Match Report: FUCC Vs MCC

Post date: Aug 19, 2015 1:52:59 PM

Match Report: FUCC Vs MCC

Sunday, 16th Aug, 2015

Venue: Hyw 218 Ground

Hello Guys,

Last Sunday FUCC played against MCC in Charlotte.

The hot day started with a long drive to the ground. Captain and VC drove in the same car so one can imagine what a resourceful drive it would have been. Tons of discussions and poor Amit in between.

Ground looked bald with grass here and there, reminded me of Sunny E with its looks...lolz...with uneven outfield everywhere and dry. Hot sun was scorching down with temperatures in upper 90s. Captain read the attitude of the team and team was so relaxed for this match and thought match was over even before a ball was bowled. They did not have any idea about the big upset which was due to come...!

Skipper won the toss and elected to bat first. Everyone was convinced that if we had opted to bowl, the game would have been over in an hour. This was the attitude of the FUCCers that day. Even whatsapp messages confirmed that the beautiful wives were told back home that their men would be back ASAP since MCC was a team who would surrender to FUCC like a poor deer would do to a Lion. Even umpires tried to convinced the skipper that they should opt to bowl and have MCC packed in no time and win and go home. 

Anyways, FUCC started batting with Skipper and Sunny E. Scoreboard started ticking and soon we were 39 in 5 overs. Everyone was convinced that this will be a cake walk for us. Then came the turning point of the game. Ketan Patel was bowling his slow out swingers with beautiful shape and very tempting. Raj nicked it while tried cutting it. He was out on 25(16). Score 39/1. Then Ketan got Rahul and Sunny K in span on 3-4 balls in the same over. Suddenly FUCC was 42/3. FUCC lost 3 of its major batters in span of 4-5 balls. Now skipper was worried since he knew that lots of new players were playing and we had a huge uphill task to accomplish. I was personally hoping that our middle order would step up and see us off.

Garry joined Sunny E. It is worth mentioning here that Gary was playing his very first match he did a splendid job. Bravo gary.

Sunny E was trying to set in and playing against his natural instinct and leaving quite a lot of balls. But he also perished after hard work. This is how he played (. . 1 . 21 . 212 . 11 . 1 . . . . . . . . . . . W). A very different way of batting for sunny E but this is how to conquer your demons. Captain would have been more happy had he batted longer since the situation demanded that time. But still good effort as he cut out his usual pull which gets him out more often.

FUCC was struggling with the scoring rate now. We needed a big partnership, We needed someone to bail us out but that did not happen. Middle order batsmen threw their wickets and Suddenly FUCC was 77/6.

I am pretty sure lot of us would have texted our wives back and would have said we will be back home soon but in a different context this time.

This was the ideal situation for most of the middle order batsmen to mark their place in the team. This was the time when someone would have stepped up and bailed us out. But that did not happen until Sukesh and Harish started batting.

What a wonderful display of cricket both Sukesh and Harish showed in the middle. When MCC would have thought that FUCC would be bundled out for less than 90, Harish and Sukesh made sure that they saw off the overs and also scored runs. The way they left the bowls on the off side and pierced gaps for single and boundaries here and there , was really commendable and something which most of the middle order batsmen can follow. Cricket is not all about hitting, it is also about ground shots, leaving bowls and making sure that you team plays the full quota of overs. Both gave FUCC a 50 runs partnership and made sure that FUCC has a respectable score on the board. Bravo Guys. #PROUD. FUCC scored 136 and bowled out in 28.3 overs.

MCC had a golden chance to create an upset. Courtesy lots of dropped catches, missed fields and huge extras, they chased this score in 24.4 overs.  A well deserved win on their part and they must be feeling proud on defeating the No#1 team in the division II. 

==> This game is something to learn from. We did not lose, we gifted the match to MCC in the plate. We were over confident, careless and dull that day. There was a different FUCC team on the ground that day. We learnt a lesson, in Cricket anything is possible. Any team in a given day is capable of defeating any team. Never ever take any team lightly. One bad game and here we are, will have to Win all the matches to stay at the top. This is something which is not impossible to do, but i would like everyone to introspect and see where did we wrong. Personally i believe apart from other aspects of the game, our attitude for that game was poor. 

When you are on ground, do not talk to opposition or umpires about the result of the game. Do your practice sessions, bat/bowl and finish the match.

Area which need attention

• Catching

• Ground Fielding

• Middle order batting skills like leaving the ball when things are down and out

Improvement

• Harish's batting skills

• Sukesh's batting skils

FUCCers, we are a wonderful team. But if need to become a champion team, we need to close such games in a fashion. No problem we lost this. This could happen to any team. Learn from this game. Point is that we will have to come back now and try to win rest of the games. I know we can do this. Have a belief not over belief and there is no substitute to hard work. Practice and Practice on your weak areas. Come back hard

Go FUCCers.

Rajan Thakur