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).
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 ;-)
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