Marina Cricket Club - Singapore

Marina CC 1 Vs. Golden CC - March 12th 2011

2011-03-14T16:22:00.000+08:00

Match Report Marina CC Vs. Golden CC - March 12th 2011 - Saturday by Ganesh!

Dear Marinoids,

Its very nice to see M1 registering a 9 Points in their first game against Golden CC.

It was nice to see the boys coming in at 12 PM considering its their first league game and practicing at the nets. We have a good fielding drill and we came to know how stiff we were on the field especially as regards to throwing. Sushanth bore the brunt of wild throws from likes of Sri, Shan, Redy and our new found talent Cleti!

But that was necessary so as to light up the fielding and opening our eyes to our bowling.

As usual Sri lost the toss and Golden CC opted to bat first on a hot and sunny day. We were looking forward to batting first but since it was a turf wicket at Kallang it was a blessing in disguise that Sri lost the loss.

Bowling & Fielding

It was the first game of the season with the pitch and we didn’t know how it will play.

Prabhu started off the bowling session with a short ball which didn’t rise as much as he had expected to be flicked to short fine leg for a single. We knew if you ball wicket to wicket you had every chance of picking up a wicket.

We had a good first over from Prabhu with only 3 runs off it. Then Shan started at the other end, he was getting a slight swing due to the breeze and was wicket to wicket to start off with.

Great disciplined bowling had our first breakthrough by Prabhu getting the opening LBW.

Shan also got his first LBW victim in his next over.

All in all a very good start by the opening bowlers, Golden CC was on the back foot at 25 for 2 in 6 overs.

Then Sri introduced Shriram into the attack at the 7^th Over from Prabhu’s end. He got the first breakthrough bowled neck and crock!

He was in a very good rhythm generating good pace and directed at the stumps. Unfortunately at the beginning of 4^th over he had a severe Cramp which forced him out of his bowling. He didn’t offer any width to the batsman and was express pace. A new found talent for M1 pace bowling attack! Ganesh completed his over with a tight spell giving away one run from his 4 balls over.

Cletus came in post Shan’s spell. He was very wicket to wicket but couldn’t get under the wicket column. He can be a real asset for marina when it comes to Bowling and batting.

Sri managed to pickup one wicket when Ismat tried to whack a full toss over mid wicket for a six, safely grabbed by Cletus at the deep!

Bowler of the day was Arun, he is a genuine wicket taker & he surely understands his responsibility in the team. Golden CC was struggling due to his performance, they were 9 down for 86 runs. Arun grabbed 4 wickets with two wickets coming off full tosses.

Redkar grabbed 1 wicket, caught safely by Sushanth, Chandru bowled well, but couldn’t get a breakthrough.

Marina struggled to get the last wicket and there was a partnership of 52 runs in 16 overs. Golden CC ended with respectable 138 All out in 36 overs.

Captain should rethink giving leg spin option more in Division 2 matches, especially when leg spinners can get you wickets! He continued with Pace bowling option as he wanted his pace bowlers to get you wickets, they were easily negotiated by the last two batsmen and was able to singles at will.

A special mention to Prem who came in as a twelfth man, he dived around the field and almost took a blinder at covers diving at the front. His commitment is laudable and who would want to field only as a 12^th Man in this heat, that shows his commitment to marina and his love for this game!

At the end a decent bowling performance with no real blemishes on the field.

Bowling innings:

Prabhu: 4-1-17-1

Shan: 4-0-15-1

Shriram: 5.2-1-23-2

Arun: 5.2-0-20-4

Sri: 5-0-23-1

Redkar: 4-0-10-1

Chandru: 3-0-12-0

Cletus: 4-0-32-0

Ganesh: 0.4-0-1-0

Batting

Ganesh and Vignesh opened the batting for Marina. Ganesh didn’t trouble the scorers much, he got a good fully pitched up inswinger, kept low and hit the leg stump, he totally missed the line, he was out for 1!

Vignesh got a low bounce and was LBW for 3.

Prabhu looked good for his stay of 16 balls, with 2 fluent hard hitting boundaries, again becoming a victim of Leg before wicket, Kallang pitch had something to offer for bowlers who kept straight on the stumps!

Sushant and Shriram steadied the ship with a partnership of 25 runs, before Sushant got out LBW to the off spinner. He felt it was pitching outside leg stump.

Sushant was looking very fluent with his one’s and two’s. He also benefitted the team with the left hand right hand combination with wides being sprayed by the opposition although their bowling was still much disciplined.

Shriram looked good for his brief stay at the wicket, looked confident going on the back foot and front foot. Reminds me of right handed Brian Lara. He was again left in pain with cramps on this left thumb this time. Ganesh came out as a by runner for a brief stay before Shriram decided to get out of the field for recovery! He has got a good rest for his next match!

With Shriram’s retiring it brought Sri into the middle. Sri and Chandru played some very good shots on the off and on the leg side.

Sri was looking very fluent against the fast bowlers, they kept the momentum going with singles and doubles. Sri took hard toll on the leg spinner and lofted him over the midwicket for a big six! Sri scored 4 boundaries and 1 Six in his fluent innings of 37 off 41 balls.

Chandru too looked good in his solid stay at the wicket, He scored 3 boundaries and his cover drive to the fast bowler was the shot of match, nobody moved, it was just awesome timing…. He normally is known for his Natraja shot and lofted extra cover drive, but he looked very solid.

Very notable to see the partnership was 82 runs between Sri and Chandru at the fall of Sushant’s wicket, we were 57 for 4.

That partnership looked like an easy victory but believe me there were more demons in the wicket than what we thought, but Sri and Chandru made it look so easy!

The middle order let us down in the previous season and this was proved wrong this time.

Now its time for the Top order to step up the gas in the future matches, this team really looks formidable both in the batting and bowling! I hope they beat the top guns in the matches to come.

Go MaRiNa!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

Ganesh: 1(7)

Vignesh: 3(6)

Prabhu: 15(16) (2 fours)

Sushant: 13(30)

Shriram: 12(22) retired

Sri: 37 (41) not out (4 fours and 1 six)

Chandru: 30 (49) not out (3 fours)

Man of the Match: Arun Bharadwaj

Marina 3 vs ANZA 2

2011-03-14T11:26:00.000+08:00

Our first match for this season was against ANZA. We had a good outing against them last year, but this year we fell short by 20 odd runs.

Marina lost the toss and was asked to field first. Ankit K, playing his first match for Marina, started the bowling and created a chace in the very first over. However the catch was spilled at point by Ankit S. The missed catch resulted in a split webbing and a dislocated finger. He tried to field on for a while, but the swelling increased and he went to hospital to get it checked. He will be out of action for about a month....

Our bowling was pretty decent. We conceded 158 runs in 30 overs. This is a regulation score in turf city. Mags lead the bowling with 3 brilliant wickets...2 in his very first over. Prem took 2 wickets, 1 to Prasad and 1 to Ankit S. Pareet bhai was wicketless but bowled brilliantly throught the match. we had two runouts... so the final score was 158/9...a pretty decent show by the bowlers.

We were pretty confident of chasing down the target....but we kept losing wickets regularly. I was out in the second over. Prasad and Prem tried to bat steadily for a while, but prem was caught trying to clear the mid off. Wickets kept falling....prasad, swami...until KV and Yogi tried to put on a fight. They were going on well but the run rate kept creeping up. Ultimately both were out trying to clear the huge turf city boundary. This led to another mini collapse as Sai was caught for a duck.

But then we had a refeshing show of intelligent batting from Mags and Pareet. Both ran the singles well and kept the scoreboard moving. Maggie hit a few sixes towards the end, but the run rate was already beyond us. We lasted till the last over...but lost the match by 20 odd runs.

Mags was the star for us both with the bat and ball.

Ankit S's injury costed us quite a bit. We were a fielder short from the very first order and we missed out on a top order batsman. However 158 was very much chasable in turf city and we had the batting line up to chase that easily. But the familiar Marina collapse happened and we lost the macth.

Going forward we need to put a lot of effort in our preparation. This was our first match and may be some of us were rusty...but this can't be an excuse for our next macth. We have a decent 3 weeks break before our next game. I will try to arrange for NETs/Friendlies and I hope everyone is available for them.

Marina CC2 vs Bengal CC

2010-08-07T18:43:00.001+08:00

Marina CC2 vs Bengal CC
9th Aug ,Monday
Turf City A, 13:00

1. Akki
2. Shan
3. Arun
4. Amit Redkar
5. Prem
6. Faiz
7. Kiran
8 . Ritesh
9. Sreedharan
10. Mani
11.Vivek

[TeamList] Singapore Police Vs Maina CC 3

2010-07-01T12:33:00.000+08:00

M3 next game is against Singapore Police.

Venue: Police Academy
Date: 4th July (Sunday)
Time: 12 pm

It's an early start. The game starts at 12 so please be on the ground by 11: 15. Amit will be leading the team. Our bowling combination looks the best we had for this season. So go for it with full confidence and win it BIG.

1. Amit Bansal
2. Yogesh Naik
3. H.S. Srinivas
4. Mohan
5. Prem
6. Sridharan
7. Mani Bhat
8. Ramji
9. Haroon
10. Naveen
11. Suhas

Have fun guys :)

Team for Marina 3 vs SRC Knights

2010-06-04T14:25:00.000+08:00

Our next match is against SRC knights at Turf City B. Time - 1pm Saturday (5th Jun). Please be at the ground by 12 15.

Here is the team for the weekend:

1. Raj
2. Amit Bansal
3. Vishesh
4. Mohan
5. Ramji
6. Deep
7. Amit Redkar
8. Srini Babai
9. Mani Bhat
10. Prem
11. Naman

From the team that played the last game Yogi (Playing Dennis Mayer's Memorial game) and Naveen (Back injury) are not available. For this game we have decided to strengthen the bowling. We have been giving out too many runs in the first 2 games. Hence Amit Redkar and Naman will be replacing them. So our bowling option for this game would be: Babai, Amit Redkar, Amit Bansal, Mani Bhat, Ramji and Naman.

Since Yogi is out, Vishesh will join Prem to open the innings.

As some of you know that I'm also part of an indoor cricket team. They also have a game this saturday and the team had a serious resource problem. So Deep and I will be playing both the games. Because of that we will be at the ground latest by 12 40. Apologies for that. Amit Bansal will go for the toss if it happens before I reach the ground.

Well thats about it. Hopefully we will play better then we did in the last game. Guys please post your feedback if you have any. Based on the last performance, we all should have some opinion and it would be good to know all of that before the game itself. So your comments will be much appreciated.

All the best guys.
Raj

The losing streak continues :(

2010-05-31T17:40:00.000+08:00

Another weekend, same story. After M2's loss to Lanka Lions, M3 was hoping to bring some good news for Marina. On paper it looked like a good team and hence the hope.

Things started well for M3...we scored 171/7 in 30 overs. Babai made an excellent unbeaten 55 and was the star batsman. Prem (20+), Mohan(25+) and Bansal(11+) batted well and we were able to reach 171. So far so good.

Then the drama started. Baring the few opening overs, all our bowlers were literally hammered by the Lanka batsmen. They finished the game in the 19th over at the cost of 4 wickets. The batting was good, but they were really helped by wayward bowling and 43 extras. These 43 extras could have been a lot more, if Deep (our new keeper) had a bad day. His keeping was one of the few positives of the match. The field placing is also an area that we need to a hold on.

After more then a month's wait, a loss like this can be really demoralizing. But we have another chance to redeem ourselves on 5th June. We should prepare ourselves as best as we could in the next few days and be ready for the challenge.

Weekend Teamlist

2010-05-27T12:14:00.000+08:00

At last M2 and M3 have some league matches. I'm sure after a month of waiting everyone must be raring to go and play some good cricket. So as captains (me and akki) expect some amazing performance from you all. We hope the preparation was descent enough and all those practice will come good in these matches.

So here are the teams for the two matches.

Lanka Lions 2 vs Marina 2
Ground: Turf City B
Date and Time: 28th May 2010, 1 pm

Team
------------------------------
1. Akshay Sharma
2. Amit Joshi
3. Arun Bhaskar
4. Naveen Veeravalli
5. Ritesh Moudgil
6. Paul Badeskar
7. Faiz Modak
8. Chandrakiran Halaharivi
9. Prem Subramanian
10. Vivek Chopra
11. Amit Redkar

Marina 3 vs Lanka Lions 2
Ground: Turf City B
Date and Time: 30th May 2010, 1pm

Team
------------------------------
1. Rajkishore Patel
2. Amit Bansal
3. Yogesh Naik
4. Prem Subramanian
5. Vishesh Goel
6. Mohan Roy Gargi
7. Arunva Banerjee (Deep)
8. H. S. Srinivas
9. Haroon Mufti
10. Mani Bhat
11. Natarajan Sundararaman (Ramji)

All of you be on the ground at 12 15pm sharp. It's an afternoon game, so I hope all of you can be there on time.

Both the teams look good and you all should expect to get some good match reports at the end of the game. All your best wishes are requested :)

-Raj & Akki

Marina 1 vs IA - Match Summary

2010-05-09T09:39:00.001+08:00

Prabhu won the toss and decided to field. The first wicket came early, but the next pair batted well and put up a big partnership. Few wickets fell towards the end of the innings, but the IA batsmen kept scoring steadily. They were at 195 in 33 overs when the rain came.

It looked like washout, but the rain stopped and the Marina guys put a lot of effort to get the ground back into playable condition. In the end the game re-started at 5 40pm with a target of 112 in 16 overs. Vignesh and Ganesh started well for Marina and the partnership lasted till the 9th overs. The required run rate was slightly over 6 that time. But after that wicket, the IA bowler put the breaks on our scoring with regular wickets. Prabhu got out for in the first ball. Prem and Chandru were runout.

In the end 21 was required in the last two overs. Marina batsmen couldn't get the boundaries and we fell 6-7 runs short.

Return of Ramji

2010-05-06T13:07:00.000+08:00

Our dear Ramji has decided to come out of his retirement. He has been registered for M3 and is available to play for M1/M2 if required.

Welcome back Ramji.

Marina 1 vs CSC - Match Summary

2010-05-01T22:08:00.000+08:00

M1 vs CSC2 on 25th April 2010 at CSC

(Full Scorecard to follow later)

Marina1 won the toss and bowled first...

Prabhu and Mahesh opened the bowling, keeping the batsmen quiet with tight lines & lengths
2 wickets fell within first 5 overs, courtesy a sharp catch by Mahesh off Prabhu and a run out

Then the slow bowlers - Sri and Arun came on and immediately put the brakes on scoring
They bowled 16 overs in tandem, giving away only 53 runs & picking up 4 wickets between them
Arun especially bowled superbly, picking up 3 wickets
Surya and Maggie then came on and finished whatever little batting was left in CSC2
CSC2 was bundled out for 132 all out in the 36th over...

Bowling Stats:
Prabhu: 5 overs - 1 maiden - 13 runs - 1 wkt
Mahesh: 5 overs - 32 runs
Sri: 8 overs - 2 maidens - 22 runs - 1 wkt
Arun: 8 overs - 31 runs - 3 wkts
Surya: 5 overs - 14 runs - 2 wkts
Maggie: 4.5 overs - 1 maiden - 17 runs - 2 wkts

A big improvement on extras - 11 wides vis-a-vis the 24 we gave in the previous match

The chase was orchestrated superbly in clinical fashion
Ganesh and Vignesh put on their 2nd half-century partnership in 2 matches
Vignesh fell in the 8th over, caught at short cover after pushing a spinner back tamely
Thereafter it was fireworks time as Prabhu tore into the bowling with Ganesh playing 2nd fiddle
The duo put on unbeaten 85 runs in 8 overs that ensured M1 got the full 10 points in the kitty

Prabhu finished on 62 not out off just 28 balls with 5 sixes and 5 fours
Ganesh was at his steady best, scoring 40 not out off 50 balls with 3 fours

Batting stats:
Ganesh: 40 n.o. off 50 balls; 3 fours
Vignesh: 29 off 20 balls; 1 six & 4 fours
Prabhu: 62 n.o. off 28 balls; 5 sixes & 5 fours

Cheers!
Sri.

Mariners vs Marina CC2

2010-04-29T22:29:00.002+08:00

Our first league game of this season.

Date/Time : 1st May / 08:00 am
Venue : Indian Association
Game Type : Away game .
Against : Mariners.

1. Akshay
2. Shan
3. Ritesh
4. Anshul
5. Naveen
6. Manoj
7. Paul
8. Kiran
9. Amit Redkar
10. Prem
11. Faiz

Please be at Indian Association by 7:30 am.
& Do not change the Captain's Plan A to Plan B,C,D... by being late.

All Playing for 10 points...

Go Marina.

-Akki.

M1 Score Sheets

2010-04-19T17:46:00.000+08:00

Hi Guys,

Here are the latest M1 Scoresheets

M1 vs SPA1

M1 vs SIA1

Marina 1 Vs SIA Match Report

2010-04-19T13:17:00.002+08:00

A very good morning to all. I'm wishing you a pleasant day and an eventful week ahead. Yes! this email is a match report as the subject line says but I sincerely hope that this means much more to every one of us and the club we all play for.

I was having a kind of heartache when I went to bed on the 3rd of April. Marina had just lost two games they played on the day, the first one was sad and the second even bitter. And today the 18th of April it is just before bed and I'm sitting pretty relaxed, happy and my heart is beating with a sense of fulfillment. We won the game today being the very simple reason behind all this. And boy! what an emphatic difference from the 3rd April.

It is never fair to compare but hey! hold it for a moment. Are we doing as well a club we did five years ago? certainly not. I'm just pondering my reasons why. It is every bit human to like getting appreciated for what you have done and also nothing beats the feel of winning, the rush of blood and off course the peaceful sleep you get after all has ended. So why are we suddenly not doing well? What has gone missing? Yea..there are a few good players we lost to other clubs, better jobs and greener territories. But one thing which has been happening consistently for Marina is our ability to attract good like minded cricketers. As always, we make a good bunch of blokes who knows how to have fun on the cricket field. The best thing or things we can do to bring back our lost glory is to create more opportunities or rather conducive situations to interact more. Net session is one, going out together for drink is another, playing other sports, celebrating occasions etc etc. These would help to bring out other sides and hidden talents of each one of us. Trust me, all this would bring more fun and camaraderie which would eventually bring us back the Marina Magic. I would like every one of you reading this email to share your thoughts and ideas. It would be a smart step forward for a wonderful beginning.

Okay! back to game we played today, hope you don't mind my lighter vein.

M1's 'captain responsible' did no favors to guys like me who simply relies on emails for information. I told my wife my normal excuses for a Sunday morning game. It went something like, my butt is getting bigger, I need exercise, playing helps reduce cholesterol which means lesser chance of cardiac arrests etc etc. I would've been eating my words if we had no game to play this Sunday. Thankfully I was only wrong in the timing.

Yes! the afternoon looked bright and dry enough to have a good days cricket. So without knowing the complete eleven I got ready for the game. Prem had to be woken up, dressed and fed to get him on time for the game as he landed just hours before. Finally we started with nine guys on the field. This would've sparked some bad comments had we lost the game, but since it was a win we can afford to happily forget the mistakes.

Naveen started well in the first over but ended conceding a well hit boundary. It was a well timed loft over the bowlers head, it is not a pretty sight for the fielding side or bowler getting hit straight over the head. The very next over Prabhu, who incidentally troubled SPA top order with his new found 'swing', had SIA with his bounce!. Prabhu hit good length almost all the time over his eight over spell. However, in the first over he got pulled for a sweetly timed six over mid wicket by the same batsmen. Wow! Good shot. Are we chasing another 250 plus?

If the rabbit had to die it will surely. In the second Naveen over we struck gold, it was a good length delivery from Naveen which stood up to the same dashing SIA opener, he kind of scooped it to the covers. And now! who in world is going to catch it? Thanks to Ganesh, it was one of his two catches of the game which from all catch-ables were taken safely. And then we started our marathon of drops it was as if like.. oh you dropped an easy one? I'm gonna beat you. In a way it was good, all the initial droppers got back their confidence. If Sris drop was bad, Sushanth's was badder, mine was pathetic, then Arun beat me hands down dropping a golden lolly. Finally everything was sealed off by Prem's 'deal ya no deal' drop. End of story.

For the next few overs it was a Prabhu show, he troubled every batter with his bounce and good length. He got four scalps back to back which almost wrote SIA out of the game. But looking closely, we could've restricted them for much less had we kept the intensity alive through out. We got complacent and got them to register small cameos in the later part of their innings. SIA ended with 148 on the board, neither too big or too small. Always tricky these kind of targets.

Marina started well with Vignesh and Ganesh scoring freely, SIAs wayward bowling also helped our cause. We lost Ganesh and then Prem, both playing pre-meditated heaves. We were not looking good for 10 points. Then enter captain real responsible. This SIA spinner who was bowling then somehow managed good credits within the team. He did it with his expressions and gestures he gave out after every ball. BANG! here goes his theatrics over country to the deep Turf city ditch. SIX. The very next over there were few more effortless classics from the man we all know would certainly throw it away pretty soon. And soon he did. But by the time we needed just 3 runs of 9 balls to make it a 10 points win. We made those easy runs and that ended a good days cricket.

Cheers
Mags

Marina Final Team List

2010-04-12T13:53:00.003+08:00

Phew...at last the three teams are finalized. Here is the list.

Marina 1

1. Prabhu Subramaniam (c)
2. Vignesh Gopalakrishnan
3. Ganapathy Chandrasekar
4. Trichy Mani Sridharan
5. Vijaya Ranga Prasad
6. Shushanta Kumar Guha
7. Mahesh Udayabhanu
8. Guduru Surya Prakash
9. Mahesh Kumar
10. Arun Bharadwaj
11. Ganesh Subramanian

Marina 2

1. Sharma Akshay Shivpal (c)
2. Faiz Modak
3. Thekkumkudy Gangadharan Manoj
4. Arun Bhaskar
5. Vasanth Singh Govardhan
6. Anshul Chandra
7. Shantonu Bhadury
8. Amit Joshi
9. Paul Bardeskar
10. Ritesh Moudgil
11. Halaharivi Chandra Kiran

Marina 3

1. Rajkishore Patel (c)
2. Amit Bansal
3. Pareet Desai
4. Mani Bhat
5. Balaraman Swaminathan
6. Yogesh Srinivasa Naik
7. Suhas Darekar
8. Vishesh Goel
9. Vivek Chopra
10. H.S. Srinivas
11. Mohan Roy Gargie
12. Arunava Banerjee
13. Uddaraju Sai Prakash
14. Haroon Mufti
15. Prem Subramaniam
16. Naveen Kumar Veeravalli (M1 gets priority)
17. Ramachandrappa Srinivasa (M1 gets priority)
18. Redkar Amit Ramesh (M2 gets priority)

Any any old marinoid wants to play this season, he will be registered in M3. All new players will also be registered in M3.

Indoor Cricket Tournament

2010-04-08T12:00:00.002+08:00

We recently played an Indoor Cricket Tournament and won the championship. My team was named "The Old Monks" and it had 3 marinoids in it: Myself, Ritesh & Swami.

Click here for some of the pics from the final.

Many marinoids participated in the tournament:

Amit Bansal, Vivek Chopra, Maggie, Akki for Dell
Bipin for Nagarbhavi Ninjas
Sushant for Cracking Willows

Given the number, we should look at forming a Marina Indoor Cricket team for the next season :) Kya bolte ho bhai log?

Marina CC 3 vs Mariner CC 1 - Scoresheet

2010-04-08T01:32:00.002+08:00

It was not a great start to the season for M3. We were not up to the mark in all aspect of the game and the score sheet reflect almost all of that:

Score Sheet

Guys, use this as a motivation for yourself and lets get back with bang in the next game.

Cheers
-Raj

Teamlist for Marina CC3 Vs Mariner CC 1

2010-04-01T20:42:00.002+08:00

Its time to start the fun and M3 gets to do the honors. Our first match is on April 03 and here is final team list:

1. Rajkishore
2. Amit Bansal
3. Yogesh Naik
4. Srini Babai
5. Suhas
6. Vishesh
7. Vivek Chopra
8. Amit Redkar
9. Mani Bhat
10. Swami
11. Arun Banerjee

Time: 8 am (So be at the ground by 7 40 am)
Venue: Turf City B

Have fun over the long weekend...but save some for the match :)

Nice Going Dharmi

2009-08-30T10:17:00.002+08:00

Singapore off to winning start

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MATCH REPORT OF MARINA CC 2 VS. BENGAL CC (MATCH ON 30TH MAY 2009 AT FERNVALE ‘B’ GROUND, 1.00 PM START)

2009-06-09T11:58:00.001+08:00

MARINA CC 2 BATTING

To describe the match vs. Bengal CC was a perfect start for Marina. As usual our captain Sri the great lost the toss, and Bengal CC captain gifted the marina batsman with electing to field first. Would have been worst decision in the cricket field fielding only with 9 players.

Nothing went right for the Bengal CC by opening with an offspinner just taking cue from Shane Warne captaincy in IPL T 20 for Rajasthan Royals. Bengal CC could be compared to Kolkatta Knight Riders team, they were all at sea but they had one thing in common, guess what BONG GALI ?

Ganesh hit the second ball of the match over long on for six which set the tone for things to come. Ganesh unfortunately got a bad bounce tried to flick, checked the shot and was caught & bold for 8. Ganesh was ruing his chance for a easy fifty today, but it happens we just witnessed batting prowess from guys who followed….

Anshul looked good in the crease with straight drives and he looked confident from the previous innings he played vs. Wanderers CC. He looked in good touch until he had a soft dismissal caught at covers off a slower ball. Anshul one advise stop hitting in the air till you get set, because you should not get out on your strong off side strokes. It needs a little bit of power and if you improve your leg side shots you would be a formidable opening batsman for the season for marina.

Then came the barrage of boundaries from Sushant with square cuts, pulls and lofted six straight down the ground. Sushant was a treat to watch but I am sure he would be ruing himself he got out when he could have played a long innings. He made 34 off 21 balls which set the tone for marina bringing them to 63 for 3 in 9 overs.

The dismissal of Sushant brought in Chandru, the stylish Mohammed Azharuddin Look alike. At one end there was Kiran who seem to be in a hurry for a light ?, but with Chandru taking most of the strike, it brought in Kiran’s one of the best innings I have witnessed. 6 fours and 3 sixes in 39 balls was not easy and bowling was taken to cleaners by Kiran. The square cut shot off the bowling of Alok reminded me of Herschelle Gibbs in Action. I hope he gets more runs for the season, as I am sure he will overtake other batting prowess of Marina if he is on song! Kiran you rocked man, I am sure I can pay and watch you batting from the stands….

Chandru was at his sublime best when he is taking the strike and stroking for singles. It ensures danger the opposition when a batsman like Chandru gets set and eyes for the big one, his boundaries inside out off the Slow bowlers and left armer medium pacer were one to be remembered. The swivel pull off the fast bowlers was one of the shots which only Azhar could play according to me, next one coming close was our star batsman Chandru….

Chandru keep it going as there seems to be a healthy competition in the batting with Sushant, Ganesh close to your batting score after 6 games in the season. Not far but coming near are Kiran and Anshul, I am sure this makes marina a formidable batting unit…..Captain please come to the party, you have a big one coming your way…..

Chandru hit 8 boundaries and 1 six scoring 67 runs off 63 balls before going for a lofted six caught at long off…

Chandru and Kiran had a record partnership of 126 runs in 15 overs highest for the season for Marina CC 2.

Kiran went for a big one just after Chandru just went, he was dismissed bowled. He scored 61 off mere 39 balls…..

Sri and Haroon did not impress the scorers with both becoming leg before candidate, I am sure they will come good in the future games. It is only good, that batsman are looking to score, it only makes the team stronger in the batting…..

Then came Naveen and Ramji pair which was like a Dominic cork and Phil Tufnell pair ? But marinoids cheered lankashare with our own Ramji being called Flintoff. I am sure Flintoff would have some thinking to do with his fitness giving him problems, Ramji is more fitter than flint off for his age.

Naveen scored 3 boundaries and one straight boundary was a beautiful shot… Ramji scored a boundary and he was ready to run almost as if he is going to other end to save his life…. Both had a crucial partnership 27 runs in 1.4 overs….

MARINA CC 2 FIELDING AND BOWLING PERFORMANCE

The opening pair of Bengal CC looked in a hurry with taking 26 runs of 2 overs, then came the surprise move with Anshul brought in cleverly by Sri….

He got hit for a few boundaries but it made him throw more in the air the bowl he got the opener Arshud was wonderful delivery, a leg spinner beaten neck and crock, stumped easily by Sushant….

Similar stumping was around the corner but this one was superb reaction from Sushant with Sri getting the one down batsman.

Sometimes I feel Sri does not have good variations in his bowling, but his line and length is immaculate. He has lot of confidence in his bowling and his length is perfect not front not short, he just keeps it on the area of uncertainty. Sri took 3 crucial wickets.

Pareet was excellent, getting some bounce. His line was immaculate with people struggling to get him off strike, he may not be pacy for his age, but he is damn accurate. He got the main batsman LBW and that set the win for Marina CC 2.

What followed was barrage of wickets, Bengal CC from being 95 for 3 they went to 113 for 8.

Superb bowling performances by Sri, Pareet and Anshul with great keeping from Sushant.

I am sure Naveen and Siddharth must be ruing their chances with the ball. They will surely bounce back with Turf city giving them more bounce and carry than the slow Fernvale wicket….

Siddharth bowled well for his 4 overs giving only 20 runs.

Bengal CC then struggled to get to score 150 by some tight bowling from 20 overs to 30 overs from Ganesh, Chandru and Siddharth. I am sure this brings in more bowling options for Marina CC 2 in future games….

Ganesh 5-1-20-0
Siddharth 4-0-20-0
Chandru 3-0-6-0
Ramji 2-0-18-0
Naveen 1-0-12-0

Highlights of the match

Batting

•    Chandru 63 off 61 balls
•    Kiran 61 off 39 balls
•    Sushant 34 off 21 balls
•    Naveen 23 off 14 balls

Bowling

•    Pareet 6-0-21-3
•    Sri 6-0-21-3
•    Anshul 3-0-26-2

Fiedling

•    Sushant 4 stumpings and 1 catch

The next matches for Marina CC 2 is against Marina CC 3 and IA.

I am sure both are gonna be a cracker, Marina CC 2 vs. Marina CC 3 is match against brothers, but whosoever wins is a joy for the club, but on paper Marina CC 2 looks stronger.

Next big step for Marina CC 2 will be beat IA for their chances to lift the trophy in DIV 3.

IA Struggled against Horizon CC but the match was tied which means they just got 5 points with them. That is really a good sign!!!!!!

All the best guys and you all are playing well! May the best team win!!!!!!!

Yours sincerely,
Ganesh

Match Report: M2 Vs Bengal CC, By Sri

2009-06-01T09:07:00.001+08:00

M2 registered our 5th straight win of the season yesterday, beating Bengal CC comfortably by 78 runs. (9 points)

Batting first, M2 made 228 in 30 overs and then restricted BCC to 150/8 in their 30 overs.

Standout performances:

Batting

Sushant: 34 (21 balls, 5*4s, 1*6)

Kiran: 61 (39 balls, 6*4s, 3*6s)

Chandru: 67 (64 balls, 8*4s, 1*6)

Naveen: 23 (14 balls, 3*4s, 1*6)

Kiran & Chandru had a brilliant 126-run partnership for the 4th wicket after we were 63/3 in just 8.1 overs!

Bowling

Sri: 6-0-21-3

Pareet: 6-1-21-3

Anshul: 3-0-26-2

Sushant: 4 stumpings

Special Thanks to Bips, Redkar and Kunal who were there at the ground to cheer us on!

Detailed match report will follow soon.

GO MARINA!!

M2 hands Wanderers the Verdict. by Ramji.

2009-05-27T21:26:00.000+08:00

23^rd May 2009

The match - Preamble

On this day, the 25^th day of May 2009, it is hereby affirmed that a game of cricket, popularly called T20 took place at a ground slightly bigger than a table-tennis court, unpopularly called Fernvale Cricket Ground.

The Teams

The teams were a relatively lesser known team called “Marina Winners” (a new found name for this team which, unlike in the past, is really living up to its ability and expectations. The other team wandered around at the end of the game in search of their souls and was rightly called ‘Wanderers”.

The pre-match scenario

The day started hot and when people started turning up at the ground around 12.20 (Ramji, Chandru and Ganesh being among the early birds). The captain himself failed to turn up at the ordered time but could be excused for 5-10 minutes delay. Cold stares were promptly exchanged by the captain with the real late comers.

Marina had a very good fielding (or catching) session before the game and not many catches were dropped during the fielding session and it augured well for the game to come.

The toss and its nightmare for the Marina captain continues…

For the umpteenth time in the life of the Marina captain, the toss was promptly lost followed by exchanges of mathematics and quantum physics theory as to why Sri lost the toss, the theory aptly started by Sri’s father who went to the extent of ridiculing his son’s lack of hard work during his NUS engineering days as the main reason for losing the toss.

Luckily on this day, the only thing that Marina lost was the toss. The match ultimately turned out to be 20s game with Sri penalised 2 overs for losing the toss so that Marina were docked 2 overs from its batting which two overs were added to Wanderers batting.

Wanderers batting or Marina bowling

The sun started dropping its intensity as the Marina players took the field and it became a perfect UK summer weather making fielding such an unusually pleasant experience for the Marinoids, who are actually known to enjoy their fielding(!!!!).

Naveen and Siddharth started the bowling attack for Marina and bowled a good line and length albeit without luck. The first wicket came fortuitously through a run out and through a fantastic fielding effort with the batsman going for a non-existent 2^nd run.

The next wicket was not lucky though, with Siddharth, who was hit for a six the previous delivery, getting the batsman bowled of a fantastic delivery. The run rate remain at less than 4 an over after 8 overs. Sri brought on Pareet from one end and Ramji from the other end. The Wanderers batsman who had settled in by that time, started scoring freely, with Ram leading the way. Ramji though was unlucky to liss out on a wicket when a clear edge of the batsman to the keeper was not given out followed by a close stumping not given out. Ramji’s misery was added when a fantastic pick up and throw from backward square leg which was straight on target was interrupted by Sushant who misjudged the direction of the throw.

With wicket starting to dry up and the score reading 89-3 after 15 overs, Sri brought himself and Chandru on and there ended the resistance of Wanderers who fell like 9 pins. The highlight being 3 wickets of 4 deliveries by Sri (hat-trick missed by a whisker). Chandru from the other end bowled unplayable deliveries and knocked batsmen at his will. Sri ended the misery of the Wanderers batsmen by picking up his 4^th wicket and the last of the wanderers innings. Chandru picked up 3 wickets and there were 2 run outs with Siddharth picking the other wicket.

Eye-wash over: Ganesh’s insatiable hunger for bowling his leg spinners was satisfied when he was given an over and just an over (come on Ganesh – here comes Naradha, Narayana, Narayan!!) – the Captain lives to his promise – did that reflect in the unusually subdues batting of our stylish opener – Introspection and commission to inquire into this required?

Wanderers succumbed to 120 all out in 22 overs, leaving Marina 121 to make in 30 overs but the target fixed was 18 overs to get the full 10 points.

A note on Marina’s fielding standards

It was one of the best efforts by Marina on the field with no dropped catches and some very good ground fielding and fantastic work by Susi behind. While some good catches were taken, Sri’s diving catch at silly mid-on of Chandru’s bowling stood out. Two good rund outs were effected and some close run out chances were created by some excellent fielding.

The Marina Batting or do you want to call it the ANSHUL SHOW

Cricket is a team game, yes. The batsmen are up to prove it wrong all the time. Today it was Anshul’s turn to prove accusations against him that he often fails to match his extraordinary talent with scores. His one shot (shot of the day) where he walked across to the opening bowler and cut him over backward point for a boundary told the story.

With Anshul playing lovely shots and going aggressive right from the word go, Ganesh intelligently rotated strike and was rather subdued curbing his attacking instincts. The 50 partnership came in less than 8 overs and when it looked like that No. 3 will only remove his pads after the game without playing a single delivery, Ganesh got out to a full length delivery that brushed his pad and knocked the stumps.

Finally the Anshul show ended sadly with Anshul getting out for 49 and missing a really well-deserved 50.

The not so good batting display in general

The batsmen who followed Anshul had no tale to tell and were rather discreet in playing their shots in the pretext of going for 10 points. At that time, Marina still required only between 6-7 per over to get 10 points and there was no need for indiscreet rash shots. While Anshul was going strong on one end, wickets kept falling on the other end.

The other shot of the day came from the bat of Siddharth – a powerful straight flat hit behind the bowler which just landed for a six at the boundary rope in a flash.

Marina lost 7 wickets in the process. Susi stayed till the end to guide Marina to 10 points with the winning shot coming form the bat of our veteran Pareet of the last ball of the 18^th over. In fact, the Wanderers were puzzled to hear Marina shouts from the pavilion, 6 in 7, 5 in 4, 3 in 3, 1 of 1 as though it was the 30^th over of the innings.

Retrospection

While all is well that ends well, we really have to rethink about our batting today. While we have so much to carry forward in our bowling and fielding departments, our batting today, barring Anshul and towards the end, Sushant, has some thing to think about. We needed around 6.6 per over in the beginning of the innings for 10 points and after a fantastic 50 run opening partnership in les than 8 overs, we needed around run-a-ball or slightly more to get the targeted 10 points. Batsmen should have applied themselves better under the circumstances. While we were under no threat of losing the game, this is a game we should have won by 6 or 7 wickets and not by 3 wickets and made it look closer than what it should have been.

Let us carry forward this 10 point win as a great moral booster to our game against Bengal CC and go for another emphatic win.

GO MARINA WINNERS. From henceforth Marina 2 shall become Marina Winners.

Regards

Ramji

Team list: IA3 v/s Marina 3 at IA - 17th May - 0800

2009-05-15T17:33:00.001+08:00

The team list for the Sunday game:

IA3 v/s Marina 3 at IA - 17th May - 0800

Akshay (not feeling well, if OK will play)
Shan
Arun
Mohan
Mohit
Ritesh
Rishabh (w.k)
Bansal
Vivek
Raj Kishore
Sridhar
Naman

Jabra headsets.

2009-05-11T21:39:00.003+08:00

I think I first met him eight years ago. It must have been a junior-senior interaction session for the SIA scholars, and he must have been one of the wonder-eyed kids. He was one of the two Biharis, and by that association, butt of many jokes. He was the quieter of the two, but the sharper. But that was it, he wasn't in the same school and so I didn't really get to know him. We must have played schools cricket a couple of times against each other over the next two years, but I don't remember.

Our paths did cross at other times, however. It so happened that I often met him in flights to and from Delhi. This was in JC, as well as during the University years. He had gone on to NTU, and I was at NUS, and I kept running into him on journeys back home - on the flights, at the airports transiting, at the Delhi customs queue, in the Changi duty free shop. We shared a smoking room once in Bangkok's then-renovating airport. Maybe Colombo also once. Sometimes I heard of him through common friends. About his obsession with Shah Rukh Khan. How he sported SRK's Mohabbatein look for a whole semester. And then onto the next blockbuster. Maybe he was Knight Rider's fan. I don't know. I didn't know him that well. Towards the end of university and then start of work, we didn't see each other for a long time.

Then KV joined UBS and he popped up again. KV mentioned this grad trainee in his team, I recognised the name, and that was it. He was a Marinoid. Nets, games, daaru, sutta - the whole nine yards. What I remember most is that he would arrive at the ground always with his huge Jabra headsets on. He had a new Nokia thing which bluetoothed to the headsets. I was hooked to them, and he let me use it everytime I asked. Once for M3 I think he took a fiver. There was promise there and I remember Akki being an excited captain. He fitted too, not a huge persona, but an affable man. But then he disappeared again. Probably because of the pressures at work this time. Recession had hit and it had that affect on bank employees.

I did see him one last time two weekends ago. At Oosters in Suntec, I spotted the huge frame of KV, and then the headsets on the table. He was there. The two of them joined me for a ritual smoke, we talked about work and then I left. I didn't stay for a drink. It was the 25th of April.

Today he is on his final flight to Delhi, but I won't be bumping into Setu.

Marina2 vs Hyderabad Mughals.

2009-05-05T17:07:00.002+08:00

It was a clash of trophy chasers when M2 played HMCC at Turf City on 2nd of May. HMCC had moved up from div 4 and hadn't yet lost a match. M2 had played lesser matches but had the same enviable position. In their only previous encounter, a friendly on the same ground, M2 had come out tops, but not without begrudging a reputation for the HMCC players. Tough, aspiring teams fighting for glory on a hot humid day without fears of rain. We had a game.

Sri won the toss and made an unwittingly brilliant decision to bat. Brilliant because by choosing to bat, we had rendered HMCC without their best batsman - who'd have played had they batted first. All the same, we had our own squad worries in that both our opening bowlers were not available for the game. A quick decision between Sri and me, and we decided to utilise our leftie trump card from the onset. Sushant opened with Ganesh and the duo got going immediately. Deft cover drives mingled with Sushant's paddle round the corner and punctuated by Ganesh's backfoot punches through point had the opposition flat. At times Niranjan Babu troubled both batsmen with tight in-swing, but the good balls were far and few between. Fifty came up in the 8th over and it brought the downfall of Ganesh who stepped out only to see the ball settle into the keeper's gloves and scythe over the bails. This brought Korean kimchi Prem to the crease who was soon to sizzle.

It took some time for Prem and Sushant to get into a scoring rhythm braving the sapping heat, disciplined bowling and outstretched fields. There were however no alarms and both batsmen looked to play to a plan. The plan to last till the drinks break at 15. Sushant was anchoring the innings while Prem began respectfully against the slow bowlers. At drinks the score was 86 and having lost only the one wicket we had the licence to create havoc.

After drinks the batsmen opened up. Sushant fell trying to cut one over point but Prem taught the Mughals a lesson or two. Two hits to sightscreen specifically. One off an overpitched delivery deserving punishment, the other deserving full respect in line and length and yet disappearing flatter and further than the first. Imtiyaz, a proud bowler, bore the brunt and I'm sure it'd have given him a nightmare that night. At 136 in the 23rd over, Prem came down the track and did himself in flight to get stumped. Meanwhile from the other end, Chandru had been playing a treatise on the leg side. His swivel pulls and dismissive flicks left us in awe. As always. But one pull too many and he too was back in the hut an over after Prem.

This brought the captain and Kiran together. One a compulsive puller, the other midwicket marauder. Only one was to come off that day. Sri played and missed and mis hit and then stepped out and missed a full toss, and the keeper put him out of his misery. Kiran meanwhile found his nick, ran very hard and put the bad ones away clinically between fielders. Gova ran hard with him and the last overs were a right frenzy. Quick runs, breathless batsmen, frantic bowlers, tired fielders and lofty balls. Haroon, Maggie, Manoj and I all visited the crease but failed to create an impact in the last overs. However the good work done earlier made sure we had 180 on the board at the close of innings. A really decent score on the Turf City B ground, easy to defend if we began well.

IF. If is a beautiful poem by Kipling. If's a tricky word. We didn't begin well. For all his Korean antics, Prem found it hard to shake off the rust. Six wides and an eleven run opening over. Chandru replaced him, but lately he's found it hard to manage the new ball. Specially, with the batsmen bent on attack. From the other end, Manoj tried honestly but with no pressure of score and some width, he found the going hard as well. It was quickly clear that we were digging a hole for ourselves. We needed to do something about the run rate then and there.

Sri stepped up to take the bull by the horns - to bowl the seventh over. Four dot balls and the HMCC ego combusted not being able to hit a slow bowler. Catch to point and we had our first wicket at 6.4 overs. It was the boost we needed. The kick up the butt, our dose of viagra. Because then came the SlowBowlers. First Sri and Maggi in tandem - choking, plugging, tightening, sucking the wind out of the HMCC batting. 2nd wicket to Maggi in the tenth over. 3rd to Maggi in the 12th over. Then I replaced Sri to bowl a new brand of Symonds' inspired halt-and-throw-flat off spin. It made run scoring a pointless frustrating exercise.

HMCC were still in game, but largely down to Niranjan Babu's batting. As long as he was at the crease we couldn't be sure of victory. So comes Sri's lollipop ploy. Lollipop delivered, batsman hits to midwicket, Kiran takes it head high 6 inches from the boundary. Only at Turf City. From then on it was a matter of time. Our wides did give us unnecessary jitters but not enough to derail plans of things. 5.33 pm, score at 146 in the 26th over, Kiran took out the last batsman leg before and we had to catch our breath before letting out the whoops and the yells and the Fucks !

A match of the trophy chasers indeed.

IF, if, we don't get over confident, and fight every game like this one - we'd be the only trophy chaser at the end of season. One game at a time, one team at a time. Helping, stepping up, backing up, fighting, not giving up - playing hard..

scorecard here: M2 v HMCC

Match Report: Anza CC3 vs Marina CC3 @ Turf City Ground A 0800 hrs

2009-05-05T13:58:00.000+08:00

In our first morning game, we took on Anza CC3 at their home ground in the Turf City. A whole comedy of errors was encountered before the start. The umpires did not toss until 8am (official start time of the game), and had to reminded for the toss. The second event involved the roller and the ATV being stuck on the ground near the pitch. With a lady operator at the helm of the ATV, it was quite a sight to behold as she tried in various ways to get the roller towed out of the ground by the ATV. However, amidst her multitude efforts, the battery of the ATV gave way and the opposition side had to get another vehicle to jump start the ATV. Once started, the lady, for a reason that she only knows, pulled the roller to the square around the pitch and started rolling the square again. When can a day be over without Murphy’s law. The ATV broke down again. This time the umpire joined in the melee and tried to take things in his own hands (another car was brought in to jump start the ATV and the umpire almost ended up shorting the vehicle battery again as he connected the jump start cables to the wrong terminals). Finally however, they were able to clear the vehicle and the ATV from the ground allowing the umpires to toss. Due to the whole chain of unnecessary events, the game was narrowed down to 28 overs a side.

Akshay won the toss and decided to bat first. This being Pathaks second last match, he was promoted to open the batting with Mohan. He took first strike and scored a prompt 6 runs of the first over, Mohan on the other hand took his time to get started and was watchful. Pathak holed out soon trying to go for his shots upfront (caught at covers) and was promptly received back amidst applauses. Raj went out to bat next and concentrated towards rotating the strike. Raj and Mohan rotated the strike well before both of them were dismissed. Arun walked in and started stroking the ball into the gaps. His confident shots got Marina a couple of boundaries and raised the run-rate a little. Rishabh on the other hand took the singles and rotated the strike. The spinners were introduced soon after and herein the game changed. Their slow bowlers stuck to a line outside off and bowled slow and slower relentlessly, thus curbing the run flow. With no pace to play with, the batsmen tried forcing the issue. Arun fell trying to hit a full toss out of the ground (he got the top edge and was well caught). Rishabh and Bansal tried to curb the fall of wickets and play till the drinks break. A maiden over resulted before drinks break. At drinks the score read 72-4 in 14 overs.

The strategy for the second half was look for a total of around 170 to be competitive. Bansal fell soon declared lbw to a full ball by their spinner. Chopra strode in and an ensuing miscommunication between Rishabh and Chopra saw Rishabh being run out. With things not going our way, it was decided to try and bat out the 28 overs . However the wickets continued to fall, amidst the good bowling of their slow bowlers. Chopra continued to fight out with a quick fire 30 but the rest of the batsmen were not able to score consistently. We ended up with 129 runs in 26.3 overs.

We started off with Pathak and Shan bowling good lines and lengths. The first opener was caught behind while the second one was also soon set packing. At drinks the score was 60-4. It was quite comparable with our score and it was quite evident that we would have to play out of our skins in order to win from the situation. Some good tight overs were bowled and there was some sort of control. However, their captain decided to take things in his own hands. He started belting all our bowlers around the park. A crucial catch was put down when he was around 20, and the run fest continued. Arun was taken for 12 of his first over (last 4 balls bowled down the leg side again) and Sridhar was taken for 18 of his first over. Pathak and Akshay came back on and some sort of control was established. A slower one and a good catch on the boundary ensured the end of the opposing captain (he eventually scored a quickfire 50 runs). Some tight fielding and committed efforts saw the match heading for an exiting finish with 7 needed of the last 3 overs, and 1 needed of the last over. Two dot balls were bowled. However an edge on the third ball resulted in the batsmen scampering for a single to take their team home.
It was an exciting match to say for some consolation. High levels of commitment were shown in the field during the game. However, this should not distract us from the fact that our main area of concern was again the batting. The team was bowled out within 26.3 overs against an opposition not boasting of any good players.

As usual, we have our lessons learnt at the end of the game.. so for this case: THE LESSONS STILL NOT LEARNT:
Batting : Batsmen to ensure that they bat out the 30 overs and rotate the strike
Fielding : Catches, catches and more catches to be taken
Bowling: To cut down on extras as much as possible. (though cant blame the bowling since they don’t get a par score to defend)