Inspite of our valiant efforts we came up short last night against a good opposition. But the million dollar question is did they beat us or we beat ourselves?

'Cricket is not played between your shoulders but between the ears', a famous quote by yours truely. 

In my opinion it was a positive that we lost the game as it served well to highlight some of our issues. We hear the words "Shot Selection", "Cricket Brain" a lot on TV but now we actually know what it means. A little bit of introspection could go a far way to understand the reasons of the loss. Here's my attempt at it. 

Some of us (especially me) have limited ability and skill. The art of winning is to best channel this limited ability with some strategy. Without sounding provocative or boorish I am blown away with the way some of us played. Big booming drives and cross bat shots trying to send the ball into another orbit when all we needed to do is play of the side nets and back nets. Its 2 runs everytime you hit it. When pairs 3 and 4 came in to bat, they loaded up their field to protect the 3's and 4's. Instead of biting the bullet and nudging it around we fell into their trap of going for the big shots.

And the reason this issue reared its head was because we get away with this every game due to weaker oppositions who bowl 2-3 loose balls every over. This time when we faced a good opposition who consitently bowled line and length, our batsmen found it much harder to hit every ball for 4's and 6's. So instead of reverting to pushing and dabing they continued with their habit to go for it on every ball. Some real foot in the mouth cricket.

I dont agree with the others that our fielding was poor. I think it was average to every other game, nothing special though. I think they out did us by some consistent running and pushing the ball into the gaps.

On a more postive note, it was good to see everyone got behind each other and really craved for success.

And success we shall have if we player smarter....

Before you guys get exicted and start commenting about us not being Zulus, Bravo Zulu is a call sign for "Job Well Done". Our opposition were called the "Nobbers" and as true nob-heads they were pissed and didnt have a clue. Overall it was quite a scrapy affair and our bowling really come through. It was the Chris and Dan show. What I found really interesting were the contrasting styles, Dan was trying to outsmart the opponent by spinning the ball on its head where as Chris was sucking them into a false sense of security by his flight and thus getting them stumped in the process.

Was quite refreshing to see only 3 wides from Sunny who was Kumblesque. High arm, really quick, no spin and down leg. Jokes apart he batted really well and stabilised the innings. D-pak (aka 2-pac's brother from another mother) was at his consistent best and was rotating strike quite well. Our fearless leader not only stole the jackpot ball from Dan but seemed to have stolen the oppositions wits. They didnt even look like they could defend Vinay with a 5m bat.

Unfortunately Anuj (Jat on a mission) had an off day but with the HashBrowns in a commanding position it didnt really matter.

I am going to make this blog different because Cricket aint all about results and performances. Its about people and what they bring to the party. The MVP (Most Valuable Player) award goes to Rahul (AKA Heavy Mobile) for always being on time and bringing all that passion and enthusiasm to each game that really motivates everyone. Kudos to you bud.

Before I sign out, I have been reading other comments posted and would like to remind everyone what Confucius said: "Overconfidence breeds Carelessness".

Leaving you with one my original favourite quotes, May your glasses be always full and fun be aplenty.