Wednesday, May 7, 2008

Playing T-20?? Wanted!! Maidens and Fine leg

The Chennai Super Kings who were riding the wave's crest now find themselves in a very predictable trough after the departure of the Awesome Aussie South Paws (Hayden and Hussey) and Oram.
So what does a die hard fan do?
.... when their team get taken to the cleaners.

....when Joginder Last Ball Sharma gets thulped for yet another DFL Maximum Six.(Try as hard he can Tony Cozier just can't get the IPL's Title sponsors name right)

....when Sivamani looses his class raising his fists at the crowds playing second fiddle to the local Cheer leaders.

....when the 200 rupee tickets suddenly doesn't seem worth it, and the humidity boils over and drenches clothing to 110% beyond its saturation?


Answer is pretty evident. A picture is worth 1000 bytes of text. Enjoy the Conversion factor guys.

I would like to conclude this time with a new invitation ... This group welcomes Cheer Leaders with open arms.

Cheers

Aj

Wednesday, April 30, 2008

Openning Spell

Hello people,
Fellow team mates and visitors, those who are interested and those who have fallen through here by various search algorithms and choose to stick around.

I AM AJ…

I am Ajay (Also. Known. As. Aj). Left hand bat (opening or middle order) and right arm dibly-dobly bowler. Found fielding mostly at third man / mid-on, but would prefer to be inside the circle any day.

I was a late bloomer and owe my interest in cricket almost entirely to a single summer holiday at my maternal grandparents’ house in Mysore. I had all the essential ingredients.

-a bunch of cousins
-a tennis ball outsourced from the tenants upstairs
-a made to order bat from the heavens (a stump of wood that fell from the mango tree the night before...)
-and a wall for the stump, also not to forget grandma’s flower pots and window all lined up to be broken.

As far as I remember technique was never an issue back then. I remember I used to bat right handed with my left hand as bottom hand and right hand on top. A lefty’s grip!!
It wasn’t until the third week of the holiday that I noticed a strange entanglement of the hands and a bruise on my right due to the handle bumping into it every time I played an onside shot. All this came to me during sleepless nights of weeping and introspections into why I never had the coordination to hit the ball like my other cousins.

(If I were speaking this is the part where I would insert a sound byte of canned laughter. i.e. my sense of humour is purely a fluke and all my puns are unintended so if it hits you before I realise it just laugh and I shall tell you about how well planned it was.)

It occurred to me late in the summer holiday that there actually is an option of standing with your butt sticking out in the opposite side to the convention that my cousins followed. Runs began to flow fluently, also there was the odd comparison with David Gower (which I over heard my self making...)

“Did you see that shot, I bat like David Gower look at my offside play classic stuff” say I the kid.

“Yeah right!! The ball hardly crossed the popping crease” says a chorus of other kids.

Viewing cricket was the second phase of my developing interest in the game. Watching cricket made me a theoretician. I spent my library cards at school to borrow coaching manuals for bowling grips, field placements, batting techniques, rule books. But then the tennis ball cricket I played back in Delhi did not see me putting these to any use. The bookish shots never took of the ground and it was demoralising. Soon my dad picked up an offer to work for a start-up in Chennai and we followed him here. Chennai had plenty of kids playing hard ball cricket and my eyes lit up.

Though my school (The School KFI)did not have a cricket team my seniors and immediate juniors in school were a bunch of guys who’d roll the mat out every weekend for a series of inter class informal matches. This was ideal for someone who hasn’t got any cricket training to thrive on the ground. Those weekends were the best cricketing days I ever had. We even formed a team that took on the Staff every sports day in some really riveting cricket action. Sadly the cricketing culture of the school died after our juniors passed out of school. My repeated efforts to get nets sessions going and reintroducing weekend cricket just could not generate enough quorum.

College was a different ball game. I tried out for the team once, and I don’t know what transpired but it turned out that only guys who played district level or even represented a school team with certificates could get into the side. This concept of limiting ones right to having a sporting experience was new to me. Nowhere was an individual’s interest in a sporting activity taken into the picture. This was the lean patch for me. I survived on rations of good Indian domestic test matches and tours abroad, also the recent world cup saw us on an upswing finishing bridesmaid to Australia.

Towards the end of my college I had started associating my self with guys who played the Blue star league I got into a few games and again found the joy of cricket.

RUNS n WICKETS

When KK introduced me to Runs n Wickets it was like an oasis to me. The first series against Frost was hard fought and saw us discovering ourselves as a team. Sriram and KK who captained in his absence figured out slots and niches where all of us could fit in. Losing the series by a close final match was disheartening, but the way our team has developed since makes that loss much more bearable. The influx of more seasoned guys like Kaushick and Sriram C has added to the upswing, and the way they fit into the team machinery like well oiled cogs is brilliant.

The way I see it our strengths are

-Sunil’s opening spell with the new ball.
-KK’s burst as a pacy first change bowler.
-Balaji’s and Rajesh’s consistent length bowling in the middle overs.
-Sriram and my spells in concluding the fielding innings.

As a batting side we have new resources in Sriram C and Kaushick, both are excellent strikers of the ball. Sriram V and KK as always are a key to the batting line up around whom the power players like Rajesh can form innings that matter most to the side. Balaji is our tried and tested opening batsman and I am trying hard to fit into the other opening slot. On the bright side my bat has been feeling good these days and the characteristic bottom heaviness of the bat vanishes when I am in form.

There has been talk about us entering a tournament as a team. This is good first step for us, a new team that is still finding itself. Let us see how this decision pays off. I will try to keep a tournament diary for this one and may be KK could upload our score cards so that we can keep a track of our progress.
I’d like to conclude by making an open invitation to each and every member of the team to make a contribution to this site. It is always a gain to make collective knowledge available and shared across the team. Here is yet another invite to cricket enthusiast in Chennai who want to play for us or want to enjoy the game by watching the game and experiencing it with us please feel free to join our Google groups and getting in touch with any one of us.


Cheers

AJ

Monday, April 28, 2008

Join Us - Runs N Wickets

If you want to score your runs and take the opponent's wickets, join us - Runs N Wickets

We are a bunch of passionate cricketers who meet up every weekend for a hit in the NETS or play a match. We also meet online using the google groups where the finer details about the game are shared and discussed.

Some photos from a recent game at Madras Christian College ( MCC) ground at Tambaram - One of the most scenic grounds i've played .

The green ground..


Vinoth ( Our keeper-batsman, who has played for TN under 17 team ) shows defense..



That is me, going hard after a cricket ball ..

Needless to say who won the game :)