VS Abbasiya Royals
Such is the speed of Twenty20 games, that you lose concentration for a little bit and the match is out of your hand, you make one wrong decision and it becomes next to impossible for you to recover. We played well guys, but gave a lot of freebies to their batsmen. Its good that we fought till the end and it would be even better if we can judge where and what we lacked and not repeat the same mistakes. Its all about getting one good win under our belts.
In this match there was a lot of pressure. The other team played well and each and every over, or more appropriately, each and every ball became critical.
True that we ended up as losers but I enjoyed a lot. The initial sub dued approach of our batsmen and then tearing their bowling apart. The sixes from Asif and Akmal, their well time boundaries. The initial on slaught of their batsmen, scoring 37 off first 3 overs. Then our fight back, with field on one side and bowling accordingly. The sledging, the buck ups. I found out that in a cricket match there is a lot that can be enjoyed besides enjoying the win.
Asif and Akmal opened the innings for us and did a good job of seeing off the new ball and then punishing the bad balls. Running between the wickets was a bit sluggish but when you can hit the ball like Asif and Akmal, then probably it doesn't get noticed that much. But running the first run and putting the pressure on the fielder is always the best thing to do.
Asif played magnificiently for his 102. He creamed the ball on the off side for boundaries almost at will, but most magnificient were his sixes at long on. He made the most out of the chances he got and literally tore their bowling apart. His sixes looked effortless, highlighting, how well he times his shots.
Akmal played well at the other end too. He batted sensibily and kept on rotating the strike. He put a high price on his wicket and chose carefully the balls he wanted to hit and when he did hit them, it stayed hit and were usually found beyond the boundary.
When our openers eventually got out, they didn't leave much deliveries for the remaining batsmen to settle down. The remaining batsmen tried to make the maximum from whatever was left. In the end we gave them a target of 181 runs.
We started the bowling miserably. The first 3 overs cost us 37 runs! Anees Bhai, Basharat and Akmal, all three of them bowled poorly and gave some easy hits to the batsmen. All of them tried to bowl at the batsmen strength rather than his weakness. A fast bowler is more like a hunter. He sets the trap and waits, patiently, for the batsmen, to fall into it. We initially made the mistake of trying to smash the wickets or the batsmen's rib cage, with our pace and forgot that the batsmen too has a bat in his hand and if your ball comes within his swing range, he will smash you out of the park.
The next 3 overs, showed us the benefits of setting up the trap, bowling at the batsman's weakness, having patience and avoiding the batsman's swing radius as a result of which there remained no power in their shots.
Anees Bhai after a bad first over, bowled with good pace, bounce and angle. The batsmen had no answer to his bowling. The pressure created by him in his over, bore fruit in the next over bowled by Basharat. Basharat looked well as he tried to pitch the ball and keep it outisde the off stump. By that time the batsman was under too much pressure, provoking him to play a false shot, and gave an easy catch was taken by Asif.
The remaining overs saw an immense tussle. For the batsmen the game plan was fairly easy which was to try to hit whatever came their way. They used their feet and swung powerfully whenver they got a chance. Unfortunately we gave them a lot of that and bowled either short, full toss or half volleys. Towards the end we had some fairly expensive overs of above 15 runs, which basically cost us the match.
The season has started poorly for us, but the good thing is that the only way to go is up. Let us learn from our mistakes, move forward and enjoy the game.
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