A fresh team, rookies, underdogs... The Gillies... we go by many names. Today we became the Victors. First victory, first wine after a 5-match induction ceremony at CricBay. Felt sweet.
I started in Cricbay 3 years back with a fresh team, HitnRun. I remember waiting 6 matches before we saw the light. With the Gillies I've seen it one match early. Yes, I am referring to the sweet taste of victory. Team dynamics, thought process, illusions, madness, ethics have all been similar and am glad to discover the team-threading formula from my experiences.
The art of building a team is not easy. Its just not the vision, just not gathering a bunch of players, just not having that commitment and certainly just not having a good leader. Its all of these and much more. The Chennai Gillies were formed just 2 weeks before the CricBay season began. The first match, we were new, raw and had no strategy. We lost miserably. Batting collapse, Misfields, Dropped catches, we were met with these in the first few weeks. Then we learned to have fun. After all, being underdogs we had nothing to lose. We posted some decent scores against big teams (95 against Nemesis, 72 against Absolute XI). We knew we were good. We knew we had the potential to win matches. But we were not there until that day... the day of reckoning.
We were to play the Amchis CC in South San Jose. Most of our guys are from Union City and it was an hour's drive to the match venue. I was there at 8:15 am with a couple of guys. 8:30 and no addends. I called the toss but lost. Fielding... not bad. 8:45 and just one more. The Amchis were getting impatient and were threatening to dock 2 overs from our innings. Thankfully we had the number in 5 minutes and the Amchis were considerate to not impose it on us.
The weather seemed pleasant except for those piercing winds that paid us regular visits. We entered the field with the fading hope to see our first victory. Suri livened our spirits by striking the timber early. The ball hit the leg stump and we were pumped up. Our captain got another wicket after the Power play overs.We got 3 back-to- back wickets soon after. Sanjeev's leg break bowled Vikram round his legs. It was a joy to watch as the batsman presumed the ball would go down the leg and failed to read the spin. The quick wickets gave us a huge confidence and we planned to wrap it up quickly. However, Nagesh had other plans. He and Sharath put up a good 20-run partnership before a patient Nagesh hit a flier to Raghu at long on. But we couldn't capitalize after breaking the partnership as Vilas and Vishwas saw the Amchis to decent score of 67. Sanjeev snared 3 wickets for a miserly 4 runs - easily one of the best bowling figures in Cricbay.
Gowtham and Sathish gave us the start we needed and cruised to 23/0. Sathish chased a tempting delivery from Prakash only to see it safe in the hands of a charging Nagesh at deep midwicket. Gowtham was bowled soon after. I found myself in the middle pretty soon partnering a patient Raghu at the other end. Raghu's attempt to loft Prakash got the edge and spiraled up behind the wicket. We needed 20 runs and had about 6+ overs to go. Come next over i scored a boundary bisecting Cover and Mid-off. A half-volley loft next ball in the same region fetched 2 more runs. We were inching closer. Nagesh snared my wicket by clever field placement before Venkat pulled a boundary and Sanjeev deservedly hit the winning runs.
It was a smart game of cricket. We clicked as a unit. Our bowling was phenomenal, fielding the best in 6 games and batters finished it neatly. Congrats to the team as we kick-off our fresh journey.
Scorecard: http://www.cricbay.com/scoresheet.asp?matchid=4804
I started in Cricbay 3 years back with a fresh team, HitnRun. I remember waiting 6 matches before we saw the light. With the Gillies I've seen it one match early. Yes, I am referring to the sweet taste of victory. Team dynamics, thought process, illusions, madness, ethics have all been similar and am glad to discover the team-threading formula from my experiences.
The art of building a team is not easy. Its just not the vision, just not gathering a bunch of players, just not having that commitment and certainly just not having a good leader. Its all of these and much more. The Chennai Gillies were formed just 2 weeks before the CricBay season began. The first match, we were new, raw and had no strategy. We lost miserably. Batting collapse, Misfields, Dropped catches, we were met with these in the first few weeks. Then we learned to have fun. After all, being underdogs we had nothing to lose. We posted some decent scores against big teams (95 against Nemesis, 72 against Absolute XI). We knew we were good. We knew we had the potential to win matches. But we were not there until that day... the day of reckoning.
We were to play the Amchis CC in South San Jose. Most of our guys are from Union City and it was an hour's drive to the match venue. I was there at 8:15 am with a couple of guys. 8:30 and no addends. I called the toss but lost. Fielding... not bad. 8:45 and just one more. The Amchis were getting impatient and were threatening to dock 2 overs from our innings. Thankfully we had the number in 5 minutes and the Amchis were considerate to not impose it on us.
The weather seemed pleasant except for those piercing winds that paid us regular visits. We entered the field with the fading hope to see our first victory. Suri livened our spirits by striking the timber early. The ball hit the leg stump and we were pumped up. Our captain got another wicket after the Power play overs.We got 3 back-to- back wickets soon after. Sanjeev's leg break bowled Vikram round his legs. It was a joy to watch as the batsman presumed the ball would go down the leg and failed to read the spin. The quick wickets gave us a huge confidence and we planned to wrap it up quickly. However, Nagesh had other plans. He and Sharath put up a good 20-run partnership before a patient Nagesh hit a flier to Raghu at long on. But we couldn't capitalize after breaking the partnership as Vilas and Vishwas saw the Amchis to decent score of 67. Sanjeev snared 3 wickets for a miserly 4 runs - easily one of the best bowling figures in Cricbay.
Gowtham and Sathish gave us the start we needed and cruised to 23/0. Sathish chased a tempting delivery from Prakash only to see it safe in the hands of a charging Nagesh at deep midwicket. Gowtham was bowled soon after. I found myself in the middle pretty soon partnering a patient Raghu at the other end. Raghu's attempt to loft Prakash got the edge and spiraled up behind the wicket. We needed 20 runs and had about 6+ overs to go. Come next over i scored a boundary bisecting Cover and Mid-off. A half-volley loft next ball in the same region fetched 2 more runs. We were inching closer. Nagesh snared my wicket by clever field placement before Venkat pulled a boundary and Sanjeev deservedly hit the winning runs.
It was a smart game of cricket. We clicked as a unit. Our bowling was phenomenal, fielding the best in 6 games and batters finished it neatly. Congrats to the team as we kick-off our fresh journey.
Scorecard: http://www.cricbay.com/scoresheet.asp?matchid=4804
