Just Cricket

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...

Here’s a thought. There has been a gap of 95 days since the last test was played on March 5, 2014. Although this is a sign of what people want to see and what the administrators want to provide the world, it is important for test cricket to survive and most people who follow cricket would think that. That is something that is obvious and is not going to be the subject matter of this post. What is probably important and has escaped the eyes of cricketers, cricket enthusiasts and administrators is having a mechanism where all formats co-exist, different cricket enthusiasts get to see the formats that they want to and the shortest form of the game being the most popular format is played for the longest duration in a year. Cricket, for years has tried to emulate football to attract more viewership and has always failed. Maybe, it’s time to think differently and accept the fact that it’ll never be as big as football. Accepting that doesn’t necessarily mean that cricket isn’t doing wel...

It has been a good fortnight of cricket. Scintillating test cricket in the northern hemisphere, display of authority from a top class side in the south. For about three days in what one could call the Valentine's day Test, Pakistan looked like they had the upper hand, courtesy the partnership between Younis Khan and Asad Shafiq. It was very uncharacteristic of Pakistan to show such grit and determination, putting up such a big partnership after having been 33-4 on the first morning. Pakistan further dominated with the ball showing signs of making a strong comeback in the series. South Africa were still a worrisome 174 behind Pakistan when Peterson walked in with just four wickets in hand. But, there is just something about top sides as South Africa are currently, that they are always there or thereabouts even when the opposition is on top, waiting to seize on any opportunity presented and that's what they did, not just in this test in Cape Town, but in Adelaide last year as w...