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
Wednesday, July 30, 2008
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