Welcome to The Midwest Chronicles (TMC). These are the accounts of the exploits of the Nebraska Cricket Club in the 2009 season. To spice up what would otherwise be a routine match report of runs scored, wickets taken, and catches snaffled (or spilled) these posts are being written with a tongue firmly in cheek but with the facts completely in the true. So sit back, relax, and enjoy the meandering show.
Here's a complete guide to the cast of characters and their nicknames. The cast will be updated as players are added or dropped or nicknames changed as the season progresses.
Nobody travels on the road to success without a puncture or two.
Navjot Singh Sidhu
It is an uncommon man that does not flinch at the altar of success.
Richard Fortwin (JQ to some)
The Cedar Rapids All-Stars and NCC traveled across the great state of Iowa to Ames for the final game of the regular season. A lot of things rode on this game. For NCC, a win would ensure that they led the regular season standings for the second year in a row and a home semifinal in Nebraska. A loss could put them in the prickly position of having to travel to Iowa for a semi-final outing, pending some other results. For CRA, a loss would not be earth-shattering as they still had another game to go but a win could propel them into the top three and help them not have to travel all the way to Omaha for the semi-finals.
Are you still with me after all that? Well, permutations and combinations mean nothing once the games are played. Here is the report.
CRC's captain Senthil won the toss and elected to chase. Captain Ozone sent in Thin Man to provide some thrust and, in a move from left field, sent in Johnny Walker with him. Johnny had never previously batted higher than #9 in any game but has the unique distinction of being the only left-hander in the squad.
Thin Man began with a trademark six over long-on but even in the short time he was at the crease he looked a little out of sorts. Not surprisingly, he out soon after playing well over a simple, straight delivery by Abdul. 11 runs in 8 balls with 1 six pretty much tells the story there.
Bean Counter and Walker set about accumulating runs with some very brisk running between the wickets. Neither of them is a threat to pepper the boundary, least of all when the grass is tall enough to cover people's ankles. In spite of that, Counter did manage a brilliant hook shot for four when Aamir pitched it short. But that was to be the only shot hit in rage for a while. The duo put up a decent partnership, but not at any great rate, and eventually Counter perished to a weak shot to the gully fielder. His contribution was 17 runs in 35 balls.
Bhishma, making a return to the ground where he sealed a win over ISU, did not last for long, adjudged LBW to Abdul while attempting a flick/pull/sweep shot that is unique to him. Following him soon after was Walker, out for 16 runs (23 balls) when he hit a flat shot straight to the mid-wicket fielder who caught it more out of self-preservation than anything else. Until then Walker looked unhurried and *gasp* elegant in the way he dealt with all the bowlers. There is some batting potential in the guy after all.
Kingsize Dada and Energizer Bunny staged a mini-partnership where they tried to steady the boat that had been rocked by the previous batsmen's mistakes more than anything else. At this point, Senthil and Mamu began bowling in tandem. This requires a separate paragraph of its own.
Mamu (no one seems to know his real name) is a bowler who was probably the rage a hundred years ago. He walks up to the wicket and let's the ball go with exaggerated flight. His ball does not spin after it lands but it always lands in a good length spot, teasing the batsman into stepping out of the crease. The ball takes a good 2-3 seconds to reach the batsman and is just the first step in the trap. He always bowls with a packed leg-side field with at least 2-3 fielders on the boundary waiting for that lofted hit. But the real danger is lurking much closer. Should the batsman step out of the crease and miss the ball, he may as well keep walking. Behind the stumps lies the biggest danger - Mike Strydom. This South African, big and strong as you might imagine, is also the best wicket-keeper in the league and possesses the fastest reflexes of any keeper most of us have seen in person. The square-leg umpire gets a lot of workout when Mike is standing up to the stumps.
Senthil, on the other hand, is that rare delight - a leg-spinner with control. In the opinion of most folks in the league, he is the best spinner around and teams are content to play out his assorted mixture of leg-spinners, top-spinners, googlies, and the faster one. This day, Senthil had another added incentive - he needed two wickets to achieve a personal milestone of 100 wickets in the league. By the time he was done bowling he had not only accomplished that goal, he blew past by a pair.
Kingsize Dada and Bunny removed any risky shots from their arsenal, but the battle of patience was won by Senthil. With just a ball to go for the drinks break, Kingsize could not resist trying to hit a googly to the vacant deep square-leg region. Unfortunately he forgot one vital component - connecting with the ball. LBW and victim number 99 was in the books.
After the drinks break Doctor Kamikaze played an innings that is entirely his domain - full of thumping heaves and airy swishes. You can accuse the man of anything but you can never accuse him of not swinging out of his skin every time he wants to hit. Unfortunately for him, on this day, he mainly made contact with the air around him. 11 airy-fairy runs later he walked back, another victim of the Mamu slow-death.
Captain Ozone and Bunny then showed the rest how to play the spinners, repeatedly advancing down the wicket to smother the spin and steal at least a run every ball. Soon, unable to stem the flow and frustrated about not being able to make further inroads, Senthil took himself out of the attack. Mamu went through his overs without further damage....or so it seemed until his last over where, as a final act, he got Ozone to reach for the ball and spoon an easy catch to cover (12 runs in 15 balls).
Seeing the procession of batsmen retiring to the pavilion, Bunny turned on the after-burners and began to hit out. When he plays without thinking, Bunny is devastatingly good. On this day, he eschewed the predetermined nonsense that plagues him and displayed his vast skills. Twice he stepped down the wicket and slammed Mamu and Senthil over long-on for a six. When Senthil left, and Mike and Singh tried their hand, he waited for the ball and creamed boundaries to cover and midwicket.
Running out of ideas to stop Bunny, Senthil came back. Bunny misjudged the bounce and spin of a googly and was out LBW for 49 (3 fours, 2 sixes, 35 balls) giving Senthil his 100th wicket. What a worthy opponent he had snared, making the memory even more...err...memorable for him.
After than the innings folded very quickly. U-Turn remained not out on 0, Gunmaster G9 gave Senthil his 101st wicket and not to be left behind, Little Boy got bowled swinging across the line to become victim #102.
NCC had scored just 149 runs in 29.3 overs. Definitely about 100 less they wanted to before the game started based upon the outstanding batting line-up they had. Mamu's analyses were: 6-0-26-3, while Senthil had even more outstanding numbers: 4.5-1-23-4. Not to be forgotten in this is Abdul's initial burst that slowed the run-rate: 6-1-18-3.
As always, here comes the much-awaited section of the TMC match reports. Let's now take a break to appreciate some of the less known things about the world around us.
- The pig is the only animal besides a human that can get a sunburn.
- You can boil water in a paper bag over an open flame.
- An average American spends 6 months of his life waiting at red lights.
- If you toss a penny 10000 times, it will not be heads 5000 times, but more like 4950. The heads picture weighs more, so it ends up on the bottom.
- The average ear of corn has eight-hundred kernels arranged in sixteen rows.
- A housefly's tastebuds are in its feet.
- Shrimp can only swim backwards.
There is only one way to defend a small total - bowl the opposition out. Ozone opened the bowling with Gunmaster and Bunny. While Bunny settled into a beautiful rhythm, bowling out-swingers and in-swingers seemingly at will, Gunmaster appeared more labored in his run-up. Sure enough, four overs into his spell, Gunmaster pulled up lame with a side strain that required immediate rest. The CRA batsmen - Mamu and Alok looked to consolidate before opening out. However, a piece of brilliant fielding undid their plans. In taking a sharp run, Mamu-Alok underestimated Thin Man's throwing arm. A "tracer bullet" from Thin Man found the stumps and Mamu's inning ended even before he started.
Abdul has never impressed me as a batsman who can do more than just block the ball. His 14 ball innings did nothing to dispel that notion and he was out to a sharp catch by Bunny off Bhishma's accurate medium-paced top spinners (there really is no other way to describe what he bowls). Bhsihma took over from Gunmaster and tightened the screws in an outstanding spell of controlled bowling.
Mike Strydom patted away the good balls and swatted the erring ones with ferocious power. With Alok stroking it smoothly through the off-side and Mike looking ominous, frowns started creasing some of the NCC foreheads. Bunny finished his spell with a flurry of runs showing signs of losing control once the ball lost its shine. He still ended up with fine numbers for the day: 6-0-21-1.
Kamikaze and Bhishma gave little away and forced the batsmen in taking more risks than they really wanted to with the small score they had to chase. Mike Strydom tried one shot too many and was out LBW to Kamikaze and the first nail in the CRA coffin had been struck.
Aamer and Murtaza then decided to throw caution to the winds and swung high and mightily at everything sent their way and began to take the game away once again. Three sixes, one four, and numerous half-chances later, Bhishma forced his way back into the game castling Aamer in his final over to revive NCC's hopes (32 runs in 28 balls, 1 four, 2 sixes).
U-Turn got into the act with his bowling getting Senthil to loft it towards Walker at deep mid-off. Back-peddling for dear life Walker pulled off a stunning overhead catch to herald the start of a great finish for NCC. That was the invitation Kamikaze needed to put his stamp on the game. Bowling his stump-to-stump line he invited batsmen to swing across the line and pay the price for it. Two fellows hit it high up towards deep midwicket where U-Turn took two nerveless catches and in between those catches a third guy lost his stumps.
Kamikaze finished with 5-0-23-3 while Bhishma had an outstanding game - 6-1-12-2. CRA was all out for 119.
With that NCC was assured of topping the regular season table and went into the semi-finals in a good mood. The opponents? The 4th ranked team in the league...the very same Cedar Rapids Allstars!
Would it be third time lucky for CRA or would NCC continue to dominate the Iowans this year. Time (and my next match report) will tell.
