Rain or Shine..the play continues...

Following Saturday's practice, the weather gods were not really interested in letting the Cheetah's have two consecutive playing days. However, the spirit displayed by Cheetah's helped defy the odds and play 2 games spanning 3 hours today.

If players continue to show the same interest levels, I do not see a reason why Cheetah's cannot challenge the best cricketing teams in the bay area.

Let us take a moment to congratulate Arvi for volunteering to be the treasurer for Cheetah's. Not bad, he has already banked $50 in the team account! Bad weather brought 3 additional league players from the Packers to our practice games today. Those 3 players showed a lot of discipline in all 3 departments of the game. Our players sure can pick up a few tips watching them play today.

Bulletin on today's game:

Guruji's team batted first in the first game and set a target of 62 runs in 12 overs. Disciplined batting from Mica, Selva, Guruji, and one of the Packers players helped set a decent target. Ben's team started slowly during the chase, but started accelerating the run rate after 5 overs. Satish (Packers player), batted beautifully along with Ben, and at one point the target of 62 seemed too low for Ben's team. However, a few wickets towards the end of the game, a quick reflex catch by Guruji resulted in the dismissal of Satish; a direct hit from Karthik caught Ben a few yards short of the wicket for his run out, triggering a collapse. Ben's team batted first during the second game and set a similar target of 62 runs, however this time, only from 8 overs. Surya (Packers player) took the game single handedly away from Ben's team by scoring 18 runs of one over from Ranjith. Steady support from Mica, Selva helped Guruji's team chase the required runs in just 7 overs and 2 balls.

Player Feedback:

Arvi - batted beautifully during the first game. Some of his ground strokes were pleasing to the eye. He also filled in as a secondary wicket keeper when Sudar injured his finger. Playing a cross batted shot in the second game, he could not negate the uneven bounce of the pitch, resulting in his wicket.

He can continue to focus on scoring runs down the ground and should play with straight bat as much as possible.

Practice recommendations - Drills for short pitched batting, driving the ball when it gets full.

Ben - batted some audacious shots yielding a lot of runs. Ben can continue to play his natural game with a little more patience. He can play a key role of a middle order batsmen who can come and accelerate the score towards the end of the innings.

Ben can improve running between the wickets and running in general. Instead of waiting for the ball to reach the boundary, he can start running singles and twos. The last thing the team wants is Ben getting run out.

Practice recommendations - Drills for running between the wickets. Batting drills for full length deliveries, play slow balls with better timing.

Guruji

Will let someone else use the comment section for my feedback.

I felt my batting was good considering I did not lose my wicket and scored steadily without wasting many deliveries. However, could not stick to consistent off side bowling line due to shoulder pain. I should continue to play with straight bat and not across the line.

Practice recommendations - Drills for short pitched batting, pull shots. Bowling drills to bowl in good length corridor to make the batsmen commit mistakes.

Mica - batted with straight bat. His batting looks elegant when he plays straight batted shots and plays the flick on the leg side. Some of his late deft touches to the slip area were again pleasing to the eye. He can improve his stroke repository by including some shots square of the wickets.

His bowling was not up to the mark today. He had to bowl with sore shoulder and could not stick to consistent line.

Practice recommendations - Drills for off drive shots. Same bowling drills as Guruji.

Ram - bowled a decent spell during the first game. Again he can develop more consistency in bowling the off side line and bowling to the field. He has a good jumping action.

Practice recommendations - Drills to bowl in the good length corridor and off side line.

Ranjith - one single over from him turned the game to his opponents favor. He batted to his ability. Displayed some nice strokes down the ground. Needs to get some mental strength when bowling to a batsman outside of our Cheetah's group. He has a highly stressful bowling action and needs to relax a bit and bowl to his strengths (medium pace and land the delivery in good length).

Practice recommendations - Drills for bowling in the good length. More importantly, needs to bring skills developed in practice to good use in match situations. Should just stick to a good line and length without worrying who is on strike.

Selva - batted nicely during both the games. His strength is playing in the off side. He can continue to play straight batted shots and avoid going for premeditated shots. Selva and premeditated shots, don't go well. It is sure a recipe for disaster.

Practice recommendations - Drills to play of the backfoot. Not commit to front foot when the delivery is a little short of good length.

Sudar - He took 2 catches and effected a stumping, resulting in 3 good dismissals today. Although this is his first week as a keeper, since he took his role last week, his performance calls for some coaching and can pick up some basic keeping technique by watching expert videos and tips from other seasoned wicket keepers.

Practice recommendations - Wicket keeping drills. This should be his one and only focus. Not get distracted with other roles for the time being.

Suresh - bowled beautifully during the first game. Did not have much opportunity to bat. But I did notice him play a cross batted shot during his relatively short innings. He can surely launch his shots on short pitched deliveries. But needs to pick the right deliveries for his big hits. Including some defense along with his usual strokes can sure help him prolong his innings.

Practice recommendations - Drills to bowl consistent off side line. Bowl in good length corridor.

Improve defensive technique in batting by curbing the bat swing.

PS: I could not spend much time proof reading this post. Hope you pardon the unprofessional nature of this post.

Readers (especially Cheetah's players), please post comments after you read this post. Comments encourage me to come up with regular posts and also helps share feedback to the rest of our players.

Team Cheetah

Finally, more than 10 guys showed up for Cheetah's practice session this morning. As planned, first 10 - 15 mins of today's practice was devoted to formation of the team batting line up and bowlers for friendly games with other teams, including league teams.

There was consensus among team members for a need for the top order to keep the scoreboard ticking steadily in the starting overs. An overly defensive approach adopted during the last friendly game, backfired, with too much pressure on the batsmen who followed. Also without proper line up in place, players were sent to the middle by random card draw approach. Cheetah's have an interesting mix of players. Top order comprises of the following players:

• Selva Santhanam
• Praveen Mahure
• Arvind Raghu
• Mahesh (Mica)
• Ram Annasami
• Ram Suryanarayanan
• Parag Desai

All the above players can play steady innings, but not score more than run a ball. However, the need of the hour for Cheetahs is to have top order hold the wicket and not crumble exposing the middle order. Not all the players can show up for every single game. Hence having a pool of 5 to 6 players designated for the top provides the team with flexibility to position players according to the match situation. Game plan is to have the top order play for 7-8 overs (in a 20 over game) at about run a ball, mainly through singles and twos. After this period, top order has the license to go for bigger shots and score at a rapid rate without worrying about losing their wickets. Ideally, middle order should have a go at the bowlers from overs 14 - 20. Now speaking about middle order, the following players form the pool for middle order:

• Ben Thomas
• Guruji (Raja)
• Satish
• Nikhil (if he ever shows up again!)
• Sreejan (same as Naveen)
• Ranjith
• Manish Desai
• Nirav

This leaves the rest to come towards the end and have a free swing from the word 'GO'. These free birds towards the end of the innings are:

• Suresh
• Sreedhar
• Sudar

Bowling pool includes the following players:

• Ram Suryanarayanan
• Praveen
• Suresh
• Guruji
• Mica
• Selva
• Ram Annasami
• Ranjith
• Manish
• Nirav
• Parag
• Sreedhar

By the way, during the next practice, please take a moment to congratulate Sudar for taking up the wicket keeper duty for the team. Sudar would be thinking twice about taking this new role, with everyone expecting a Dujon or Kiran More out of him rather than a Kamran Akmal! With practice, I think Sudar would make a good keeper, as he can stop pretty much any ball either by catching or falling over it :)

Practice drills, for batting, bowling, fielding, and wicket keeping are required prior to the start of games every week. This can be done between 8.30 - 9.00 am. For those, who think they can perform at the expected levels, without practice, good luck! try to match those guys who gain better skills through practice.

A quick bulletin on today's game. During the first game, Basher Ben took the score to a daunting 62 of 10 overs against Arvi's team by scoring a few boundaries on either side of the wicket. Guruji's bowling was not up to the mark, as he had to bowl with sore shoulder picked up from his badminton game on Saturday. In response, Selva and Arvi started scoring steadily and kept the run rate around 4 for the first 4 overs. Once Arvi fell, slashing a wide delivery outside the off stump, Mica got in and made full use of the 1G rule behind the wicket and played some beautiful deliberate cuts through the slip area. Sudar was not able to dive to slip position every other ball, as expected by Ben and had to switch roles with Ben! Ben wanted to have someone trash talk behind the wickets too. Hope Sudar can get some trash talk coaching from Ben! On the bowling front, Suresh exhibited excellent control during the first game by compromising on the speed for better line and length. Praveens' tempting line with a looping delivery can deceive even the best in business. Ranjith tried a little hard to avoid short deliveries, however, a few short ones were promptly dispatched to the mid wicket fence by Selva and Guruji. With 23 to win of 18 deliveries, Guruji sensed victory. However, a brain fart (as crisply put by Mica), made Guruji run for a non-existing single resulting in a disastrous run out to hand victory to Ben's team.

In the second game, with notable contributions from Selva and Guruji, Arvi's team scored a good 38 runs from the alloted 6 overs. However, Ranjith's focused innings carried Ben's team across the finish line without much fuss during the last over of their innings. What went wrong with Arvi's team? May be poor bowling at death and a few crucial dropped catches. Although the scoreline read 2-0, the intensity of today's game was on par with any game in the TCA league. Ground fielding was at its best in both the games today. Hope to have full strength practice during the next few weeks and get ready for another friendly game with one of the bay area teams.

With this level of practice, Cheetah's can finally roar with pride instead of a meek meow!

PS: Feel free to post team strategy and line up opinions in the comments section. Also, in case I have missed any of our players, please mention their names as well. I can add their names to the post. Can't afford to miss any of you!