end of round 1

Life has been real busy over the past several weeks keeping me away from cricket greens. I could not participate in the past couple of games - one against Canton and the other against Troy (a rescheduled game). The results were odd… an extraordinary game with a sweet result against Canton but the other an ordinary performance from our collected 11 that resulted in a loss.

On July 17, we played and won against Canton. They have played great cricket this season and are certainly the top 2 teams to beat. I safely would have said ours would be the other but since I am writing this – kind of post cast :) - I know that we cannot claim, any longer to be the top 2 teams to beat. I will spell what I mean in a minute.

But back to the game against Canton, the one guy they probably hate the most now is Devin Patel, for this is the second time in a row he scored a century against them! It’s a punishing feeling to be the best team but to be sought out by the same guy. Devin's brilliant century (114*) along with solid performances from Sujay (60+), Puru (51*) and Chirag (30) left Canton to chase 295. It’s a really tough ask and they folded at 242 after giving an equally tough fight.

Next we played Troy on July 25 with a depleted side as most of our guys were not playing including me. We scored 181 and they got that with 4 wickets left. Our bowlers, I heard, struggled to find the rhythm.

Anyways, with that game, we completed our 1st round. 8 games – won 6, lost 2. But more importantly I see somewhat of degradation in our performance going into the next round.

=suhail =
July 2010