Quick Fire Blog Slog

Twenty-20...A Batsmen's Game?!... Think Again!

2009-09-02T18:46:00.000-07:00

As many of you would agree to the point that 'Twenty-20' got introduced with one and only sole purpose to entertain the crowds just like our Bollywood movies....with the heroes being the Batsmen! Well, not everyone thinks the same way especially over here in Ohio as last weekend proved that theory wrong and made the villians (bowlers) into real heroes with supporting actors (fielders) all in positive roles to steal some thumping wins for their respective teams.....

The second weekend of OICT showcased 3 important games ( all from north group): NCC vs UCC, PPCC vs RPCC and CCC vs AHCC. While RPCC and UCC continued with their bad luck and lost second consecutive games, CCC and PPCC stood on the other side of the spectrum with 2/2 wins!!

Batting first, NCC started things off pretty nicely both in the tournament and their first game as top 3 out of 4 batsmen (Uday-29, Rajesh-30 & Anand-20) were in the run making business. UCC's bowlers were not left with much hopes with Sunny Haider & Subodh Kumar being the only decent bowlers claiming 2 and 1 wicket each respectively and controlling NCC for total of 139/7. NCC's bowlers came out strongly with the all-round cameo by Rajesh Dantuluri who claimed 3 important wickets and gave a helping hand in sending UCC home with 6 balls to spare and 19 more runs to chase. Anuraag Pandey was the only UCC batter with the bat that was actually working as he made brilliant 37!!

Same day, Same venue, just a couple hours later, RPCC was whacked out by PPCC as they were bundled at 103 runs with the lost of 9 wickets in their 20 overs. It seems like 'Punjabi Power' got a little weaker in front of 'Polaris Power' as only 2 out of their 8 Singhs were on the song- Jwalant Singh (26) and Harpreet Singh (23). PPCC finished things in regular fashion and made the target look more embarrassing than what it actually was as they chased it with more than 3 overs and 8 wickets remaining. Abheesh Chandran proved once again and stamped his name in OICT's leading run scorers with back to back solid performances as he made brilliant 41* with great support from Shanker Vedam (39) which left the bowlers totally clueless.

Sunday marked another victory for the hosts CCC but did not turn out too happy for 'All Happy Cricket Club' (AHCC) as they got 'Spun' by CCC's spinners both ways (Leg & off) as the latter lost to the defending champions by 35 runs. AHCC were looking in great shape with their disciplined fielding and bowling performance as the ball was finding Sridhar Vedantam's safest hands who took some great catches and fielding to leave CCC's batsmen thinking all around. The later part of the innings looked much better for CCC's batting as their opener Murthy Ayyagari (43*) started exploding all around with some help from Senthil, Shyam and Sanjay (all 10 each) and CCC gave a target of 125 to the 'Happy' team. AHCC did not start their innings in a perfect manner as the Swinger- Madhu Dhanagiri from CCC blew 2 crucial wickets for them right in the beginning. Things just started looking a little brighter for AHCC as Akhil Dhyani (26*) and Bhavin Patel (17) looked stronger on the crease when the spinners spun the match away from them with leg spinners Shyam Kasthuri and Jatin Batra claiming 2 and 1 wickets each and off-spinners Murthy Ayyagari and Rushit Mehta bagging one wicket each. Everything came in place for CCC towards the end as wicket keeper Ram Ghadde joined the party with 5 important dismissals that led to to a comfortable victory for the champs by 35 runs.

For team standings and other tournament related news keep following the official OICT website and of course the brilliant Blog Slog! ;)

As you all know next weekend is a long and off-weekend for 20-20 games due to Labor Day holiday on Monday. I know you guys can't wait to get in the action once again when the tournament continues on Sept 12th. In the meantime, I thought of having some fun and playing an interesting trivia game! So, I will ask you 3 questions from International cricket and lets see who can come back with the correct answers first! The winner will get the grand prize of being honored and published in the great great blog of none other than aapka Jatin! ;)

So are you Ready?.......

Q1: Two Indian Cricketers have batted all 5 days of a test match. One of them is ML Jyasimha. Who is the other one?

Q2: Who was Daniel Vettori's 300th victim in Tests?

Q3: Which team holds the record for scoring highest total in first innings of a test match in a losing cause?

Please email your answers in order to jatinbatra83@gmail.com. Some food for your thoughts...

Have a good and safe long weekend folks!! See you in 2 weeks....

Boom Boom Boom...Quick Fire!!!

2009-08-25T18:40:00.000-07:00

After an unbelievable response to CCC's Inaugural T-20 Tournament last year...OICT is back again!!

The Season-2 of "Quick Fire T-20"- as its more commonly known as- looks more promising and exciting after a roller-coaster kick start it had last weekend with 4 amazing games. While UCC and PPCC were the first ones to go from North Group, UKCC started the tourney on the Super Sunday by taking on CINCY from the South Group.

UCC batted first in their first game and only managed to pull together total of 114 runs with some handful contributions from Suchit (38) and Praveen (29). But it was PPCC who defended nicely the nature of this format and proved once again that on a given day any team could be a champion by showing their disciplined bowling, decent fielding and chasing the target as a team. Chasing the total of just 115, Polaris never looked back with the fine top order performance and did fairly well in the end with the 'Man of the Match'- Abheesh Chandran's solid 29 that cruised them to an easy victory with 4 overs remaining!

On the other side of the Ohio's map, UKCC wrecked apart Cincy's batting order as the latter only managed to make 90 runs in their 20 overs! UKCC chased the target quite comfortably with the loss of 5 wickets and 18 balls remaining.

The Sunday afternoon seemed more sunny and blooming as runs started flowing from all around. The 2 important games were played during the later hours with the defending Champions and hosts CCC taking on RPCC in their first game from the North Group; and UKCC (playing back to back games) trying their good luck against UC CC from the South Group.

Playing with a less stronger team, CCC was taken by surprise with RPCC's 'Sherdil' performance as their batsmen started hitting the champion bowlers left and right even with the initial couple blows by swinger Madhu. Things started looking much better when the CCC spinners Murthy and Gautam Kini (spinner for a change) put their disc-breaks on the Punjabi batsmen. But it was Puneet (41) and Sudheer (34) that took RPCC to a challenging total of 136/9 in the end. CCC started the chase with a cool breeze as both openers Murthy & stylish Orville were looking rock solid and runs were rather coming in the form of extras. Just when things looked easy for CCC, RPCC sent Murthy home and Orville did not stay much longer either. On one side Mihir Jhaveri was giving no chances to the punjabi bowlers, the other side did not look too bright as captain Bharat got out for just 8 runs followed by Jatin, who was the victim of a bad decision; and Dinesh who joined him in the pavallion in just couple balls. It was the player of the match- Sanjay Patel and Mihir Jhaveri, both with equal contribution of 25 each that took CCC home with the last over win and kept defending champions' hopes flying high!

The Southern afternoon turned the tables around for UKCC as they were defeated in their second match of the day by UC CC in a close finish. Opener Niranjan Deshpande from UC CC made a strong 38 and got some help from the middle order- Aravind (22) and Prahit (21) to take the team to a decent total of 135/7 as Ketu from UKCC gave some hard time to the batsmen and claimed 3 wickets. Akshay's brilliant 57 went in vain as UC CC bowlers Prahit, Aravind and Natwar claimed 2 wickets each and destroyed UKCC's batting order. UKCC lost the match by mere 13 runs.

While the tournament has just begun, one day of play and entertainment has given a tasteful for what lies ahead. With midwest cricket summer in the form of longer version (35 ovs) coming to an end as teams compete in semi-finals and finals of MCT and MOCL, this shorter and much exciting version will be the next most talked and discussed thing!!

I will try my best to provide you guys as we say in India "Aakhon dekha haal" just in case you miss out any fun....so, stay tuned and bare with me as I come from totally NO writing experience at all! I know you couldn't have guessed it otherwise....;)

Next Games: PPCC vs RPCC - Aug 29

NCC vs UCC - Aug 29

CCC vs AHCC - Aug 30

(For the latest tournament schedule please check the website's homepage)

Let's hope these games live to the same spirit if not more and provide everything T-20 is all about- Drama, Excitement, Entertainment and ya....Spectator's Cricket!!

Website feedback

2008-07-30T12:19:00.000-07:00

What more would you like to see on the OICT website?

Please do not hesitate in giving us any suggestions. This will enable us to develop and make this website more user friendly.

Your suggestions/feedback is extremely valuable and will be greatly appreciated.

OICT TOC.

Umpires are also humans!

2008-07-24T18:53:00.000-07:00

I am sure all of us, as players, had at least one occasion if not more, where an umpire's decision went against us either as a batsman or a bowler. There is no denial that if a decision goes against you as a player, there got to be some level of frustration. However, a good cricketer has to accept these decisions and move on with the game and not let them impact the remainder of the game, however crucial they were. I completely understand that this is easier said than done but after all umpires are also human and they also make mistakes.

It is important and imperative for us to realize as players that an umpire's job is the most thankless job in Cricket and almost all the good things done by the umpire are instantaneously erased away by a single error. According to me at our level of Cricket, the umpires are most criticized for LBW decisions. My observation has been that in case of an LBW, the batsman is never completely satisfied - at least 90% of the time this is true. If the appeal is turned down, the bowler is the one who is disappointed. Invariably, there is at least one party which is not happy with the decision. As an umpire, I always give any benefit of doubt to the batsman because the bowler can get a second chance to get the batsman out, the batsman never gets a second chance.

With the modern technology not available in the level of Cricket we play, it is very important for us, as players, to understand the umpire's perspective and honor the umpire's decision and move on with the game - after all they are also humans!!!

Which Cricket format is more enjoyable?

2008-07-23T18:36:00.000-07:00

Twenty20 has recently become a crowd puller and spectators have gleefully accepted this shortened version of the game. The main reason for this is that people have lesser disposable time on their hands especially for recreational purposes.

Columbus Cricket Club thought that perhaps this concept might also be accepted by amateur players in the US so that these Cricket enthusiasts can play their favorite game and yet not spend the whole weekend day playing it. Thus, the Ohio Invitational Cricket Tournament (OICT) or Quick Fire T20 was born in 2008.

Eight teams registered for the inaugural version of the tournament. We would like to gather feedback from our participating players whether they enjoy the T20 format better or they still prefer the 35-over format over this shorter format. This feedback will help us grow this tournament and make it even more enjoyable for our participating teams.

Please give us your honest feedback.