So, just as our league seemingly is taking an unexpected midseason-break this weekend.. we look back at last weekend, the terrific Central-East Regional Tournament, where our own Midwest Cricket Conference won their second title in a row.
So in this weeks show, we give you a brief update on the early games (and performers) of the CER tournament, leading up to the Grand Finale between MCC and ICML. We then show you extensive highlights of the final itself - especially of the brilliant last-wicket stand between Laxmikumar and Kamran, and the destructive opening spells of Shahid and Mehul, that ended the game as a contest. We also have a post-tournament interview with our triumphant management team of manager Tariq and captain Sohail. And, to end, we have a special treat - a guest interview from all the way across the country, an eyeopening interview about how other leagues plan their assault on their regional tournaments, what sort of a priority they give these regional tournaments, and how detailed and professional their planning is, and how early their preparations actual begin, actually well before their season begins! One of the most eyeopening interviews we've ever had, I think.
Anyway. Hope you enjoy this special - one in which you can witness with our league's triumph, and watch more actual cricketing-highlights than any show we've had to date! (Heck, one particular shot from Kami alone is worth the price of admission, IMHO anyway :-)
CER Special Show
-By Sadiq Yusuf
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198 comments:
So it appears almost no cricket to be played this weekend in our league, despite what looks like it will be great weather :-(
We really have to hope it doesnt rain on any weekend from here on out, or else we're going to be in quite a bit of trouble in trying to finish the season before mid-October!
c8w
Sadiq Sir ...
Any idea, why games got shifted back .. to the 15th Aug weekend??
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Alpesh said...
Sadiq Sir ...
Any idea, why games got shifted back .. to the 15th Aug weekend??
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Various reasons - mostly, my guess is, a bit of a snafu.
To start the year, there was a schedule.. but there were IIRC no games scheduled Aug 1 weekend, because there was the hope that the Mini-World-Cup would be this weekend. But a couple of months ago it was determined that that wouldnt work.. this was Western Conference weekend (announced by USACA a long timea go), so we were hoping 8-10 of our best players would be going there, and you dont want to play the World Cup without your best. So the mini-World-Cup was moved to Aug 15 weekend, and the Aug 15 games moved to this weekend. So far so good.
But, I think it the change didnt get put on the published schedule right away.. ended up being put on the schedule too late probably (I believe not too long ago, actually, but dont know exactly when). Thus, when it *was* actually put on.. some teams objected, saying they already had made plans for this weekend, couldnt play.. and so they had to be accomodated (because this was a late-change, after all).
Also, 7 guys are going to Western Conference - and a lot of teams whose players are going to WC are saying they dont want to play without their best players either (also theyre claiming the "change of schedule" thing above, probably). Thus Milwaukee was supposed to play 2 games this weekend, Flames were playing etc. (But Western Conference is only a small part of the total problem - for eg Evanston/Fire postponed, Wildcats/Purdue postponed.. neither has any representatives on the Western Conference squad).
So.. the final upshot is that only 3 games in entire Div1 and Div2 schedule this week - instead of the usual 16 or so! All the games have been moved back to Aug 15 instead.
Which also means, of course, that Aug 15 can no longer be World Cup weekend.. so the talk is that World Cup may now have to be moved to the long-weekend, Labor Day weekend. Which comes with its own share of problems (as we saw last year - ie not everyone wants to play, West Indies team is always weaker on long-weekend etc).
Also, there was a "under-21" world cup planned for Aug 15 weekend.. with U21 players from across the region (ie Michigan, Minnesota etc too).. and that now also has to be postponed. But that cant go to long-weekend (there is already a U19 and U15 tournament on Labor Day weekend).. so it will have to be moved to some other regular-season date. (At which point, no doubt, the teams that are missing players for U21 World Cup will also want to have their league games rescheduled :-)
Who would ever be on the scheduling committee? Horrible compicated difficult job. I wouldnt, not for all the tea in China :-)
c8w
Pictures from All Star Bloggers Game are now up.
http://www.facebook.com/photo_search.php?oid=62038702669&view=all#/group.php?gid=62038702669
scheduling commitee, ha... this league is controlled by only one person and until nepoleon decides to give up control, this league will continue to go down. where are the league presidents in this? one guy calling all the shots, that is a shame. we pay a lot of $$ to play cricket. the fields are all crap and mgt refuses to do anything about them. For Gd sakes this a august already what the heck is going on. This is utter nonsense and the height of frustration. people re-schedluing bcos of not enough players? wtf?? i thought that was a no no!!! i guess to keep the votes of the teams Napoleon does not want to meet his waterloo!
May be it should be termed as "Rescheduling Committe" from now on :)
hahaha..nice one Ajoy...
how have you been?
ACC is playing all of their games..and I am predicting next year it will be the bigger league...if you catch my gist....bullspit...
hey king of swing...and others...
what say, we have a beer summit? To discuss about the management and what could be done...just like our president..
looks like he should be playing for challengers..
Quick update from the Western Conference Championships currently in progress in Minnesota.
Central-East (our region) is batting first against the powerful South-West (Los Angeles - long been among the strongest outfits in the country). 6 of MCC's 7 players are in the final XI for this first game (Mohd Yousuf of Peoria is the only one who isnt for this game). Abhijit fell for 11, Saminda (Minnesota's U19 star) fell for 18.. currently Fahad of Flames and Amit of St Louis are in the middle, and Central-East-Region is currently 81/2 in 17 overs (in a 50-over match). Amit has so far apparently batted well, and dominated the scoring - in his 20's or so at the moment. Laxmi and Ashhar are probably next two in the batting order.
Decent early start so far - hopefully they can keep going!
c8w
Nice going CER.
Sadiq, thanks for the update and keep it coming.
I am doing well Sheikh.
How are things at your end.
Talking about no cricket lately. Last game we had was on July 18 and next one is on Aug 8. :)
Hopefully things get sorted out and the "rescheduling committee" does not throw any more surprises.
Sadiq: Keep the updates coming...
CER - 128/3 in 32 overs ...
Go here for the updates -- http://wcc.minnesotacricket.com/
http://community.dreamcricket.com/community/forums/t/2625.aspx?PageIndex=4
live updates
http://community.dreamcricket.com/community/forums/t/2625.aspx?PageIndex=4
doing well Ajoy...thanks..
damn, thats sad..sorry..hopefully, you guys will have lotta cricket soon..
we have played 3 games in 3 freakin months....:(
Central East 210/5 after 44 overs. Mehdi is stroking it here. First ball slog sweep to the midwicket fence. Misses out on a short and wide ball next up. Then single to get off strike. Now Kumar gets his chance and cuts it over the circle to the point fence for 4. Another short wide ball and a bad bounce sends the ball over the fielder Timbawala at gully for another 4. No bad bounce that time, last ball Kumar hits his 3rd straight 4 over point. Incredible acceleration here. Kumar 11 4s and a six so far. Kumar 84, Mehdi 15. Malik first bad over, 17 in it. 9-0-43-1.
OUT! Mehdi goes. Dave replaces Thyagarajan from the Highway End and Mehdi wastes no time giving him the treatment. A length ball as hoicked to midwicket for 6 first ball. Four to a full toss sent over cover next ball. Then he tries to slam another one to midwicket but Malik was placed on the fence after the previous 6 and he takes a hard and low catch on the boundary. Mehdi gone for a rapid 25. Central East 220/6 in 44.3 overs.
Single, single four to finish the over. Chance there on the midwicket fence but the two fielders didn't talk and nearly collided. Ball is put down and bounces just inside the rope for 4. Kumar 85, Shuja the captain the new man in on 6. Central East 226/6 after 45.
Central East 276/6 in the 49th over as Kumar brings up his century with a 4 to cover. Well played Amit Kumar.
nice...well played amit..
yeah it sucks for you guys mehul...have played only 3 in 3 months..
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Shekhs said...
nice...well played amit..
yeah it sucks for you guys mehul...have played only 3 in 3 months..
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Awesome innings Amit! And if Mehul wanted to play more than 3 times in 3 months, he should have been playing right now in MN instead of just following the game on the computer :-) Kyon nahin gaya? :-) Would have met your old buddy Samarth too - part of the bowling attack that dismissed the strong Texas lineup for 130 this morning!
Thanks for the site though - great site, awesome updates! Hopefully we can hold on for the win now, which would be our first win in at least 4 years at the Western Conference! (I know we've gone 0-3 for at least 3 yrs in a row, dont remember the 4th year).
c8w
It's not looking good so far...SW 62/0 in 12 overs. Hopefully our spinners will win it for us.
OUT! All over! Malik misses the pull to a full delivery from Shuja and is clean bowled. All out for 250. Central East win by 43 runs. Pathan turned this match upside down in the space of 5 overs of fantastic fast medium bowling.
CER is kicking some $ss, our players are doing awesome job, can you imagine mehul and shahid in this squad, but what about the incident with one Mr. A kumar.
In my opinion that is horribleeeeeeeeeeeee display of unsportsmanship at any level. If i was the captian of CER, he does not play for me in the next game. I don't care how bad the decision is, You are not allowed to stand the ground once given out.
MAYBE A GREAT TALENT BUT VERY VERY VERY POOR SPORTSMAN. CRICKET CAN DO WITHOUT.
MY $0.02
Peace
I agree with you Mr Cool ... I am sure Amit Kumar has caused our team some some trouble with his behavior ... The Match Referee there will surely reprimand him and not allow him to play the next match ...
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Alpesh said...
I agree with you Mr Cool ... I am sure Amit Kumar has caused our team some some trouble with his behavior ... The Match Referee there will surely reprimand him and not allow him to play the next match ...
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Hey, none of us were there, none of us really know what happened in the middle - even people outside dont really know everything about what happened in the middle. If he was given out and stood his ground.. why did the umpires reverse the decision anyway? Was it just umpires conferring and deciding on the call? We dont really know what happened - let the people who were out there in the middle tell us, or tell an investigation, and let them decide exactly what happened here.
As for not playing tomorrow... if you show dissent on the field (by showing your bat, or standing your ground) at a decision, you usually get penalized for it (even at the international level). But a decision where the umpires changed their call and reversed the decision... is that even showing dissent after a decision, technically, since the decision was apparently not completely made until later? :-)
In the end, it is an umpire's job to control a game, and to make the final decisions on the field.. the media has been very harsh on the umpiring so far (the miscounting, the reversals etc).. as an umpire I know its a very hard job, and I'd like to hear their version of events too, really.
Meanwhile - congrats to all the guys on the CER squad. Fantastic performance, to go 2-0 to start and assure themselves of a place in the US Nationals. Brilliant effort - I cant remember when CER last had even a single win, leave alone making it all the way to the nationals! After all those horrible years, more than a bit of redemption this year... now hopefully they can keep it up tomorrow and make it 3-0!
(Oh, and a word for former MCC-player Samarth Shah too - 3/14 yesterday, 3/28 IIRC against us today.. quite a tournament for one of our alums so far as well).
c8w
c8w, it has nothing to do with umpire changing his decision, he was given oout he said have walked graciously, everybody playing this game gets raw end of it every now and then or atleast once in their playing career but that does not give you right to stand there.
I'm sorry but i beg to differ with you on your take of this situation.
TO ME ATLEAST FROM THE UPDATES ON THE BLOG IT CLEARLY SAID HE WAS OUT AND THEN ALL THE FUSS STARTED, SO OBVIOUSLY UMPIRE WASN'T CONSULTING WITH LEG UMPIRE UNTIL AFTER MR. KUMAR DECIDED NOT TO WALK AND CREATED WHATEVER SCENE HE DID TO REVERSE THE DECISION, WHICH ALSO ANNOYED THE HECK OUT OF OPPOSITION CAPTAIN ACCORDING TO THE SAME COMMENTARY.
PEACE C8W
OUT! Controversy here. Kumar went to pull a fuller delivery from Verma and appeared to get bat on it. Huge appeal from Verma and the umpire gives out LBW. Kumar stands there and protests to the umpire. He goes to the umpire and waves his bat and won't leave. Now the umpire consults with the square leg umpire and after a discussion they signal dead ball. Now Captain Beniwal is having a big discussion and is rightfully furious. Kumar should be out. Not good sportsmanship on his part. North West will have to say a lot about this afterwards.
Not out and dot ball is the final ruling.
Hey guys,
How did we win the 3rd match without batting?
Hey,
I'm planning to come to the Hanover Park nets on Tuesday around 6:30pm. Anyone else interested?
Pabba ..
The opposition forfeited the match ... They did not come out to field in protest to the 5 overs that were deducted from their batting y'day ...
Long day yesterday!! :)
Royals batted first and scored 194 and AAA chased it down in 36th over & won by 4 wkts!! Great knock by Adam (51 in 16 balls!!) Had he stayed there for another couple of overs, the game would have been over by 15th over :) Congrats to AAA.
On the side note, I tried to stump out a batsman (medium pace bowling)....it was an over arm throw to the stumps....the batsman was in the crease so he wouldn't have been out anyways, but I was told by the leg umpire and batsman that he wouldn't have been out since it was an overarm throw, it has to be an under arm throw? I wasn't aware of this such rule...
Hopefully someone can clarify on this blog? Thanks.
Ha ha ha.....funny rules always come up in MWCC games. I don't think there is anything in the official cricket rules that states that a batsman cannot be out stumped by an overarm throw.
What did the main umpire say about this?
The main umpire immediately got involved and said that there was no such rule... that's what I also thought....
hahaha...another funny one..
yeah, we have to write a book on these funny rules..
Good idea, Shekhs. Let's compile all the funny rules that we encountered so far. That will hopefully keep the blog going.
Here is one from a game we played a few years ago:
The umpire officiating our game said that it is a no-ball if either of the feet touches the popping crease or the return crease. Basically the leading foot has to land within the "box" without touching any of the lines or else it's a no-ball.
Needless to say, both the batting and the bowling sides were shocked at this unprecedented turn of events. Fortunately the umpire was sane enough to understand that 22 players can't be wrong and agreed to "change" the rules.
http://vimeo.com/5883832
usman shuja interview
http://vimeo.com/5867164
amit kumar and akheel pathan
Samir,
There are two things to it. Firstly was it a Runout attempt? If it is a Runoput attempt then over arm is allowed as other fielders do it too ( throwing over arm).
Secondly was it a stump attempt? If it is a stump attempt then YOU ARE OUT AS WELL. There is no damn rule that you should do under arm or over arm.
These are all the rules of gully cricket. Unfortunately a lot of them think this IS gully cricket.
Reminds me of a joke during my india days. Our coach asked us to name the ways a batsman could get out. We all shouted 7 or something like that. But one guy shouted 8. While we all had Bowled he also had Clean Bowled. When the coach asked him to tell the difference. He said that for a clean bowled the center wicket has to be gone.
Ab kya boloo.
Actually 7 is not the right number. How many is it? can you guess?
Adi, good pick on the left hander. It will strengthen your team.
Anyone see any good knocks this weekend?
Preetam,
Yes, it was a stump out attempt. After the game I also overheard someone saying keeper has to take out a glove (for over arm throw) then it's a valid stumping & I said ok it's time for Heineken :)
clean bowled...that's a nice one Preetam, can't stop laughing :)
Number of ways a batsman can get out? Here are the ways that I can think of:
1. Bowled
2. Caught
3. Stumped
4. LBW
5. Hit-wicket
6. Run out
7. Timed-out
I think there are times when a batsman is retired, it is noted in the scorecard as retired-out and sometimes as retired-notout. Not really sure if there are clear rules regarding this or if it's just a figment of my imagination.
nice on Preetam....
There are two others Midwest:
1. Handling the ball - ask Steve Waugh.
2. Interfering with the field - ask Inzy.
ps. These are not the technical names - I forget what those are.
Noone up for some practice at the HP nets tomorrow??? Pity......
Here are other ways in addition to Midwest List
8. Handling the ball
9. hitting the ball twice
10. Obstructing the field
11. Retired out (If any batsman leaves the field of play without the Umpire's consent for any reason other than injury or incapacity, he may resume the innings only with the consent of the opposing captain. If he fails to resume his innings, he is recorded as being Retired - out. For the purposes of calculating a batting average, retired out is considered a dismissal.)
Adi: there will be a few players on the ground since there is a Semi-Final/Final tomorrow for the CRY charity cricket.
So I am sure you will find players who would want to bowl a few just in case you are reluctant to come down, either way there is fun cricket happening so you can be a spectator.
11. Retired out (If any batsman leaves the field of play without the Umpire's consent for any reason other than injury or incapacity, he may resume the innings only with the consent of the opposing captain. If he fails to resume his innings, he is recorded as being Retired - out. For the purposes of calculating a batting average, retired out is considered a dismissal.)
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Thanks for the clarification there. Now I know I wasn't smoking and making up stuff :)
How did I forget to mention "Handle the ball" case? I got out once like that when I was playing for my school back in India. Didn't handle the ball intentionally but fell down after trying to dig a yorker and in the process stopped the ball with my hand while the ball was rolling towards the wicket. I always wondered if that was really a case of "handled the ball out".
midwest you are hence officially the official keeper of out funny oUTS book...
Why am I always the one who always has to do these painful declorations?
.....I herby declare the blog,yet once again, dead as of 10/9/09 at 1:17 PM.
speed....you must be on speed..or else..that date doesn't make any sense to me at all...
oops....my bad...8/9/09.... just another trick to trigger some convo...haha
hahaha..nice try...guess its just you and me...
yup....whos playing ALNT today?
Who are the favorites?
Any good games last wknd/coming up this wknd?
Pak Vs anjuman...
I need an umpire....can you do it?
anybody?
I love my life too much to umpire a Pak Gymkhana game sorry
hahaha...nice one Speed..you are on with your humor today...
I still need an umpire....
i can do it via webcam.
Wow .. thats the best way ... we can have our own version of hawkeye then .. :) Shabbash Preetam Sir :)
hahaha Preetam...nice one..
yup..and all the close decisions will be reviewed by Preetam..
So who won the game?
Shekhs, if you need an umpire for tonight, Im available.
Give me a call.
Anjuman beat Pak in the biggest upset this year in Abid Lahiri..
Speed, please email me your number - shekhs.aravind@gmail.com.
"
Alpesh said...
Wow .. thats the best way ... we can have our own version of hawkeye then .. :) Shabbash Preetam Sir :)"
**********************
Imagine...al those big burly guys appealing at their throats end to this little bitty camera sitting on the wickets.
Whats going on with Preetam????
First he wants people to see him through a webcam and now he is talking about big burly men.
Are you ok buddy? Anything you want to share?
Ha ha Ha Speed. I think you are ON SPEED.
Fortunately i don't shop in the other shop.
Not that there is anything wrong with it. But it clashes with my style.
hahaha...nice one fellas...
SpeedSensation ..
So how was the umpiring experience y'day??
Fellas..
We have the pre-semis for Abid Lahiri all setup:
08/10/2009 - wildcats Vs. Pak
08/11/2009 - Royals Vs. Karachi.
Challengers and Anjuman are directly in Semi finals.
The semis will be played on 08/17 and 08/18.
Rovers Vs Lucky 11 - Mossville, IL
Rovers showed up at the ground at 11 and waited for Lucky 11 till 12:15. Then we started calling the lucky 11 players (contacts listed on website) and after a couple of calls we got the news that they are not coming.
Unbelievable behavior from them. I cannot beleive that they wont even have the courtesy to inform us that they will not be coming. All it needed was a phone call. It would have been ok, if they had informed us at 10 AM.
Anyways, we ended up playing a small practice game amongst ourselves and ate the food we took and came back home..
Dinesh
Gem of an innings from Mahesh who blasted 15 sixers...... its not a mis print... it is FIFTEEN sixers in his 161 that I got to watch from the best seat in the ground..... I umpired this game...... Shekhs you must do the summary in your typical style I guess...
Congratulations to AAA for getting back to back wins against Royals and Wildcats..... What a turnaround !!
Shiva said -
Gem of an innings from Mahesh who blasted 15 sixers...... its not a mis print... it is FIFTEEN sixers in his 161.....
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Holy S^%!, are you serious? That is unbelievable! Mahesh (Challengers) in my opinion has always been one of the best left handed batsmen in our league along with Ajit (Wildcats)and Faisal (UCC). This is great stuff.
...also heard Imran Syed blast 8 sixes this weekend against Pak (which is pretty normal for this gentle giant! I think he hit 15 sixes in a game couple yrs ago too).
Can someone please give more details on the innings by these two fantastic batsmen?
Damn!! That's all I can say about that innings.
Congrats to Rogers Park. Good win there at Purdue. Proves to the rest of us that they are not invincible at their home ground!! :)
Way to go AAA, way to pick it up and really compete. They have good players, and it looks like they are playing well together now! Thank god we got by them before they began his spell of good cricket. :)
What happened to the Flames vs Chargers game?
And MG is so freaking dangerous! If the gentle giantS (all three of them) get stuck in you, it's gonna be a long day for sure! 8 6s and 0 4s.... who the hell bats like that, except for a Syed Brother????
thanks Shiva...will definitely put up a report soon..
either tonite which I doubt as I may have to umpire the game...
any volunteers to umpire tonite's game?
:-)
asmar,
Imran hit 16 sixes to be precise.
We were trying to get Mahesh to hit 2 more to break that record. But, he got out in the 38th over..
He also missed the highest score in Div 1 by 5 runs. I think Asher from Pak holds that record.
That was probably one of the best batting displays I have ever seen..
yeah Adi..the Syed brothers are causing quite some concern across the league...a devastating force..
In a low scoring game, Flames beat Chargers
Jaguars might have just scored the highest score this season .. against Hammond ofcourse... 365/10 in 40 overs.
correct me if I am wrong...
Shekhs bhai ..
Who won y'days Quarter Final ??
Pak won by about 40 odd runs..
Pak made 206 with shahid scoring a brilliant 86 and Tayyab pitching in with 35 odd..
In return Wildcats made 163 with Nasir Mahmood (Flames) scoring a fantastic 65 and romeen pitching in with 39.
Good game...am glad I umpired...
Did you happen to get any of those burly guys on camera for Preetam??
hahaha...no speed...I keep myself away from big burly guys as well...
I wanted to finish my chore and get try not to piss any of the big guys...and get outta there..
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Shekhs said...
He also missed the highest score in Div 1 by 5 runs. I think Asher from Pak holds that record.
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Amazing batting by Mahesh - wish I had gotten to see it! But, if the scorecard is accurate and he got 161, he didnt miss the Div1 record by 5 runs...
Not sure what the record is, actually - but I umpired a game from a while ago, below:
http://midwestcricket.org/asp/Score88.asp?id=779
In that there were *two* centuries, at Washington Park.. and a few current bloggers will notice a few familiar names on both sides ;-)
c8w
wow...Kami hit 175 huh..huge..
that must've been a thriller of a game...
nice sadiq..you are our Finger'O pedia..
hey asmar as u requested, as we all know it was a hot humid day but the wind was blowing east very hard and it made playing a little easier and difficult at the same time. WE won the toss and everyone know how good pak is when batting first, so as a no brainer we decided to bat first. Shahid started the attack and urs truly faced him and got a single of the very first ball. However shahid was sturggling from the very first over he gave up almost 20 runs. Me kami batted sensibly and fast and scored 60 runs in the first 5 over for no loss, i got out in the sixth over. Kami changed his gears and batted all the way to the 30th over, scoring 75 had to be his slowest and worthy inning. Imran came in the 25 over and blasted the ball all over the park with 8 huge SIXERS ended up scoring 65 and then rizwan chipped in and u know what he is good at, he scored 30 runs in 12 balls and we were over 250 and rest of players chipped in few here and there we lost 4 wickets in the last over since everyone was hitting the ball outta the park against the wind but the wind Won!!! Pak came in shooting guns Irfan and Bakshi. Irfan hit rizwan for boundries very first two balls, But didnt do much after wards and was caught at deep midwicket. Najmi came in and left early, Shahid came in hitting 2 huge sixes also but then i dropped him at gully. Then i took a good one of bakshi's at point and then shahid got caught behind and rest was over, Hard luck for Pak they were missing few key players, However we will take a win anyday!!! SHEHKS KAMRAN OF MG HOLDs THE RECORD FOR MOST DIV1 RUNS 175 not out against tigers back in 04 or 05.he made me run 5runs at one delivery and i fell down afterwards but he was still standing i can never forget that gr8 innings of his, But i can imagine 161 from mahesh had to be a be a delight inning to watch also.
hahaha Moe..5 runs?
damn...thats funny.
Thanks for the report bud...I will put one up soon..
The MASSACRE at Heritage Park!!!
As moe mentioned earlier, it was a hot and humid day, with temps hovering around the 90s.
Challengers won the toss and Buchia didn’t even flicker before he said – “We’ll Bat”!!
Challengers started off disastrously, by losing Darshan, when rafi had him bowled thru the gates. Bhavesh was the next to go, when he got too ambitious and played on to the stumps. Dax played a coupla promising shots before getting bowled to another beauty from Rafi. So here we were @ 15/3 staring down another collapse, with rafi taking all 3 wickets and a buncha CHARGED up chargers…
But Mr. Parikh had other ideas. He started off calmly, picking the odd singles and doubles, working the ball around the square, with excellent support from Afroze.
Slowly, they both picked the pace up, by hitting a boundary almost every over.
Wind was very strong from the school end, so hitting a six over that side was like stealing meat from a lion or me.
Irfan was introduced from the other end, as I don’t think any charger was willing to bowl from the other end with the wind in the favor of the batsman. Mahesh hit 22 runs of Irfan’s 1st over, and kept going at anything or anybody bowling from that end.
Meanwhile Rafi was bowling a tidy spell, keeping chargers in the game.
Afroze and Mahesh put up 120 with Afroze chipping in 35.
Mahesh was dropped around 70, a tough chance by the aussie on the line, but after that it was all carnage…
Nilesh came in to spend a few minutes at the crease and then Sanjay came in to put another quick partnership.
Mahesh got out in the 38th over and by then the damage was done….
Challengers ended up with 272.
Special mention and kudos to Rafi Sayeed to only give 28 runs in 8 overs with 4 wickets.
Incredible spell!
Chargers opened with Sami and Kamran.
Kamran chipped the ball straight to afroze at point. The 1 down batsman was trapped LBW by Sanjay, taking 2 wickets in the same over.
Javed came in to play some good looking shots but holed up in covers.
With Bhavesh, Nilesh, Afroze and Jagdish splitting the wickets between them, Chargers were bundled out for 85.
Hats off to Mahesh for a stunning display of batting!!
Tough day, tough luck chargers…!
You guy are having a good season…so this was just a glitch..
Good luck fellas!
5 runs man tell me about it. the ball stopped at the boundry so we ran 3 then there was an over throw so we ran 2 more, after that i layed on the wicked for while lol!!!
Shekhs,
Congrats to you and the rest of the Challengers for securing yet another successful regular season in securing a playoff spot. You guys are the first.
For the rest of us, the playoff race is quite competitive!
Shekhs,
Good Game Challengers....
Titans Vs Giants was a great game 2 centuries in the same match that too at WP#4, thats unusual .... Well played Titans and Giants ....
With such competition in Div - 2 the top spot is still open ....
hahaha...thats funny Moe....
Thanks Adi..appreciate that..
for us, now is when the season really begins.. :-)
Thanks rohit!
Shekhs bhai,
yesterday QF result?? won ?
last nite - Karachi XI beat Royals in a close and interesting game..
Royals put up 173 in 20 with Manish blasting to some 60 odd runs with charlie pitching it with 30 odd runs..
Karachi required 67 runs in 7 overs when we got there and Shahid and another young kid saw them thru...
there were a coupla catches dropped and a stumping missed..which could've made the difference..
So it will be Karachi XI vs. Anjuman in Semis and
Pak vs. Challengers.
PAK VS CHALLENGERS- THE BURLIEST FACE OFF.....BE SURE TO GET THIS ONE ON (WEB)CAMERA!!!
You hear that Preetam?...wouldnt want you to miss out on this one
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Asmar said...
Can someone please give more details on the innings by these two fantastic batsmen?
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BTW, motivation is an interesting thing :-)
One of the great things about us finally playing the CER from last year (and Western Conference from this year) is the fact that our players get to play a higher level, get noticed at the next level etc. Take Amit for example - just played in the biggest tournament of the year for one half of the country, with and against 5-6 current US players (half the current national side).. and won "Tournament MVP". Major-league national recognition for someone who was unheard-of a few weeks ago (on the national scene at least).
What playing the CER and Western Conference and seeing peers get national recognition also does, though, is provide motivation for those who *didnt* get picked :-) Really good players, who probably feel they themselves were unfairly left out, are all that much more motivated to prove a point on the field, no?
Three guys who may have all felt they should have played the CER and Western Conference.. but didnt get picked. Imran - hit 8 sixes against Pak this weekend. Mahesh - got 161. And (in the game I umpired), Kabir of Milwaukee got a quite brilliant 133 (before being runout - he was struggling with a groin-and-hamstring-cramp, and the guy running for him got runout on a direct hit).
Hopefully lots more people will react this way and perform on the field - all good for the standards of cricket in the league :-)
c8w
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Hard luck for Pak they were missing few key players, However we will take a win anyday!!!
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So what happened with Raheel, BTW? Saw he was in the scorecard, but didnt bowl and was listed as 'retired hurt' and didnt bat either. Did he get injured v early in the game or something? Did he field at all? I dont think anyone has ever seen Shahid have figures like that in any game!
c8w
Finger,
I talked to Raheel during their night game and it seems like he is still reeling from the back/ hip injury he aggravated during the CER.
He had to play coz they were short of ppl, but he didnt bowl at all....and he was quite glad he didnt..hahaha..no just kiddin about that..
yeah, it was unusual for Shahid to go for so many runs...so was for Guddu..
But, like you said when Imran and Mahesh are feeling it...I guess it will be raining sixes...
And (in the game I umpired), Kabir of Milwaukee got a quite brilliant 133 (before being runout - he was struggling with a groin-and-hamstring-cramp, and the guy running for him got runout on a direct hit).
***************************
Sadiq Sir,
So the Milwaukee-Bears game was played before the rain came?? What were the scores ??
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Alpesh said...
So the Milwaukee-Bears game was played before the rain came?? What were the scores ??
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Milwaukee was put in, and got 244 IIRC in their 40 overs. Wicket in the 3rd or 4th over, and then Kabir gave a semi-chance (should have been caught, top/leading edge, midoff misjudged and ran back and tried to get it overhead, got both hands to it, but dropped it). Then big partnership between Kabir/Romesh.. eventually Kabir 133, Milwaukee 244 as I said.
Bears came in, light getting bad, windy, ominious clouds. Stopped after 9 overs or so for rain, like 15/2 or some such. Came back after a while (no covers so took much longer, Bears thought we came back on too early, Milwaukee thought we came back on too late :-)... then after couple more overs had to go off for badlight (like 19/3 or some such probably, in about 11 overs IIRC).
So I guess we'll probably have to do it all over again - Bears will have to go to Milwaukee later in the season and play 30 overs of cricket! (This is the Bears 4th rainout, which cant happen by law - so its still a "live" game... and we have precedence now with teh Muslim/United game that a potential 4th rainout will be "continued" rather than "replayed" I guess... so thats probably what will end up happening).
c8w
Get few glimps of Western Conference held in Minnesota, MN at http://cricketmerchant.blogspot.com/
"Three guys who may have all felt they should have played the CER and Western Conference.. but didnt get picked. Imran - hit 8 sixes against Pak this weekend. Mahesh - got 161. And (in the game I umpired), Kabir of Milwaukee got a quite brilliant 133 (before being runout - he was struggling with a groin-and-hamstring-cramp, and the guy running for him got runout on a direct hit)."
How many cricketing years do they have: above mentioned players and other senior players considering their age. Make no mistake they all are best players on the field but Cricket in America is growing and if we do not nurture the young ones we may make a huge mistake in constructing Cricket at root level.
One good example is CER team combination that won the Western Conference, ask the young guns and they will share the experience that they have earned and the average age of playing 11. Again to be proud of MCC/UCC member, we have the best competition compare to any other league in Midwest/Central East. We surly rock!!!
I completely agree with you Nipunya...
We need to encourage and promote young talent in our league, Mahesh, Imran and others are getting old and no doubt they are fierce force, but our goal is to nurture young guns.
CER was not planned and our team could have used more youngsters in my opinion.
none of our older folks are gonna make it to the US team or any of that stuff, but the youngsters sure could use the exposure.
well said..
There are plenty of politics involved in this....and the sad part is that all the power lays in the hands of some selfish officials such as Chidambar Joshi and Masood Chik. The worst part is no one stand up for what is right and instead just kisses their feet. I do not want to use names but even our u19 team could have been much better but politics stopped many talented youngsters from representing CER this year. The youngsters who are getting chances at these levels (Senior Regionals, etc) are not necessarily head and shoulder above all of the other youngsters in the region, it is just that they recieve more training and attention. MCC kids will get no where ni the coming years and only ACC kids will represent sides...atleast until some one stand up for what is right. Fahad is the noly youngster from MCC selected...other 3-4 were from ACC.
My .02 cents
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Shekhs said...
I completely agree with you Nipunya...
We need to encourage and promote young talent in our league, Mahesh, Imran and others are getting old and no doubt they are fierce force, but our goal is to nurture young guns.
CER was not planned and our team could have used more youngsters in my opinion.
none of our older folks are gonna make it to the US team or any of that stuff, but the youngsters sure could use the exposure.
-------
And as usual I disagree :-) Sure we need to develop young players, but its highly debatable if putting them into situations where they are not ready is going to help them much. True development of any young cricketer doesnt come on one weekend - it comes over a full season or two of hard-fought high-level cricket (ie Division One of MCC, week in and week out, for a couple of years - that helps a young cricketer develop much more than being dismissed for 5 against good bowling in one match, or being hit for 15 in an over once).
Secondly - where does the idea come from that "our older players" have no chance of making the national team, BTW? OK, Mahesh maybe not - but Imran isnt what youd call "old"! We just played the Western Conference - half the best players in the country were there, half the current national side was there... our "youngsters" did not do very much on the field in terms of performance (though they hung in there well), not one of them is any kind of contender for the national team today... however the MVP of the whole tournament however was Amit Kumar, and one of the best spinners in the entire tournament was Asif Mehmood (the 2 best spinners in the entire tournament, by stats, were actually Asif and Samarth). At *this* level, with half the current national team around (most of them about 30), when players stand out that strongly... why does anyone think that they *cannot* make the US team right now? The current US 11 has Sushil Nadkarni, Rahul Kukreti, Aditya Thyagarajan etc, all terrific batsmen.. and Amit won the MVP over all of them at this tournament.. he got 180 runs for once out, most of those guys got like 120 or so runs for 2 or 3 times out! At the very least someone like Amit is already a national team contender (for the US team to be selected in 2/3 months time, he will almost surely be a "probable" attending the selection camp for instance). Same with Asif - did brilliantly, looked great (against defending champs Texas - Central-West - he had 8 overs, 2/10 bowling to Rahul Kukreti, current US team batsman for example). Last year the spinner of the US 11 was 40 years old - who is to say there is no room for Asif in that side *today*, even?! And if players like Khadry were available, why would they not be contenders too, if they did well? (Much more than a spinner who is 18, who is not nearly as good as those guys will be, for instance). It isnt like the US team is a closed shop - Shahid is already in it, for one (and purely as a pace-bowler, BTW, not as an allrounder - he didnt even get to bat, was listed down the order). Our players *can* make the US team right now, and over the next year or two itself!
c8w
Continuing with the kids-vs-non-kids argument, BTW...
Even among the "young prospects", California's young guns are seen as much more impressive at the moment than ours, after this latest Western Conference. Why is that? Because IMHO California does it "right" - their "young guys", the future, are all 22-25 years old, guys who are further along and developing, and may have a national shot in a year or two maybe. Our "young guys" are 17-18, who are not ready, not doing as well as the Calif guys 5 years older (naturally).. and are thus being disregarded (relatively speaking) at the moment IMHO. We got only 2 guys into the US U19 squad - and both those guys got to play 2/3 games out of 5 total games on the Canada tour, for instance. Our U19ers should be concentrating more on excelling at their U19 level and becoming U19 national stars - thats probably the highest priority, or should be IMHO.
To me this year was first about getting some respect at the national level- which was achieved. Next year more will need to be done (already there are national whispers of Central-East doing well at home, with iffy umpiring etc :-).. next year that wont be the case, after we beat them on their home ground with their umpires :-)
Yes, IMHO we need to go "younger and fitter" at the national and CER level.. but that doesnt mean unready-under-19's exclusively, as most seem to be arguing - I think thats the wrong solution. There are lots of very good players who are under 30 and very fit - if those guys do better (performance-wise) than the "U19ers", they deserve to be picked IMHO, because they can well be national contenders themselves. Not 40-year-olds, OK (so maybe no Mahesh, Sohail, Ajit, sadly) - but 25-32 year olds who are *good*, people like Asif, Amit, even Raheel, Nasir, Laxmi, Ashwin, Naren, Afroze etc.. all deserve it more than "kids" if they actually perform better and more consistently than the kids do.
(Usman Shuja is a great example - came to the USA as an undergrad, was here for 7-years by the time he was 24/25 and made the US team, has been in the US team for 5 years now. Same path can easily be followed, ideally, by people like Raheel, Nasir, Laxmi, Ashwin, Rohan Handa, Ruchir, Girish Kamthe, Satyam Kaneria, Afroze..so many others, who sometimes come as students maybe, get jobs, Green Cards by mid-20s, can all be contenders down the road. If a 25-year-old is *better* today than an 18-year-old.. it is IMHO unfair to pick the 18-year-old over the 25-year-old - the better 25-year-old is also a prospect for the future, and shouldnt be treated unfairly either).
c8w
BTW, none of the above should be seen as a "slam" against U19ers - we have some very good ones, who are showing a lot of ability, which is exciting to see.
But in the end, performance must count - and spots must be *earned*. Handing kids spots IMHO make them less hungry, hurts their future development (as a Bombayite cricket guy we've always believed this - kids have to *perform* better and earn spots, they shouldnt get it just cos theyre kids :-)
A kid like Fahad, for instance, has *earned* a spot this year - by dint of performance in Division One he *won* a spot in the CER team. He may be only U19 - but he deserves a spot *on merit*. When other U19ers perform with that sort of consistency in our league, then they will deserve to represent our Midwest Cricket Conference in the CER too! But only when they do that will they deserve it IMHO - they shouldnt ever be picked just because they "have talent" and "are young".. making runs and taking wickets are important in a bottom-line sport too :-)
c8w
Jaguars(playing with 10 players) lost to Rovers... It was a good match until Rovers took it away...
Jaguars had a collapse in the beginning 30 odd for 3.. middle order stabilized the score and jaguars ended up with 228/9 in 40overs...
Jaguars were with their opening bowling pair (Raish and Sikander)... we got Ravi early... but Dinesh was just unstoppable... he took away the game from us... at 20 overs they were 160-3.. and finished it in 30 overs...
Did anyone see the CCI vs ARENA score... did CCI get all out for 20 runs?????
Rajiv how about the Illinois vs. Collinsville. Illinois drove their had to field first collinsville piled up 335 then it rained so Illinois didn't even get a chance to bat before their drive home.
Yes CCI was out for 23 in 12.4 overs.
oh man... tht just sucks man... i would be so pissed off ... :)
its august for heavens sake... :) literally for heavens sake :)
I looked at the Arena CCI scorecard!! That looks freaking amazing!! I can't wait to see what CCI enter, but if I have this correct,
Ajoy gave up 4 runs in 6.4 overs of which 4 were wides!!
Hansraj gave up 16 runs in 6 overs of which 12 were wides!!
Does that mean that all the CCI batsmen put together scored only 4 runs?????
That must have been some bowling display!
Yes Adi, They could only score four runs off the wood.
The highest scorer was extras - 19.
And I must also add that, Hansraj has been a great addition to Arena. He has already picked up 16 wickets in 3 games that he has played so far.
We hope we keep the momentum going and take it to playoffs.
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Ajoy Lal said...
And I must also add that, Hansraj has been a great addition to Arena. He has already picked up 16 wickets in 3 games that he has played so far.
We hope we keep the momentum going and take it to playoffs.
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Yes, I had met Shyam 2-3 weeks ago, and he had mentioned a few things about Mister Hansraj then. I must admit, though, that even though I figured he was very good, I didnt exactly expect him to keep up a 2.5 runs/wicket bowling average for 3 games ;-) Still, good to see you guys playing well finally (after making a liar out of me early in the year :-)
Div2 is turning into a real fun group now - still presumably 1 automatic Div1 spot open for the regular-season-champion I guess.. and nobody is now clear favourites for it anymore, with CCI now losing their 2nd game (and being badly hurt on run-rate at the same time). CCI with 2 losses (and 0 rainouts) are still in the lead.. there are now a few others with 2 losses (and a few more with 3).. might turn into a real regular-season battle. (Jaguars lost a huge game this weekend in that respect - they had 2 losses and 0 rainouts before this weekend as well, but are now at 3 losses with the Rovers defeat. Rovers themselves have only 2 losses, but also 2 rainouts - ie effectively 3 losses, really).
c8w
BTW, Preetam, did you guys actually bowl 18 overs, ie were only 2 overs from finishing the match with AAA? Thats rough! Looks like you were ahead on 20-overs by a bit? Was it completely unplayable afterwards?
The Wildcats/Purdue game sounds like it was quite something as well... anyone got any details? Like how many were needed in the last 10 overs, last 5 overs, last over etc?
Iam not sure if its the playoff-battle which is more fun at the moment in Div1, or the relegation-battle :-)
c8w
Sadiq: This is like " Jaale par Namak chidakna"..
I was busy to give an update about the game, and I thought our loss will slip under the gun but u made sure it did not...
Now we know the pain of Flames and Chargers to loose a game by 1 run, I think it was pay back time for us after 3 close games out of which we won 2 n tied another, we could not do that heroics again, and now we are looking down to a tough schedule ahead.
Anyhow in the last 10 overs we needed around 75-80 runs with 6 wickets in hand and we lost swetal to a good run out, and 7 overs we needed 50 odd, and when I joined Nikhil we needed about 45 in 5 overs, then the equation got to 28 in 3 and 22 in 12, and in the last over we needed 7 runs to win the game, we had a good chance at this point with 2 wickets left, but at the same time we had Nikhil who was cramping badly in his left hand and legs, and we finally needed 3 to win of the last ball and Nikhil could not clear the fielder and we ran for a 2 and he was run out and that was the end of a tough game.
Purdue played well and they were missing some key players on their side, but still ran us ragged...
Shekhs bhai ..
who won the 1st semi-final y'day?? I will try to stop by for a while for the 2nd semi-final today ...
Who is practicing at HP tonight??????????????????????????
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SpeedSensation said...
Who is practicing at HP tonight??????????????????????????
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Better question - who is playing at HP tonight? :-) Chall/Pak semis on as scheduled? Might be worth dropping by, if it is..
What happened yesterday, anyway?
c8w
Karachi won by 43 runs against Anjuman.
what happened with tonights game.
Pak Gym beat Challengers by 7 wickets .. Challenger's juggernaut roll in 20-20 have been stopped finally after 3 years ...
We are going to have a new 20-20 champions this yr .. Pak Gym or Karachi CC ... looking fwd to the finals ...
yeah...it hurts to lose in the semis...after 3 years in a row..
Kudos to Irfan and gang...completely out played us...
Nirav played a gem for us....but nobody else except for bhavesh felt like a 4th championship...
Irfan played amazing....some of his shots were breathtaking....
congrats Pak!!
yeah, the finals will be blast....will let everybody know...
make sure you show up...and contribute to saveshekhsaravind.com...just kiddin..
will try to hook up some food and beverages...
Cograts to Karachi and Pak an goodluck for the finals, Better luck next time Anjuman and Challengers, even though i don't thaink later needs any as they already have 4 trophies.
Sheks looking at the scorecard it does look like Ass whooping you got there. Like you said they mustg have totally outplayed you guys in all departments.
Congrats to Pak Gym.
In 1st semis: Karachi vs Anjuman
Anjuman didn't allow us to win that easily either. They contained us at 138 but we bowled really well to get them out around 95 runs. Faisal & Talha bowled exceptionally well at the begining. 1st boundary was scored in the 6ht over. After that Imran bowled exceptionally well with me.
BTW Shek & Sanjay did great job in umpiring too. Good umpires help in game management, no headache at all. Smooth going !!!
yeah cool...got our asses whooped..oh well..
thanks yusuf bhai..
special shout out to all my umpires...thanks fellas...without you guys...we couldnt have done it..
kudos to charlie and sanjay...for helping me out with the umpiring chores..
Shekhs,
When you're planning to have night tournament final?
Yousaf (Peoria)
I left a voicemail for Faisal, will talk to him and then to Irfan and Bakshi before I finalize a date....
I'll make sure you'll be able to drive up here....I'm sure Faisal will make sure of that..
Holla fellas!
Any idea who writes the weekly headlines on our website? I was lmao when I saw this:
"Sachin and Yash with explosive knocks steered Purdue to a very easy win over Wildcats."
A very easy win? It was a very tense 1 run win on the last ball.
Two really good games in Div 2 this weekend. Rovers vs Titans and Jaguars vs QCKings. My bet's on Rovers and Jaguars. Let's see if Alpesh & co can make me lose my shirt.
Good luck everybody!
Whats up with Evanston this year? They won just one game out of the nine games they got to play? I expected them to be a strong playoff contender and maybe even win it all this year.
Sadiq (and Rup and maybe others too), we need your insights and expert opinions :)
ssup midwest??
been a while...you keepin a low profile..?
I'm going with Titans and Jaguars...
yeah..evanston's a case of under-achievement this year...
I agree Midwest !! Shiva from Phoenix writes the headlines ... But this becomes monotonous as he has to do the same stuff every week ... Hence, the result ...
Regarding that match ... Yash from Purdue played a sedate and very important knock .. and it was not an explosive knock as mentioned there ...
The solution could be giving 4 ppl to write the headlines periodically ... each week 1 person writes the headline and next week the other guy ...
Anyways ... In our Sunday match against Rovers ...I will try my best to make you do the Salman Khan act as you wrote .. :-)
All the best to all the teams for the weekend ...
Midwest / Alpesh
I am out in Chennai on vacation and hence am not doing the headlines since last week's headlines.....
Shiva
Sorry Shiva Sir !!!
Anyways .. we are a player short for tomorrow's match .. as one of our players had an accident in the evening today ... Is anybody available to play for us tomorrow at 11 AM?
Cats beat Phoenix by about 10 runs.
Cats scored 184 in 40 overs, and phoenix fell short with 10 runs playing with only 10 players as Prasanna had an injury while playing.
I hope he is doing good...
I dont know who wrote the weekly summary, but when I read it I was sure it was not Shiva, anyhow it was way too close to call it an easy victory...
I know it's a Monday, but come on guys, atleast provide some updates on the games played over the weekend.
Jaguars lost to QC Kings. I'm curious to know if Titans beat Rovers. Alpesh, what is the result?
wow! It was a weekend of upsets, atleast in Div 1.
AAA over Milwaukee, Eagles over MG and Royals over St. Louis. From the weekly summary it seems like they are all fairly comfortable wins.
Titans defeated rovers by4 wkts. Rovers were put into bat and scored 192. Titans chased it in 38.3. one of their players scored 70 no in a very good win for them.
Dinesh
Sorry Midwest .. I was very tired y'day as the travel from Washington Park to home almost was abt 2 hrs due to the traffic .. I will upload the scores in the evening today ..
Anyways .. as Dinesh said we beat Rovers by 4 wickets .. Mughiz scored 70* and Roshan picked up 4 wickets for us ..
But Rovers is a very good team .. They are a good fielding side .. dive around and stop the ball almost all the time ..
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Midwest said...
I know it's a Monday, but come on guys, atleast provide some updates on the games played over the weekend.
Jaguars lost to QC Kings. I'm curious to know if Titans beat Rovers. Alpesh, what is the result?
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Titans did beat Rovers from what I heard.
Huge weekend in the league in general - nobody seems to want to win the automatic Div2 promotion-spot, everyone at the top having losses lately :-) CCI lost 2 recently (thus giving Rovers a v good chance, plus Jaguars etc too).. and now both Rovers and Jaguars lost this weekend, so its all up the air again with CCI back in the lead!
And an even bigger weekend in Div1 - Cats beating Phoenix, huge win (helping their playoff chances and hurting a rival's chances at the same time, the double-whammy). AAA is looking very good lately, the last few weeks - awesome win for them in Milwaukee. Eagles and Royals both winning - StLouis' playoff chances very seriously damaged as a result, and MuslimGym hurt quite badly too (though they have a couple more games in hand). Purdue beat Flames by only 1 wicket - a critical game for playoff chances also.
And as usual, the best battle anywhere is the relegation battle in Div1 - and 2 huge shots fired this weekend, Royals and Eagles *both* winning, leaping to 17 and 16 points apiece! Now we must see the Bears and Rogers Park respond (RP almost did this weekend itself, pushing the league's hottest team Peoria to the brink).
(And in 30/30 I umpired a brilliant game last night, where Rockers were 28/0 in 4 overs, lost Romeen thru runout, and collapsed to 77 allout. And then bowled quite brilliantly to dismiss the strong batting lineup of Dee Park - including Nirav, Bhavesh and Darshan - for 52! Critical runout of Darshan, terrific spell of 4/11 from Varun, half a dozen clean-bowleds.. one heck of a night-game to watch!)
Quite a weekend across the league!
c8w
You are absolutely right Finger, the relegation battle is very exciting. Looks like Rogers Park and Bears are in a spot of bother right now. They only have 2 more games left with only 2 wins to show. They should win atleast one game to harbor any thoughts of not bottoming the table.
The other teams that are hovering around 16-18 points (MG, Flames, Phoenix, Eagles and Royals) have played fewer games than RP and Bears and control their own destiny.
Unfortunately this year weather has played a big role. At the end of the season, win-loss ratio might be a better indicator than the total points.
------- Midwest said...
You are absolutely right Finger, the relegation battle is very exciting. Looks like Rogers Park and Bears are in a spot of bother right now. They only have 2 more games left with only 2 wins to show. They should win atleast one game to harbor any thoughts of not bottoming the table.
The other teams that are hovering around 16-18 points (MG, Flames, Phoenix, Eagles and Royals) have played fewer games than RP and Bears and control their own destiny.
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Well, before this weekend Eagles and Royals looked to be in the most trouble, probably (Eagles almost got 4 points against AAA with rain.. but the rain arrived 2 overs early, after 18 overs of the innings, and so it was 2 apiece - that was only last week!) Thats why the 2 wins by them this weekend were so huge.
At the moment, Bears and RP are both at 14 - RP with 2 games left, Bears with 3 left (the points table shows Bears at 16 with 2 games left - but thats presuming the Bears/Milwaukee game was rained out with 2 points apiece.. and by rule this year that cant be, because Bears already had 3 rainouts before that game. That game will either be replayed or continued. Similar to Royals/MuslimGym, which was MG's 4th rainout - that game is halfway and will supposedly be continued too - MG chasing about 175 or so IIRC... and also MG/United, another game to be continued, with United chasing 175 or so!)
In the end, Eagles and Royals, despite their weekend wins, are still in the "danger zone" - at 16 and 17 points apiece. I think the 18 point guys are *probably* safe.. at least I had figured they would be, historically we've never had a team relegated with 18 points! Though this year, who knows!
Actually, Eagles and Royals are supposed to play each other in a week or so! So, one of them will probably be safe too with another 4 points, while the other will remain in danger (well, unless its a rainout, in which case I dont even want to guess the possibilities :-)
Endless permutations and combinations possible - it should be a terrifically exciting end to the season!
c8w
Any other Div 2 results?? Madison Vs Lucky, CCI Vs Illinois??
Midwest Sir ..
The scores are entered .. I made a mistake ... Tafazzul claimed only one wicket .. the other was runout .. I have submitted a request to correct it ..
Alot of the game scores have not been entered. Lucky XI have not entered about 4-5 games.
MADISON vs. Illinois on 7/19/2009.
CCI vs. Arena on 8/15/2009.
Chicago Giants vs. CCI on 8/1/2009.
Illinois vs. Lucky XI on 6/28/2009.
Unless these are entered the points table looks all messed up...
Rajiv,
They'll all be entered soon. They'll be computed correctly before the playoffs.
I think the teams those who dont enter the scores need to be fined, and I believe the management will be fining some teams this year.
RP played very neat and tight game...Fielding and bowling were spot on...and there were 2 stunning catches..one of Devraj by Umair at square leg...A dive to the left parallel to the ground holding the ball inches from the ground...Even us spectators quite aways couldn't believe it..it was just that stunning!!..Also another one on the boundary by Asmar of Ravi..A full toss...wacked into cow corner region ..Asmar running to his left from midwicket judging perfectly holding it with 2 hands over head...He would have covered atleast 8-10 yards..Equally a stunning catch..Old saying goes 'Cathes win matches' those 2 key wickets turned the screws for PCC but.. we are glad to hold the nerve in the end to pull of the win from the jaws of RP!..Nasir was pick of the bowler..with 3 wickets...nice tight high arm spin with a ackward bounce to the batsmen...Asmar ever green bowler at his best always and Farraz was pretty tight..Shiraz at his animated best:-) A special mention goes to RP Opening bowler..Amir left arm fast with 30 yard run up was fantastic ...some one to watch for in future...Overall it was great game played in spirit of the game and 'Thank you' RP for great a game..we fought tooth and nail ..We needed this mental exercise..Wish guys the very best.
Teams in Div-I are so well balanced and anything can happen any time...Its like watching a Alfred Hitchcock movie...! Its really great to see all teams fighting so hard...scripting their destiny...Wishing all teams the best...
Cheers
Madew
I am sorry I have been bad about updating the blog on the developments with Eagles’ Games. Work, work, work. Kya kare?
First off Eagles Vs AAA
We won the toss and elected to bat. Scored 197 with Mankesh, Seshu, lakshmi and Amit scoring useful runs but not before a few sprints with kits in hand to the trees . At 20 we were 110. AAA started to bat and lost wickets frequently. Adam menk came in and tried to swing his bat and got out to a good catch by Vasu in the 17th over and they were still 30 runs short. Clouds were hovering at that time but it was not unplayable with spinners operating at both ends. We tried to rush through the overs but AAA had other ideas. As soon as the 17th over was done all and sundry started walking into the field complaining about bad light. It started with the leg umpire complaining and then the general population. Interestingly the last guys to complain were the guys in the middle. With precious moments lost the umpire stopped play. Soon after it poured cats and dogs and we lost 2 well deserved points. In all fairness to AAA I guess they had to do whatever they could to get 2 points.
Next on the sheet Eagles Vs Muslim Gymkhana.
We won the toss and decided to bat. We scored 233 with some useful contributions from Seshu, Lakshmi, Subbu and a blitzkrieg from Mankesh. We were well on our way to a bigger score but MG changed strategies and bowled very intelligently to restrict us to 233. We always felt 233 was a good score but with MG’s batting strength we might be walking on a line. And that is what happened. MG scored at a decent pace and kept the score board ticking. But they also lost wickets at regular intervels. One of the three brothers got out initially. At 20 overs they were 80+ for 5 and we thought we almost had game in hand when in walked Imran. That guy is an Orc. He started clinicially massacring us. Pure clean hitting. I am telling you it is a pleasure to watch such hitting from outside the boundary but if you are a fielder it is painful. Especially me, who is the closest. He was taking the game away from us. We changed strategies too and imran got out to a backward running well judjed catch by Vishnu. After that it was only a matter of time. And ravi sealed it with a direct runout from longoff. Relief and a much needed 4 points.
MG is a good team cricket and otherwise too. Good bunch of folks.
thx,
-preetam
With the Ramdan starting ... I think in Div 2 ... teams not in the contention for playoffs have started giving walkovers .. for an example ... Lucky 11 and Hammond are giving walkovers for their next matches ..
Teams giving walkovers should be penalized heavily, not only in terms of points which clearly doesn't matter to some teams but also financially. We all pay to play and each team is paying somewhere around 150 bucks (if not more) per game. A team abandoning a game in the middle or giving a walkover should be penalized this amount. This amount should be credited back to the team that lost the opportunity to play a full game.
nice wins Preetam looks like you guys are making some noise...kudos!!
nice win Madew....RPCC is always a fighting team..no matter who they play..they fight till the last ball.....they beat us last season...will be a tough and close game next week..
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Midwest said...
Teams giving walkovers should be penalized heavily, not only in terms of points which clearly doesn't matter to some teams but also financially. We all pay to play and each team is paying somewhere around 150 bucks (if not more) per game. A team abandoning a game in the middle or giving a walkover should be penalized this amount. This amount should be credited back to the team that lost the opportunity to play a full game.
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I agree entirely - at least about the walkover part. *Everyone* pays to play in this league - sure getting 4 points is nice, but its not as important as playing, its the actual game thats being paid for. Already there are rainouts that we cant do much about - already most teams are playing 12/13 games for the 2400 bucks a year, not quite 14.
We ought to do what the NC league does - they have much more travel in general than we do, so they had a much bigger problem with walkovers (especially when playoff chances were gone)... minus-6 points on the table, monetary fine (2400/14 for each game).. and, in NC, if you give more than 2 in a season, youre not allowed to play the *next* season either! Draconian, sure, but it makes certain that the integrity of the league is maintained - that teams, even when out of the playoffs, still travel and play the games theyre supposed to play (so other teams get the opportunity to play for the payment theyve made, and also nobody gets 4 "free" points, which isnt fair to anyone else in the league either).
Walkovers have been a problem in this league for a while now, especially late in the season - most often affecting other teams. Something *must* be done to stamp it out completely, to ensure it doesnt keep happening in the future.
c8w
Adding to the Walkovers part....
Well Money is one thing, but there might be few teams who are dependent on these matches for their playoff chances, for example Team A and Team C might be dependent on Team B vs Team C match and now we have Team B giving a walkover and Team C is through, so chances of Team A is gone.
Atleast Team B can be sportive enough to be a spoil sport by defeating Team C and spice things a little, they can try out new players if they have any.....
We should come up with a different way to tackle this issue, money is fine but its a team of 12 , so 150-200/12 is nothing ..... Banning a team from next season Sadiq, as it is Div 2 has come down from 35 teams to 15 in the last 3 years :) .....
Lighter side :
How about something like the captain of that team should pay 2400 to the other team and else will be reflected on the credit history LOL......
Madew -
Thanks for the kind words. I guess that is the only positive of losing a game, earning respect from your opponent :-)
Thank you for hosting us so well and playing such a good game. It really was a lot of fun. You guys have a great team and I think you guys are built to go deep in the playoffs. Good luck to you, Yousuf bhai and your team!
Shekhs - Thanks for the kind words as well. Looking forward to our game next Thursday.
Fellas...
Abid Lahiri Finals will be played on 09/07/2009, Monday of the labor day weekend.
Please come on over and support the tourney.
Its going to be an All Pakistan finals as Pak Gymkhana will play Karachi XI.
Good luck to both teams!!
Thanks
Shekhs
Appears as if we may have few more rain-outs this weekend ... Tough time for the scheduling committee ...
Alpesh,
The weather in Saint Louis is improving and no more rain in forecast. It did not rain as much as it was expected last night and now it is clearing up.
Looking forward to a good game.
guys where'sthe updates from today's games, there were some good games today, some out of town teams playing in chicago today too.
Milwaukee Won against Peoria CC by chasing a target of 164 39.3 overs for 5 Asif was wrecker in chief with 80 runs...
Chals Wons agains Pak gym in low scoring affair by chasing down 98 runs Sanjay took 6 wickets..
Purdue Won against Chargers comfortably by chasing down a target 128/3 in 18 overs odd...
Interesting Stat teams batting second have all WON in washington park...:-)
thanks maddew for the update,
Shekhs where are you? still busy celebrating a nice hard fought win.
C'mon man give us some updates.
Maddew you guys had very close game, eventhough scorecard suggests otherwise.
It was pretty close game...we tried our best...bowling was good sporadic sessions and we coldn't string it together well..with Asif in such good, stable batting mood it was tough..he built partnerships around Kabir and Shakir very well which took game away from us..we had pretty tight chances which we couldn't convert but..on this day it wasn't meant to be...and when mr Extras kicks on a day of such low scores it always a tough ask...Asif was brilliant only hitting the wrong balls that batsmen were feeding him..He got all around shots in his arsenals - Pulls, cuts, clips, chips, drives..Had fun watching him play...except for one chance he gave in beginning there were none..A small door opened when holed out to Chakri widish mid on caught by kashif..when they needed 30 runs in 6 overs odd we tried to tighten up..but Shakir saw it through well...equations came down to 9balls 6 runs ..we fought well and in the end it was all Milwaukee with a great tight WIN...Congratulations to them and we are back on the drawing board...We don't play our next gave till 19th of Sept..we have nice long rest to lift our spirits and get ready for young, dynamic, energitic Purdue. Until then we will get some popcorn and watch the brilliant playoff race unfold this year...Sheks, Rup,Bhavesh Margoog, Dax, Afroze, Sanjay and Darshan and rest did have a nice little party out there on the field as always...Thanks to them for watching our game with great support on the lines...and will let Sheks..write the 'hang over' details for their match...Looks like it was bowlers who dominated on this chilly, cold Chicago morning..Wishing the teams that are fighting the very best...
Titans lost to Arena by 16 runs y'day in St Louis.
Arena were allout for 245 in 37.2 overs. Then we could only score 229/8 in 40 overs and fell short by 16 runs.
Ajoy Sir ... thanks for letting me return one-piece ... even though still have bruises over my body .. :) It was a nice game overall ...
thanks madew for the update.....
cool, will put a report soon....
matter of fact, it was a Sanjay PAtel show...that would su,,arize everything..
Sanjay - 8-2-13-6 - he gave 7 runs in his last over..damn him..
hahaha..yeah it was some party at the park yesterday...
it was worth every bit...as what a game it was....Milwaukee Vs. Peoria...glad we stayed back to watch it..
You are welcome Alpesh. It was a good game and you batted well.
On funny side, you were lucky that one of our bowler was not fully fit :)
Glad you guys enjoyed your trip to Saint Louis.
Meanwhile I had a all-Phoenix-all-the-time weekend - umpired Flames beating Phoenix easily on Saturday, and Phoenix beating Royals fairly handily on Sunday. (Flames 219, Phoenix 110 - Fahad 92 for Flames, and Kiran a very rapid 26 off about 10 balls at the end; Royals on Sunday got 128, Phoenix were about 5/2, but then Aditya batted very well for 56* and Phoenix won with 6 wickets in hand and 15 overs to spare).
Meanwhile on Sunday Muslim got 199 off 35 overs against Flames, and won by 28 runs IIRC - Imran got 40-odd for Muslim (with 3 or 4 sixes), and Pradeep hit 3 sixes off Nasir in the penultimate over to carry Muslim to 199.. Flames needed 83 off the last 10 with 8 wickets in hand, but fell short in the end.
So Flames go 1-1 this weekend, as does Phoenix, and Muslim Gym wins an important game. Meanwhile, Bears beat United at Hammond according to the summary! So my first prediction has come true - I was telling some people over the weekend that, with teams with as old and proud a history as the Bears and Rogers Park in relegation trouble, I was convinced theyd cause at least 1 upset each over their remaining 2 games, in their bid to remain in Div1... and the first of those happened today!
So the Div1 races, instead of clarifying itself this weekend, has only gotten more muddled :-) Challengers, Peoria and Purdue are at 32 or more, so are presumably in.. but thats all so far.
Now MuslimGym is 22 in 11 games (with 2 "continued" games left - defending 175 in 30 overs against United, chasign 185 in 40 overs against Royals), Flames 22 in 12, Phoenix 22 in 12, United 20 in 10. Big winners in the playoff race this weekend were probably the Wildcats, who didnt play :-) - since their biggest rivals knocked each other off a bit.
Meanwhile in the relegation race the Bears jump to 18 and towards safety, Royals 17, Eagles 16, Rogers Park 14.
(This is all contingent on the result of the StLouis-Eagles game - anyone have a result, please post :-) StLouis is in the playoff hunt at 20 points, Eagles at 16 need at least 1 more win to avoid relegation).
c8w
Eagles lost to St. Louis by 9 wickets. Eagles playing with 10 scored 163/9 in 40. St. Louis scored those runs quite comfortably with Sohail scoring an unbeaten 95.
Any updates on other Div 2 games this weekend ??
Sadiq Sir ... you need to write abt Div 2 too :-) 9 teams fighting for playoff spot right now .. One of them will have to miss ... And abt 5-6 play-off teams will be from outside chicago ..
Alpesh, Hard luck on the well fought game this weekend. I am sure you guys missed Farraz.
I was curious to know about your comments about the last game and i understand you are talking about Arena's bowling attack.
Curious to know more about Arena's strength's as we didn't get a chance to play with them.
Thanks,
Sorry to let you down Satish, but I dont think Alpesh is talking about Arena's Bowling Attack, thats not our strength.
It was something more interesting which I would let Alpesh explain...:)
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Alpesh said...
Any updates on other Div 2 games this weekend ??
Sadiq Sir ... you need to write abt Div 2 too :-) 9 teams fighting for playoff spot right now .. One of them will have to miss ... And abt 5-6 play-off teams will be from outside chicago ..
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I do usually write about them - except the last couple weeks I havent done anything in Div2 (30/30 last week, Div1 this week). I did watch Collinsville for a while on Saturday night, though - they were playing the Fire, and were 180-odd in 28 overs (in a 35-over game). Sel and Roshan opened and both got quick 40s, and both actually looked very good (and both still under 25 years old too!) Collinsville appeared to be a bunch of very good guys, and a very young team - almost the entire team right now is well under 30 (except for 1 guy who is over 30, IIRC). Their playoff hopes werent dead yet either - they were playign Fire on Saturday and Giants on Sunday, and were hoping 2 wins would put them right back in the thick of things.
I *wanted* to umpire CCI/Evanston on Sunday, but was overruled :-) Despite an invite from Magnus, too... it was going to be Evanston's last home game of the year, big crowd expected, CCI was in visiting (top of the table team), and the party was apparently going to go late into the evening no matter who won :-)
Div2 playoffs probably have 10 contenders I think - unless Collinsville lost this weekend, in which case its probably down to 9. Div1 is a little more bunched - still about 12 teams alive I think. To me the current big contest is for #1 seed in Div2, with its possibly poison-pill award of direct entry to Div1 - quite likely to be an away team at the moment, Rovers and CCI favourites.
And for Div2 playoffs, as you say, out of 8 teams 5 or 6 could be away-teams.. makes you wonder if its even fair to hold those playoffs in Chicago anymore :-)
c8w
is illinois out of the playoff picture? i thought they were still in it..
anyways, coming to the sadiq bhai's comment, i always wondered if they needed to have the pre quarters(like last year) and quarters this year in chicago? i agree that it makes sense to have the semis and finals in chicago as we can expect the crowd to come and watch it..
the 1st seed playing the 8th seed in chicago seems to favor the 8th seed if it happens to be a chicago team..Last year Arena played springfield and the year before rovers played cci which would have been much easier if it was homegame to the top seed..
anyways, i know its a sensitive topic and am not saying it should be done this way, but i wanted to see what everyones opinion on it was..
if it is semis and finals in chicago, it maynot be too bad for the outside teams..to win 4 travelling games in chi the previous years was a tall task for us..btw, has there been an out of station champion in the playoffs?
Dinesh
dinesh and Finger,
you both have excellent points...
I think its a bit too much for 2 away teams to play QFs in chicago..
But, here are some facts, and we need to resolve those:
1. 2 neutral umpires: we need 2 neutral umpires to be available for the QF games. They cant be from either of those 2 away team cities.
2. Preference of ground. The lower seed generally hosts the playoff games. But, the higher seed can claim that they should have the home ground advantage.
These are just a few items.
In my opinion we should completely regionalize Div 2, have the regional teams play 2-3 times and have 1 or 2 qualified team come and play semi-finals, that wasy we can have clear rule set before the season and no controversies...
appu,
now I'm curious...what happened in STL..
I'm sorry to hear that you're hurt...but you guys have made it sound like its a bit funny as well..
BTW, good knock and good season..keep it real!!
Collinsville beat Chicago Fire on last ball ... they won by 3 runs...
Both Collinsville and Chicago Giants had 2 games this weekend... would like to have some updates from those games...
also what happened to CCI vs. Evanston?? Hope Evanston made this points table more interesting by winning...
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Shekhs said...
dinesh and Finger,
you both have excellent points...
I think its a bit too much for 2 away teams to play QFs in chicago..
But, here are some facts, and we need to resolve those:
1. 2 neutral umpires: we need 2 neutral umpires to be available for the QF games. They cant be from either of those 2 away team cities.
2. Preference of ground. The lower seed generally hosts the playoff games. But, the higher seed can claim that they should have the home ground advantage.
These are just a few items.
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I agree actually - I dont think the playoffs should really be in other places either.. the big reason being the umpiring, getting 2 neutrals to an away-site is very difficult.
But its also more than just that - what you *should* have is the Super Saturday thing.. its actually my favourite day of the year, just about :-) Thats the day of the first-playoff game.. which is always 8 Div2 teams playing each other (sometimes in the prequarters, this year in the quarters), all together at Washington Park, in 4 grounds. That way it *feels* like a playoff - crisp fall weather, 9am, green fields, white clothes, 8 teams on a do-or-die quest... and everyone keeping in touch with what happens on other grounds, all lunch-times occupied with watching other games, teams staying post-game to watch the finish of their future opposition etc. Thats what the playoffs is and should be.. and ideally the league could provide the food, have a shamiana in the middle etc - and all this you wont ever have that if Jolly Rovers play Springfield in Springfield (of course, you wont have it if they play at Heritage Park either.. ie a lone ground with only 2 teams playing. But thats why they should always play that at Washington Park :-)
c8w
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Shekhs said...
In my opinion we should completely regionalize Div 2, have the regional teams play 2-3 times and have 1 or 2 qualified team come and play semi-finals, that wasy we can have clear rule set before the season and no controversies...
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Now this part is entirely different - and it is something that *has* to happen, and has to happen right now IMHO. Div2 has fallen from 32 teams 4 years ago to 15 teams this year - and all the teams leaving have been Chicagoland teams who dont want to travel. It will be even worse next year - Illinois is already planning on leaving, and the teams from Div1 that have a chance to be relegated are not willing to come to Div2 to travel either.. theyre thinking of going to 30/30 instead.
I think we need to regionalize, and do it right away. But it doesnt have to be *total* regionalization, ie teams downstate only playing each other and nobody else etc either... it can be a bit of a mix-and-match too! I think people dont want to travel a lot - but people will travel 3/4 times willingly, if road-trips are rare they are actually fun :-) Its when theyre too long and too frequent that its a real problem.
I think we can have 9/10 teams downstate, and in StLouis etc - they should all play each other every year, fitting in about 8/9 games at least. And the Chicago teams playing each other similarly. And then there can be about 5 games a year in which Chicago teams play downstate teams in the regular season (not dissimilar to the Chicago Bears playing 8 "division" games and the remaining games outside their division every year)- a couple of those non-division games in Chicagoland, maybe 3 of those games downstate/StLouis. Basically about 3 travels per team.. and if you have that, IMHO you'll have lots of Chicagoland teams happy to do it as well, and the size and quality of Div2 will grow instead of declining as it has been for the past few years. And it retains the mix of the league - this is a Midwest-wide league, and thats a good thing in the end.
And then, of course, in the playoffs you have a mix anyway - maybe 4 teams from the Chicago-division, and 4 teams from the non-Chicago-division, that sort of thing.
And the league *must* be dynamic - Div2 teams promoted, Div1 teams relegated, and back and forth movement every year. That back-and-forth movement has been non-existant, since nobody from Div1 ever comes down to Div2, which has hurt Div2 and the league seriously in the past 5 years. (A radical suggestion - how about, all players on the squad of any team thats been relegated from Div1, arent allowed to play Div1 the next season? If the team still wants to break up etc, thats fine... but the players still cant play Div1 the next year if their *team* was relegated. That would IMHO discourage the breaking up of teams significantly - and most teams would stay together to play in Div2 the next year to try and win promotion again... it would make the league the way its supposed to be, with promotion *and* relegation between divisions every year the way its supposed to be in theory! :-)
c8w
Guys,
Division II just got more interesting. Chicago Giants lost to Madison and CCI lost to Evanston!!!
Giants also played Collinsville this weekend.. dont know what happened there.
Some really good games coming up after the long weekend...
Jaguars vs (Giants, Collinsville & Arena)
CCI vs. Madison (If CCI win this, they will top DIV II regardless)
Madison vs. Collinsville
Madison really have 32 points not 24.. they havent updated their sheet for 2 games which they have won.
If I am seeing this right - Rovers, CCI, Arena, Jaguars and Madison are fighting for top spot??
Hi rajiv,
Madison actually has only 2 losses and 2 rained outs and have played 12 matches... so they have 36 pts in 12 matches just like CCI... Madison plays collinsville and cci..
CCI has lucky and madison left..
so it looks like the winner of cci vs madison will qualify for div 1...
I think the rest are all competing for 2nd spot and such... we all had our chances and we let them go begging!..
oh well, theres always the playoffs..lol..
Btw ... there was a scheduling fiasco .. and hence Collinsville-Giants match was not played on Sunday at Heritage Park ..
There were already two 30-30 matches scheduled at Heritage Park on Sunday ... I pity the Collinsville team !!!
It seems like there were lot of scheduling issues this year. rovers played tonnes of games in may and june and we got only 3 games in july and august...starting games in may 1st week caused lot of rained out matches..
but i think with schools getting over in mid may, scheduling would be a major issue anyway..i see jaguars playing 2 games in 9/19 weekend and collinsville having a few games left still..i was wondering why collinsville had such a big break in the middle of the season..
yeah....looks like its gonna be either CCI or Madison...who'll be in div 1 next year..
wow...CCI has come a long way up the ladder....
since, Madison will be playing CCI in champaign....I give the edge to CCI..
yeah....for the rest of the playoff contenders...good luck!!
scheduling's been a nightmare this year...for all divisions...
primarily due to CER. Its the cascade effect due to the scheduling fiasco of CER.
Anybody know if Madison/Lucky XI game was played or not? Becuase our game was postponed with league waiting for a change of heart from Lucky. All this adds to more confusion than solve anything.
We lost already 3 games (1 rainout, 1 abandoned due to bad ground, 1 because of IIT). With 2 more games uncertain (Lucky/Hammond) which effectively makes 9 games this year. Ofcourse it is true for most other teams as well.
With all other things like CER and World Cup it made things even worse for the schedule. Add weather to this i wonder if it is possible to complete the playoffs in decent weather.
from what i have heard... LuckyXI is banned from Div II.
So yes.. CCI vs. Madison is like a finals to top DIV II
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