Wednesday Winner ...

Congrats to all the winners in each category.

This blog is particularly for my team mate Sridhar, who has been really one of the Best bowlers in TCA till now.

After reading this blog and stats, you can decide does he not deserve an award for his efforts and figures ?

No offense here to any player or individual. This is what I have experienced and noticed, just putting everything on the paper. Not at all trying to influence the results nor expecting any justification. I am writing all these things because I have been following my team stats from the day one I have joined them. If you look into your own team stats, you also may come up with something more interesting. I am taking examples of just my team members. There could be many other people who may be so close but never got noticed.

I will take you back in Open 2008

Sridhar was not selected for award because he had more Eco than the bowler which was selected. Although he had more number of wickets and one match less then the other player.

Stats

Bowler Sridhar - 18 wickets, 4.39 economy --- Not selected

Bowler XYZ - 17 wickets, 2.82 economy ---- Selected

In KO 2009

ABC was given best bowler above Sridhar because he had played one match less. Although from stats its very clear Sridhar had more no.of wickets less Eco.

Stats P O M R W v Ecn.

Sridhar 5 13.0 1 39 11 3.00 ---- Not selected

ABC 4 12.0 0 53 10 4.41 ---- Selected

In Open 2009

Open 2009 has had lots of ups and down. There have been head to head matches and points table have been really close. I am sure it must be equally difficult to decide the Best category awards.

I am just going to talk about Best Bowler category.

Three winners

• Ambarish - Bhola XI

• Ananth - Packers CC

• Anand - Centurions

Stats for them

Ambarish - Bhola XI

6 20.4 2 51 13 2.46

3 6.1 0 19 4 3.07

==================

9 26.5 2 70 17 2.60

Ananth - Packers CC

6 19.0 4 50 9 2.63

3 10.5 5 22 8 2.03

=================

9 29.5 9 72 17 2.41

Anand - Centurions

6 23.2 4 64 11 2.74

3 12.0 0 35 7 2.91

===============

9 35.2 4 99 18 2.80

If we go with previous logic and stats which had been used in previous competitions then why are these people not chosen for the Best bowler category.

Ankur Jain Strikers

5 14.0 4 34 10 2.42

3 12.0 1 45 7 3.75

===============

8 16 5 79 17 3.03

He has less number of matches then other players in present Best category award list.

Parimal SE11

4 14.0 1 63 9 4.50

3 10.0 0 31 7 3.10

==============

7 24 1 94 16 3.91

He has 2 matches less then other guys.

Finally Sridhar,

5 17.0 3 44 10 2.58

1 4.0 1 5 5 1.25

=============

6 21 4 49 15 2.33

He has 3 matches less and one of the Best Eco over other players in the tournament.

Sridhar you rock man, no matter what is the process of selecting the Best category. I think you deserve appreciation and your efforts must not go unnoticed at all. Keep bowling better and faster, no doubt you are the spearhead of our team.

Go Sri Go ...

More stats

Over all in 2009 P O M R W v Ecn.

1st position Chirag Patel (Bhola XI Cricket Club) 22 74.5 6 220 34 2.93

2nd Position sridhar Reddy (SE 11) 19 52.0 7 156 33 3.00

But not yet received a single award :) hopefully something big coming on your way.

Winners never loose and losers never win.

Here is SE11 spear head. Are you ready to face Sridhar Reddy in FLT 2009.

FLT 2009 count down ha begun ... Did you register your team if not better do it now before all slots gets filled up.

http://www.tennisballcricket.org/index.php?option=com_content&view=article&id=161:3rd-annual-tca-flood-light-tournament-flt&catid=78:bay-area-stories

Friday French Fries ...

Champions trophy has already started this week. Lot of live cricket and action pack weeks coming ahead. As top 8 teams of the world compete for their spot to hold on to the Champions trophy, we too have top 8 teams in both Elite and Royal battling to reach the top and grab TCA Open 2009 trophy.

This week its going to be do or die for each team. I am not going to talk about any team here, lets talk about top players in both Round 1 and Round 2 whose contribution brought their teams to Play Off.

There are many talented players who have given their Best this season but I have chosen only those players whose teams are in Play off. So no offense to others.

Bijoy (Rangers) Rd1(4-135-13-3) (Matches-Runs-4s-6s)

He one of the dangerous attacking batsman, who already have played some big innings. Power hitter, once he keeps going difficult to stop him. From last couple of matches, its very clear get him out early in his innings within 5 runs or wait for him to score huge 35+ runs with couple of huge 6s and smashing 4s.

Keep bowling on the stumps as he has been bowled out couple of times and do not give him room to free his arms. Deep Mid wicket player and Deep square leg will be Important fielders.

Ganesh (Warriors) Rd1(5-102-6-0)

He one of the unorthodox batsman I have seen in TCA. He has great talent and creates his own shoots. Very quick in running between the wickets can easily converts ones into twos. Is in good nick these days and delivered whenever warriors require it the most. Not to forget he can bat at any positions. One of the best fielder on warriors side.

Bowl him outside the off stumps and try to get runout people on the other end running with him ;). Backward short leg or deep fine leg can be handy fielders to stop his runs.

Chiranjibi (Catalysters) (9-164-6-1)

He is top contender for All rounder award in Open 2009. He is in such a good nick, runs are just flowing from his bat. Good in off and keeps the score board moving with one and twos. Straight bat shots are his patent shots. Do not under estimate him once he builds up his innings can make the ball travel behind the boundary lines. Very discipline bowler with off stump line and hits the ball right on the deck. Be happy to get him off the with some 15-20 runs of 4 overs or else be ready to give away your wickets to him.

Get him out as fast has possible before he sets up the platform for Cats. Seems to be slow in running between the wickets as got out couple of times run out during last matches. Long on or short midd off will be key players to get his wicket.

Ananth (Packers) (9-17~2.75) (Matches-Wickets-Ecoroughly)

Perfect package as opening bowler. He is leading Packers right now with his dam accuracy and unplayable deliveries. He is in such a form that every ball delivered is almost a wicket. He can taken most of wickets in edges and clean bowled. Most of the wickets are top order batsman.

Just get rid of him guys and save your wickets ;) to attack other bowlers. Every wicket counts :D

Ambarish (Bhoal XI) (9-17~2.75)

Match winner for Bhola XI. 13 MOM already in his bag out of which 7 in 2009 leading the MOM table. On a given day he is dangerous batsman, who can score all around the ground. As a bowler, unexpectedly quick and bouncy. You can get in trap of his slower-ones or full tosses too. Sticks to his line and length. Could be frustration for the batsman when is bowling in his rhythm. Bowls in middle of the innings.

Best way to get rid of his bowling, attack him initially when he not yet settle down :)

If I do not restrict myself here, I will go on and on ... :)

So here are the Key Players in each team on which match result could be very important. All the data in the blog are as per my assumption I can be wrong. ;) just like last week. These days working on my numbers and figures to get it right :D

As per entered detail scorecards from our wonderful site :

Royal

Sloggers - Key players - Sumant, Charan, Kedar Secret Weapon - Samrat

99ers - KP(Sankalp, Rushil) SW(Tejas)

Nexus - KP(Gagan, Divesh) SW(Sachin)

Discers - KP(Abhishek, Srinivas) SW(Vijay C)

Panters - KP(Sreenu, Yalla S,Tarun) SW(Raghav)

Chargers - KP(Vishnu, Promod) SW(Praveen)

Sharks - KP(Satish, Srinivas) SW(Rana)

Thunderbolt - Key players - Vishy, Kiran, Sagar Secret Weapon - Sidharth

Elite

Packer - KP(Anath, Sujan, Praveen) SW(Jayanath)

Warriors - KP(Ganesh,Vijay,Srini) SW(Srikanth)

Spanglers - KP(Amrish,Imran,Ravi) SW(Avthar)

Catalysters - KP(Chiranjibi,Rohan,Kartik) SW(Ganpathi)

Bhola XI - KP(Amrish,Chirag,Chintan) SW(Sachin)

Strikers - KP(Ankur,Praveen) SW(Viral)

Cheenai 94086 - KP(Srikanth,Sridharan) SW(Harish)

Rangers - KP(Bijoy,Prajwal,Kalyan) SW(Hemanth)

Today's Bet count :

Packers - Rangers : 16:4 --- My bet on Rangers

Cheenai 94086 - Warriors : 16:8 ---- My bet on Warriors

Chargers - Nexus : 10:12 ---- My bet on Nexus

99ers - Sharks : 12:6 --- My bet on Sharks

Spanglers - Strikers : 16:12 --- My bet on Spanglers

Bhola - Catalysters : 15:16 --- My bet on Cats

Sloggers - Thunderbolt : 12:6 --- My bet on Sloggers

Discers - Panthers : 6:12 --- My bet on Panthers

What are your bets on ... Time to make some money :)

Keep Smiling Always

All the Best for the games

Dharme

Monday Mistakes ...

What a way to finish the Round 2 of Open 2009

Congrats to all the teams who made their way to top 8 spots both in Elite and Royal.

Today's blog is for our team SE11. I really have to apologize and thanks each team member to back me up and help to come out of my frustration.

I know every one is really upset and felling down after yesterday's macth.

Here is my story how SE11 was out of the race because of me.

Error is to human, but how about the error which affects entire team. Everyone knew wining game against Yorkers was important and wining with bonus points was must.

So we had decided to be positive and win for qualifying to the top 8.

SE11 as a team we always play positive and sportive cricket come what may. Our passion, practice and craze for cricket has brought us on the top of the tables recently in really short time of TCA history.

After wining the toss we decided to field and restrict Yorkers below 60s or so. Bowling and fielding recently have added flavor to our team. We dropped few catches in begining and got unlucky by some odd bounce which cost us some extra runs. Guess what we restricted yorkers for 64 runs. They were all down in 19 overs.

Great bowling by Sridhar, who once again proved he is one of the Best bowler in both SE11 and TCA. Overall bowling from all the blowers and fielding was awesome.

Our target was not so big, we have batting talent which can easily case this target in given 20 overs. But it was matter of getting into spot 8. I did the calculation and came out with the numbers. Here is the climax of the story.

To get 2 bonus points we needed to chase the score in some 12 overs was our first target to avoid complicated run rate calculation. I decided to do overall run rate calculation and came out with the numbers. God knows how I got 13 which really turned out to be unlucky one. We started with non regular openers and lost couple of quick wickets. But soon we were right on the track. In 10 overs we were 48/5. So next target was 17 of 12 or 18 balls, with 5 wickets in hand. In 11th over we lost Rahul the man in form and so we decided to go for 13 overs to chase the target. But fortune did not supported us and we lost Parthan got stumped out to get the target in 12 overs and we were left with me and Sridhar on the crease 14 of 12 balls. 12th over we lost Sridhar bowled due to an odd bounce but got 7 runs of the over. Now me and Manny at the crease 7 runs 6 balls. 1st ball single by Manny, 2nd ball we ran 2 right in fielders hand, 3rd ball was the ball which I doubt I will forget in my life time. I tried to be innovative and hit up in the air and was caught, poor shot selection and really irresponsible one can play in given situation. 4th ball was the dot ball so pressure was on the batsman at the crease. 5th ball was single. Last ball 3 runs needed. Ketan bhai could not connect the ball and we just gave up and Manny was run out.

There was no regreets of the loss because we went for win in given limited overs of target as per my calculation.

Guess what It was not my day. After match Amol and I did the calculations again and we were shocked to see the new number. It was some 14.4 overs. I was already no able to digest the loss due to my bad shot selection, now my miss calculation of run rate added more frustration to my mind and I am not able to come out of it till now.

I taught this blog will help me to plead sorry to my team members who did their best this season and proved to TCA teams that do not take us for granted any more we are one of the toughest team to be beaten. There are no regrets for the loss. Losses are part of the game.

This season has given us lot of learnings. Main points to noted are Practice makes Man perfect, Stick to the basics, Keep the things simple, Play with mind and not with heart, Play cricket and do not focus on the useless unwanted disturbance outside the game and last but not the least get your maths correct :)

Hope this blog will help each and everyone in coming future and avoid unnecessary frustration to your head.

I thanks my team to be nice and supportive. I think I lost the match and day for them but gain their true friendship and companionship today.

Go SE11 Go ... I am proud to be part of SE11

Friday French Fries ...

This week in sports there are lot many upsets like Nadal, Federer and Sareena loosing in US open. Hot favorite Sri Lanka lost the finals while Australia convincingly wining 6 matches in a row.
So anything and everything possible.

I have not seen so close points table before this tournament, where everything and anything is possible. It can be anyones game, if bookies have to play a gamble and do match fixing, this week belongs to them and make lot of money. Anyone interested for our team ;) drop me a mail :D
It not just win matters this week for couple of teams, who big they can win are going to make difference.

Spanglers are in 100% with 3 wins
As Acers has decided to forfeit the match

Cheenai 94086 17 - Cheenai Veerans 2 @ TR
If Cheenai Wins and with bonus points 1=+ they are in safe zone.
But they loose they are out for sure.
Cheenai Veerans are 100% out :) sorry guys but I had lot of hopes on you guys.
They had played some real good cricket since they have been to TCA.
They have already defeated Cheenai 94086 in past. So hoping they defeat again them and create another upset in tournament.

Ranger 16 - MCC 19 @JH1
If MCC wins they are 100% in top 8
and Rangers go out of the race.
But
If Rangers wins they have to win with bonus points 2+= to be in safe zone
and MCC is out of the race.
Both Teams like to Bat first after winning the toss, and who does not like to bat at JH1. Expecting 250+ for the game. Match is going to be really interesting one. I think I may land up to see this match.

Star cc - Bhola XI @ Backesto
If Star cc win they are 100% in
and Bhola XI are out
But
If Bhola XI wins they have to win at least 1=+ bonus points to be on safer side
and Star cc are out
Interesting facts are both teams have Tie against each other, no.of toss won are same 42, Bhola XI likes to bat first while Star cc likes to field first. Both teams have players with lot of TCA experience.

Kasturi Pade VS Packers @ JH1
If Packers wins they are on top of the table 100%
and they loose they still will be in Top 8
But ... no buts in this case
Kasturi Pade are out for 100% after loosing two back to back matches.
But win here can give them lot of confidence and pride.
In this practice match, players will be playing individually for their awards. Ananth will try to reach on top 1 in bowling while Chetan from Kasturi Pade will try to grab Third MOM in the row.

Catalysters vs Champion cc @TR
If Catalysters wins they are mostly in
and Champion cc are out
But
If Champion cc wins they are mostly in
and Catalysters are out
But both teams require 1=+ bonus points to confirm their spot in top 8
Thomas Russel is home ground for Cats so they know how to play on this ground very well, but not to forget Champion cc are in real good nick. Moreover match has to be really interesting with two big All- Rounders playing on opposite side : Jimmy Raja and Ganu

Strikers vs Centurions @ JH2
If strikers win they have to win big at least 2+ bonus points to make sure they are in top 8
and centurions are out
But
Same goes for centurions they have to win with 2+ bonus points
and Strikers are out
Centurions have not lost any game on JH2 while Strikers have not lost against Centurions, so let see who keeps the record count moving. Recently JH2 has delivered some interesting results between top team, let see what will be outcome of the match this time.

Warriors vs Beamers @ Karl Nordvik
If Beamers win they have to win with 2+ bonus points
and warriors has to get get 1+ bonus to be on safer side
But
If Beamers loose ... they are out
and Warriors 100% confirmed
Warriors have crossed the milestone of 101 matches in style last week, while Beamers have played almost half of the matches as of Warriors. Intresting thing to note will be they both have not yet been defeated on Karl Nordvik ground :)

Yorkers vs SE11 @JH2
If yorkers win they need 2+ bonus points to make sure they are safe
and SE11 are out
But
If SE11 win its going to be same for them 2+ bonus points to be in the race
and Yorkers go home
Both teams have lost only twice on JH2 let see whose equation changes. They have not played against each other before so going to be tricky business for both teams in terms of strategy and attacking each other.

In Royal group things are cool and steady ...
Mostly Sloggers, Pantehrs, Discers, 99ers, Nexus CC, Sharks , Chargers have made their way to QF

Chake De, Thunderbolt and Chuma TP are edge of the river.
Win for them can help them reserve their spot in top 8.
But again bonus points are going to decide the overall table.

Friday French Fries ...

“No matter how tough, no matter what kind of outside pressure, no matter how many bad breaks along the way, I must keep my sights on the final goal, to win, win, win -- and with more love and passion than the world has ever witnessed in any performance.”

So many things happening around the world

India wining their first match and knocking out black cats of the tournament Australia back in wining form - http://www.cricinfo.com/

US open getting more exciting - http://www.usopen.org/en_US/index.html

Lots of ups and down in share market - http://finance.yahoo.com/

Apple releasing their new products - http://www.apple.com/hotnews/

Break after long weekend, I hope everyone is ready for more action coming weekend.

“Pressure makes diamonds.”

Open 2009 tournament has been really one of the best tournament as far as overall competition is into consideration. With new teams challenging the potential of top teams, records being broken every week and every team is on their toe to be in the competition. In fact no team is sure whether they are in top 8 spot or not. Doors are open for all.

After lot of close matches in Round 2 Match one, here are the teams who will battle for their chances to be in top 8 while loosing team will be definitely out of the race.

Elite

Acers vs Strikers (3-0)

Acer though have 100% winning record, but they have been out of form in this tournament lately. Stikers on other hand are at topmost form and would like to repeat their wining performance just like finals of KO at JH1. Strikers have lost only once at JH1 while Acers have lost twice. So its anybody's game. I would love to see this match. Any guess what will be the score if both team plays to their full potential.

Kasturi Pade vs Star cc (3-2)

Though wining ratio in favor of Kasturi Pade this game is not going to be so easy. This tournament Star cc had been really doing good till the last match. But rightly said cricket is funny game. Chetan and Kurlmil from Kasturi Pade will be men to be checked out, while Star cc they have various star under the checking radar as every match some new talent or player comes ahead and win them a match. Both teams had been in TCA for long time so they know each others game really well. Past history on JH2 for both these teams have been bad with most of them

Beamers vs Cheenai Veerans (0-0)

These teams have not played with each other. So its going to be a surprise package for both the teams. Seeing the Past record we have something interesting here : Cheenai Veerans wins the Toss and like batting first plus they have most of their matches by batting first, so they have good bowling attack. Beamers on other hand seems to be more like batting team as they have made good score batting first and chased down couple of matches batting second. In short you can say its going to be Bating vs Bowling.

While for some teams its must win to be in competition

Bhola XI and Centurions, its must win for them after loosing their first match in Round 2

Royal

Thunderbolt vs Lethal CC

Lethal CC are new to the TCA so not much history behind them, so they can be unpredictable. To join most competitive tournament in Bayarea, itself s proof that they are ready for any big competition. On the other hand Thuderbolt is hungry for runs and win.

Must win game for:

Mustang vs Sloggers

Mavericks vs Panthers

Sat cc vs Nexus

Royal XI vs Sharks

Gosips

1. Chuma TP chasing one of the highest total in TCA history 138/4 in just 19 overs at JH1. They proved that on JH1 any score is chase able.

2. Spanglers beat Centurions comfortably

3. Rangers beat Acers convincingly

4. MCC strikes out Strikers

5. Packers packed up Bhola XI for 16 in one of the lowest score in Open 2009.

6. 11 Teams scoring 100+ runs in the innings.

7. Explore new features on web site for more stats