TMC: Episode 12 - Victory parade

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.

Some of us will do our jobs well and some will not, but we will be judged by only one thing-the result.
- Vince Lombardi

Whether you think you can and whether you think you cannot - you are right.
Henry Ford.

For the third time this season Cedar Rapids All-stars and NCC met, this time in Omaha. The winner would reach the finals of the CLIA championship while the loser would go home wondering how a season that promised so much ended so soon.

CRA won the toss and elected to bat. What followed can be described using the most banal cricketing cliches or in focused Reacher-like paragraphs. I shall use the second option.

The key to a fast bowler's success is footwork and an easy, relaxed run-up. Unless the bowler is comfortable at the point he leaps to the crease, all other aspects of his bowling suffer. It is not uncommon for batsmen to talk about going into a "zone". It is fun to watch batsmen enter the zone, so to speak. But when a fast bowler enters the zone there isn't a more exciting sight in all of cricket. On September 20th, 2009, Gunmaster G9 entered the zone and by the time he was done with his spell, CRA innings was shattered beyond repair.

Bowling faster than I can ever recall seening him bowl before, Gunmaster kept beating the batsmen who were unsure which direction the ball was swinging after pitching. Moreover, by the time they got the bat down, the ball was thudding into Bean Counter's gloves behind the stumps. Time after time, the force of the ball caused Counter to jump off the ground to corral it. Gunmaster is the antithesis of a fast bowler in that the next word he utters on a field will be the first word he does. There is no glaring at the batsman, no histrionics, no prolonged appealing whatsover. Looking at him gives no clue as to the outcome of the ball. Ram, CRA's most accomplished batsman, was clueless about the bowling and the 3rd ball of the innings was the first one that he even got his bat to touch - that was an inner-edge that barely cleared leg-stump. One ball later, Gunmaster broke through Ram's defenses more comprehensively and rattled the stumps.

At the other end, Energizer Bunny was strangely listless. Trundling up the crease in a shadow of his usual self he bowled many wides (12 in all in just 4 overs). Fortunately, when he did get the ball on the right line he was unplayable and the CRA batsmen, particularly Mamu and Abdul just looked to preserve wickets.

The first runs from the bat did not come till the 5th over of the innings. The only thing nudging the score forward were the wides being bowled. With the batsmen showing no signs of taking on Gunmaster, Captain Ozone set an incredible field for a game played at a club level. Only two fielders were front of square - one at short cover and one at short-midwicket. The rest of the fielders were in the slip-gully-third man region. On the occasional occasion the batsmen managed to play more than a defensive shot, the ball invariably found one of the two fielders in front of square.

Agonizing over after agonizing over followed as Mamu and Abdul couldn't find a run no matter how hard they tried, until Gunmaster ended Mamu's stay with a ball that was deflected down the leg-side only for Counter to pull of a sharp catch going to his left. 2 runs in 27 tells the tale of agony that Mamu endured.

Abdul did not fare much better either. After 4 overs, Bunny was replaced by Kingsize Dada and the big unit struck right away trapping Abdul in front of the stumps. (You know it is a plumb LBW when the batting team's umpire gives it in these leagues!). Abdul's contribution to the proceedings were 5 scratchy singles in 28 balls.

After the 11th over, Gunmaster's spell was done. Breathing fire till the end he ensured that CRA's hopes were severely dented. It is not often that a bowler's analyses truly indicates how well (or badly) he bowled. However, 6 overs, 1 maiden, 8 runs, 2 wickets is as good an indicator as you can get.

While CRA did not lose too many wickets to Gunmaster, the tone had been set for the rest of the innings. Sensing a chance to make inroads into the batting line-up, Ozone turned to his second-fastest bowler - Chikna Slater. Making a comeback into the team after a disciplinary issue-related hiatus, Chikna set about ensuring that Gunmaster's fury was not in vain. Mike Strydon, CRA's biggest middle-order hope (psychologically as well as physically) defended for dear life as ball after ball homed in on his stumps. The one time CHikna landed a shorter one, Mike effortlessly pulled him away to the mid-wicket boundary. Chastened by that, Chikna resumed his unrelenting attack on the stumps. Something was bound to give and, not surprisingly, Mike's stumps went for a toss when a peach-perfect yorker went right through his tentative forward prod (4 runs in 18 balls).

Manumeet Bhatia began to swing his bat at everything, a heartening display of taking on the bowling, but it was not accompanied by much success. Swinging at every ball is fine if you are connecting. When you are not it makes for some awkward moments. Fortunately for NCC, Bhatia's attempt to find the mid-wicket fence only resulted in a pop-up. Ozone saw the ball go up and quickly looked down to see who the fielder was. As soon as he realized Bhishma was after it, he relaxed. Bhishma, the safest fielder on the NCC team, backpedaled from mid-on. Making a difficult catch look simple, Bhishma took the over-the-shoulder catch (a la Kapil Dev) and seconds later was smothered by the captain leaping into his arms.



Murtaza struck two lusty blows, clearing the fence with one, but by now the NCC tails were up and the attack was relentless. Murtaza swung hard at Chikna and lost his stumps (11 runs in 25 balls). Alok tried to square-cut the first ball he faced and the extra pace from Chikna did him no favors, Thin Man gobbled up the easy offering at point.

With that Chikna's fiery spell came to an end - 6-0-21-4, with the big blot being the 10 wides he sent down. Keeping the pressure up at the other end while Chikna was wrecking havoc was Bhishma with his unique mix of sliders and low bouncing-scudders to the tune of 5-0-19-0.

Smelling blood in the water, Ozone turned to his closers - Doctor Kamikaze and U-Turn. The duo specializes in bleeding all the pace out of the ball while targeting the stumps. Ashok could not resist the Kamikaze temptation to send the ball into orbit and his high, arching pop-up was comfortably taken by, who else, Bhishma. A ball later the CRA captain, Senthi, actually managed to connect well with the ball. The ball traveled all the way to deep midwicket, where Thin Man took the overhead catch about a yard inside the fence. Kamikaze: 3-0-13-2.

The final nail in the coffin was struck when U-Turn drew Venkat out of the crease and beat him for pace (or lack thereof) giving Counter a chance to procure the first stumping of his career. U-Turn: 2.2-0-6-1.

With that CRA was all out for just 99 runs in 29.2 overs. The blot on the otherwise splendid bowling card were the whopping 37 wides bowled by the bowlers.

And now, here comes the much-awaited section of the TMC match reports. Let's take a break to appreciate some of the lesser known things about the world around us.

The average person is about a quarter of an inch taller at night.

The Statue of Liberty is not in New York state, but in New Jersey.

There are 20,000 living organisms in a glass of water.

Every day the Earth travels 12 Million Miles.

Every diamond, no matter how big, is only one molecule.

It takes 3,000 cows to supply the NFL with footballs for one season.

Baby giraffes drop 6 feet to the ground when they're born.

Thunder is caused by air rushing into the vacuum created by lightening...you can't have thunder without lightening.

Mosquito repellents don't repel. They hide you. The spray blocks the mosquito's sensors so they don't know you're there.

No piece of paper can be folded in half more than 7 times.

A Boeing 747's wingspan is longer than the Wright brother's first flight.

For the first time all season a team batting first had been nailed for under 100 runs by the bowling squad. Surely the chase would be a formality, right? But never underestimate the prowess of the NCC in making things more difficult than they should be.

Kamikaze and Bhishma went in with instructions to not hang around and prolong the chase. Seeing them come in, Senthil threw a curveball and after Abdul's opening over gave Mamu the ball. I have described Mamu's unique bowling style elsewhere so I will just repeat what I wrote then:
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 on 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 umpires get a lot of workout when Mike is standing up to the stumps.

It did not take long for Mamu to make his mark. Two balls into his spell, he got Kamikaze to try an extravagant cut shot, only to top edge it to a waiting gully fielder. Soon after, Mamu got the big gun - Bhishma - trapped LBW while trying to paddle a ball to the leg-side. Before that happened, the first signs that things may not be going as planned occurred when a hard-hit straight drive by Bhishma was deflected onto the stumps by the bowler to find Kingsize out of his crease,runout in the most tragic way imaginable. Now, with Bhishma also gone, it was three down for next to nothing.

At this point, Senthil came on to continue the slow bowling trend, treating the crowd to his expert mix of leg-spinners, googlies, and sliders. To counter this unexpected mode of attack, Ozone promoted himself up the order, joining Thin Man at the crease. Stepping out of the crease and calmly playing the ball straight down the ground Ozone began to ease some of the nerves in the NCC camp. Emboldened by this, Thin Man thumped Senthil for a humungous six that bounced on the road beyond the ground at mid-wicket. Two fours later, the nerves were eased even further. And then Senthil struck. Ozone ventured out of the crease, did not reach the pitch of the ball, and before he had turned, Mike had snapped off the bails.

Counter went in with instructions to take his time (not that he needs these instructions) and he did. However, at the other end, Senthil produced a picture-perfect leg-break to bamboozle Thin Man's defensive shot and take out off stump. In the very next over, Bunny's half-forward offering to an Ashok ball that swung in and then seamed out cost him dearly, losing his stumps in the process.

Chikna did not hang around too long either. Right after a wild swing connected nothing but air, Chikna repeated the feat and the high, swirling catch was taken by Senthil at gully. 7 wickets down and about 30-40 runs to get, 3 wickets in hand. A humdinger that should never have been had now entered humdinger status.

Every subsequent run was cheered with a fervor usually reserved for boundaries by the batting side while every dot ball was treated like a wicket by the bowling team. Luckily for NCC, at the crease were the two most unruffled batsmen in the team - Counter and U-Turn. Slowly, but surely, the duo inched their way towards the target, eschewing risky shots and playing out Mamu and Senthil's final arrows. With less than 15 runs needed to win, Counter blundered by trying to cut hard at a wide ball, only managing a top-edge to Mamu. By then Counter had played a great hand - 23 runs in 32 balls - but the door to victory had not been prised open completely.

With mounting pressure and only Johnnie Walker to follow, Gunmaster did not even try to score runs, content to block out every ball he faced. At the other end, U-Turn took his time, defending any ball on the stumps, but thrashing two bad balls - one to the fence and one for three runs to bring NCC to the verge of victory.

The first ball of the 25th over was a full toss no-ball that U-Turn gleefully deposited to the fine-leg boundary to bring up the winning runs. Without Counter's calmness and U-Turn's determined batting this one may have gone away from NCC. For many games U-Turn has been struggling with developing a batting identity and he may just have found one - late innings closer.

Mamu (6-1-16-2) and Senthil (6-0-23-2) were the pick of the CRA bowlers but even their best efforts came short. With the narrow two-wicket win, NCC made it through to the finals. Waiting for them were the Iowa Bulls, who thrashed the defending champions - Elite CC - in a convincing manner in the first semi-final, successfully chasing down a target of 134 losing just 2 wickets in the process.

The final would pit the league's best batting outfit (Iowa) against the league's best bowling outfit (Nebraska) - a battle worthy of the occasion.

The match report for that game will come up shortly...