A Match to remember....

What a coincidence....
Niloy and Amit missing for our crucial games (Indians & WCW)...
Aizaz Bhai Captaining
Buland hitting two huge sixes,tight finishes
Vikas playing the anchor role and got 11 runs in both the matches
Girish picking up 3 wickets
Fielding not up to the mark....

But the results were not a coincidence …….we were the winners.

Guys we are the number 1 team in Cricbay with 8 wins in a trot

Girish is the highest wicket taker (17), Manish is the best wicket keeper in cricbay with most number of dismissals and we have the maximum number of players in cricfantasy who have more than 100 points.

It has been a team effort with everyone performing and backing each other as happened in today’s match…We were there on the ground by 7:55A.M. before the home team

Aizaz Bhai won the toss and we elected to bowl….and Buland gave the perfect start by taking one of their main batsman in the very first over and we would have both their opening batsman back to pavilion if Girish would have held to that catch of Vikas in the second over of the match...Our fielding was not up to the standard as there were many fumbles ….but still we were able to restrict them to 26 in 10 over’s for the loss of 2 wickets.

And then came Girish to take the revenge of the dopped catch by doing what he does the best …got his 1 st wicket in only the second ball of his spell and was followed by another 2 balls later For a change he got his second wicket with Abhishek taking a good low catch…… and it seemed the story would again be repeated but they played according to their reputation and were able to score 57 and the 1 st team in the tournament where we were not able to get 10 wickets. We were a little sloppy with our fielding throughout the game however the positives of the game were the way Vijay and Buland bowled and not to mention ofcourse Girish….

We were missing some of our inform batsman but the spirit to win the match could been seen in every one’s eyes. We had new openers for the match Rajesh and Devang however we lost our first wicket at the score of eight in four overs but there was no more falters for next 8 overs.Vikas and Rajesh did a great job by giving value to their wickets and made sure that the team has a foundation until Rajesh departed at a score of 28.Girish walked in at the fall of second wicket and looked all pumped up which was very much visible in the very first ball. He flicked the very first ball for one but unfortunately was run out later.

We had two of our best batsman on the crease Vikas and Abhishek and they were playing the ball on the merit before Vikas played a great pull towards mid wicket but found the fielder. But he had done his job by then and it was Vijay walking in but his poor form continued but we know he is a big match player. We were lagging behind the run rate and fall of Vijay’s wicket didn’t made it any good however Abhishek played some of his trade mark shot over covers to give us the impetus and in order to increase the run rate he perished at a very crucial point of time but as we say “MOVIE ABHI BAKI HAI MERRE DOST”

Walked in the hero of the match Mr. Cool “Buland” and he just needed 5 deliveries to make sure we have the match in our grasp.The first ball be faced was nicely put in the gap for 1 and the second ball was a huge six over long off and the next two balls were given respect as they were not in his area but enough is enough and the fifth one was a huge six over mid on to finish the game…….Being on the non striker end I could feel the power of the shot and there was no need for him to say “POWER TO DEKH”.All the members were on the ground with joy to congratulate Our Mr. Cool Dude Buland… U ROCK BULAND….

There were many positives in the game but the way Buland played was just amazing to watch and I think there is no stopping from here….
Next Stop: Weekenders on (June 20) and then the very crucial game against the Spartans (June 27)….
Way to go Maharaja’s

Some stats for our team

Cricfantasy….Its a league where we need to choose 16 players from all the team playing in Bay area and form our team……
Aizaz Bhai has missed it twice by a whisker to be at the top

I got some stat out of that …
Only Maharaja’s and Spartans have 6 players who have more than 100 points…

This stat is till the last game (Vs Bay Area Titans)
Niloy – 156
Girish -139
Anoop-138
Abhishek-121
Buland-111
Vikas-101

I think after today’s performance Bipin might also be over 100 now…


Our top players as compared to the best in cricbay...

NILOY
#5 th position in over all Batting Averages,
#He would have been in top run getters in a particular match but missed it by 1 run..
#He is at 13th place with the most no of 6’s with 3 huge sixes..
#He is at 19th position on the catches stats

GIRISH
# To no one's surprise he is the top wicket taker with 14 wickets in which 13 have been bowled and just one caught
# He is also at 16th position on the economy standing with 2.19 runs per over.

MANISH
# sits at the top on the wicket keepers list…..He has been awesome behind the stump and specially the way he keeps for Girish…
#He is at 5th position when it comes to stumpings…That is an achievement ….
Hats off to you Manish

We have Niloy and Bipin with 2 man of the matches this tournament and find themselves on top 20.
If we look for over all stats on Man of the Match ... Abhishek tops the charts with 6 MOM followed by Amit with 5 and Niloy, Anoop with 4.

Maharaja’s. Hattrickers and Skiers11 are the only three team who have bundled their opponents for less than a score of 35 twice…

There have been many factors which have resulted for our winning streak…

1)We have bundled all our opponents within 20overs

Dakus 19.5overs 59/10 9 Extras 6wide 3no balls 0 byes
MOM Girish Do I really need to write something about it...Name tells it all but there was some good power batting by Amit and some intelligent batting by our team's wall Abhishek.

Monsters 20.0 overs 48/10 15 Extras 9wides 3 no balls 2 byes
MOM Bipin Though he made 20 runs but It was not a fluent inning, we know he is capable of much more than that

Indians 18.4 overs 78/10 5 Extras 4wides 1 no ball 0 byes
MOM Buland It was a great match in making…Someone takes a hattrick and still doesn’t get the MOM award…felt bad for Girish but the way Buland played the inning was just out of this world

Hammers 19.0 overs 33/10 13 Extras 8wides 3 no balls 2 byes
MOM Anoop It was a good team performance to bundle the team for mere 33 but we still had some problems with the bat so our Mr wall Abhishek made sure we go through the finishing line

Hitnrun 18.5 overs 50/10 16 Extras 8 wides 8 no balls 0 byes
MOM Niloy This was our captains day …and starting of his new era…the way he was batting showed his hunger to compete with the best..
“U ROCK NILOY”

Bay Area Titans 11.4 overs 31/10 8 Extras 4 Wides 3 noballs 1 byes
MOM Niloy This was the best inning in the cric bay I have ever seen though Vijay has played some blinders but I would still rate this inning at the top...

Poker Stars 14.2 overs 40/10 12 extras 8 wides 4 noballs 0 byes
MOM Bipin He must have gained confidence after playing this inning as he was not only hitting the ball but was also timming the ball.

2)Everyone on ground by 8 am which really warms everyone by the match startS...This has been the biggest change in our team ..Everyone is fired up and ready to go...

3)Some strict rules adopted by our Manager.

4)Captain leading from front
Now I am really tired of talking about Niloy ....he is leading his troops like a real Captain..thats it

5)Emergence of Girish, Vikas and Ravi…
Wow this is one of the biggest factor why we are bundeling the opponents for less total's...
Ravi has just played two matches and he has showed that he really deserves his place to be one of the strike bowler for our team
Girish has been an amazing find for the team..
We were looking for Mr Dependable with the bat and a spinner in the team and he provided us with both..Ya I am talking about Mr Vikas

6) Availability of players…we always have more than 11 players and we are following rotation policy…

Next stop Poker Star

Not from a Star Wars movie……. Poker Star is our next opponent. Poker Star is not exactly a rookie team in Cricbay since this is the second tournament they are playing in Cricbay. They have played 17 matches and won only 2 matches. They won their last match and did not surrender easily to mighty Spartans; the match was only won by 9 runs.

So I look through score sheet after score sheet to get some idea about our next opponent and it is very interesting to see that they have lost 80% of their matches but fought each of them till the end.

Poker Star this season
Weekend Cricket Warriors won by 23 runs
Indians [Patriot CC] won by 4 wickets
Dakus won by 7 wickets
Spartans CC won by 9 runs
HitnRun won by 15 runs
Poker Stars won by 1 run


I did some digging and found out that some of the players are veterans of Cricbay and used to play in other teams before creating Poker Star. Poker Star has good openers and spread their good bowlers in 20 over’s rather than putting on the top like some rookie teams do. Maharajas should not take this game easy and should follow the same winning strategy that we have been following.

Players to watch from Poker Star…. Praveen, Anupam Pandey and Vikram Rao. From Maharaja’s Amit, Anoop and Bipin. I hope I am not pressuring Bipin by picking him the player to watch.

Also there is another interesting match in Cricbay this weekend…Spartan vs. Indian. Maybe Indians topple Spartan this week before Maharajas do.

Maharajas rest of the schedule for Round1:


5/30/2009--> Weekend Cricket Warriors (Away)
6/13/2009--> 5 Umpiring assignments
6/20/2009-->Weekenders (Home)
6/27/2009-->Spartans CC (Away)



Go Maharajas and make it 7-0.

A captain’s inning

It’s an answer to the article written for Maharaja’s……many doubts were raised if we are really winning or it’s just by fluke…..NILOY U ROCK MAN…

Words won’t be enough to praise the inning you played….You lead the team from front…we had been bowling well but we were not able to click with our bat and I am sure after seeing your inning everyone in the team would have gained a lot of confidence within themselves….

We were missing some of our star players, Vijay, Manish and Girish however we didn’t felt their absence……We found great replacement for them
Himanshu was great behind the wickets and Ravi with his line, length and pace just
made it too easy for us …..
It seemed as they are our regular players which they are not…..

We don’t depend on any particular player to make us win the match however I am sure the team would agree Niloy alone gave us this win….

For the first time in 7 matches we had to defend the score and Sandeep gave us the perfect start by hitting a huge six of the 3 rd ball of the inning which scratched the opponents and the tone was set……..

Though we lost our first wicket in the second over however we were going good on runs and Amit walked in but it was not his day with the bat and he got out without troubling the scorer.
Sandeep was the third wicket to fall and then walked in the hero of the match “NILOY” with our Mr. Dependentable “Vikas” and from them they just took the match under control and started dictating terms with some good running between the wickets and hard hitting.

At the end of 10 over’s we were 42/3 and the main part of NILOY’S inning was yet to come…two huge sixes one over mid wicket and the other over mid off to their best bowler..

For me the lofted shot over mid-off was the Shot of the Match….walking 2 steps and timing it over mid off….the whole match was about NILOY’S batting and the partnership between him and Vikas.I could only say the players who were rested in this match missed a inning which they could have remembered for their whole life….
NILOY I don’t think you need to see the ball from bowlers hand from now on bcoz you don’t need it….

Than it was left to our bowlers to get us through the finishing line and our bowlers didn’t let the team down….We bundled them for mere 31….

It has always been the opening bowlers who have given us a break through in the very first over and it was no different this time….Though Amit was not able to do anything with the bat but he made sure he gives the team a flier with his bowling….The last ball of his first over got their best batsman caught behind and what a catch himanshu…..

The bowl took the inner edge of the bat and himanshu dived to his wrong side to take the best catch of the match and that started the downfall of our opponents but that was not it ….Sandeep had some other idea to claim the best catch of the match ….It would be really difficult to differentiate between those amazing catches…

Ravi I guess was playing almost after a year and the immaculate line he was bowling was difficult to play as a result he got 2 wickets…Our steady bowlers Vikas and Abhishek went for a few runs but still they bowled a great line….

This was a commanding performance by our team to finish a strong opponent…..

From here there is no looking back …..

We’re back Baby!

Finally Maharajas getting some coverage on CricBox, and why not, we have won our last six games. I still feel that there is some doubts that Maharajas winning ways are temporary, maybe a fluke. The reason could be that we never had this time of momentum since the first season of 2006. I always believe that our teams have experience, talent but player’s availability was always an issue. Surprisingly we have great talent this year and senior players are available. Players are involved even if they are not playing. The doubts will be vanished once we beat Spartan.

Our next match is with our old friends Bharat Choudari and Crew (Bay Area Titans). We have played three matches against them. We have won all three matches. Two matches won by us convincingly except one, which was a nail biter. Bay Area Titans is a very experienced team playing in bay area since 1999. Bay Area Titans is a very exciting team who plays very aggressively from the start. I can see a great match in making. Players to watch from Bay Area Titans are Subash Thapa, Parkash Advani and Yawar Nahvi.

Maharajas have done great with the ball this season and sooner than later the Bats will be blasting. Players to watch from Maharajas are Bipin (He is due), Buland, Niloy and Abhisek.

Good Luck Maharajas!


Aizaz

Old is Gold.....

It was a great match.....A match to remember bcoz it was our experienced players blazing all guns out….We can only think how tough its gonna be to get in the team ….We had 6 of our top players not playing in this match…..So the only criteria to get in the team is to perform….No one can take his place for granted or think he had performed in past ……It’s a very healthy competition in the team ….

First it was Amit with a great spell of bowling ……and then Niloy with his power batting

We won the toss and elected to bowl and it was Amit and Buland who tightened up the screw from word go….We got our first break through in the second over with a clever bit of bowling by Buland and soon in his 2 nd over he gave us a another break through …..Abhishek and Buland were working in pairs…..We gave away 19 extras but that was not the bowlers who did that but it was the pitch and some bad decision by umpires……I am sure Manish would agree to that……

Aizaz Bhai bowled a great line but was very unlucky with the decisions…….Vikas took a beauty with his leg spinner ….Ball pitched around middle stump and turned to get the edge and rest was done by Manish…. And then came our deceptive bowler Abhisek ….he just got one over to bowl and got one wicket …..He was the best bowler in 2006 Fall and he is getting only one over to bowl…so what can someone say …..this is the competition we have in our team ….

By mid way they were 27/4 in which 11 runs were from extras …….then came our strike bowler Girish…though he took 1 st over to settle but once he was in his grove he was deadly as ever…..

One of their batsman got stuck and he even cleared the fence once on my bowling which was not at all a good feeling….but we came back strongly and got them for 50 in 18.5 over’s…

Now it was again left to our batsman ….and with no regular openers in team ….. Niloy showed confidence on Manish and Rajesh who did a good job by hanging there and getting the runs…We lost our first wicket as Manish who was caught at point ….and then we had our hero of the 2 nd game Mr Buland sent at one down …and for a change he defended the first ball but only the 1 st bowl and the second one was a skier which was taken not much to our delight… and then walked in our captain Niloy….he was determined not to come back until he get us through the finishing line….and he did that with some style….

We could see the glimpse of his younger days…he was at his best ….A huge six over mid wicket is all I can say and rest would be self explanatory…..

Another Victory for Maharaja’s……we need to keep the momentum going………