The tournament becomes open for us as we get our first win in the tournament.
Under the absence of our 3 main players Nisar, Amir Bhai and most importantly our captain Waqar, we knew we had to produce something out of our skins (both on and off the field) to keep ourselves in the tournament. Still trying to find our winning 11 after the going away of Sajid and Qadeer, we were hit by the vacation plans of Nisar and Waqar and injury of Amir bhai. Moreover towards the end of the weekend we found out that Abdullah was also not available because of his professional committments. Therefore we were short of 4 of our main players.
The first game of the tournament was not good for us as we lost with 7-8 overs remaining in the presence of our full 11. Therefore we knew that we had to find suitable replacements and the last 2 weeks saw frantic efforts from Bilal and me to create a solid line up. All efforts seemed to be failiing when finally Bilal with his brilliant PR skills (batting main bad patch hua to kya hua), managed to find 2 replacements. All thanks to Bilal and Abdullah for arranging for us two of his team mates in the senior league. Adnan, Khurram and Manoj came in to complete the 11.
The absence of Wicky meant that I was going to captain and hence felt the best way to go about in the current scenario is to attack with both bat and ball. We won the toss and decided to bat first.
Bilal was sent in because of experience as an opener alongwith Ahmed to utilize the 6 overs fielding restrictions. Bilal started confidently with a solid back foot defensive shot a little wide of point, but didn't follow up his solid shot with solid running. The fielder realizing his slackness threw to his 'non danger' end and got a direct hit to get him run out on the first ball. This put pressure on us from the word go since we anticipated Bilal to give a solid foundation while Ahmed took some chances. Anyways doing nothing for 19.5 overs is enough punishment, and hopefully he would make up for his missed chance, in the coming games.
Second in was our first guest player Mithun, who delighted all of us with his brilliant strokes taking maximum advantage of the fielding restrictions. Meanwhile Ahmed gave him a good hand and never wasted an opportunity to score. They both maintained a run rate of 9-10 runs per over, which was exactly what was required in the scenario.
Seeing Ahmed and Mithun's expertise in handling the quicker bowlers, the captain decided to bring in spinners. This was a good change for them since Mithun fell. Sameer bhai went in next and couldn't utilize his potential with the bat to the fullest. The idea was right to play over the fielders, and to some extent it succeeded as well but for the brilliant running back catch. Next in was Rizwan who showed his good placement skills for a boundary to the third man. But he couldn't last long as well, since on the next ball he tried to place the ball on the leg but couldn't put bat to ball and was found LBW. We were really reeling with these sudden fall of wickets. Adnan was next in to try and halt our descent into the dark abyss, and give Ahmed the much needed space to free up his arms. But Adnan couldn't manage it, as he played on.
This completed our middle order collapse and we had lost half of our team for something around 80. Ahmed was playing brilliantly at the other end and digging deep into his stamina reserves, but wasn't able to find a reliable partner. Defeat was staring us in our faces and I was already seeing the helpless side of captaincy. The plan from there onwards was to get maximum runs. Raju our second guest player was sent in, whom I thought was a lower order batsman. But his batting suggested otherwise.
A good partnership till the 15th over, resulted between him and Ahmed and both started scoring freely. Moreso Raju started hitting sixes at his leisure. He was confident enough to state that we will get 50 runs from the last 4 overs. He utilized his height to the fullest and stood tall to hit large elegant sixes to achieve his target.
This continued till around the 15th over. Ahmed, realizing the safety zone that the team was in at the moment, started taking a few risks for the team and played his first rash stroke by jumping out of the crease. He missed the line of the ball and was out stumped.
This brought us to the lower order. Amongst the lower order Anees Bhai played brilliantly and gave able support to Raju.
We did get 50 from the last 4 overs, infact more than 50 as the score was pushed near the comforts of 200. 200 would have been impossible had it not been for the 9th wicket partnership of Anees Bhai and Khurram. Anees Bhai tried to spank the bowlers and whenever he did get contact, it landed out of or close to the boundary line. Khurram also got around 11-12 runs for the team. First, by 'deliberately' missing the ball, which the keeper missed as well and it hit the keeper's helmet, getting us 5 runs. And second, by placing (err edging) the ball to the third man boundary. As they say, at this point time, you take runs as they come.
In the end we set a stiff but chaseable target of 211 runs to Star 11.
The horrors of the first tournament match was still in my mind when our opponents got 180 in around 12 overs. And hence our top priority was to attack and try and get wickets.
Anees Bhai and Mithun bowled the first overs. Few chances went down in the attack burst and the most to suffer was Mithun. Bilal dropped a sky high catch off Anees Bhai's bowling. These catches are never easy since the higher they go, the more succumb they become to winds. Raju dropped a sitter as well, probably not realizing the speed of the ball. Finally we got our first wicket with a catch in covers off the bowling of Mithun. Anees Bhai proved expensive in his second over with around 18 runs coming off it. Their batting was looking confident enough to get to the target.
We decided to change bowlers and I set the criteria to rest a bowler whenever he went for a few runs. A partnership developed between their opener and 1 down, and they started getting runs almost at leisure. The fielding restrictions were over but they still were managing to find a boundary or two. As per Bilal's timely suggestion, we introduced spin of Sameer Bhai, to try and unsettle them. Unsettled they did become, as Sameer Bhai bowled a tight line and didn't give any freebies. Raju got the important wicket for us in the very next over, with a great catch from Khurram in the slips. The ball was not travelling fast, but one has to control his fits when an important catch is coming towards him. Khurram controlled that magnificiently and took the catch tumbling down.
The next batsman didn't look convincing enough to me, so we decided to bring back Mithun in place of Sameer Bhai to try and unsettle him and get his wicket. Mithun responded magnificiently by getting us more than we expected i.e. the wicket of the set batsman.
Star 11, was down but not out, and hence we didn't want to give them any breathing space. In the next overs few bowlers were rotated, so that they are not given any chance to get a revival. Sameer Bhai responded magnificiently and took 3 wickets for us. In his last overs the bastmen did find runs from him behind the wicket and I am sure he would include that in his data bank, next time he comes in to bowl. Anees Bhai took a wicket as well in his second spell, shunning down the chances of any resistance.
Some lessons that we learned are
1. We have to improve our running between the wickets and must practice the standards of calling, relying on our partner if its his call and relaxing only after we complete our run.
2. Not to underestimate the benefits of nets and if possible arrange one every week. This would give us the chance of developing new deliveries and practice shots on which we got out. Also this keeps our lower batting order especially of Anees Bhai and me, to get a chance of middling the ball and hence contribute with the bat whenever the situation demands it.
3. Our keeper should close hands after the ball is in his gloves :)
4. We must control our emotions on the field. Offering a suggestion while pointing the mistake or just a suggestion without pointing the mistake can result in a much more improved performance.
5. Every bowler should know the areas where he can get scored off and where catches can land. He should place fielders accordingly as per their skill levels.
6. Plan and Utilize the first 6 overs.
7. Everyone should concentrate on their individual games and how to improve their skills with each match.
8. One must respect the senior players and learn from their experience, even if they are scolding or critical of you.
In the end I would like to thank Manoj for coming and would like to tell him that whenever I thought about giving him the next over, we went for plenty of runs in the current over. So I had to bring someone who can reverse the tide for us.
Finally I would like thank everyone for putting up with me for this match and responding positively and giving me their 100%. The tournament is open for us. We have to learn from our mistakes, respond to our captain Wicky's game plan and take our games to the next level. We have to win this tournament.
