decisions will improve though, What do u say Romeen/Appu :) ?"
Ram, I agree with you. I don't think the umpiring standards can improve any more, because with me and Appu, they'd already reached the pinnacle of perfection :) Wajid's run out was one of the best decisions I've ever seen,LITERALLY. :)
"you cannot improve on perfection", right romeen. BTW: Sameer khan came and told me after the game that he was out of the crease when he was stumped ( in jaggi's bowling ). I guess there is room for improvement there.
Also Preetam Sir ... It was not me or Romeen umpiring at that time .. We had someone else umpiring at that time ... So our umpiring was perfect .. no questions :-)
btw .. another ques ... Who was the 'Man Of the Match' in Sachin's first test match at home(India)?
----- Alpesh said... btw .. another ques ... Who was the 'Man Of the Match' in Sachin's first test match at home(India)? ------
Was trying to reconstruct his career in my head, with all the away tests to start with (Pak, NZ, Eng, Aus).. and I could only come up with the one-off test match in Chandigarh (pre-Mohali) that he played in India before 1993 or so. Against Sri Lanka it was, on a krumbler.. I think the MoM must have been either Ravi Shastri (who made lots of runs on in a low-scoring game), or else Venkatapathy Raju who took wickets as SL collapsed twice. Probably Shastri.
c8w
P.S. Another question - who was MoM in Dravid's first test match at home.. lets see who gets that without looking it up :-)
---- Alpesh said... The previous ques Answer is Raju ... -----
Ah, it only should have been RJS then ;-)
This was the game when there were like 9 ducks scored over 2 innings by the SL batting IIRC. Also may have been the debut (or maybe just the 2nd and 3rd game - all basically resulting in ducks or 1s or so) of Marvan Attapattu.. I oughta look it up but Iam feeling lazy :-)
We were allout for 77 in 27 overs and IIT chased that at the loss of 3 wickets in 15 or 17 overs I suppose ...
Vijay was the Man of the Match as per me ... In his first 5 over spell, he picked 5 of the top 6 wickets for 14 runs ... He was getting very big inswings.
------- Ramsundar Lakshminarayanan said... Eagles beat Madison by 6 wickets Madison, batting first scored 245 in 40 overs (I don't have the details). In response Eagles chased the score in 34.4 overs, aided by a century stand for the first wicket. (Mankesh 59, Seshu 65, Amit 35, Subbu 36). --------
I know more, I know more :-)
Huge near-top-of-the-table clash this - with regular season champ heading to Div1, the Eagles (with 2 losses) and Madison (with 2.5 losses) were 2 of 3 teams in pole position.
Madison's new pitch is terrific for batting, and the outfield is now brown and lightning quick (and Madison was also missing a couple main bowlers). But even so, a terrific win and a highly impressive, thoroughly professional chase for hte Eagles.
Eagles won the toss and put Madison in, and bowled very well early. Sheshu bowled beautifully with no luck at all (5-2-7-0, with at least 8-10 plays-and-misses outside off), and Amit bowled very well for his 2 wickets. Madison was 40/0 after 10, and 86/3 in 20. They then got some terrific batting from Ramnesh (56), Ankur (38) and Murari (39*) to carry their score all the way up to 245 in 40 overs - 80 came between 20 and 30, and 81 off the last 10 overs!
On the lightning fast outfield, however, even this proved to be much too low! Seshu and Mankesh took the attack apart right from the get-go - 82/0 in the first 10 overs, 102/0 after 12 (when the restrictions ended), putting the Eagles in control with run-rate never an issue. Terrific batting from both openers (Mankesh 59 off 37 took the early lead going after the bowlers, Seshu then took over as Mankesh relaxed, with 65 off 48). Ankur bowled some very nice offspin and claimed both openers, but 35 from Amit and 36 from Subbu settled the issue rapidly and quite conclusively. Eagles were actually 225/3 after 30 overs (only 21 to win in 10 overs), before eventually slowing down and getting the target with 5.2 overs to spare.
This propels the Eagles to the top of the table currently (they have 40 points with 2 games left). If they win out, only IIT can end up with more points (and thats if *they* win out - they have 4 games left IIRC). Its coming down to a very interesting race for #1 (with a place in Div1 as a reward) at the end of the season.
Royals v/s WC. WC had another narrow escape.The Royals team is a great bunch, very friendly and sporting. I guess I'll let Naren do the customary summary. On a different note, I guess props are due to Humayun Baqai for doing an excellent job with the grounds at WP. Also, one of my favorite players in the league scored 97 in 49 balls!Guddu, you rock! And don't we all want to eat what Faisal's been eating these days?!
--------- Romeen said: And don't we all want to eat what Faisal's been eating these days?! -----
I can report that it was pizza for lunch yesterday (the options were one with chicken, and a couple with jalapenos and pineapple), and for dinner it was Chicken Chettinad and Lamb Biryani (at Chit's restaurant in Peoria, Sizzling India - where the Andhra-style food is pretty damn good, actually). It was, actually, pretty much the same thing I ate yesterday too.. unfortunately I never have been and never will be able to play an innings like that in my life. I can still see the monstrous six he lauched over cover off Madhu that sailed miles over the boundary (and, actually, the ball ended up lost in the tall-grass, and we had to get a new one and rub some wear-and-tear onto it on the ground before continuing).Ive umpired Fais for a while, but have never seen him bat the way he is this season.
Meanwhile, BTW, let me be the first (and probably the only one, since I dont have to play against him :-) to welcome Ashhar back to our league. Obviously one of the finest glovemen around, he made a nice little comeback yesterday - merely 81 with the bat with 7 sixes against one of the best spin attacks in the league. PakGym's loading up to try and reclaim their title apparently :-)
-------- Romeen said... On a different note, I guess props are due to Humayun Baqai for doing an excellent job with the grounds at WP. Also, one of my favorite players in the league scored 97 in 49 balls!Guddu, you rock! --------
I agree, WP is looking very nice this year - and its about as big as it could be, too. My only issue is with the HPs - Heritage and Hanover - which are both smaller than they could be (and smaller than they were last year).. they can be made the same size as last year again easily enough.
And I second the Guddu-emotion BTW - sounds like a fantastic knock from one of the nicest guys and most talented batsmen around. Pity his team seems to have fallen just short on the chase (again! Theyre in serious jeopardy now this year, and have had no luck at all - they lost to Peoria by 2 runs, lost to Milwaukee by 6 runs IIRC, and seem to have lost this one by about 20-odd runs).
Meanwhile, how about Rogers Park's win, huh? Bilal's performance in the BloggersBall obviously did his confidence plenty of good - 40 off 4 overs by the last pair to pull off a win 300 miles from home (in a do-or-die-for-playoffs situation) must surely make for one of the most memorable games ever watched or played in by those lucky enough to be there!
An excellent opening spell from Sanjay and Vishal put Phoenix in a heap of trouble as they lost quick wickets with very low run rate..
That was probably the best spell Sanjay bowled this year, very impressive.. With Vishal bowling tight from the other end, Phoenix were barely managing 2 runs an over.. They were 46 for 5 in 23.. Then came DC, who maneuvered the inning with a very effective knock..and with a cameo from shiva, Phoenix managed to put up 117.
Challengers started disastrously..losing Darshan and Bandish in the first over with the score at 0 for 2. Arun bowled extremely well to bother challengers. Mahesh played a short but very effective knock and got out to a brilliant catch at short 3rd man. Challengers were 40 odd runs for 3 wickets. Phoenix stayed in the game picking up wickets frequently and it was heading for a nail biter.. Buchia and Nilesh put up the match winning partnership taking Challengers all the way until 10 runs away from the W and thats when Nilesh got bowled by Samir.. Challengers tail managed to see it off without much damage..
------ Shekhs said... Congrats to all the winners.. -----
How about a report, Sheks? The Phoenix-Challengers game was full of bloggers, and it sounded like it turned into a quite terrific contest actually. (Also a report from another good-sounding game, the Royals/Wildcats one, would be cool - either Narine or Romjin care to send it in? :-)
I had a bad weekend .. on Sat while playing andSunday while umpiring ..
I think I made two mistakes ... I allowed a fielder to field with a gym glove since he had recently removed stiches from his palm and could see a bulge on his palm from the injury ...
In other instance, the space betn the leg and middle stump was much so that the ball went through it .. but did not distub anything .. so did rule the batsman notout ...
Sadiq Sir .. would like to know your views on this .. so that I do not repeat the same mistakes again ....
Guys, I was looking through the players list for the mini world cup. I'm curious to know the selection criteria for this event.
I don't know a lot of the players on the list, but one person who made it to the list caught my attention. He played 9 games this year with an aggregate of 30 runs and he doesn't bowl or keep wickets. Just curious as to how he made the cut to play along side supposedly the best players of this league.
cubbyB, don't worry about that. I think players like that will be filtered out when the final teams are selected. Please have faith in the selectors until then. alpesh, i am curious. in the second instance how did the bail stand with the wickets being so far apart ? Hmmn! you should have taken a picture. And I hope in the first instance the fielder with the stitches was keeping. There can never be a fielder with artificial protection except for the keeper. Bandage i think is ok.
Preetam, Even if it is just a list of probables, it still baffles me how someone with an aggregate of 30 runs make it to the list when there are so many other players who performed much better than that.
Are you one of the selectors for the mini world cup? Are you giving an assurance, as a selector, that there won't be any bias in the selection of the players?
Alpesh, An an umpire, it is your responsibility to set the stumps properly. Your decision to not give the batsman out was probably right, but it was an error on your part to not set the wickets properly.
Hopefully, your decision didn't have any material impact on the outcome of the game.
Shekhs, You gained a lot of respect from me right after the league elections earlier this year, especially the way you handled all the nasty comments on this blog. And just when there was a little bit of doubt creeping into my mind, you responded in a way that only increased my respect for you.
CubbyBear, No I am not a selector. I am not connected with the administration in any way. I am just a mere player playing in this league for the past 7 years. My statement was made on the premise that all are innocent until proven guilty. The player selected might have just been an oversight. And I am prepared to give that to the selectors. Thx Shekhsy. As always..reliable.
On a different note. This is to all my pakistani friends. How is the " musharraf resigning" thing going to affect pakistan ? Just curious. Wanted to know the inside story other than what is being fed through the news channels. If this is a sesnsitive topic please ignore it. I am just curious thats all.
Well Sadiq, I don’t know if my name got changed, score cards say narain or something and now u come up with something new. This one is for Sadiq so a bit long n boring !!!! Either way the game with Royals was a pretty good one, and all I can say is that Cats are on thin Ice as far as it goes for the road to the playoff’s. Wildcats elected to bat first after winning the toss and started badly loosing Swetal early. Krishna came one down and along with Romeen was playing sensibly rotating the strike. Krishna got out to Charlie after scoring 16 runs, and Ajit joined Romeen and the score was moving along a bit slowely. Romeen was playing pretty well, but he got out trying to accelerate the scoring. Vikram came in next but he got out soon without troubling the scorer, Nikhil joined Ajit and they were in the process of consolidating the boat with some sensible batting, and in the process our run rate dropped quiet a bit from the initial start we got.
Ajit then got out to a very good catch from Rupesh who took it running back, and that was a big wicket we lost and the score was not even 100 at that point of time. We lost Nikhil and after sometime and we lost wickets in a heap to be in a precarious position which looked similar to the ones we played against Flames. Me and Giri had a point to prove as the lower order did not contribute any thing in terms of some runs this season and we scored enough runs, and in the end that helped us in winning the game, Giri played very well to score 16 runs, and I contributed 4 runs and boy I was so happy to be on the score sheet for the first time this season…. And we ended up scoring 158 runs in 45 overs.
Royals started their chase with intent sending Manish and Bharat at the top of the order, both played well and especially Bharat was in his elements playing well and clearing the field. Wildcats have a savior every game and this time it was Prakash who was bowling with lot of fire and he got one to bounce more than expected to get an outside edge of Manish. At that point Nilesh joined Bharat and he was playing well till he got a good short ball from Giri to be caught and bowled. Pritesh joined Bharat, but he played too many shots and was out trying to clear the field giving a catch to Ajit at Mid on.
At this point we thought the game was evenly placed as Royals needed around 80 runs with about 7 wickets in hand with ample number of overs in spare. Me and Sanjay started bowling in Tandem and this slowed the scoring abit, but Pritesh and Shetul were batting well and the asking rate was not that huge for them to take any risks. I was not really bowling well in this particular game, and well luck was not on my side either when balls were falling short of fielders or tough chances to the keeper etc.. I got Shetul out with a faster one and even at that time Pritesh was playing really well, and with Charlie joining the party they were looking like taking the game away from us with some sensible batting, and at that point Royals needed about 60 runs with some 20 overs or more remaining, our fielding was getting all ragged misfielding quiet a few in the process and helping the cause of Royals very well. Pritesh tried to cut a ball from Sanjay which was close to him than expected and I was fielding at a fly slip position and the ball was flying away and my initial reaction was to go for the catch which I did but it fell short of me, and Pritesh tried to steal a run to be run out. Soon Charlie tried to steal a couple when there was only a one and Vikram took the bails off when I threw a direct one which only happens once in a while with my throws. At that point Rupesh joined Hetal and both were playing aggressive and they took the required runs to around 20 or so with 4 wickets remaining in around 10 overs or more, Rupesh tried to steal a single when it went straight to Nikhil and that resulted in one more run out. At this point our death bowler Prakash came and cleaned up the tail to give us a victory with around 8-10 runs in spare, and we some how have to find a solution to our batting vows…
We have 3 more games, and all I can say is that never count the cats out, we might be old but we still have the vigor to fight it out….
Hard luck Royals it was a good game, sorry Pritesh it was just not your day….
Fellas, Regarding the Mini World cup.. The committee is still waiting on teams to confirm the availability of the nominated players. If you or any of your teammates feel like you have been left off, please send an email to the email address described on the web site.
The confirmation has to be made by COB tomorrow, or else the committee is going to fill up the slots with random players.
We need at least 78 confirmed players for this tournament, and we don’t even have 60.
So, please talk to your captain/ teammates and confirm the availability.
There is no point blaming the committee for not picking someone because they were in the nominated list. A player will not be picked unless the committee receives a confirmation.
Sadiq, I will have to agree with ur review. Faiz did eat chiken and Jalepenos I think..:) Some protein with hot fire power of Jalapenos..Incidently if see his boundaries only 2 sixes and rest were all on the ground mostly..It was fantastic knock! With Dr Naveed at other end giving ample support its nothin like it...We had absolutely horredous day..but its part life..Deal with it and move on.. I have to add we were utterly dominated on field by 2 batsmen who came with a plan executed to pefection! I have never in 10 years of MWCC have sen a drubbing like that. Actually PCC take pride in bowling attack and for some odd reason nothin worked that day. Right and lefty combination didn't help either. It was culmination of listless bowling to a lefty, right combination and flashing-fast out field. We are in precarious situation in our playoff run and PCC will find a way out to fight it out...After all my experience taught me, every one starts at ground zero come playoffs...Making it to the playoffs is tough mental challenge for all us. We have 3 games to go and we have to WIN all 3 to have realistic shot playoffs. Except for top 2 teams in the roster all are in the same boat! No Wonder Div-I is is PREMIER league in MWCC..Good luck to everyone who are fighting for playoff spots..Let the RUN begin!
Match Report - St Louis vs. Rogers Park ---------------------------- I have not written about a game in a while but I felt that I had to write some details about this game as it was the best game I have ever seen in my short 7 year career at MWCC.
St louis put us in the field and we got off to a great start with Ali bhai cleaning up Sohail bhai in his 2nd over. Then St louis consolidated with Amit and Mujahid who played really well for their 75and 45 respectively. We were undone by poor fielding and dropped catches but Mohtassim bhai and Ali bhai bowled well to pick up 3 each.
So the chase was always going to be tough but our opening pair once again got us off to a flyer, 60 in 8 overs. St louis then picked up a couple wickets and then came a critical partnership between Omair and Faraz bhai. Both got 30 odd and a partnership of 70 odd runs. The determination of this pair, especailly faraz bhai (who was batting with a broken finger) was uplifting.
The game was in the balance as we needed 70 odd in 10 overs with 5 wickets in hand but then we lost 4 wickets in a hurry and then came the closing partnership. Bilal and Henry came together in the last 4 overs to score 40 runs on the last wicket. We needed 27 off the last 2 and Henry turned the game by stepping out and hitting Tehsin for a huge SIX in the 39th over. The last over needed 13 to win and Bilal played a classic cover drive (4), a monster straight SIX, and then picked the slower ball to midwicket for 4 to win the game for us in 3 balls. We are lucky enough to have this comeback all recorded on camera.
It was an unbeleivable comeback win, one that we really needed. This keeps us in the hunt for the playoffs.
"No Wonder Div-I is is PREMIER league in MWCC" ------- dude madhu, your reason for calling div-1 premier is screwed up. div-2 playoffs is also a hot race at this point. faisal, aap ka charan kaha hai??? i can use blessings. this year is the year of eagles. they have something special going on.
Deepdown, I was only speaking relatively to Div-I perspective no offence to Div-II at all...but trust me its different ball game in Div-I ..You have to play it to experience it..!:-) After we were there in Div-II last year...:) Only difference that is balringly visible to eye is Level of competition in each and every game (During season run) is really high..Every game (Comparing Div-I season to Div-II) is contested properly all-way-thru. I agree the competition is the same in playoffs...We do have quite a few good teams in Div-II that are very capable of beating Div-I teams...No taking away credit from them..Hope I did not offend you nor Div-II teams!
asmar, is the video on utube??? rogers park is the surprise dynamite in div-1. it was phoenix till first half of season, looks like they forgot about second half. the most surprising drop off to me this season is icc. they are having their worst probable season.
madison got new mat.... not bad, mgmt has acted on promise. give vote=new mat. is it same mat as in hanover park???? i think it is a good one, what do you think????
DeepDownWithin said... madison got new mat.... not bad, mgmt has acted on promise. give vote=new mat. is it same mat as in hanover park???? i think it is a good one, what do you think????
DDW, are u giving me hints with your last two questions?
i am seriously having those doubts too. Is Deepdown an Eagles player ? As far as i know only Ram travels in our team. Why is deepdown talking about the madison pitch ? We just played them this weekend. Or is it Sadiq ?
if i was sherlock, i would shoot myself looking at your detective work. i travelled one week to san diego and u think i travel every week??? sheki sheki, wakey wakey
---------- Asmar said... Match Report - St Louis vs. Rogers Park ---------------------------- I have not written about a game in a while but I felt that I had to write some details about this game as it was the best game I have ever seen in my short 7 year career at MWCC. -----
Thanks for the report Asmar - sounds like one heck of a match! Thanks in general for the reports, guys (Sheks, Naren et al).. with the playoff run in full-swing and good games being played, its nice to hear a few details.
Asmar - that sounds like a quite ridiculous performance from the tail to win it. Iam especially glad for Henry actually - has shown terrific committment all season long (driving down from Decatur IL to play - good 3 hours each way - sometimes even just to be 12th man!) And Bilal too - 14 off 3 balls to win it in the final over!
Some wonderful games played this weekend in general, actually - in the heart of the playoff race, Rogers Park winning by 1 wicket; Wildcats winning by 12 runs; Challengers winning by 2 wickets; MuslimGym by 28 runs. And if Hammad still reads the blog.. what Id really love to hear details of is the Bears win this weekend, which may even have been the best game of all - beating the Flames by 1 wicket on what looks like, from the scorecard, to have been the last ball of the 45th over! With Shahid Ali 50* at the end (2nd highest score 18), and young U-19er Minhaj coming in at #11 and being 2* at the end! Pretty much every team in the playoff picture played a highly memorable game this weekend (even the United/Peoria game, which ended up not being close, was still highly memorable for other reasons - amongst them a record opening partnership for the league probably, of 249).
I don't think DDW is an Eagles player. With the hints he has given I am leaning on a certain individual who played in the all star bloggers game. He asked me about the Madison pitch while I was leg-umpiring.
Matter of fact, Manish has been in a zone recently..he's been bowling extremely well. I umpired a game for royals and he had a mesmerizing spell moving the ball in and out...
he's an underrated bowler, definitely showing his skills this year..
-------- DeepDownWithin said... "No Wonder Div-I is is PREMIER league in MWCC" ------- dude madhu, your reason for calling div-1 premier is screwed up. div-2 playoffs is also a hot race at this point. -------
Actually, Div2 is usually IMHO almost a better playoff race than Div1 is - its very tight, often has to be decided on run-rate, some good teams end up missing out etc.
However, this year, I really dont think Div2 is that good a race at all - with 12 teams out of 19 going to the playoffs. It might still end up a *race* for the last couple of spots.. but there will be teams making the playoffs for the first time this year with an under-.500 record. And that, IMHO, can never really be considered a good race (in the past, you could be 9-5 in Div2 and still end up missing the playoffs on run-rate! Now *thats* a real race, when good teams who could even win the whole thing were desperately fighting just to get into the playoffs). To me the best race in Div2 this year is actually the "regular season champion" race, for the winner goes directly to Div1. (AAA had 0 losses and 2 rainouts a few weeks ago, now they have 2 losses, effectively 3; Eagles have 2 losses, Madison was 1.5 losses before losing the last 2 weeks, IIT still has 1.5 loss only - but one game under management review, etc).
With 8 out of 17 going to the playoffs this year in Div1, its a *very* good race - especially with Div1 more balanced than ever before. Teams like the Wildcats and Muslim Gym (both champs in the last 3 seasons and entirely capable of winning again if they hit form) are currently desperately fighting to make the playoffs, probably in the 7th or 8th spot each. This year, that is a much better race than in Div2 IMHO.
i agree playoff race is good in div-1 but to say div-1 is better just for the playoff race is like saying i like eggs because of the shell. it is the white and yolk that make egg what it is. wow, deep shayari kar sakta and appu naach nahi sakta :)))) ram, you are way off my eagle friend, u seem to be flying away, rather than toward goal. atif kya khandala, wha are you upto these days?????
yo deep down why not ask the question how div1 is to aaa brothers and capitol from last year and advancers this year they may give u better explanation then sadiq did hmmmm champs from divii fighting for survial to stay in hmmm what does that say
confucius says 'What ya feel and see is what u believe what ya believe is not what you see'
yo, my opposite, i said logic used by madhu was wrong and not the conclusion. someone eat the egg white and yolk and throw the shells at this surface guy. there are teams like milwaukee united which weas in div-2 that did very well in div-1. there are good players in both divisions but more bad players in div-2. it is natural since there are more teams and a lot of them only for entertainment(thank god some of them disappeared this year). div-1 had a lot of such bad teams for a long time before they perished. th egood players in those teams joined good div-1 teams and hence, therefore, thats why, div-1 has lesser number of bad players than div-2. any more questions i will take you from the surface and send you deep down.
also advancers have lost key players. ask your friends, brothers, buddies, pals in phoenix, challengers, wildcats on how they got licked by the advancers.
c8w do a div 1 playoff analysis please. Looks like from points table Challangers, Pak and Milwaukee are confirmed but rest of the spots are up for grabs with some teams close and some not so close.
deepdown ur logic seems to come from deepdown_behind_within simple logic for u Quality of teams is directly proportional to quality of division see how many bottom teams have close games with top teams in each division or look all the games a division has played and see how many close games it had that will give u an idea of the quality of the teams that a division has no didn't get it here is what confucius says 'No matter how you smell ur bottom bent forward or backward it smells the same'
yo ass smelling surface, quality of teams is not proportional to quality of div. unfortunately, div-2 is treated like a city prostitute by management, new teams come and new teams go. no check is done to figure out quality of team. if tomorrow new team comes from minneapolis, it will be welcomed. u let new teams that are not tested to come into you division and then we can see how good or bad or proportional your quality is. couple of years ago and sadiq will re-confirm, div-2 had better players and if there was ever a div-1 vs div-2, div-2 would have beaten div-1. these players eitehr moved out or moved into div-1, so till the next set of new players come, u can keep smeling your ass, bent forward or backward. :)))
i very strongly think that arena should not have been allowed. they are bunch of great guys but travelling all the way there is a pain. we have to go to iowa, st louis, springfield, madison, timbaktooo... why should div-2 teams not be asked before allowing new teams to come in, especially the away teams???? any place that is over 2.5 hours should not be allowed. if they are interested to play in this league they come to chicago.
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finally, this comment section is not predictable. mucc its bad to hear no response from mgmt. sheki can you help mucc????
atif kya khandala, where are you my giant friend :))) need details about bloggers ball. where is all of you???
jaago mere cricket bhaiyon.. jaago. should i start rumor for all of us to get writing????
finally, koi hai joh mere pukar ko suna. maine cricket bhagwan se bahut prarthana kiya. tumhara jawab mera viswas phir se jagaya.
this is not confirmed but in the weekly management meeting, league decided to ban mucc team for 2 games for sending threatening email to management. lets wait to see when they will make announcement. hopefully not on friday evening.
Ban for threatening e-mail..wonder what was in the e-mail???.
Then again Deep said he will start a rumorRRRRRRRR....
Sorry guys, i will miss the bloggers game.. planned vacation..
Deepdownwithin,
You are funny.
funny and rumorous..that is!!!!
deep..
humorous and rumorous huh..and an inside man as well...hmm...
I'm glad that you are trying to make it entertaining in here..
make up some stuff Deep...something new..
rup you probably did not read mucc's email. it is in the previous thread. tariq only likes to threaten but not receive - uno communicado or uno-threatenado. yes i said i will start rumor but this is inside news---andar khabar. lets wait for announcement on friday the 8th - 888.
sheki whats sheking my man????
--------
SpeedSensation said...
Finger of death said...
but when an MCC team goes out to play the CER, I want it to be the *best* damn players, regardless of age. Let the best 18-year-olds play in the U19 team.. they can be part of the MCC team when they are actually the *best players* in MCC, not when theyre the "best young players" in MCC.
-----------------------------------
I can not even begin to say how wrong that comment was. When Tendulkar was brought in at age 16, was he expected to be the best in the indian team? It takes proper exposure to groom youngsters.. what will a 30 year old do getting to play at such a high level..it is the youngsters that absolutely need exposure! How will they get better unless the opposition also gets better?!
------
I suppose we just have a fundamental disagreement here, then :-) I *do* think when Tendulkar was brought into the team at 16 he was brought in because he *was* good enough to play.. not to be the *best* in the Indian team, but good enough to be in the "best 11" in India at the time. He was brought in not on "promise" or as a "prospect", but because he had *performed*.. he had averaged 60+ with the bat over a full Ranji season (including a century on debut), and also scored a century in the Irani Trophy (Ranji champs vs Rest of India, what was the "selection match" before the team was picked for that tour of Pakistan).
I agree that young players should be given exposure - all the exposure we can possibly give them. They should be allowed to play freely IMHO, whenever and for whoever they want - especially Div One games, where they can get high level exposure and improve (you improve more with 14 Div1 games over a season than you do over one weekend of games against anyone IMHO). We should coach them, send out U19 teams to play against other leagues (both within the midwest and outside, to California etc).
But thats as far as it goes, for me. Nobody who is not good enough to be in an all-star-MCC side should ever be picked for an all-star-MCC side, no matter if he is young or old. The all-star-MCC side that goes for the CER tournament should be the *best 14 players* in the MCC, IMHO. The all-star-MCC side, the CER team that goes to the Western Regionals, the USA team itself.. those teams, if there are 2 players who are equal, then you can choose the younger.. but only if they *are* equal to start with. Those teams, IMHO, should consist of the *best* possible players, regardless of youth. Youth can be allowed to develop at the U19 level, at the league level, with as much exposure as possible.. but IMHO you dont devalue the strength of your top team, ever - let the young guys make it on ability and performance, let them not be handed spots just because theyre young.
c8w
P.S. The Mini-World-Cup idea, I agree with entirely - its a fun tournament, an exhibition, we should have a special youth team in it if we can, always. Thats different from the CER tournament or the Western Regionals - those are the Holy Grail, and should be treated as such (something our league and our region has never done, much to our detriment).
Shekhs,
Can you check with Tariq about possibility/availability for Hanover Park on Tuesday, August 12th for MCC All Star Blogger's Game.
Feedback from bloggers is that Saturday, August 16th will not work for many.
Atif,
I'll let you know in a few..
Deep down..not much going on bud..why dont you dig up some more dirt..
:-)
good job atif kya khandala, i will be there. rup can you bring music and the big cooking pot. can someone also bring grill. shashi, can we video tape event???? also, any sponsors??
Deep, are you going to come and say hi..drop a hint.. :-)
yeah rup, can we get some music..
Any suggestions for food and beverages?
sorry guys...I would have bring the pot music and more but I am leaving at 3 am tuesday?
Can't believe I am missing this..waited how long to get this and i got to now miss it...??.
sheki, i will try to give you hints at game. you have to ensure you keep identity a secret.
absolutely...mum's the word..
Atif,
Thanks so much for organizing the blogger's game. What exactly is the plan? Uniforms - white or colours? How are the team going to be picked? Since it's 5 hours, are we doing 30 or 20 overs? Who is our ump? Are there any more questions I should be asking? :)
8/9/2008 Springfield CCI - CCI
8/9/2008 Q.C. Kings Chicago Fire - Q.C. Kings
8/9/2008 Eagles Chicago Giants - Eagles
8/10/2008 Jolly Rovers Arena - Jolly Rovers
8/10/2008 Collinsville IIT - IIT
8/10/2008 Madison Illinois - Illinois collins will deliver the goods this week
8/10/2008 Evanston Jaguars - Evanston
8/10/2008 Hammond Lucky XI - Hammond
Adi said:
Are there any more questions I should be asking? :)
Yes, "What do we do for dinner?"
For the All Star Bloggers game, we can get biriyani and side dish to cater to both veggie and non-veggie players (+ spectators) from a nearby rest...we can try to get it sponsored by MCC.
For prize distribution, can we conveniently ignore the word "Bloggers" from the event name?
WHat about ddw
Wildcats Vs Flames
This game was a great thriller with all the drama and suspense involved....
Flames won the toss and elected to field first, the outfield at Heritage park was heavy with some rain before the game, and WC started their innings slowely.
WC was about 25 for no loss when the first wicket fell(Sweth), and in the same over Sumeet was also out bowled. Romeen got out to a ball from Yousuf and wildcats were suddenly 30/3.
WC was 52/3 at 20 overs, and ajit n vikram started slowely but began to hit some good shots to accelerate a bit, and when we thought the game was under control Ajit holed out to long on trying to clear to boundary.
Krishna played a small quick knock and got out getting a couple runs.
Nikhil joined Vikram and they played sensible cricket, and once vikram got out to a well made 40 or so WC started loosing wickets, and we ended up getting 128 runs in 38 runs all out.
WC came out hard in the field throwing their bodies at everything as the score to defend was only 128, but Flames opening pair was playing well with Ram and Fahad playing well and aggressive, and after about 4-5 overs the spinners were brought on, and all of a sudden the runs dried up, and in one over ram was lured to come down to a flighted delivery and he missed the ball, and Vikram took the bails off, but he was given not out which was a bit harsh on us, but it got even as the next ball ram gave a catch at square leg where Giri took a good low catch, then in the next over i got Fahad to shuffle across to be plumb.
Suddenly Flames lost 2 quick wickets, and that was the time Venkat and Kiran came to the wicket, and they started playing sensible cricket as the score to chase was not big.
Flames were going very well not taking any risks and happy to get 2-3 an over, and out of no where Venkat played one ball in the air and Krishna at point took a very good catch flying high into the air and jugling his catch to perfection.
At this point we thought that we had a chance as flames still needed around 80 runs, but Krishna joined Kiran and they started playing well, Krishna was taking his chances, and krishna got 2 chances which were a bit tough ones, and one of them hurt Nikhil's left hand.
At that point Flames needed 45 runs in about 11 overs with 7 wickets in hand, and at that point once again the partnership breaker was krishna(WC), moving fast and sending a direct thorw to the bowler to get Kiran runout and this was a crucial wicket.
WC had a spring in their feet all of a sudden, Prakash bowling full payed dividends as he yorked Krishna, and at this time Flames needed around 35 runs with 5 wickets remaining, Sanjay and Krishna cleaned up the tail and WC won by about 22 runs...
This was absolutely one of the best games i have played, we put our heart out on the field to defend the score.....
We had a few arguments on the field but all in all a good game .... Sorry fellow bloggers if this summary was a bit longer than usual...
All 5 days reports scorecards and pictures can be found here.
http://icc-cricket.yahoo.com/development/americas.html
US got 2 of the top 4 awards: Best Batsman and Best Wkt Keeper.
Good show from the US team but for the small slip up in the batting against Canada.
Future looks good
Eagles beat Chicago Giants by 5 wickets.
Eagles chased 101 in 27 overs. For Eagles, Sunil Sejwal took 6/27 and Seshu scored 40 in the chase.
QC Kings v/s Chicago Fire
-------------------------
QC Kings beat Chicago Fire by 135 Runs. Hari Kiran scored his second successive hundred (119 off 75 balls 7x4 9x6) of this season. Balaji and Madhu scored 23 and 24 respectively. Rest of the batsmen chipped in to make it 244 / 7 in a 35 over game.
Chasing 245 Chicago fire were bundled out for 109 courtesy Arun Kumar Sharma AKA Raj 4/15 and Dimpy 3/21.
Pankaj
QC Kings
Good luck to all on this, the day of the Bloggers.. Hav a lot of fun guys.
My pick to win the man of the Match.. Charlie...
What about Shekhs and his left arm chinamans? :)
Adi, you have a good eye for talent....I must say...
ICC vs Madison
A well played game by both Teams.
Madison won the toss and elected to bat first. ICC started off with 8 fielders and got to 10 when the couple of guys who were lost made it in.(I don't know when ICC will be able to Field a full 11..21 guys on the rooster).
Madison look to be agressive off the bat with Julius swing for the stars. I got him caught behind in the 3rd over and then got the #3 Lb in the next over. With Kevin getting the # 4 shortly after Madison were about 30 for 3 in 10 overs. Then there was a great partnerhip on the go with some sensible running and smart hitting. Madison went in at 96 for 3 20 over. The came out Firing and soon they were about 160 before we got the break through. I Brought Collins on to pull a Murali for ICCand that he did. 2 wickets in his first over including the open bat who made about 75 with. Madison was sittin at 178 for 5 with 10 overs to go. The struggled in to be all out for 220 in 38 overs.
The new turf look like a Batting Paradise so i told my guys we will get this runs easily if we play smart crciket as the bowlers will not get any help.
I opened the innings with our #9 & 10 bat. Youdeo and Raj. Youdeo played agressive while Raj played the anchor. Youdeo got out in the 5th over with a quick 20 and I went in at 3 feeling I can set my team up for the chase. Like i said a batting strip and bowlers not getting much help. Well. I took it to the bowlers and got out in the 18th over for a slow 67 with the score at 131. Collins got bowled First ball and ICC camp looked derailed. I told the guys we need 4runs per over to win from here and the ground is fast. So the Guys took it from there in 1 and 2's and the odd boundry and we were sitting nicely at 180 for 3. Dan got out and energy Madison. All this time Raj was playing a gem of an innings. Aaron got out leaving us needing 27 to win and 4 wickest in hand. when George got Run out from a superb bit of fieldind and direct hit we need 22 with 3 wickest, Game on, and I was chain smoking now.
Overs were plenty so Raj took it in ones and twos with the Kid Kevin and brought us home with 4 overs to spare.Raj not out 62. What an innings from Him.. the best one he has played for ICC as a memeber. I hope he keeps this up and.
rup, may we have the update of your game?
Thanks
rup, i am late in refreshing the browser. Thanks for the update of your game and congrats for the win.
Good win Rup....!
Good knock Raj..timely one..
Congrats to all the winners..!
Yep Guys, It was a win ICC needed badly.
Congrats to all the winners. May There be better days for the loosers as the race to the playoffs is here.
Sheky how ya do'n. Man am gonna mis the party tomorrow.. Have fun and a cold one on me guys.
Guys I was pushing hard for this so i will feel bad if i don't contribute.
$25.00 on me for food, drinks, whatever. Adi/shekhs can one of you cover this $25.00 for me and i will gladly re-imburse you on our next night game??.
I'm hangin in Rup....
Yeah, I got ya man..just get some cold ones next time we hang out..
Sheks,
what's the result on Chals Vs bears game buddy?
Cheers
Madhu
Madew,
Unfortunately, that game got postponed....as Faisal and salman's father was seriously ill and was on the ventilator.
It will be rescheduled for another day....
you can't make it to chi town tomorrow huh... :-)
Rup,
I can get ya too. We can square it up over a few cold ones at the night games.
ps. What happened that day of the Royal's game? We went to Fox n' hound and played some pool, ate some wings, and got some nice tall ones. Where were you?
yay india won a gold in the olympics. It was great to finally hear the anthem during prize distribution:). sheki u have to wait to get a hello from me, i am flying this week.
Deep..
That sucks man..
come and say hello the next time you bump into me..
did you send a note to Atif, so that he can get someone else to play instead of you..?
Thanks Adi & Shekhs for volunteering to cover me. Such kind work says a lot.
Adi, I went to Shoe Less Joe in Des plaines. It's a much more Cozier place to hang out with the Females::)).
Good win rup and good knock too. Did Jack play ? He said you would do it this time. Congrats !
Does anybody have an update on IIT/Collinsville game. 35 all out. hmmn! They almost beat our record.
We played Chicago Giants. It is nice to play against teams like Chicago Giants. Good people. Games played with a friendly atmosphere is always nice. Glad we got Atif out. we would have been in trouble otherwise.
Good luck with the rest of your games, Giants.
Thanks Preetam. ..It's was a fighting win and boy did we need that in ICC.. We were starting to think we ain't gonna beat anyone anymore after loosing 4 in a row..
No, Jack did not play in this one.. had to work but he was cheerleading all the way. hope he has free text messaging???
JR v/s Arena played at Mossville on Sunday 08/10.
JR won in humdinger in the last over to chase down 197 with a 32run last wicket partnership.
Top performers for JR:
Ravi 50 ( 30odd balls) and 2 wickets
Vishnu 5 wickets
Top performers for Arena:
Saurabh 43( 3X6 2X4)
Aditya 33( 2X4)
Rajesh ( 6-0-24-3)
Special kudos to #10 Santosh (12runs) and #11 Ashish(13runs) for an unbeaten 32 runs last wicket partnership to take JR home to victory in 39.4 overs.
i feel bad i will miss out todays night game. have fun and make merry. adnan why are you not playing????
also sundays game was the best weather i played in a long long time. san diego's weather today reminds me of chicago on sunday, perfect to play cricket or any outside sport.
hmm..deep...looks like you slipped there a bit.. :-)
or was it a deliberate accident..?
Sunny San diego huh..
we'll definitely drink one for ya..
sheki, do you think its deliberate or unknown?? i typically plan 3 steps ahead before i put one step forward. i am giving clues or am i????
yeah deep...lets play ...
I'll get you soon man.. :-)
But I wont let the secret out..dont worry..
sheki, it looks like its only two of us that are chatting. also, i want mucc to thank me for making sure they did not get suspended. since i broke the news before they said anything, the management decided to not take action. in trying to prove me wrong, a team has been not fined. i think i am proud of that.
No predictions about today's game ...
Come on bloggers ... Whose team will win Shiraz's or Shekh's ?? Any prediction on totals -- I suppose it will be between 150 n 175 ...
Keep it going guys ...
i go with my friend sheki, his team will win toss and score 174. shiraz team will lose toss(elementary my dear watson) and score 156 for 8. umpire sadiq will give 2 lbw decisions and 12 not out lbw decisions.
-------
DeepDownWithin said...
umpire sadiq will give 2 lbw decisions and 12 not out lbw decisions.
-------
12 poor appeals being turned down, Id actually be quite happy with that ratio :-)
Actually, I didnt "officially" reconfirm the committment to umpiring, cos Iam uncertain of making it there for a 6pm start. But I'll defn be there a bit after that and happily take over umpiring then (or, if necc, commentary or just cheerleading :-) Should be a fun evening..
c8w
i was just messing with you sadiq. all star bloggers game without being officiated by sadiq does not feel right.
sheki can you kick my dear friend romo for not being active on blog??? just for that he should bring his girl friends to todays game, or should he(since i am not there)???
deep..I'll definitely kick our pal Romo..
his computer is broken at home..hence the lack of inactivity...one of us IT folks will have to fix his comp....
that requires another party..
Rom also will enter the guiness book of records if he plays today......
for playing cricket for 4 consecutive days (limited over cricket)..
he played on sat, sun, yesterday....and hopefully tonite..
Deep/Shekhs,
I'm not active on the blog cuz I'm spending every waking moment either working or playing cricket!
Hope to be there tonight if work and my old legs permit.
aug 11 come and gone. still no mini wc teams. will enuff ppl b available?
insiders - ddw etc - what's gup? share with so can decide if come watch or not.
Bloggers Ball - Match Report
After a year of planning, the Bloggers Cricket match was finally played at Hanover Park this evening. The turn out was great and boy was it fun!!
The two captains, Shekhs and Shiraz picked the teams (pick up style) and then Shekhs won the toss and chose to bat. The batting card is shown below - Aditya played some good shots, while Naren and I added some valuable runs at the end.
Shekhs XI
Farhan - 4(10) - LBW Atif
Shekhs - 13(9) - Bowled Atif
Ram - 0(1) - Ct Wajid, Bowled Atif
Aditya - 22(15) - Ct Wajid, Bowled Asim
Ehsan - 11(9) - Ct off Sameer
Jaggi - 0(2) - R/O Romeen
Asmar - 18(26) - Ct Wajid, Bowled Shiraz (Have to hear about it for weeks now!!!)
Preetam - 0(2) - Ct off Usman
Chirag - 0(4) - Ct Wajid, bowled Ali
Naren - 16(16) - Bowled Amir
Sajid - 3(4) - N/O
Bilal - 10(10) - Ct off Asim
Total - 130
In response, it was the Shiraz show with Sameer putting the final touches. They reached the target with couple overs to spare.
Shiraz XI
Romeen - 9 - Ct Preetam, Bowled Ahsan
Shiraz - 54 - Retired (good thing cuz i would have got him :-))
Amir - 14 - Ct Chirag, Bowled Naren
Samir - 30 - Retired
Wajid - 0 - R/O
Usman - 8 - Ct Adi, bowled Asmar
Imran - 0 - R/O Farhan
Ali - 5*
Atif - 5*
It was a good game played in great spirit and it was loads of fun. Hopefully we can avenge the loss next year :-)
Thanks to Shekhs, Atif, Shiraz and all other bloggers who helped put this together. It was fun!!
that was a fun game...I bet everybody had fun..
It was fun to get out and meet people..
Thanks for coming out fellas...we should do this more often..
At least make it an annual event..get more people involved..
This will only increase our camaraderie and will definitely help make a huge change in our league...
Thanks Atif and everyone!!
If we can't play a game, we should at least get out for happy hour...just to keep it going..non drinkers can get other beverages.. :-)
BTW ... Shekhs bhai ..
what time did u guys finally dispersed ??
good to see game was fun. did romo bring his gal pals???? also, who umpired and how was food???
Asmar - Thanks for putting up the score card right away and thanks for everyone that participated. Turnout was great (30+), good food, drinks and VIP beverages thanks to (T Man).
Lets work together to make this a annual event. Also congrats to Alpesh on his HATRICK.
Kudos to Atif and Shekhs for taking the lead in organizing the All Star Bloggers game.
Thanks everyone for giving birth to an annual event. We'll try to get MWCC sponsor this next year onwards.
It will certainly help the camaraderie.
Not sure if leg-umpiring decisions will improve though, What do u say Romeen/Appu :) ?
lively game. Atif, thank you for the meticulous organising. Shekhs, thx for the food, Shiraz, asmar, ram, alpesh etc thank you for bringing the rest of the stuff. C8w, thank you for umpiring. All others, thank you for making this a fun event.
We really need to make this an annual bash.
Alpesh, i left at 1.15 am. And when I left Shekhs and Sadiq where still going at it.
Nice catch Adi. Well bowled Asmarand Ihsan. Well played everybody.
We left right after you guys left Preetam..so around 1:15 am..
Appu..hatrick??
did I miss that?
atif kya khandala, i had mentioned i was traveling. i will come for next event - sheki, we need to plan drinking party.
deep..why dont you take the lead on that one - happy hour?
I'll help out...
Figure out a place, time and day....
that'll be fun..
maybe next week..
Preetam,
Thanks, but the highlight of our fielding was your keeping. I had not idea you were that good!!! Good to know... :)
Good batting from Shiraz and Sameer.
Thanks T-man for the VIP beverages. Good catching up.
Shekhs, Tushar, see you guys on Sunday. Looks like the weather forecast is clearing up, so hopefully we will get a good game in. Looking forward to it.
VIP drinkers,
FYI...
http://www.cricketnext.com/slideshow/g452/view.html
Congrats everybody!! Sorry I had to miss out due to family commitments.
Samir_RoyalsCC
"http://www.cricketnext.com/slideshow/g452/view.html"
I guess the war is on... Adi, Shekhs, Rom...he ( ram ) is all yours.
Ram, I thought i had a lot of time on my hands.
Come on Ram !! I had my camera where I was taking the pictures .. none of those run-out appeals were out !! The umpiring standard was very high :)
Thanks Atif bhai !!
Yes, Shekhs bhai ... I took a hattrick -- last 2 balls of 23rd over (Bilal, Mastakilla) and first ball of 25th over (Ram) :)
Preetam Sir ... So did u guys come to any conclusion on Sachin/Dravid ?? Looks like Ram is in no mood to forget this topic ..
sheki, i will wait for long weekend to get over before trying to organize drinking party. may be, i should wait for season to get over???
Alpesh - I wasn't comparing Sachin / Dravid. I merely gave my opinion about Sachin. It was "they" who started the comparison.
Another smear campaign against arguably the greatest indian batsman ever. Only Gavaskar compares.
Ram, the fact that the W.I loss was blamed on Tendulkar is another case of people not understanding the concept of team. A test loss, let alone series loss (same for win), is not the responbility of the individual. It is always the team.
But noone will ever blame Ganguly or Dravid or Laxman because they are all secondary. None shoulder the expectation of millions, the adulation of millions, and the blame of millions. It is only Tendulkar.
http://content-www.cricinfo.com/slvind/content/current/story/364913.html
Case in point. Everything related to Tendulkar is magnified greatly. Don't under-appreciate his achievements or his ability.
smear campaign? lol...C'mon Adi
If cricket is a team sport, then let's not glorify individuals as the world's best or greatest ever batsman/bowler...or whatever..it doesn't make sense at all if their individual achievements do not benefit the team. When I say "benefit", I don't mean victories against Bermuda, Kenya or Zimbabwe. Such victories/centuries are inconsequential.
If you glorify him/her in a team sport, then you HAVE to calibrate his personal achievements against the success of his/her team.
* calibrate his/her
Of the top 20 run getters of all time, he is behind Kallis, Ponting, and Sobers for averages. Leads centuries by far. second all time run getter.
Here's something else for you. For India, the best test batsmen over the last 2 years based on Average and minimum 10 games are:
Sehwag
Laxman
Tendulkar
Ganguly
Karthik
Dhoni
Jaffer
and finally - Dravid.
Next - Kumble.
Time for one of the greats to retire with dignity.
Ram,
Seriously dude...last night...at least I thought you were high on beer...whats your excuse now.. :-)
Its like me trying to make Dravid play alongside Prabhakar..
now, if you say cricket is a teamsport, why are you so bent on putting the blame on Tendulkar and why do you single him out..
going back to World cup 2003 (since we talked about that last nite..), I cant believe you said - Tendulkar got out the first over irresponsibly..
He almost single handedly brought India to the finals..and our man Ganguly threw it away by opting to bowl instead of bat in johannesburg..
what did the other guys do?
What did your GOD - Rahul dravid do?
:-)
Oh, and you were talking about winning matches. Here is a quick query. Matches in which the player has scored 50 or more and the team has won:
1. Tendulkar - 27 matches
2. Dravid - 24 matches
3. Laxman/Ganguly - 16 matches
4. Gavaskar - 12 matches
5. Sehwag - 8 matches
Change that to centuries:
1. Tendulkar - 13
2. Dravid - 9
3. Gavaskar - 6
4. Azar - 5
5. Laxman/Vengsarkar/Viswanath/Sidhu - 4
What more do you need?
Your criticisms, like others, is only because you hate to see him fail in the big games. But if Dravid fails, it's ok. Again, Tendy gets the blame always!
Here is an important statistic that was posted by a cricket fan on cricinfo recently:
"Since 1999, India has won 36 test matches. Most surprisingly Sachin Tendulkar was not man of the match in a single match. It shows he is not a match winning player. On the other hand man of the match award in these winning matches have gone to: Kumble -7, Dravid - 5, Harbhajan - 5, Sehwag - 3, Ganguly - 2, Laxman - 2 and Zaheer Khan - 2."
I'm not sure how many matches Sachin has saved for India and played a solitary role in the games that we lost during this period. But, the above statistic clearly highlights how much we're in awe of a single player and how the real match winners in the team are not recognized and appreciated as much as Sachin Tendulkar.
maverick,
You are not Ram posting using another nick right?
:-)
Shekhs is right. Let me remind you of a match winning innings against our rivals - Pakistan. With arguably the best bowling line up in the world - Wasim, Waqar, Shoaib. Or his knock against SL. Or England!
Ram, you forget all that he has done and how well he has done it - alone, in a team of 11.
No Shekhs, I'm not Ram.
I'm just one of those guys who think Tendulkar doesn't deserve the "demi-god" status and that he's just one of the greatest cricketers alongside Rahul Dravid, Anil Kumble and many others.
Shekhs
I did not compare. I did not bring Dravid into the argument y'day.
I singled Tendulkar out because his averages and personal achievements are singled out all the time. Check Aditya's posts above :)
What's the point in scoring 600+ runs in a worldcup, if you cannot do the same to win it at the end.
Other batsman are not singled out because their averages are not furnished for glory all the time.
I'd rather support a player who averaged ~ 35 or so in tests, but gave us 21 test victories.
Shekhs Sir ..
Dravid did had a very good World Cup 2003 ... He was very consistent in that world cup ...
Again ... it is because we had Dravid, Sachin, Saurav, Laxman in the middle order ..our middle order has been really solid from 2000-2008 ... Earlier when Sachin alone was there .. our middle order was not cosidered that solid ... It is the combination and variety these 4 brought to the team .. that scared the other teams ...
Maverick,
The Demi-God status was thrust on him by the mass and the media....
I agree that he's just another great cricketer, but why does he get singled out the moment he fails in one series....?
What most people dont realize and contemplate is that each cricketer and their assigned role for the team is different...so your career shapes up with respect to that role..
You cannot compare Dravid to Tendulkar.....as their roles are entirely different..
But, my beef is when people pull out ridiculous numbers to just put down Tendulkar when he has spent the last 18 years of his life playing for the country..and puts more than 200% every game...
beat that...
Ram,
You just did blame Tendulkar for not performing in the finals...
What do you expect out of donald bradman to do when you are chasing 349 in 50 overs against the 2003 Australian side..
You gimme an answer to that..
Aditya said:
Time for one of the greats to retire with dignity.
Adi - Its time all the greats retire with dignity within a span of a year or two. It cannot happen overnight simply because of a series loss to Srilanka. Just look at what happened when Yuvraj was fitted into the test team in Australia recently?
I suspect Tendulkar will be the last to retire and I don't have an issue with it. But it will be poetic injustice (for Rohit Sharmas of the world) if he waits to become the player with most test caps. We all know, and I know you won't agree, he is precisely waiting to get that record in his bag before he retires.
Shekhs said...
Ram,
You just did blame Tendulkar for not performing in the finals...
What do you expect out of donald bradman to do when you are chasing 349 in 50 overs against the 2003 Australian side..
Score and ensure we chase 349 successfully :)
And Ram, what are the chances that Bradman will succeed?
100%?
maybe not....I doubt even 20%..
even if Tendulkar had scored a hundred thatgame and India lost..you would have said...
damn Tendulkar...you threw your wicket away and didn't do jack shit..
way to go man..
Aditya said:
Your criticisms, like others, is only because you hate to see him fail in the big games. But if Dravid fails, it's ok. Again, Tendy gets the blame always!
Yes, I agree. If Dravid fails it NOT ok for me.
Tendy gets the blame because of the blind adulation he carries over his "match winning" capabilities. He has to win big games.
You go to the Olympics, you do extremely well in the qualification rounds and miss out in the finals? Would you be crowned champion?
Shekhs said:
And Ram, what are the chances that Bradman will succeed?
Its a hypothetical question. I can't answer that.
cmon man Ram...its conveniently hypothetical when it comes to the odds of someone else scoring those runs..
but with Tendulkar its a sin..
I agree, the masses and the sensationalist media are to be blamed for the demi-god status, not Tendulkar.
What I don't understand is why the comparison between Tendulkar and Dravid inevitably comes up when talking about either Tendulkar or Dravid.
On second thoughts, it's good that Ram and Aditya have brought up the Tendulkar vs Dravid comparison. One, it made the blog lively and two, I started writing on this blog. I wish this debate was started yesterday so that I could've played in the blogger's game last night. Now, I'll have wait another year to display my cricketing skills to the blogger community :)
Maverick,
It was one of the issues raised last nite that we dont talk any interesting topics any more..
I'm glad you found a reason to write ...
We all need to make good effort to come up with something interesting and positive to keep the blog going..
thanks to Ram and Adi.. :-)
Ram,
Did you know that Satha named his son after Sachin... :-)
And he is Sri Lankan.. :-)
Maverick said:
What I don't understand is why the comparison between Tendulkar and Dravid inevitably comes up when talking about either Tendulkar or Dravid.
Maverick,
I did not start the comparison. This is for Adi & Shekhs to answer.
Ram,
Tendulkar isn't playing and has never played for any records. I'm sure he aspires to them, and as long as his body lets him, and he is averaging over 50 (before the SL series :)) then why not? Let him get the records. What I will point out to you is that I cannot think of even once instance when Tendulkar cost us a game going for records or personal glory. If anything, personal glory has come because he has done so well for the country and won so many games.
Next, you say he is not a match winner, but that is not true. He has won the most test matches for India. He has won the most one day games for India. Check the records. He has been India's best player for years. All this on sub-par teams where the likes of Manoj Prabhakar opened the batting and bowling!!
If you said, he is not a match winning T20 player, then I could agree with you. He is not.
As for the comparisons, it's because the closest Indian player to him is Dravid, and even he pales in comparison. But Dravid in his own right is/was great.
And before the Tendulkar discussion came up, I said this earlier to Sadiq (a few weeks ago on the blog) about Dravid earlier. He needs to retire and with the dignity he deserves for truly being one of the all-time greats. Soon after, Kumble , then Ganguly, and Laxman. All this over the next year or two. But Dravid should be at the end of the next series. I think Tendulkar can keep playing for the next 2-3 years if his body allows it.
Basically, lets not diminish Tendulkar's amazing achievements based on our lofty expectations. And lets not do the same to Dravid, though it hardly happens.
Are we seriously still on Sachin topic?
A very good article summing up discussion we had yesterday ... http://content-usa.cricinfo.com/magazine/content/current/story/364888.html
aiite..fellas no more Tendulkar..
how about some Trivia?
whos good at it?
Which team was the only one to be defeated by India in the first 2 world cups ??
damn, i missed out on the fun yesterday. i think you have all covered all points, but failed to address one point. can someone ask sachin to stop acting in commercials????? in my last trip to india, sachins ads came up every other minute in every other channel, trauamatised my tv watching experience. and so did amitabh. the latest is that he has signed up for a bollywood movie. stop this insanity !!!!!
also, i cannot watch any more kolkotta ipl matches.... cannot see SRK. can we stop bollywoodising cricket????????? i have stopped watching tv, movies in an effort to not see SRK......now, does he want me to stop watching cricket???
This goes for all Desi actors and celebrities. They whore themselves for money and that includes print ads and tv commercials. With that in mind its possible that we may still see Inziman do a add for condoms Sathi and Azhar for Nirodh.
when people refer to sachin as god, they say bcos Good On his Day. there is no god or anything. the concept of god was created to bring fear in people lives. they are all players like you and me. they have a little more talent than you and me and are lucky to play cricket as a full time job, thats it. all i expect is a full hearted effort, sometimes u score and sometimes you dont. the only time i get mad when someone gets out is when they are too casual about it
whatever happened to the MCC Playoff picture, guys?
lol tonald....
this is the kinda entertainment we need.. :-)
thats a very good topic..
what does everybody think about the media effect and the celeb status of cricket players?
What can be done to change that....or balance every sport like cricket..
Appu,
East Africa - no I didnt cheat... :-)
Guys,
I thought we were suppose to talk about "Predictions and Results" of midwest games or least thats what the title says. But I hardly see 3 to 4 coments regarding that.
Otherwise, we should change our blog titles to Int. Cricket Talks, rather than "Predictions and Results"
touchpoint dont get too touchy about this. we bloggers are chilled about any topic. as a case in point, your comment also did not contain any value for the topic. so just blog, no whining
"Not sure if leg-umpiring decisions will improve though, What do u say Romeen/Appu :) ?"
Ram, I agree with you. I don't think the umpiring standards can improve any more, because with me and Appu, they'd already reached the pinnacle of perfection :)
Wajid's run out was one of the best decisions I've ever seen,LITERALLY. :)
"you cannot improve on perfection", right romeen.
BTW: Sameer khan came and told me after the game that he was out of the crease when he was stumped ( in jaggi's bowling ). I guess there is room for improvement there.
how's this for trivia...
Jawahar lal nehru is indira gandhi's father's __________.
Preetam Sir ..
Jawahar lal nehru is indira gandhi's father's "name". :)
Also Preetam Sir ... It was not me or Romeen umpiring at that time .. We had someone else umpiring at that time ... So our umpiring was perfect .. no questions :-)
btw .. another ques ... Who was the 'Man Of the Match' in Sachin's first test match at home(India)?
imran,
Sorry to hear about your injury. Hope you get well soon.
Are the bloggers sleeping today so that they can be fresh and play the match tomorrow :)
Jaago !!!
Btw .. Happy Independence Day to all Indian friends and Belated Happy Independence Day to our Pakistani friends
Jaaag Giya - Happy Independence Day to fellow Paki's and Indians.
yeah whats up with everybody..slow day today..
TGIF!!!
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Alpesh said...
btw .. another ques ... Who was the 'Man Of the Match' in Sachin's first test match at home(India)?
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Was trying to reconstruct his career in my head, with all the away tests to start with (Pak, NZ, Eng, Aus).. and I could only come up with the one-off test match in Chandigarh (pre-Mohali) that he played in India before 1993 or so. Against Sri Lanka it was, on a krumbler.. I think the MoM must have been either Ravi Shastri (who made lots of runs on in a low-scoring game), or else Venkatapathy Raju who took wickets as SL collapsed twice. Probably Shastri.
c8w
P.S. Another question - who was MoM in Dravid's first test match at home.. lets see who gets that without looking it up :-)
Co-incidentally .. it was Sachin's first test as Captain too .. The MOM was 'Nayan Mongia' for his 152 ..
The previous ques Answer is Raju ...
----
Alpesh said...
The previous ques Answer is Raju ...
-----
Ah, it only should have been RJS then ;-)
This was the game when there were like 9 ducks scored over 2 innings by the SL batting IIRC. Also may have been the debut (or maybe just the 2nd and 3rd game - all basically resulting in ducks or 1s or so) of Marvan Attapattu.. I oughta look it up but Iam feeling lazy :-)
c8w
Yep .. it was Attapattu's debut ... then he did not play for 2-3 years ... then he again played in India and got 3 more ducks in 4 innings ...
A total thrashing by the IITians to us ...
We were allout for 77 in 27 overs and IIT chased that at the loss of 3 wickets in 15 or 17 overs I suppose ...
Vijay was the Man of the Match as per me ... In his first 5 over spell, he picked 5 of the top 6 wickets for 14 runs ... He was getting very big inswings.
Eagles beat Madison by 6 wickets
Madison, batting first scored 245 in 40 overs (I don't have the details).
In response Eagles chased the score in 34.4 overs, aided by a century stand for the first wicket. (Mankesh 59, Seshu 65, Amit 35, Subbu 36).
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Ramsundar Lakshminarayanan said...
Eagles beat Madison by 6 wickets
Madison, batting first scored 245 in 40 overs (I don't have the details).
In response Eagles chased the score in 34.4 overs, aided by a century stand for the first wicket. (Mankesh 59, Seshu 65, Amit 35, Subbu 36).
--------
I know more, I know more :-)
Huge near-top-of-the-table clash this - with regular season champ heading to Div1, the Eagles (with 2 losses) and Madison (with 2.5 losses) were 2 of 3 teams in pole position.
Madison's new pitch is terrific for batting, and the outfield is now brown and lightning quick (and Madison was also missing a couple main bowlers). But even so, a terrific win and a highly impressive, thoroughly professional chase for hte Eagles.
Eagles won the toss and put Madison in, and bowled very well early. Sheshu bowled beautifully with no luck at all (5-2-7-0, with at least 8-10 plays-and-misses outside off), and Amit bowled very well for his 2 wickets. Madison was 40/0 after 10, and 86/3 in 20. They then got some terrific batting from Ramnesh (56), Ankur (38) and Murari (39*) to carry their score all the way up to 245 in 40 overs - 80 came between 20 and 30, and 81 off the last 10 overs!
On the lightning fast outfield, however, even this proved to be much too low! Seshu and Mankesh took the attack apart right from the get-go - 82/0 in the first 10 overs, 102/0 after 12 (when the restrictions ended), putting the Eagles in control with run-rate never an issue. Terrific batting from both openers (Mankesh 59 off 37 took the early lead going after the bowlers, Seshu then took over as Mankesh relaxed, with 65 off 48). Ankur bowled some very nice offspin and claimed both openers, but 35 from Amit and 36 from Subbu settled the issue rapidly and quite conclusively. Eagles were actually 225/3 after 30 overs (only 21 to win in 10 overs), before eventually slowing down and getting the target with 5.2 overs to spare.
This propels the Eagles to the top of the table currently (they have 40 points with 2 games left). If they win out, only IIT can end up with more points (and thats if *they* win out - they have 4 games left IIRC). Its coming down to a very interesting race for #1 (with a place in Div1 as a reward) at the end of the season.
c8w
Royals v/s WC.
WC had another narrow escape.The Royals team is a great bunch, very friendly and sporting. I guess I'll let Naren do the customary summary.
On a different note, I guess props are due to Humayun Baqai for doing an excellent job with the grounds at WP.
Also, one of my favorite players in the league scored 97 in 49 balls!Guddu, you rock!
And don't we all want to eat what Faisal's been eating these days?!
---------
Romeen said:
And don't we all want to eat what Faisal's been eating these days?!
-----
I can report that it was pizza for lunch yesterday (the options were one with chicken, and a couple with jalapenos and pineapple), and for dinner it was Chicken Chettinad and Lamb Biryani (at Chit's restaurant in Peoria, Sizzling India - where the Andhra-style food is pretty damn good, actually). It was, actually, pretty much the same thing I ate yesterday too.. unfortunately I never have been and never will be able to play an innings like that in my life. I can still see the monstrous six he lauched over cover off Madhu that sailed miles over the boundary (and, actually, the ball ended up lost in the tall-grass, and we had to get a new one and rub some wear-and-tear onto it on the ground before continuing).Ive umpired Fais for a while, but have never seen him bat the way he is this season.
Meanwhile, BTW, let me be the first (and probably the only one, since I dont have to play against him :-) to welcome Ashhar back to our league. Obviously one of the finest glovemen around, he made a nice little comeback yesterday - merely 81 with the bat with 7 sixes against one of the best spin attacks in the league. PakGym's loading up to try and reclaim their title apparently :-)
c8w
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Romeen said...
On a different note, I guess props are due to Humayun Baqai for doing an excellent job with the grounds at WP.
Also, one of my favorite players in the league scored 97 in 49 balls!Guddu, you rock!
--------
I agree, WP is looking very nice this year - and its about as big as it could be, too. My only issue is with the HPs - Heritage and Hanover - which are both smaller than they could be (and smaller than they were last year).. they can be made the same size as last year again easily enough.
And I second the Guddu-emotion BTW - sounds like a fantastic knock from one of the nicest guys and most talented batsmen around. Pity his team seems to have fallen just short on the chase (again! Theyre in serious jeopardy now this year, and have had no luck at all - they lost to Peoria by 2 runs, lost to Milwaukee by 6 runs IIRC, and seem to have lost this one by about 20-odd runs).
Meanwhile, how about Rogers Park's win, huh? Bilal's performance in the BloggersBall obviously did his confidence plenty of good - 40 off 4 overs by the last pair to pull off a win 300 miles from home (in a do-or-die-for-playoffs situation) must surely make for one of the most memorable games ever watched or played in by those lucky enough to be there!
Quite a weekend all around the league, really.
c8w
Faiz faiz faiz...
dude you gotta tell us the secret..thats some huge knocks you have been playing.. :-)
Congrats to all the winners..
Guddu,
good knock dude..keep it real..
Challengers Vs Phoenix..
Phoenix won the toss and decided to bat..
An excellent opening spell from Sanjay and Vishal put Phoenix in a heap of trouble as they lost quick wickets with very low run rate..
That was probably the best spell Sanjay bowled this year, very impressive..
With Vishal bowling tight from the other end, Phoenix were barely managing 2 runs an over..
They were 46 for 5 in 23..
Then came DC, who maneuvered the inning with a very effective knock..and with a cameo from shiva, Phoenix managed to put up 117.
Challengers started disastrously..losing Darshan and Bandish in the first over with the score at 0 for 2.
Arun bowled extremely well to bother challengers.
Mahesh played a short but very effective knock and got out to a brilliant catch at short 3rd man.
Challengers were 40 odd runs for 3 wickets.
Phoenix stayed in the game picking up wickets frequently and it was heading for a nail biter..
Buchia and Nilesh put up the match winning partnership taking Challengers all the way until 10 runs away from the W and thats when Nilesh got bowled by Samir..
Challengers tail managed to see it off without much damage..
Another close but good win for challengers..
Good luck to Phoenix for the rest of the season..
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Shekhs said...
Congrats to all the winners..
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How about a report, Sheks? The Phoenix-Challengers game was full of bloggers, and it sounded like it turned into a quite terrific contest actually. (Also a report from another good-sounding game, the Royals/Wildcats one, would be cool - either Narine or Romjin care to send it in? :-)
c8w
I had a bad weekend .. on Sat while playing andSunday while umpiring ..
I think I made two mistakes ... I allowed a fielder to field with a gym glove since he had recently removed stiches from his palm and could see a bulge on his palm from the injury ...
In other instance, the space betn the leg and middle stump was much so that the ball went through it .. but did not distub anything .. so did rule the batsman notout ...
Sadiq Sir .. would like to know your views on this .. so that I do not repeat the same mistakes again ....
Guys,
I was looking through the players list for the mini world cup. I'm curious to know the selection criteria for this event.
I don't know a lot of the players on the list, but one person who made it to the list caught my attention. He played 9 games this year with an aggregate of 30 runs and he doesn't bowl or keep wickets. Just curious as to how he made the cut to play along side supposedly the best players of this league.
cubbyB,
don't worry about that. I think players like that will be filtered out when the final teams are selected. Please have faith in the selectors until then.
alpesh,
i am curious. in the second instance how did the bail stand with the wickets being so far apart ? Hmmn! you should have taken a picture.
And I hope in the first instance the fielder with the stitches was keeping. There can never be a fielder with artificial protection except for the keeper. Bandage i think is ok.
Preetam,
Even if it is just a list of probables, it still baffles me how someone with an aggregate of 30 runs make it to the list when there are so many other players who performed much better than that.
Are you one of the selectors for the mini world cup? Are you giving an assurance, as a selector, that there won't be any bias in the selection of the players?
Alpesh,
An an umpire, it is your responsibility to set the stumps properly. Your decision to not give the batsman out was probably right, but it was an error on your part to not set the wickets properly.
Hopefully, your decision didn't have any material impact on the outcome of the game.
cubbybear,
Thanks for pointing out the flaw in selection, and I know exactly who you were referring to...
We'll definitely make sure that this person doesn't make it to the final team selections for Mini World cup.
Please let us know if you find any other irregularities..
Shekhs,
You gained a lot of respect from me right after the league elections earlier this year, especially the way you handled all the nasty comments on this blog. And just when there was a little bit of doubt creeping into my mind, you responded in a way that only increased my respect for you.
Keep it up!
CubbyBear,
No I am not a selector. I am not connected with the administration in any way. I am just a mere player playing in this league for the past 7 years.
My statement was made on the premise that all are innocent until proven guilty. The player selected might have just been an oversight. And I am prepared to give that to the selectors.
Thx Shekhsy. As always..reliable.
On a different note. This is to all my pakistani friends. How is the " musharraf resigning" thing going to affect pakistan ? Just curious. Wanted to know the inside story other than what is being fed through the news channels.
If this is a sesnsitive topic please ignore it. I am just curious thats all.
Preetam,
No its not sensitive topic at all.
Musharraf in my opinion was good as he tried to curb fanaticism. Now Pakistan is back in the hands of thugs.
This new government is a joke.
Well Sadiq, I don’t know if my name got changed, score cards say narain or something and now u come up with something new.
This one is for Sadiq so a bit long n boring !!!!
Either way the game with Royals was a pretty good one, and all I can say is that Cats are on thin Ice as far as it goes for the road to the playoff’s.
Wildcats elected to bat first after winning the toss and started badly loosing Swetal early.
Krishna came one down and along with Romeen was playing sensibly rotating the strike.
Krishna got out to Charlie after scoring 16 runs, and Ajit joined Romeen and the score was moving along a bit slowely.
Romeen was playing pretty well, but he got out trying to accelerate the scoring. Vikram came in next but he got out soon without troubling the scorer, Nikhil joined Ajit and they were in the process of consolidating the boat with some sensible batting, and in the process our run rate dropped quiet a bit from the initial start we got.
Ajit then got out to a very good catch from Rupesh who took it running back, and that was a big wicket we lost and the score was not even 100 at that point of time.
We lost Nikhil and after sometime and we lost wickets in a heap to be in a precarious position which looked similar to the ones we played against Flames.
Me and Giri had a point to prove as the lower order did not contribute any thing in terms of some runs this season and we scored enough runs, and in the end that helped us in winning the game, Giri played very well to score 16 runs, and I contributed 4 runs and boy I was so happy to be on the score sheet for the first time this season…. And we ended up scoring 158 runs in 45 overs.
Royals started their chase with intent sending Manish and Bharat at the top of the order, both played well and especially Bharat was in his elements playing well and clearing the field.
Wildcats have a savior every game and this time it was Prakash who was bowling with lot of fire and he got one to bounce more than expected to get an outside edge of Manish.
At that point Nilesh joined Bharat and he was playing well till he got a good short ball from Giri to be caught and bowled.
Pritesh joined Bharat, but he played too many shots and was out trying to clear the field giving a catch to Ajit at Mid on.
At this point we thought the game was evenly placed as Royals needed around 80 runs with about 7 wickets in hand with ample number of overs in spare.
Me and Sanjay started bowling in Tandem and this slowed the scoring abit, but Pritesh and Shetul were batting well and the asking rate was not that huge for them to take any risks.
I was not really bowling well in this particular game, and well luck was not on my side either when balls were falling short of fielders or tough chances to the keeper etc..
I got Shetul out with a faster one and even at that time Pritesh was playing really well, and with Charlie joining the party they were looking like taking the game away from us with some sensible batting, and at that point Royals needed about 60 runs with some 20 overs or more remaining, our fielding was getting all ragged misfielding quiet a few in the process and helping the cause of Royals very well.
Pritesh tried to cut a ball from Sanjay which was close to him than expected and I was fielding at a fly slip position and the ball was flying away and my initial reaction was to go for the catch which I did but it fell short of me, and Pritesh tried to steal a run to be run out.
Soon Charlie tried to steal a couple when there was only a one and Vikram took the bails off when I threw a direct one which only happens once in a while with my throws.
At that point Rupesh joined Hetal and both were playing aggressive and they took the required runs to around 20 or so with 4 wickets remaining in around 10 overs or more, Rupesh tried to steal a single when it went straight to Nikhil and that resulted in one more run out.
At this point our death bowler Prakash came and cleaned up the tail to give us a victory with around 8-10 runs in spare, and we some how have to find a solution to our batting vows…
We have 3 more games, and all I can say is that never count the cats out, we might be old but we still have the vigor to fight it out….
Hard luck Royals it was a good game, sorry Pritesh it was just not your day….
Fellas,
Regarding the Mini World cup..
The committee is still waiting on teams to confirm the availability of the nominated players.
If you or any of your teammates feel like you have been left off, please send an email to the email address described on the web site.
The confirmation has to be made by COB tomorrow, or else the committee is going to fill up the slots with random players.
We need at least 78 confirmed players for this tournament, and we don’t even have 60.
So, please talk to your captain/ teammates and confirm the availability.
There is no point blaming the committee for not picking someone because they were in the nominated list.
A player will not be picked unless the committee receives a confirmation.
Sadiq,
I will have to agree with ur review. Faiz did eat chiken and Jalepenos I think..:) Some protein with hot fire power of Jalapenos..Incidently if see his boundaries only 2 sixes and rest were all on the ground mostly..It was fantastic knock! With Dr Naveed at other end giving ample support its nothin like it...We had absolutely horredous day..but its part life..Deal with it and move on.. I have to add we were utterly dominated on field by 2 batsmen who came with a plan executed to pefection! I have never in 10 years of MWCC have sen a drubbing like that. Actually PCC take pride in bowling attack and for some odd reason nothin worked that day. Right and lefty combination didn't help either. It was culmination of listless bowling to a lefty, right combination and flashing-fast out field. We are in precarious situation in our playoff run and PCC will find a way out to fight it out...After all my experience taught me, every one starts at ground zero come playoffs...Making it to the playoffs is tough mental challenge for all us. We have 3 games to go and we have to WIN all 3 to have realistic shot playoffs. Except for top 2 teams in the roster all are in the same boat! No Wonder Div-I is is PREMIER league in MWCC..Good luck to everyone who are fighting for playoff spots..Let the RUN begin!
Madhu Reddy
PCC
Match Report - St Louis vs. Rogers Park
----------------------------
I have not written about a game in a while but I felt that I had to write some details about this game as it was the best game I have ever seen in my short 7 year career at MWCC.
St louis put us in the field and we got off to a great start with Ali bhai cleaning up Sohail bhai in his 2nd over. Then St louis consolidated with Amit and Mujahid who played really well for their 75and 45 respectively. We were undone by poor fielding and dropped catches but Mohtassim bhai and Ali bhai bowled well to pick up 3 each.
So the chase was always going to be tough but our opening pair once again got us off to a flyer, 60 in 8 overs. St louis then picked up a couple wickets and then came a critical partnership between Omair and Faraz bhai. Both got 30 odd and a partnership of 70 odd runs. The determination of this pair, especailly faraz bhai (who was batting with a broken finger) was uplifting.
The game was in the balance as we needed 70 odd in 10 overs with 5 wickets in hand but then we lost 4 wickets in a hurry and then came the closing partnership. Bilal and Henry came together in the last 4 overs to score 40 runs on the last wicket. We needed 27 off the last 2 and Henry turned the game by stepping out and hitting Tehsin for a huge SIX in the 39th over. The last over needed 13 to win and Bilal played a classic cover drive (4), a monster straight SIX, and then picked the slower ball to midwicket for 4 to win the game for us in 3 balls. We are lucky enough to have this comeback all recorded on camera.
It was an unbeleivable comeback win, one that we really needed. This keeps us in the hunt for the playoffs.
"No Wonder Div-I is is PREMIER league in MWCC"
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dude madhu, your reason for calling div-1 premier is screwed up. div-2 playoffs is also a hot race at this point. faisal, aap ka charan kaha hai??? i can use blessings. this year is the year of eagles. they have something special going on.
Madew said
"After all my experience taught me, every one starts at ground zero come playoffs..."
Very true Madew...especially this year, any team in Div 1 can beat any other team..
So the playoffs are gonna be very competitive and exciting..
It doesn't matter if you are # 1 or # 8, its gonna be a tough fight..
DDW, Glad to know we have a well-wisher outside of our team :)
Deepdown,
I was only speaking relatively to Div-I perspective no offence to Div-II at all...but trust me its different ball game in Div-I ..You have to play it to experience it..!:-) After we were there in Div-II last year...:) Only difference that is balringly visible to eye is Level of competition in each and every game (During season run) is really high..Every game (Comparing Div-I season to Div-II) is contested properly all-way-thru. I agree the competition is the same in playoffs...We do have quite a few good teams in Div-II that are very capable of beating Div-I teams...No taking away credit from them..Hope I did not offend you nor Div-II teams!
Cheers
Madhu R
PCC
Ram,
are you forgetting me..?
:-)
ram, i could be you????
asmar, is the video on utube??? rogers park is the surprise dynamite in div-1. it was phoenix till first half of season, looks like they forgot about second half. the most surprising drop off to me this season is icc. they are having their worst probable season.
madison got new mat.... not bad, mgmt has acted on promise. give vote=new mat. is it same mat as in hanover park???? i think it is a good one, what do you think????
Shekhs, a thousand apologies, unconditional. I'll add u to the list...
DeepDownWithin said...
ram, i could be you????
Yes, endless possibilities; BUT wishful thinking too :)
DeepDownWithin said...
madison got new mat.... not bad, mgmt has acted on promise. give vote=new mat. is it same mat as in hanover park???? i think it is a good one, what do you think????
DDW, are u giving me hints with your last two questions?
ddw is playing us Ram...he is slipping deliberately..I wouldnt latch on to those..
i have given enough hints, surprise that you and sheki have not caught it
Deepdown, I think, is an Eagles player. Need few more blog entries to figure out the name :)
there you go Maverick...lets put our detective hats on..
I think I'm leaning towards Eagles as well.. :-)
Ram/ Preetam, who travels in your team?
i am seriously having those doubts too. Is Deepdown an Eagles player ? As far as i know only Ram travels in our team. Why is deepdown talking about the madison pitch ? We just played them this weekend.
Or is it Sadiq ?
if i was sherlock, i would shoot myself looking at your detective work. i travelled one week to san diego and u think i travel every week??? sheki sheki, wakey wakey
noooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooooo, i am not sadiq. no offense sadiq bhai.
deep,
I just wanted to tell you even in hell the devil has his friends!!
sherlock's always solved his mysteries...
:-)
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Asmar said...
Match Report - St Louis vs. Rogers Park
----------------------------
I have not written about a game in a while but I felt that I had to write some details about this game as it was the best game I have ever seen in my short 7 year career at MWCC.
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Thanks for the report Asmar - sounds like one heck of a match! Thanks in general for the reports, guys (Sheks, Naren et al).. with the playoff run in full-swing and good games being played, its nice to hear a few details.
Asmar - that sounds like a quite ridiculous performance from the tail to win it. Iam especially glad for Henry actually - has shown terrific committment all season long (driving down from Decatur IL to play - good 3 hours each way - sometimes even just to be 12th man!) And Bilal too - 14 off 3 balls to win it in the final over!
Some wonderful games played this weekend in general, actually - in the heart of the playoff race, Rogers Park winning by 1 wicket; Wildcats winning by 12 runs; Challengers winning by 2 wickets; MuslimGym by 28 runs. And if Hammad still reads the blog.. what Id really love to hear details of is the Bears win this weekend, which may even have been the best game of all - beating the Flames by 1 wicket on what looks like, from the scorecard, to have been the last ball of the 45th over! With Shahid Ali 50* at the end (2nd highest score 18), and young U-19er Minhaj coming in at #11 and being 2* at the end! Pretty much every team in the playoff picture played a highly memorable game this weekend (even the United/Peoria game, which ended up not being close, was still highly memorable for other reasons - amongst them a record opening partnership for the league probably, of 249).
c8w
I don't think DDW is an Eagles player. With the hints he has given I am leaning on a certain individual who played in the all star bloggers game. He asked me about the Madison pitch while I was leg-umpiring.
Royals lost to United by 20 runs in a low scoring 20-20 match today ...
Manish(Royals) took a hatrick (2 Caught behinds and one lbw), but it went in vain ...
The new pitch seems to be encouraging for bowlers ...
Matter of fact,
Manish has been in a zone recently..he's been bowling extremely well.
I umpired a game for royals and he had a mesmerizing spell moving the ball in and out...
he's an underrated bowler, definitely showing his skills this year..
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DeepDownWithin said...
"No Wonder Div-I is is PREMIER league in MWCC"
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dude madhu, your reason for calling div-1 premier is screwed up. div-2 playoffs is also a hot race at this point.
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Actually, Div2 is usually IMHO almost a better playoff race than Div1 is - its very tight, often has to be decided on run-rate, some good teams end up missing out etc.
However, this year, I really dont think Div2 is that good a race at all - with 12 teams out of 19 going to the playoffs. It might still end up a *race* for the last couple of spots.. but there will be teams making the playoffs for the first time this year with an under-.500 record. And that, IMHO, can never really be considered a good race (in the past, you could be 9-5 in Div2 and still end up missing the playoffs on run-rate! Now *thats* a real race, when good teams who could even win the whole thing were desperately fighting just to get into the playoffs). To me the best race in Div2 this year is actually the "regular season champion" race, for the winner goes directly to Div1. (AAA had 0 losses and 2 rainouts a few weeks ago, now they have 2 losses, effectively 3; Eagles have 2 losses, Madison was 1.5 losses before losing the last 2 weeks, IIT still has 1.5 loss only - but one game under management review, etc).
With 8 out of 17 going to the playoffs this year in Div1, its a *very* good race - especially with Div1 more balanced than ever before. Teams like the Wildcats and Muslim Gym (both champs in the last 3 seasons and entirely capable of winning again if they hit form) are currently desperately fighting to make the playoffs, probably in the 7th or 8th spot each. This year, that is a much better race than in Div2 IMHO.
c8w
i agree playoff race is good in div-1 but to say div-1 is better just for the playoff race is like saying i like eggs because of the shell. it is the white and yolk that make egg what it is. wow, deep shayari kar sakta and appu naach nahi sakta :)))) ram, you are way off my eagle friend, u seem to be flying away, rather than toward goal. atif kya khandala, wha are you upto these days?????
DDW bhau .. kya baat kar rahe ho aap ... aap gaana gao .. nachke hum dikhayenge ... :))
yo deep down why not ask the question how div1 is to aaa brothers and capitol from last year and advancers this year they may give u better explanation then sadiq did hmmmm champs from divii fighting for survial to stay in hmmm what does that say
confucius says 'What ya feel and see is what u believe what ya believe is not what you see'
yo, my opposite, i said logic used by madhu was wrong and not the conclusion. someone eat the egg white and yolk and throw the shells at this surface guy. there are teams like milwaukee united which weas in div-2 that did very well in div-1. there are good players in both divisions but more bad players in div-2. it is natural since there are more teams and a lot of them only for entertainment(thank god some of them disappeared this year). div-1 had a lot of such bad teams for a long time before they perished. th egood players in those teams joined good div-1 teams and hence, therefore, thats why, div-1 has lesser number of bad players than div-2. any more questions i will take you from the surface and send you deep down.
also advancers have lost key players. ask your friends, brothers, buddies, pals in phoenix, challengers, wildcats on how they got licked by the advancers.
more pheonix bashging- why do they not enter scores when they lose????? appu and i get very upset when teams dont do it.
ok appu bhaijan, hum gaayenge aur tum naachna... lekin inn kuton ke saamne math naachna
c8w do a div 1 playoff analysis please. Looks like from points table Challangers, Pak and Milwaukee are confirmed but rest of the spots are up for grabs with some teams close and some not so close.
deepdown ur logic seems to come from deepdown_behind_within simple logic for u Quality of teams is directly proportional to quality of division see how many bottom teams have close games with top teams in each division or look all the games a division has played and see how many close games it had that will give u an idea of the quality of the teams that a division has no didn't get it
here is what
confucius says 'No matter how you smell ur bottom bent forward or backward it smells the same'
yo ass smelling surface, quality of teams is not proportional to quality of div. unfortunately, div-2 is treated like a city prostitute by management, new teams come and new teams go. no check is done to figure out quality of team. if tomorrow new team comes from minneapolis, it will be welcomed. u let new teams that are not tested to come into you division and then we can see how good or bad or proportional your quality is. couple of years ago and sadiq will re-confirm, div-2 had better players and if there was ever a div-1 vs div-2, div-2 would have beaten div-1. these players eitehr moved out or moved into div-1, so till the next set of new players come, u can keep smeling your ass, bent forward or backward. :)))
Boy Deep Down is on a roll .....
i very strongly think that arena should not have been allowed. they are bunch of great guys but travelling all the way there is a pain. we have to go to iowa, st louis, springfield, madison, timbaktooo... why should div-2 teams not be asked before allowing new teams to come in, especially the away teams???? any place that is over 2.5 hours should not be allowed. if they are interested to play in this league they come to chicago.
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