Gutsy sloggers seal the deal

UPDATED: Much mahalo to Pankaj bhai for adding more information to the review and it should now look complete. A correction is also made to reflect Shabbir's wicket in the second innings.

I apologize for the very late review...

Look closely; you see my big flat foot in my mouth? After 'predicting' a win for us (the Royal Lions) I was a little nervous before the game. This was a lovely match that saw some nerves from both teams and the steadier ones got the trophy (does anyone else thinks Mark modeled for the trophy?).

We won the toss and put the Sloggers in (ouch; teams that set the target won it all in the last two finals). The Sloggers needed a strong start so they could ease the pressure on their middle order. The skipper and Zoob (who we not so brightly thought would be rusty) walked out to bat while we had Sachin and Munna share the new ball. Both of them started with a couple of wides but did not really give away too many runs off the bat in the first couple of overs. Mark gave himself the ball in the third over and Zoob drove him for a boundary over long off. He brought back Munna for the fifth over and that was when the fireworks started. Zoob swiveled and hit one behind square for four and then Travis burned him for a couple of more boundaries on either side of the wicket. Munna then came back to bowl a peach of a delivery that Travis nicked to the first slip where Mark floored it (the only thing that was bruised here was our Skipper's ego as he usually has one the safest pair of hands). Both batsmen were rotating the strike easily and did not have to wait for the bad balls for too long. We were bowling too short, too wide, just not to our fields and leaking runs in plenty.

Lazar stepped up and stemmed the runs from his end. He had a pretty good field set for himself and positioned me between a short and silly mid-off for Zoob to cover his aerial straight drives. As expected Zoob did go for the shot but boy did he hit that one; I muffed the chance and my excuse was that the ball was travelling (yep, it is an excuse). Lazar bowled his entire spell of 4 overs at a stretch and gave away just 23 runs (would've been 5 less if not for the wides). Our skipper showed some confidence in Naveen's quickish off spinners (anyone remember Vijay Bharadwaj?) and he did bowl a decent spell. But then, there were too many gaps and the batsmen were milking us away for singles and doubles and the extras allowed them the luxury of not taking many risks. Both Zoob and Trav retired after scoring 30 off 35 and 22 balls respectively and the Sloggers were cruising with 80 for no loss at drinks.

Barry and Vishan replaced the openers and went about their business briskly. Vishan had a huge hit to long on for a six off Naveen and he looked as if he was preparing to cut loose. I was brought into the attack in the 15th over and Vishan probably saw the opportunity for a bucket load of runs here. He greedily stepped out but was outfoxed by the wily spinner and was promptly stumped (actually, it was a very ordinary dismissal where I got lucky as Vishan missed the heave; I just wanted to rub it in). We pulled them back a little without conceding too many boundaries and keeping the extras to a bare minimum.

Subbu walked in next and used his feet brilliantly (not bright though; well, he just started walking down the track with the bowler's run up) to Mark and lofted him for a few quick runs (I was genuinely scared for him as I know Mark's affinity for snorters). He then tried to slog me over midwicket but completely missed it and got stumped. Pankaj bhai walked in next and made sure they did not loose any more wickets. They were 143 in the 19th over when Munna came in to finish it off. Barry saw him bowl a couple of short ones and moved into the line (premeditation at its best) for the next one and hooked it behind square for the maximum and finished with 14 runs in that over.

Sloggers 157 for 2 (yep, u read right; TWO) in 20 overs.

We definitely did not think this was too huge a target and planned for a sensible (Ha!) innings from all our batsmen. A couple of quick wickets would have put us in some pressure but we figured we batted pretty deep and should cross the finish line without much drama. I walked out (God knows why; I should be flogged every time I touch a bat) with Misa to open our innings while Barry and Troy shared the new ball duties for them. Misa played the first over from Barry and for the first time in the tournament forgot that we were playing a T20. He left (yes, left) a few balls that were not really unplayable (but in his defense, he is a slow starter and picks up the momentum gradually; and really, I am in no position to critique any batting nuances (but then, this is the blogger and not the batsman here, so screw it)). I faced Troy in the next over who had precisely placed 2 fielders (short mid-wicket and covers) in front of the wicket for me. The rest of the fielding unit was behind square and I did feel a little embarrassed by the set up. I wound myself up for a short one around my legs and was all set to hit the shnitz out of the ball and place it somewhere over the square leg boundary. But then, I just managed to scoop it up to short square leg where Travis came running in from mid-wicket to get me out. That sealed my fate as the worst batsman in this tournament statistically.

Lazar walked in to replace me and quickly went to business. He hit both the bowlers for a couple of monstrous blows (one behid square and over extra cover) that fetched him 2 sixes. He hit another four before slicing one high up to somewhere near short fin leg and was caught by Zoob who swooshed in from gully to take it. We were in a bit of trouble when Allan walked out. He did not hang around too long and got out for 2 to Shabbir caught behind by Mr. Lightning aka Pankaj bhai. Munna replaced him and tried to move things along. Misa was stuck in a rut all this while and the pressure was getting to him. Munna unfurled a couple of beautiful strokes, a beautiful flick of his legs against his brother and a lovely lofted drive through mid wicket against Travis. The skipper was bowling pretty well as he took a lot of pace off the ball and was concentrating on his line. Munna mis-timed a shot and hit it straight back to Travis who gladly gobbled up the chance.

Sachin walked in with some pressure on his shoulders but did not show any as he hit the first ball to the mid wicket fence. He hit another lovely shot for 4 off Shabbir but could not hang around for long as he chipped one back to the bowler. Misa then skied one to troy (who makes the most difficult catches look easy) off Travis and got out for 3 off 19 balls. Mark walked to the crease and knew he needed to deliver a captain's innings and Ricky was out there to give him company. He started out with 2 boundaries, a lovely extra cover drive and lofted square drive through point, off Travis and looked strong as we pinned our hopes on his bat. He and Ricks kept it moving along till Travis's last over. There was a lot of action in this one over as Travis leaked 18 runs. Trav got stuck with his line and bowled a barrage of wides and looked out of sorts. This prompted Pankaj bhai to come in and stand up to him. This kept Mark honest and gave Travis a clear target and made things a little easier. Mark shaped to go down the track for a lofted drive but realized that the ball was up and a bit wide and he decided to cut the wide ball between point and gully but ended up getting a thick outer edge that was caught by Zoob again at short third man or a fly slip.

Now we were in trouble. Lyle gave Ricks some company in the middle and tried to rotate the strike as much as possible. Vishan got his first over (now we had our hopes back again; hehehe) and Ricks gave him the stick. He hit him for three consecutive boundaries, the first one was a beautifully executed pull to the square leg fence, the second one was a lofted drive to the long off fence which was booted over the fence by Francis, and the third was an exquisite cover drive, that breathed life back into our chase and finished the over with 16 runs. Ram was bowling from the other end and kept it tight as Lyle missed one off him and was quickly stumped by Pankaj bhai behind the stumps. We were down to our last pair as Naveen limped (he had a bummed out knee) in. He struggled to connect the ball while Ricks was trying his darned best to score. Credit goes to Ram as he kept the relative green horn under check by not giving him anything at a driving length. Nav did manage to score a boundary and Ricks hit another pull shot over Subbu’s head to the square leg fence that brought our target closer.

We now needed a gettable 16 off the last 2 overs. Naveen tried hard to connect and after failing to do so for a few balls decided that he needs to get out and let Ricks bat out the rest of the game (last man was standing today). He stepped out and got stumped by Pankaj off Rambo and it was all left up to Ricky. Ricky had been strong hitting behind square on the leg side all day. Props to Pankaj bhai as he moved the field around that placed Subbu behind deep square leg. Ricky took to his natural instinct and pulled the next ball from Rambo straight to Subbu who caught the game clincher. Ricky had made a valiant 38 and kept us in the game till the penultimate over.

Royal Lions 143 all out off 20 overs.

Fielding was the difference I thought as the Sloggers held on to all their chances and were definitely helped by some not so sensible batting from some of our batsmen. The game was played in great spirits and witnessed some wonderful cricket. I would've loved to be on the winning side but the Sloggers deserved this one. They played solid team cricket throughout the Tournament and rightly took the trophy home along with the entire award set.

Awards:

Best batsman : Travis

Best Bowler: Karthik

Most improved/surprise of the tourney: Vishan (really? jk, he thoroughly deserved that one)

MVP: Barry

I might write a review of the tournament if I find adequate motivation for it as I feel like I've missed out a few things I wanted to fill in.

Aloha till the next one...

oops

Had to step out for a while this evening and couldn't finish the match review (or maybe I am just a sore loser and in no mood of writing). Will put it up tomorrow.

Have a great week...!

Preview : The Finals: Sloggers Vs Royal Lions

This is it.

The final game promises to be an exciting match up. The last time these two teams met, the sloggers chased (almost successfully) the record highest score. It was an orgy of gorgeous strokes from the batsmen. Both teams have been in a pretty good form and should be a fun game. No target will be safe with either side as both teams are packed with stroke makers.

The toss should not be a huge factor as the teams have been successful with both chasing and setting a target.

Teams

Sloggers

Travis, Vishan, Barry, Pankaj, Subbu, Shabbir, Troy, Francis, Ram and Zubin

The sloggers lose their strike bowler in Karthik for this one. He injured his already bummed knee and is out of cricket for a while. He has been the best bowler of the tournament so far and the Sloggers will miss him sorely especially when they try to take early scalps. Troy should fill the void and they also add Rambo who can bowl a right line. Zubin gets his first game of the tournament with the Sloggers as he gets back from DC. He should add some depth to the batting and is one of the better fielders in the club.

The big three (Skipper, Barry and Pankaj bhai) in the batting department are in great form and the team should look build their innings around them. The ploy of opening with Travis and Vishan has been pretty good so far and has added depth to the middle order.

Watch out for Travis. He's been the best batsman of the tournament so far. He can be very destructive once he gets his eye in and we should really look to get him early.

Royal Lions

Mark, Munna, Lazar, Misa, Sachin, Naveen, Sankar, Ricky, Allan and Lyle.

We got Ricks Allan and Lyle from the pool. Our batting's been really strong so far and Ricky should add to the depth. We've been the most disciplined team with the ball . Munna has not had a good stint with the ball in the tournament and should look to be a little more disciplined when he opens the bowling (warm ups perhaps?).

Sachin and Misa have been very strong in the middle order while Lazar and Munna have found their mojo back in the top order. I've sucked for most of the tournament with the bat (Actually, I am pretty sure I've been the worst batsman so far) and hopefully will bat a lil more sensibly this Sunday.

Watch out for Mark. He is the big match player who featured in both the previous finals with a combined score of 166.

Key match up: The batsmen Vs the batsmen. I have a feeling that this will be a slog fest with a bunch of runs from both teams.

If the sloggers keep their extras down they should limit us to a decent score. Trav and Zoob make this a sharp fielding unit and Pankaj bhai should be at his lightening best again. A lot could be decided with a couple of catches held or dropped.

Good luck to both teams. I think we have a little edge here with a little more experience but the game could swing either ways pretty quickly.

See you Sunday...

Game 5: Underdog Billionaires Vs Royal Lions

We're in the finals baby...!! This really wasn't a close game at the end, but it did not lack in the excitement department whatsoever. It was a perfect day to witness some clean hitting as batsmen from both sides played some lovely strokes. The uBills won the toss and elected to bat first. They picked Troy, Tim, Francis and John from the pool and we had Arron, Allen, Lyle and Rambo playing for us. Arron and Tim were visiting the island from Australia and joined us just for a game (more about their exploits later). The umpires (duties shared by Pankaj bhai, Travis and Shabbir) took control of the game early on as Pankaj bhai proudly flaunted his yellow cards and warned the more volatile players from both teams that mischief will not be tolerated.

The Underdogs opened with an unusual opening pair of Srinivas and Tim. This pushes their other batsmen down to bolster the middle order. It was an eventful first over to say the least asMunna opened with a wide. The next ball was a bouncer aimed at Tim which was sent sailing over deep square leg with a hook (that was Tim saying Helloooo Hawaii). A few more wides laterSrini was caught behind (golden duck) by Misa. The first (and Munna's last) over ended with 15 runs and a wicket. Ragu walked in at three (which was a pretty good move I thought) but did not stay around too long getting out to a soft dismissal. He played a really well timed shot off Mark but never finished it and ended up hitting to Lazar at point. Tim then gave Sachin the treatment with 3 more boundaries; He was on a roll. We wanted to see how he does with spin (or maybe the skipper just wanted to give him his 30 asap...;-) ) as I got the ball in the 5th over. I had them on the leash for a bit before Tim hit one over long on for the maximum and reached 32 in 14 balls. Arron (Tim's 15 year old son and one of the better bowlers I've seen in a while) came in and bowled a lovely over showing off his pace and accuracy. He dropped one a little short and a tad bit wide and Raghu jumped on the opportunity to play a lovely cut that fetched him 4. Raghuand Big O were steadily taking them to what looked like a score of 150 as they were 74 off 10 at drinks.

Right after drinks, Mark brought himself on from the beach end and Arron continued from the shell end. They both bowled the next 6 overs giving away just 21 runs. Raghu played and missed a bunch of times as the ball whizzed by his outer edge. He struggled to score and the pressure mounted as he tried to play shots that he wouldn't normally consider. Big O had his share of dot balls but slowly kept gathering singles. He had a couple of big hits before he retired as he hooked a shorter one off Arron to the boundary and hit Lazar for the maximum before retiring at 35 (off 48 balls). Kamran joined his skipper and flicked a lovely one behind square for 4. Raghu tried to hit out and did not even try to get back into the crease when he stepped out to Naveen and missed it by miles and was not so promptly stumped by Misa. Nadeem then holed one to deep mid-wicket where I caught him. We pulled them back after their quick start and gave away just 50 runs the in the last 10 overs thanks largely to the lovely spells by Mark and Arron.

Underdog Billionaires 124 for 4 in 20 overs.

We knew this wasn't a great target and just needed some sensible batting to overhaul it. Misaand myself opened the innings and they had Kamran and Troy sharing the new ball. I played an absolute horror of a batting stroke (to call it even that is blasphemy) and was cleaned up by Troy. Munna walked in at three and had to just set his eye in and rotate the strike andaccumulate his runs as he was in a dry patch so far in the tournament. Well, he was supposed to do that but he upped it by clobbering their bowlers. He started with a beautiful six off Troy over the covers and followed it by blasting Kamran for 15 more runs. He tried to slice one over point off Kamran's last ball but ended up hitting it high up and was caught by Troy who did an astounding job running behind and keeping an eye on the ball which was moving in all directions owing to the wind. Munna provided the momentum we needed and Lazar walked in to replace him. Lazar was due a big score after failing in the first 2 games and boy did he deliver! He took a little while to settle down before throwing the kitchen sink at Raghu. He had a coupla monstrous hits that cleared the longest boundary (behind square batting from the shell end) while travelling against the wind. He and Misa (who was slowly accumulating his runs) provided the steadiness we needed while guiding us to 77 at drinks.

Lazar then retired at 30 bringing our skipper in. Ragu (who predictably came in to bowl) had a go at him and was trying too hard to beat him with his pace. But by then it was a little too late as our target wasn't too big and we were comfortably placed to reach it. This probably dampened his spirits and Mark saw him off without much drama. Misa faced one from him and stepped out to play an insanely wonderful lofted shot over mid-off for 4 (something tells me the bouncer that hit him in the chest a few balls earlier had something to do with the bravado). Tim was bowling his cleverly disguised leggies and was by far their best bowler till then giving away just 6 runs off his three overs. We needed about 23 off the last five overs when Mark happened; He pillaged Tim for 20 runs starting with a monstrous hit that was still on the ascent when it cleared the long-on rope. He hit him for 3 more boundaries on both sides of the wicket and by the end of the over it was almost game over. We finished the formalities in the next over. Mark had scored 25 off 11 balls and Misa had 29 off 42 (he opened the innings and carried his bat). I thought Misa batted very sensibly (for this target) as he held one end up and let the big hitters at the other end do the damage.

Royal Lions 128 for 2 off 16.3 overs

Though it was a competitive target, we never looked out of the game and more importantly (for us anyways), the underdogs never felt like they were in the game. The dad son duo of Tim and Arron performed beautifully and added some zing to the game. The Underdog Billionaires are ousted from the tournament but did a darn good job of playing well as a team and did the best they could over the last few weeks. Ragu's wonderful spells, the skipper's graceful strokes and BigO's acrobatic keeping efforts among other performances will be not be forgotten soon.

Cant wait for the finals next week...!!

Aloha till the preview...

Sorry for the delayed review guys...my back's killing me (tweaked it during the game) and I have to hit the bed early...I'll have the blog up tomrw...

Have a great week...!!

Preview : Game # 5 Royal Lions Vs Underdog Billionaires

This is do or die for the Billionaires. Lose this one and they are out of the competition. They need to put everything on the line come Sunday to win this match as all slots in the finals are still open. From the Lions camp, we are hoping to show a much better performance than we did the last time we played them. We are feeling a little upbeat after our victory over the sloggers and feel more confident about our batting. This should be a fun contest except that Rambo's throwing a 4th of July party at his house in Kailua and everyone reading this knows (or should know) how that ends up. Hopefully we'll still have full teams at the ground by 10 and no one will be pulling a PUI (Playing under the influence) as some of the others have(Sachin ahem ahem Subbu ahem).

Teams

Underdog Billionaires

Raghu Srinivasan(C), Ragu Vijayakumar, Kamran Masih, Owen O'Callaghan(wk), Vemuri Srinivas, Matt Hawkins and Nadeem Joseph

The Underdogs cannot afford play like Billionaires when they come out to bat. They have to be very cautious, stick to their basics and concentrate on accumulating some runs before they go all ballistic. They have to make sure they bat all 20 overs (they are the only team that got all out in all their games). To me, it doesn't look like they have guys assigned to specific roles when they go out to bat. This side is filled with stroke makers and no one has taken the responsibility of curbing their instincts for the good of their team. The skipper is probably the only one here who can bat a long innings without taking many risks and still score plenty. Though he's definitely got the strokes to go over the top, he needs to bat out as many overs as he can while guiding his blasters around him. BigO can get bogged down at an end if he is not allowed to deal in boundaries and he might have to rotate the strike a little more.

Having said that, Ragu is someone that definitely needs the licence to go bonkers (well he never really cares if he's got it or not). There is just no way around it. Asking him to rotate the strike and not take any risks will just smother him and its something that should be avoided if you need any productivity from him with the bat. Kamran is mostly an unproven commodity and could come into himself this game.

The bowling department looks pretty strong but will need a decent score to defend if they are setting the target. I am not sure if there is an injury I don't know about but it just boggles my mind that Srini hasn't seen the ball much. Maybe the skipper's got a different plan and is sticking to it.

Watch out for Kamran and he needs to watch out for those toe crushers (He's been hit more than a few times). He has not yet shined with the bat or been very effective with the ball and it could be his last chance in this tournament.

Royal Lions

Mark Berwick(c), Munna Hussain, Lazar Joseph, Sachin Shah, Naveen Margankunte and Sankar Venkataraman

Even without our top order firing away, we managed to make the highest record score. Our middle order has bailed us out so far with Sachin and Misa playing some wonderful innings. We might see a change in our batting order this game with Lazaar coming down the order and maybe Munna/Mark/Misa opening the batting with me (or maybe not). We do have the deepest batting line up and can afford to take a few risks up the order. Munna's looked a little sluggish so far with the bat and this could be the turn around.

Our bowling looks potent and we do have guys like Lazar and Mark that we can throw the ball to when things go awry. Misa has slipped into the keeper's role pretty well and Naveen had a decent spell the last game. We have plenty of variation here and should be looking to bowl a disciplined line and frustrate the shit out of their batsmen.

Watch out for Sachin. He's played a couple of beautiful innings in both the games and kept us alive. Could he continue his form or will the bowlers have him figured out?

Key match up Ragu 1 Mark 0. Will that change this Sunday or will Ragu do it again? I've got 5 that says Mark evens it out.

This has got to be interesting. If we prevail, the next match between the Sloggers and us will turn into a dead rubber and we probably will just go ahead and play the finals. The Billionaires will be looking to extend the tournament and induce some (unwanted) excitement into the last game. We will be looking to wrap it up here and rather not have any drama going into the next week. I have a feeling that the Sloggers would rather play the Billionaires than us in the finals and might be hoping for a greener result this Sunday.

Good luck to both teams and see you all at Rambo's this Sat'day...!!

Aloha.

P.S. Note to the umpires: Helmets and yellow cards could be handy ;-)