Second match.

So we turned up for our second match being quite confident. We faced the Cook XI. (who would prove themselves to be the most versatile team in the competition)

It was played at Melba, a ground that was my home ground before as I played with NorthSide Lightning. So I had very fond memories of this ground. It is a good ground with normally a fast outfield but the bowling end from one side is a real problem if there has been rain on any day just before the night. It goes underwater literally.

Once again we batted and it wasn't easy going for our batsmen. We are a young team with a lot of new players (including me) so we had yet to find a proper batting order that would allow us to make the best of our respective abilities.  But we did what we could with what we had.

The Cook XI is an interesting team in my opinion, they have a very varied bowling attack. A lot of medium bowlers who bowl a lot of cutters and take the pace off the ball. The bowling is quite effective in this grade, as they take the pace off the ball and make it very hard to hit, so if you try and force the pace you have to make the force yourself. And their Captain is a very good all rounder. He bowls very good inswing and also is a hard hitting opening batsman. (I found out about his cricketing ability on both accounts in this game)

I think as our innings labored along, the opposition captain settled into a big spell and took 3 wickets, he cleaned up the middle order including Zeeshan with a massive inswinger. As I faced my first ball from him, I had almost gotten the same result, I just managed to get my bat down to a massive inswinger. The problem was that he was swinging it in the air and off the wicket...so as my batting coaches in Melbourne would say, "Get your front foot out!" So I planted my front foot outside of the line of the offstump and tried to play around it.(which is a very awkward way to play, but according to the rules of cricket, if the impact of the ball is outside the line of the stumps, then it is deemed not out) Thankfully he wasn't too quick, so I was able to play him with some difficulty but no undue alarm.

After that I took my time to settle in, knowing that I had around 15-17 overs to bat and tried to just take advantage of the fact that they were all inside of the circle trying to get us out. Chanced my arm a few times and connected fairly well. Hit a couple of big sixes straight down the ground as well to bolster my own confidence a tad.

Personal note: ( I always have enjoyed hitting the ball straight back over the bowler's head. With most medium pace bowlers and spinners, I don't need too much invitation to go back down over their heads as I am quite confident that either I will clear the fence or hit it flat enough. But I do try to not hit the ball down there if a fielder is posted there.

I always think that batting is a lot more about personal resolve. You don't need to have all the shots in the game, you can do quite well with what shots you can play effectively. You simply need to understand where your scoring areas are and try and stick to that. I always prided myself on a strong defense, so that if I didn't play anything silly, I wouldn't be dismissed on my own accord but rather that the bowler would have to do something special to get me out.

As my good friend from Melbourne, Jacob Attwood, once said to me, runs are a by product of the occupation of the crease. So if you occupy the crease long enough, runs will come of their own accord.

I always used to hear about batsmen saying to get your eye in and then play your shots, I think this is what they sort of refer to. When you feel a bit more comfortable then you can play your shots. Personally, it took me a long time to understand what the hell that meant. I used to be very jittery and nervous and could never understand when to attack and when to defend.

So basically, in the pre season, I played as many games as I could and finally it came to me as to what I wanted to do with my batting. I simply was going to occupy the crease and play only the shots that I could play, so the straight drive, flick off the pads and off drive. No cross bat shots until I was well set.

It was what I was comfortable with and what I stuck with. )

Back to the game:

I ended up with 30 not out that game. And we ended up with almost the same score as we had last time around. It was the same thing again, where we had to take quick wickets and try and get them out.

The run up was quite good on that day and I started quite well. I got one opener out with a nice outswinger that went nicely into the hands of my wicket keeper.

The next one I got with the inswinger that cleaned up the number 3 batsman. The batsmen simply played down the wrong line and the ball hit the top of the off stump. I was pretty pumped up after this and started to run in harder now. The Captain of the Cook XI was the other opener and he seemed to have all the shots, he played some nice lofted shots at first and then I bowled a short one that he top edged but no one could get to it. Tested him again in the next over I bowled and the same thing happened again, and then after that I was hit for a huge six over square leg. I thought I could get him out at anytime as he was playing so many shots, but I was conceding a lot of runs, I had given away a lot of boundaries, but with all my fielders in the circle it was always going to happen with a fast outfield, anything even mistimed over the infield was carrying to the boundary. But the opposition captain literally single handedly took the match away from us. He batted us out of the game making a massive 80 not out. Nathan bowled really well and swung the ball massively and took four wickets.

It was a close match, we had fought hard but come up short. (sadly this would be the curse of our season)

Scorecard can be found below (the bowling figures weren't pretty for me):

Scoreboard for the Match

First Match

In my first match with Australian National University (ANU) cricket club, we played against the Brewers Best at a ground that seemed that it needed a lot of grooming, but since it’s the same for both sides, we didn't complain too much about it. (well we did, but it didn't matter). 

Well...maybe this isn't the most accurate representation of the grass there...there was no cattle present!

Our captain won the toss and we elected to bat and thus it began. Our openers looked a bit shaky, but the bowling was very wayward to my liking, a lot of balls were down leg and not really given wides (due to the nature of the grade, but seriously..just so you can simply roll your arm over doesn't mean that you can simply make the ball pitch on the ground, not caring for where it is heading!) there was an absolute multitude of deliveries that were down leg and since they don't get penalized, it just went down as dot balls. I personally really wish that there was some kind of rule that was agreed upon by the association and all the teams would stick to it.

Such bowling concessions coupled with a slow outfield meant that we limped manfully to a total that seemed under par to me. But the grass was so thick in places that it resembled a swamp, so carefully hit drives would not go anywhere. I made 20 not out and hit a 6 (my first of the season) off an off spinner that was talking a tad too much for my liking.  Zeeshan (Zeeshy) batted really well and made a fluent 33 from memory.  We did manage to bat out all of our overs which was excellent in my opinion.

Not batting out the overs is almost criminal in this format, with the amount of loose deliveries on offer and also the fact that you keep the opposition out in the field, and specially when it happens to be a bit hot, every moment that you can keep them out there is crucial.

I think our batting improved constantly as the competition went on.

I had been informed by my captain that I would be opening the bowling for our team.  I personally hadn't opened the bowling for  a long time. I always enjoy my bowling but I always prefer to actually bowl with the semi new ball, bowling first change. It allows me to actually control my swing and my bowling rhythm is easier to come by.

Personal note: (There is a certain feeling that comes with holding the ball for some bowlers. I used to prefer holding the semi new ball in my fingers and not have the hard seam cut into my fingers as it is with the new ball and so I would run my fingers down either side of the seam and get it to move in which direction I wanted it to go. Also in practice we hadn't been using new balls, I had just been using the older ball, trying to understand how to get some reverse swing. I also use a slightly different grip with the 2 piece ball, having a slightly more open and looser grip so that I can control it better.
Watching a lot of Mohammad Asif  and Mohammad Amir, and the way they use their wrists and fingers it seems that they have very loose wrists and fingers to allow the ball to be delivered with more backspin on it. There is also a certain amount of scrambled seam involved on the release from the ball which doesn't allow it to be picked from the hand at the best of times.

The 2 piece ball swings a bit too much at times, with a wider grip of the fingers on the ball, I find that I could negate the amount of swing that I was getting.)

Mohammad Asif/Mohammad Amir Tribute video

The opposition was quite aggressive in the beginning, I was smacked for a big straight six back over my head. I was really surprised at that, and both of the openers hit me for boundaries as I was too straight and couldn't swing the ball as I wanted to.

It was hard to run in on that ground so my rhythm was very disrupted, I kept on slipping every time I tried to actually run in on my run up. I slid a few balls down leg side, and actually that was how I got my first wicket, a ball sliding down leg and got the edge and was taken by my keeper effortlessly. (after all my complaining about the "freaking leg side bowling by the opposition" so I didn't really celebrate too much.)

Seeing how the batsmen were hitting straight or rather trying to, I posted my fielders on mid on and mid off a tad deep and bowled straighter and fuller to encourage them to do so. The second opener soon obliged and was caught at mid on. I had bowled a few wide of off stump and then bowled one from closer to the stumps and that would be fuller but cramping them for room.

The quality of batsmen that now followed weren't all that good to be honest, I could tell from their techniques and batting stances that it wouldn't take too much to make them collapse. (Not trying to be arrogant here, but you can tell from the quality of cricketers on the opposition that this wasn't their first choice team)

One batsmen wasn't moving his feet too much so I tried to bowl at his stumps, and followed up with a yorker from wide of the stumps that was inside edged onto the stumps.

I followed up with my fourth wicket after that with one that was simply a ball that was a length ball that the batsmen tried to drive on the up and instead got a leading edge that popped up nicely for gully.

After that, the fight went out of the opposition and the other bowlers in the team chipped in with wickets, I bowled out all of my overs and went past the edge a few times and the stumps as well, but that elusive five-for remained exactly that ...elusive.

But we won the first game as the opposition collapsed quite effectively and the boys cleaned up really well.

I wasn't particularly happy with my bowling as I had literally bowled without any rhythm, but normally I find that whenever I do so I take a lot more wickets!

Match details and scoreboard can be found on the link below:

Scoreboard