[ARCL] Game #8: Mavericks vs Stealth-MSCC at Ron Regis Park, Renton, WA on Saturday, October 11th 2008 @ 10:30 AM

Saurabh Verma bowls Stealth-MSCC to victory

Mavericks 59/7 in 15.3 overs [Saurabh V 4/11] lost to Stealth-MSCC 60/3 in 11.1 overs [Avinash U 21*, Vijay B 14, Saurabh V 13]

Stealth-MSCC team:
Zafar Abbas
Saurabh Verma
Mustafa Bilal
Vijay Beniwal (Captain)
Ketan Duvedi
Azeem Khan
Rajiv Nandivada
Avinash Upadhyay

Man of the Match: Saurabh Verma (Stealth-MSCC)

[ARCL] Game #7: Daemons vs Stealth-MSCC at Marymoor Park, Redmond, WA on Saturday, October 5th 2008 @ 10:30 AM

Vijay Beniwal and Zafar Abbas destroy Daemons in a one sided affair

Stealth-MSCC 141/4 in 16 overs [Zafar A 51, Vijay B 48, Azeem K 16, Avinash U 12] beat Daemons 89/7 in 14.3 overs [Vijay 2/21]

Stealth-MSCC team:
• Zafar A
• Naveen K
• Avinash U
• Vijay B
• Rajiv N
• Haroon A
• Azeem K
• Vishwa G

Stealth lost the toss and were put into bat. Stealth struggled to make runs initially with the fall of prize wicket of Naveen Kumar with the score at 8 in the 3rd over. Vijay Beniwal joined Zafar Abbas in what turned out to be one of the finest batting batting displays ever seen in ARCL. They put on a partnership of 91 runs in a mere 63 balls, but how it came about was a treat to see than to describe in words. Zafar Abbas score a magnificent 51 runs [38 balls - 6x4, 1x6] before being bowled round the wickets with the score at 99/2 in 12.4 overs. Vijay Beniwal in the acceleration gear fell soon after for 48 runs [33 balls - 5x4, 1x6] with score at 108/3 in 13.4 overs. Rajiv Nandivada playing in first game of ARCL this season holed out with the score at 111/4 in 14.2 overs. Azeem Khan and Avinash Upadhyay (who arrived late to the ground and was gloved up from the word go was itching to bat) then put the icing on the cake with a 30 run partnership in just 10 balls which included 4x4's and Azeem Khan hit one of the biggest six ever seen in ARCL history to finish very strongly with 141/4 in 16 overs.

Daemons started very strongly scoring some quick runs in the initial overs. Sloppy fielding by Vishwa gave Daemons some hope with all the Stealth bowlers maintaining a good line and length with some good catching by other members made sure that the asking rate was always going up like gas prices in US. Daemons were finally bowled out for 89 to give Stealth-MSCC a win by 52 runs.

Vijay Beniwal was declared the Man of the Match for his 48 and 2/21 in 4 overs.

With 2 more games to go, Stealth-MSCC need 1 more win to secure a semifinal spot and also a promotion to the B division.
The next game is on Saturday, October 11th 2008 at 10:00 AM in Ron Regis Grounds in Renton against Mavericks.

[ARCL] Game #6: Battlers vs Stealth-MSCC at Ron Regis Park, Renton, WA on Saturday, September 20th 2008 @ 8:30 AM

Naveen Kumar powers a resounding win of Stealth-MSCC over Battlers

Saturday game's win was much needed one. Naveen Kumar scored 70 runs in 58 balls with only 4 boundaries to take Stealth-MSCC's score to 123/3 in 16 overs and then Imran Ghumman and Mustafa Bilal got 3 and 2 wickets respectively to bundle out the opposition for 34. This win has presently put us in #3 position and have a good chance to make it to playoffs and a promotion to higher division. Let us keep the winning momentum going.


Stealth-MSCC 123/3 in 16 overs [Naveen Kumar 70* (56 balls - 4x4), Zafar Abbas 17, Azeem Khan 13] beat Battlers 34/7 [Imran G 3/9, Mustafa B 2/8]

[ARCL] Game #5: Stealth-MSCC vs Daredevils - Part Deux at Ron Regis Park on Sunday, September 7th @ 3:30 PM

Stealth-MSCC 45/6 in 9.3 overs [Lovekesh D 12, Venkat V 14] lost to Daredevils - Part Duex 49/1 in 8.3 overs.

[ARCL] Game #4: Pi by Two vs Stealth-MSCC at Marymoor Park (Old Cricket Grounds - Lot H) on Sunday, August 17th 2008 @ 7:45 AM

Saurabh Verma (Man of the Match) and Zafar Abbas script an easy win for Stealth-MSCC over Pi By Two

Stealth-MSCC won the toss and put Pi by Two into bat. Chandra Bapanpally bowled a brilliant opening spell (3-0-7-1 - and now I wonder why I did not let him complete his spell - but what to do - I have a team where everyone can do everything - a nice problem to have as a captain ;)) and later on Dhananjay Tripathi (4-0-22-3) made sure the pressure was applied always even though Pi By Two batsman were going at 6 runs per over on a big ground and fast outfiled. Arindam batted really well for Pi By Two scoring a responsible knock of 39 runs. Dhananjay was the most successful bowler with 3 wickets and Chandra, Vijay (3-0-15-1) and Zafar (1-0-501) taking one wicket each apart from a run out by Saurabh Verma. Saurabh (3-0-23-0) and Venkat V (2-0-19-0) went wicketless. Pi By Two were all out for 91 in the 16th over.

Saurabh Verma (46 in 26 balls - 7 dots, 6 x [1], 7 x [2], 5 x [4], 1 x [6]) and Zafar Abbas (33 (not out) in 22 balls- 4 dots, 10 x [1], 4 x [2], 1 x [3], 3 x [4]) were ruthless right from the word go and had a run rate of over 10.00 runs from the beginning onwards. Both of them added 73 runs in 6.5 overs for the first wicket with Saurabh falling short of a well deserved half century by 4 runs. Vijay Beniwal (8 in 8 balls - 4 dots, 2 x [1], 1 x [2], 1 x [4]) who went in next was run out. Avinash (2 (not out) in 2 balls) and Zafar finished the game with the score reading 92/2 in 9.4 overs.

Yet another brilliant batting display by Zafar. A second consecutive unbeaten knock in as many games.

Set up of the match:
Vijay made a interesting move of having a point boundary, a fine 3rd man and an extra cover fielder on the off side for Talib. Talib had already set up his mind to play towards the point boundary and squeeze at least 1 if not 2. DJ bowled the nagging outside the off stump line and a predetermined Talib hit it straight to Venkat at extra cover. Great move Vijay.

Every one played their role perfectly to script an easy win and thanks everyone for showing up on time for an early morning game (7:45 AM). I had the privilege of playing and watching the game as I was not supposed to playing this game. Since Bharath did not show up until well after 8:00 AM I had to play.

Great win Stealth-MSCC. Let us play to the best of the potential of make sure that we qualify for the division playoffs.

It is a real privilege to be a part of this team.

[ARCL - Stealth-MSCC] Game #3: vs Master Blasters at Marymoor Park (Old Cricket Grounds - Lot H) on Sunday, August 10th 2008 @ 10:30 AM

Zafar Abbas brilliant batting performance helps Stealth-MSCC overpower Master Blasters

Stealth-MSCC Team:
# Avinash Upadhyay
# Zafar Abbas
# Azeem Khan
# Vishwa Gaddamanugu
# Bharath Ramabadran
# Dhananjay Tripathi
# Venkat Veeraraghavan
# Chandra Bapanapally

Master Blasters: 90/4 in 16 overs (Aniruddha 28(30), Gaurav 20 (22), Swapnil 17 (9), Chandra B 1/11, Avinash U 1/15, Zafar A 1/27)
Stealth-MSCC: 95/2 in 13.3 overs (Zafar A 56* (47 balls - 19 dots, 14 x [1], 8 x [2], 5 x [4], 1 x [6]), Azeem K 20 (19 - 7 dots, 8 x [1], 3 x [2], 1 x [6]), Avinash U 12 (15 - 7 dots, 6 x [1], 1 x [2], 1 x [4]), Mahesh 1/22, Gaurav 1/29)

Chandra bowled a brilliant opening spell and with a big outfield the rest of the bowlers bowled well to contain Master Blaster batsmen who played really well to take the score to 90. Azeem Khan took a brilliant catch (hanging on to the ball even tough his head banged hard on the ground).

Zafar played like a master and blasted the attack to all parts of the ground scoring at will in the gaps. He added 35 for the frist wicket with Avinash in 6.3 overs and later added 45 in 5.5 overs along with Azeem. For his brilliant performance Zafar Abbas was adjudged the Man of the Match.

A point to be noted was that Azeem was seen by some of the ARCL Mgmt folks batting and were questioning why Azeem was playing when he was suspended by Stealth for 2 games. I cheekily replied that he would be sitting out another game when we have playing 8 to that Faisal replied normally it is consecutive rather than whenever you want. ;)

A great win against a highly spirited team (it is a part of the Stealth empire - formerly Stealth-E) and thanks to everyone for playing.

PS: Thanks to Bharath for taking up the 7:45 AM umpiring assignment.

[ARCL - Stealth-MSCC] Game #2: vs Spartans at MS Grounds on Sunday, August 3rd 2008 @ 7:45 AM

Stealth-MSCC (67/6 in 16 overs [Avinash U 17, Vijay B 15, Lovekesh D 12, Vishwa G 11, Kishore 3/21] lost to Spartans 68/3 in 15.1 overs [Sachin M 28*, Pankaj M 15]

Stealth-MSCC team:

Avinash Upadhyay
Lovekesh Desai
Vijay Beniwal
Vishwa Gaddamanugu
Venkat Veeraraghavan
Dhananjay Tripathi
Imran Ghumman
Bharath Ramabadran

[ARCL] Game #1 Report: Stealth-MSCC vs Fubar at Lynnwood on Sunday, July 27th @ 10:30 AM

What a different game of Cricket !!!!

I would like to thank you all the players for making it to the game. This game of cricket had all the drama other than cricket that you would normally see in a Bollywood comic thriller.

Players agreeing to play and dropping out and all the last minute effort to make a playing 8.

The Summer League for the ARCL version of cricket started on in wet/rainy conditions for Stealth playing for the first time in the "C" division. I have always reiterated that the games are very competitive in every division irrespective of what constitutes a team.

When I reached the ground at 10:15 AM, there were only the 3 of us (Venkat, Chandra and myself). And the FAQ about Stealth - are there more players coming to play, Oh! we are only playing with 6 players etc? Azeem (who volunteered to umpire the 7:45 AM game - and after making it to the ground so early and after waiting until 8:15 AM - one team does not even show up & he calls off the game - which forces Azeem to come all the way back to Bellevue from Lynnwood - because his socks are soaking wet ;)) who picked up Avinash and Yogesh (Avinash's roommate who was kind enough to come and play for us) showed up at 10:30 AM. We won the toss and given the number of players on the field the best option was to bat. When I called Imran (who was coming with Bilal) he mentioned that he was on his way and would be there shortly. I made a brave decision that we will be fielding first hoping to buy some time before Imran and Bilal show up. I told umpire Gaurav (who looked inexperienced) that I am short of 2 players who would be joining shortly (a fair estimate of 10:45 AM).

Venkat and Chandra bowled very nicely in their debut game in ARCL with 4 fielders (super tough on a pitch and outfield of the Lynnwood grounds). Fubar a good energetic team batted sensibly getting 6-7 every over and taking advantage of lesser number of fielders. Venkat in his 3rd over (5th over of the Fubar innings) came back strongly to take 2 wickets to peg back Fubar on a defensive mindset from an aggressive mindset. Avinash came in as first change (6th over) and was bang on target making the batsman manufacture shots. While all this was going on I was using all the delay techniques (evn though it was very obvious but could not do much stuff - throwing the ball to all parts of the park, removing the wicket keeping gloves and inners and putting them on, dusting them) from my cricketing playing experience I could implement so that Imran and Bilal would show up on the ground. One such incident was an edge over keeper's (myself) head and ball went towards the boundary but did not go all the way through. The leg umpire (Sagar - Fubar's captain) called it a boundary and I went on a frenzy that the umpire did not see and have it rely on the fielder's call. Even tough I was urging the umpire to make a fair call, my eyes were always looking in the corner of 164th and Larch Way hopeful to see the Green Jaguar that Imran drives. Still no hope. After the 6th over the batting side as well as the umpire throw a bomb at me saying at the end of 8 overs if the players do not show up then there would be no addition to team.

I told the umpire that needs to check with ARCL Management before he can make that decision. I come in and bowled the 7th over and Avinash bowled the 8th over (with as many delay tactics as possible). Now that 8 overs are bowled the decision of how many players Stealth-A can play the erst if the game with was more prominent than the excitement of Imran and Bilal coolly walking into the field as if taking an evening stroll in a park. After a very long deliberation (almost an 1/2 hr delay with calling up of several folks in ARCL) & with me finally able to convince Faisal that since ARCl does not have it up on the rule book then they should allow it.

With a pinch of salt, Fubar was sportive enough to say "Game is on now!!". Finally the opponents scored 95 in their allocated 16 overs for 3 wickets.

We started off badly with Venkat (0 in 2 balls) falling in the first over (0/1) and then Bilal (9 in 10 balls - 5 dots, 3 x[1], 1 x [2], 1 x [4]) in the 3rd over (11/2). Vishwa joined opener Avinash and were stiched a good partnership of 28 runs including an all run 4 of a ball played out to point in the 3rd over. With the score reading at 39/2 in the last ball of 8th over Avinash (11 in 21 balls - 13 dots, 7 x[1], 1 x [4]) fell to an unfortunate runout and the balance tilted in Fubar's favor with Stealth requiring 57 runs in 8 overs. Azeem joined Vishwa and both started to look for runs to keep the required run rate at a attainable rate. The 9th over resulted in 13 runs with the score at 52/3. The 10th over was a maiden over played out by Vishwa which made Azeem say from the other end .. "Just give the strike back to me".

But the real drama happened in the 1st ball of the 11th over. Umpire called a no-ball with the bowler bowling left arm round the wicket after having bowled the 9th over last ball left arm over the wicket. The umpire was right but the entire team of Fubar was really upset. Such that the 9th player barged into the field and was also shouting that the umpire cannot it. In the midst of this Azeem just lost his cool and started going right after the 9th player asking him to leave the field. The opponent player was in no mood to listen to Azeem's yelling at him and this caused even more agony to Azeem to which he started shouting and urging him to leave the field and finally pushed and shoved him around and abusing him to leave the field. The entire team of Fubar was furious with Azeem with me trying to pacify Azeem and also cool down the Fubar team. Finally after 5 minutes of utter mayhem every one came back to their senses and the game continued.

This drama fired up Azeem. He was whiplashing every ball with some much power that even a single become a automatic 2. The 11th over yielded 12 runs & the score read 64/3. The 7th over yielded 7 runs. Of the 2nd ball of the 13th over Azeem (18 in 16 balls - 8 dots, 2 x [1], 4 x [2], 2 x [4]) holed out after the pair had added 33 runs in 4.2 overs with the score at 72/4 after 12.2 overs. Stealth-A required 24 runs in 22 balls with 3 wickets in hand and the game was delicately balanced. The 13 thover yielded 3 runs and the score at 75/4. The fruitful 14th over fetched 14 runs with 2 boundaries by Vishwa and the score read 88/4. End of 15th over the score was 94/4. Imran played a gem of an innings extending support to Vishwa to notch up the required runs in the 2nd ball of the last over with Vishwa deservingly hitting the winning boundary. Vishwa remained unbeaten on 44 (in 39 balls - 19 dots, 9 x[1], 5 x [2], 1 x [3], 4 x [4], 1 x [6]) and Imran unbeaten on 6 (in 6 balls - 1 dot, 4 x[1], 1 x [2]).

As soon as the game got over, Azeem comes up to me and says .. "let me leave the field, as this guys may call the cops" and thus he flees the ground. :)

Vishwa was declared Man of the Match. Attached is the score of the game as well as the letter by Fubar's captain to ARCL Management.

This would indeed be a memorable match for me not because of my performance but for the drama that happened and that is why I took some time & effort to write this so that we all can laugh over it down the line. ;)

-- Start - Letter from Sagar - Fubar's captain --

Hello ARCL Management,

We had a couple of issues yesterday at Lynnwood during the Div c match between fubar and Stealth A.
1) Stealth A started the game with 6 players fielding and there remaining 2 players arrived after 8 overs were bowled. One of them started bowling immediately (9th over to be accurate). Please make a point about this rule on your website that if the players who don't show up after certain number of overs being bowled will not be able to play the entire game or will be allowed to play irrespective of when they show up.

2) Umpire from Mavericks gave a no ball (while Fubar was bowling) because the bowler didn't call his action. It was my bowlers second spell and he had already mentioned his action in the previous 2 overs.

The rule book clearly says:
# The umpire should ask the bowling action from the bowler. It's not a No-ball if the player doesn't call his action.
I tried explaining this to the umpire but it was in vain.

Vishwa - I am not formally lodging a complain against one of your players for using a foul language, literally manhandling one of my extra players and threatening me as well during the altercation. But please make sure he behaves himself henceforth appropriately. My team doesn't believe in complaining and getting a player suspended/fined.

Regards
Sagar.(FUBAR)

-- End - Letter from Sagar - Fubar's captain --

-- Vishwa
PS: Avinash please forward this to Yogesh and do thank him for his superlative effort.

Match: Stealth-A vs Fubar
Team 1: Stealth-A
Team 2: Fubar
Venue: Lynnwood
Umpire: Gaurav (Mavericks)
Toss: Stealth-A
Date: July 27 2008
Result: Stealth-A won
MoM: Vishwa Gaddamanugu (Stealth-A)

Fubar Innings
1 Rahul B (not out) 38
2 Rahul T bowled Venkat V 14
3 Vijay bowled Venkat V 0
4 Sagar bowled Avinash U 16
5 Ram (not out) 1
6 Nagesh did not bat
7 Nilesh P did not bat
8 Bhaskar did not bat
Extras 25
Overs 16 Total 95
Rate 5.9 Wickets 3

Stealth-A Wd NB Ov Md Ru Wi
1 Venkat V 8 4 0 27 2
2 Chandra B 7 1 2 0 15 0
3 Avinash U 2 4 0 20 1
4 Vishwa G 5 4 0 22 0
5 Imran G 2 2 0 10 0
24 1 16 0 95 3

Stealth-A Innings
1 Venkat V c Sagar b Nagesh 0
2 Avinash U r/o Rahul B 11
3 Bilal R bowled Nagesh 9
4 Vishwa G (not out) 44
5 Azeem K c Nagesh b Bhaskar 18
6 Imran G (not out) 6
7 Chandra B did not bat
8 Yogesh P did not bat
Extras 11
Overs 15.2 Total 99
Rate 6.46 Wickets 4

Fubar Wd NB Ov Md Ru Wi
1 Nagesh 4 4.0 40 2
2 Bhaskar 2 1 4.0 1 10 1
3 Rahul B 1 1 4.0 21 0
4 Rahul T 1 1 3.2 28 0
8 3 15.2 1 99 3