Just Cricket

The Falcons being presented with the ACA 2017/18 trophy [From L-R: C. Dhekne, A. Patel, R. Vasudevan, M. Rohit, H. Mistry, J. Patel, R. Mehta, M. Manikarnike, S. Murali; Missing: A. Londhe, Y. Sharma, A. Tummala, R. Pawera, H. Jamshed, A. Alexander, S. Vallabhaneni, G. Lal, S. Veereddy] The Falcons had a tremendous 2017/18 season in division elite in the Arizona Cricket Association finishing off at 15 wins out of 16 games.  The captains. 761 runs in 14 games between them There have been several consistent individual performances from the Falcons throughout the season and one such performance was recognized at the annual ACA awards ceremony when Harsh Mistry was presented the best bowler award in division elite. A few records to follow, highlight the positives that came out of the season for the Falcons.  Among the batsmen, 3 from the Falcons making it to the top 10 in division elite. Playing on tough pitches, these records say a lot about the techni...

Game 11 of the 2017/18 season for the Falcons, was a crucial crossing point in their path towards graduating from division elite to prestige in the next season, as they faced Tuscon Superkings who were in contention for a spot in division prestige alongside the Titans. The Falcons won the toss on a pleasant morning, and elected to bat at Sandpiper, only to reach a sub-par score of 176, failing to put partnerships together. However, the bowling attack pulled off an enormous feat to wind up the TSK innings in quick time.  The Falcons, opened their innings with their regular opening opening pair, in C. Dhekne and A. Londhe. C. Dhekne was striking the ball well early on, before he got one that stayed extremely low, rattling his stumps as the Falcons found themselves at 1/30 after 4.4 overs after which S. Murali fell in quick succession leaving the Falcons to build a partnership at 2/35. A. Londhe and J. Patel, then put together a good partnership re-building the innings, helping ...

Game 10 for the Falcons on their home ground at Sandpiper, as they were taking on the PHX Cardinals who had had their fair share of success in the season. The PHX Cardinals played some smart cricket and capitalized on some lackluster performances from the Falcons to win a close game handing the Falcons their first defeat of the season with a little more than a couple of overs to spare late in the day. The game started in an unusual fashion for the Falcons as the PHX Cardinals opening batsmen, R. Kale and A. Chaube capitalized off of full tosses and over-pitched deliveries from the Falcons racking up several boundaries to start with as they built a solid opening partnership. A. Chaube played the silent role in the partnership as R. Kale stuck to the aggressive role forcing a bowling change to bring on H. Mistry and A. Londhe earlier than usual. However, batting seemed very easy as the batsmen were able to put away the good deliveries and get that one boundary an over to keep the s...

The Falcons, with 2 victories on their back against ASU and Tucson Superkings at the start of 2018, entered Game 9 of their season to play Phoenix CC who were lurking at the bottom of the table. The Falcons, being favorites to win this game put on a thumping performance, bowling Phoenix CC out earlier on and wrapping the up target, ending the game at 13:33 local time. The game started with Phoenix CC winning the toss and electing to bat, and in the end, what seemed like the only thing that went in their way on the day. The Phoenix CC batting order never seemed to gain momentum even though they were able to maintain decent run rate of 4 an over as they lost wickets to some good bowling from the Falcons at such regular intervals that it almost seemed like it was all being played out from a script that was already written for them. At the end of 20 overs as the teams went into their drinks break, Phoenix CC had lost a few too many wickets to their liking even though they were trudgi...

Game 6 of the 2017 season for the in-form Falcons was as simple as it could get, as the Falcons wrapped up another victory making it 6 wins in 6 games for the season. With 15 overs to spare and the Tuscon Cricket Club, 175 runs behind their target of 302, if one thought the high of the season was already attained, new members from the squad came to the fore finding form and familiarity in their new roles to top it off on a cold and windy afternoon at Mansfield park. Ending 2017 on a high (From R to L: H. Shahriyar, R. Mehta, M. Rohit, Dixit, J. Patel, Y. Sharma, H. Mistry, M. Manikarnike (squatting), C. Dekhne, A. Tummala, Siva) The Falcons won the toss on a cold morning, elected to bat first. C. Dekhne walked in to open with a new face on the other end, H. Shahriyar. The innings started off with W. Papria keeping a tight hold from one end, while M. Lateefuddin leaked runs at a brisk pace helping the Falcons' openers maintain a moderate run rate until C. Dekhne fell aga...

The Falcons brought a lot of interest to  Game 15 of the Arizona Cricket Association 2017  season  on November 12, 2017  by losing wickets in a heap, leaving the lower order batsmen and tail-enders to take them over the line as the daylight seemed very minuscule  for the last few overs of the game. The game started off on a partly cloudy day at the Chapparal Elementary. The Falcons coming in to their fourth game of the season with victories in all of their past three games, winning by 176 runs, 116 runs and 244 runs respectively. The Titans would have been determined to get a win under their belt, given the fate that they met in just their previous game against the Falcons when the game slipped from their hands with a few bad umpiring decisions going against them.  The Falcons started off with leaking a few boundaries in the first few overs. But, the control was immediately arrested when opening bowler, Abhishiktha Tummala, picked up wickets of th...