SDPL Final :- Eagles v/s Shadows on 01302011

The final was played at 1pm at the Stonebridge Neighborhood Park. Shadows won the toss and elected to bat. The bowling to begin with for the Eagles was impressive. Helped by a sensible partnership between Narsing and Shreedharan Shadows moved to 45 runs in 10 overs and then 95/10 in 19.5 overs. Amit snapped up a hat-trick in over number 19. Mansoor (1), Amit (4), Rupesh (2) and Sam (2) were amongst the wickets. Santosh was spectacular behind the wickets and picked up four batsmen caught, stumped one and featured in a run out dismissal. It was an excellent spell of bowling by all bowlers who rolled their arms on the day. Restricting the opposition to a score of less than 100 in the final was a splendid effort. The batting side disappointed by not getting on to a good start and lost wickets at regular intervals. This in turn increased the pressure on the batting. The top four bowlers bowled extremely well for the Shadows resulting in Eagles trying to go after the bowling in the lookout for runs. Eagles reached a meagre 28/7 in 11 overs. Thereafter a win looked improbable. The fifth and sixth bowler of the Shadows offered scoring opportunities and the final three wickets posted 44 runs for the Eagles. In the end Eagles lost by a significant margin of 23 runs thereby resulting in an anti-climax in the second half of the match. Shadows thus win the tournament with an impressive winning record. The only game they lost was against the Strikers whom they might have met a second time in a semi-final which was forfeited by the Strikers. The Eagles could not maintain consistent form throughout the tournament losing to Strikers, Shadows and Mavericks. The final though was a good fight for the first half of the inning. Steady responsible batting by the top order might have resulted in a good platform for the attacking lower half to capitalize on. Neverthless, the team made it to a final which is a good achievement in itself.

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArRZKVChcIaXdHRoYS1LQzB5VE10VXBMNklHMV9WUHc&hl=en&authkey=CLi-69QF

SDPL Quarter Final :- Eagles v/s Mavericks on 01222011

Eagles won the toss and elected to bat first on the good pitch at Stonebridge Neighborhood Park. The pitch had been rolled and was even with no dew offering good conditions through out the 40 overs. Contributions of 23 (17b, 5*4) from Umesh K, 13 (26b, 1*4) from Santosh and 13 (22b) from Naman allowed the Eagles to get to 98/10 in 19.2 overs. Four run-out dismissals for the Eagles meant wasted opportunities for more runs of the bat. Defending 99 on a pitch where the Mavericks had chased 106 in the very previous game in more difficult batting conditions seemed like a challenge. The bowling combination of Mansoor, Amit (3 wickets), Rupesh (4 wickets, 2 in two balls), Satheesh (2 wickets) and Sam (1 wicket) stood up to the test. Eagles were able to topple all the batsmen of the Mavericks in 19.3 overs and won with 3 runs to spare. Sumanth scored 24 (19b, 2*4) and was the lone batman standing at the non-strikers end for the Mavericks when Ajay was adjudged caught behind with Amit bowling the final over of the inning with 5 runs to get and 1 wicket standing guard. Sumanth had injured his knee earlier while batting, had retired for a while, then had to come to bat again to pull a victory for the Mavericks with the asking rate hovering at run a ball in the final 5 overs. It was a brave fight back by both teams (especially Sumanth for the Mavericks) but one team had to win and this time it was the Eagles. There was drama with the Eagles making matters uneasy for themselves with catches being floored, fielders losing their cool in run out sitiuations etc. A couple of players for the Eagles had to leave either at the start or mid-way through the second inning. Sanjay R and Rohit Falke (stand in umpire) were kind enough to take over fielding responsibilities. Mansoor and Rupesh had to set aside personal ocassions to fulfill team responsibilities. Great teamwork folks. We now get past the quarter final and enter a stage that could be either the semi-finals or the finals :-)

Game highlights :-

Umesh hits Rahul C for three boundaries in three balls. Umesh hits 5 boundaries in a score of 23 runs. Rupesh has a chance of a hat-trick and picks up 4 key wickets. Sanjay R commits himself to a catch by pouncing on the ball while running in from long-on. Sumanth almost wins it for the Mavericks despite an injured knee. Amit (3 wickets) and Rupesh (4 wickets) run through the innings of the Mavericks. Amit and Sanjay R latch on to a catch at the long-on boundary. Sanjay R and Rohit Falke field for the Eagles with two fielders having to leave.

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SDPL Winter 2010-2011 :- Match 7 against Real Panthers on 01162011

The match was played at Miramar College Ground (Big). Real Panthers were able to gather just 9 players for this game. Having won the toss they had no choice but to bat, after the won the toss.

Sam started the bowling for the Eagles. On the final ball of the first over Aakash as dangerous opening batsman was clean bowled. The wicket was one where ball kept low, often striking the batsman's legs just above the ankles. This apart the ball did also slow down after having hit the sticky grassy pitch. Chaitanya defended more balls with his legs that his bat. For over two overs the could not get a run off the bat. He was bowled by Mansoor. Giresh had come in at the fall of the first wicket and scored freely in the first over having received two full toss and a short ball from Sam.

Srinivas N and Mansoor continued the bowling after the new ball pair of Sam and Amit. Real Panthers kept losing wicket regularly. Rupesh and Mudit picked up wickets. Real Panthers were scoring at slightly above two an over. Scoring was difficult but the loss of wickets did not help their cause.

Manish lofted one straight behind the bowler with Rupesh and Sam guarding mid-on and mid-off respectively. Both called for the ball with Rupesh at mid-on being closer to the ball in comparison to Sam at mid-off. Sam reached the ball and held it and Rupesh clasped his hands around Sam's hand leaving no room for the ball to fall. The very next ball the new batsman struck one very hard to short mid-off and Parag plucked the ball with one hand to give Mudit two wickets in a single over.

Giresh (10), Sanjay (12) and Vilas (11) were the only batsmen to get to double digits for the Real Panthers. Their inning folded with 48 runs being scored in 19.1 overs for the loss of 9 wickets.

Mansoor (2), Rupesh (2), Sam (2) and Mudit (2) were among the wickets. All of the bowlers had an excellent economy rate.

Given that the asking rate was not too high Mansoor and Mudit were given a chance to open the batting. Both started cautiously against Giresh and Aakash. Mudit was bowled by Aakash in the fourth over. Runs came by slowly against the new ball pair. The change bowlers Vilas and Manish offered some loose deliveries. Mansoor struck two boundaries in an over from Manish. Amit struck about 10 runs in the 10t over being bowled by Vilas to finish the game with 10.1 overs to spare.

Eagles won the game by 8 wickets and have now qualified for the quarter final event against Mavericks ..

https://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0ArRZKVChcIaXdDJ4elhaLXZIcDNLQ1djMWcyLWQ5aGc&hl=en&authkey=CIPF-7QB

Dilip Vengsarkar Cricket Acedemy

On my recent trip to India, I went out of my way to get to Dilip Vengsarkar Cricket Academy at Pune. The ground had a good covering of grass with side-screens and a decent 60 to 65 yard boundary. Young kids in the 7 to 12 age group were involved in a cricket game of 40 overs. For that age the way they went through drill was amazing. I spoke to a kid fielding at long-leg or mid-off boundary. He mentioned he was just 7 years old and was selected for training in the academy having learnt his initial skills at Lonavala. He was the youngest in the entire lot at that academy. They routinely play 40 overs games and was a left handed bowler. It was November and was pretty hot for that time of the year. I noticed he had a good bowling action and pitched the ball on a good line and length. Another young kid who was facing his bowling played with sound technique. A square drive, hit for a boundary behind point on an over-pitched delivery was a treat to watch. Other kids in the higher age groups played games in their allocated time slots.

These are good signs for Indian cricket with the younger generation being built through the ranks. The recent formation of an IPL team at Pune should increase the cricket fervour in Pune even further ...