cricket loonies on the grass

Murder by Cricket

2007-04-26T15:33:00.000-04:00

http://sports.espn.go.com/espn/eticket/story?page=woolmer

Here is an article from ESPN.com covering the death of woolmer and a general American perspective on the happenings!

Spotted!

2007-04-13T12:02:00.000-04:00

I was going through the sports section of REDIFF this morning and what do I see? For your eyes only gentlemen....I present Jishawn! BTW where was Fartman?

The link for the article: http://www.rediff.com/wc2007/2007/apr/12spotted.htm

Beer taste

2007-01-19T17:55:00.000-05:00

1. XINGU (shin-goo') Black Beer
Brazil beer.Slightly bitter in taste, awesome, crisp, its a black lager.Origin dates back to 1557 in Amazon forests by Indian tribes.
2. Pacifico ClaraMexican beer.Crisp, light, and no strong aroma. Decent beer.
3. DON.DE.DIEUCanadian beer. Leaves sweet flavor after the sip. Its refermented in the bottle. Its nice except for the fruity sweet flavor it leaves, may be a good one for chics.
4. HOFBRAU MUNCHEN. German Beer, slight bitter, light aroma, nice wheat flavor.
5. 1554 from New Belgium BeerCrisp, dark, and chocolate coffee finsih with it, its a like light Guinness. But this one finishes clear.
6. Asahi Beer. Japanese Amber, crisp, enough bitter, clear finish. It should be complemented with barbecued pork chops.
7. Tsingtao. Chinese BeerCrisp, bitter, quick clear finish.

Josh by former member Shailesh a.k.a Paki

2006-08-08T12:33:00.000-04:00

A former member of the club, Shailesh Jindal a.k.a Paki, whom some of you might remember forwarded this creation of his. Absolutely hilarious. Since it consists of some aspects of his cricketing skills which were on display during the CLNJ season of 2003, I thought it was a perfect blog material.

Enjoy!

RG or smart website management

2006-07-27T18:48:00.000-04:00

I manage the website for the club (Thank you...thank you, pats myself on the back). We have the usual stat software running in the background on who all visit the website. Since the new version of the web went online on April 21st, we have had over 1500 visitors with an average of around 20 visitors a day. An interesting way to look at the visits is the following figure.

The usual stats show that the visits are highest on Monday when people check in to see the scores from the weekend match. They then taper towards the end of the week. It so happened that for the first few games, I was extremely efficient in updating the scorecards and match reports. Now with thesis writing catching up, I have usually gotten to updating the scorecard around Wednesday. And interestingly enough the hits on the page stay high and around constant for the first few days when people keep checking to see if I have uploaded the scorecard. You can compare the previous thursday with this one when last week I had uploaded the scorecard on Monday while this time around I got to doing it on Thursday. I am tempted often to keep them waiting and increase hits on the website but then finally succumb. So as Gaja would say I am doing RG (a term originating in the corridors of IIT Bombay for Relative Grading when people would wreck the curve but taking more than that in meaning here). I would term it as smart website management.

So all you clickers out there, keep checking. I feel like a puppetmaster in action.

Ducks on a rainy day

2006-07-26T10:25:00.000-04:00

Wow, we are a heck lot better than that. An article from rediff.com copied. Original can be read here.

Ten cricket ducks on a wet day

July 26, 2006 17:09 IST

It could not get worse for a local cricket team of North Yorkshire. Ten of its players were out for ducks, leaving the team with a total of 5 -- all of which were scored through extras.

It was definitely a day to forget for bottom of the table Goldsborough Second XI in their match against Dishforth.

Interestingly, all the ten wickets fell to catches, each batsman having managed to strike the ball.

Undeterred, the team set about defending their meagre total and snapped up two quick wickets without conceding a run.

Their hopes were dashed, however, when the third batsman for Dishforth, the home side, earned victory for his team through the only runs to come from the bat in the match.

The match is thought to be the lowest scoring game in the 112-year history of the Nidderdale and District Amateur Cricket League in North Yorkshire.

Wisden Almanack, the cricketers' bible, described Disforth's feat as very rare.

Chris Lane, Wisden's managing director, said it was also amazing that every Goldsborough batsman had been caught.

"Having all put bat to ball, it's quite extraordinary that they didn't manage to get a single run," he said.

But records show the batting failure was exceeded in Midlands in 1931 when Shepstone's XI were all out for only four extras.

Goldsborough's runs were achieved through four byes and a leg bye in fewer than 12 overs against the division four leaders.

Peter Horseman, captain of the losing team, said it was a "surreal and embarrassing experience."

"We could have got a run but the batsman had just been hit on the foot the ball before and he turned down the chance.

"When we were naught for four I jokingly said it would be strange if we were all out for ducks."

Dishforth's captain Steve Wilson said: "It was really tough for them. Everything they hit just went wrong.

"At one stage 12 batsmen had been in without one of them scoring a run. It was all getting a bit bizarre."

The miserable batting performance created a stir on Goldsborough Cricket Club's official website. One contributor wrote: "I know it was wet on Saturday, but nobody expected so many ducks."

From Rags to Riches - The PSCC story

2006-07-12T19:09:00.000-04:00

PSCC or Penn State Cricket Club has had an interesting history. Founded in 1966 as a student club, PSCC has probably gone through many a life cycles. Students passionate about the greatest game on earth find time from their busy schedules of classes, assignments, project reports, presentations to come together as a group and play the game. With cricket not a mainstream sport in the US of A, the population from which members could be recruited is very small comprising mainly of international students. These have the added workload of supporting their livelihood while studying by being on assistantships. Hence the contribution of the players is all the more worthwhile. Hence understandably the club has seen a few down years as well when the club was dormant with no members. Probably the longest of these stints was during the 90s.
A fresh start

The club in its present form was revived in 2002 by the committee of Aamod Sathe (Pres.), Amit Kapoor (Veeps), Nachiket Bhave (Treas) and James O'Brien (Secy). With nothing left from the erstwhile club but a worn out piece of astroturf at Flower Gardens and a box of the remnants of a fire that destroyed most of the previous equipment, the challenges were enormous. But financial support from UPAC and a group of people thirsty for some cricket saw the club assimilate protective equipment, balls, bats and most importantly a matting for the wicket. Next came the motivation for this group of people to come out and play and try to improve - joining the Cricket League of New Jersey. That meant travelling every weekend to New Jersey (250 miles, 4 hrs) and then playing for 6 hours before the long return journey. But for the people who had been thriving to play cricket it was fun. And so the 2003 season began.

The dumps - CLNJ (2003 season)

Practice started as soon as the dreary Happy valley weather permitted although most of the practice sessions were held with temperatures still in the 60s. It was perfect early summer English weather some might say but feeling the leather on your palms after a long time and that too from the bat of Samsi while trying to catch the high ones in that cold would smart like crazy. Added to it was the woe of not getting the matting until almost the first game of the season. That meant trying to get some batting practice on a low bounce soggy worn astroturf and the bats gave in with the club breaking 3 of the precious practice bats. A couple of unbranded bats were flown in and some serious knocking in saw the club go into the first game with 3 bats for the entire team. We lost the game with poor batting but a spirited bowling performance by Viren which showed that our team had talent. The next game our bowling performance was better but out batting was even more pathetic.

Just when we thought hope might be lost, we won our first game on a rain drenched ground in ankle deep water at point area we enjoyed our success. Instead of growing from this success, we hit our club's worst point when we had to forfeit a couple of games as we could not gather enough players to play the matches. Few dissensions with club management and students not being available, we could have just folded. But new leadership from Subash, Viren and Gautam who took over the club brought in a new chapter of the club. Added to it was the new concept of travelling as a team in a maxivan and immediately the new group started off with a win. The few losses that followed could not take away from the new found enthusiasm of being cooped up in a van and share great moments and the club ended its first season with a record of 3-9-4. A start from which to build on.

The new Hope - WMCB (2004 season)

With Subash Jayaraman (Pres.), James O'Brien (Veeps), Gautam Wagle (Treas) and Viren Patel (Secy) still continuing the leadership role and new members like Choksi, Nishant, Ajay bringing in new enthu, PSCC joined the Washington Metro Cricket Board to overcome the ground hassles it faces in Jersey. A little more experience under its belt and total effort in fielding the club was ready to take on the new league. Its first travel to its home base in D.C. of Oxon Hill, the club was faced with the prospect of playing in a dangerous neighborhood where the previous night some of the Trindies players were mugged. The first game of the season and again the batting failed miserably against Damascus and ghosts of old past were revisited. But they were soon laid to rest with a great overall performance with bat and ball against Alexandria saw us secure our first win of the new season in our second game, already a better start than previous year. A tonking from Windies in the next game brought us down to earth but we did fight back unlike previous year when we would have gotten trampled on.

This fight brought in belief and PSCC went on a streak of 4 consecutive wins. In addition a couple of the PSCC players (Shiv Iyer and Kingsley Henry-Chow) were selected to play in the WMCB team against Garden State League. The van travels continued and the teams were having fun. New traditions were added like the team huddle at fall of wickets, the "Lets Go Lions!" roar from Gautam, huddle dance on pitch after a win and post game dinners at Indian restaurants around D.C. Though PSCC did not make it to the postseason, it ended its first WMCB season with a turnaround of 6-4-2 season and the respect of the other teams in the league who started appreciating the team for more than its effort as a team travelling 200 odd miles to play.

So Near Yet So Far - WMCB (2005 season)

With a winning season under its belt, PSCC was looking forward to returning to the WMCB season of 2005 with new vigor. The offseason was one of the most dreadful ones though. The new committee of Ramesh Ravella (Pres), Rohan Samsi (Veeps), Rajaraman Ramanarayanan (Treas with too many A's in his names) and Nishant Raizada (Secy) were faced with the new challenge of being now a member of club sports. The assured money from UPAC of the previous years was gone and the club recieved a paltry sum of $500 against the needed $4000 for participation and travel to D.C. The 2005 season was in jeopardy. Being new to club sports, PSCC also lost out in its efforts to raise much needed funds. With members still committed to playing, they generously donated money to the club either as monthly fees or lumpsum. Each contribution was noteworthy. A couple of football concession stands and a successful bid at hosting the spring 8-a-side tennis ball tourney what is now a landmark saw the club scrap together enough money to join the league and get some needed equipment. Rajaraman kept a close watch on funds. However the much needed funds to travel as a team in a van which had become an integral part of the teams success were no longer available. This meant that team would be travelling in 2-3 cars everytime. Again members with cars were gracious enough to accomodate and members started shelling out $10 a game to cover gas expenses and buy refreshments.

The costly affair did not deter the team and they took up where they had left off. The season started with PSCC hosting its first game in WMCB league at home in Penn State. No travel before the game and home turf (mat whatever?), PSCC could not have asked for a better omen but weather did not cooperate and it rained. However since UMBC had travelled so far and having known the pains of travelling and not getting a game in, PSCC hosted a 25 overs a side game but lost. That and yet again losing to Damascus (for the third time in a row...something that hurts) were the only hiccups PSCC faced in the Main league tournament to end up with a 6-2 record and runner-up to Damascus for the South Group.

So near winning the group and the team was fired up for the Albert Griffith Tournament and lost only to Chantilly on a hot day. They would have made it to the semifinals had the WMCB committee not ruled in favor of UCC being awarded a tie in the match when PSCC chasing a small total had to reckon with UCC players leaving to accompany one of their players who complained of chest pains. The absence of a league umpire for the game meant that noone could explain the situation and the PSCC members were left screaming to no avail as they saw themselves robbed of a playoff chance inspite of a stellar season at 10-3 (10-2-1 as WMCB puts it... but we refuse to acknowledge).

Revenge is sweet and the Fruit is ours - WMCB (2006 season - Main League)

As if the injustice of WMCB was not enough, PSCC was faced with a new regulation from Club sports that it belonged to a risk level 2 and hence would need a coach and 2 safety officers with first aid training to be recognized as a club. PSCC was deactivated while it pondered this scenario and finally the recently returned James O'Brien agreed to be coach (whatever?) and along with Subash and Samsi undertook the medical training to become safety officers. The new committee of Karthikeyan Shanmugasundaram (Pres and club member with longest name), Rohan Shirwaiker (Veeps), Venkatesh Rajagopalan (Treas) and Vivek Natarajan (Secy) took stock of situation and the offseason activites to raise funds began. The aim was not to require donations. A successful football stand and a spectacular fundraising effort at the spring tourney with 15 teams and more than 100 t-shirts sold along with sponsorship money for the event, the club started the season with a lot more money than the previous year.

This meant that while members still shelled out $10 a game, it could travel again as a team in the van. The first game of the season was against Chantilly (the WMCB champions from last year) and PSCC had never won its first game of the season. With rain threatening the weekend, PSCC had an average effort with the bat but backed up the effort with the ball. The game was interestingly poised with Chantilly down 5 wickets but a good runrate when it started raining while the 20th over was being bowled. Four more balls and Chantilly would have claimed victory with the minimum overs being bowled but the skies did not relent and the game was abandoned due to rain. This meant that PSCC had gotten off to its best start with a draw and a point shared against the best team in its group. Following it was the much anticipated match against UCC whose antics had prevented PSCC from being in the playoffs the previous year. To complete the circle, the player responsible was now leading the team. The story was there and the ending was iced in with PSCC winning the game and exacting revenge.

And then we lost to Alexandria. A total shoddy batting effort saw us in a lost cause but we fought till the end and made a match out of a total mess but we had our loss. Not able to afford any more losses for any hope to win the group, PSCC rumbled on like a wounded lion and won big against the other contenders Washington and Crescent while Jamaica having a poor season just forfeited their game. Things were still tight in the group but rain on the Sunday of the penultimate weekend meant Washington and Chantilly had to share a point and PSCC was going into the final weekend with its destiny in its own hand. A win and they would be the group champions. And win they did on a soft and uneven pitch against Nova.

From the dumps of forfeiting games during the CLNJ season, the agonies of endless defeats, the unsavory flavor of being runner up in the group, the fury of being robbed of a chance to be in the playoffs, PSCC were finally champions. Of their own group only perhaps but they did it. The effort of all the members whether they played for the team, travelled every weekend, helped raise funds, served as committee members, came as a 12th man, drove a van or personal car, carried equipment all the way from India or just gave their membership dues and never showed up was finally awarded. The journey continues as yet another tournament starts soon and while we can cherish this moment, we need to again put our heads down and embark to make this the most memorable season ever and grow to be a leading university sports club.

Top Bowlers & Batsmen

2006-07-10T19:59:00.000-04:00

Kris McKay and Ron feature in the top 10 bowlers for the 2006 WMCB season so far, occupying #1 and #9 positions respectively. Matter is leading the league with 15 wickets at an average of 7.0 runs per wicket and Charan has 11 at 9.63 a-piece.

Looking at the WMCB South division alone, Charan moves up to #3. Also, in the batting stats, Kris McKay and AIDS feature in the top 10 run makers in the South division with averages of 24 and 21, respectively.

Congratulations guys! Keep it up.

-Gaja

PSCC v/s Nova CC Match Report

2006-07-06T13:42:00.000-04:00

PSCC was heading into the final game of the WMCB Main League Champions Trophy against Nova CC knowing exactly what it needed to do to win the group. The rains from the previous weekend had ensured that the Chantilly and Washington game had been washed out giving the teams 1 point each and that meant PSCC was going into this weekend at 9 points with Chantilly, Cresent and Washington all behind it at 8 points. Thus a win would ensure that PSCC would win the group.

Nova was a new team in the league this year and PSCC had never played at Reisterstown until now. With no league umpire to officiate the game, PSCC was feeling a sense of Dejavu that it could again be so close yet so far from the result it so desired. Added to it was the condition of the pitch when the players got to the ground. The previous week's rain had damaged the pitch and it was very soft and uneven at one end. PSCC wanted to play and get the maximum of 2 points from this game and Nova CC acted gracious enough to host us for a shortened 35 overs a side game that started a good hour and half late. Having lost the toss PSCC was sent into bat on a suspect pitch.

Sathya and Charan opened the innings yet again and looked to find out the nature of the pitch. Sathya settled in nicely and began to time his shots while Charan struggled yet again and got out with PSCC on 33. PSCC went into the first break at 43/1 in 12 overs. Maninder who had joined Sathya after a cautious start started timing his shots and after the first break the coring started to pick up. Again as has been the bane of PSCC batting they lost the wicket of Maninder at score of 65. Shiv joined Sathya who was tiring and had to use Maninder as a runner. With good running between the wickets and great timing the scoring rate picked up and the two batsmen added 46 runs at around a run a ball. Sathya overtook his previous best score of 38 and when he looked to get to his first half century, the pitch played a big role as both Shiv and Sathya got out leg before in the same over. Mahesh played a short cameo studded with a brilliant 6 over long off but PSCC started losing wickets in trying to post as high a score as possible and eventually ended its innings in 34 overs with the score at 148. Some intelligent bowling by Nova bowlers to the end using the uneven pitch aided with a couple of runouts meant PSCC once again faltered to set an imposing score.

PSCC was confident of defending this total and got off to a great start when Subash picked up a wicket in the first over with Vivek taking a simple catch at mid off. But lots of wides coupled with low bounce and PSCC lost its plot and Nova got to 36 runs in 6 overs. PSCC needed to stem the flow of runs and pick up wickets and captain Vivek brought in Mahesh and Charan in who both had been very economical in previous matches as well as picked up wickets. The move worked as runs dried up and only 15 runs were scored in the next 6 overs and 2 more wickets lost and PSCC went into the first break feeling a lot more comfortable.

Vivek made numerous changes in bowling and wickets started falling at regular intervals as runs had dried up. The next break at 25 overs saw Nova at 79 for loss of 7 wickets. PSCC had dominated that little session giving 28 runs and picking up 4 wickets. But clouds started to threaten and PSCC looked to go for an outright win by picking up the remaining wickets. Maninder came back into the attack and picked up the last 3 wickets for PSCC to win the game by 45 runs and wrap up the South group as Champions. Jay in his first match of this season picked up 2 wickets as well.

Inn 1: PSCC 148 all out in 34 overs (Sathya - 43, Shiv - 18, Maninder - 16)
Inn 2: Nova 103 all out in 31.5 overs (Maninder - 26/3, Jay - 9/2, Charan - 22/2)

For the entire scorecard click here.

PSCC v/s Crescent CC Match Report

2006-06-30T09:40:00.000-04:00

There was one prime objective for PSCC in the match against Crescent CC held at Mark Twain Grounds on June 24, 2006 and that was to win the game, and win it big to make up for the lean net run rate in the league so far. Riding on the back of a morale boosting batting display against Washington CC and also with an added fillip of Maninder Bola coming into the team, PSCC scored an almost unassailable 200 runs -batting first- for the loss of 9 wickets in 40 overs. Although there was not a great opening partnership, the opening batsmen made their intentions very clear upfront. They were looking for runs and went about their jobs very aggressively. Charan should feel trifle unlucky to have been caught down the legside off his glove. In walked Maninder, who stitched a 58 run partnership with Sathya in quick time. Sathya played well all around the wicket but was especially severe on anything pitched short. The batsmen picked singles up at will. Maninder's wicket fell against the run of play when he tried to pinch a run to mid-off and got out to a direct hit. Sathya's wicket was more due to the ruthless heat than anything else. On the last ball of the 15th over, Sathya was out caught at first slip after a few dot balls where he tried to go for big shots but missed. His score of 37 ended up being the top score of the match. Next came the most entertaining period of batting when Matter and Shiv made a mockery of the bowling and boundaries were flowing. Although Matter had some good fortune go his way, Shiv went about his business at ease and hit a flurry of boundaries - 5 in all - and a six. The pick of matter's shots was a straight-driven six that landed well outside the boundary, after the bowler had brought in couple of extra close-in catchers. Splendid, really! Vivek and Herman carried on the good work although they started slow but made sure 200 will be reached. In all, it was a very good mixture of stroke-making and opportunistic running between the wickets. While Shiv and Matter were in the middle, a score in excess of 225 seemed quite possible but knowing the bowling resources of PSCC, a score of 200 was plenty.

Herman opened the bowling along with Subash, and it was quite clear right away that Crescent CC would try to knock of some early runs using some lower order batsmen. Therefore, the idea was to bowl back of length and protect boundaries on the leg-side. Lo and behold, Herman struck with the second delivery, after the first was hit across the line for a boundary, with Charan taking a comfortable catch at mid-on. Subash struck in his first over as well, with Maninder taking a good catch at mid-wicket boundary. Herman got another wicket in his 4th over (30/3) with peach of a delivery that came into the batsman and caught him in front. Subash kept matters quiet at the other end. The first bowling change saw a flurry of boundaries, as Maninder's rust showed a little bit while he struggled to hit one line. However, Matter was introduced soon and made things a lot harder for the batsmen with his pace and bounce. He quite deservedly took 2 wickets in his 2nd and 3rd overs. The fielding effort from PSCC was a mixed bag with Shiv, Maninder and Matter taking remarkable catches while Subash and Cheeru dropped absolute sitters - Subash, infact, two. Shiv's catch at the deep off the bowling of charan deserves a special mention as he ran a good 15 yards in and dived headlong to pull off a great catch, just few inches off the ground. Maninder was brought back into the attack and bowled a lot better than his first spell and finished off the proceddings when he had the batsman edging to Shiv at second slip. Charan finsihed as the top wicket taker with 4 wickets for a measly 8 runs in 5 overs.

Overall, PSCC outplayed Crescent in all three facets of the game and deservedly, earned a huge victory by a margin of 95 runs.

Inn 1: PSCC - 200/9 in 40 overs (Sathya - 37, Shiv - 33, Herman - 25)
Inn 2: Crescent CC - 105 All out in 25.1 overs (Charan - 4/8, Mahesh - 2/15, Herman - 2/23)
The entire scorecard can be viewed here.

Report by: Gaja

WCC v/s PSCC Match report

2006-06-30T09:35:00.000-04:00

After a disastrous batting display against Alexandria CC which PSCC lost by 3 wickets, it was highly imperative that the PSCC batsmen put out a strong display of their batting abilities in the match against Washington CC on June 10, 2006 at Kettering, to stay in the hunt for the WMCB SOuth division. Washington CC won the toss and chose to bat first, but found the initial going not very easy as some disciplined bowling by Matter and Subash ensured that WCC got to the first drinks break at 25/3. The second session saw a rapid increase in their runrate primarily due to some indisciplined bowling that was compounded by umpiring that gave the bowlers no leeway. However, Charan and Matter took a few important wickets to stem the flow and the score stood at 85/7 at the 20 over mark. Choksi and Rajesh struggled really hard in bowling on one side of the wicket which saw some easy runs made by the WCC tailenders. When the debutant Jinay was finally introduced, he polished off the tail with 2 quick wickets in the 8 balls he bowled. That left a a modest, but a challenging 150 runs to made in the alloted 40 overs.

Sathya set the ball rolling with a boundary on the onside of the first ball of the run chase. Although he was hard done by the umpiring decision in the next over itself having been adjudged LBW, he had set the tone for the rest of the innings. Charan and Shiv motored along at a fast clip till Shiv fell to an innocuous low full toss on the score of 35 in the 7th over. Matter took over the match from there on and went on to make a huge undefeated score of 74 in just 69 deliveries. His innings was studded with 7 boundaries and an effortless six over midwicket. He was ably supported, initially by charan, and later on by Vivek and Choksi. Although Vivek and Choksi made only 6 and 8* respectively, each of them had partnerships of 44 and 50 runs with Matter, which ensured we got home with more than 10 overs to spare. Undoubtedly, Matter had the batting performance of the season yet, which will hopefully inspire the others to follow suit.

Inn 1: WCC- 149 All out in 33 overs (Mahesh K - 3/18, Jinay Doshi - 2/2)
Inn 2: PSCC - 150/4 in 29.3 overs (Mahesh K - 74*, Charan - 19)
The entire scorecard can be viewed here.

Report by: Gaja

Victorious team against UCC

2006-05-23T14:15:00.000-04:00

Kneeling L-R: Venky, Mahesh, Gautam, Shiv, Razaa

Standing L-R: Vivek, Cheeru, Abhishek, Karthik, Subash (12th man), Samsi, Charan

UCC v/s PSCC match report

2006-05-22T01:33:00.000-04:00

PSCC scored its first win of the 2006 season against UCC in the WMCB south league tournament. UCC having won its first league game against ACC was ahead of PSCC in the points table and a win was needed to be in contention for the championship game. In addition the PSCC players geared up for the competition because of the league decision last season in which the game was abandoned during the round robin trophy due to a player being injured robbing PSCC of its chances to make it to the semifinals of the trophy. But with two bowlers short, PSCC was on its backfoot in the match.

PSCC stand in captain for toss and vice captain Vivek lost the toss but PSCC was delighted with the decision of UCC opting to field first. With a stronger batting lineup, PSCC hoped to put up enough runs on the board to make up for the deficiency in the bowling department. Charan and Abhishek opened the batting and had a slow but sure start. The UCC bowlers bowled good line and length making it difficult for the PSCC batsmen to free their arms. Once again when it looked like PSCC had gotten a good start of 22 runs, Abhishek was runout with yet another direct throw from the cover. He must feel real unlucky to have been out in the same fashion twice in two matches. The high scorer from last match Shiv joined Charan int he middle and the batsmen set about to build a big partnership. The going was slow but the batsmen were willing to grind it out. A partnership of 25 runs in 8 overs and Shiv got out caught at slips in trying to go for a drive. Samsi and Mahesh never got going and the good start was lost with PSCC precariously positioned at 60/4. Charan was still in the middle and grafting out a patient innings. But the tight bowling and good fielding of UCC put pressure on the batsmen and in trying to go for an expansive drive, Charan was bowled and PSCC was losing its way at 69/5.

Vivek joined Rajaraman (Razaa) and started turning the strike over but Vivek got out when he lost his balance and was stumped by the keeper Manish Doshi with a good take. Razaa was batting well and picking up runs and Ramesh (Cheeru) supported him well to put up a partnership of 25 in around 6 overs. Finally the run rate was picking up as PSCC crossed the 100 run mark. Once again PSCC lost 2 quick wickets of the set batsmen Razaa and Cheeru to set PSCC at 106/8 at the 34 over mark. The inform batsmen duo of Gautam and Venkatesh got together for the second time to put up a breezy partnership of 38 runs in less than 6 overs. While UCC were licking their chops and hoping for a quick wrapup of the PSCC innings, the two batsmen frustrated them and put up valuable runs in the process as well. Having crossed the total from the last game of 142, PSCC got all out at 144 when both the batsmen got out caught in trying to get to 150 mark in the last over.

With Herman not playing, Venkatesh opened the bowling with Razaa and PSCC got an early breakthrough once again with Shiv taking an awsome catch at cover point off the bowling of Razaa. The ball was dying as it reached Shiv but he managed to get his fingers underneath. The jubilation of PSCC fielders was short lived as UCC one down batsman Laughton Sargent came in to bat and took an attack to the PSCC bowlers. Two huge sixes and a series of boundaries saw UCC score 34 runs of the next 2 overs and all the momentum had shifted to UCC. Captain Cheeru immediately made a double switch in bowling bringing in Mahesh and Charan to bowl and they quitened the storm. With the powerplay in action ot was difficult to contain the batsman and the situation was worsened by some missed catch chances by Gautam and Razaa. But the bowlers kept on going and finally PSCC got a breakthrough with the opener Reza Damani holing out to Karthik at short thirdman off Mahesh's bowling in the 8th over. Two balls later, Mahesh dug one in to climb up on the dangerous Sargent and Cheeru took a great running catch and PSCC was back in the driver's seat.

UCC went about building a partnership but Mahesh and Charan bowling in tandem were keping things tight. Mahesh who was bowling well at this time became a little frazzled when the umpire called him for a noball for a suspect action. Cheeru immediately made a bowling change bringing back Razaa and he picked up a wicket off his first ball of the second spell when he bowled Samir Dharia. Charan was finally rewarded for his good bowling as the new batsman Faraz holed out to Razaa at deep midon and Razaa added another scalp getting the UCC wicketkeeper Manish lbw to take PSCC to the second drinks break needing 4 more wickets to get the victory. Sajid Masood was in the meantime batting well and ticking the score along and the new batsman Bilal went about trying to whack everything in sight out of the park not connecting half of the time. A couple more dropped catches and missed chances and PSCC was getting frustrated. Charan bowled out his spell and Cheeru brought in Gautam to replace him. In his second over Gautam finally bowled Bilal with a straight one. Sajid running out of partners tried to score some runs to get close to the target and a drive of Mahesh saw a thick edge to gully only for Gautam to drop another tantalizing one. But he redeeemed himself when he picked up Sajid's wicket in the next over as Vivek took an easy catch at cover. With the only set batsman gone, Mahesh wrapped up the UCC innings by bowling with good pace and PSCC won a close one with a margin of 23 runs. Mahesh with a spell of 23/4 was awarded the match ball.

The final scores - PSCC 144 All out in 39.5 overs (Charan - 25, Razaa - 21, Venky - 20) and UCC - 121 All out in 27.3 overs (Mahesh - 23/4, Razaa - 40/3, Gautam - 11/2). The enitre scorecard can be viewed here.

Chantilly v/s PSCC match report

2006-05-19T02:09:00.000-04:00

PSCC began its fourth season since its revival by playing its first game in the Main league South tournament against Chatilly Cricket Club at Kettering on May 14th 2006. Chantilly, the North league champion from previous years boasted the top run scorer from last year Raj Chintala and the prolific scorer Srinivas Garimella in their lineup. Having been defeated by Chantilly last year during the round robin trophy, PSCC was gearing towards its season opener. PSCC had until now lost each of its season opener and the daunting task of taking on one of the best clubs in the league loomed upon them similar to the weather throughout the approaching week. In addition PSCC was missing some of its key players from the previous season in this season's opener. Subash, the highest wicket taker for the club from 2005, was out with a shoulder injury, Viren having joined Monument in the offseason, Maninder, Parthu and Choksi attending graduation scheduled for the same day as the game. Last minute withdrawal by Charan for his candidacy meant that PSCC lost its opener and a seasoned bowler from last season.

Ramesh (Cheeru) leading the team for his second season won the toss by default since Chantilly did not have the required players by toss time and had no hesitation in selecting to bat first. Abhishek and Herman opened the innings for PSCC. Herman was the first to go in the 6th over when he knicked one to the keeper. Good tight bowling by Chatilly meant that the going was slow for PSCC and in an effort to get things going Abhishek was run out following a misunderstanding between him and Vivek. Shiv, the leading run scorer for PSCC from 2005, then joined Vivek and stabilized the innings till the first drinks break. The going was slow and just when the two batsmen looked like settling down Vivek was bowled and PSCC was in deep trouble at 24/3. Mahesh joined Shiv and both of them put up a good partnership. More importantly runs began to pick up. Shiv played some glorious shots including an effortless six over cover.

Mahesh too joined in with Shiv to put the bad balls away for runs but the second drinks break saw him lose his concentration. Rajaram then gave Shiv support and again built up a partnership. Two wickets on either side of the third drinks break of Rajaram and Shiv meant that PSCC had lost all its momentum and it looked like PSCC would fall short of batting out its quota of 40 overs. However some good contributions by Cheeru, Wagla and Venky saw the innings till the last ball and added valuable runs at a good pace to take the total to 142 all out in 40 overs.

With both the opening ball bowlers from last season not playing (Subash and Viren), Herman took the new ball and gave PSCC a dream start picking up a wicket off the first ball. With rain looming, Chantilly sent in Shiva Prasad to open and score runs quickly and he tried to pull the first ball only managing to sky the ball to short cover where Potineni took a good catch. PSCC was pumped up and a couple of deliveries later Herman got through the defenses of public enemy number one Rajesh Chellapan who had scored last year in Chantilly's win. 2/2 and Chantilly looked in deep trouble. In the meantime rain had started falling lightly and the ball kept getting wet. The bolwers Herman and Rajaram struggled to control and Chantilly began to up their scoring.

A few boundaries and just when things were looking bleak, a superb catch by Venky in the gully off Herman saw the WMCB leading run scorer from last year Raj Chintala gone. The jubilation was met by Srinivas Garimella coming to the crease and Cheeru immediately brought Mahesh into action. He started off right on line and picked up a wicket in his first over and all of a sudden Chantilly was 44/4. Srinivas Garimella and Ramana Darbha stabilized the innings and went about building a partnership. But PSCC started tightening things up and both teams tried to wait for the other to falter. Mahesh was bowling beautifully and was finally awarded when he sent Ramana's stumps flying and it was 74/5 in the 16th over. Rain started picking up and the PSCC players appealed to the umpire and play was stopped and break was taken.

PSCC took the field with light rain still falling and would have picked up another wicket but an appeal for lbw against the new batsman Vishnu was turned down and then a run out chance was missed by Rajesh when the batsmen went for a second off a misfield to Wagla at mid off. Chantilly had the run rate and both batsmen were keen of defense to ensure that they got through to the 20 over mark without losing another wicket to pick up the win and 2 pts. The rain had started to pick up and the ball was getting very wet. Finally with 4 balls left to complete the 20th over, the rain picked up and the players walked off the field.

There was some heated argument off the field with the Chantilly players accusing the PSCC players of wasting time and ensuring that 20 overs had not been bowled but rain poured down and the field became unplayable. Having waited out for more than half an hour, the umpire and the two captains inspected the pitch and the field and finally decided to call off the game as a draw. Finally today the WMCB website put up the result between the two sides as a draw and both teams walked away with a point each. Thus PSCC managed to get its best start in a season till date by drawing out the first game and picking up a point. More importantly the best team in the group also took away just one point and it will be interesting to see the final outcome.

The final scores - PSCC - 142 all out in 40 overs (Shiv - 48, Wagla - 16) and Chantilly - 90/5 in 19.2 overs (Herman - 42/3, Mahesh - 11/2). The entire scorecard can be viewed here.

A link... A debate brewing?

2006-04-28T11:43:00.000-04:00

Here is a link to Rohan Kumar's (ex Penn Stater) blog that he wrote.
http://whoisane.blogspot.com/2006/04/s-r-t.html
The initials should suffice in who he is talking abt. Anyway it was a very well written post in the present times.

chucky's brides??

2006-04-21T16:28:00.000-04:00

So here's the cricinfo article about how Shoaib Malik will undergo surgery for fixing his arm to eliminate his suspect bowling action. Probably Malik's case is a genuine one (or is it??) but while we are at it let's line up Murli, Afridi, Shoaib Akhtar (and I'm only mentioning here the ones who are really flagrant). Some people would like to add Harbhajan Singh. Fine by me.

I mean C'mon !! What's up with the bowlers in the sub-continent! (But of course we need to have a token Aussie :) . So let's include Brett Lee in the list.) The problem, I think is when you've so many kids in gali cricket who are chucking, it sort of becomes acceptable at that point, only to find out later that it really is not and by that time it is too late. If you think I'm wrong, ask Charan :)

Any solutions? Anyone? Anyone? Bueller ??

THANK YOU

2006-04-17T13:39:00.000-04:00

A ginormous amount of thanks are due to the following for making the Second Annual Spring Cricket Tournament, a grand success.

Wagla
Venky
James
Samsi
Gujju
Karthik
Shirwaiker
Abhishek

Thanks are also due, to those that chipped in, from time to time, with everything from purchasing water to commentary.

Cheeru
Maninder
Siddharth
Rajaram
Emad
Shabbi
Umer
Deepa
Vivek the helmet
Totti
Shavinda
Matter
Choksi
Nishant
Uzair
Neralla
Herman
Brandon
Parthu
---------------------------

Thank you guys, from the bottom of my heart. Without all your efforts and time, this tournament was not possible.

Guess Who?

2006-04-11T02:59:00.000-04:00

Following are some random descriptions of two people from my imagination. Looks like, it sort of matches two personalities amongst us. By sheer coincidence, I heard from a birdie that the descriptions I came up with, are exactly those of two guys on shaadi.com (James et al, its a matrimony site for desis).

Profile 1:
My Personality, Long-Term Goals, Partner Expectations, etc
Love all kinds of sports; cricket, golf and football (the american version) being my favorites. Whether it is playing cricket on weekends for my university club or lazing around watching the Steelers it is fun. Before it became a necessity to nurture myself, cooking has been my hobby and nuthing like chilling on a summer day with friends around the grill. Love to hang out with my friends, have a couple of beers and listen to good music. My music tastes vary from Hindustani classical to Classic rock with old hindi film music thrown in between. I am a Beatles man who loves Led Zep, Floyd and Hendrix. When I am pensive, I feel myself in the mood for some Rafi.

Currently doing my doctoral studies in US. Plan and hope to finish pretty soon. Plan to work a couple of years in the states before moving back to India. Expect anyone who responds to appreciate that I want to settle in India. Other than that open to any expectations.

Hobbies, Interests & more
My Hobbies:Cooking, Solving Crosswords, Puzzles
My Interests:Listening to music, Watching television, Sports - Outdoor
My Favourite Music:Classical - Hindustani, Old film songs, Soft Rock, Acid Rock / Hard Rock
My Favourite Reads:Thriller / Suspense, Humour, Comics
My Preferred Movies:Classics, Comedy, Action / Suspense, Drama
My Sports / Fitness Activities:Basketball, Swimming / Water sports, Carrom, Cricket, Golf
My Favourite Cuisine:Anything edible is great!
My Preferred Dress Style:Casual - usually in jeans and T-shirts

Profile 2:
My Personality, Long-Term Goals, Partner Expectations, etc
Hi I'm a telugu guy. I consider myself a good mix of Eastern and Western values, equally comfortable in a group of Americans as I'm in a bunch of desis. But I do believe in my roots. I'm a keen sports fan, enjoy watching almost any kind of sport and like playing cricket, basketball, tennis and volley ball. I'm a good cook and enjoy hosting parties for people who are lucky enough to be my friends. I like watching movies or just hanging out with friends in my free time.
I would like a life partner who appreciates life, is loving and caring and most importantly who can share my interests. I would like someone who can be my friend, my companion and my equal. If this little piece of information interests you, then we can talk more about 'US'. If not, good luck with your search. Cheers!!

My Hobbies:Will tell you later
My Interests:Will tell you later
My Favourite Music:Will tell you later
My Favourite Reads:Not much of a reader
My Preferred Movies:Romantic, Comedy, Action / Suspense, Drama
My Sports / Fitness Activities:Basketball, Tennis, Cricket, Badminton, Volleyball
My Favourite Cuisine:Anything edible is great!
My Preferred Dress Style:Casual - usually in jeans and T-shirts.

First choice for t-shirt graphix

2006-04-10T18:38:00.000-04:00

Sign of the Apocalyspe??

2006-04-10T18:34:00.000-04:00

Kettering our luckiest field

2006-04-10T12:33:00.001-04:00

Yesterday Vivek "Cool" Natarajan got a call from the WMCB match secretary Ibrahim Ali asking him about our decision on a home field (for home games that will be played away!!!). Ibrahim Ali wanted a decision in half an hour sending our already cool nerves Vivek into a fit. So after almost a an hour of deliberations and a telephone poll we chose "Oxon Hill" to be our home ground. Lady luck seems to be on our side though. Sajid Masood the guy whose team maintains Kettering field called Vivek and asked him if we were interested in playing at Kettering. Vivek did some brilliant bargaining with inputs from "The" Batman and we got Kettering Field as our home field for $600. There is just one glitch in the whole scheme of things. It seems that no club in our pool this year is willing to play at Flower Gardens. You win some...you lose some!!

Life after Cricket for Lara????

2006-04-05T18:33:00.000-04:00

Here is the associated article.

The parallels

2006-04-01T21:04:00.000-05:00

A pic from Hindustan Times. Quite reminiscent of our van rides back home. Atleast they don't have to fly their own planes and they get some hot airhostesses to do their bidding unlike us having to smell sweaty armpits.

Of leg spinners and epic scores

2006-03-28T12:57:00.000-05:00

G'day all,

You might have noticed that Australia -just- managed to scrape by against South Africa helped by certain umpiring decisions (Steve Bucknor probably qualifies for an Australian passport by now) and more seriously by more of Warnie's epic turn. Apparently the greatest leg spinner the world has ever seen (according to Gilchrist) a comment that needed to be qualified with "that has a legitimate bowling action". http://aus.cricinfo.com/australia/content/story/242389.html. Oh and all of Australia would like to thank Andre Nel for behaving like a clown and firing up Gilly with a barrage of verbal abuse after Gilly carted him around for 22 in an over. Alec Stewart and Matty Hayden had the right idea commenting that Nel embarassed himself and that it's not appropriate to fire GIlly up as he might "really go after your bowling" :) They're probably lucky he only faced 9 balls for his 24 and didn't cause them a little more trouble.

In other news in the domestic Australian competition Queensland (the northern "backward" state) scored in the 900s to comprehensively beat Victoria (the southern state where the residents retire to Queensland... draw your own conclusions). http://aus.cricinfo.com/australia/content/match/241869.html Is it the summer of epic scores? What would have happened had one of the big run scorers not retired hurt? Oh and the Hussey listed in the scorecard is David, Mike's younger brother who clearly also knows how to wield the willow.

Screw the "Lords".

2006-03-26T20:28:00.000-05:00

An article from "The Hindu" making a case for India being the spiritual home of Cricket.

Read by clicking here.

Lights, Camera, Action

2006-03-26T18:58:00.000-05:00

Cheeru received an email recently from Penn State TV - After Hours program asking whether our club would be interested in being interviewed on TV.. this would enable them to fill up their broadcast as well as provide much needed publicity for PSCC. Of course, PSCC doesn't entertain offers unless they are from Channel 9 or ESPN.. but in this case, we decided to give Penn State Student News TV a shot. After some deliberations, it was decided by the powers that be, that James O'Brien in twin capacity of coach and token white guy, and yours truly (as the veteran of the club and also as the event coordinator for the upcoming cricket tournament and karthik might say - wannabe black guy) will go for the TV interview.

I looked up the show's website and realized that there was a good chance that they will have no idea of what cricket is. And I was proven right, Yet again. Good thing I decided to take a cricket bat, cricket ball and the cricket tennis ball that we'd be using for the tournament.

It was a good time over all. Off camera, we had a good time talking shit up and they got to see the kind of dynamic that we have as a team on the field. James and I were sledging people as well as each other. On camera, we got to explain the rules a little bit, talk of the upcoming tournament, nets, DC trips and 'sledging' among other things. Oh yeah, we taught the host to swear in Hindi, which he plans on using on his indian roommate!! Excellent!

The show comes only on Penn State CC TV, so you got to be on campus to see it. It will be aired on Wednesday night 10 PM. The guys at the show promised to send us the DVD of the episode which we could upoad to our website. Also, we requested them to make a piece either from our tournament or the nets sessions. And have us over any time they need guests. I thought it went pretty well. Of course, James had a great time what with the co-host chick being impressed with the Aussie accent. MothaF******.

profiles and aliases

2006-03-21T10:36:00.000-05:00

This is a message for contributors. Please identify yourselves for the purpose that we know who is sharing the comment. After all this is supposed to be PSCC blog site and not individual blog site. While most of them are identifiable, I am talkking about Flavor_chemist ( I assume it is Potineni) and Pieces of Eight (no idea). I like Kings though (chinee Indian)... hahahaha... clever.

Spring Tournament 2006 - Committee

2006-03-21T09:14:00.000-05:00

Event Coordinator
Subash Jayaraman

Finance/ FundRaising Committee
1. Subash Jayaraman
2. James O'Brien
3. Karthik Shanmugasundaram

Publicity/ Public Relations
1. James O'Brien
2. Rajaraman Ramanarayanan
3. Karthik Sarpatwari
4. Rohan Shirwaiker
5. Subash Jayaraman

Website Management
1. Vivek Natarajan
2. Gautam Wagle

Logo, Banner, T-shirt Design
1. Abhishek Srivastav
2. Gautam Wagle

Umpires
1. Gautam Wagle
2. Rohan Samsi
3. Subash Jayaraman
4. James O'Brien

Scorers
1. Venkatesh Rajagopalan
2. Ramprasad Chandrashekhar

Announcers
1. James O'Brien
2. Rohan Samsi
3. Gautam Wagle

Gameday Volunteers
1. Mahesh Krishnamurti
2. Ramesh Ravella
3. Vivek Natarajan
4. Rajaram Ramanarayanan
5. Ramprasad Chandrashekhar
6. Venkatesh R
7. James O'Brien
8. Allison Roney
9. Uzair Qadeer

P.S. If we have interested people wanting to join, we'll add them as we go along. We should have a meeting ASAP. How about this evening 6 PM in the IST Building?? I'll need finance, PR, webdesigners and logo designers to be present without fail. Others not necessary, but if you want to partake, that's fine too.

Waugh and the Wall

2006-03-20T17:28:00.000-05:00

Waugh on "the Wall":

http://indvseng06.msnspecials.in/dravid1.asp

Vivek

Third Eye Blind

2006-03-20T12:13:00.000-05:00

Can somebody tell me what the hell is going on? No seriously.. This is the second time India has gotten shafted by the Instant replay/TV umpire/Third Umpire technology thingy in the last 3 matches. In the current on-going test series against England, looks like the TV umps are just doggin' it! (They are freakin' Indians as well.. No less!)

Case 1. First test match at Nagpur, Day 4, 2nd session: Anil Kumble to Kevin Pietersen, simple C&B, Straight Ump Aleem Dar refers to Third ump as the ball seemed to come off the toe of the bat. After 10 minutes of examining all the angles (it looked out 100 million percent from the first slo-mo itself), TV Ump Mr. I. Shivram (I guess the I stands for I-dont-give-a-rats-ass-in-hell-so-screw-you-guys) declared KP to be not out.. and Ian Botham who was in the commentary booth said, "I don't know what to say!!!". Beefy -- Here's what I'd have liked you guys to say on air "That's the worst decision EVER! Technology is only as good as the moron sitting in front of it." I think that test got away from India from there although it ended up being a draw.

Case 2. Third test at Mumbai, Day 3, 2nd session: After hitting 3 consecutive boundaries off Flintoff, MS Dhoni tried to pinch a single to farm the strike. James Anderson from short mid-on picked and threw the stumps down (Kind of) at the non-striker end. The ball made contact with the stumps before Dhoni made his ground but "the bails were not completely dislodged" before he did make his ground. The Third umpire ruled him out. Here is the ruling on run outs from ICC Laws of Cricket. (Ruling on when the wicket is actually fairly down)Now, any of you that actually has seen this happen, know exactly that Dhoni was NOT OUT. This time, the moron upstairs was Mr. K. Hariharan. This (in)decision also cost India's chance of clawing back into the game.

WTF mate?? Is there some kind of conspiracy going on that we don't know about?? Its about time these assholes got a refresher course in the laws of cricket. At this rate, I won't be surprised if these jackasses are officiating in the WMCB or vice-versa.

Even Stevens!

2006-03-20T11:19:00.000-05:00

I am sure a lot of you would have seen the Seinfeld episode in which George's luck changes to Elaines and vice versa while jerry always remains Even Stevens. That is exactly the way Indian cricket seems to be headed.

A while ago the Indian test team boasted of one of the strongest batting lineup in the middle order. With names and stats of people like Dravid, Tendulkar, Ganguly, Laxman in the middle order the only deficiency was a stable opening partner for the explosive Sehwag. Bowling teams used to tremble bowling at this lineup. We could back ourselves to bat through days and put up miraculous performances like the India-Australia 2nd test match at Calcutta in 2001. However we lacked the bowling strength to bowl out oppositions twice in a match. We still relied on the aging Kumble with Bajji showing spurts of brilliance expected since the monstrous 2002 he had.

Oh How the fates have reversed! Finally we have a potent bowling lineup with an even mix and variety. Fast pace bowling and accuracy of Munaf Patel and the swing of Sreesanth and Pathan. The assorted leg spin of Kumble and the offie in Harbhajan. But the batting is now at its weakest. Time and time again, the lower order is having to bail out the failures of Sachin and Sehwag. With Jaffer not quite yet a fixture and Yuvraj still digging his shoes in, Dravid has been the lone man fighting the Indian cause.

The batting woes has also spread its cancer in the fielding department. With new people in, the slip catching cauldron has dried out. With no place for Laxman in the side, the second slip has gone to Sehwag who still seems to be thinking about his batting woes while in the field. Jaffer is trying to fit into the short lef position. The saddest part is that the team management thinks that Yuvraj and Kaif being the spectacluar fielders that they are can be plugged in to any position to back up the bowling scenario at that time and it is failing miserably in that. Both of them look totally out of sorts at the shortleg position and Yuvraj's drop at 3rd slip at end of yesterdays play was the most pathetic display I have seen. While he physically was in the 3rd slip, his technique was still in the point region.

While success of test teams has been sttributed to the presence of an allrounder (batting and bowling) to provide stability in the team, one overlooked aspect has been an allrounder in the field (bowling and slip catching). While Australia has had Shane Warne a fixture at first slip since the departure of Mark Taylor, South Africa has Kallis (earlier McMillan) and England has Flintoff. India and Pakistan seem to be lacking here and hence the spurt of many dropped catches. Bowlers have big bucket like hands and have a decent technique. I wonder if we need to cultivate Bajji into a slip fielder for when the fast bowlers are operating? I think right now the only thing that would appease the Indian fans is to see an Indian lineup with 5 Dravids and the keeper and the bowlers. Atleast they will bat and support the bolwers.

Is it a good idea for india to bowl first?

2006-03-17T23:54:00.000-05:00

Seems like Dravid is taking a big gamble, when we know that batting last day on the mumbai pitch can hard...Lets see how it works out:)

Greatest ever??

2006-03-17T14:41:00.000-05:00

James -- DO NOT READ THE FOLLOWING TWO LINES.

To watch the highlights of the Australia V South Africa epic ODI game where SA made a monumental 438-9 in 49.5 chasing Australia's 434-4 in 50 overs, click here.

Welcome back James --

However, the World Cup 99 semifinal (AUS v SA, again) and the PSCC v Alexandria CC (2005) would lay claims to the greatest cricket game ever played!!

Let's go Lions!

2006-03-16T16:54:00.000-05:00

In yet another effort to improve the club we have decided to start a blog site where club members can share their comments via match reports, ideas to improve the club and in genereal their passion for the game of cricket. We can discuss upcoming series, post links to improve our game, keep connected even as we endeavour past Happy Valley.

Since this will be a shared effort, please maintain a sense of decorum while posting blogs. You will be accountable for your words. We encourage sledging but if that goes beyond some point, the admin has the privilege of deleting the post.