Falcons Vs A2C2 (Game #2, Season 2008 )

Falcon’s Batting

Detroit Falcons played their second match of 2008 season yesterday – Jun-07-2008. We came up with great win against A2C2 (Ann Arbor Cricket Club) team. A2C2 won the toss and elected to field first. I and Babu went as the openers. We had a great start (around 22 in 3 overs) and was slowly picking up the aggressive strokes. Made critical singles , doubled easy singles and occasional boundaries. When I was at 8, Babu signaled me for a double which was meant to be an easy single and I was rushing towards the danger end. As usual, I run fast when required and slow down when required. I was running really fast to reach my end. Babu was running at the same straight line as I was. He made me to slow down completely and I tried to gain the speed after a sudden stop and not good enough to reach my end before the wicket keeper removed the bails. It was an easy decision for the leg umpire and my good start ended in vain.

Falcon batsmen belted A2C2 all over the ground and scored Falcons highest score ever. 150/7 in 25 overs. Matta scored 50+, Hari scored 26+, Sudhir P,Babu,Sai scored 14+ each, and rest scored around 8-10 each.

Falcon’s Bowling

I love wicket keeping. I have been doing wicket keeping since I was in 8th grade. During my school days, I thought I would at least play for my state as a wicket keeper. That dream evaporated long ago when I was in the college. That is a long story and deserve a separate blog posting.

My team mates and others tells me that sometime I take spectacular catches and unfortunately I can’t see those catches by myself. In this match, there were 5 catching opportunities for me. First one was a spectacular catch, I was told. Second was could have been another spectacular catch but I reacted slow. I missed it. Third one was an easy catch but umpire did not hear it. He did a very good job except that call. Fourth and five th catching opportunities were easy catches and were given out. I took three catches in this match.

Run outs

There were three run out opportunities for me. First run out was an easy and was given out. It was a good throw by Hari. Second was very close but the leg umpire was not convinced. It was an excellent throw by Sudhir from cover. Third was a direct throw but I screwed it up. It was a good direct hit by Hari and I was running towards the stump to collect it and collected it before the stump and hit the stumps. I interrupted the direct hit. It is wicket keeping 101. DON’T COLLECT THE BALL IN FRONT OF THE STUMPS. Even it was a direct hit, it would have been a very close call and it was very unlikely the leg umpire (who is from the batting side) would have given him out.

Excellent display by Falcons over all and A2C2 was bundled for 44 runs. Falcons won by 106 runs. Biggest win margin by Falcons ever.