Victory in a 40 overs match against Oberoi Cricket Club at Oberoi International School Ground, Goregaon (E), 10am, 20th Feb 2016

First up, I want to point out that, I'm totally against 'fixing' the match(s) with umpires.... and maybe as it turned out yesterday, the deep anguish one feels at having lost despite /inspite of all the so called umpiring 'antics....' (maybe even part of team 'tactics/strategy….) was clearly visible, when I shook hands with the opposition captain.... it was as if someone had given him a OTS.... 'One TIGHT SLAP........' And I'll leave it at that, the team that played BEST, won yesterday and I'll happily take that, maybe even holding it up in 'World Cup Triumph' celebratory style.... an absolutely fantastic and hard earned victory with no quarters given.... well played to the whole team and WELL PLAYED again
We lost the toss and bowled first on a wicket with a lot of green cover on it, but as we had experienced the previous time, when we played here (almost a year ago....) it was good for batting with the ball coming onto the bat nicely.... our bowlers were into the act right away, with Neil getting two wickets off his first over with absolute beauty of a delivery(ies) both going away as they nicked the bat and the second one esp was good catch by the keeper Vishal, diving to his right side, as he came up with the ball.... Amit came in first change and got a wicket in his first over to a ball that surprised the batsman with its pace and bounce, and he edged it for a catch to first slip, where yours truly, did the needful.... With 3 wickets down the opposition needed a partnership and the opening batsman along with the batsman, who came in at the fall of the 3rd wicket, did just that…. as they settled in, they started playing some nice shots, realising that there wasn't much in it for the quick bowlers, we brought on our spinners, with Vishal and Rahul, Vishal came in for a bit of stick earlier, but came back well to finish off his spell and some nice bit of field placing by Neil got us some important wickets.... Rahul bowled a beautiful line and was rewarded for a wonderful spell of spin bowling, with 3 wickets, and finished off with an economical spell of 8-0-32-3, Vishal also came back well with 8-0-51-3. At one stage they were 139/3 in 20 but with the spinners on, they were reduced to 172/9 in 29.... the lower order then rallied, thanks to some wayward bowling by our next change bowlers and it was thanks largely to the bowling change that we made, with Mangesh wrapping up the innings with two wickets in just one over that he bowled.... leaving us a target of 226 to chase in 40....

We opened our batting with myself and Vishal and were off to a good start, with 11 coming off the 1st over, that included a "bowlers back drive" by yours truly, that went for four, right behind the stumps at the non strikers end.... In the 3rd over, Vishal was given out LBW, to a muted appeal, where the ball struck clearly outside the line of the off stumps just outside the crease and was climbing, as it struck the top flap of the left batting pad.... I even heard the opposition team members saying, "out nahi thaa, par mil gayaa....". Sanket was in next and the runs kept flowing till he opened the face of the bat to a full pitched ball, which he could have played towards the covers for a boundary but ended up as simple catch in the hands of point.... we were 42/2 in 5 overs when Neil walked in, with the spinners on and field spread out, we rotated the strike and consolidated the score nicely, Neil was unlucky to be denied a six, as it hit the branch of a tree outside the ground and fell back inside, and all we got for it was 1 run.... maybe if it were to happen in the 1st innings, it could well have been a six.. but that's another story.... with the scoring rate slowing down, I started taking some chances and in the process, got stumped, with the keeper standing up to a medium pacer, to a ball bowled down the leg side as I lost my balance trying to play a flick towards squareleg.... we were 78/2 in the 13th over and Neil followed soon after, given out LBW to what sounded like two distinct sounds.... Akshay and Mangesh then batted well and occupied the crease, more than anything.... both played very sensibly and consolidated the score till both got out in quick succession and at 121/6 the match was just about to slip away.... but we were confident as we batted all the way down.... Amit and Sachin had a good 41 runs partnership in 9 overs to take us closer to the target and at that time we had the upper hand with 3 more all rounders yet to come.... Sachin got out to a ball he swept, that maybe bounced higher than he imagined would and instead of playing it fine, he ended up top-edging it to deep squareleg for a simple catch.... Ayaz then went in and after getting 5 wide runs off the first ball of a new spell, was trapped LBW, to a ball he could've played forward to by keeping the pads out of the way, as he was already aware of the background.... Rahul was next in and was clean bowled to the same quickish off spinner, again guilty of playing back to a ball he should've played forward to.... at this point, with 9 wickets down, the game was all but gone.... Amit was batting well at one end, but the other batsmen somehow kept getting out and if it had not been for the level headed batting display of Pradeep, we would have surely lost this game.... But to our whole teams delight and guided well by Amit himself, he played a splendid innings, running the quick one's, two's, three's and also a couple of four's.... such was the solidity of the partnership that it looked more of a middle order partnership than a lower order one.... things got so desparate at a point that even the umpire joined in to keep score for the home team.... but it was not to be their day.... in the end the 'BEST TEAM of THE DAY' WON........ Well played, Well played, Well played and WELL PLAYED

My man of the match for his under pressure knock of 53 off 56 balls is Amit Sawant
Thanks for coming and playing such a beautiful game of cricket Have a nice weekend

Victory in a T20 match against Young Matunga Cricket Club at Purandare Stadium, Dadar (E), 10am, 29th Nov 2015

Fantastic game of cricket today, all credit to some great team batting bowling and fielding, although I think we let it get too close in the end... Ayaz bowled a brilliant last over to take us over the line..
We won the toss and elected to bat on a pitch that was slightly wet in the initial 7/8 overs, with the ball stopping and coming on to the bat... Myself and Amit opened the batting and was given out LBW to a left arm medium bowler, to a ball that came in sharply after pitching and maybe looked like drifting down the leg... Gaurav played a good straight lofted drive and then got out in the next over and after, Amit got out to a ball that once again held up on the pitch. In walked Shehzad and Neil and some aggressive strokeplay followed, suddenly we were 97 for 3 in 10 overs. Shehzad took a liking for the leg spinner who was also the opposing captain, he bowled 4 full tosses in an over and Shehzad took 3 of them for boundaries, he compiled a 24 ball 35 before getting out in the deep while going for runs, great team hand in my opinion. Neil, I think, has improved tremendously as a cricketer and especially his batting, he is a very classy batsman to watch and some strokes he played today, very much reflected that. I think it has a lot to do with his overall approach to the game, I've noticed it even in matches we've lost, he's always trying and never gives up, very accurate bowler, very good fielder with safe pair of hands and not to mention his great cricketing brain.... After Shehzad departed, Jugal came in and scored 30 in 24 balls and although he tried to give his wicket away 5 times by hitting the ball high up in the air, he somehow survived and then played a very good team innings, then came 'Ayaz The Incredible' and after a few feelers, played 2 of his now trademark 'big sixes' and after everyone played a good hand to take us to 194 for 9 in 20. As can be seen, 'Sabko batting mila''
I forgot to mention, Tahir played a good innings to take us home or we would have been about 10 runs short....
Our bowling got off to a good steady start and Roshan bowled a fantastic spell, mesmerizing the batsmen with his in-swing and out-swing. The opposition were 2 down for 37 in 6, then 80 for 2 in 10 overs, as the wicket kept flattening out, in the end they got quite close, but we held our nerve and thanks largely to the brilliant death bowling by Nagesh who didn't give the batsman any room, it was backed up by some great wicket keeping by Shehzad and some great boundary patrolling by our own Boundary Commander In Chief - Jugal, and our sledging specialist (who was surprisingly, relatively silent today) Tahir and the rest of the gang. Well played and in the words of Inzi bhai "all credit goes to the team, boys played well"

Victory in a T20 match against Devils Cricket Club at Thakur Stadium, Kandivali, 7am, 12th Dec 2015

We batted first today, myself and Sanat opened the innings and had a good opening partnership of 50 odd runs, it was a difficult wicket, a bit two paced with the balls bouncing off a length and sometimes keeping low... We stayed there, punished the bad balls and laid a good foundation for others to follow.... I got out to a bad ball that suddenly bounced off a length and caught the outside edge scoring 27 off 19balls, Sanat also hung in there and played for the team and scored 20 odd runs.. Then came Sarfraz, from ball 1 he looked in good touch, and was nicely middling the ball, I'm not sure how much he scored, so if any of you know, kindly update.. He didn't waste any balls and as always, played a team innings, not allowing any wickets to fall, punished all the bad balls, ran well between the wickets and set the platform for the onslaught. I think the opposition bowled well in the death overs, of course helped by the difficult wicket, and didn't allow us to post a huge total.... Neil started well with a boundary but got out trying to up the run-rate. Finally there was a good partnership between Gaurav and Jugal, where they ran many a risky single and also ran one or two 4’s, on one occasion Jugal hit a piercing shot through the 1st slip and all the way to the third man boundary, only he could've played such a masterstroke We set a target of 140 on a pitch that was becoming slower as the game progressed..
Our bowlers were on the mark, Dilip and Neil, mesmerized the top and middle order batsmen with their bounce, seam and pace, leaving them struggling with 3/4 wickets down and the asking rate starting to get out of hand.. Then came our trump card, Ayazuddin KHAN.... He got on top of the batsmen and stayed on top beating them black and blue, with his crafty leg breaks and his quick and accurate straighter balls, it was a treat to watch from behind the stumps, and from the other end, Sanat choked up the runs and left the batsmen clueless at times with his quickish off spin, and they tried to go after his bowling but he bowled intelligently to grab 3 wickets in an over, just missing out on a hat trick, in the process.... Akshay and Nagesh performed the final rites and Anthony bowled the last over to take us to victory, by 30 odd runs......
Although we put up a good total on this wicket, I think the credit goes to the bowlers for bowling the tight lines that they did and keeping the opposition from scoring quickly.... Great start to the weekend, lot more action coming up next week, stay tuned....
I think by far Ayaz is the find of this season and although he didn't get a chance to bat today, he bowled very well and in particular one leg spinning beauty, that gave him a wicket, the way it came out of his hand looked very similar to a wicket taking delivery bowled by none other than Shane Warne....

Victory in a T20 match against MAK 11 at Ritumbara Cricket Club, Juhu, 9pm, 20th Dec 2015

Myself and Sanat had a wonderful opening partnership on a wicket that was very difficult to bat on and due to the excessive smog and poor lighting at the ground, things were even more difficult…. I think we kept our wit's, didn't throw away our wickets, punished the bad balls, took our chances and most importantly (despite all the difficult playing conditions mentioned above) didn't let ourselves get bogged down by the plays and misses. Even the umpire appreciated or efforts, and added that given the conditions, no international level player would even agree to play in such poor conditions.... Around the 100 mark, we even discussed if we should retire and give others a chance to bat, but given the difficult conditions, we decided it was better to bat a few more overs and only retire one of us, so that even if there were new batsmen at one end, one of us would take charge and keep the score moving.... this proved to be the right decision, as during the course, our wickets fell in a heap, and although we were right on top, at 122/0 after 13, despite having wickets in hand, we could manage only 160/9, with the 9th wicket falling off the last ball. Sanat made 64 in 50 balls and myself 53 in 41 balls retired.

But all this was just the beginning of what was to come next, this was only the intro with credits, the whole movie and the plot both unfolded and thickened, the home team were confident of chasing down the target and somehow, the conditions that were in favor of the bowling team, now started favoring the batsmen, we started with Paliwal and Neil, and Paliwal was a bit wayward and came in for some stick, but Neil bowled an immaculate and highly probing line and length and beat the batsmen almost every second ball…. if one were to compare or draw a reference, in simple words, his bowling was very Anderson-like, his first wicket was to a perfect out-swinger and I was happy to accept the knick offered by the batsman, he didn't get many wickets but left the a huge dent in the batsmen('s) confidence.... the first change bowlers were Sunny and Umar and Sunny in particular, benefited by Neil's spell, he got two wickets in two overs, Umar, as always bowled very accurately and was unlucky that a few of edges went for runs.... the asking rate by then was more than 10 RPO and the opposition then put together a decent partnership, till it was broken by one man, yes, our very own Jonty Rhodes…. the batsman played the ball in the gap at squareleg and ran the first one hard and it seemed like they would complete a relatively easy two but as they turned for the second run, this cheetah-like figure emerged, pounced on the ball with one hand, hurled it at "Typhoon Katrina"-like speed at the batting end and DESTROYED the wickets, to leave the runner frustratingly and annoyingly stranded, HALF way down the pitch...... as the batsman walked away, one could almost hear the fielder saying "take THAT, you son of a B...." After that it was the turn of our spinners, Aashish and Ayaz to choke the opposition batsmen, and that, they did, of course, helped by 3/4 brilliant run outs by yours truly.... in the last over they needed 12 and the first two balls that Paliwal bowled were plain simple horrible and both went for boundaries, leaving them with 4 off 4, Umar then had a word with Paliwal and in the next 3 balls, we have only 1 run, that left them with 3 to get off the final ball and yours truly ran out the batsman without giving away any runs.
Fantastic team effort and even more sweet the victory.... From behind the wickets, it was very difficult job keeping and the way the ball was moving and skidding, keeping low, taking off from some spots, I think even Saha would've refused to do the job here, but yours truly once again did a decent job, especially since there were some huuuuuuuuge wides and wicket keeper yorkers.... Despite the highly uneven and grassless outfield, compounded by the poor visibility, our fielder's did a great job, and kept our bowlers on top, Gaurav, Ayaz, Sanat, Umar, Nishant, Neil, Jugal, Aashish, fielded very well throughout the game........
Thanks for a memorable and amazing match, well played team

Victory in a 35 overs match against KEM Cricket Club at Purandare Stadium, Dadar (E), 10 am, 4th Jan 2016

More than anything, our bowling have been spot on, our bowlers are stepping up and dismantling the opposition teams....
We lost the toss and batted first on a wicket that was helping the seamers.. One bowler in the opposition team bowled particularly well and exploited the conditions to the tee... I think I got a snorter of a delivery that climbed face-high from slightly back of a length and Mayur took a very good diving catch for the first wicket.... Yash was playing well too, till he also got a similar delivery that took off from a fullish length and seamed away to take the shoulder of his bat and the keeper did not miss.. Neil and Ayaz were at the crease, Ayaz was promoted in the batting order today and looked in control till he played a slightly false shot to a fullish ball and it didn't help that, the ball again stood up and hit the bat makers label and we were 4 down by then, as Neil too had just got out, an over before, to a wide full toss down the leg side, which in my opinion should have been left alone.... Akshay’s innings was promising and in one over, he played a couple of good looking drives one towards the on-side and one on the off, the off side cover drive was probably my pick for ‘shot of the day’.. but as it so often happens, he was unlucky to be given out leg before to a ball that was clearly going above the stumps.... the umpire in question, was busy on the cell phone and before the over I even asked him if I should umpire from both ends, just so that he could reply to the frantic text messages…. that might have been coming from his girl-friend or Jugal or both….
We kept losing wickets and the scoring rate also dropped to 4.5 RPO…. but we had a good partnership for the 7th wicket, between Nagesh and Nishant, who played in to their innings, put away the bad balls and kept the scoreboard ticking.... Nagesh got out to a short wide ball that should have been hit for a boundary, but he holed up to short cover instead.... Then came Umar and he just demolished their bowlers.. their best bowler who had figures of 3-0-8-2 went for 19 in his last over and 3 of the 4 boundaries in that over came from Umar's bat... In the last over too he hit their left arm spinner Deva for one big six over mid wicket and one straight drive boundary SMASH that went at the rate of knots.... We managed to reach a par score of 160 in 25 and we needed our bowlers to take charge…. and what followed was a masterclass…...

Neil and Umar started our bowling…. both bowled probing yet very different lines and lengths, Neil bowled a lot fuller and shaped the ball away nicely, and beat the bat almost every second ball.. in one particular over he bowled 5 out-swingers, out of which 4 consecutive balls at slightly different spots in a foots length radius, I think if was batting then and thank god I was not, I would almost be ready to commit suicide, but the batsman in question committed 'harakiri' instead.... Neil ended up with a big haul of 4 wickets and equally impressive bowling figures (if anyone has the other half of the scoresheet, kindly share....)
Umar bowled a slightly quickish and shorter length at first and pushed the batsmen on the backfoot and then had them beaten for pace at times and at times for movement.... I think he took 3 wickets in all but kept the scoring in check, they were 21 for 2 in 6 overs and the wickets just kept falling at regular intervals thereafter, Yash and Akshay replaced Neil and Umar and although Akshay bowled a wayward and expensive (15 runs) first over, he came back well to bowl a tight spell of 4 overs…. Yash got the ball to move nicely away and bagged 2 wickets with some good accurate medium pace deliveries.... Nagesh and Ayaz were somewhat off the mark to start off with, but came back well to wrap things up.. initially, Ayaz was not his usual confident self and bowled some wides and also some very short balls and was punished for 16 in one over, after switching ends he bowled better and his quicker ball in particular was lethal in his last over, thankfully I was not keeping....
The keeper for today's match was Akshay and except for the 3 misses, he did a great job, stopped some of the quicker wayward balls hurled by some of our good, decent and at times bad bowlers.... and did a fantastic job overall for the thankless job of wicket keeping....
Anyways another convincing victory for the team today, well played and WELL PLAYED
Although, Jugal Daruwalla's match predictions were off today on the group, it's effects were as usual felt in the dressing room but not in the middle.... Albeit, the market regulator DHOBI's restraining order still stands.... and that's a WRAP......