This week is the first week of playoffs. Only Div 2 though, but should be just as entertaining. The pre-quarters for Div 2 are as follows:
- Collinsville vs Jolly Rovers
- Springfield vs Arena
- Jaguars vs Q.C. Kings
- Lucky XI vs Madison
Jolly Rovers and Arena could easily have been one of the top 4 teams but lost out NRR. They both have better records this year than any of the other teams playing this weekend in the Div 2 playoffs. But, they are both away teams and Chicago has not been favourable to travelers during the playoffs. QC Kings and Madison are very talented teams. QC has a lot of playoff experience having lost a couple of close games over the past few years in the playoffs. Madison has done very well when traveling to Chicago and look to continue their winning streak. Both Lucky XI and the Jaguars are explosive teams and can take down any other team on any given day. They both have the capability of putting up big runs and bowling tidily. Springfield and Collinsville made it with losing records but these teams can still end another's Championship dreams. It's anyone's game and one of these teams may be heading to Division 1 with the Eagles at the end of this season. The last team to have to play in the Pre-Quarters and who ended up making it to Division 1 was Phoenix back in 2005.
Speaking of Div 1, this is the final week with some key games to determine which teams can make the playoffs. There are 3 spots to play for and 6 teams fighting for a spot. Bears and Saint Louis control their destiny - a win secures them of a playoff spot. Muslim Gym too is in the same position, but they need to win and comprehensively enough to increase their NRR. Peoria is left waiting and watching and hoping that they have done enough to be in the playoffs. The Wildcats are waiting and watching too, but a number of things need to happen for the opportunity to fall their way. Meanwhile the Flames have one game left which they need to win, and then to hope that their ideal scenario plays out. Whatever happens, the dust will settle this week and we will know what the Division 1 playoffs will look like. Until then, it's just a matter of waiting and watching.
Good luck to all playing this weekend.
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Hi,
If anyone would like to post an article on the blog, please let me know and email it to me. I can post it for you, as I did for Sadiq for the last post.
ps. Sadiq, you are listed as an author, so you can post yourself.
Adi..My friend..How ya bin kep'n my friend.. hope all well and ya wait'n fo da pay'of....
I will send you my article if you promise no editing..just post as recived?? Good old Rup's views..
So Sheks...you are kiddin right??
AL Finals in the cool nights of da fall..Are you nuts..
It will just be the two teams alone at the ground like a couple years back.. I played in that with Flames and it was aroung the mid 40's in Temp..Maybe you all will have to ump yourself also??.
I'm not rup..both teams have serious personnel issues...(yeah the timing's perfect)..so we can't play next week...
Sorry to hear that Shekhs..
Hope all is well with both Chall & Pak...
a lot of us wants to see that game so we will bear the excitement till game day.
Hey anyone knows whats going on in WP on Sunday 21st.. I see no games schedule??
BTW, guys, does anyone here listen to National Public Radio (NPR, WBEZ 91.5 FM in Chicago)? Happened to be in the car a couple evenings ago, and was listening to "Worldview" on the radio.. and in between talking about Thailand and Malaysian politics, up popped something about cricket! And it sounded like a familiar voice too...
Turned out, it was actually our old buddy Shashi :-) They had a whole interview with him, talked about his movie "Leg Before Wicket" about the Chicago Giants who play in MCC etc etc. Was all pretty damn cool :-) Even recognized Yaseen's voice on it (there was a little extract of an interview with him too!), and I think Amod's as well! Its apparently beign screened in St Charles tomorrow etc.
You can actually listen to it all here:
http://www.wbez.org/Program_WV.aspx?episode=28953
Anyway, just thought Id let people here know - its quite something to have one of our own talking about cricket on National Public Radio after all! And given that it was a total surprise and popped up out of nowhere, it was the coolest thing.
c8w
rup,
well, our(Jaguars) match has been moved to sunday since ground number 3 is not in playable conditions yet.
Shabri
Rup,
No nothing serious with Challengers or Pak players, I guess I used the wrong words.
Both team are just short of personnel due to other committments.
Since its the finals, we want both teams to field their best team, as we need a cracker of a game ...
Division II pre quater finals:
Arena vs Springfield: Arena won I donot know any details about the score as the match was over way before I got to washington park
Madison vs Lucky XI: Interesting match this, Madison were batting 1st and were apparently in deep trouble when they were at 40 odd runs for 6, then 100 odd runs for 8, they ended up recovering and scoring 194 all out I guess. When I got to the field. Lucky XI seemes like they had the match in control at 120 odd runs in just 23 or 24 overs, I think Ayaz was still there batting.
JR and Collinsville:
JR batted 1st and scored just 170 odd runs and I say "just" because JR has batsmen capable of way more than that. So when I got there Collinsville were batting at 130 odd runs for the loss of 7 wickets and I think they needed 30 odd runs in 9 overs then I think Ravi took 2 wickets in his 2 consecutive overs and he got both bhavin and hardik out. So I believe JR will win the match.
-Shabri
-Jaguars
mwca knockout burhani......
first burhani batted and scored 150 runs in the 28 overs.nasir bhai bowled well with 3 good wicket, moin 3 wickets, abhi 1 and 1 runout. abdul bowled for his 2 wkts.from burhani, saunak basu scored 28 even runs.
in reply mwca chased it in 23rd overs. fahad scoring 63n.o. and abhijeet scooring 30.
There was a shameful event between Lucky XI and Madison match. Lucky XI is not a team full of teenagers and therefore, for them to be acting in such manner was embarassing to say the least. They should be banned for good and never be allowed to play in midwest. It was ironic to see Dadabhoy questioning umpires all day long since he is a terrible umpire himself. I expected to see more class and humbleness from Lucky XI as they constitute of older guys, what a shame.......
Arena beats Springfield.
Springfield 71 Allout.
Arena 72/1.
Ajoy
JR Beats Collinsville by 14 runs.
JR batted first and scored 175 runs. Kedar scored 27 not out and he was involved in a crucial 40 run last wicket partnership with Ashish,
Collinsville lost wickets at regular intervals and it looked like they pulled it off when Sal and Bhavin were batting as they only needed 30 off 40 balls with 3 wickets in hand. A breakthrough from Ravi helped JR pull back and win it by 14 runs. :)
Punjabi,
who won the lucky 11 Vs Madison game?? I knew it was hotly contested as we could see teams appealing for a prolonged time!!!!
It was funny!!!
Madison won the game by a forfeit.
Madison batting first posted 193. They were in big trouble at 47/6 as the top order crumbled. The lower order then came to the party to lift them to first 103/8, then 143/9 and then finally a crucial last wicket partnership of 50 runs took them to 193.
Lucky XI in reply were comfortably placed at 140/3 with Ayaz batting on 50 odd. Madison then hit back with a couple of quick wickets and the latter half of the Lucky XI batting were clueless against the wiles of Ankur crumbling to 163/9, a number of hotly debated decisions along the way. At the fall of the 9th wicket, Lucky called off the game, followed by scenes we would all like to forget.
Madison next play Eagles for a spot in the semi-finals.
Can anyone please use common sense cap on and explain the blog what them mean by saying LUCKY 11 was involved in the ""SCENE"" or ""SHAMEFUL ACT"" so we all can understand.
Masta? You have to be one of the sideline reporter, cmon man ....
Masta,
Based on what I read from your post. I would question umpiring as well especially with catches on boundary where catcher moves when he is supposed to stay for a umpire audit.
Who were the umpires?
Division II, the last pre quater finals, it was the Jaguars Vs QC. Our(Jaguars), gave us a perfect start. We lost our 1st wicket in the 4th over or so. We were cruising at a runrate of 6 until the 15th over for just 2 wickets, we had lost one more wicket before the 20th over and then came in Ashish, Ashish and rohit had a very good partnership, with rohit scoring 85 of just 80 balls, he was runout for a brilliant direct throw from the short thirdman, we were still sitting at a very good score, maybe around 180 runs in 30 overs for a loss of 4 wickets, we had another runout after that and then a LBW and then a catch out so we lost 3 quick wickets and the score was around 220 odd runs in 34 overs, with shahmeer and Ashish still on the crease, then shahmeer did his job by rotating strike and seeing the good balls through and he did punish a bad ball with a six. Ashish started firing and he took our score to 271 at the end of 40 for the loss of 8 wickets Ashish ended notout for 88(68). We started our balling pretty well taking a wicket right in the 3rd and then shahmeer took 2 wickets in his 2 consecutive overs. Soon the QC kings were looking in trouble. Hari came in after that and he played the ball around a little and then he got out to Sikandar edged the bal to the keeper. Then suddenly couple of wickest here and there sikandar taking 3 quick wickets got QC to 68/8 in just 13 overs and then the tail started wagging, but still managed to pick singles up here and there. Satyam came in and started balling spin and helped jaguars finish the match with 2 wickets in 4 overs or so. We dismissed QC for just 100 runs hence pulling off a spot in the quater finals. We will be playing Evanston for the quaters. If everything goes good we should be able to beat'em :). No offense Evanston.
--Shabri
--Jaguars
Easy there mastakilla, you just showed your class, or lack of it. I saw the play that you have mentioned above. Clearly the umpire went in there around 45 yards or so before declaring Dadabhoy out. Yet, he had the audacity to question the umpire and threaten him with walking off the field. And that doesn't even discount the fact that one of Lucky XI boneheads actually slapped Sadiq Yousuf and had to be restrained. Now you tell me who has class and sportsmanship? You take umpire's decision at face value and at worse, just ask him why he gave you out if you felt unsure. Now here was a situation where Lucky XI came up with all kind of conspiracy theories against Sadiq Yousuf being biased against them, and thus harming them in some way. I don't know what is more immature, bringing up conspiracy theories regarding one of the nicest people in MCC, or shoving and slapping the person. Clearly Lucky XI guys have some issues, as they were on a very short leash to begin with. Now to wreck such a havoc, their ban from this league is pretty much warranted. I have nothing against Dadabhoy; in fact I respected the guy until yesterday other than his judgement as an umpire. The umpires were surely inexperiences, but they have sound knowledge of the game as they have been playing in Div I for a while. So to question the umpires information about the rules by you is foolish at best.
P.S and please try to come up with a reasonable arguement than name calling next time.
Congrats Jaguars ... n All The Best for Quarters ..
Congrats to all other winners too ...
Guys,
Any more abusing on the site and we will take steps to prevent it. Instead, find a less crass way of making your point. Everyone is entitled to their point of view and to disagree with others, but using foul language is unacceptable.
Aditya
On a separate note, Muslim Gym and Phoenix played today. MG won the toss and put us in to bat. We were looking good at one stage, then crumbled, then held out to end up with 160 in 44.x overs.
MG were looking to win and up their run-rate as well. They started out going hammer and tongs at us. Now, I think we have a decent bowling attack, but to give you an idea, they were 90/1 in 8 overs!! Just going balistic on us. It was carnage, and we were looking at an early (and embarassing) finish! But, some very good spin bowling, well supported by the fielders pulled it back and suddenly MG had lost 5 wickets in the space of 30 runs. From that point on, it was a race to the finish, and our guys did a great job to wrap up a very talented batting line-up about 18 runs short of their target and secure a win and some more momentum for us.
Once again MG were very classy opponents and we thoroughly enjoy playing against them, win or lose. While I am disappointed that their season ends pre-maturely, I am sure they will be back with a bang next year. They are too good to be kept out of the post season for long. For us, it was a big win because of how highly we rate them as a team. Thanks guys.
Adi..My friend..How ya bin kep'n my friend.. hope all well and ya wait'n fo da pay'of....
I will send you my article if you promise no editing..just post as recived?? Good old Rup's views..
Rup, I won't edit your article. ;-)
In fact, if one person can commit to writing an article on anything every week, that would be much better than me posting - Week X predictions instead! Please do send it along....
ps. I been good my friend. How are you doing? How's your leg? Hope the injury is healing.
Next year I want to see a rejuvinated and motivated ICC in the regular season causing havoc as usual!
Pukka Punjabi,
Thank you for showing some restraint in your comments when you could have easily been provoked. Much appreciated.
ps. I know who you are.... ;-)
Really! was Sadiq slapped? Holy cow! Did soembody call 911. Isnt that actually assault ?
Jags..Mads..JR..Arena...all winners congratulations. The washington curse seem to following QCKings. Badluck Hari.
Congrats Aditya ... You guys are carrying fwd a good momentum with 10 points in last 3 matches ... Just 3 more wins now ... and you can realise your dream ...
Thanks Alpesh - appreciate the support. Easier said than done now, but we'll try our best, as I'm sure the other 7 teams will too.
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Preetam N said...
Really! was Sadiq slapped? Holy cow! Did soembody call 911. Isnt that actually assault ?
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Heh. I dont really want to get into this stuff... but before speculation and rumour start to run rampant, let me clarify at least this little bit :-) There was no slap (though maybe not for lack of trying)... shoving, shirt-pulling, attempted bodily harm etc yes, but no slap :-)
Dunno if anyone called 911 or anything - I didnt, I just left, made a south-side run for some good bbq, unwound a bit, then went home (found out only much later that the game didnt actually finish). Technically I suppose there was some assault maybe (though Iam no lawyer), but a fair bit of attempted potentially serious assault that was thwarted (one person charged barehanded, another charged weilding a bat, but both were physically restrained by others a foot or two before reaching their intended target, viz yours truly :-). Apparently spectating can be more dangerous than umpiring sometimes :-)
c8w
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Ajoy Lal said...
Arena beats Springfield.
Springfield 71 Allout.
Arena 72/1.
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Now thats brevity! The soul of wit, they say... (I, possessing none, shall now proceed to not be brief at all :-)
Arena actually played this game with 9 players! They had only 9 available on Saturday who had played the required 3 regular-season games to be eligible to play in a playoff XI (they came with 11 players, but 2 were sort of "emergency subs", as they were not eligible to be in the XI to start with).
When Springfield batted first and were 13/0 after 1 over, one wondered if it might be a long day for Arena. But Arena's bowling looked *very* impressive - they shut down the batting after that, and then throttled it. It was 31/0 after 10 overs, then 46/2.. and then 71 allout. Arena has at least 4 bowlers who have been solid Div1 bowlers (Ajoy and Sameer last year, and Saurabh who played for Kutis for many years and a few years ago was one of the quicker bowlers in the entire league - went for the LA Open 4-5 years ago IIRC, and skipper Keshav, of course, of both Book Club and Kutis; and Sagar, though he bowled from the other end to me, looked a very fine bowler too).
It was my first view of Arena up close - and I didnt actually get to see their batting much, since only 1 man was dismissed (Ive seen guys like Sameer elsewhere before though, and know he can really bat). But Arena looked a very strong side indeed, and one that will be a real threat in these playoffs IMHO (if they actually manage to show up with 11 players, that is - 9 can be the new 11 for a week or two, but not for a long playoff run surely).
c8w
Sadiq
Bravo.... You have proved once again that you are a gentleman by not even complaining to the authorities. I hope people realize that this sort of violent behavior will take them nowhere and will be dealt with. Cricket is a game and JUST A GAME PERIOD.....
Shiva
I heard what happened from Sadiq and I must say that Lucky XI should be thrown out of the league. Ridiculous !!
We won a real close game against Muslim. As Adi mentioned, they are a fun team to play against- like the Royals. I have always enjoyed watching their batting - not yesterday. Got hammered for 2 massive sixes and a four by Rizwan. I couldnt help say Wow when he connected of the first one - it flew 100+ yards.
The way Mo and Mahmood played was also a treat to watch. The one that sticks to mind was the on the up cover drive for a six of a real good ball. I was in the slips and was about to say good ball and then saw the ball flying through cover.
The Jaguars were playing right next to us and boy, I was really impressed.
Fahad, well played buddy against Milwaukee. I hope you get to play for the US soon.
A special congratulations to our League's Leading run scorer for 2008 - Faisal Baig
It is great to see you improve leaps and bound this year and play to your true potential. You have lead from front and carried UCC batting on your “broad” shoulders and “big” biceps (I am sure people know I am not kidding when I say this). These days we see balls sailing over cover boundaries along with a quick single or a double around the corner. We have truly enjoyed all your innings, especially the hundred along with Doc (Naveed) against the talented and dangerous Peoria.
Keep up the good form and help us bring that trophy home. Good luck bro…..
Mehul
UCC
Congratulations Fais. You were in awesome form throughout and have carried it through. Really a gem of a season for you, and I hope you are able to continue in your rich vein - unless you play us!! :-)
Well done. Definitely the top batsman and run scorer by far this season.
Sorry to hear about your ordeal Sadiq...
I agree with Jaggi..we have to take some kinda action against Lucky XI..
they created a scene in springfield about coupla weeks ago..
This is unacceptable..
Congrats to all the winners and teams that made playoffs..
Congrats Faiz..awesome job..
keep it real!!
Luckt XI, as far as i know and seen these guys they have never showed me a sign of the accused behavior...
Given the volume of ouycry for action, and Sadiq as the umpire then I guess something realy did not go well.
I will wait for an explanation from Lucky XI, hopefully to the teams in an e-mail explaining their side of the story so we can all then make a sensible and justified decision as to who if any gets suspended.
I don't like the idea of banning the whole team but we must take actions again those that caused the problem at hand.
Congrat to all the winners in the Div 2 p/Offs.
To all the Div 1 winners kudos and hope you do well in the upcoming p/offs.
I will be at the Park next week end to watch some exciting cricket from all of you.
It's the p/offs anf I am hoping all teams realized that you are here now because of the good cricket you displayed over the entire summer so don't throw it away by foolish behavior because it's the p/offs.
Ater next week-end this blog should be talking about the exciting cricket played rather that who we are going to suspend or banned.
Adi,,,thanks for checking up..
all is good now but ICC season is done.
Yep ICC will do a reality check and once our players can comit we will be a dangerous team next year.
This has been a tough year.. but it seems like an ICC pattern.. one good year followed by a bad year. Or it can be we need to take cricket more serious that just that's it's fun..Nah we will stay with the fun!!!!
Rup, I must disagree with you. Whatever the explanation is from Lucky XI they cannot brandish a bat or get physical with another perrson leave alone an umpire(bystander in this case). There need to be repurcussions for their actions, especially if they are repeat offenders. It was Sadiq now it could be you and me tomorrow. I don't know Lucky XI as a team but i know AAA and Chicago Fire and they are good guys. But one has to remember this is just a game and this kind of behaviour cannot be tolerated and condoned. Hope the league does something about this.
Rup, sadiq was not the umpire. He was a spectator at the game. The umpires had a question about rules and came up to Sadiq to clarify the rules. Sadiq advised the umpires to not consult him, but, since it was a clarification to a rule(what happens only when one of the bails is off), he only provided them with the answer per the ICC rule book.
The fine folks in Lucky XI thought the best option to win the game was to attack Sadiq. Morons !!
It can be argued that the umpires should not have consulted Sadiq. Well, if they did, it was not Sadiq's fault. Most of the umpires do it on a part-time basis. We have very few who take it very seriously. We, on the blog have discussed tricky situations like the one above and looked for Maverick to provide us with the answers. Umpire education is an absolute must, but even then there will be situations such as these. In this situation, the umpires decided to make sure that they did the right thing by getting clarification to the rules.
It does not warrant behavior like this. Suspend the guys who attacked Sadiq for a season and their captain for 6 games for not keeping his team under control.
Exciting weekend in more ways than one! Does anyone know what happened with Bears Challs game?
I just spoke to Shekhs and he said it was a Tie. The game was reduced to 30 overs due to dew.I will let Shekhs give you all the details.
Damn, Sheky spill the beans!
yeah SD, it was a tie..
We played a reduced over (30) game as the ground was extremely wet, had to wait for some sunshine..
Bears won the toss and decided to bat. Challengers bowled and fielded pretty good, but were robbed off with 3 caught behinds, 3 lbws...seriously..that was like the height..
anyways, bears ended up with 130..
We were chasing pretty good with 1st and 2nd wicket providing 25 runs each ...
But some quick wickets..and bears were fighting back..
the last over we needed 4 runs..and mehul missed a coupla balls..
last ball one needed..bhavesh tried to whack a ball that was way outside the off..should've been a wide by a mile..but apparently the umpire didnt think so..
so its a tie..what are you going to do..
Who was the umpire?
Anwer Khan
so that tie will leave div 1 as
1. Challs
2. Pak
3. United
4. Phoenix
5. Milw
6. Bears
7. St louis
8. Peoria
You guys seriously expect Lucky XI players to be banned by this management?
Unfortunately, we know that wont happen. I still like to dream from time to time :)
I heard that there was another incident involving players from Lucky XI in springfield a week or two ago.
Faisal, congratulations on being the number one batsman in Div-1. You are the Nadal of our league:)
Let's clarify one thing..I don't want to be heard as accepting the behavior of Lucky XI.
All I said I will like to hear Lucky 11 side before I speak my peace on what i think should happen to the offenders.
Hope I clear a few minds on this
I heard about springfield incident involving Lucky XI players. In the same game, from what I know through grapevine, Lucky XI played with few players who had played against sprinfield for Chicago Fire this season! This has got to be the "mother of all" cheats this season. I say, ban those players for 14 games if found guilty.
Shekhs have any updates from the management?
simon,
I dont have any updates from the mgmnt....I'm assuming you meant with regards to the Lucky XI - Springfield game....
I'll let you guys know if I hear anything..
Lucky XI played with few players who had played against sprinfield for Chicago Fire this season! This has got to be the "mother of all" cheats this season. I say, ban those players for 14 games if found guilty.
++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++
Simon,,,This is a serious allegation to make unless there is clear proof it happened..
As I stated a few days ago we all have a moral obligation to do what's right for cricket but it's been a constant complaint about teams using foul means as the above claim and more to win...
If i am right there is a rule that if this suspicion arises then the umpire has to check the player ID for validation..Why didn't Springfield request this at game time instead of throwing this out now.. In fact the umpire has the right to inspect all players for ID before the game starts..
Unless proof is presented then it's easy to see why a claim like this can be biased on AAA, Lucky, And C/Fire as they are mostly related and they same name show up in different rooster...
No hard feelings but the Patel's are too many to keep count of..
Let's wait for official report from Shekhs.
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Jaggi said...
We won a real close game against Muslim. As Adi mentioned, they are a fun team to play against- like the Royals. I have always enjoyed watching their batting - not yesterday. Got hammered for 2 massive sixes and a four by Rizwan. I couldnt help say Wow when he connected of the first one - it flew 100+ yards.
The way Mo and Mahmood played was also a treat to watch. The one that sticks to mind was the on the up cover drive for a six of a real good ball. I was in the slips and was about to say good ball and then saw the ball flying through cover.
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I'll second this, BTW. Muslim was chasing 160, and with approx math figured they needed to win in about 22 or so overs to be sure of a playoff spot (they needed to win big, get 4 points plus up their NRR from -0.4 to about +0.4 or so).
They lost Kamran early (LBW swinging across the line), and then Mo and Mahmood batted very well. The above shot by Mahmood (six smacked over cover) was probably the shot of the day - beautifully timed, sailing over extracover. Mo fell to Shiva's first ball after batting very well for 30 or so (about 70-odd for 2), and Rizwan promoted himself to keep hitting. He hit 4 sixes in all IIRC, the above shots off Jaggi the standouts.. the first one that Jaggi mentioned, I actually had my arms raised for six well before the ball even landed :-) It went a good 20/30 yards beyond the boundary, huge shot. The next ball he went for it again, and top-edged it.. and it went only 2-3 yards beyond the boundary for another six! It was a stretch of quite spellbinding hitting for a while.
Mahmood was dismissed by Sameer, but even after that MuslimGym was 104/3 off 12 overs, last over of field-restrictions upcoming. In total command, but the mindset chasing for NRR can be strange sometimes... NRR's for other teams might have been miscalculated etc, MuslimGym wanted to finish it off as quickly as possible apparently, just to be totally sure. I really think that if they had gotten only 3/4 runs off that 13th over, the field may have spread just a little after that, with a couple more boundary fielders.. and then singles may have been much easier and the whole game might have been different. But thats easy to say in hindsight, at the moment it felt like continuing to go hard was the right thing to do, since it was working so spectacularly :-)
As it was, Imran top-edged Sameer in the 13th over and was caught. Then Rizwan tried to smack one too many, missed, and was bowled - excellent flighted ball, beat him in the air. Pradeep was promoted to continue hitting, swung mightily at his first ball and missed and was also bowled. From 104/3 in 12 overs, Sameer had just bowled a triple-wicket-maiden! Muslim were suddenly 104/6.. and now the last 4 batsmen were left to try and get 57 runs in a must-win game under enormous pressure. Phoenix, to their eternal credit, had never dropped their heads under the assault, never had their fielding fold, never stopped trying. Now they suddenly were energized and the bowling picked up a couple of notches, the fielders were all in circle and swooping on everything. It turned into a tense battle, but Muslim had from this point always lost a wicket or two too many IMHO.. and they ended up falling 16 runs short in the end IIRC.
A very fun match to umpire, and played in quite amazingly friendly spirits by both sides (despite it being a do-or-die game for one). Muslim had a team in transition most of the year (their XI yesterday had 3 or 4 players who had played no more than 3 or 4 games all year long)... but if they can keep this same lineup next year with a bit more stability, they will IMHO be a real threat again next season.
c8w
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Shekhs said...
We played a reduced over (30) game as the ground was extremely wet, had to wait for some sunshine..
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Surprised to hear some of that stuff, Sheks, since Anwar has long been regarded as one of the best umps we have. Maybe just an offday.
However, I do have a bit of a problem with this bit above honestly... 30 overs games, this Sunday, just because the *dew factor* delayed the start?? I know it didnt affect anything in terms of playoffs etc in the end.. but in a 45-over league that seems way too short, to me. Either our league is 45 overs or not - if it is, everyone should play it if at all possible; if it isnt then everyone should play 40.
Remember, 30/30 playoffs were held at Hanover on Saturday too.. 2 30/30 games were played there Saturday, the first starting at 9am! And those games went off ok and were played fully I believe? We had a fair bit of dew in our game at WP too (in fact Sameer of Phoenix asked me if we ought to start late for that, I refused).. we started on time despite a dewey-wet outfield, we played a 45-over game. The ball actually got too wet after about 13 overs and we had to replace it and did(there had been no towel used until then, nobody had found one).. but we still started at 10am, and after 11am or so it was dry enough and the game went off just fine after that. (Next to us Milwaukee was travelling to play Flames, and that game was scheduled to have a later start - they started quite a bit after 11am there, and still played a 40 overs a side match there).
A week ago I travelled to Purdue with Wildcats, on that record-rainfall Saturday. That morning I checked with Tariq about over-reductions etc.. and he said that if overs were being reduced at the start of a game (from 10am onwards), we only reduce 10-overs-an-hour basis in total (because, of course, games are scheduled to finish before 5ish, but light is available till much later, so there's no need to reduce drastically at the start). We started the game at a little after 11:30 or so last week (12:30 local time, note).. and so reduced 15 overs in total, ie 7.5 overs a side, and played a 37-over-a-side match..and this was a travelling game in Purdue (where one team has to drive about 3 hours back in a rainstorm)! IMHO at least, a 30-over game at Hanover should only have been ok if the start was at like 1pm on Sunday afternoon here... did you guys actually end up starting *that* late? I mean, even if it was a 12pm start, thats 20 overs reduced in total, and a 35-over-a-side match by the over-reduction rules the way I see it, no?
(Heck, when the 30/30 day games are played during the season, the second 30/30 game actually *starts* at 2pm, showing just how late you can actually start for a 30-over match!)
Note, Iam not trying to blame you or anything here Sheks :-) Just curious about how a 30-over game ended up happening just because of dew, and about the actual start-time. Either way, next season I think we ought to have more stringent rules spelling all this stuff out very clearly in the entire league, to be enforced for everyone. (Personally, my own opinion here, I think we start away games at 11am and still play 45-overs-a-side in Div1 and 40-overs-a-side in Div2.. I personally see no reason why there should be a reduction of *any* overs until after 11am even for Chicagoland games given that reasoning! But Iam a known-extremist about that :-) But I really think we ought to make that a law.. until 11am no overs reduced whatsoever, after 11am reduce at 13-overs-an-hour in total if you like. But IMHO we ought to be making every effort to playing as much cricket as humanly possible.
My own way of reducing overs has traditionally been, you work out how long light is available, then work out about 12 overs an hour (very safe rate) backwards to our start time and go from there.. ie when light is there till 7:30 or 8:00 in the heart of summer, thus even 40-overs-a-side starting at 12:30-1pm is easily doable, and we usually have ended up doing that when Ive umpired in either division. But again, thats just me, and Iam extreme about those things :-) A uniform rule would probably serve everyone better.
c8w
Finger,
Here's the situation at 10:00 am on sunday (dunno how it was on saturday, but there was heavy fog on sunday morning..very low visibility)
The grass was very tall and the dew had the grass extremely wet - if oyu drop a ball, you can see a splash, that kinda wet...
We tried to practice a bit and the ball was wet and heavy in a few seconds..
I'm not trying to get defensive here..but just trying to throw some light on the situation..
so, both captains decided that we'll wait for a bit before we toss..
And given the situation, they decided that it was best to play 30 overs..
no offense taken finger...I do partly agree with you on this matter..
About Anwer Khan as an umpire, he's umpired our games before and we never had an issue, apart from a regular umpire error here and there..
But, yesterday's calls were not just the regular errors...it was more than that..
Congratulations to all the play off teams in all 3 divisions!
Congratulations Faisal, is his run aggregate this season some sort of MCC record? I can't remember anybody that scored so heavily in a season.
30/30 doesn't get much exposure here on the blog, but I want to mention that Hamad single handedly beat us (Rockers) in the quarter-final on Saturday. First, he bowled beautifully to take 3 wickets in the space of 2 overs and then came out with the bat and blazed to a 104 n.o. peppered with sixes and fours. Congratulations to the Hustlers and good luck for the semis.
Speaking of dew, we had the same situation saturday morning at HP. We won the toss and I insisted to my captain that we bat first (a fatal error, as anybody can point out, however, I believed that in an important game, batting first is always better,but to my dismay, I realized that 9 AM dew trumps all). Well, the ball soaked up every bit of moisture and became heavy and ginormous. By the 5th or 6th over, it was like a fully pregnant lady with triplets.(that never delivered even by the 30th over).I did speak to the umpire about this several times but he insisted that this did not constitute a reason to change the ball, and I had no reason to not believe him. It was liking trying to hit a giant iron globe. Anyway, my question to all of you is: what are the legal reasons for a change of ball? Can somebody do some research on this please? We know that balls are changed when its deemed to be a disadvantage to the bowlers but what about the poor schmucks we call batsmen? :)
As for the Wildcats, we had a very disappointing season and for the first time in 10 years, we did not make it to the play offs, and to be honest, we did not deserve to. We hope to come back next year and perform better, but we need at least 4 or 5 new players. So, this is a shameless plug and I'm going to use up some of this blog space to advertise the availability of some positions in our team next year. Please feel free to contact any of the Wildcats if you are interested.
sorry bout wildcats' disappointing season...
I'm sure you guys will bounce back stronger next year..
I think the umpire has to change the ball if the bowling team requests and the batsmen agree, provided the ball is in bad shape...in your case, that was not even a question right..
For night cricket, next year, I'd like to suggest (Tushar's idea, dont want to take credit for that..) an option to change the ball after 10 overs, if the ground conditions and the ball is unplayable..
So the teams would have an option to change the ball after 10 overs..
what do you guys think?
Now Sheky..I got a problem with changing the ball after 10 overs..unless it's damaged or lost and then it must be replaced by an a ball of somewhat equal condition??
How about we buy some better quality balls... Most 20/20 league are using the Kookabora ball. from talking to some of the guys the cost around 25 US. Increase the fees by 50.00 to $600.00 and BAM!!!your ball problem is over.
I hear you Romo on the dissapointment.
ICC is a little bit deeper in that field compare to you guys..
Give the fact that both teams have a lot of love for this game they should come back strong next year..
Then again that's 7 months from now..A long wait it will be
Talking about weather conditions at game time..
Year after year we talk the same smack and nothing seems to change..
Every league that plays under our climate conditions have finished their p/offs 2 week in September.
We have not gotten to some Quartes as yet..why because we start late??
We need to start 2nd to last week in April for the regular league. 20/20 needs to start 1st week in June. If this happens, then we close all leagues 2 nd week in September. Then we can use the last couple of weeks of September for some kinda fun tournament for the guys who want to play a little longer in da cold??
hi guys good luck to all the playoff teams...
it was a great season in div 1....
Rup,
I didnt mean to get a new ball when I said "option to change the ball" - I meant an older ball, but playable..
This is only due to the factor that the ball is heavy and soaked..and cannot be used..
If we play in June in good weather, I dont think we need to change any ball at all..
Yeah, the balls are all a buncha crap ones..
does anyone know who won in panthers vs warriors game in 30/30 playoffs!!!
Panthers won Fahad...
They'll be playing Deepark..
You guys are playing hustlers right?
"I think the umpire has to change the ball if the bowling team requests and the batsmen agree, provided the ball is in bad shape...in your case, that was not even a question right.."
Shekhs
I believe the ball has to be changed if in the opinion of the umpire its not playworthy..... does not require a request from either teams... the umpire has to take a look at the ball every couple of overs and come to a judgment.....
Shiva
yeah so that will be really competitive game for us
whatsup with the mcc website not showing the playoff results yet .... ???
Thanks shiva...
I think with our league, the ball should be changed in good faith.....irrespective of ICC rules, as the balls are pretty bad.
If there's a request acknowledged by both sides, I think we should let them have a different one..
My 2 cents..
Fahad,
I think it will be a good game..
Good luck!
kd.
they havent given us the logon info for div 2 playoffs yet. so we cudnt update the scores yet. i called sridher abt it and he said he will get back to me. No word yet.
Hear ya Shekhs,
I still say we need a better quality ball..period???.
Just conforming,,It's the umpires duty to rule on the ball. The bowlers can bring it up and if the umpire agree to change then they will show the batsman the ball if there is more than one to choose from.
DIV II Quarter Finals Line up :
Madison v Eagles
Jaguars v Evanston
Arena v IIT
AAA v Jolly Rovers
Predictions ?
Nothing personal folks, just predictions...
Madison v Eagles - Eagles
Jaguars v Evanston - Jaguars
Arena v IIT - Arena
AAA v Jolly Rovers - AAA
And I predict Samir will be the MVP for the Arena-IIT game.
Jaguars over Evanston and Arena over IIT ...very interesting ...
nevertheless,this will be a cracker of a day at WP ...all 8 teams present and fighting it out for a place in SF...
My predictions...
Madison v Eagles - Eagles
Jaguars v Evanston - Evanston
Arena v IIT - IIT
AAA v Jolly Rovers - Jolly Rovers :-)
you can also predict for div 1
chall v peoria
pak v st louis
united v bears
phoenix v milw
I agree KD, definitely will be a cracker saturday...
Predictions..
chall v peoria - chall :-)
pak v st louis - Pak
united v bears - United
phoenix v milw - Phoenix
test
Predictions..
Peoria over Chall (bring it on Sheks.....:-)
St. Louis over Pak
United over Bears
Phoenix over Milw
sheky i think it will be another chall-pak or chall-united final, pak-united will be a cracker going by night semi, that is ofcourse if there are no 'upsets'.
Welcome Satha. Long time no hear :)
Challengers Vs Peoria will be a tough one to call. Challengers have been scratchy, but have known to bounce back. Peoria has the talent and if they have a full strength team, can be a major threat.
I think Pak will beat St Louis and United over Bears. Even though Bears have Hammad, United bat deep and have a good bowling attack.
Now Milwaukee Vs Phoenix. I dont want to make any predictions, but, I believe we can beat Milwaukee - again. They will come with a lot of confidence scoring big against flames last weekend and would also like to make amends for their loss to us. People like Romesh, Asif, Kabir will always be a threat, but if we perform to our potential, we can defeat them.
All four games should be interesting.
Div-2 predictions
Madison v Eagles - Eagles
Jaguars v Evanston - Jaguars
Arena v IIT - Arena
AAA v Jolly Rovers - Jolly Rovers
Fahad, good luck to you and MWCC for the Semi's of the 30/30.
As of now, the weather looks good for Saturday - slight showers for Sunday. I hope it holds off. The temps are predicted to drop to the 60's for next week.
Good luck to all !!
Satha man...you've been hybernating in summer huh....
:-)
You got it man..you're on...
will see you on sunday....
Its gonna be a good game..
what I didnt really get is.. STL Over Pak..now you've really been hybernating.. :-)
no offense STL, but beating Pak and that too in chicago..
satha, you gotta work on your drinking man.. :-)
SD,
Chall vs. Peoria will be a tough one...whoever wins will have a good chance to play the finals..
eventhough I'd like to give my Sri Lankan friend a hard time, Peoria is a tough squad...
I dont think they are underdogs by any means, even if they are #8..thats just the situation..
So its a 50-50 game..
Jaggi,
Thanks man. Most of the summer I was away from home either at cleint site or vacationing in Toronto. I've had only played 6 games hoping to play many playoffs games......:-)
Shekhs
I'm hoping for one or two upsets, but not our game though....:-)
By the way, if we lose, I owe you a bottle of rum and a Cuban cigar (straight from a cigar factory in Havana).
You wanna wager something? Friendly rivalry is always a good thing, right mate?
talking smack huh Satha..no worries..I'll get my homies take care of you in springfield.. :-)
yeah, friendly rivalries are the best..
you got it bud..bottle of Appleton Estate and a Cuban cigar...apparently, I dont have to go to cuba for that..have some sources right here.. :-)
We're not sure yet, but still debating on whether to make that trip to Springfield or not..
Last time we were drunk the night before we beat you..so kinda have to keep that trend going..
well we all know satha hits big but i saw his team mate yousaf in wc hit some unbelievable shots, peoria-chall will be tough.
moderate drinking before the game is always brings the best out of you.
hope the cigars you're getting are not made out of banana leaf....:-)
dude, i'm looking forward to see you guys here for the party on Sat night. it will be a blast.
i must say Challs are one of the best team in the league for the last few years. they've been consistent with their performance through out this season. its always fun to play them as they play hard and have fun at the same time...very spirited guys (pun intended).....:-)
SD,
shh..we have plans for Satha and Yusuf bhai... :-)
and yeah someone named Madew...I dunno..I think he's new..
Satha,
That'll be something right - cigar made out of banana leaves...
nope..this is authentic bud..
yeah, will definitely try to make it on saturday...
been long time. got dull on blog. but now is much going on good stuff. how everybody?
confushus say: after good screwing man who takes rest able to screw good again.
my predications - div 2.
madison bt eagles who missing motivation.
jags bt evanston coz evanston will be cold on game day.
iit bt arena coz ppl forget how good iit is.
jr bt aaa coz this not year of aaa lucky or fire. maybe next year.
playoffs.....mmmmmm...love the atmosphere...i am so glad that both the finals are going to be held at WP....also, can somebody make sure it is 45 overs game...Our league is 45 overs and the finals should be 45 overs. I don't understand this one game deal of 50 overs. It took us half the season to adjust to 45 overs from 40 overs.
Peoria vs Challengers....if Peoria takes care of bowling they have a very good chance and on the other hand if Challs put their head down and bat all 45 overs they are a tough team to beat....
I am just excited about the playoffs atmosphere...we missed it once and i would hate to miss it ever again...I understand Rom's feeling completely....tough luck bro...u definitely need some fresh blood to keep it going....
there's also night final pending, sheky when is that happening or are pak or challs unable to field full strength teams till Dec ;).
my predications - div 1
peoria bt challs and remind last year loss in playoffs early.
pak bt sl coz there has 2 b 1 masacar and this is it.
united bt bears coz justice shall prevail despite all mocking.
milw bt phoenix coz luck run out sometime and this it.
Shekhs you guys do make it interesting don't you. I guess I will support Challs then, b'cos i can share the rum ;)...... Been Long time Satha, haven't seen you on the scorecards....
Good Luck to all the teams ....
S_D,
Night finals will be next week...I was going to schedule it for next tuesday, but the weather doesnt look very good.
Lemme look at the weather for a coupla days and will let you know..
Nah, I dont think you'll have to wait till december...
Divion II predictions:
Madison VS Eagles: This match is really gonna be interesting. Madison, though they have won all the matches at WP. They didn't win them easily they had to go through some batting trouble, against Collinsville, Madison just scored around 130 odd runs. Eventhough they win the match pretty decently, I think against Eagles(them being a very good batting and bowling side), Madison will sure have to get things together and get any remaining strengths that they have been putting aside and use everything that they have to beat Eagles. I would predict Eagles will win the match unless Madison really pull it off with their bowling.
Jaguars vs Evanston:
I was actualy looking at Eavanstons record in WP, but interestingly found that they hadn't played those many matches in WP and Jaguars record on WP was very good last year. This year we made some mistakes, which I think we have come over with. We got together as a team in the match against QC and are hoping the same happens against Evanston. We have played Evanston already this year and have lost the match, but it was a nail biter the match came down to the last wicket. We were able to pull that off in their ground, so I think we should be able to a lot more at our ground(WP). On the other side Evanston have had a very good season, its been a one man show a lot of times. So if jaguars manage the bullets shot from that one man then Jaguars should be able to secure a win against Evanston and lookin at the current form that Jaguars are in and the ground not being Evanstons home ground I would say Jaguars can clinch a victory here and commence to the semi-final.
Arena vs IIT:
IIT has had a very bad season this year. I am not telling they didn't have wins, they did have wins but seemed like they had really struggled with their batting. They are a very good batting side aas well as a bowling side they can jump back into the game at any instance and pull the game out of ur hands. IIT needs to work on their batting. On the other hand Arena is playing in Division II for the 1st time and have made it to the playoffs and the record says they can really upset some teams. So I would say if Arena pulls of a win against IIT then it should be another upset match.
AAA vs JR:
Jolly Rovers sure look like they had another good season. They really should be looking forward for the AAA match as the previous time a match between these 2 was scheduled they had a rain out. While looking forward for the match it might be hard for them at the same time since the match is gonna be played at WP on which they haven't played a lot this season in fact i don't think they had a single match yet except for the p/offs match against Collinsville. AAA had a very good season with a 100% winning record except a couple of rainouts, but suddenly they started loosing matches. It looked like they had some problems with the cofidence level they had and were loosing some matches. If they come to the playoffs with the same confidence level it will get very hard for them to secure a victory in the quaters. I would still say AAA are a very storng team and whould be able to beat JR pretty easily, JR will have to do something over extraordinary to win this match.
All these are just predictions and are pretty eligible to be wrong. Please donot take anything that I said here as an offense and even if you do you will have to excuse me :).
--Shabri
--Jaguars
Rohit,
like Jaggi mentioned earlier, we love to live on the edge..
its razor sharp edge this time..lets see how it goes..
Thanks for the support..
Good knock over the weekend bud..match winning one, matter of fact..keep it real!
me tell story of league. u decide what smells like.
there 1ce is league that manipulated by puppet master. teams vote against him get short end of stick.
team called muslim gym fighting 4 playoff spot in last game. they play phoenix. muslim is enemy of puppet master.
another team called bears fighting also but in much better position. bears play challs 4 last game. now challs switched and voted for puppet master. challs have guy on mgmt. bears have guy on mgmt.
umpire shown bad judgement lately. he good but shown clear bias 4 certain teams who from his country.
bears challs game reduced to 30 overs oddly and that help save bears nrr if they lose. somehow bears who not best team draw with challs who best team. umpire makes some bad calls. and muslim gym eliminated even before their game has result.
these are facts. where conspiracy theorists? is not this fishy?
Rohit
I've had only played 6 games (batted only in 5) this year and didn't perform that well. I guess no practices caused this. Hope Challs will be easy on me, at least Shekhs......:-)
confushus say: man who throws away barrel of apples becoz 1 or 2 bad will always go hungry!
not blame all lucky xi 4 2 or 3 ppl. if i play lucky xi and 1 or 2 make mistake what i 2 do? get banned 4 nothing? harbajan done many stupid things. does all indian team get banned? or pak team coz of shoaib? should i call all bloggers stupid coz 1 or 2 make stupid comments?
please b real. only blame those who at fault.
test
Big hitta..
I like your conspiracy theory..thanks for sharing that..
I agree with you on the Lucky XI issue...because a coupla them were bad, we dont have to suspend the whole team..
I think we should identify those few individuals and punish them..
but heres the deal...what are you going to do if a team consistenly misbehaves, be that one or 2 folks..but still the team management has to own up the resposibility..
u r welcome sheky. i just said facts. ppl may or may not like it. but 2 much coincidence here 2 just assume another game happened.
big hitter,
First of all dont just say umpire, say his name, say that ur accusing Anwer Khan of taking sides with his country men.
Now for people that have played games that have been umpired by him will vouch that your theory cant be further from the truth.....and also Muslim gym are from the same country.
anyways thanks for sharing your conspiracy theory....oh and where were you and ur theories for the last game of last season between muslim and rogers. Remember that one!!!
with respect to Lucky11's incident, i believe that was very unfortunate.
I think the captain along with the culprits who misbehaved should be punished as well. The captain should have restrained his players and if failed to do so or encouraged them should also be held responsible.
Is it true that poor sadiq got involved in this even though he was not umpiring the game?
Shekhs,
i see ur predicting us to lose against united.
ya i guess on paper they are the better team and we are the underdogs.
hopefully the underdogs can bark loud sunday.
Goodluck to all in the playoffs!!!
BH, I agree with Hamad, please do not bring up country in your argument. I can very proudly say that a majority of the people in this league are beyond that.
Hammad,
pardon me brutha..but I have to stick with whats on paper, as United is a star studded team..
it was just a prediction..
I believe in underdogs myself...as you guys almost beat us a coupla days ago..so I wouldnt be surprised if you pull an upset(I have to call it an upset)...
Good luck!
mr khan is bias 2 certain teams. all happen 2 b from his country. he not bias 4 other teams also happen 2 b from his country. so mayb country is not only criteria. have seen + heard other times of bias also.
hammad u r right. there was conspiracy last year for rp vs mg. the facts r fishy. as is year b4 when aaa gave pg walkover. and year b4 when pg gave chargers walkover. lot of teams involved in fishy actions not 1 or 2. lot of ppl too not just players.
jaggi u live in paradise of fool. most ppl dont care but some do. some who influence situations. if u look closely is very clear. but step back and look from afar and this is hidden.
confushus say: man who does not floss ends up with cavities.
------
Shekhs said...
shh..we have plans for Satha and Yusuf bhai... :-)
and yeah someone named Madew...I dunno..I think he's new..
-----
Everyone knows Satha and Madhu and now Yusuf (after the mini-WC), and I suppose Ashwin and Chintan from last years Purdue outfit etc.
But, one pretty damn decent player that maybe people dont know much is Ravi Uddavolu. Saw him only once this year (the only time I saw Peoria, actually), and he batted quite terrifically that time for 90-odd against United. Looked a very good player that day at least - solid bat, who was very aggressive and hit some terrific shots as the innings progressed (eventually his 90-odd took 70-odd balls I think). He I think has played for the Central-West regional squad in the past (Dallas, Houston etc), in the Western Regionals. If youre making plans for individual players, Sheks, he might be another one you ought to make some specific plans for - after Satha and Ashwin he might be one of Peoria's best bats from what I saw that day :-)
c8w
testing from mars
BH,
i kind of know what ur talking about..
all the steps and comprimises we take to make it to the playoffs...incredible
well i guesss that tells you how much we all love this game and strive to win!
as Big hitter's confushus would say: we dont win till we cheat a little.
c ya all at cricket sunday
Good predictions!
Thx for all those who predicted in our favor. But Madison is a damn good team. And we are coming after a break. So it will not be easy. We will really need to fight hard and dig deep to get past Madison. Good luck to both and may the better team win.
It will be fun watching all the teams on saturday.
I want to propose "cricket day" on the blog. That means, no bitching of umpires, no bitching of management, players etc etc etc.
Just pure cricket.
Can we make it happen? BH, Tango, bhaisaab, memsaab, everybody lets join in and focus on today with NO BITCHING...a friendly rivalry (satha vs sheikh) is welcome...but no name calling please...
Mehul
UCC
Is Lara better than Tendlia?
Well, I have had previlege of bowling to the greatest left hander ever back in 2001. For first couple of dozen balls he seemed a bit scratchy (mind you he was coming back from an injury) and i even managed to pass his bat once or twice. After that brothers, it was mayhem. He manipulated me like it was nobody's business. Straight drive, pulls, cuts...u name it bro, and it was there. For next 1 and half hours all I did was tried my level best, but i could not beat his bat. It was great to hear him say during and after the session "well bowled". I will go ahead and say this IMHO(as c8w says) Lara is a better test player than Tendlia and Tendlia is a better one day player than BCL.
Any such cool memories? Anybody?
Mehul
UCC
BH, you are entitled to your opinion, but I know exactly where I live.
Challengers and Peoria get to play in WP-1 which is astro. From what I have heard, it is a great batting wicket. Should be really interesting considering the power both teams have.
Romeen,
Aap ke munh main ghee, shakkar...
Wish your prediction comes true, Samir is due for a big one and I hope he gets it this weekend...
My friend who is out in Califrnia, once saw a guy in a Dhoti bowling ridiculously good on a Sat morning. When he went closer, it was Javagal Srinath.
Javagal Srinath went to the same engineering college that I did. The city, Hassan (between Bangalore oand Mangalore) is known for its local politics. He was dropped from the college team, apparently bcos the seniors wanted one last chance to play. He quit the college in disgust and moved to Mysore. Javagal is a small town about 80 kms from Hassan.
Mehulya...
I think Sachin is a better bat than Lara, in both versions..
The one edge I give Lara over Sachin in test is his amazing capability of accumulating runs when he's on..obviously his record speaks for itself..
But, when it comes to consistency, Sachin has a better record over the years...
Thats whats mind boggling about Sachin - he's been consistent over 17 years..
My $0.02
The closest that I came to an internatinal star is Satha.. :-)
rest is history..
Well .. I have seen many Indian cricketers ... at the GSFC ground .. when Baroda and Mumbai played Ranji trophy matches in 93 and 95 ... I don't know if I have told this incident to Shekhs ... but many of my other team members know about it ... One of my school buddy was about to be physically assaulted by none other than Great Sachin Tendulkar .. But it was our fault .. We were shouting that they all take bribes and do not play well .. when they were in their practice sessions ...
But that is one of the great unforgettable incidents ...
Ranji trophy or Ranjit trophy?
We have a thing for "Ranji trophy" players in UCC. The story goes back when i played with "The Khan" (Dr. Khan) of our league with India XI back in 2001. Khan mentioned he had been contacted by some Ranji player and he invited him to practice with us at devon (on tennis courts). We started practice early and were eagerly waiting for this Ranji player. Next thing this guy walks in after parking his car, and I go wholy crap this is the Ranji player. He was a friend of a friend i had just met couple of weeks ago and i went "oye so-and-so tu c$%^$&&*#$$ Ranji player che". The dude could hardly hold bat properly. Than Khan showed me his email which spelled "Ranjit trophy".
Appu,
You didnt call Sachin for chucking, did ya?
Mehul,
Apparently, most people who claim to have played Ranji (or Ranjit) in our league are all gujjus..whats up with that?
I know I'll be batting number 11 after this comment.. :-)
Because Ranji trophy is the only tournament gujjus know about since it is named after a GUJJU....
at one time UCC was full of gujju, now there are only 3 or 4 regular players...we got lot of gultis flying around pedaaas (hyderabadi for pads)
When I grew up in cochin, Soccer was the popular sport out there..
I would see occasional cricket pick up games going on around the ground..
And 90% of those folks were gujjus..
We had a gujarati samaj and a gujju neiborhood in Cochin..and they were all into cricket..
never paid attention..but who'd have thought I'll be playing for a predominantly gujju team..
interesting huh..
jaggi confushus also say: person in fools paradise happier than person is wise mans hell. :-)
so u r happier than me, and we all celebrate cricket day.
hammad u have good sense of humour and r definitely good player. i respect 2 u on both counts.
now all dust settled. look forward to good playoffs.
mehul cool memories. alpesh 2.
Any team looking for some extra cricket season mileage here it is....check this out...I have the entry form, email me I will send out - Thanx
**************************
We cordially invite you to join the 1st CLIA T20 Cricketing Event. The event will be held over 2 weekends starting September 27th in Des Moines, Iowa.
(Ames, IA if required).
Attached is the Invitation and Enrollment form.
Kindly submit your entry to sivanu@yahoo.com by 24th September.
Please contact any one below for more information.
Sendhil Selvamani – 651-428-7948
Siva Sattanathan – 319-329-7160
Hifzur Meerapatel – 515-875-1330
Or Vinod Patel – 515-991-6839
***********************************
Cheers,
Madew Reddy
Madhujr@gmail.com
I miised a lot????
BH/Confu is back but look a liitle rust on the quotes..I know you can do better..
Satha ..aiming big....Welcome back.. I have lots of friends and huge respect for both Peoria and Chall but i am picking Chall in this one.. Sorry Satha.. road team will feel the WP jinks again.
Well I don't care if ya Gujju, Guru, prohfit, priest or ???.
It't that time of da year and we all need to come out and have some fun watching the P/offs.
I was hoping to bring the stove out and cook some fresh "Boungjall curry chicken and pepperpot Steak" but Margoob got me umpiring. So I wil be looking for a share od Satha's rum after da games.
Guys,
I have some questions as we are playing Milwaukee and they are a travelling team.
1. Do we need to provide them lunch during the playoffs or is that take care of?
2. Does the game start at 10am (as it does when we go to MKE)?
3. 45 over games, right?
This is my first time in Div 1 playoffs, so do spare the rookie from a tough time!!! :)
Adi,
I donot know if it is any different for div I playoffs, but for the lunch, if the other team is a travelling team u have to provide lunch for them as far as div II is concerned. I am sure its the same with div I. Yeah it does start at 10AM.
Thanks,
Shabri( Jaguars )
Rup,
How u doin? Sorry to hear you guys didn't make it to the playoffs but I'm sure you will regroup and bounce back next year.
I thought you'll bring some rotti and goat curry man??? Definately we should have a drink or two after the game. Its been along time I've seen all you guys and this will be a good opportunity to socialize.
Its'going to be a tightly contested game against the Challs as they're the #1 team in the league. I'm hoping the WP jinx is a past history.
C'mon Mehul, Tendia is defenitely better than Lara. The problem with Lara is his consistency. And as Shekhs said Tendulkar has been doing it since 17 years.
More importantly Tendulkar has never gotten out to a girl.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=No00Ye1OTUY
Speaking about girls. How come none of the teams in our league have girls playing. I know some do play like them :) (JK) But i am sure there are quality women cricketers residing in the midwest.
How come none of the teams in our league have girls playing. I know some do play like them :)
=======================
Ok, preetam, ya let the cats out a da bag..Can you give us some names pleasssssseeeee.........You know we will, especially BH, coach them to start playing better!!!!!.
C'mon Adi, ya gafu provide lunch man.
Satha, I will provide some good curry if I don't have to umpire.
the only reason some of us play cricket is to get away from women/girls and you wanna invite them to play?.......:-)
Lara VS Tendu!!!
HMMMMMM, both are very good and I have watched a lot of their batting in a variety of different conditions. Love em both
My opinion is Lara is a better bat. Why???
since Lara came in WI has been on the down turn and if you look at his score, how and when he got them ..you will see the struggle he had to put up with because WI batting around him sucks. If it was not for Chanderpaul his record would have probably been more diminished.
Tendulkar on the other hand was surrounded by a good Indian batting line up that was 8 deep sometimes. He was able to bat more freely. His one day stats are amazing cause he opened most of the time and we all know once he settles in trouble is brewing.
If often wondered if WI had opened with Lara what his stats could have look like in one day??. Then again that was not an option WI could afford. Or if he had played a lot of tests in the Asian wickets how much test hundreds..not to mention he would have probably killed some spinners carreers?.
I still love em both. one is retired and the other is not far so when the both leave we ain't got no youngsters i know of that will have us talking this way.
the only reason some of us play cricket is to get away from women/girls and you wanna invite them to play?.......:-)
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Beg to differ here my friend...New faces tend to have the mind wonder..What if?????
overall stats tendulkar is king, but if a match is on the line lara is king..
Im sure everyone knows about tendulkar's low second innings test avg..
nonetheless they both are amzing performers on there day!!!
Agree Hamad.. but stats can be misleading when we are looking for who is better.. we must look at everyting not just stats.
If we say he is better because of Stats then we need to look at Ponting who should be a chatter for his #s is and are going to be way better that both Lara and Tendu. I don't rate him even close to Lara or Tendu for he has the #s to be there but i feel he has been given a lot of umpiring breaks compare to Lara and Tendu who seems to get the reverse//especially Lara.
if you look at stats there are 2-3 runs between them in the avg and both over 50, so that doesnt say much. Tendulkar is def more consistent, but when on song, Tend will most prob score between 100 to 130 and get out, Lara if he gets a 100 the opposition starts thinking about 200, 300+!
rup,
r u serious pointing not rated close to lara and tendulkar....no way
3 World CUPS as captain, performed in all the worldcups, remember that 100 vs india in the final.
god knows how many test series wins, these are just his team and captain achievements. His personal achievements include a 60avg, 35 100's in tests. over 10K runs in both formats. fastest 20/20 century.
As a person and the way he treats everyone else that are not Australians i hate him for that but common you cannot take away anything from him for what he does on the field, always a treat to watch his batting, has performed on every surface asain, windies, english and especially at home is a menace.
mehul was comparing tend vs lara, but if that comp includes pointing, i must say at the end of the day with his personal and team achievements his success as a captain which by the way lara and tend could never achieve is by far the best among the three.
people common lets hear other voices...any comments?
Couldnt agree more Hammad..
I dont like him(Ricky Ponting) very much either..but probably one of the best batsman ever...all round..
The thing with Ponting is that he makes everybody else around him better..
shekhs,
i heard from one of the pak players just recently that the night final will be this friday night ....
any truth to that?
no...thats not true..
not this week..
i rate ponting the batsman very highly, but not ponting the captain. Some of his decisions on the field have been bad, but he has always had amazing talent to cover his screw ups.
I rate Dhoni/Fleming/Jayawardane much higher as they are able to inspire and get the best out of the talent available.
Shekhs, good job my man of providing info asap. :)
Any news on what's gonna happen to the kids from Lucky 11 who assaulted Sadiq ?
Great job Mehul..in inspiring the blog to go dirt free all day..
:-)
I dont think we've had so many conversational comments without any dirt in here..
nice job fellas..
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Shekhs said...
Couldnt agree more Hammad..
I dont like him(Ricky Ponting) very much either..but probably one of the best batsman ever...all round..
The thing with Ponting is that he makes everybody else around him better..
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It might be argued that everyone around Ponting was already better, and would remain so no matter if he was there or not ;-) Hayden, Hussey.. earlier MWaugh, SWaugh, Langer, Gilly, etc.. Id argue theyd have been great players even if Ponting never took up cricket :-)
Me, I rate Ponting very high indeed.. but not quite as high as Tendulkar IMHO. There are a few holes in Ponting's resume, one example being repeated failures on Indian tracks in the past (that hole he will get a chance to fix once and for all next month :-) Secondly I personally feel that the averages of everyone who played most of their best cricket in the 2000s is inflated a bit anyway, because IMHO most of the best bowlers left early in the 2000s, to be replaced by mostly crap (and it will probably stay that way now, with more ODIs, more 20/20s, it now being entirely a batsman's game with nothing for bowlers :-)
By the 2000s Pak lost Akram and Waqar, WI lost Ambrose and Walsh, RSA lost Donald etc (they may have physically left in about 2003, but they were not really themselves by about 2000 already IMHO). As a quick example of average-inflation let me point out Kumara Sangakkara.. an excellent batsman, terrific player.. but he is a lefty whose current average is superior to Lara's, and who has 6 double-centuries in 70 tests (Lara had 9 double-tons in 131 tests, which was considered a monstrous rate). Sanga is IMHO one of the best batsmen in the world, pretty awesome - but who would actually say he is better today than Lara ever was? Oh, and after 25 tests, Michael Hussey still averages 68 in test cricket - better than most all-time greats bar Bradman!
Second, I will disagree with Mehul's flat assertion of Lara as "best lefty ever" too :-) Not by pointing to Sangakkara or Hussey neccesarily :-).. but IMHO both Graeme Pollock and Garfield Sobers were better (Sobers everyone tends to lump only into the "allrounder" category because of 230 test wickets.. but he also scored 8000 test runs at an average of 58, at a time when a 45 average in test cricket was considered pretty damn great, far less average-inflation than today back in those days). Ponting's greatness too... a near-alltime-great batsman already, but even 4-5 years ago he wasnt mentioned in Australia's all-time XI! (He should be there now, of course).
And thirdly, to Rup's rhetorical question of how many tons Lara might have scored on Asian wickets... in the subcontinent (Pak+India), at least, Lara played 10 test matches, and scored 2 centuries in total. And *both* tons actually came in the very last series of his career, in Pakistan in 2006 - when, apologies to the Pakistani's on the blog, the Pakistani test attack was utter geese-crap (of the kind found at Heritage Park :-), bowling on very flat tracks (Mohd. Yousuf averaged 133 for the series, for example, with 4 tons in 3 tests compared to Lara's 2!) The Pak bowling lineup was Umer Gul, Shahid Nazir, Abdul Razzak, Danish Kaneria, Mohd. Hafeez and Shoaib Malik - which, for a test bowling lineup, was probably one of the weakest Pakistan has had in maybe 25 years? Before that series, on 3 separate trips to India and Pakistan (spread from 1989 to 2005, against Wasim/Waqar, Srinath/Kumble etc), Lara actually had never scored a test century - it was one of those strange anomalies of his career, actually. (Especially given the fact that he had scored bucketloads of runs in Sri Lanka.. its sort of like Ponting, who has scored buckets of runs in Sri Lanka, but barely any on 2 tours of India to date).
c8w
P.S. This was a fun discussion, thanks Mehul.. but can we return to the normal backbiting, umpiring complaints and conspiracy theories tomorrow, please? ;-)
Boy oh boy. What the heck is going on Sadiq getting into a physical altercation, Satha back to blogging, Pukka Punjabi showing restraint, preetam keeping everyone honest around here. Nice week on the blog.
Anyways Sadiq - I really liked how you are handling this situation. You are truly a gentleman. I agree with most here bad decision happens and Sadid (I will use your IMHO) I have seen you make crucial mistakes as an umpire but but but there is no freaking need for verbal or physical altercation.
I don't think that whole Lucky team should be kicked out for actions of few but the team should be fined for players behavior and those involved should serve 2-4 game suspension. Keep in mind guys Sadiq was not the umpire but just a spectator, if he was an umpire then this would have been a very different story. Abusing an official should not be tolerated a bit.
Also there is talks of bloggers get together, dinner party, indoor cricket etc. Blog dies in winter so please send me your email address so we can send you evite of the upcoming winter events.
oh this should help.
Atif Shaikh
atifmshaikh@gmail.com
312-519-9054 (for email challenged)
Seeing what Sadiq Bhai had to go thru. I recommend all spectators to come to WP with full protection gear - helmet, pads, guards etc.
LOL Atif.
And 911 on speed dial.
None of the losing teams in div 2 play-offs have so far entered the scores ... They all should be fined if they failed to do so by the MCC deadline period ...
alpesh, i think Ajoy or someone else mentioned that the teams do not know their passwords for Div-2 playoffs tournament.
Alpesh, I think mgmt definetly miss your prompt service. We will make sure that score is entered on time don't worry. if you have observed during regular season we have always entered our score at the earliest win or loss.
You are right Jaggi.
We struggled for three days communicating with management to get the right password. :)
We were only able to post scores on Tuesday..
Thanks QCFan ... I forgot that I can visit your team website to see the complete scorecard ... I will check it out there ...
Misunderstang the english language is always a ????
Let me clear up my view on the Batsman thing..
Playing on the same type of wickets all your life will give you a better grip of the wickets.. Comparing Lara 10 test to batsman who plays all their local and lots of test is unfair in judging how good a bat can be on similar surfaces..Not to mention how much Lara loves spin!!!!
My view of Ponting will not change until I see umpires make the calls againt him like the do for other bats.. I have watched a lot of Australian Cricket in 2005 & 2006 in fact all the matches the played and some in recent times. I will say i saw him get at least 10 LBW breaks whilst scoring big and the other teams were gettin bad calls.
For now i rate him good, Lara and Tendu are Great!!!!
fingerOfDeath said...
It might be argued that everyone around Ponting was already better, and would remain so no matter if he was there or not ;-) Hayden, Hussey.. earlier MWaugh, SWaugh, Langer, Gilly, etc.. Id argue theyd have been great players even if Ponting never took up cricket :-)
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ok then yankees should win the World Series every year. and remember lakers with kobe and shaq didnt do jack till phil led them...
just because they have all those great players doesn't mean they are a great team. credit needs to be given to him for what australia has achieved with his presence.
Australia was dominating cricket even in the late 90's, but it was ranatunga's leadership that took a decent talented team and won it all for sri lanka.
rup,
just because he might have got 10 or 15 decisions in his favor during his career doesn't make him any of a less batsmen.
i know in terms of numbers and stats he might not rank amongst the elite, but what do you guys think of Saeed Anwar as a stylish batsmen.
still amazes me how a man of his size would hit a ball to such distances.
rup,
just because he might have got 10 or 15 decisions in his favor during his career doesn't make him any of a less batsmen.
_________________________________
Hamad,
I never said he is not a good or less of a bat.
What i saw over a short detailed period of his Career is what i made my opinon on.
Australia was and is still a great team but their dislike not just by me but millions was due to the fact the Bitched, moaned and cried if a bad decison went against them. The even petioned against good umpires that nearly cause the ump their carrers and thus Umps took their side a lot.
I hope I have explained my stand so I am now done with this topic.
Thanks
Rup
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