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Form Guide (last 5 games): L W L W W Toss: FCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 1 (39)
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09/20/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): W L W W W Toss: FCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 1 (38)
Noufal notched up his second century of the season to power FCC through to the quarters. In a remarkable display of how-to-hit*, he rendered the OSU bowlers helpless. Of the 63 balls he faced, 21 were dispatched (to fours or sixes) to all corners of the ground with a Sehwag like ferocity. Once he had his fill of a 126 runs, Uday and Hitesh maneuvered the ball around with ease until OSU's total was surpassed in a mere 19 overs. OSU had earlier scored a challenging 184 runs.
And that would have been stiffer had Naren and Noufal strayed even a little. Instead, the two skillfully took the pace off the ball while keeping a good length to put the brakes on the scoring. Most heartening of all bowlers, though, was Sriram's revelation. Bowling an immaculate length on the fourth/fifth stump, he stayed true through his overs, faultlessly (even after a plumb leg-before went against him**).
That discipline, and the form of our batsman bodes well for us as we move into the quarters. At stake is a championship that is ours for the taking.
We are three games away from reclaiming it.
**** * bettered only by the biryani later that night - although one can only guess what Ajay did with the third petting goat that apparently went "missing" ** off/middle stump, low on the pads. Also, another went begging to Naren.
Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits.
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08/29/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): L W W W L Toss: FCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 3 (37)
FCC lost to an unpredictable pitch, one incredibly lucky CKCC batsman who played and missed a 100 balls and another CKCC bowler who kept his balls full and honest that could have been nudged aside with ease, but were not.
We batted on buttered legs and without a clear agenda. Tenzing aside, most failed to negate the pitch, and we missed out on not playing all our overs. That alone would have been enough.
That said, our bowlers bowled with vigor but zero luck. Two exceptional catches - Sid on gully taking a flier early on, then Sumanth running backwards to hold on to a skier that perhaps no one would have, somehow, after all had given hope - brought us back. We should have won for just that. But luck went the other way on Sunday.
In hindsight, the loss will probably prove a timely wake up call - with the knock outs just a game away. The only way now is to take a familiar course - a repeat from last year is in order.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits. |
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08/22/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): W W W L W Toss: FCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 3 (34)
FCC won KUCC by 6 wickets, scoring a 139 runs in 25 overs.
Uday led from the front again with a chanceless (and undefeated) 48. Noufal and Sriram provided a steady start scoring 41 runs for the first wicket. Tenzing provided the clam and fell perhaps a tad fortuitously (in hindsight) for Akshar, who with Uday, gave our score the required turbo before the rain played spoilsport. Uday and Akshar scored briskly - playing straight to most balls but pulling anything that drifted to the legs - to ensure an easy win.
Early on, Ajay and Naren looked like getting a nick each ball they bowled in their opening spells despite the wet pitch offering little bounce and no lateral movement. Akshar skillfully took that out of the equation by bowling fuller to scalp thrice. Of the others, Uday took two wickets. Vic, Noufal and Satish were economical.
FCC fielded well enough to keep KUCC at a below par score after their openers had stood strong for the first 18 overs. A freakish catch broke that - Ajay ran from long on to catch the ball on long off, despite the ball briefly out of sight as it looked to fall behind him, he outreached himself, falling on his back with the ball. It was all effort and zero luck. Wickets fell on regular intervals after that to restrict KUCC to a much lower score then they looked like setting earlier.
All in all, FCC played a winning game. The bowling was tight (despite the extras), the fielding smart and the batting clinical.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits.
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08/15/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): W W L W W Toss: DMICw (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 1 (31)
FCC raked up 309 runs on Saturday - confident runs all - to beat DMICw by 162 runs.
Noufal, positively nonchalant, and Uday, uncompromisingly ambitious, played perhaps the two best innings FCC has seen in a while, if ever. That both came together in the same game seemed almost karmic and certainly not coincidental. On display was fluency and dexterity, nimbleness and a matured focus that has perhaps come from their many years of playing together. The two fed off each other - stroke for stroke, all purposeful and clean, strokes all around the wicket.
And quite far, with such swift regularity that it almost seemed like an eager ball had conspired to run away.
Then again, that ball was replaced.
Three times.
Noufal scored a 130 runs in 84 balls. A 139 runs with Uday - who of course built another significant partnership with the rock - aka - Akshar. The two put together 78 runs in no time - literally. In six overs, if statistical proof was needed.
And that was no mean feat. But the actual beauty was in the manner the runs came. There was a willingness, and honesty that comes with passion. And hunger.
Uday settled on a not out 105 runs.
While it would normally be easy to discount any bowling effort with that kind of batting, our spinners masterful display to unsettle DMICw stood out quite delightfully.
Naren, with a tremendous control of line and length that develops only with discipline, took four richly deserved wickets. And Vic, with a whizzz in the ball that one can actually hear, took one but should have taken more. Of the pacers, Akshar bowled with heart again, aiming the stumps with lethal accuracy to take three. And the debutante Srinivas kept a teasing line and pace to give FCC its initial breakthrough.
That said, our batting won the day. Two masterful innings, two centuries and countless highlights won FCC the game quite easily.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits. |
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08/06/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): W L W W L Toss: LCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 1 (30)
FCC displayed remarkable steel on Saturday to beat LCC by 94 runs. The bowlers followed up as hounds to find the LCC batsmen wanting.
The openers laid the platform - with courage and intent, and played off the new ball. Noufal, in particular, kept the score moving with four timely boundaries, falling against the run of play just as he looked settled for a longer haul. A few quick wickets followed (all uncharacteristically considering the form they carried) to put FCC at a bothersome 55/4.
But the Captain took over - undeterred, and skillfully played the field. And Tenzing, blunting both balls and verbal arrogance, stood firm until he won silence. The two played out 18 overs with grit and purpose to put 117 runs together. Uday, in particular, displayed remarkable balance - timing runs and boundaries with mechanical accuracy and falling short of a century that was in the making.
Wickets fell once the captain departed - all sportingly in their quest of quick runs.
A 189 runs were scored. 96 would have been enough - because Akshar, Satish and Bhavani unsettled the hapless LCC batsmen into submission from the first over. The three kept to their lines and imbued a confidence that was rhythmic and straight, especially in their run ups - that when Akshar took his fifth wicket, it was long overdue, and expected. As was Bhavani's first two run-less overs, and Satish, who exposed the middle order as early as the 5th over. Of the others, Naren continued to nag, and was in business every ball. Sandip's three spirited overs showed the right blend of pace and carry that will prove invaluable for our move ahead this season.
On the field, our disciplined bowling reduced most fielders to mere spectators. To carry this form onward is the challenge we now have.
**** And if there were any pokey monsters even remotely close to us, we got them all as well.
Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits. |
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08/01/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): L W W L L Toss: FCC (Batting) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 10 (29)
FCC lost to DMIC 1 by 155 runs on Sunday.
We played a strange game. We did not ball badly and DMIC did not bat as well as their 249 runs would suggest. We dropped 10 catches (more or less), but those came towards the end of DMIC's innings to have any significant consequence to the result.
We could have shown a better fight - may be. Like Nishi - playing chancelessly for as long as he did. Then Hitesh, until he ran out of partners. But we failed to press on, even when five batsman got into double digits. Six other batsman scored a total of five runs. We played only 24 overs.
Our bowlers were probably a tad uninspired - especially when early wickets did not come. Bhavani picked two (and fielded well). But for the dropped catches, Uday would have picked a few as well.
The loss places us in division 2.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits. |
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07/19/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): W W L L W Toss: FCC(Batting) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 4 (19)
FCC scored a 180 runs and beat DMIC 3 by 60 runs on Saturday.
Our batting shone - and Hitesh, Akshar, Sriram and Satish played their parts. Sriram opened splendidly hitting the first ball he faced straight over the bowlers head for a six. That set him in a course that should have been longer. Hitesh and Akshar provided the calm to steady FCC from a position of bother when 4 wickets went down by the 15th over. Both were stoic and mindful for 67 runs - honest to good balls but unleashing a full flourish to anything that had a little width. Satish provided a chanceless cameo, but without the frills that such an innings would otherwise engage. Nishi and Naren, it must be mentioned, selflessly chanced on twos (towards the end when it was needed) and found themselves short of their crease.
All our bowlers bowled within their limitations. Satish quickly adjusted his line as soon as his swings veered to the leg, yielding quick dividends in his second spell that accounted for three scalps. Noufal, Akshar and Uday took two each - each persistent in their own ways. And although the scorecard shows only a single wicket for him (he should have had three), Naren was probably the most unsettling - keeping a tricky off stump line and hitting a wonderful length to keep the batsman guessing at all times.
We dropped four catches but were otherwise decent on the field (the weather was good). We allowed only 4 boundaries, but that was probably more the bowlers doing then the fielding. A similar performance next week will guarantee us a division I berth.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits.
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07/11/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): W L L W W Toss: KUCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 1 (15)
Not wanting for spirit, FCC bowlers mustered the team with one incredible session of bowling to beat KUCC by 15 runs on Sunday. All bowled with heart, not letting go even when the game was all but over. KUCC had 7 wickets to get 33 runs and plenty of overs.
They got only 17.
FCC took a wicket every over from the 23rd to the 30th. Bhavani provided the breakthrough. Naren, the thrift. Uday and Akshar, the thrill, that extra yard, and then some more. The two bowled with incredible courage on their sleeves, aiming victory and hit bulls-eye.
Earlier in the day, FCC scored 154 runs (a tad underwhelming against a mediocre attack). Sriram and Akshar provided the spine to our batting, batting responsibly when wickets fell around them. Nishi, Bhavani and Naren looked assured, falling prematurely in their quest of quick runs.
A run saved is a run scored, and possibly much more. And in that, a few fielders were selfless. Naren soldiered the deep from the cow corner to long leg in the beating heat. Sandeep fought his own sweat, tirelessly striding from the deep every other ball. As was Bhanvani in the inner circle, throwing with lethal accuracy.
Two incredible feats of fielding stood out. First, Naren diving full length to his right whilst on a run on deep midwicket to almost holding on to an impossibility (saving a certain boundary in the process). Then Akshar holding on to a return catch struck fiercely to make, if not the best catch of all our games this season, certainly the most dramatic.
Wickets tumbled thereafter, and a game that was lost, was not. Division I is beckoning.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits.
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06/27/2016
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Form Guide (last 5 games): L L W W W Toss: UCCC (Fielding) / Drop Count (Aggregate): 3 (14)
Our bowlers made even 123 runs look defendable on Sunday. That consolation aside, FCC paid for a top order collapse against some mediocre bowling. And three drops - one pivotal - overshadowed an otherwise reasonable day on the field.
FCC lost five batsman before the score hit fifty. Uday held fort again, playing to the field, lofting and glancing neatly. His partnership with Hitesh formed the only significant partnership of note. The two traded singles for boundaries to revive FCC to a more reasonable score until Uday fell against the run of play. Hitesh continued to curb his natural game, striking only when absolutely certain, until he ran out of partners. FCC were all out in the thirtieth over.
Unawed by the need, our bowlers bowled with great heart. Akshar, with willing yorkers, and Satish, disconcerting with in-swing and bounce, threatened and thrilled. Particularly early on, when Akshar took two in two with a hatrick falling just short. The others went for the kill as well, but UCCC's defense was just a tad stronger. A few more runs would have hurried UCCC to erring, and erring badly - but we'll have to wait to see that some other day.
But for three dropped catches, our fielders were mostly reliable. The intent (lacking in all our games so far) was evident and the spirit remained undiminished to the last run. If we carry that to our next games, there's no sparing anyone.
**** Please point out anything that goes unreported for edits.
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06/20/2016
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