Royal Cup Final

The Goal

This blog is regarding the cricket club 99ers for which I play every weekend. I joined the club in 2007 after I moved to Bay Area for work, ever since I joined we have never been able to break into top 16 teams(Elite group)  which is both frustrating and disappointing. The reason are well known to everybody in the team lack of consistency, poor batting performance, not performing well during  the key moments of the game & lack of killer instinct. On paper we are a very good side but performances do not reflect it. It’s generally said that when you are on a roll one thing leads to another thing and all aspects of the game improves but getting on the roll is what we are not able to achieve. At the start of 2011 season we decided that we are not blindly going to show up for games every weekend but put in some thought process, plan out & set goals for the season. Our goal, Elite playoff game in 2011 season. We knew results will not show overnight but putting in the process is the first step towards the goal. In our first tournament League 2011 we missed Elite again by a whisker but decided that we will win the Royal Cup comfortably. At the end of League 2011 indeed we are the Royal Cup Champions and deservedly so. This was just a stepping stone to the larger goal of getting into Elite group first and then qualifying for the playoffs.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

Royal Cup Finals

We made it to the finals quite comfortably, it was difficult not to think about finals during the week leading up to the finals plus my recent performances was nothing great and by numbers I was under a little pressure but I backed myself anyways to do well. I practiced well during the week which is an important first step to success, practice is not even 10% of what match is but practicing just makes you that much in the grove and confident for the match, enough to do well.

We were on the ground half an hour before the game for warm-ups which are very important before games. (This is one thing I have noticed has changed over past seasons, showing up before the game start time) We win the toss and decide to bowl which is a good decision, considering bowling is our strength but when I noticed the track and my first impression was it was a good track to bat which we seldom see in our league. One of their openers played really well to get to 46 and a few late order hits boosted their score to 90. We bowled and fielded well, constantly picked up wickets hence they never really got going. Usually on Centerville (ground for Finals) 90 is a really good score and a match winning too but not this one considering that it was very good track to bat. Abhi & Rahul in particular bowled really well, Rahul bowled a maiden wicket over between 11- 20 overs which is not an easy task. 91 was gettable but considering our past chasing history where we have struggled to chase even modest scores of 60’s (those failures were purely due to poor batting and not due to good bowling by opposition) made the chase very interesting, not sure if Rangers (our opposition) knew it. Our openers started really well, Harshal and Gautam had performed well in the semi-final and they continued the same in the finals infact they did better, they put on 39 as an opening partnership at the 9^th over which was an awesome start,  we as a batting unit are not used too often. They ran really well (our nemesis for quite some time) and credit must go to Gautam because Harshal is known to be lazy runner. Rotating the strike lead them to bowl few bad bowls which were appropriately punished by both. The opening partnership in any chase is very important because you are making opposition desperate to get a wicket which produces few bad balls too. Then came a little drama, there always is when chasing, we lost 3 quick wickets between 10 and 13 over ( Harshal[run out again], Saunil & Sankalp[bowled]. While batting this always happens even at international level too, you lose one and suddenly couple of them follow hence it is very important for set batsman to not throw away his wicket and bat with the mentality that he is the best person to do the job and not leave it for anyone else to do it. I walked into bat and the first thing I told Gautam is not to throw his wicket away and stay till the end, had Gautam got out and two new batsman it would have been a totally different game because bowling team suddenly believes they can win it and they suddenly bowl and field well. I was really focused on doing well and my only target was to score my individual 5 runs and not care what team score was because I knew that if I get past that stage I can always make up for the slow start. I started cautiously looking for only singles & having a set batsman at the other end is a comforting feeling because all you have to do is give him the strike rather than be a hero yourself. I scored a single and next attempt to run lead to an overthrow boundary and suddenly I already achieved my target of 5 runs and I felt really good, I quickly changed my target and made sure that I bat sensibly and stay till the end. I must admit I was lucky too, they dropped two catches of my bat; both were close range catches which were not easy but not difficult plus there were few usual harakiri shots from me which were not needed at all luckily I missed it. We were really in driver’s seat to win the game, it was a matter of sensible batting even though it was run-a-ball we had wickets in hand. A six over long off from my bat come out of nowhere which flattened the opposition, must admit it wasn’t an effort shot, I only realized when it cleared that I had timed it really well. These shots do not come out easily hence it made that much more special. We lost Gautam at this point, Fabin walked in (I have never seen a clean hitter like him before). I knew one hit from him and the game would be over but that hit didn’t come and we needed 11 of 12. I was on strike and I did not want to leave too much for the last over because anything can happen in last over. I took my chances and went for it and hit boundary in long off that flattened the bowler and he bowled few on the leg and a wide and we needed 4 of 8 bowl. Next ball I walked down to take a single but the ball hit the top edge of my bat, flew in the long off region, fielder missed it and went for boundary which was enough. I saw all my teammates racing towards me and that feeling of hitting the winning runs in the final and then see your teammates running on the field towards you is an awesome feeling, I witnessed it a month ago the same when Dhoni hit a six to seal the WC but did not know I will be in the same situation, ok comparing WC win with Royals cup is taking it too far. The scenes were unbelievable everyone was overjoyed; I was carried off the field by Rahul and Sankalp. I ended up with the Man of the Finals trophy which I will cherish it for some time. These moments do not come every day in life so one should really savor and enjoy it. I would not attribute this success to a couple of individuals who performed in the Finals but to each and every team member of the squad. This was not a fluke or a one off win but reward for the hard work put in by all in the weekly practice sessions.  I had confidence that we will win that day even if I had failed I knew Tejas would have done the job because I trusted the effort which went before the finals.

Well Royal Cup is not the end of road but a start to a journey which will only end with Elite Cup, I do not wish to play Royal Cup anymore in my TCA career.

Sitting (L to R) - Abhijeet, Abhinav, Gautam, Manish, Tejas, Karthik, Rushil & Harshal
Standing(L  to R) - Pranav, Rahul, Sankalp(C), Saunil, Kartik & Fabin.
Missing - Sarang, Vishnu & Ayan

With the Trophy