Guys, Sorry, I have not had time to upload all the 2007 match reports and scorecards. Here are a few of them. NTCA- 20/20 Round 2 - Sun 21 Oct 2007 1:30 PM Outrageous 2nd XI(G) def by Plano Tigers CC(G) Venue: Lonestar CG,Irving [ ] Toss won by: Outrageous 2nd XI(G) Batted First: Plano Tigers CC(G) Umpires: Lanka Colts, Hindustani C C Result: Outrageous 2nd XI(G) LOST FIRST INNINGS (ONE DAY) (CONFIRMED) Points: Outrageous 2nd XI(G): 0.00 Plano Tigers CC(G): 20.00 OUtrageous batting: Total 8/130 Overs 20 FOW: 11(Shahed Khan) 19(Saif Haque) 86(Rahim Shamsuddin) 109(C Brahmbhatt) 122(Tony Bhuiya) 125(Shafkat Shah) 129(Asiful Hoque) 129(Yousuf Hussain) Tigers batting: +Salahuddin Afzal c Yousuf Hussain b Shafkat Shah 45 Sam Lahiri run out 1 Naveen Durairaju c & b Asiful Hoque 0 Kaushal Bhagat b Walid Mursalin 23 Uday Sant b Walid Mursalin 2 Pukar Patel b C Brahmbhatt 1 *Saurabh Singhal not out 20 N Porbandarwalla not out 4 Asif Shah dnb Pravin Amin dnb Mayank Piplani dnb Extras (1nb,41w,1b,1lb) 44 Total 6/140 Overs 20 FOW: 1(Sam Lahiri) 2(Naveen Durairaju) 3(Pukar Patel) 4(Uday Sant) 5(Salahuddin Afzal) 6(Kaushal Bhagat) ---------------------------------------------------
North Texas Cricket Association - A Division League Round 9 - Sun 13 May 2007 11:00 AM Plano Tigers CC def Hawks CC Venue: NTCA 7,Russell Creek, Plano [ ] Toss won by: Hawks CC Batted First: Hawks CC Umpires: T R 3rd XI, T R 3rd XI Result: Plano Tigers CC WON. Points: Plano Tigers CC: 26.00 Hawks CC: 3.00 Tigers Batting: +Vijai Natarajan st Shoaib Mithani b Imran Sawan 118 Sam Lahiri b Mubashir Mehdi 5 Rajesh Navaneethkrishnan b Amin Chagani 21 Asif Shah c Imran Sawani b Ramana Rupangudi 13 Uday Sant c Shoaib Mithani b S Badarpura 5 Kaushal Bhagat not out 47 *Saurabh Singhal not out 1 Pradheep Kandasamy dnb Muneesh Bhalla dnb Mayank Piplani dnb Pravin Amin dnb Extras (0nb,8w,0b,1lb) 9 Total 5/217 Overs 30.3 FOW: 1(Sam Lahiri) 2(Rajesh Navaneethkrishnan) 3(Asif Shah) 4(Uday Sant) 5(Vijai Natarajan) Hawks Batting: Khwaja Hasan c Saurabh Singhal b Mayank Piplani 62 S Badarpura c Pradheep Kandasamy b Kaushal Bhagat 34 *+Shoaib Mithani c Vijai Natarajan b Saurabh Singhal 25 Mubashir Mehdi c Mayank Piplani b Pravin Amin 45 Amin Chagani b Saurabh Singhal 1 Nadeem Khan b Kaushal Bhagat 14 Imran Sawani c Pravin Amin b Kaushal Bhagat 0 Ramana Rupangudi b Pravin Amin 18 Haseeb Mughal run out (Sam Lahiri,Saurabh Singhal) 3 Rehan Shah not out 1 Kiran Rupangudi b Pravin Amin 0 Extras (1nb,9w,2b,1lb) 13 Total 216 Overs 38 FOW: 62(S Badarpura) 124(Khwaja Hasan) 143(Shoaib Mithani) 147(Amin Chagani) 149(Nadeem Khan) 174(Mubashir Mehdi) 213(Ramana Rupangudi) 213(Imran Sawani) 215(Haseeb Mughal) 216(Kiran Rupangudi) Bowling: O M W R Nb Wd Asif Shah 8 0 0 38 Vijai Natarajan 4 0 0 26 Kaushal Bhagat 6 0 3 29 Pradheep Kandasamy3 0 0 24 Saurabh Singhal 8 0 2 44 Mayank Piplani 3 0 1 23 Pravin Amin 5 0 3 19 Fielding: c ro st Vijai Natarajan 1 Saurabh Singhal 1 1 Pradheep Kandasamy 1 Mayank Piplani 1 Pravin Amin 1 Sam Lahiri 1 ----------------------------------------------------
2006/07 Winter cup game (DCC vs Tigers), Nov5, 2006 at Plano ground (SW) Scorecard: Tigers won the toss and decided to bat first, scoring 237 runs in 30 overs after loosing 8 wkts. DCC 163 all out in 29.5 overs. Tigers won by 74 runs. Tigers Batting: Sam Lahiri bowled Shaan 40/29 6 fours, 1 six Vikram ct Rahul, B Vishwa 37/38 3 fours, 1 six Asif Shah st Arun Vittalla B Vipul 20/9 3 fours Naveen ct Arun B Vishwa 29/26 4 fours Murali ct Halpesh Patel B Arun V 45/31 3 fours, 1 six Uday st Rahul B Dennis Vengala 38/23 5 fours Muthu bowled B Arun Vittalla 0 Rajesh not out 0 Pravin run out 6/2 1 four Suresh DNB Mayank DNB Tigers Total 237 runs for 8 wkts in 30 overs. DCC Bowling: Arun Vitalla 6 ovrs/27runs/ 2 wkts Halpesh Patel 1 over/20runs/ 0 wkt Shaan 3 ovrs/34runs/ 1 wkt Gopal 3 ovrs/28runs/0 wkt Karthik 3 ovrs/20runs/ 0 wkt Vipul 6 ovrs/52runs/ 1 wkt Vishwa Rajput 6 ovrs/35runs/ 2 wkts Dennis Vengala 2 ovrs/25runs/ 1 wkt DCC Batting: Naved run out Asif 3 Gopal ct Suresh B Naveen 45 Rahul ct Uday B Pravin 2 Halpesh ct Asif B Murali 1 Vishwa Bowled B Suresh 9 Karthik Not out 53 Vipul ct Naveen B Asif 9 Shamil Bowled B Asif 5 Arul Vitalla run out Asif 8 Shaan Bowled Mayank 2 Dennis Vengala ct Uday B Pravin 3 DCC All out for 163 in 29.5 overs. Tigers Bowling: Pravin 6 overs/2 wkts Murali 6 overs/1 wkt Mayank 3 overs/1 wkt Suresh 6 overs/1 wkt Asif 6 overs/2 wkts Naveen 3 overs/1 wkt --------------------------------------------
North Texas Cricket Association - A Division League Round 3 - Sun 2 Apr 2006 9:30 AM Plano Tigers defeated Bulls by 3 wkts. Venue: United CG,Lewisville [ ] Toss won by: PCC Bulls Batted First: PCC Bulls Umpires: Ismailia C C, Ismailia C C Result: PCC Bulls LOST OUTRIGHT & ON FIRST INNINGS Points: PCC Bulls: 3.00 Plano Tigers: 15.00 Bulls Batting (176/7 in 40ovrs): Prasad c Unmesh, b Vikas 1 Srikanth H bold vikas 14 Kevin c saurabh vikas 2 Tariq c Unmesh b Vikas 4 Upender Reddy Not OUt 62 Shiraz c Salahuddin b Umesh 31 Manish c Kaushal b Navin 19 Ramakanth bold Kaushal 5 Sachin not out 2 Bulls 176 for 7 wkts in 40 overs Tigers Bowling: O M W R Kaushal Bhagat 8 1 1 31 Vikas Sharma 6 1 4 24 Pravin Amin 5 0 0 26 Saurabh Singhal 1 0 0 12 Navin 8 0 1 44 Unmesh 8 2 1 23 Rajesh N 4 0 0 16 Fielding: c ro st Unmesh 2 Sal 1 Saurabh 1 Kaushal 1 Tigers Batting: R BF 4 6 Salahuddin c wk B Tariq 12 1 Unmesh c ? b Upender Reddy 24 2 Navin c ? b Tariq 1 Ashok B c & b Upender Reddy 6 1 Saurabh *not out* 61 52 8 Rajesh N c ? b Tariq 35 30 4 Uday Sant b Shrikant Hatekar 0 Arul Rajah cwk Prasad, b Tariq 6 4 1 Kaushal Bhagat *not out* 9 4 1 Vikas Sharma dnb Pravin Amin dnb Extras (2nb,25w,0b,0lb) 27 Tigers Total 7/177 Overs 26.4 FOW:31(Salahuddin Afzal) 51(N Navin) 51(Ashok Binjola) 153(Rajesh Navaneethkrishnan) 156(U Sant) 163(Arul Rajah) Bulls Bowling: Srikanth H 3 ovrs 26 runs, 1 wkt Ramakanth 5 ovrs 31 runs, 0 wkt Tariq 6 ovrs, 44 runs, 4 wkts U Reddy 7.4 overs 37 runs, 2 wkts Manish 2 overs, 18 runs, 0 wkt Kevin 3 ovrs, 21 runs, 0 wkt ------------------------------------------------------------------------------
North Texas Cricket Association - A Division League Round 2 - Sun 26 Mar 2006 9:30 AM Rangers 1st XI def Plano Tigers Venue: Garland, [ ] Toss won by: Plano Tigers Batted First: Plano Tigers Umpires: CCCC Reds, CCCC Reds Result: Rangers one by 5 wkts. Tigers Batting: --------------- Rajesh Navaneethkrishnan c Mohammed Wasim Khan b Ashir Mehdi 26/33 Rajesh Rajaram c Atif Ahmed b BN Patel 1/10 Navin run out (Ahmar Siddiqui,BN Patel) 26/43 Nitashu Uppal b BN Patel 11/11 +Saurabh Singhal c Kamran Khan b Mohammed Wasim Khan 7/9 Kaushal Bhagat c & b Mohammed Wasim Khan 6/17 Uday Sant run out (Ahmar Siddiqui) 6/17 Arul Rajah c Shahid b Mohammed Wasim Khan 25/15 Sam Lahiri c Mohammed Wasim Khan b Kamran Khan 2/6 Muneesh Bhalla c Mohammed Wasim Khan b Kamran Khan 0 3 *Pravin Amin not out 1/9 Extras (0nb,10w,3b,5lb) 18 Total 138 Overs 32 Bowling: O M W R Nb Wd -------- Kamran Khan 8 0 2 33 Ashir Mehdi 5 1 1 11 BN Patel 8 0 2 37 Atif Ahmed 5 0 0 24 Wasim Khan 6 0 3 33 Fielding: c ro st --------- Mohammed Wasim Khan 4 Shahid Khan 1 Kamran Khan 1 Ahmar Siddiqui 2 S Chhatrala 2 Rangers Batting: ---------------- Ahmar Siddiqui not out 68 Ramesh Nadella c Rajesh Rajaram b Kaushal Bhagat 27 Shahid Khan lbw b Kaushal Bhagat 0 Saeed Razack b Kaushal Bhagat 0 Mohammed Wasim Khan run out (Pravin Amin) 8 Raghu Bhardvaj lbw b Kaushal Bhagat 2 *Atif Ahmed not out 26 Kamran Khan dnb +S Chhatrala dnb BN Patel dnb Ashir Mehdi dnb Total 5/141 Overs 29.3 Bowling: O M W R Nb Wd -------- Nitashu Uppal 5 0 0 41 Kaushal Bhagat 8 1 4 35 Pravin Amin 8 2 0 26 Rajesh N 3 0 0 14 Navin 3 0 0 15 Saurabh S 1.3 0 0 8 Rajesh Rajaram 1 0 0 3 Fielding: c ro st --------- Rajesh Rajaram 1 Pravin Amin 1 -----------------------------------------------------------
August, 21st, 2005, sunday (Plano Tigers vs Nortex CC at Lanka gnd). Match Report (Tigers chase 247 runs in 25 overs to defeat Nortex CC) ============ As a sincere appeal, if we can help it, please avoid playing Nortex CC for a long long time; they were an extremely unruly and a highly frustrated bunch; one of their bowlers(Asif) actually "throws" the ball, their keeper was the worst behaved player I have seen in recent times. I write this match summary, both with a lot of pleasure and also some (body) pains. 100F weather is something that brings out the craziness in people like us who are suckers for cricket, be it a friendly or a league game. It is like fireflies getting attracted to the fire and getting burnt in the flame. But being the (Plano) Tigers we are, we freely roam around the different cricket grounds of the Metroplex round the year, playing a whopping 40 matches annually on an average, in temperatures ranging from 50F to 100F. Anyways, Sunday Aug 21 was no exception to this kind of madness, a day when close to a total of 500 runs were scored in 50 overs. Pity the hapless bowlers and fielders of both sides!! Nortex CC won the toss and took first strike. Pradeep and Vikas got off to a good opening spell but Tigers felt the heat from early on and the lack of the 11th fielder was obvious with the ball going in the air and in wide gaps. The initial rustiness in the field showed with a few misfields, the uneven grass and weeds on the Lanka ground not helping the fielder's cause. With no early breakthrough, Sri and Vijay came on first change. A few big hits, pushes, cuts and edges kept the batsmen sweating the least. Finally Vijay got the much needed first breakthrough and some respite for Tigers. At the 13-over break mark, Nortex was sitting pretty at around 125 runs with plenty of wickets in hand to up the run rate. The post-break session saw a very similar trend in run-scoring though at the cost of more wickets. Vijay, Arul, Saurabh, Pradeep bowled the end 7-8 overs well finishing off with two wickets each. I am not very sure of the wicket tally, please feel free to correct. 246 in 25 overs looked an uphill task, in the past we have never chased successfully such a big score in 25 overs. However it has become sort of an unwritten approach that when the target is very high, we use our lower order batsmen to take the sting out of the opposition opening bowlers and also reduce the risk to our top order batsmen. I would refrain from using the terms "pinch hitting" because it is something that works very rarely. I would instead use the term "Risk Management". With that idea in mind, Sri and Lokesh opened the innings (this being the 2nd time this year that Sri has opened in a successful chase and the 3rd such instance in a winning cause in my career in Tigers, just kidding!!) and put on 45 quick runs in 5 overs, with Sri rotating the strike with singles and Lokesh using the strike to hammer the ball all over the place. Sri tried to up the scoring rate even further and in the process offered a very sharp catch that was well taken at point area. Saurabh walked in and it was 53 at the end of the 6th over. Tigers were slowly shifting gears with some bold shots and never missing any gimme ball opportunities that came their way. After a blistering innings, Lokesh was caught on the long-on boundary going for a massive hit. Then Saurabh and Sam set about consolidating the innings,with Saurabh alternating between playing anchor and playing well timed cricketing and unorthodox shots over and above the fence. By this time, the frustration was building on the bowling team that thought that it was sitting pretty on a massive score, but now saw their score under a major threat. With Sam pulling cramps, running between wickets was a major concern. Threes became twos and twos became ones. Finally Sam attempted to play a wide ball on the leg side and was caught. Then in walked Vijay to join Saurabh and these two played the most sensible cricket possible at that stage, hanging on to their cool despite the heat and exhaustion. As the main umpire, it was a delight to watch such good cricket played, at the same time, it was a mental battle in keeping alert ball after ball with desperation growing for the bowling team. A loud appeal for a caught behind was made of Saurabh and I turned it down. Honestly, I was not convinced but the bowler was extremely angry and kicked the wickets down in the heat of the moment and later apologized, but it was cricket drama at its best. As an umpire I also expect the batsmen to walk off if they know that they nicked a ball. When as an umpire you are uncertain, the benefit of doubt goes to the batsman and that's what I did. Every ball then onwards felt like a pressure cooker event. Eventually after playing a magnificent match winning innings, Saurabh was unlucky to be bowled for 93; a lesson to be learnt from the likes of some top batsmen in the league - when you score anything above 75, you need to convert those into the three figure mark. The last 10 runs in a century are usually the most difficult. Saurabh, you need to score a century in the remaining matches this year and we promise to re-name you "Sau-run"!! Arul joined Vijay and these two again kept the run rate to manageable levels, scoring a big hit early in the over to take the pressure off and then putting pressure on the fielders and bowler by taking ones and twos every ball. The game was taken safely into the final stages, though Tigers still needed close to 10 runs an over. Against the run of play, Arul pushed for a difficult second run and in the process Vijay was caught short of the crease, ending a very effective innings. Pradeep walked in, once again in a tough situation (remember he was the last man walking in against Texas Rangers 25overs league game and he came thru), this time of course with 4 wickets still left. The 19th over fetched 19 runs with Pradeep hitting some lusty sixers and fours and quickly balancing the equations in the run chase. Then Arul in going for a massive hit was caught. Vikas walked in to join Pradeep. It came down to 31 runs in 3 overs and then 16 runs in two overs. Pradeep in going for another big hit was caught, a very important innings to help put us within reach. Pravin and Vikas were at the crease with 8 runs needed in the final over. The first 3 balls produced 4 runs followed by a wide. So it was 3 runs needed in 3 balls. Then Vikas heaved a might blow to mid-off, the fielder took a catch extremely close to the boundary and claimed it "out" and started taking a step forward when I had to shout and ask him to stay back and not move. On running to the boundary and closely inspecting, the fielder was atleast 2 feet outside the boundary. Oh Boy! the entire Nortex team was menacingly running towards me and this precariously positioned fielder, alas, they realized that they did not have a case and they gave up, Tigers won with 2 balls to spare!! What a game, what a finish, it was mind-blowing stuff, great game everyone!! Scores ====== Saurabh - 93/52 Lokesh - 30/22 Vijay - 24/19 Pradeep - 22/11 Vikas - *10/5 Arul - 9/8 Sam - 9/13 Sri - 7/11 Pravin - *1/1 Wides - 26 (A disciplined bowling team would have put us in trouble) Noballs - 5 LByes - 3 -Sri
August 6th, 2005 saturday (Tigers vs DCC) 25 overs friendly match This match was friendliest of all friendly matches. It really ended up becoming like a practice session. It was unusually hot and humid day. Both teams played this to get batting and bowling practice. On both sides batsmen were called back to have another chance. Arun Vitalla bowled from both sides and was coaching players from both team.
June 18th, 2005. Friendly match against Nortex Patriots CC Tigers had a off weekend from the league and so played a 30 over friendly match against Nortex CC at Plano (SW) gnd. Tigers lost the toss and as expected Nortex decided to bat first. Nortex scored a very defendable 197 runs in 30 overs for 7 wkts. The opener Hemubhai scored a 50 along with several 30's from Amer Shaikh, Ozair, Asif etc. Sri opened with Pradeep and they bowled a tight length, particularly Pradeep's bowling was spot on and the batsmen were not comfortable against Pradeep. In all 7 bowlers bowled this time (Sri, Pradeep, Pravin, Rajesh N, Saurabh, Arul, Fahd). Few catches were dropped and 197 was more runs then Tigers could afford to give. Nortex was pretty convinced that they will win the match. But Saurabh and Rajesh N from the very beginning put the Nortex bowlers and fielders on the back foot. They put on 130 runs partnership for the 2nd wicket. Rajesh N 57 and Saurabh was retired (cramps) at 68 not out. The game was perfectly set up for Hirak, Arul and Sam to finish. Hirak started out with few good strokes, but was unfortunately run out. Arul and Sam methodically put on the remaining 50 or so runs. Arul scoring 30 + runs with 2 big sixes against the wind and several boundaries. Sam supporting Arul on the other hand with singles and occasional big hit. They saw the Tigers thourgh with a comfortable win with 3 overs to spare. It was good to see Pradeep emerge as a very good medium pacer and a excellent fielder. And Sauarbh continue with his batting form and Rajesh N getting a good confident knock of 50+. It was a equally good game for Arul and Sam who performed well under some pressure and put on a good partnership. This was a good example of how friendlies can be good for maintaining form and giving chance to the whole team with bat or bowl.
June 12th, 2005. Plano Tigers vs DCC2 (40 overs league match) It was great decisive win against DCCII yesterday, something that was badly needed to both secure our position in A division as well as get back to the winning ways. Tigers put DCCII to bat after winning the toss as DCCII are not good at defending from their record. DCC2 was all out for 188 in 36 overs. We gave about 40 more runs then we should have. Tigers' bating thouroughly dominated the DCCII bowling. Nitashu (90 notout in 65 balls) and Saurabh (58 in 36 balls) comprehensively overhauled DCCII bowling. In the end Tigers made the required 191 runs in only 20.4 overs after loosing 3 wkts. Of which Rajesh N and Hirak were clearly wrong lbw decisions (bat n pad). Tigers run rate of 9.5 runs/over will go a long way in improving the differntial run rate in case of a tie situation in division rankings. Something that may end up proving crucial. Nitashu missed the century narrowly as tigers reached the target before he could get to 100. He is now 34 runs behind in being in top 5 . Both Nitashu and Saurabh has a chance to get in top 5 for div A. Vijay may not be too far from top 5 bowlers either. We could perform a lot better if we could play with atleast 8 same players each game. Far from reality. This sunday's team had 6 different players from last sunday's match. It is difficult to get in good rythm with team that changes so much from one week to next. Scorecard: Toss: Tigers, DCC batting: 188 all out in 36.1 overs. (Srinivas was their top scorer at 51). Nitashu 8 ovrs/44runs/2 wkts Kaushal 7 ovrs/34runs/3 wkts Pravin 6 ovrs/45runs/1 wkt Vijay 7 ovrs/52runs/1 wkt Saurabh 7 ovrs/23runs/3 wkts Rajesh N 2 ovrs/1 mdn/5runs/0 wkts Overall good bowling except for 6th over from Pravin, 6th over from Nitashu and 7th over from Vijay. Good spells by Saurabh, Vijay, Rajesh, Nitashu and Kaushal particularly their 2nd spells. Saurabh knixed any chance of DCC getting back on their feet. Some dropped catches (including yours truely) and sprinklers coming on extended the play time. Thanks Pradeep for filling in at last minute and fielding extremely well. And thanks to Vikram for the nth time coming in and being 12th man and relieving tigers througout the game. Tigers Batting: 191 for 3 in 20.4 overs Nitashu *90 not out in 65 balls. (10 fours) Rajesh N lbw Delroy 10/9 (1 four) Saurabh bold Sumit R 58/36 (6 fours, 1 six) Hirak lbw Karthik 0/2 Arul not out *15/12 (2 fours) --------------------------------------------------------------------
June 5th, 2005. (Tigers vs Googlies, 40 overs league match) With wet field condition from overnight rains, Googly had no hesitation to put Tigers into bat in wet conditions. Tigers team had no less than 6 changes from the previous outing at United cc. Opening pair (Ashok and Rajesh Rajaram ) stuck it out in the middle for 10 overs or so while not much luck scoring. But nonetheless holding on to the wicket. Ashok was first to fall and then it was collapse 'ala Indian national team'. Googlies brought in Murali their best bowler into attack to shake loose some wickets. And that strategy worked for them. Tigers played Murali pretty casually and paid dearly. 6 wkts in all were claimed by Murali in short order sealing the fate for depleted Tigers team. Lowest total for Tigers in over 5 years in a league game (all of 88 runs). Tigers had some success with bringing Vijay (leg spinner) early into bowling attack, getting 3 wkts for 60 runs or so. But 88 runs was too low a target to defend against the deep batting line up of Googlies.
May 22, 2005 (Plano Tigers vs Plano Reds) 25 ovrs friendly match at Allen gnd. It was good to get some match practice last sunday. And win didn't hurt either. Many good catches were taken and it was good to play without the pressure. Hirak took 2 very good catches and Rajan took that one handed catch and Al's keeping was on the money. 2 stumpings that were all his presence of mind along with 1 runout. Good encouragement from behind the wicket. Good catch by Mukesh and practically all batsmen pitched in with the runs.. Vijay again bowled a excellent match winning spell along with good spells from all the bowlers (Abbas, Sri, Rajan). While it was first 100 degree hot as hell day, it was still fun to play bit in a relaxed mode. I hope we can quickly get back to our usual 40 or more games/year days. Friendlies allow spreading opportunity to all the club members, and stay fit and in form. Go Tigers! Pravin P.S. Thanks to Ashok and Muneesh for umpiring this sunday and Abbas to relieve Muneesh towards the end. We have completed 10 umpiring duties so far on behalf of Tigers ( Saurabh, Sam, Arul, Pravin, Muralidharan, Vikas, Ashok, Muneesh/Abbas) Plus 2 more: Arul and Sri which were rained out. Last sunday's Match scores: Tigers batting first after winning the toss: 146 for 5 in 25 overs. runs/balls 4's 6's Pravin Retired 34/43 3 Rajesh N LBW b Srinivas 14/17 1 Vijay caught b Jagan 9/6 2 Hirak caught b Jagan 15/21 Sam Retired 24/22 1 Raja Rajan Bowled Umar 6/8 Al Retired 14/17 1 Muralidharan caught b ? 6/3 1 Sateesh not out 5/5 Mukesh not out 0/1 Sri DNB Abbas DNB Total 149/25 overs. They were all out for under 100 in 21.3 overs. Wickets: Vijay (4), Sri (2), Abbas (2), 1 runout, Rajan (1) Catches: Hirak 2, Rajan 1, Mukesh 1, Pravin 1 2 Stumpings: Al 2, 1 runout (Al/Sam) Sorry if missed one of your wickets. ------------------------------------------------------
May 15th 2005. Tigers vs United CC (40 ovrs league match at United gnd) Tigers put United to bat after winning the toss. Match Scorecard North Texas Cricket Association - A Division League Round 9 - Sun 15 May 2005 9:30 AM United Cricket Club def Plano Tigers CC Venue: United CG,Lewisville [ ] Toss won by: Plano Tigers CC Batted First: United Cricket Club Umpires: Colonial C & S C, Colonial C & S C Result: United Cricket Club WON United Batting: I Ismail b N Uppal 7 R Sheikh b K Bhagat 4 +B Lodhi c M Bhalla b N Uppal 10 M Bilal c S Singhal b A Binjola 10 A Sheikh b P Amin 56 *N Gillani lbw S Singhal 58 I Gill run out (R Rajaram,K Bhagat) 12 M Khalid lbw b S Singhal 11 O Lodhi lbw b P Amin 35 O Khan run out (A Rajah,A Binjola) 10 A Iqbal not out 1 Extras (0nb,33w,1b,1lb) 35 Total 249 Overs 39.5 FOW:13(I Ismail) 17(R Sheikh) 26(B Lodhi) 42(M Bilal) 143(A Sheikh) 187(I Gill) 195(N Gillani) 205(M Khalid) 243(O Khan) 249(O Lodhi) Bowling: O M W R Nb Wd N Uppal 8 0 2 42 K Bhagat 8 0 2 45 Pravin 7.5 0 2 62 A Binjola 5 0 1 30 S Singhal 7 0 1 44 Rajesh N 2 0 0 6 Sri 2 0 0 18 Fielding: c ro st S Singhal 1 M Bhalla 1 A Binjola 1 R Rajaram 1 A Rajah 1 K Bhagat 1 Tigers Batting R B 4 6 +A Binjola b N Gillani 55 64 3 R Rajaram st B Lodhi b A Sheikh 59 68 4 A Rajah c B Lodhi b I Gill 1 5 N Uppal c A Sheikh b O Khan 13 14 R Navaneethkrishnan lbw b O Khan 1 2 S Singhal b M Khalid 27 13 1 2 S Lahiri b M Khalid 17 22 M Bhalla b M Khalid 0 1 K Bhagat b M Khalid 28 26 1 S Baghavan c N Gillani b M Khalid 0 1 *P Amin not out 5 4 Extras (1nb,22w,0b,3lb) 26 Total 234 Overs 39.5 FOW:123(R Rajaram) 129(A Rajah) 149(N Uppal) 153(R Navaneethkrishnan) 171(A Binjola) 205(S Singhal) 211(M Bhalla) 216(S Lahiri) 216(S Baghavan) 234(K Bhagat) Bowling: O M W R Nb Wd M Bilal 8 0 0 47 I Ismail 3 0 0 25 M Khalid 8 0 5 36 A Sheikh 8 0 1 31 N Gillani 6 0 1 39 I Gill 4 0 1 28 O Khan 3 0 2 31
May 1st, 2005 Tigers vs Hindustani CC (40 overs league match) at H'stani gnd Winning toss, Tigers elected to Bat first and scored defendable 215 all out in 36 overs. Bipin Patel 65 Y Patel 2/5 M Patel 2/35 J Patel 2/42 S Chauhan 2/44 In reply Hindustani made 216 in 37 overs for 4 wkts. P Dholabhai 57* S Chauhan 50 Y Patel 30 V Mahesh 2/26 The umpiring was attrocious in this game. 5 decisions went against Tigers. 3 by the incompetent Eagles CC umpire and 2 by the biased Metroplex umpire.
17 Apr 2005 Plano Tigers CC vs Texas Rangers CC (40 ovrs league match at PLano) Tigers winning toss put Rangers into Bat. Rangers were 9 out for 253 in 40 ovrs. A Siddiqui 63 R Nadella 48 A Hussain 34 A Ahmed 31 H Reddy 3/52 S Singhal 2/23 V Mahesh 2/51 In reply Tigers could muster only 178 all out. S Singhal 35 A Binjola 30 A Rajah 27 V Mahesh 25 K Khan 2/16 A Mehdi 2/31
April 10th, 2005 Plano Tigers vs Mustangs CC 40 ovrs league match at Lanka gnd. Congrats!! guys. What a game yesterday. Tigers pulled a Victory out of the jaws of defeat. To my recollection this was probably the lowest score (117 runs) that Tigers have defended successfully. This game was almost identical to last year's Dallas Stars game except for much better ending this time. Like that previous game, Tigers batting lacked concentration and application. The opening pair (Ashok and Rajesh Rajaram) gave a decent start and were playing pretty comfortably at 33 for no loss. When both lost their wickets in quick succession. From there on the collaspse started. 3 wickets fell in Vikrant Bhakta's one over. Saurabh and Arul were the only ones puttinng up any resistance. Still most batsmen gave away their wickets trying to punish what they thought was mediocre bowling. But bowling and fielding was another story. Just like that other game, Tigers were on top of Mustangs batsmen from the get go. Particulary the first catch taken by Girish running from deep midon to deep midoff set the tempo of rest of the team. That catch was one of the most difficult catches I have seen taken. From then on Tigers were on the roll. Kaushal and Girish bowling with the wind, good line and length picking up wickets at regular intervals. The key as usual was the catches. And Tigers took almost all the catches, and none were easy ones. In all 6 catches were taken (Girish - 2, Kaushal, Saurabh, Ashok and Arul 1 each). Fielding was very tidy. Rajesh in point, Sri in fine leg and every fielder was at his best. Ashok's keeping was on the money, taking one catch and there were almost no byes and he stood up on the stumps for several overs. Sri fielded extremely well at fine leg , with quick pickup and long throws. On one occasion he tried to mimic 'Mohan Pyare' by accidentaly kicking the ball out of the boundary :-) Sri's shoulder must have recovered as his throws were straight into wicket keeper's hands. Anil must be shaking in his boots, feeling threatend about loosing his fine leg spot. Just kidding :-) It was a great TEAM EFFORT overall....Tigers not giving up until the last ball, even though they were defending a miniscule 117 runs. Kaushal & Teja agreeing to come in at the last minute to fill in for Vijay & Bipin. Teja's fielding was excellent until he pulled his leg muscle. Sam also had cramps in calf. This time of season one has to be very careful warming up before the game. The cool weather means , it is easy to tear muscles and ligaments without proper stretching. When cold, the calf muscle is like a hot dog. It breaks easily. Thanks Girish for coming in from New Jersey just to play this game and Kaushal for coming in at the 11th hour. Both Girish and Kaushal were key yesterday. But it was indeed a team effort with every Tiger contributing to the Victory either with the bat, bowl or fielding. This will serve as a good example in future to not despair when down and out , but work as a team to climb out of any hole. Luck only favors those who give their 200%. The winter cup game against Ismailia was also another example of how cricket is largely a mental game. Ability to handle pressure and put pressure on the opposition is a key. 'Jo daar gaya wo maar gaya.' It is too early in the season , but so far we have a perfect record, and ranked # 1 in the A division. Let's build on this memorable victory , and keep working hard to keep the winning streak going! Scorecard: Tigers won by 22 runs. Toss won by Mustangs. Tigers batting: Rajesh Rajaram lbw Vinay 15/19 Ashok Binjola bld Vikrant Bhakta 13/19 Girish B bld Happa 17/17 Saurabh bld Happa 22/25 Pravin bld Vikrant Bhakta 1/2 Bhalla Saheb bld Vikrant 0/2 Sam Lahiri ct Vinay, B Vikrant 4/2 Arul c & b Rajesh 24/18 Kaushal c & b Dunkan 1/7 Sri Baghavan not out 1/9 Teja bld Rajesh? 3/2 Extras 20 Total 117 all out in 23.4 overs Mustangs bowling: Rajesh 4 ovrs, 17 runs, 2 wkt Vinay 5 ovrs, 27 runs, 1 wkt Vikrant 6 ovrs,22 runs, 4 wkts Happa 5 ovrs, 32 runs, 2 wkts Duncan 3 ovrs, 18 runs, 1 wkt Mustangs all out for 96 runs in 23.3 overs Tigers bowling: Kaushal 8 overs, 25 runs, 3 wkts Girish 8 overs, 38 runs, 4 wkts Saurabh 5 overs, 25 runs, 2 wkts Pravin 2.3 ovrs, 8 runs, 1 wkt
27, march , 2005 Tigers vs Lonestar rained out.
Plano Tigers vs Eagles CC (2005 40 overs league match), March 20, 2005 Guys, What a great way to start the season, with a decisive victory in the first league game of the season against Eagles CC. We were bit light in bowling yesterday and with my cramps that meant even less bowlers...but everybody rose to the occasion amazingly well. Everybody played a role in yesterday's win and this should be a shot in the arm for coming games. Nitashu as usual was firing on all cylinders with his 78 runs in 73 balls, usual accurate bowling (2 wkts for 31 runs), Saurabh's knock of 44 (not out) saw us through in the end, along with great bowling and usual great fielding. Vikas's spell was overall one of his best giving very few runs (32 runs, 1 wkt in 8 ovrs). Rajesh and Raj bowled equally well, each taking 3 wkts in 8 overs. Rajesh who is usually underutilized in bowling really excelled yesterday and rose to occasion wonderfully. Ashok playing after a long layoff, kept wickets for 40 overs admirably well (2 stumpings). In fact it was excellent keeping throughout and while exhausted, he batted very well scoring 34 runs occupying the wicket building badly needed partnerships with Rajesh and Nitashu. Rajesh and Ashok gave a good start buidling the base. The fielding for most part was good, with occasional lapses. Thanks Hirak for substituting for me and fielding so well, with outstanding throws. Arul (13 n.o) and Sam (18) put a great finish as usual with quick boundaries and saw Tigers through. Both also fielded well. Muneesh's fielding was as tidy as usual and this time he along with 4 others batsmen didn't get to bat. Tarun also is a promising player who will do well with regular practice. He brings a lot of energy. Eagles (217 all out in 39.1 overs) Tigers (220 for 5 in 36.5 overs) This victory is particularly sweet as a good revenge for last year's loss in a high scoring game (556 runs in a day). It was indeed a decisive victory against the team that many in NTCA consider as poised to top the A division. The victory was well deserved as it was a team effort, with everybody contributing. We couldn't have for a better way to start the 40 overs league. We don't want to take Lonestar lightly and go out there with full force next sunday. Go Tigers! Pravin P.S. Please confirm your availablity for this sunday, March 27th for league game against Lonestar CC. Also we will have practice at Plano (same gnd) from 5pm until dark. Scores: Eagles CC: Tariq M LBW NItashu 14 Laeeq C Saurabh B Vikas 11 Ovais Hassan stumped Ashok, B Raj 38 Afroze Siddikie Bowled Rajesh 64 Asif Rafique Bolwed Rajesh 2 Zia Matloub Bowled Saurabh 18 Bahadur C ? B Rajesh 23 Saad stumped Ashok B Raj 17 Aamir Rafique C & B Raj 10 Tariq LBW Nitashu 2 Naeem Ahmed not out 0 Total 217 all out in 39.1 overs Tigers: Rajesh C Ovais B Asif 11/18 Ashok C Bahadur B Zia 34/49 Nitashu C Naeem B Laeeq 78/73 Raj C Ovais B Bahadur 0/3 Saurabh Not OUt 44/40 Sam Lahiri Bowled Asif 18/25 Arul Not OUT 13/4 Muneesh DNB Vikas DNB Tarun DNB Pravin DNB Total : 220 for 5 wkts in 36.5 overs Bowling: O M Runs Wkts Nitashu 7.1 1 31 2 Vikas 8.0 1 32 1 Pravin 0.3 0 4 0 Saurabh 8.0 0 43 1 Raj 8.0 0 62 3 Rajesh 8.0 0 43 3 Asif R 7/0/50/2 Aamir 7/0/47/0 Naeem 3/0/15/0 Bahadur 8/0/42/1 Zia 7/0/37/1 Laeeq 5/0/30/1
Plano Tigers vs Ismailia CC (winter cup tournament league match), Feb 20th, 2005 Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com under winter cup
Plano Tigers vs Googly (winter cup tournament league match), Feb 13th, 2005 Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com under winter cup
Plano Tigers vs Dallas Stars (winter cup tournament league match), Feb 6th, 2005 Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com under winter cup
Plano Tigers vs Bengals CC (winter cup tournament league match), Jan 23rd, 2004 Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com under winter cup
Plano Tigers vs Texas Rangers CC (winter cup tournament league match), Dec 12th, 2004 Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com under winter cup Tigers won the toss and batted first. Playing after a 6 wks break, Tigers top order collapsed starting in the first over itself. Raj and Vijay were out in the first over from kamran Khan's deceptive bowling. Except for Rajesh (22) and Arul (31) , none of the Tigers batsmen were able to stay put at the wicket. Tigers ended up with a season's lowest score of 87 runs. Pravin opened the bowling attack with Girish (pace attack) from one end and Vijay (leg spin attack) from the other end as we were defending a paltry total of 87 runs. Vijay struck in his 3rd over and Girish in his 2nd over giving 2 wickets, but the runs were coming easy with several wides and Amer from Rangers taking pulling couple of sixes on square leg boundraies. The second change bowling attack from Pravin and Raj put brakes on the runrate to trickle, but still the 87 was never too far away. Sri was brought in from one side, for possible catch at deep square leg. While Batsman were pulling him over square leg and fine leg, they were lucky to find gaps. Vijay was brought back from one end and he struck with the 3rd wicket when score was 63. Pravin came back to bowl when score was 73 to try to reduce run rate so Rangers wouldn't get their 3rd bonus point. That was successful. Mounish was brought in to bowl his last spell before he moved to San Antonio. With targets close, Rangers finally threw the bat at every ball and reached the target at the end of 16th over. Detailed scorecard is on www.ntcricket.com under winter cup 2004.
Plano Tigers vs PIE (winter cup tournament league match), Dec 5th, 2004 This game was rained out. United ground was under a foot of water near the thirdman /fine leg boundary.
Plano Tigers vs Metroplex CC (30 overs league) at Hindustani ground, Nov7th, 2004 Scorecard needs to be filed.
Plano Tigers vs DCC (Friendly 30 overs match at Plano SW gnd on oct 24th) Scores: Tigers batting first made 221 runs for 5 wkts in 30 overs. Saurabh 49, Girish 65 not out retired DCC made 222 with 1 or 2 overs to spare. This match was played as a practice game, rather than hard fought league match.
Plano Tigers vs DCC1 (25 overs league) Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs Carroltton1 (25 overs league) Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs Metroplex CC (25 overs league) Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs DCC3 (25 overs league) Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs FWL (Friendly 30 over match) Match won by Tigers. Details later.
Plano Tigers vs DCC2 Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs Challenger CC Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs Fortworth lions Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs Dallas Stars (40 overs league) Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers vs Hindustani CC 40 overs league Scorecard at: www.ntcricket.com
Plano Tigers Vs Dallas Bulls 1-Innings Match Played At Lewisville lake ground, 23-May-2004, NTCA 40 overs league Plano Tigers Win by 28 runs Toss won by Plano Tigers Umpires Amol B (Hindustani cc) , Mustafa (United CC) Plano Tigers 1st Innings 180/10 All Out (Overs 37) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Vijai Natarajan b Ashok Patel 53 86 3 0 Vivek c ? b Jay Kumar 5 10 0 0 Nitashu Uppal c&b Srini Guntupalli 5 7 0 0 Ruchir Chabbra+ c Kannan b Vijay Gurow 2 2 0 0 Raj Badoni b Ashok Patel 31 49 1 0 Saurabh Singhal run out 33 17 3 0 Kaushal Bhagat lbw b Kiran Singh 7 8 0 0 Anil Patel c ? b Ashok Patel 5 6 0 0 Arul Rajah run out 1 6 0 0 Vikas Sharma c Kiran Singh b Ashok Patel 7 6 0 0 Pravin Amin* not out 0 0 0 0 extras (b2 lb2 w25 nb2) 31 TOTAL 10 wickets for 180 FOW 1-33(Vivek) 2-45(Nitashu Uppal) 3-50(Ruchir Chabbra) 4-118(Vijai Natarajan) 5-126(Raj Badoni) 6-167(Kaushal Bhagat) 7-171(Saurabh Singhal) 8-171(Anil Patel) 9-180(Arul Rajah) 10-180(Vikas Sharma) Ovr#/Runs: 1/12,2/15,3/19,4/25.5/33,6/39,7/45,8/50,9/50,10/60,11/66,12/70,13/70,14/72,15/73 16/73,17/76,18/82,19/84,20/89,21/95,22/103,23/106,24/113,25/115,26/117,27/118, 28/124,29/126,30/133,31/136,32/52,33/159,34/167,35/171,36/174,37/180 Bowler O M R W wd nb Jay Kumar 3 0 24 1 - - Vijay Gurow 5 0 29 1 - - Srini Guntupalli 5 1 27 1 - - Nigam,Anoop 6 0 32 0 - - Kiran Singh 7 1 23 1 - - Ashok Patel 8 0 28 4 - - Shekhar 3 0 14 0 - - Dallas Bulls 1st Innings 152/10 All Out (Overs 36.2) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Kiran Singh c Vijai Natarajan b Vikas Sharma 8 7 2 0 Ashok Patel c Vijai Natarajan b Pravin Amin 21 44 1 0 Nigam,Anoop c Vikas Sharma b Vijai Natarajan 37 77 4 0 Makendra,Kabilan c Anil Patel b Ruchir Chabbra 14 44 0 0 Srini Guntupalli* st Saurabh Singhal b Ruchir Chabbra 2 7 0 0 Shankar st Saurabh Singhal b Ruchir Chabbra 3 5 0 0 Kannan+ c Nitashu Uppal b Kaushal Bhagat 4 8 0 0 Ajay Pillai run out Raj Badoni/Nitas. 3 8 0 0 Shekhar c Saurabh Singhal b Nitashu Uppal 6 8 0 0 Jay Kumar not out 0 0 0 0 Vijay Gurow c Kaushal Bhagat b Nitashu Uppal 9 6 1 0 extras (b1 lb2 w36 nb6) 45 TOTAL 10 wickets for 152 FOW 1-17(Kiran Singh) 2-64(Ashok Patel) 3-123 4-124 5-126 6-130 7-132 8-141 9-151 10-152 Bowler Ovr1 Ovr2 Ovr3 Ovr4 Ovr5 Ovr6 Ovr7 Ovr8 -- Overs M R W Nitashu Uppal 6 8 0 4 0 6 4 1 7.2 2 29 2 Vikas Sharma 11 7 2 0 18 1 Kaushal Bhagat 5 1 6 6 6 4 3 2 8 0 33 1 Pravin Amin 4 0 2 4 6 5 10 7 1 31 1 Vijai Natarajan 8 1 5 1 4 0 15 1 Ruchir Chabbra 1 6 5 4 2 2 1 5 8 0 26 3 --------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers Vs United CC 1-Innings Match Played At Plano (SW) , 9-May-2004, NTCA 40 overs league Toss won by Plano Tigers Umpires Bulls (Srini) and Mustangs (Anuraj) No. Batsman In Balls x4 x6 How Out Bowler Runs 1. Karim 9 1 bowled Nitashu U 5 13 1 0 2. Rizwan Sheikh 9 bowled Nitashu U 5 27 0 0 3. Iqbal Hirgi 51 1 c Sandeep Pravin A 43 83 1 4. Bilal Lodhi 23 c Raj B Pravin A 9 5. Khushal 18 c Kaushal Hari 5 6. Ishwar Gill 26 2 c Pravin A Arul R 23 7. Ayaz Sheikh 31 4 1 c Kaushal Vivek 42 8. Mustafa Bilal 47 7 2 not out * 72 9. Mahmood Sheikh 45 1 not out * 34 Extras 29 Overs 40.0 Total 267 Rate 6.7 Wickets 7 FoW Batsman Tot Ovr 1 Karim 8 2.2 2 Rizwan Sheikh 25 4.5 3 Bilal Lodhi 60 11.8 4 Khushal 72 16.4 5 Iqbal Hirgi 92 19.5 6 Ishwar Gill 139 25.7 7 Ayaz Sheikh 162 28.4 Bowler Tigers Wd NB Ov Md Ru Wkt 1. Nitashu U 8.0 37 2 2. Kaushal B 4 3 8.0 53 3. Pravin A 7 8.0 42 2 4. Hari 1 8.0 60 1 5. Vivek 1 2.0 19 1 6. Arul R 5 3.0 29 1 7. Raj B 3.0 19 18 3 40.0 259 7 Leg-byes 8 Total 267 Plano Tigers 1st Innings 158/10 All Out (Overs 29) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Salahuddin+ c ? b Rizwan Shaikh 25 33 0 0 Vivek lbw b Mustafa 15 15 2 0 Nitashu Uppal b Rizwan Shaikh 10 10 2 0 Kaushal Bhagat c Rizwan Shaikh b Iqbal 28 33 1 1 Raj Badoni c ? b Ayaz Shaikh 5 11 0 0 Anil Patel c ? b Ayaz Shaikh 0 2 0 0 Arul Rajah b Rizwan Shaikh 4 2 1 0 Sandeep c Bilal Lodhi b Ishwar Gill 2 0 0 0 Rajesh N not out 29 29 2 0 Hari Reddy b Iqbal 0 2 0 0 Pravin Amin* c Danesh b Iqbal 6 13 0 0 extras (b0 lb3 w28 nb3) 34 TOTAL 10 wickets for 158 FOW 1-49(Vivek) 2-66(Nitashu Uppal) 3-75(Salahuddin) 4-84(Raj Badoni) 5-84(Anil Patel) 6-91(Arul Rajah) 7-112(Sandeep) 8-143(Kaushal Bhagat) 9-143(Hari Reddy) 10-158(Pravin Amin) Bowler O M R W wd nb Iqbal 5 0 32 3 - - Shiva 3 0 20 0 - - Mustafa 6 0 28 1 - - Rizwan Shaikh 6 1 23 3 - - Ayaz Shaikh 6 0 33 2 - - Ishwar Gill 3 0 22 1 - - --------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------- Plano Tigers Vs Eagles CC 1-Innings Match Played At Plano (NE) , 18-Apr-2004, NTCA 40 overs league Toss won by Plano Tigers Umpires Murali (Googly) Eagles CC 1st Innings 300 runs in 40 overs (Tariq 92, Ovais 32, Laqeeq 26) Plano Tigers 1st Innings 258/10 All Out (Overs 38) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Nitashu Uppal b Laqeeq Ahmad 116 98 11 0 Vivek st Ovais Hasan b Bahadur Ali 22 31 1 0 Kaushal Bhagat run out Ovais Hasan 42 38 4 0 Raj Badoni b Aamir Rafique 5 5 0 0 Saurabh Singhal+ c Tariq b Aamir Rafique 4 5 0 0 Vikas Sharma b Aamir Rafique 0 1 0 0 Anil Patel c Tariq b Aamir Rafique 6 6 0 0 Rajesh N b Aamir Rafique 5 6 0 0 Arul Rajah c Aamir Rafique b Asif Rafique 14 11 2 0 Avinash Atholi c Ovais Hasan b Tariq 6 3 1 0 Pravin Amin* not out 17 13 3 0 extras (b2 lb1 w18 nb0) 21 TOTAL 10 wickets for 258 FOW 1-99(Vivek) 2-192(Kaushal Bhagat) 3-199(Nitashu Uppal) 4-203(Raj Badoni) 5-206(Vikas Sharma) 6-207(Saurabh Singhal) 7-217(Rajesh N) 8-217(Anil Patel) 9-226(Avinash Atholi) 10-258(Arul Rajah) Bowler O M R W wd nb Aamir Rafique 8 0 58 5 - - Asif Rafique 5 1 20 1 - - Naeem Ahmad 7 0 52 0 - - Bahadur Ali 7 0 47 1 - - Laqeeq Ahmad 6 0 46 1 - - Sri 1 0 11 0 - - Tariq 4 0 25 1 - - ---------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Hawks CC Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At Sandy lake ground , 11-Apr-2004, NTCA 40 overs league Toss won by Hawks CC Umpires Texas Rangers (kamal), Plano Intl (Sameer Mir) Hawks CC 1st Innings 297/6 (Overs 40) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Shilpin Kapadia st Vijai Natarajan b Hari Reddy 62 0 0 0 Najmi lbw b Hari Reddy 50 0 0 0 Shoaib Mithani+ b Vijai Natarajan 57 0 0 0 Amin Chagani b Kaushal Bhagat 33 0 0 0 Mubashir c Pravin Amin b Nitashu Uppal 17 0 0 0 Nadeem Khan not out 48 0 0 0 Uzair not out 2 0 0 0 Imran run out 0 0 0 0 Rehan Shah* dnb - Ramanna dnb - extras (b0 lb2 w26 nb0) 28 TOTAL 6 wickets for 297 FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 Bowler O1 O2 O3 O4 O5 O6 O7 O8 O M R W Runrate Nitashu Uppal 9 4 2 3 5 8 10 13 8 0 54 1 6.75 Vikas Sharma 7 10 9 7 16 5 0 49 0 9.8 Kaushal Bhagat 2 6 4 2 5 5 4 14 8 0 42 1 5.25 Hari Reddy 6 1 4 11 6 5 10 13 8 0 56 2 7.0 Pravin Amin 3 3 12 10 4 0 28 0 7.0 Vijai Natarajan 9 6 10 7 8 5 0 40 1 8.0 Saurabh Singhal 8 15 2 0 23 0 11.5 Plano Tigers 1st Innings 136/10 (Overs 27) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Vijai Natarajan+ b Imran 52 65 4 0 Raj Badoni b Teymoor 5 6 0 0 Nitashu Uppal c Ramanna b Nadeem Khan 6 7 1 0 Vivek c ? b Amin Chagani 24 28 2 0 Saurabh Singhal b Teymoor 4 12 0 0 Vikas Sharma c&b Amin Chagani 8 12 1 0 Kaushal Bhagat c ? b Teymoor 10 9 0 0 Arul Rajah c Shoaib Mithani b Uzair 2 4 0 0 Sandeep run out 1 7 0 0 Pravin Amin* lbw b Amin Chagani 1 2 0 0 Hari Reddy not out 0 0 0 0 extras (b0 lb0 w23 nb0) 23 TOTAL 10 wickets for 136 FOW 1-15(Raj Badoni) 2-42(Nitashu Uppal) 3-89(Vijai Natarajan) 4-105(Vivek) 5-120(Saurabh Singhal) 6-120(Kaushal Bhagat) 7-131(Arul Rajah) 8-132(Vikas Sharma) 9-136(Sandeep) 10-136(Pravin Amin) Bowler O M R W wd nb Teymoor 6 0 35 3 - - Nadeem Khan 5 0 23 1 - - Ramanna 3 0 12 0 - - Amin Chagani 7 0 29 3 - - Imran 3 0 22 1 - - Uzair 3 0 13 1 - - ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Venue: Plano Russell Creek Park, NE1 Pitch, Plano, Texas Date: 3/28/2004 Match Report written by: Hari Reddy Tournament: NTCA Division A League Duration: 40 Overs Home Team: Plano Tigers Visitors: Fort Worth Lions Toss: Won by Plano Tigers, elected to Field first On a cloudy and windy day, the Tigers being the home team had to setup the field. The NE1 pitch supposedly built for the juniors was scheduled for the game. The pitch had to be measured to the correct yardage and the bowling crease ended up outside the pitch causing both teams to bowl only from one end. Here is hoping the NTCA makes plans for extending the pitch, otherwise bowlers are liable to be injured. Now back to the game. FortWorth Lions Batting Just like the last game, Tigers got a roaring start, when Vikas deceived the dangerous Faisal to miss time a pull and changed direction on his follow through to make a tough catch look simple. Fahad and Waqar played a watchful innings, taking singles and doubles, using the pace of Nitashu and Vikas to cut the ball well past second slip. Nitashu bowling with a lot of aggression got through Fahad�s defense to clean bowl him. Waqar and Arif then played with their heads down to see of the very effective opening bowlers. Kaushal and Hari kept up the pressure with tight bowling. Kaushal rapped Waqar on the pads for a good lbw decision, Waqar�s wicket was important he seemed to have mentally prepared for a long stay at the crease. Raees was next in and was fishing one to many times outside the off stump, finally nicked one to the keeper of Hari�s bowling. Salahuddin did an outstanding job keeping wickets. The Tigers fielding was tight the entire game, except for a few over throws and fumbles, one of these induced a cheeky single, but the throw from Hari to Salahuddin was spot on and caught Ummar short of the crease. Two more run outs, one due to a good thrown to the bowlers end by Avinash and the other by Nitashu had the lions in trouble. Arul and Pravin had Asif and Moni in trouble a few times, but then they frustrated the Tigers bowling, finally Nitashu returning for a second spell got Moni lbw. Pravin then bowled Asif for a well-compiled 34 runs, to end the Lions innings at 142. The Lions having scored 300 plus in their previous game were the favorites to win in many peoples mind. The Tigers played a complete team game, encouraging each other and more importantly supporting the bowlers. The bowling from the Tigers was controlled and tight in very windy conditions, this put a lot of pressure on the batsmen for quick singles and two�s and this pressure was telling from the 3 run outs effected. Tigers Batting Salahuddin got the tigers to a rousing start with a good square cut, Raj played the perfect foil at the other end, not taking any risks. Raj though was bowled but not before the opening partnership had 26 runs on board in real quick time. The Lions second over going for 15 runs, with Zafar not coming back into the attack. Nitashu joined Salahuddin and the duo clinically demoralized the Lions bowling, with well-placed shots and the occasional boundary. Runs were flowing and the Tigers first objective was rain insurance, to be well over the Lions run rate at the 20th. over. The rain kept threatening, and although it was getting colder the rains never came. Salahuddin lost his concentration and popped a catch in the covers. Saurahb could not get going and was bowled for 3, but Nitashu ably supported by Avinash made no mistakes. Lions seemed to give up when about 20 runs were required. Nitashu helped himself to a couple of winning boundaries, to remain unbeaten on 69. Avinash contributed a supporting12. The Tigers gave a very good all-round performance to take a game from the favored Lions. A wonderful start to the 2004 season lets continue supporting each other to win many more games. Fort Worth Lions 142 all-out in 34 overs Plano Tigers 143 for 3 in 25.1 overs Detailed Scorecard: ------------------- Fortworth Lions Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At Plano (NE2), 28-Mar-2004, NTCA 40 overs league Plano Tigers Win by 7 wickets Toss won by Plano Tigers Umpires Dhananjay Kulkarni (Danny) and Russel (Colonial) Fortworth Lions 1st Innings 142/10 All Out (Overs 34) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Faisal c&b Vikas Sharma 3 0 0 0 Fahad b Nitashu Uppal 10 0 0 0 Waqar Hussain lbw b Kaushal Bhagat 19 0 0 0 Arif b Kaushal Bhagat 28 0 0 0 M Raees c Salahuddin b Hari Reddy 6 0 0 0 Asif Shah* b Pravin Amin 34 0 0 0 Ummar+ run out Hari Reddy/Salah. 4 0 0 0 Saeed run out Nitashu Uppal 3 0 0 0 Zafar run out Avinash Atholi/P. 1 0 0 0 Moni lbw b Nitashu Uppal 10 0 0 0 Shamred not out 2 0 0 0 extras (b2 lb4 w16 nb0) 22 TOTAL 10 wickets for 142 FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-0 10-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Nitashu Uppal 7 0 25 2 - - Vikas Sharma 4 0 15 1 - - Kaushal Bhagat 8 0 28 2 - - Hari Reddy 8 0 31 1 - - Arul Rajah 3 0 21 0 - - Pravin Amin 4 0 17 1 - - Plano Tigers 1st Innings 143/3 (Overs 25.1) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Salahuddin+ c Waqar Hussain b M Raees 38 42 5 0 Raj Badoni b Asif Shah 3 10 0 0 Nitashu Uppal not out 69 59 9 0 Saurabh Singhal b Arif 3 8 0 0 Avinash Atholi not out 12 28 0 0 Anil Patel dnb - Vikas Sharma dnb - Arul Rajah dnb - Kaushal Bhagat dnb - Pravin Amin* dnb - Hari Reddy dnb - extras (b4 lb0 w14 nb0) 18 TOTAL 3 wickets for 143 FOW 1-26(Raj Badoni) 2-68(Salahuddin) 3-83(Saurabh Singhal) Bowler O M R W wd nb Asif Shah 7 1 27 1 - - Zafar 1 0 15 0 - - Saeed 2 0 17 0 - - Arif 8 0 33 1 - - M Raees 5 0 27 1 - - Waqar Hussain 1 0 10 0 - - Faisal 1 0 10 0 - - Shamred .1 0 4 0 - -
The Match report for Tigers vs LoneStar -Written by Hari Reddy ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Venue: Lone Star Park Ground, Irving Texas Date: 3/21/2004 Tournament: NTCA Division A League Duration: 40 Overs Home Team: LoneStar Visitors: Plano Tigers Umpires: Rajesh (DFW stars), Manish (Cricketers club) Toss: Won by Lone Star, elected to Bat first Match won by Plano Tigers by 5 wkts. ------------------------------------------------------------------------------- The Tigers showed up at the ground expecting it to be washed out, based on weather reports, we were glad we all showed up, it turned out to be a great day. The morning was a little cloudy and windy, which probably factored into LoneStar opting to bat. LoneStar Batting Tigers got of to a great start with opener Loukesh being bowled in the first over by Nitashu, LoneStar then came back with Tushar /Chris and the Tigers helping by flooring as many as 6 catches. The Tigers were bowling well, but runs were being scored at a fast clip, Nitashu, Vikas and Kaushal were unlucky with catches being dropped. Hari brought down the scoring rate a little, but LoneStar was well placed at the 15 over break. Tigers were charged up after the break and Salahuddin with his exceptional direct hit got Chris run out. Tushar and Ken Khan stuck around for a while trying to consolidate, the Tigers bowling was tight and ground fielding excellent, there was pressure on the batsman, Pravin finally got Ken Khan and Tushar bowled. Hari then made two good catches, one over his head and one running in from midwicket, of the bowling of Pravin and Vikas, to send Jay Kisan and Imran SamSair back. Vikas bowling really well meanwhile had accounted for Maulesh Tripathi clean bowled. LoneStar finally folded for 187, At about the 15th. Over LoneStar had around 80 for 1, a good come back by the Tigers after the fast start LoneStar had got. Tushar showed if you stick around for 25 overs you can get 50, Chris had some lofty hitting for his 40, and Nat played with his head down, not taking many risks for a well made 32. Tigers Batting Raj and Salahuddin opened for the Tigers and Salahuddin was aggressive from the start and Raj supported him with some well-placed cuts and drives on the off side. Runs were flowing despite field placement changes, then Raj was caught trying to force the ball onto the on side to take advantage of gaps, Raj who seemed in good touch made 18 of 14 balls. Nitashu joined Salahuddin and the two good friends had a party in the middle, Salahuddin stroking the ball well and Nitashu trying to match him. It was a delight to watch Salahuddin bat, he had great timing despite a long layoff from cricket. Nitashu was dropped in the slips of a skier, Nitashu seemed to lose patience and was bowled attempting a lofty shot. Salahuddin was out of the bowling of Chris for a superbly made 75 of 69 balls with 11 fours and 1 six, Salahuddin had sealed the game for the Tigers and we were hopeful he would get a century, there is always the next game. Srikanth and Anil both playing well rotated the strike. Srikanth was out lbw and Anil edged a catch trying to hit 2 sixes on consecutive balls, both for a well-made 11. Vikas and Arul then finished the game for Tigers, Arul ending it with a superb six! I want to nominate Salahuddin as the man of the match, for his 75 and more importantly for the run out he effected of Chris. LoneStar 187 for 8 in 40 overs Tigers 190 for 5 in 26 overs. ---------- Scorecard: ---------- Lonestar Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At Lone Star Park Ground, 21-Mar-2004, NTCA A Division 40 Overs League Plano Tigers Win by 5 wickets Lonestar 1st Innings 8/187 (Overs 40) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Loukesh b Nitashu 0 0 0 0 Tushar b Pravin Amin 54 0 0 0 Chris Carroll run out Salahuddin 40 0 0 0 Ken Khan+ b Pravin Amin 10 0 0 0 Nat not out 32 0 0 0 Jay Kishan c Hari Reddy b Pravin Amin 1 0 0 0 Sam Prasad b Nitashu 19 0 0 0 Maulesh Tripathi b Vikas Sharma 0 0 0 0 Imran Samsair c Hari Reddy b Vikas Sharma 7 0 0 0 Carl Samsair* dnb - Ravi not out 0 0 0 0 extras (b0 lb6 w16 nb2) 24 TOTAL 8 wickets for 187 FOW FOW FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Nitashu 8 0 43 2 - - Vikas Sharma 7 0 24 2 - - Kaushal 6 0 40 0 - - Hari Reddy 8 1 24 0 - - Pravin Amin 7 0 33 3 - - Arul Rajah 4 0 16 0 - - Plano Tigers 1st Innings 5/190 (Overs 26) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s R Badoni c Sam Prasad b Jay Kishan 18 14 3 0 Salahuddin c Sam Prasad b Chris Carroll 75 69 11 1 Nitashu b Maulesh Tripathi 30 40 3 0 Srikanth+ lbw b Chris Carroll 11 16 0 0 Anil Patel c ? b Sam Prasad 11 8 1 1 Vikas Sharma not out 4 5 1 0 Arul Rajah not out 10 4 1 1 extras (b0 lb2 w25 nb4) 31 TOTAL 5 wickets for 190 FOW FOW FOW 1-53(R Badoni) 2-110(Nitashu) 3-159(Salahuddin) 4-169(Srikanth) 5-179(Anil Patel) Bowler O M R W wd nb Sam Prasad 3 0 34 1 - - Jay Kishan 4 0 24 1 - - Chris Carroll 7 0 56 2 - - Nat 5 0 27 0 - - Maulesh Tripathi 5 0 19 1 - - Tushar 2 0 23 0 - -
Plano Tigers vs Texas Rangers. (Details later).
Plano Tigers vs Plano Cubs Winter cup Quarter finals game. Cubs won.
Match Synosys: It was a high scoring game that we had a chance to win until the very end. Tigers chased a huge target of 239 to win in 30 overs. Tigers Batsmen were upto the challenge and started out gangbusters scoring at >10 runs/over...always ahead of required run rate all the way to 26th over when we were 204 for 7 wkts with 35 more runs to win in 4 more overs. With high score, wickets were falling at regular intervals as expected having to take risks to keep up with the run-rate. At every over Tigers were far ahead of Googly's equivalent score, except for wickets. Bowling first we should have restricted them to 6 or 6.5 runs/over target (180 to 200 runs), but that was not be yesterday. Fielding was a mixed-bag...some very good performances on the field but could have been better. Hindsight is 20/20 and some 'what-if' could have changed the script some, but high scores were on the cards, with fast outfield, ridiculous wide marker...some dropped catches and a very windy sunday morning. Both sides gave away a ton of runs. Very good batting performances by Faisal, Waqar, Saurabh, Vikas, Anil and most others supported them well. With margin of error zero, the luck ran out at over # 27. Tigers were all out in 27th over with 30 more runs to go and 3 unused overs. Tail could not pickup where others left. Even one 'life' or usual big hitting from Adil could have secured the Victory. Vikas and Waqar bowled well with relatively economy bowling by Asif. Detailed Scorecard: ==================== CCCC Googly Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At , 11-Jan-2004, Plano Cup 30 Overs CCCC Googly Win by 30 runs Toss won by Plano Tigers CCCC Googly 1st Innings 5/238 (Overs 30) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Sachin Shah not out 113 0 9 2 Thiru b Waqar Hussain 32 0 2 0 Sanjay Ganju b Vikas Sharma 37 0 4 0 Vivek V. b Vikas Sharma 0 1 0 0 Srinadh M b Adil M 10 0 0 0 Danny K run out 3 0 0 0 Akbar not out 0 0 0 0 Murali dnb - Siji Joseph*+ dnb - Paresh dnb - Nadeem M dnb - extras (b3 lb7 w33 nb0) 43 TOTAL 5 wickets for 238 FOW FOW FOW 1-136(Thiru) 2-194(Sanjay Ganju) 3-194(Vivek V.) 4-215(Srinadh M) 5-223(Danny K) Runs/Over - 1/6,2/15,3/28,4/33,5/42,6/43,7/49,8/58,9/64,10/69,11/82,12/87,13/90 14/95,15/100,16/106,17/116,18/128,19/136,20/149,21/156,22/172,23/181,24/187,25/194 26/201,27/207,28/215,29/223,30/238 Bowler O M R W wd nb Avg Ovr1 Ovr2 Ovr3 Ovr4 Ovr5 Ovr6 Hari Reddy 2 0 19 0 4 - 9.5 6 13 Asif Shah 4 0 24 0 6 - 6.0 9 5 1 9 Vikas Sharma 6 0 50 2 10 - 8.3 9 6 6 13 * 9 7 Pravin Amin 5 0 33 0 3 - 6.6 5 5 5 6 12 Waqar Hussain 6 0 41 1 3 - 6.8 3 5 10 8 9 6 Saurabh 3 0 35 0 4 - 11.6 11 16 * 8 Adil M 4 0 36 1 - - 9.0 6 7 8 15 * 2nd Spell Plano Tigers 1st Innings 10/208 All Out (Overs 27) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Asif Shah b Nadeem M 8 8 1 0 Faisal Akhtar b Danny K 36 23 3 1 Waqar Hussain c Vivek V. b Danny K 27 29 3 0 Saurabh st Siji Joseph b Sachin Shah 30 25 1 0 Faraz+ st Siji Joseph b Murali 8 11 0 0 Adil M b Sachin Shah 5 5 0 0 Vikas Sharma b Paresh 23 28 0 0 Anil Patel run out Nadeem M/Siji Jo. 16 13 0 1 Avinash Atholi c Paresh b Murali 1 2 0 0 Pravin Amin* c Siji Joseph b Murali 1 1 0 0 Hari Reddy not out 1 1 0 0 extras (b0 lb5 w45 nb2) 52 TOTAL 10 wickets for 208 FOW FOW FOW 1-30(Asif Shah) 2-88(Faisal Akhtar) 3-109(Waqar Hussain) 4-157(Vikas Sharma) 5-170(Saurabh) 6-172(Adil M) 7-188(Anil Patel) 8-198(Faraz) 9-204(Pravin Amin) 10-208(Avinash Atholi) Runs/Over- 1/16, 2/26, 3/30, 4/37, 5/48, 6/55, 7/63, 8/76, 9/88, 10/96, 11/96, 12/102 13/109, 14/118, 15/123, 16/130, 17/139, 18/145, 19/152, 20/157, 21/164, 22/170, 23/177, 24/188, 25/198, 26/204, 27/208 Bowler O M R W wd nb Avg Ovr1 Ovr2 Ovr3 Ovr4 Ovr5 Ovr6 Nadeem M 3 0 31 1 4 1 10.3 16 4 11 Sanjay Ganju 3 0 24 0 7 - 8.0 10 7 7 Danny K 4 1 28 2 4 - 7.0 8 12 0 8 Paresh 6 0 49 1 10 1 8.1 13 5 9 7 7 8 Murali 5 0 36 3 6 - 7.2 8 5 9 10 4 Sachin Shah 6 0 40 2 9 - 6.6 7 6 5 6 10 6
Texas Rangers Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At Lanka CC Ground LBJ/Webbs Chappel, 03-Jan-2004, Friendly 30 Overs Toss won by Texas Rangers. Plano Tigers Win by 2 wickets Match Report by : Rajesh Navaneethakrishnan =========================================== Texas Rangers batted first and the openers were in the process of giving commendable start which was negated by exemplary opening spell of Asif shah. Asif was ably supported by Vikas, Pravin, Saurabh, Adil, Waqar and Rajesh in the task. Israr, in particular was giving stiff resistance.... and was easily finding ways to make quick runs. He was hard on the medium pacers and appeared to be very dangerous. However when pravin brought waqar into action things started looking good for tigers as waqar was able to trouble Israr and the middle order batsmen with his legspinners. Apparantly the Rangers tail was long and they got some quick runs in slog overs and ended up making 182 in 30 overs. In a nutshell, tigers would have been given relatively easy target by Rangers if there weren't some sloppy fielding performances(dropped catches and misfieldings) by tigers with the exception of Jaffer(kid) and Umar(kid).... these kids exhibited some fine ground fielding and accurate throwing skills. Needing 182 runs for a victory, tigers started aggresively but lost some quick wickets initially. However Saurabh and Adil stayed there and kept the score ticking. Saurabh innings was marked by some classy wintage square cuts and some good shots in the V(mid on ond midoff) region. Adil, in particular played with belligerance and made a gorgeous 49 valuable runs. His shots were indomitable and unstoppable.... He was on song and played an heroic innings to get the victory, for tigers, from the jaws of defeat. When everything seem to be going good for tigers, Adil got out and Rajesh followed him after contributing some useful runs. As a result of these two quick dismissals, Vikas and Jaffer walked in and at this point of time Rangers were almost back in the game with a plan. Their plan proved to be unsuccessful as the partnership between Vikas and Jaffer turned out to be bristtling and match winning. Jaffer(the wonder kid), with awesome cricketing shorts in his repertoir proved to be the perfect ally for the big hitting Vikas as the duo stitched a vital partnership to take Tigers close to the victory margin. Tigers were low in confidence after Adil got out. However Vikas (30 in 16 balls) known for big hitting made the mockery out of Rangers bowling by exhibiting some unbelievable cricketing strokes, that cleared the fence couple of times, to bring Tigers close to the victory and later Pravin finished the formalities by scoring the final runs. Complete Scorecard: =================== Texas Rangers Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At Lanka CC Ground LBJ/Webbs Chappel, 03-Jan-2004, Friendly 30 Overs Plano Tigers Win by 2 wickets Toss won by Texas Rangers Texas Rangers 1st Innings 9/181 (Overs 30) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Ozair b Asif Shah 6 0 0 0 Israr c Ummar b Waqar Hussain 61 0 0 0 Aziz c Adil M b Asif Shah 2 0 0 0 Sunez c Faraz b Asif Shah 0 0 0 0 Shoaib+ run out Saurabh/Faraz 6 0 0 0 Jarul c Asif Shah b Waqar Hussain 6 0 0 0 Kamran Khan* b Rajesh N 8 0 0 0 Asif lbw b Saurabh 3 0 0 0 Faizan not out 33 0 0 0 Saju c Adil M b Pravin Amin 13 0 0 0 Kamran not out 10 0 0 0 extras (b2 lb5 w25 nb1) 33 TOTAL 9 wickets for 181 FOW FOW FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Vikas Sharma 5 1 32 0 - - Asif Shah 4 0 26 3 - - Pravin Amin 4 0 30 1 - - Saurabh 6 0 38 1 - - Waqar Hussain 5 0 16 2 - - Adil M 4 0 26 0 - - Rajesh N 2 0 11 1 - - Plano Tigers 1st Innings 8/182 (Overs 30) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Asif Shah c&b Aziz 9 13 0 0 Waqar Hussain c Kamran b Jarul 7 16 0 0 Faisal Akhtar c Saju b Jarul 11 13 0 0 Saurabh c Shoaib b Kamran 27 25 0 0 Faraz+ c Aziz b Jarul 6 14 0 0 Adil M c Jarul b Ozair 48 43 0 0 Rajesh N st Shoaib b Ozair 12 19 0 0 Vikas Sharma not out 30 16 0 0 Jafar lbw b Kamran 15 10 0 0 Pravin Amin* not out 2 1 0 0 Ummar dnb - extras (b1 lb1 w13 nb0) 15 TOTAL 8 wickets for 182 FOW FOW FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Aziz 6 0 33 1 - - Kamran Khan 4 0 23 0 - - Jarul 6 0 27 3 - - Saju 3 0 31 0 - - Ozair 6 0 23 2 - - Kamran 5 0 41 2 - -
Metroplex Vs Plano Tigers 1-Innings Match Played At Hinudstani CC Ground (Irving Blvd/Loop12, 21-Dec-2003, Friendly 30 Overs Plano Tigers Win by 7 wickets Toss won by Metroplex Metroplex 1st Innings 10/171 All Out (Overs 29) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Mahendra Patel b Nadeem Mia 4 13 0 0 Yogi Patel c Asif Shah b Dharmesh 32 34 2 0 Jagdish* c Avinash b Dharmesh 27 25 2 0 Patil c Faraz b Saurabh 1 15 0 0 Uday Patel c Faraz b Arul Rajah 41 38 3 0 Manoj Patel c Arul Rajah b Saurabh 0 1 0 0 Vasu c Saurabh b Pravin Amin 30 28 2 0 Minesh Patel+ c Saurabh b Pravin Amin 6 6 0 0 Manish Patel b Arul Rajah 2 6 0 0 Sagar Patel run out Arul Rajah 0 0 0 0 Nirav Patel not out 0 0 0 0 extras (b2 lb4 w21 nb1) 28 TOTAL 10 wickets for 171 FOW FOW FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 8-0 9-0 10-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Nadeem Mia 4 0 18 1 - - Pravin Amin 4 0 21 2 - - Asif Shah 2 0 20 0 - - Dharmesh 6 0 33 2 - - Saurabh 5 0 28 2 - - Avinash Atholi 3 0 26 0 - - Arul Rajah 5 0 24 2 - - Plano Tigers 1st Innings 3/175 Closed (Overs 28) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Asif Shah c Uday Patel b Sagar Patel 49 49 4 0 Waqar Hussain c Uday Patel b Vasu 16 14 1 0 Dharmesh not out 63 56 3 3 Faraz+ c Minesh Patel b Vasu 4 9 0 0 Anil Patel not out 11 28 0 0 Rajesh N dnb - Saurabh dnb - Arul Rajah dnb - Avinash Atholi dnb - Nadeem Mia dnb - Pravin Amin* dnb - extras (b4 lb2 w25 nb1) 32 TOTAL 3 wickets for 175 FOW FOW FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Jagdish 4 0 24 0 - - Yogi Patel 2 0 25 0 - - Patil 7 0 37 0 - - Vasu 6 0 26 2 - - Manoj Patel 3 0 21 0 - - Sagar Patel 3 0 17 1 - - Uday Patel 3 0 22 0 - -
DCC Vs Plano Tigers (Plano Winter Cup 30 Overs match) Match Played At Metroplex Ground (Irving Blvd/Loop 12), 14-Dec-2003, DCC Win with 2 Balls to spare!! Toss won by Plano Tigers Match Report by: Srikanth Chilakapati ------------------------------------- Plano Tigers won the toss and opted to bat first on a bright Sunday morning. The ground needed some tending to before the game could commence at around 11:15am. But for a slight wind, conditions were pretty good for Cricket. Waqar and Dharmesh were the openers. Hemant opened the bowling spraying the ball everywhere. Kanwal, the newcomer who shared the new ball was not to be outdone either. Waqar played a couple of sweetly timed drives through cover in the early overs. Soon after, a full-blooded straight drive from Dharmesh hit Kanwal on his ankle and he had to sit out the remainder of the game. Hemant and Vishwa continued. The wides still kept coming in the next few overs especially from Hemant. But all the wides seemed to have the effect of the batsman losing their patience and they started hitting out. On a difficult wicket where some balls were keeping low, playing straight would have been a good idea. Dharmesh tried a pull to a ball not quite short enough for that sort of a shot and was bowled. Ejaz, the spinner was introduced. After 5 dot balls, Waqar, couldn't wait any longer and came down the track only to hit over the top, only to be bowled. 2/38 and most of the runs came from wides. Not many overs had been bowled either for the very reason. Anil joined Amol in the middle. Vishwa in the meantime, was bowling at a reduced pace because of an injury but had settled into a nice rhythm. He was by far the bowler of the day for DCC. Bowling a nice line, he got Amol to edge one to first slip and it was taken spectacularly by Kiran. A one handed, left-handed catch. With wickets falling in quick succession, even Adil, the next batsman known for his big hitting, was restrained and the going was slow with Kiran, Vishwa, and Ejaz all bowling to their fields. Eventually, Kiran bowled Anil with a beauty of an inswinging yorker. At this point, the Tigers were in dire straits with a lot depending on Adil, Pratap and Arul. Pratap came in and played a beautiful knock. With Adil and Pratap running well and scoring the occasional boundary, things were looking better. And then Alpesh was brought in to try and break the partnership now worth almost 50 runs. Adil seized the opportunity to score 22 runs in one over including 2 towering 6sixers. After this over, the Tigers began playing with a completely different frame of mind. Runs began flowing no matter who was bowling. Pratap, however left caught once again by Kiran off Vishwa, this time in the deep. Pratap had by then made an invaluable 24. Arul went in and soon got things going as only he can sweeping half volleys outside off over mid-wicket, pulling, swatting and was playing the typical Arul innings. Adil after scoring 50 runs got out in the 26th over. It was an excellent innings in trying circumstances. Vikas came in next and was another victim to the low bounce the pull shot undid him. It was left to Rajesh and Arul to see the Tigers to the end and they did that quite admirably. I have to mention a sweetly timed six by Rajesh over mid-wicket. Arul made 24 of a mere 12 balls. 199runs scored in total. A pretty good show by the Tigers batting after the initial setback. The last 5 batsmen scored most of the runs in the last 15 overs. With Pratap, Vikas, Adil, Dharmesh in the bowling lineup, it would be difficult to take this one away from the Tigers we thought. The DCC innings: Pratap and Vikas opened the bowling and had the opening batsman in all kinds of trouble from the very beginning. The openers were missing more often than they were playing. and eventually, Pratap got the wicket he deserved a leading edge from Gopal gave him an easy return catch. However, from them on, it was pretty much downhill all the way for the Tigers. In came Alpesh. After playing his first over cautiously, he set out on a leather hunt of great class. Vikas unfortunately bore the brunt of it though all the fast bowlers took a whipping. Taking advantage of the short boundaries, he was simply hoisting any half-volley over the top. Ejaz meanwhile, just hung in there scoring only off of singles, but scoring off every ball to frustrate the fielding side. Pravin brought himself into the attack and that had the effect of quieting down Alpesh. With the keeper standing up, Pravin bowled well not giving Alpesh width off the back foot to cut or pull but not pitching too far up for him to hit over the top. Waqar was brought in and he too bowled well. Adil was brought into the attack to break the partnership. He had Alpesh edge one to keeper. It was low and a diving Srikanth could not hold on to it. But, Adil did get rid of Ejaz. He was castled by a beauty. Dharmesh bowled next. Bowling at a lively pace, he had Alpesh in all kinds of trouble with his incutters. Then Alpesh, trying to flick one of them over square, sent it straight to Adil who took a good catch at mid-wicket to bring new life to the Tigers. Soon after, Dharmesh bowled Vishwa with the perfect inswinger could easily have been the ball of the match. At this point the Tigers definitely had the upper hand at this point. But then, Tarang and the left handed Jay steadied the boat for about 4 overs but still there were lots of runs to be scored in little time when Jay left caught well by Rajesh at a very fine third man.. Hamad came in and was confidence personified from the beginning. Running hard and pulling and cutting fiercely, he and Tarang who has a knack for playing these Dravid-like innings, kept the scoreboard ticking and took the game away from the Tigers. It was a well-fought game. Some sterling performances. For the Tigers, the ones that stood out were from Pratap, Adil, Arul and Dharmesh for his bowling and Waqar for his fielding. For DCC, Ejaz, Alpesh, Tarang and Hamad. Kiran and Vishwa for their bowling and Kiran for his fielding, The Tigers dropped a few more than they could afford to and paid the price for it. But all credit to the DCC team for a well-deserved win. Man of the match was certainly Alpesh who was in a different class than the rest. Detailed Scorecard: ------------------- Plano Tigers 7/199 (Overs 30) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Waqar Hussain b Ejaz 15 32 1 0 Dharmesh b Vishwa 7 7 1 0 Amol Biniwale c Kiran b Vishwa 8 12 0 0 Anil Patel b Kiran 10 28 0 0 Adil Malik c ? b Tarang 51 41 3 3 Pratap Jawangula c Kiran b Vishwa 22 24 3 0 Arul Rajah not out 24 12 2 1 Vikas Sharma b Vishwa 0 1 0 0 Rajesh N not out 12 11 0 1 Srikanth+ dnb - Pravin Amin* dnb - extras (b8 lb6 w36 nb0) 50 TOTAL 7 wickets for 199 FOW 1-24(Dharmesh) 2-38(Amol Biniwale) 3-62(Waqar Hussain) 4-74(Anil Patel) 5-148(Pratap Jawangula) 6-148(Vikas Sharma) 7-174(Adil M) Bowler O M R Wkt wide nb Hemanth Lalwani 6 0 35 0 10 - Kanwal 1 0 13 0 7 - Vishwa 4 0 11 4 2 - Kiran 5 0 23 1 11 - Ejaz 6 0 33 1 4 - Hamad 5 0 41 0 1 - Alpesh Patel 1 0 22 0 - - Tarang Sethia 2 0 18 1 1 - DCC Batting: 5/201 (Overs 29.4) Batsman ieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Ejaz b Adil M 29 30 0 0 Gopal Pabari+ c & b Pratap Jawangula 1 13 0 0 Alpesh Patel* c Adil b Dharmesh 63 40 3 5 Vishwa b Dharmesh 13 23 1 0 Tarang Sethia not out 21 24 0 0 Jay c Rajesh b Dharmesh 14 10 1 0 Hamad not out 33 27 3 1 Kiran dnb - Hemanth Lalwani dnb - Kanwal dnb - extras (b4 lb1 w21 nb1) 27 TOTAL 5 wickets for 201 FOW 1-0(Gopal Pabari) 2-0(Ejaz) 3-0(Vishwa) 4-0(Alpesh Patel) 5-0(Jay) Bowler O M R Wkt wd nb Pratap Jawangula 6 0 38 1 8 - Vikas Sharma 4 0 34 0 3 - Waqar Hussain 2 0 14 0 1 - Pravin Amin 5 0 19 0 1 - Adil M 5.4 0 49 1 6 1 Dharmesh 6 0 34 3 2 - Arul Rajah 1 0 13 0 - - ----------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers vs Ismailia CC (Plano Winter Cup league game) Sunday, Nov, 23, 2003 at Lanka Ground. Ismaila Vs Tigers scorecard Ismailia Aziz retired 58 Riaz B Bowled Vikas 5 Sashank Bowled Nadeem 72 Salim Not Out 44 Tanveer Not Out 5 Total 197/2 in 25 overs Pratap 5 0 33 0 Vikas 5 0 30 1 Nadeem 4 0 29 1 Pravin 1 0 17 0 Saurabh 5 0 30 0 waqar 2 0 20 0 adil 3 0 35 0 Tigers Asif B seetha 0 Waqar B Aziz 34 Saurabh C & B Aziz 2 Anil Not Out 16 Adil C Riaz B Sai 20 Rajan B Sai 38 Vikas B Sai 8 Nadeem C Tanveer B Karim 8 Pratap c Kashif B Karim 13 Rajesh Run Out 1 Pravin not out 3 Total 154 all out Kashif 2 0 10 0 seetha 5 0 34 1 salim 2 0 5 0 aziz 5 0 32 2 sai 4 0 28 3 karim 2 0 13 2 rajan 2 0 10 1 tanveer1 0 6 0
Home Team: Plano Tigers (Match Report written by: Hari Reddy) Visiting Team: Metroplex Venue: Plano Russel Creek, NE Tournment: Friendly Date Played: Sunday, November 16, 2003 Toss won by Tigers, elected to bat first The game started about 10:00 am after Pravin won the toss for the Tigers and decided to bat first, allthough the conditions were ideal for bowling first. The grass was wet due to morning mist and the outfield slow, inspite of this Asif and Waqar gave the Tigers a good start, playing sensible cricket. The runs came in singles and two's with good strike rotation. Metroplex opening bowlers kept a good line and length but were not threating, just waiting for the batsman to make a mistake. Asif obliged with a loft to mid on that came back to the fielder due to a strong breeze and was out for 10 runs. Waqar and Nitashu kept the scoreboard ticking, boundaries were hard to come by, due to a wet outfield but these two played with great patience and application. Waqar was next out for a well made 34. Sourav was in next and supported Nitashu through the break at 16 overs. After the water break the bowling was really slow and tight Sourav was stumped going for a big one. Prashanth stuck it out for a while, Nitashu was egged on by Captain saab to step up scoring and was out hitting it down the throat of long off. Prashanth soon followed Nitashu. Rajesh was next to go hit wicket. Avinash called Hari for a non existing second run and stupid hari obliged all the way to the pavilion. Rajan back in Dallas from Pheonix, was rearing to go, but Avinash swinging for broke missed and Rajan was all dissapointed not having faced a ball. Tigers were all out for a lowly 143 after a prominsing start. Deja Vu anyone. The Tiger's opening bowlers Nitashu and Hari bowled well but went wicketless, the metroplex openers played watchfully through the opening spell. Pravin coming first change got a wicket as did sourav. The metroplex batsmen though slowly witled down the score. Pravin, Sourav, Avinash, Arul and Rajan all ended with one wicket. Rajan after a long layoff from cricket gave a fine display as did Arul generating a lot of pace. Arul and Nitashu did well as makeshit wicketkeepers. Tigers stopped the ball well in the field allthough some chances for runs out were not utilized. Hari brought off a well judged catch, allthough the game was decided by then. Again the same story for the tigers, have to bat well through all the overs. (Tigers were dying to bat first in this friendly game after not getting to bat in last several games. It was indeed a ideal day to bowl first ---- Pravin) Scorecard: Tigers batting: 143 all out/29 overs. Asif 10 Waqar 34 Nitashu 46 Sourav 15 Prashanth 08 Arul 01 Rajesh 07 Hari 04 Pravin 03 Avinash 01 Rajan 0 not out Tigers Bowling: Bowler Overs Runs Wkts. Nitashu 6 35 0 Hari 4 15 0 Pravin 4 19 1 Sourav 3 19 1 Avinash 3 33 1 Arul 3 14 1 Rajan 2 7 1 -------------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers beat Dallas Bulls on Nov 02, 2003, at Plano (NE). Match Report by: Rajesh Navaneethakrishnan Bulls, who batted first, set a paltry total of 127 in 25 overs. Bulls openers collapsed as Nitashu ran through their top order batting with some accurate bowling. The middle order batsmen did provide some resistance especially Srni, scored 44 runs, who was starting to look dangerous for a while but the formalities were completed by Avinash as he lured the batters(Bulls) for some big shots and bundled out the tail handers. The execution of all the bowlers of Plano tigers(Pravin, Nadeem, Avinash, Rajesh) in this game was excellent as they were ably supported by some good fielding and amazing catches by tigers.. For Tigers, Asif and Waqar got off to a great start as the former hammered couple of fours in his 17-ball knock before he was caught at gully where the bloke took a brilliant catch. Waqar, the wrecker, inspired Plano Tigers to victory by scoring an unbeaten 71 of 45 balls...His inning was marked by some lusty hits over midwicket followed by some classy drives of spinners. The weather was awesome and quite condusive for good cricket game today. Tigers are in 2 games winning spree now. "Go Tigers" See below for the full scorecard.. Dallas Bulls Batting 127 runs/25 overs Chaks C sallel B Nitashu 4 Rahul C Nadeem B Nitashu 2 Vishal Bowled Nadeem Mia 14 Anoop Bowled Pravin 7 Chandru Run out 7 Paul C Prashant B Nadeem 8 Srini C Nadeem Mia B Avinash 44 Sekhar Not Out 8 Rakesh Bowled Nitashu 1 Kiran C Nitashu B Avinash 3 Jasprit C&B Avinash 3 Tiger's Bowling Nitashu 5 overs/11 runs/1mdn/3 wkts Pravin 5 overs/15 runs/1 wkt Avinash 4 overs/15 runs/3 wkt Nademm 5 overs/20 runs/2 wkts Rajesh 4 0vers/22 runs/0 wkts Asif 1 over/16 runs/0 wkts Waqar 1 Over/5 runs/0 wkts Tigers Batting 130 Runs for 3 wkts/17.4 Overs Asif C Chakri B Srini 20/17 Waqar Not Out 71/45 Anil Bowled Paul 4/6 Rajesh C Anup(WK) B Chandru 11/16 Sallel Not Out 8/15 Prashant DNB Nitashu DNB Avinash DNB Nadeem DNB Rajesh DNB Pravin DNB Bulls Bowling Vishal 3 overs/24 runs/0 wkts Srini 3 overs/21 runs/1 wkt Paul 3 overs/16 runs/1 wkt Chandru 3 overs/21 runs/1 wkt Shekhar 3 overs/29 runs/0 wkt Rakesh 2 overs/7 runs/0 wkt Rahul 1 over/7 runs/0 wkt -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers vs Metroplex CC (Friendly 30 ovrs match) at Metroplex ground. Sunday , October 19th, 2003 Scores: Metroplex ; 194 for 9 in 29.1 overs Plano Tigers: 196 for 4 in 29.1 overs Match Report by Avinash Atholi ******************************************************* Tigers won the toss, and on wet and cool english conditions went into bowl... Nitashu and Pravin bhai were spot on, and gave away a miserly 5 runs in the first 5 overs...the first bowling change bought some runs, and the run rate moved up to sensible levels...The middle overs scoring went on at a brisk rate, as we had failed to grab wickets at earlier stages...But the introduction of Nadeem stemmed the flow of runs somewhat...avinash bought spin, and was reasonably successfull...but the real break on scoring rate came when saurabh came in, and started getting wickets...bowling good line, length, and a good pace, he picked up crucial wickets....Nitashu came at the death, and rattled a few more timber...the inning finished at 194...a good score to chase... we needed a good start, and that is exactly what nitashu and raj provided...nitashu was in 5th gear right away, and attacked fiercely...there was the straight drives, and the pulls...there was also a silken flick that put a ball from outside off stump to square leg boundary which even azharuddin would have been proud off...!!...all this while raj gave him ample support with his deft placement, and control....until he got a snorter that lifted off the good length...saurabh came in, and everyone in the team was a little nervous as he was coming in after a big break...but he seemed to be in good touch...any shot that goes square of the wicket from saurabh's bat is certain to be a classic shot, and we got to see a few of that...he had a crucial partnership with nitashu that carried us pretty close to the target..nitashu in the meanwhile was spanking almost everybody at will...by the time saurabh got out, we were pretty close to the target, but still some runs needed to be knocked in...In came Anil, and in his unique style kept the score rate moving...Nitashu hit a booming sixer to move into the nineties...and eventually made an exceptional knock of 115..we needed 6 runs when he got out, and we made it through in the last over though with a little anxiety in the end.. Finally, the home team provided us with a good tasty lunch including kichdi and lassi...now only if we could say the same about some of the language they used!!! Scorecard (copied from metroplex...may have errors): Metroplex batting... Vasu Bowled by Saurabh 42 runs/50 balls Jagdish c & B by Nadeem Mian 32runs/32 balls Ajay Bowled by Saurabh 14runs/19 balls Jayesh c by Rajesh, b: Nadeem 31runs/29balls Kittu c by Avinash, b: Raj 13runs/9 balls Hemanth bowled by Nitashu 27runs/21balls Hitesh bowled by Nitashu 0runs/1ball Nirav c Nitashu, b: Nadeem 0runs/3 balls Saagar Runout Patil not out total; 194 for 9 in 30 overs Nitashu 6 ovrs ,(0, 0, 8, 8, 2, 3) 21runs, 2 wkts Pravin 4 ovrs, (3, 2, 11, 5) 21runs, 0 wkts Sri 2 overs, (10, 14) 24runs, 0 wkts Nadeem 6 overs, (4, 8, 3, 8,1,9) 33 runs 3 wkts Avinash 5 overs, (10, 6, 4, 4, 10) 34 runs 0 wkts Saurabh 5 overs, (3, 8, 4, 8, 8) 31 runs 2 wkts Raj 2 ovrs (14, 15) 29runs, 1 wkts Tigers batting... Nitashu caught ? bowled by Vasu? 115 runs Raj caught Bhikhu, bolwed by Hasu? 17 runs Saurabh caught wkt keeper, baowled by Bikhu 19 runs Anil Not out 22 runs Srikanth caught Jagdish bowled by Patil 0 runs Sri Not out 2 runs Extras: 21 runs. 196 runs in 29.1 overs for 4 wkts -----------------
Plano Tigers vs Bengal CC (Friendly match) Oct12th, sunday at Plano Russelcreek park (NE pitch). Match Report by: Hari Reddy October in Dallas is wonderful weather and great for playing cricket, if it does not rain. Rained out it was against the Bengals, 9/28 , after the Tigers bowled 2 overs. A rescheduled 30 over match organized 10/05 started with the Tigers fielding first. Tigers opened the bowling with Prathap and Hari, both did a splendid job of restricting the Bengals. Prathap was fast and accurate troubling the openers and came up with a couple of wickets. Hari's bowling although not producing runs was not getting wickets with a number of lbw's not given. Prathap finally broke through the openers, further slowing down Bengal's scoring. Pravin brought himself on after 8 overs were bowled and did a good job of restricting runs and getting wickets. Sri came on at the other end and also did a good job taking a wicket. At the 15 over break, Bengals were under 50 runs with 4 wickets gone. Avinash came on as the spinning option, and took wickets at regular intervals as the Bengals went for runs and got some. Arul joined Avinash and was effective. The Bengals after the 15 over break were determined to get runs and did, sometimes with the bat and occasionally with the pen. The Bengals were finally all out for 137. A 1/2 hr lunch break and the Tiger openers for this game Srikanth and Anil were rearing to go, go home that is, Srikath did not last long bowled swinging at a straight ball. Anil and Raj stuck around scoring a few but Raj wanting to show us his aggressive side was out too. Nagesh batting with one glove was hesitant in the first over he faced, soon enough he was seeing the ball and batted well. Anil Bhai came back next and Arul swung his might mace around a bit was unable to get the ball to the boundary, was soon caught out. Prathap and Nagesh did a good job sticking around for a while and soon runs were being scored, hey, looks like if we stick around the pitch sooner than later runs do get scored! It was a illusion, soon Prathap left trying to up the tempo followed by Nagesh, Pravin, Avinash and Hari. The Tiger's committed Hara-Kiri and gifted the game to the Bengals and they had just 9 fielders too. Concentration, commitment, application, execution whatever you want to call it, was missing from the tigers in this game. Come on Tigers we can do better! Score card will follow. Hari Reddy Rajupet
Plano Tigers vs Fort Worth Lions (Friendly match) April 2003. This ended up being a 2 innings match. Details later...
Plano Tigers vs UTD Eagles CC (Friendly match, Sept 28, 2003) (Match Report by: Pravin) Synopsys: Eagles won the toss and decided to Bat. Scores: Eagles made 220 runs for all out in 30 ovrs. Tigers made 221 for 6 in 28.3 ovrs and won the high scoring match. Tigers had lined up 11 for this friendly match played at Metroplex ground. Again good weather and nice park and atmospehere, except for one Pole at deep thirdman and occasionally loosing a ball after a huge six towards long on boundary. Pratap went down with a flu and Anil didn't check his email (he was expecting a phone call), and so we were short of 2 players. Eagles lent us 1 of their players and we then played 10 on a side. Both teams had players borrowed from FWL to make a full team. Pravin lost the toss and Tigers were asked to field. Nadeem Khan (FWL player) opened the bowling with Pravin. Both kept the runs under check and each got a wicket in their first spell of 4 overs each. Arul and Randeep were brought into the bowling attack. Arul trapped Raees Khan (FWL player) at deep cover in the safe hands of Waqar (FWL). Randeep's first ball induced batsman to give a catch at point, which was not held. There were couple of more chances in Randeep's bowling. Ultimately though Rajesh took a good catch at deep fine leg off Randeep's ball. Randeep went on to bowl out all his quota of 6 overs with excellent bowling. He took 2 or 3 wkts. Teymoor and Avinash were then brought into attack and Teymoor struck from the very fist over and continued to take wicekts regularly. He bowled really well and went on take 5 wickets. Unfortunately one of Teymoor's balls struck Srikanth standing up on his upper lips after taking the bails off. Srikanth had to be taken to Hospital for stitches. Srikanth's gung ho spirit brought him back to playing cricket the very next sunday!! The last 10 overs brought run-feast to the UTD Eagles....A bit of help from pen and 2 missing fielders (Pravin and Srikanth gone to Hospital), the score jumped to unbelievable 221 runs for all out in 30 overs. Tigers took to batting chasing 7 runs and over with Waqar and Asif. They gave a cracking start with runs being scored at 9 runs an over. Rajesh followed Asif who scored a quick 40 runs. Was followed by Teymoor who played a wonderful knock of 45 runs scoring at a brisk but risk free batting scoring run a ball. Randeep followed after Waqar got out for 42 in 33 balls. Nadeem khan followed after TEymoor's wicket and scored a fast 30 runs with many big hits in 20 balls. Randeep played a nice knock of 20 runs with a six waiting always for a half volley and playing rest defensively. He also kept scores moving at run a ball. The required run rate always remained close to 7 runs/over. Arul went when 40 runs were required to score as a finisher. And he played a wonderful 'fireworks' knock as he has done so many times. He sent the ball to boundaries all around him and scored a quick 28 runs remaining not out. Avinash provided a very important support to Arul giving him strike and looking extremely confident at the crease. Avinash scored a nice unbeaten 16 runs that included one clean six and a four and never looked troubled. Tigers finished the game off with 2.5 overs to go, winning in style chasing a big total of 221 runs in 27.1 overs. (Guys, pls come forword with helping out with writing match reports, or you will have to live with this kind of match reports from me ..... Pravin)
40 over knockout tournament: Plano Cougars vs Tyler CC (Sept 14, 2003 at Tyler) Brief scores: Tyler CC 102 all out. Cougars 94 all out (9 players).
Plano Tigers vs Metroplex CC (Friendly match) (Sept 7th, 2003) Report soon.
25 over knockout tournament: Plano Tigers vs FWL (Aug 24, 2003) FWL: 202 runs in 25 ovrs. Tigers: 150 in 25 ovrs. Report soon.
25 over knockout tournament: Plano Cougars vs CCC Googly (Aug 24, 2003) Brief scores: Googly: 150 Cougars: 100 Report soon...
25 over knockout tournament: Plano Cougars vs Eagles CC (Sept 17, 2003) Eagles CC: 76 all out. Cougars : 77 for 9 Report soon....
Plano Cougars vs Metroplex CC (Friendly match, Aug 10, 2003) Metroplex: 175 Cougars: 176 (Report soon)
Reports shortly for Plano Tigers vs following teams: Lonestar CC: 176, Tigers 177 Hawks CC: 139, Tigers 140
Reports shortly for Plano Tigers vs following teams: Plano Cubs 179 for 9 in 30 ovrs, Tigers: 168 for 5 Ismailia CC (Tigers: 158 allout, Ismailia: 159 for 5) Fort Worth Lions: 168 all out, Tigers: 143 all out. UTD Eagles CC: 232 for 9 in 40 ovrs, Tigers: 230 for 8 in 40 ovrs. DCC 1 (Tigers: 150 for 9 in 40 ovrs, DCC1 151) Detailed Reports soon....
Reports shortly for Plano Cougars vs following teams: Cougars won against following 4 teams. Match reports soon ..... Bengals CC CCC Gullies Plano International CC
Reports shortly for Plano Cougars vs following teams: United CC DCC 2 DFW Indian Stars Carroltton 2 Hindustani CC (Washed out) Dallas Bulls (Washed out)
Plano Tigers vs UTD Eagles (30 overs friendly match) May 30, 2003 saturday at Plano Russelcreek park (SW field) Pravin tried to assemble a 11 out of the combined Tigers+Cougars. But could only come up with 7 . So players from FWL, DCC and Cubs had to be called in at the 11th hour to make the 11. In the end all that effort was worth it as this turned out to be a very good game indeed and a very satisfying victory on this first hot day of this summer. Pravin lost the toss and UTD Eagles decided to bat first. Eagles were scoring at a brisk pace helped along by the regular 1 or 2 wides every over. But the UTD Eagles scorer was also pretty creative at making their runs jump by the leaps and bounds. Naveen G of Cubs was the best bowler by far and he troubled the Eagles quite a bit. With good batting from Aamir and Ovais and scorer's fast moving pen, they managed to put on a huge score of 252 runs in 30 overs. Tigers started with Asif and Waqar and the score was flying from the word get go. Waqar was letting Asif do the talking with the willow while he was giving strike to Asif. Asif thrashed Eagle's opening bowlers with a cracking 48 in just 23 balls with quite a few clean sixers and fours. He was cought out on midwicket boundary trying to clear another six. At this point Waqar shifted the gear and got in the driver's seat while his new partner Raj gave him support and strike. Waqar was just as impressive as Asif and stayed there almost until the end scoring a 'nuclear powered' century (122 runs in just 74 Balls). It was a explosive innings sparring now bowlers. Throughout the innings runs were being scored at 12 runs an over on average. Waqar's great innings were spread over partnership with Asif (48), Raj (17), Anil (22), Naved (6 not out), Naveen (12 ). The winning shot came in the form of a six from Naveen who scored 12 in 3 balls. In the end Tigers made 256 runs in 26.3 overs for the loss of 5 wickets. Over 500 runs were scored in this game in 56 overs. A first really hot day in otherwise mild early summer so far. A great game indeed. Pravin
Plano Tigers vs Lanka Colts (May 18th, 2003) 40 overs league match. Tigers won by 7 wickets. Lanka: 164 all out Tigers: 165 for 3 Details later.
Plano Tigers vs Googlies (40 overs league match) May11,2003
Plano Cougars vs Mustangs (May4, 2003) 40 overs league game. Details later.
Plano Cougars vs Cricketer's Club at Hindustani Ground (Apr27,2003) Details later:
Plano Cougars vs Tyler CC at Tyler CC ground, Tyler, Tx 40 overs league match. April 20th, Sunday Match Synopsys by Srinadh Tyler CC won the toss and invited the Cougars to bat under cloudy skies and a damp outfield from the overnight showers. Run making proved difficult as the Cougars lost wickets with regularity. Only skipper Raj Badoni played a composed knock(35) and was assisted briefly by Khusro Khalid. The Cougars caved in meekly for 90. Mitesh Patel (Bowler of the week) claimed 4 wickets for just 8 runs in 4 overs. The other Tyler bowlers also stuck to a good line and length and gave little away. Tyler CC got to the required score with minimum fuss although Dhananjay Kulkarni did trouble all the batsmen he bowled to. Randeep M also bowled well claiming 2 wickets. Paresh Chhotu (27), Mitesh Patel (28 not out) and skipper Raman Patel saw Tyler home. Scorecard: Plano Cougars: 90 All out in 27 overs. Tyler CC: 91 for 3 in 20 overs. Batting of Team:Plano Cougars # Batsman How Out Fielder Bowler Runs Balls 6s 4s 1 khusro khalid bowled raman patel 17 0 0 0 2 srikanth c caught vinay sheh dipesh patel 0 0 0 0 3 raj badoni caught mitesh patel mitesh patel 35 0 0 0 4 santosh kandi lbw raman patel 0 0 0 0 5 dhananjay k caught raman patel greg atkins 6 0 0 0 6 randeep mathiladath caught raman patel greg atkins 6 0 0 0 7 saurabh singhal caught dipesh patel mitesh patel 8 0 0 0 8 arul rajah caught greg atkins mitesh patel 0 0 0 0 9 hari reddy caught greg atkins mitesh patel 5 0 0 0 10 san sridharan lbw dipesh patel 0 0 0 0 Extras & Total LB NB W B Total Extras Total Runs 3 0 5 5 13 90 Bowling of Team:Tyler CC # Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets Extras 1 chris adams 1 0 5 0 0 2 dipesh patel 6 3 7 2 0 3 greg atkins 8 4 30 2 0 4 mitesh patel 5 2 8 4 0 5 rakesh "rocky-lufkin" patel 7 4 17 0 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------- Batting of Team:Tyler CC # Batsman How Out Fielder Bowler Runs Balls 6s 4s 1 mitesh patel not out 27 0 0 0 2 dipesh patel bowled dhananjay kulkarni 10 0 0 0 3 paresh chhotu bowled randeep mathiladath 27 0 0 0 4 raman patel bowled randeep mathiladath 14 0 0 0 5 kishor patel -dnb- 6 jatin patel -dnb- 7 greg atkins -dnb- 8 vinay sheh -dnb- 9 rakesh patel -dnb- 10 manoj bhakta -dnb- 11 rakesh -dnb- Extras & Total LB NB W B Total Extras Total Runs 2 0 7 4 13 91 Bowling of Team:Plano Cougars # Bowler Overs Maidens Runs Wickets Extras 1 arul rajah 2 0 11 0 0 2 dhananjay kulkarni 7 1 28 1 0 3 hari reddy 3 0 20 0 0 4 randeep mathiladath 3 0 10 2 0 5 saurabh singhal 5 0 9 0 0 -------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers v Metroplex CC at Plano Russell Creek SW field.(April 13th, Sunday) 40 overs NTCA League match Match Report written by Srinadh. In what could safely be termed as an upset, Plano Tigers halted the juggernaut of Metroplex CC who have been the team to beat thus far in the season. Coming into this game after beating DCC 1st XI and Plano Cubs, Metroplex were brimming with confidence. Put in to bat, Tigers got off to a steady start in the wake of some trademark Metroplex bowling. Just as Ajit Ranade was beginning to look good, having dispatched Jagdish Patel for an imperious pull that raced to the boundary, Metroplex struck. Ajit was caught behind going for a cut. Skipper Piyush Patel joined Kal. Piyush played three exquisite shots off one Patil Patel over, leading to some comical moments where the bowler complained publicly in colorful language to the batsman about what those fours did to his analysis! However, the entertainment was short-lived as Piyush departed soon after to a beauty from skipper Jagdish that swung late and took the edge for keeper Jayesh to hold again. Kal and Gokul then put on another small partnership but just when they were looking good, Kal was run out for 25. Gokul departed soon after for a useful 19. Debutant Kaushal became the second Tiger to get run out going for a non-existent third run. Tigers were 95 odd for 5 wickets in 22 overs at that stage. Metroplex were probably wondering what the menu for the seemingly early lunch was. After the departure of Nitashu, out to a soft dismissal, Srinadh Madhavapeddi (Batsman of the week) pushed it around for singles and twos with the odd boundary while his partner Rajagopalan was sensibly content to keep him company. At the 30 over break, Tigers were 130 for 6. Rajagopalan departed soon after the drinks break once again to a run out and at 140 odd for 7 wickets, Metroplex were still well on top. Srinadh then cut loose and played some big shots all over the park. One Hitesh over went for no fewer than 17 runs as Srinadh found the boundary with regularity and on four occasions went over the ropes. Pravin kept Srinadh company and gave his partner the strike. The batsmen also ran a lot of twos with the field well spread out. Pravin eventually became the fourth player to get run out in the 38th over but had done his job, putting on 50 for the 8th wicket. Srinadh eventually holed out in the 40th over for a timely 76 runs off 50 balls including 4 sixes and 4 fours. Sangam and Vinay Venkataraghavan (whose father is a gentleman called S. Venkataraghavan for those who know!) ensured that Tigers added a few more useful runs in the last 4 balls and reached a fighting total of 213 which at one stage looked beyond Tigers? reach. For Metroplex, Jagdish and Hitesh picked up 2 wickets each. Metroplex got off to a disastrous start, losing the aggressive Kirit in the first over off Nitashu. Kaushal struck early too removing Bhikaji and the dangerous Jayesh. At 3 wickets down for next to nothing on the board, Metroplex looked in dire straits. Vasudev (24) and the ever dependable Uday Patel (48) then fought back and just as they were looking to accelerate, Sangam Pullikut (Bowler of the week) came into his own trapping Vasudev in front and soon after having Sanjay clean bowled. When he trapped Dinesh in front too, Sangam was on a hat-trick. It was not to be however. The pressure then told and Uday played a rash stroke to allow keeper Ajit to take a good running catch near point and that signaled that the demise was imminent for Metroplex. A last wicket partnership did give some jitters to the Tigers camp but Nitashu wrapped things up. Sangam Pullikut turned in a superlative bowling effort, taking 5 for 39 even as the Tigers fielded brilliantly and held almost all their catches to secure a very important win. Kaushal (2 for 28) and Nitashu (2 for 13) were also among the wickets.
Plano Tigers Vs Carroltton Hawks
Match Synopsys by Sangam.Tigers - 150 all out in 29 overs. April 3rd Saturday at Plano NE.
Hawks - 151/2 in 23 overs
The game started with lots of energy in everyone with the weather being excellent. Rahul was called to join the team by Pravin to fix the unavailability of enough players. We won the toss and elected to bat. The captain and Rahul went in to open and everything was upright till Rahul fell for a full toss ball and then the fall of wickets started. We were 40/5 with Pravin, Rahul, Nitashu, Arul and Ashok back in the pavillion. However some 35-runs 6th wicket partenership in the middle and later a continued effort with excellent 51 N.O by the new comer Rajagopal with the tail enders put us in a fighting score of 150.
Hawks started with left-right combination in Tariq and ?????? They were comfortably scoring runs and was at 40 odd runs in the first 7 overs. How ever the spin attack (Sangam) took one of the openers out and later a second wicket by Pravin when the hawks were 130. Apart from that the target set by tigers were not enough to defend and Hawks reached home in the 23rd over to get to a 8 wicket victory.
Higlight was a good middling of the bat by the Tiger cub Rajagopal. 51 N.O.
=========================================== Plano Cougars vs Dallas Stars NTCA 40-over league game, Div B 3/30/03, Sunday, Fort Worth Lions ground Match Report by Hari Reddy A beautiful spring day greeted the Cougars; perfect for cricket it was neither cold nor hot. The game was played on the home ground of the Fort Worth Lions, in Fort Worth. The ground looked green with an overgrowth of grass and weeds, making for a slow outfield, getting fours would be tough. Most Cougars assembled at Legacy Cinemax in Plano, then at Wal-Mart near TI, Arul and Randeep in Irving and Hari flew in from Florida to make 11 on this ground one hour away from Plano home ground. The pitch looked good, though the bowling area was uneven and the bowlers had to be careful not to twist an ankle. Raj won the toss and elected to field, the decision influenced by couple of players having to leave early. Dallas Stars Batting Danny opened the bowling with Vikas and both troubled the opening batsmen with movement of the deck. Saad kissed a beauty from Danny to Srikanth to depart for 8. Following Saad's departure, Umar and Sohail built a good partnership with singles and two's. Danny and Vikas had the batsmen beaten and under pressure multiple times, unfortunately the grip started slipping courtesy of wides. Sri was brought into the attack and Umar batting way outside the crease upset his length, but foxy Sri took advantage to beat Umar and have him stumped by Srikant. The stumping brought Adil to partner Sohail, Adil in a previous match had scored 81 and was the danger man the Cougars had to get out. Sri got Adil with a short one, but hooo... No, it was dropped at deep midwicket. Adil though did not learn from his mistake and was tempted by another short one from Sri and this time Randeep made no mistake, Adil departed followed by a volley of abuse from his captain Sohail. Fraz joined Sohail at the crease and the two stitched together a good partnership. Sri and Hari after bowling their quota of wides gave way to Arul and Randeep. The batsmen frustrated the bowlers with good running between the wickets and the runs seemed to flow. Raj frustrated with the wides brought himself on, determined to bowl a wicket to wicket line. He stuck gold, I mean the wicket, taking out Sohail with a straight one. Sohail made a patient 37. Hari in his second spell decided to cut his run up and bowl wicket to wicket a la Raj, this strategy worked . There were no more wides and he tempted Syed to drive the ball in the air straight to Arul at cover. Raja and Fraz then put on a good partnership before Hari had Raja lofting one to Khusro at mid-on, next in Arif went the same way. Faisal made a quick 11 and was runout by Srikanth collecting a good throw from Arul. Amin was run out by the combination of Srikanth and Danny bringing an end to the Dallas Stars innings. For the Stars Umar, Sohail and Fraz played a calm patient innings, the best batters for them were the Cougar bowlers combined with the umpires. The umpires were wondering why their arms were hurting! Seriously the ball seemed to move a lot more of the deck causing a slew of wides, all Cougar bowlers were guilty of this except Raj. Was the uneven bowling area throwing the bowlers rhythm off or were the bowlers over enthusiastic ? Eeither way the bowlers failed to adjust. The fielding was good except for two catches being floored, this in spite of being a fielder short. The Cougars were set 240 to win, 70 of 240 were extras. Plano Cougars batting The Cougars opened the batting with Srikanth and Rajesh and also one player short after San had to leave. Rajesh batted sensibly scoring of bad balls and defending good ones, on the other end Srikanth attempted a flick over mid wicket, unfortunately midwicket was tall and had long hands and the ball got stuck in fingers. Srikanth departed, but if his disappointment is anything to go by, he will get a big score the next game. Khusro joined Rajesh and looked good for the short while he was in the middle, he departed lbw going forward , an umpiring decision not in the batsmen's benefit of doub. Raj joined in and with Rajesh steadied the innings, accumulating singles, not taking chances with run outs. Rajesh had some wonderful looking cover drives that stopped short of the boundary, the outfield slowing the ball. Suddenly Rajesh seemed to loose his cool and in one over of spinner Tariq, he swung and missed multiple times, finally walked out to one and was stumped by Fraz. Danny joined Raj and the fun began with a huge six of the first ball he faced over mid on. Mid on became long on and the sixes kept coming from Danny, very entertaining. Raj on the other end was playing a calm and composed innings, but the stars seemed far from composed, Danny's assault had them juggling bowlers. Danny's shots, all off them over either long off or long on were incredibly powerful, capable of ripping a finger off any hand that managed to touch them, in the end Danny was bowled attempting to defend a straight ball, missing his 50 by 5 runs (45/22). Danny's hitting display and Raj's composed innings had just stirred hopes of a win and had the Stars supporters on the ground actually praying! Danny's departure brought about a mini Cougars collapse, Vikas departed after attempting a big shot, Randeep was unfortunately run out, Raj refusing an easy run, Sri walked back caught attempting a big shot, maybe Danny made it seem easy. Arul joined Raj and played a wonderful innings, hitting long sixes along with good running between the wickets. Raj and Arul had all the Cougars excited . A Cougars win seemed possible and close. Meanwhile the Stars were having multiple conferences on the field planning and praying to get Raj or Arul out or stem the flow of runs. Maybe all their prayers worked, for Raj at his enduring 68 mistimed a drive for the bowler to hold a simple catch. Cougars were 231, 9 short of victory. Hari walked in and walked backed bowled of the first ball attempting a defensive drive . Hari promises to perfect his defense in practice. Arul remained not out at a spectacualar 42. Cougar's innings ended at 231/9 with one batsman short, 7 balls to go and 9 runs needed.. All the Cougars were disappointed, the taste of victory turning bitter, hope this disappointment will drive us to greater deeds with bat and ball. The team seemed to gel well together and have the ability to do well in this league . This can only happen however if we reduce extras, we gifted this game to the Stars, let us stop being generous. Go Cougars. Hari
Plano Tigers vs Carroltton CC (40 Overs League match) 3/16/03 at Plano Russelcreek (SW field) Toss won by Carrollton CC. Plano Tigers v Carrollton at Plano Russell Creek Park, SW wicket (Match Report by Srinadh) In this lung opener, Plano Tigers hosted Carrollton CC in an encore of the 40 Over knockout Quarter final of last year. Carrollton won the toss and inserted Tigers. Tigers got off to a brisk start as Raghavan Venugopal (20) and Salahuddin Afzal looked positive from the get-go. However, Salahuddin was trapped in front by the wily Kamal Merchant and in walked Piyush Patel, who has been in supreme touch from the very moment he made his debut for Tigers over a year ago. March 16th was no exception and Piyush began to strike the ball all over the park. An exquisite straight drive and another expansive stroke over cover were the highlights of the innings After the departure of Piyush for a well made 62 runs off a mere 41 balls including 7 boundaries and a huge six off Zahid Bheda, Nitashu Uppal (Batsman of the week) braved a mini collapse and marshaled the middle and lower order and helped Tigers reach a challenging 233 off the allotted 40. Nitashu remained unbeaten on 76 well made runs. For Carrollton, Syed Shahanawaz picked up 3 wickets for 36 in his 8 overs while Kamal Merchant claimed 3 wickets for 37 runs. Carrollton began their reply disastrously and lost Anwer Shahabuddin and Irfan Habib very early. Zahid Bheda began impressively but also departed caught at point as he tried to cut. Ashok Binjola picked up all the three wickets. Fasih Baqa too did not find his timing and eventually holed out for 21. The score was 59 for 4 in 12 overs. Plano Tigers were sensing that an upset was round the corner. However Kamal Merchant and Nadeem Haroon hunkered down and survived some early alarms including a few close shouts for leg before and a couple of chances that went a begging. From then on, Kamal and Nadeem exhibited limitless patience and vast experience and slowly but surely built a partnership. The support bowling for Plano Tigers let them down badly and the two batsmen grew in confidence. Eventually they saw Carrollton through without any further loss of wickets and by the time the winning run was scored, the two had compiled a massive partnership totaling 175 runs. Carrollton began the new season with a bang. Full Scorecard: Plano Tigers Batting: R B 4 6 Salahuddin lbw Kamal 14 16 2 0 Raghavan Ct Wk Shahnawaz 20 36 0 0 Piyush Ct Kamal Shahnawaz 64 42 7 1 Ajit Ct Wk Shahnawaz 2 9 0 0 Nitashu Not Out 76 80 5 1 Ashok lbw Kamal 15 23 1 0 Srinadh lbw Kamal 5 10 0 0 Rajan Ct Shahnawaz Irfan 5 5 0 0 Pravin Run Out Nitashu/Nadeem H 8 11 0 0 Sangam DNB Tigers total 233 Runs/8wkts in 40overs. C'ton Bowling O M R W Avg Bilal 8 0 63 0 7.9 Kamal 8 1 44 3 5.5 Zahid 8 0 43 0 5.4 Shahnawaz 8 0 36 3 4.5 Fasi 3 0 17 0 5.7 Irfan 4 0 22 1 5.5 Nadeem 1 0 9 0 9.0 C'ton Batting: R B 4 6 Irfan Ct Piyush Ashok 6 5 1 0 Anwar Ct Ajit Ashok 1 4 0 0 Nadeem Not Out 68 0 6 0 Zahid Ct Srinadh Ashok 10 7 2 0 Fasi Ct Piyush Nitashu 16 7 3 0 Kamal Not Out 84 71 5 0 Total 235 runs/4wkts in 38 overs Tigers Bowling O M R W Nitashu 8 0 26 1 Ashok 8 0 57 3 Piyush 8 0 42 0 Pravin 4 1 26 0 Raghavan 1 0 10 0 Sangam 4.4 0 31 0 Rajan 2 0 14 0 Sal 1 0 11 0 Ajit 1 0 7 0 ----------------------------------------------------
Plano Cup Semifinals between Plano Tigers and DCC 3/9/03 Plano Tigers batting first scored 209 runs in 30 overs DCC made 210 in 29 th over. Details will posted soon...
Plano Tigers vs Ismailia Sunday, 2-2-03 30 overs match Plano Winter Cup Last round robin game before semi-finals (Match Report written by Raj) Russell Creek, North-East pitch Just a week before this Sunday�s game, all the games were washed out due to extreme cold and wind. Raj had brought the kit and few Tigers had showed up prior Sunday for practice, but all ran back home soon. This Sunday turned out to be a gorgeous sunny day, although quite windy. Game started late beyond 11am. Aamir of Ismailia won the toss and quickly put Tigers to bat against 20 miles per hour gusty wind blowing from south end, with an army of pace bowlers. Sal and Raj opened for Tigers facing Adil and Fawad�s quick attack with the high wind. While Fawad bowled his usual super fast short stuff, Adil was moving the ball close and out. Sal nicked one trying to slash to point and wicket keeper Tanveer happily grabbed the catch. At 9 for 1, Nitashu walked in, ducking and moving away from the fast balls until he got his grip and slammed some glorious boundaries above bowler's (Fawad)� head and in long on & deep midwicket region. In contrast with Nitashu�s offense, Raj continued to play defensive giving Nitashu strike. While their partnership seemed getting steady, Vinod came in for bowling change and was able to trap Nitashu lbw and break the partnership. Nitashu�s 37 runs had 6 clean boundaries. With new batsmen Gokul, Tigers were 72 for 2 at 15-over break. Raj had done the hard work against pace attack with the wind. After switching side, he went for shots wanting to accelerate run rate when one of Sri�s delivery brushed his leg off to stumps at his enduring 30 runs. Ashok joined Gokul, but soon he edged one off of Sri to wicket keeper who was doing a marvelous job behind the wickets with all the pace attack. At 91 for 4 in 19th over, Srinadh joined Gokul and they had the best partnership of 71 runs in 10 overs stroking almost every ball in the gap and taking ones and twos. Srinadh going for full swing in last over got stumped at 26. Pravin followed him with only 5 balls remaining in the inning. He tried the same shot going for a boundary and was stumped similarly off of Saleem. Gokul stayed not out at well made 38 with Danny adding 5 runs off last 4 balls taking score to 171 for 6 in 30 overs. Just as game was started late and lazy, even the lunch break was long before Sri and Aziz opened for Ismailia against Nitashu and Pravin's new ball attack. Although Nitashu bowled well, he wasn't lucky to break the opening pair. Left-handed Sri played some delectable off drives and got lucky with one missed hard catch at point. Hari and Danny were brought in for change. Aziz hit a hard off pull off of Danny, which looked like a sure boundary, but Nitashu jumped way up to his right and took an almost impossible catch with one hand. Ismailia were at 84 for 1 at break Salim and Riaz both lost their wickets to Gokul right after the break, where Salim was bowled by the magic slow delivery that almost stopped against the wind and Nitashu took a safe sky catch to send Riaz back. At this point, express runner Vinod joined Sri and delivered for his team what he's really good at. At asking run rate of 6, he stroked just enough between gaps and took twos where there was one and singles where there was � run. Bowlers couldn�t break this fast partnership and they coasted toward the target pressurizing fielders. At the end, Sri utilizing his two lives in his long inning, got out at 74 trying to wrap up. Nitahsu again took a safe catch off of Danny. Vinod's quick 40 not out in 25 balls took them to target sooner with 4 overs to spare. It was a long 8-hour day indeed with reporting time 9:50am lasting till 6pm when it started to get dark. Full Scorecard: Plano Tigers batting R B 4 6 Sal caught Tanveer b Adil 3 8 0 0 Raj bowled Sri 30 39 3 0 Nitashu lbw Vinod 37 40 6 0 Gokul not out 38 47 2 0 Ashok caught Tanveer b Sri 3 9 0 0 Srinadh stumped Tanveer b Salim 26 35 1 0 Pravin stumped Tanveer b Salim 0 1 0 0 Danny not out 5 3 1 0 Srikanth DNB Hari DNB Santosh DNB Plano Tigers 171 for 6 in 30 overs Ismailia bowling: O M R W Adil 6 0 20 1 Fawad 6 0 40 0 Sri 6 0 30 2 Amir 3 0 37 0 Vinod 6 0 24 1 Salim 2 0 21 2 Ismailia batting R B 4 6 Aziz caught Nitashu b Danny 21 30 Sri caught Nitashu b Danny 74 68 Salim bowled Gokul 2 5 Riaz caught Nitashu Gokul 4 8 Vinod not out 40 25 Tanveer not out 1 2 Ismailia 172 for 4 in 26 overs Plano Tigers bowling: O M R W Nitashu 6 0 27 0 Pravin 3 0 20 0 Hari 3 0 19 0 Danny 5 0 31 2 Gokul 6 0 38 2 Ashok 2 0 24 0 Sal 1 0 9 0
Plano Tigers vs Googlies Sunday, 1/19/03 30 overs Friendly Match Russell Creek, North-East pitch (Match Report written by Raj) After some haggling over what team or where the match will be, it was finally a Tigers vs Googlies match. Rohit was all fired up with his full team of 12, whereas Tigers just managed to get 10 at the last minute. Rohit won the toss and put Tigers to bat against south windy end. Sal and Raj opened, but had to struggle for runs against opening bowlers Rohit and Sanjeev�s tight line of attack. Rohit was moving the ball both ways never letting the openers settle in well. In an effort to take cheeky single, Sal was run out after 11 overs when total score was just 44. Nadeem Haroon (from Carrollton) joined Raj and they tried to accelerate run rate. Going for the pull shots, Raj got bowled to Rohit's ball off the leg at his enduring 50 in 22nd over. Saleel borrowed from Googlies and Nitashu batted through the slog overs with Nadeem bringing the total to 176 for 4 in 30 overs. Nadeem made 51, Saleel 21 and Nitashu 17 not out. Harsh and Sachin opened for Googlies against Nitashu and Hari's opening spell. They settled in well never really looking perturbed by bowling attack. Pravin, Danny, Anjum, Nadeem and Sri in that succession bowled after Nitahsu and Hari, however both Harsh and Sachin coasted to their 50's and retired to give batting to Paresh and Murali. Googlies reached the target with 4 overs to spare. Scorecard: Tigers batting: R B 4 6 Sal run out 13 30 0 0 Raj bld Rohit 50 55 4 0 Nadeem Haroon run out 51 57 1 0 Salil Limaye bld Shah 21 18 0 0 Nitashu not out 17 10 1 0 Tigers 176 for 4 in 30 overs (Score was 45 after 12 overs) Googlies bowling: O M R W Rohit 6 0 27 1 Sanjeev 6 0 41 0 Nadeem 6 0 32 0 Harsh 4 0 23 0 Murali 4 0 20 0 Greg 2 0 18 0 Shah 2 0 17 1 Googlies batting R B 4 6 Harsh retired 55 51 5 0 Sachin retired 69 62 7 0 Paresh retired 9 13 0 0 Murali not out 17 19 1 0 Mihir not out 0 0 0 0 Googlies 177 for no loss in 25.3 overs
Plano Tigers vs Ismailia Sunday, Jan-5, 2003 30 overs Friendly Match, South-west pitch. (Match Report by Raj) In the continued passion for cricket, Tigers kicked off the first match of 2003 on the very first Sunday of the new year. Bright, clear and sunny sky only made it a perfect setting. Pravin and Raj managed to pull off 11 guys at the last minute due to many Tigers either not in town or not available. Aziz won the toss for Ismailia and chose to open batting with their newfound left-handed batsman Sri. Nitashu and Pravin opened the new ball attack for Tigers bowling against the wind. Southwest pitch allows only one end (north-end) due to torn-off turf at north end. While Nitashu focused on speed, Pravin troubled the batsmen with his swing and variation. Although Aziz was settling in taking singles and doubles, Sri wasn�t comfortable facing Pravin and gave a nick off to wicket keeper Rahul (from DCC) off of Pravin. Salim joined in and put on a stable partnership with Aziz. Danny was brought in to bowl and he got Aziz(36) lbw on his first ball. Anjum bowled from the other end to contain the runs. He got Salim (27) to generate a catch to Pravin at mid-wicket, while he was beginning to take chances. Next batsmen Riaz was run out in a mix up with Vinod at the other end running too fast for him. Ismailia�s wicket-keeper batsman Tanveer joined Vinod hitting every ball he could get. Vinod was taking quick singles and quick doubles, at his usual fast run rate. Raj was bright in to bowl and he got Vinod (18)to lob a catch right away, well taken at long-off by Nitashu. Aamir also followed the suit caught ut to Raghu. Tanveer at the other end almost reached his quick 50 when he got run out. Batsman # 8 Adil went for a pull across to square leg off of Nitashu�s rising delivery on the very first ball he faced. It nicked off his outer edge to his head right above the eye, injuring him badly. He wasn�t wearing a helmet. He had to be taken to emergency hospital and got 10 stitches. Game continued, where Nitashu got Kamran bowled for duck and Fawad, Karim stayed not out for Ismailia�s good total of 217 in 30 overs. At the asking rate of 7.2 runs an over, Rahul (of DCC) and Pravin opened for Tigers against quickie Fawad and Sita in place of injured Adil. First few overs passed by, but soon Sita castled Pravin (11) going for full swing shot, and next he bowled Nitashu as well for duck. Tigers were 40 for 2 in 10 overs with asking run rate creeping to 9 an over. Raj joined Rahul, who was being watchful and contained by opening bowlers. With the bowling change of Salim and Vinod, Raj rotated strike for Rahul who started hitting 2's and 4's. They continued cranking up the run rate beyond the break. Although outfield was spread out, it looked like their gallant effort of putting 90 runs in 12 overs of partnership would take Tigers to the target. In hard running between the wickets, Raj got run out to a second run at 28. Anil and Raghu also got run out next in the slogging overs chase. Mister consistent Rahul was next to go at 74 in an effort to pull long shots to clear fielders giving a catch to Kami off of Aamir. Anjum, Danny, and Nadeem and Dev slogged for runs in last few overs to take Tigers total to 207 for 7, falling 12 runs short of the target. Scorecard: Ismailia batting R B 4 6 Aziz LBW b Danny 36 45 Sri Caught Rahul b Pravin 10 11 Saleem Caught Pravin b Anjum 27 25 Riaz Run Out 19 14 Vinod Caught Nitashu b Raj 18 22 Tanveer Run out 46 38 Amir Caught ? b Raghu 13 12 Adil Retired hurt b Nitashu 0 1 Kamran Bowled Nitashu 0 2 Karim not out 1 2 Fawad not out 8 4 Ismailia 219 for 9 in 30 overs Plano Tigers bowling: O M R W Nitashu 6 0 32 1 Pravin 5 0 31 1 Nadeem Mia 4 0 26 0 Anjum 6 0 26 1 Danny 4 0 31 1 Raj 2 0 14 1 Raghu 3 0 27 1 Plano Tigers batting: R B 4 6 Rahul Caught Kami b Amir 74 74 7 0 Pravin Bowled Sita 11 25 1 0 Nitashu Bowled Sita 0 6 0 0 Raj Run out 28 31 0 0 Anil Run out 3 7 0 0 Raghu Run out 0 0 0 0 Anjum Caught Fawad b Vinod 10 8 1 0 Danny Retired 11 6 1 0 Nadeem Not out 21 13 1 1 Dev Not out 2 4 0 0 Plano Tigers 207 for 7 in 30 overs Ismailia bowling: O M R W Fawad 6 0 27 0 Sita 6 0 29 2 Vinod 6 0 41 1 Saleem 5 0 37 0 Kami 2 0 16 0 Aamir 5 0 52 1
Plano Tigers vs Bengals CC (Sunday Dec 22, 2002) 25 overs Friendly match (Plano Russelcreek, NWS pitch). Tigers won by 8 runs. Full Score card: Tigers Batting: R B 4 6 Pravin c wktkeepr b Yaseer 30 38 0 0 Raj c & B Sami 5 11 0 0 Srikanth Bowled Saukat 16 19 2 0 Nitashu Bowled Saukat 6 7 0 0 Anil c Bowled Ramesh 7 13 0 0 Senthil c Bowled Yasir 12 16 0 0 Rajan Not Out 46 30 6 0 Vikas Bolwed Sami 10 11 2 0 Nadeem Mia stumped B Shantoo 0 1 0 0 Hari Not Out 4 5 0 0 Sri DNB Tigers Total 179 for 8 in 25 overs Bengals CC Bowling: Sami 2wkts, Yasir 2, Saukat 2, Ramesh 1, Shantoo 1 Bengals CC Batting: Emue Bowled Rajan 28 Rahan C Nitashu Bowled Sri 11 Ramesh C Raj, B Sri 10 Sami Bolwled Hari 33 Shaukat Bowled Hari 9 Saif Bowled Rajan 24 Shantoo Bowled Rajan 15 Sajeed Run out Mohsin Not Out Kalifa Run out Yashir Run out Bengals CC Total 171 runs for all out in 25 overs. Tigers Bowling: O M R W Nitashu 5 0 20 0 Sri 5 0 39 2 Nadeem M 4 0 23 0 Hari 5 0 40 2 Rajan 5 0 40 3 Pravin 1 0 09 0
Plano Cup winter tournament Plano Tigers vs DCC Dec-15, 2002, Sunday Russell Creek Park, North-East pitch. Match Report written by Raj In the middle of December, one couldn't have asked for a better weather than this Sunday. Gorgeous sunshine, 70F and no clouds. Pravin won the toss and elected to make use of the bright conditions to bat. Unknown pair of Kamal and Kittu was experimented to open for Tigers. It failed right away before the first over could finish. Kamal hit a straight shot beyond baller, took one run, called for second run, but then went back while Kittu kept running for 2nd run while Kamal was just standing, and Kittu didn't get back to his crease. Raghavan sent up at one down looked more confident than Kamal from the first ball. He was pacing his inning with Kamal when one of Bilal's yorker uprooted his off-stump while trying to play square defense. At 32 for 2 in 7 overs, Nitashu joined in and DCC switched to spin balling attack of Tahir and Zahid. Kamal continued to bat cautiously with his straight ground shots through his marked regions of mid-off and mid-on for singles. Run rate got low against spinners at 2 or 3 per over through the 15 overs break with score reading 66. After the break, Nitashu tried to go for shots, but had to be contend with singles while Kamal continued holding one end with his steady singles and defense. In an effort to go for a big shot, Nitashu got out of crease, missed and got quickly stumped by Rahul. He made 24, partnering 58 runs with Kamal in 15 overs. At 90 for 3 with only 9 overs to go, Srinadh was sent in to accelerate and make up for a crawling run rate. He started right off with the best looking boundary of Tigers innings over long on. He continued his aggressive attack, but soon one of Zahid's balls got through his swing and Rahul again did the quick stump-out dismissal. Gokul next was gone soon stumped out to same combination of Zahid and Rahul stump-out. At 111 in 25 overs with just 5 overs left, new batsman Raj started to hit every ball he could get and rotate strike to unflinching Kamal, who continued to look steady and unperturbed by fall of wickets or slow run rate. They put on quick 49 runs in the last 5 overs to bring up the total to a respectable 160. Kamal lobbed a catch to last ball of the inning. He made 70 enduring runs - the backbone of Tigers inning staying till last ball. Raj was not out at quick 17. With 5.4 runs/over asking rate target for DCC, openers Dennis and Naveed started hitting Tigers' Bowlers from the first over. Bowlers couldn't put any pressure on batsmen. Quickly with a run rate of 7 an over, they jumped to 63 for no loss in first 9 overs. Kamal was turned on from one end and Gokul from the other. They managed to contain the steady flow of shots and boundaries. But apart from some chances off Navid, didn't't really have any effect on braking the opening partnership. After the 15-over break at 87 for no loss, both batsmen went on to their 50s and coasted toward the target with ease. Just before the end, Arul made a good stop at covers and excellent throw back to keeper to get the solitary wicket of Navid. Nadeem joined Dennis to finish off the match in 26th over. Dennis played stylish strokes off the wrist action for an excellent 78 not out and Navid made 68. None of The Tiger Bowlers could get any wicket. Full Scorecard: Toss: Plano CC Plano CC innings (30 overs maximum) R B 4 6 Kamal c b Bilal 70 83 2 0 Kittu runout 0 0 0 0 Raghavan Bowled b Bilal 7 17 0 0 Nitashu stumped Rahul b Kishore 24 38 1 0 Srinadh stumped Rahul b Zahid 11 10 1 0 Gokul stumped Rahul b Zahid 2 4 0 0 Raj Notout 17 22 0 0 Anil DNB Arul DNB Rajan DNB Pravin DNB Extras (b 1 lb 4, w 21, nb 3) 29 Total ( 6 outs, 30 overs) 160 Bowling O M R W Bilal 5 0 36 2 Ashar 5 0 21 0 Zahid 5 1 27 2 Tahir 6 0 31 0 Kishore 5 0 28 1 Afsar 2 0 19 0 Kartik 2 0 14 0 DCC innings (30 overs maximum) R M B 4 6 Naved Run Out 68 0 0 5 0 Dennis Not Out 78 0 0 7 0 Nadeem Haroon Not Out 4 0 0 0 0 Extras (b 2, lb 1, w 6, nb 2) 11 Total (1 out, 26 overs) 161 Bowling O M R W Nitashu 4 0 31 0 Rajan 5 0 27 0 Pravin 1 0 10 0 Kamal 6 0 21 0 Gokul 5 0 34 0 Kittu 3 0 26 0 Arul 2 0 11 0
Plano Tigers v Collin Cnty CC 30 overs Plano Cup Tournament game. Played at NE on Saturday 12/7 Result: CCCC won by 63 runs. (Match Report soon...) Toss: Plano CC CCCC innings (30 overs maximum) R M B 4 6 Harsh c Raj b Hari 49 30 30 6 0 Rohit c Graham b Pravin 7 15 15 0 0 Sahilin c Gokul b Hari 6 10 10 1 0 Vivek Bowled b Kittu 68 39 29 5 1 Mihir c Nitashu b Gokul 23 23 23 1 0 Sanjay c Raghavan b Gokul 16 19 19 1 0 Sanjeev run out 0 1 1 0 0 Nadeem Bowled b Kittu 5 5 5 0 0 Somu Not out 5 3 3 1 0 Sabih run out 5 3 3 0 0 Akbar run out 0 0 0 0 0 Extras (b 6, lb 3, w 13, nb 4) 26 Total (All Out, 30 overs) 216 Bowling O M R W Nitashu 6 0 24 0 Pravin 4 0 29 1 Hari 5 0 31 2 Kittu 6 0 45 2 Sri 3 0 22 0 Gokul 4 0 39 2 Raghavan 2 0 13 0 Plano CC innings (target: 216 runs from 30 overs) R B 4 6 Nitashu lbw b Rohit 24 23 4 0 Raj c Rohit b Sanjeev 19 22 1 0 Srinadh c Mihir b Harsh 6 13 0 0 Graham bowled b Rohit 42 56 3 0 Kittu lbw b Harsh 1 6 0 0 Gokul c Harsh b Sanjay 5 7 0 0 Raghavan c Shailin b Harsh 4 4 1 0 Anil bowled b Rohit 21 18 2 0 Pravin c Rohit b Sanjeev 3 4 0 0 Sri run out 1 1 0 0 Hari not out 1 2 0 0 Extras (b 3 lb 3, w 18, nb 1) 25 Total (all out, 25.4 overs) 152 Bowling O M R W Nadeem 4 0 36 0 Somu 2 0 15 0 Rohit 5 0 19 3 Sanjeev 5 0 20 2 Harsh 5 0 24 3 Sanjay 4 0 30 1 Sabih 1 0 6 0
Plano Tigers v Ismailia CC 25 Over Friendly match Played at Plano NE on Sunday 12/1 Match Report written by Srinadh. In my previous report I had mentioned Dallas Stars and their enthusiasm and zeal to play cricket. Their eagerness to play sometimes goes over the top and this was one such occasion. M Sohail Ahmed (cap) and his boys arrived bright and early at Plano NE and planned to stay put claiming they had arrived first. It was a futile exercise when one tried to explain to them that Plano Cricket Association is to whom the City allots the grounds for cricket and "first come first serve" does not work. All attempts to be rational and explain the way the system works was met by a stubborn and belligerent front. After much persuasion during the course of which Dallas Stars were renamed Plano Stars by Captain Ahmed and fictitious names such as Roger and Alan were accorded the status of being City Employees, Dallas Stars finally obliged and moved to the pitch just South of the NE wicket. Now it was the turn of Ismailia CC to delay matters as they came with just 7 players. Nadeem Mian of Googlies was duly donated to them, thus making 8 and the services of a fielder were promised. Tigers themselves had only 10. Thus it was a 10 v 9 game. Pravin's attempts to deprive Ismailia CC of the toss were rebuffed and Amin duly won the toss and elected to bat first. Ismailia innings ---------------- Salim and Aziz opened for Ismailia with Nitashu and Pravin sharing the new ball. With Pravin bowling, the ball is kept new or the mid on/mid off fielders face sanctions for not shining the ball. Salim blazed a couple of boundaries off the first two balls of Pravin's first over but on the third ball, played too soon and spooned the easiest of return catches to the bowler. Amin walked in and Tigers braced themselves to hustle and save the ones and twos that he is so good at taking. However in the 2nd over from Pravin, Amin played a lofted shot meant to clear mid on but mistimed it and Danny took a very good running catch and made it look very easy. Pravin's dream spell continued and he took out Najeeb next. After the batsman had played a couple of tentative flicks through mid wicket, Srinadh positioned himself at short mid wicket in anticipation of something in the air. And sure enough Najeeb obliged offering a sharp chance to the fielder's left which was gratefully accepted. The freshly donated Nadeem Mian joined Aziz and the two build a good partnership. Aziz was stroking the ball well and played some good shots off his legs and also through the off side. The two put on about 50 runs with Aziz doing the bulk of the scoring. After a good spell from Nitashu and Pravin, Danny and Anjum took over and Anjum bowled a very disciplined line and length and kept things quiet. Danny was having some difficulty finding his rhythm although he did dismiss Nadeem Mian, clean bowled. Ismailia were steadily scoring 5 to 6 runs an over. The fall of Nadeem's wicket brought Sitharaman to the crease who also played a useful knock scoring 15 runs before Raghavan took a good catch at cover off Anjum. Fawad joined Aziz and played well, taking full advantage of the loose balls. Aziz departed lbw to self styled strike bowler Raghavan who was brought on to bowl one over. Aziz was lbw for a well made 53. Fawad and Karim then played out the remaining 6 overs or so and took Ismailia to a respectable 166 off the allotted 25 overs. Gokul bowled well in the slog overs as usual. Pravin and Anjum were the other bowlers who deserve a special mention. Tigers innings -------------- After publicly complaining in the match report about not getting to bat in the last game, Srinadh was asked to open the innings with Raj. Fawad dished out the short stuff as expected and both batsmen took some painful blows on the body as they decided to see off Fawad before waiting for the easier pickings later on. The ploy worked well and in spite of a few alarms, both batsmen negotiated the spate of short pitched balls without flinching. Raj looked in good touch and played some glorious shots on the off side and also a couple of great looking flicks through square leg. Srinadh hadn't batted in over two months and after taking some time to settle down, decided to go after the bowling. A spate of boundaries ensured that Tigers had overcome the sedate start to clock around 5.5 to 6 runs an over. A 12 run Amin over and another good over (from Tigers point of view) from Salim later, Tigers were on course. Raj departed in the 15th over bowled by Sitharaman for a well made 32 runs. Nitashu joined Srinadh and the two began running some quick runs but Srinadh was trapped plumb in front by Amin who brought himself back on. Srinadh made 42. Nitashu decided to let the batsmen to follow make hay and holed out to deep cover. Thereafter Raghavan and Graham got the remaining runs with minimum fuss. Raghavan took 23 runs off one Najeeb over including a delectable straight six, a paddle behind square and a handsome cut shot. Raghavan looked in great touch. Graham too played some wonderful pull shots and even pulled Fawad with impunity to the mid wicket fence. Tigers won in a canter with almost 3 overs and 6 wickets to spare. Raghavan remained unbeaten with 33 off just 19 balls and Graham was 34 not out in quick time too. Admittedly Ismailia were missing several of their regulars and the reduced fielder count did not help matters. But a win is win and this is Tigers first ever win over Ismailia at that! Excellent team effort to secure a good win. Plano NE continues to be a happy hunting ground for Tigers. Knock on wood. Brief Scores Ismailia 166 for 5 in 25 Overs (Pravin 3 for 32 in 5 Overs, Anjum 5 Overs for 29 runs, Gokul 5 Overs for 29 runs) Tigers 167 for 3 in 22.1 overs (Srinadh 42/48, Raj 32/34, Raghavan 33/19 not out, Graham 34/22 not out). Full Scorecard: Ismailia Batting: Aziz lbw Raghavan 53 Salim C & B Pravin 09 Amin C Danny, B Pravin 02 Najeeb C Srinadh B Pravin 06 Nadeem Bowled B Danny 11 Sitaraman C B Anjum 15 Fawad Not out 36 Karim Not out 09 Tigers Bowling: Nitashu 5 0 40 0 Pravin 5 0 32 3 Danny 4 0 29 1 Anjum 5 0 26 1 Gokul 5 0 26 0 Raghavan 1 0 08 1 Tigers Batting: R B 4 6 Srinadh 42 48 6 0 Raj Bowled Seetaraman 32 34 5 0 Graham Not out 34 22 4 0 Nitashu C Fawad B Najeeb 3 3 0 0 Raghavan Not out 33 19 5 1 Total 169 for 3 in 22.1 overs
Plano Tigers v Dallas Stars Friendly game played on 11/24, Sun at Plano NE Match Report written by: Srinadh (Editor in chief, Plano Tigers) Background: The league season ended in early October and one would have thought that we were in for a prolonged period of rest and recuperation. Well, think again. A very busy schedule awaits us in December and January in the form of the Plano Cup and currently we are playing a spate of friendlies against like-minded teams with a similar appetite for cricket. One such team is Dallas Stars who are ever ready to play cricket, be it on a Saturday or a Sunday, rain or shine. Such a team is a dream come true for Pravin. When all else fails, he turns to Dallas Stars as his last resort. In the previous two meetings between these two teams, Plano Tigers were deprived of victory on both occasions first due to heavy wind and in the second encounter, Tigers having only 8 fielders and some innovative umpiring resulted in Dallas Stars claiming an "upset". The word "upset" would also summarize how our Captain Courageous felt about that loss. No chances were being taken this time. Piyush was in town and since his International Cup Final was postponed as a result of classic NTCA dilly-dallying at the last minute, he was a welcome addition to the task force assigned the duty of demolishing Dallas Stars. The toss: Anil decided to toss the coin since he thought he would bring better luck than Pravin. Different person, same result. Tigers ended up having to field first. Dallas Stars innings: Nitashu struck in the very first over. There after Naeem (their number 3 batsman) and the other opener hung around for a while. Pravin and Nitashi both bowled steady spells. Naeem played some good looking shots and while he was admittedly the recipient of a gracious not out off a full toss that hit him in front of middle from the garrulous umpire "M Sohail Ahmed (Captain)" who sometimes confuses his roles and tries to be umpire and Captain at the same time - not a good thing that :) Gokul eventually sent back the opener Saad with a direct hit from cover with the batsman trying to do an Azhar, not grounding his bat. Kitu bowled three steady overs and Piyush from the other end produced a smart run out, deliberately deflecting the ball onto the stumps when he saw the non striker out of his ground. Piyush then also took out Naeem for a well made 41 when he was unlucky to get hit wicket. Waqar from FWL walked in but did not last long either, the victim of some good fielding at cover by Gokul again. Danny bowled four excellent overs. He was getting the ball to cut in sharply. Adil then struck some lusty blows and took full advantage some lapses in fielding. Tariq kept him good company. Gokul bowled well in the slog overs. Much to everyone's surprise, Dallas Stars posted a challenging total of 185 in 25 overs. For Tigers, Piyush took 1 wicket, Nitashu 2 and there were three run outs. Tigers reply: After the mandatory Pizza Hut lunch, Tigers began their reply. Piyush and Raghavan opened the batting. Pravin dismissed the services of Srinadh after just one over of umpiring and stationed himself as umpire in anticipation of some fireworks from Piyush. The fireworks were to come but a little later. While Piyush tried to play himself in, Raghavan looked in good touch and played some good shots. The batsman himself was all praise for his "straight drive" which he thought was a great shot. Others agreed that it was not a bad shot :) Raghavan announced to umpire Pravin that he had already got 27 runs. (He has modelled himself on Gavaskar and another batsman from Tigers who will remain nameless at least as far as counting score goes). Pity he hasn't yet imbibed their hunger for runs! He then misread a slower one from Naeem and spooned an easy catch to mid wicket. A good cameo had ended and the batsman was shocked to read in the scorebook that he was only credited 25 runs. Nitashu joined Piyush and what followed was pure class. Dallas Stars were clinically demolished. This duo has been on rampage all year and today was no exception. Nitashu initially played second fiddle to Piyush who was blazing away with cuts, pulls and drives. Eventually, Nitashu had enough and joined the party. He hit some huge sixes over long on. The game was almost won when Nitashu holed out to deep mid wicket for a well made 57. Kitu had the privilege of facing one ball before the game was won. Piyush remaining not out on 86 high class runs. Srinadh was left stranded with his pads on. Perhaps one of these days he will get to bat. A comprehensive win. The victory also ensures that our winning streak at Plano NE continues. Unanimous agreement on Men of the match: Piyush and Nitashu (There was one vote for Raghavan too. That of himself).
Match Report written by Gokul - November 17th Plano Tigers Vs. United Cricket Club Played at Lewisville Grounds United CC won the toss and elected to bat. Although this match like most other practice games had very little significance, there were a few surprises that did happen in its course. Mentioning them in the order of surprises - Tigers took every catch that came their way, Raghavan came good with the bat, and Weather at Lewisville was pleasant for this time of the year (Many still remember the freezing game played last winter). UCC Batting Pravin got a wicket the very first ball of the game. Rizwan played across to a swinging full toss to top edge to point. Pravin and Hari bowled steadily the first 8 to 10 overs for 35 odd runs and getting a couple of quick wickets. Rajan, Kitu and Danny bowled the next 10 overs with minimal breakdowns. The Tiger bowlers bowled their patented "Catch Generator" spells to the excitement of a well bundled spectator in 3rd man. Sangam, Raghavan and Gokul took 2 catches each and Pravin took 1. Raghavan (keeping wickets) came up with the catch of the match - diving to first slip and coming up with the ball barely in the web of the keeping glove. We gifted Anil to UCC who had 8 people show up for the game. Anil joined Siva with 9 overs still to go and bailed out soon, not withstanding the pressure of playing against the Tigers. UCC made 100 odd runs in 20 overs. Tigers Batting Innings started with Raj and Gokul. Gokul backed up too far for a single and ran out early in the innings - Run was rejected in silence mode. From there on Raghavan and Raj put on runs at a brisk pace. UCC had only 8 fielders that made the ones, twos and boundaries easy to come. Anjum joined Raghavan and the two put on a good partnership playing shots over covers and mid-wicket. Ayaz and Rizwan bowled well considering they had only 8 fielders. Raghavan played a good innings with some well timed pull shots off the spinners. Raghavan chose the bowler to return a full toss to depart for 35. Anjum got out mistiming Arshad to be caught and bowled. Kitu and Sangam finished the formalities. In the process, Danny walked in and out after 1 well timed lofted shot. Tigers won with 8 overs to spare. Scorecard: UCC Batting - UCC 101 allout in 22 overs Rizwan 0 Arif 15 Ayaz 9 Naushad 31 Iqbal 10 Atif 3 Siva 17 Faisal 8 Anil 4 Tigers Bowling Pravin 2 for 27 off 5 Hari 1 for 16 off 5 Rajan 1 for 19 off 4 Kittu 2 for 15 off 4 Danny 1 for 10 off 2 Sangam 1 for 7 off 2 Tigers Batting - 102 for 5 in 18.3 overs. Gokul 5 Raj 18 Raghavan 35 Anjum 22 Kittu (N.O) 10 Danny 3 Sangam (N.O) 1 UCC Bowling Harshad 2 for 7 off 2 Ayaz 1 for 19 off 4
Plano Tigers v/s Googlies (Sunday, November 10, 2002) Result: Googlies won by 5 wickets Match Report by Raghavan First half (tigers batting) Pravin assembled more than 11 players, so that he could donate some players to the googlies. Srinadh did come for the game, but left in the middle. The game started around 9:45 am and pravin won the toss and decided to bat first. Sal and graham opened the innings for tigers and Sal got an excellent start smacking sanjay ganju's second ball for a massive six over point. The author couldn't control his emotions (he was standing as a square leg umpire, only to realize that he was in the field and not outside). Graham was a bit rusty and uncomfortable with (mandatory) Helmet & lost his wicket to sanjay. Nitashu went in next but couldn't get going and gave a timid catch to point. Gokul has always looked at practice but he hasn't scored a lot of runs this season. I think he wanted to get a big one this time. He started to look good right away and both he and sal pushed the score very nicely. At the half time, tigers were 74/2. Sal got out right after the break for an excellent 36, which included two massive sixes. Sangram Singh went in next and it seems he took off right where he had left off against Dallas stars. Sangam was going for the big ones and gokul was coolly and calmly taking ones and twos. Sangam had made 27, when in an attempt to slog lost his wicket. Yours truly went in next and started to rotate the strike with gokul. Gokul compiled a well-made 50, which included a lot of 2's and three's instead of fours. Gokul was LBW to saleel after reaching his 50. Saurabh, Raghavan and pravin added to the score and tigers ended up with 183/7 in 30 overs (a good total considering that they were only 74 at the half-time). Second half (googlies batting) Tigers opened their bowling with Nitashu and hari. Saleel and Dipen opened the innings for googlies. Nitashu had the batsmen hurrying and hari got dipen LBW when he played across a straight ball. Vivek came in next. Salil got a life, when shyam dropped a sitter at point. Pravin bought in shyam to replace hari and he looked a good bowler. Saleel and vivek were rotating the strike, when he got out to a great catch taken by Nitashu which bounced of Sal's gloves. Very good presence of mind shown by young Nitashu. Anjum (the donated player from tigers) came in next and he started belting the ball all over the park. Googlies ended up 91/2 at the end of 15 overs. Salil decide to give some of his other players a chance and retired. Sanjay ganju came into bat and he started slogging right from the word go. Sangam went for a four, but came back immediately to get sanjay ganju. Tigers seemed a bit relaxed after this wicket, assuming that they had already won the game. Rajesh joined Anjum now and both of them started scoring in fours. Nitashu came back to finish his spell but couldn't make the crucial breakthrough and the run rate fell below 6 an over. Pravin decide to give his "all leg-side field" a try and did succeed in a way. Googlies needed 24 in 5 overs and hari came in to bowl and conceded 10 runs leaving 14 runs to get in 4 overs. A good over by shyam saw googlies needing 5 in 2 overs. Raghavan bowled the second last over and gave in the runs in the first two balls, leaving googlies deserving victors. Tigers played well, but couldn't contain Anjum today. He ended up with 78 Brief scores Tigers batting Sal bowled Sanjay 36(30) Graham caught Sanjay 10(20) Nitashu caught Sanjay 10(13) Gokul lbw Salil 50(43) Sangam caught Somu 27(23) Raghavan caught Vivek 12(7) Saurabh runout Rajesh 12(10) Pravin notout 7(12) Googlies bowling Sanjay 5.3 0 35 3 Nadeem 5.3 1 24 0 Somu 5 1 32 1 Saby 3 0 27 0 Arul 5 0 23 0 Ravi 1 0 10 0 Vivek 2 0 12 1 Salil 3 0 13 1 Googlies batting Salil notout 36 Dipen lbw Hari 0 Vivek caught Sal+Nitashu, B: Shyam 9 Anjum caught Sangam B: Gokul? 78 Sanjay bowled Sangam 10 Somu runout 3 Rajesh notout 21 Tigers bowling Nitashu 6 1 26 0 Hari 4 1 27 1 Shyam 6 0 38 1 Danny 2 0 17 0 Gokul 3 0 25 0 Sangam 3 0 26 1 Saurabh 3 0 15 0 Pravin 1 0 6 0 Raghavan 0.2 0 5 0
Plano Tigers vs Dallas Stars at Lanka ground. Sunday Oct, 27th at 9:30am Match report (By Sri Baghavan) Sunday looked doomed for a blanket of clouds, but the weather gods in their all kindness laid low and desisted from any further dramatics. Graham as usual is his fanatic first in reaching the ground. Sri comes in close to that. After these "experts" inspected the ground, they gave their seal of approval for what was to unfold: some fun cricket. Pravin lost the toss to Tigers benefit(can say that given the 9 players we had + a Chetan who could barely run a step). Kal and Graham faced some Ok bowlers and straight away started getting the singles, twos and the odd boundaries. Graham offered a simple catch at(short)long-on against the run of play. Da Captain walked in, his customary mace in hand and decided to head back within a few balls, with the off-stump disturbed. Kaptaan was bowled by a beauty that swung a great deal from middle to off stump. He should have gotten down to the task of 'pinch hitting' from ball 1 instead of seeing a few balls through. The ever-18 old boy N*****u walked in, settled down and then started getting a few boundaries. Meanwhile, Kal decided that this was the day to show the world how to play pad and ball, instead of bat and ball. The amused key spectator was this author standing 24 yards behind the stumps. Then Kal got the best decision any batsman loves to hate: LBW from none other than Raghavan(not Umpire Venkataraghavan)!!! A lesson to learn mates: Kal took it in his stride, never said a word about the decision, which is something to cheer about! Then Nadeem Mian (of CCC) walked in, provided some useful partneship with Nichchu before heading back. Then walked in Rags and then walked out Rags. Another good looking player with no good looking runs!! Amazing! Then newcomer Shyam walked in and hung around with Nichhu before heading back. Then walked in Sang(r)am Singh, to do some real Sangraam. He hit the bowlers all over the place, several good looking boundaries. In the meanwhile Nichchu decided, he had scored enough and didn't like a 50 up his bag, so holed out in the deep mid wkt region, despite knowing fully well that a fielder was positioned there precisely for this purpose. We all could have appreciated a little more hunger for runs than a meagre 49. Then walked in the talented (author) batsman (with 5 overs to spare)who hasn't touched the bat in a match in several decades. Then followed a neat cameo of 4overs b/n Sangraam and Sri, with Sangraam hogging the bulk of the scoring balls: 1s, 2s, 4s. Eventually Sangraam ran himself out to a non-existent single when he patted ball back straight to the bowler who did his bit. A sad end to a fighting knock of 47 which put us in a good target range. The last over was comical to say the least. Chetan walked in with a runner and Sri batting in the inimicable la Javagal Srinath fashion. Every ball was treated as if it had to be dismissed into outer space, but it was the oppositions good luck that ball never made contact with bat four times: positive thinking. And then a little sense earned a run for Chetan, and then the last ball was unproductive. Shows what wonders, a lack of practice can do in a match situation. Plano Tigers: 149 in 25overs(9 batsmen), not a bad score at all. After a nice Taco bell lunch, we started our reply with 9 fielders, Rags deciding to go to a party around 1pm or so. And then Chetan standing in the short midwicket area for visual effect only. Nichu and Pravin(contrast that for some humorous moments) started off the bowling. Nichchu struck almost every over with a wicket and we had the Dallas stars batsmen in deep trouble. Then Nadeem and Sri bowled some fairly decent middle overs except for a couple of odd 4s and a 6. Wickets kept tumbling regularly and then Sangam and Shyam tightened the proceedings. We were cruising along smoothly until a couple of good partnerships aided by a lack of fielders(Rags gone, Chetan unable to move much(still did a good job)) helped Stars come close to target. Now 0s were 1s, 1s were now 2s, 2s were 3s and so on. 2.5 fielders short. Ofcourse, umpiring got a little creative as the match came closer to a photofinish. Balls beating the batsman were suddenly wides, the runners for injured batsman hoodwinking everybody by taking short runs etc etc. Pravin came into bowl the last over with stars needing some 11 or 12 runs. The Kaptaan knew exactly what to bowl...but some how the first couple bowls turned out to be full tosses instead. Next ball was a dot ball. Stars now needed 8 runs in last 3 balls. Now the umpiring took the turn for the worse. Next 2 balls were 'dot balls' but with win/loss on line, he called one of them wide and the other a 'no ball' followed by 'dead ball' :( Both were valid dot balls. With 1 ball and 7 runs to go they couldnot have made it. But with umpire's help they got 3 more balls and 7 runs to go, they made it. The cartoon batsman kept on running 'short runs' that umpire finally got tired and stopped calling it short. It was just fun cricket in the end and didn't really feel like we lost at all. Everybody gave 100% in the field except for a couple of overs of lapses in concentration. Good camaraderie too! Tigers Batting: Kal LBW Arshad 9/31 Graham CT Najeeb 8/8 Pravin Bld Najeeb 0/5 Nitashu Ct Naeem 47/29 Shyam Bld Sohail 2/9 Nadeem Ct Tariq 6/6 Sangam Runout 46/24 Raghavan Bld Adil 5/5 Sri Not out 3/4 *Chetan Not out 1/1 *Chetan was helicoptered in a minute before Total: 149/25 overs -----------------------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers vs Lanka Colts 25 overs league match Sunday Oct 13th at Plano Russelcreek Park (Sw pitch) Scores: Lanka Colts won the toss and made 257 for 4 in 25 overs. Plano Tigers: 199 for 6 in 25 overs. Match report to be filed by Saurabh soon.
Plano Tigers vs Ismailia CC 25 overs friendly match at Sandy lake ground. Oct 6th sunday. Plano Tigers 204 for 6 in 25 overs (Nitashu 92) Ismailaia CC 205 in 22 overs (Salim 94, Aziz 65) Match report to be filed soon.
Plano Tigers vs Carroltton CC 40 overs playoff at Sandy Lake ground (Sept 22nd, 2002) Less said the better.... Our 40 overs season ended in a disappointment to say the least. But now that a couple of weeks have gone by, I am not as down. Afterall 22 teams out of the 24 teams in the league had their season end with a loss. Only 2 teams can win their division titles. Carroltton played better and deserved to win on Sept 22nd. Piyush was a major success in 8 out of the 9 games he played for us. This was the only time he failed. That is a great consistent performance from a great cricketer all around. Nitashu failed against Carroltton and same bowler (Bilal) in 2 games back to back. With Piyush also finally catching up with the odds, Tigers had a poor batting start unlike all previous games. This was the game when we should have lost the toss. The Batting was stabilised by the upper middle order some by Ashok and Chetan. Ajit came to Bat and showed determination to hunker down and build a partnership. He was seeing the ball well and picking his shots well. But he too was not getting much support from the other end. He was at 40 and set to make a big score and bring Tigers out of the slump....just then he mis timed a hook shot to Bilal's bouncer. Ajit was unlucky to get hit on by the bouncer on his forhead. Ajit had to go to Hospital to get medical attention. Fortunately there were no internal injuries and he went home after receving stitches. He is recovering well and Tigers are now under strickt mandate to wear Helmets at all times. After Ajit was injured, Tigers made an attempt to make a comeback and win the match for Ajit's sake. But it was not our day. Rest of the batting caved in Tigers were all out for a low score of 160. The target was too small for a strong Batting side that Carrolton is. Kashif who is Fashi times 2 came to bat with blazing guns and tore Tigers bowling attach apart. The Bowlers were not bowlling to the attacking off side fielding set by Piyush. Carrolton Batsmen were able to play risky shots as they were chasing a low score. 3 catches were dropped and Kashif made Tigers pay for it dearly. He scored a century in not as many balls. Even the spin attack didn't put brakes on the run rate. In the end Carrolton won easily scoring 161 runs in 19 overs.
Plano Tigers vs Carroltton CC 40 overs playoff (abandoned due to rains) at Sandy Lake ground (Sept 8th, 2002) Zahid won the toss and put Tigers to bat due to wet conditions. Tigers accepted the challenge and got a flying start (except for Nitashu's quick wicket). Piyush came in one down in place of the Nitashu who missed the line of a swinging full toss ball from Bilal. After that Salahuddin and Piyush took Carroltton's bowlers to the task and runs were flowing at 6/7 runs an over. Both batsmen were playing attacking shots, while giving respect to occasional good balls. Sal hit some really seet slashes and cuts in the point and thirdman region with couple of sixes in that area. Piyush also went over the top a few times. Both ended up with 66 runs each a very well played innings giving tigers a flying start. Once again Tigers did not fully capitalize on the excellent start given by Piyush and Sala. A lot of Calculators were put to use, with who should go to bat if wicket falls at what overs. Much of that calculations had to be discarded as Batsmen were not able to execute their plans on the pitch. Several wickets fell at quick intervals. With 6 or 7 overs to go and last pair at wicket, Pravin and Sangam added about 20 runs to the score, still leaving 3 overs on the table, when Sangam was unlucky to drag the ball on to stumps. Both batsmen were looking very comfortable at the wicket, looking good to add another 20 runs to the total, but for a lucky break for Shahnawaz's one ball leaving off stumps. The final tally was 217 all out in 37 overs. Not a bad total considering how slow (wet) the outfield was. It was equal to 260 plus on a dry day. Carrolton, came into bat when rain had started to drizzle and they were playing the run rate game. Trying to exceed Tigers overall run rate (5.5) in first 20 overs, their top order were going for shots almost blindly. Couple of catches went up in the air in Nitashu and Pravin's opening overs, but fielders couldnot hang on to the slippery wet ball. The runup was also slippery with rain coming down hard. Not a suitable playing condition. This followed by rain pouring down on and off and ultimately game was called off at 4:30pm. The game will be re-played on Sept 22nd sunday. If Tigers can make 217 under wet conditions with soft ball and slow/wet outfield, then they can certainly make 270 or more under better conditions, with Tigers determined to win the match. Go Tigers! Pravin
Tigers V Metroplex 9/1/02 at Metroplex ground. Match Report (By Graham ) Apologies for any inaccuracies in advance as the score sheets are very very difficult to read and missing a lot of information that would have helped to compile the report. The game was to be 35 overs per side. Tigers in the field.......... Tigers lost the toss and were put into field on a very hot very sticky day, with no wind at all to cool the players down a little. It would turn out to be a very long 3 1/2 hours in very uncomfortable conditions. But this turned out to become an early advantage for the Tigers, with Pravin opening the bowling and experiencing a huge amount of swing from leg to off which accounted for the metroplex opening batsman edging to Ajit who took a safe catch in the slips. Rajan opened his spell with a steady first over, but during his second he badly twisted his ankle during the follow through on the edge of the wicket which was hidden by the over growing grass. That ultimately ended any further participation by Rajan who departed to begin the process of icing and strapping the ankle. This brought Vikas into the attack early to complete Rajan's over, and proceeded to trouble the batsman with a little extra bounce from his bowling and in his first over proper found the edge of Anil, which was safely collected by Graham behind the wicket. Pravin continued to trouble both batsman with his accurate line combined with late swing and with the score on 34, Vikas struck again, removing the stumps of the other opener with a quicker ball. Hari joined the attack with Vikas and found his usual good line outside the off stump, but the tigers attack was made more difficult by the ball which after the first few overs swung around beautifully, now just seemed to have stopped swinging completely, and seemingly over zealous umpiring, calling wides which had both the bowler and keeper shaking their heads in disbelief. One ball called wide down the leg side actually passed over leg stump but still the wide was called. Plumb LBW calls were also ignored. This allowed Metroplex to rally and put on 93 for the next wicket, a lot of good balls were bludgeoned for boundaries and pulled from outside the off stump for fours on the leg side. At the half way point of the innings it seemed Metroplex were getting set for a huge score, but a lot of credit must go to the Tigers players for rallying strongly and useful spells of bowling by Saurab, Raghavan and Salahuddin kept the innings tight towards the end of the innings, Metroplex finishing with 211 for 9 from 35 overs. Outstanding peformances came from Pravin 5 overs 1 wicket for only 18 runs, swinging the ball beautifully. Saurab 2 for 24 from 5 overs, troubling the batsmen with his nagging leg cutters. Fielding was especially difficult in certain parts of the ground and credit goes to the whole fielding performance in trying circumstances. Tigers wield the willow........ Salahuddin and Raj opened the batting, but in the first over Raj was beaten by an in swinging ball which removed his leg stump and with only 10 players available to bat the Tigers were up against it. Graham came in at three and together with Salahuddin slowly and carefully began to move the score along, the bowling was very very tight and runs were not freely available. With the score on 24 Graham played an in between shot, neither attacking nor defensive, and spooned a simple catch to the bowler and was out for 13. Kal entered the fray and didn't find the bowling any easier playing and missing outside the off stump. Being left handed Kal had the misfortune of playing against balls pitching and swinging away from him. The pair added 12 runs before Kal was bowled by Hitesh and at 36 for 3 the writing seemed to be on the wall. Ajit came in at number 5 and looked to be finding the middle of the bat early. Salahuddin, who had been troubled by the bowlers early on but seemed to have weathered the storm, took Ajit's lead and started to try and accelerate his innings, but was the next Tiger to go finding a fielder and he was out for 10. Saurab strode out to the wicket to join Ajit. The Metroplex fielders seemed to have glue on their hands in the field as Ajit played an aggressive cut on the offside only to find the ball plucked out of the air at gulley when the ball seemed destined for a certain four. Ajit left shaking his head in disbelief. Metroplex started to rotate the bowling at this stage seemingly having the match in the bag and the change seemed to be to Saurabs liking. He proceeded to put the bowlers to the sword, dispatching any loose ball between mid-wicket and Mid-off. Anil gave support to Saurab but holed out trying the same tactic for 3. Raghavan came to the wicket and had the misfortune to fire his first ball at the same fielder that caught Ajit and another magnificent catch was taken plucking the ball out of the air from nowhere. This left the tigers at 67 for 7. Vikas came out next and Saurab ably supported by Vikas started to pepper the long on boundary with fours and a huge six and this prompted the Metroplex skipper to recall his opening bowlers. The score had raced along to 123 with Saurab blasting quick runs. Although the total required was still way out of reach, the Tigers tail kept fighting throughout. Saurab eventually holed out trying to find the boundary for 43 entertaining runs. The Metroplex opener Jayesh who had been very accurate throughout both his bowling spells, eventually accounted for the tail end of the Tigers batting. The eventual total being 144 all out. The Tigers should not read too much into this performance however. To begin with, the loss of Rajan did not help the Tigers cause. Having to field in such oppressive heat which was made so much worse by the lack of any breeze for the duration of the innings which left a lot of the players drained of energy. Personally I found it to be the most uncomfortable weather to field in since I have been out here. -----Score card below------------ Metroplex Batting: Keyur Caught Ajit Bowled Pravin 0 Bhikhu Bowled Vikas 16 Anil Caught ? Bolwed Vikas 2 Yogi Bowled Saurabh 77 Uday Caught Vikas Bolwed Raghavan 35 Jayesh Caught Bowled Sala 14 Jagdish ?? Bowled Saurabh 18 Jitu Bowled Raj 12 Hitesh Run out (Raj) 9 Hasu Not out Jayesh DNB Total : 219 for 9 in 35 overs. Tigers Bowling: Pravin 5 Overs, 18 runs, 1 wicket Rajan 1 Over, 7 runs, 0 wicket Vikas 7 overs, 42 runs, 2 wickets Hari 7 overs, 45 runs, 0 wicket Raghavan 4 overs, 28 runs, 1 wicket Ajit 1 over, 6 runs, 0 wicket Saurabh 5 overs, 24 runs, 2 wickets Salahuddin 4 overs, 28 runs, 1 wicket --------------------------------------------- Tigers Batting: Raj Bowled by Jayesh 0/1 Sal Caught ? Bowled by Hitesh 10/24 Graham Caught ? Bowled by Jayesh 13/24 Kal Bowled by Hitesh 3/20 Ajit Caught Bikhu Bowled by Anil 8/14 Saurabh Caught Uday Bowled by Hasu 43/35 Anil Caught ? Bowled by Jayesh 4/10 Raghavan Caught Bikhu Bowled by Jayesh 0/1 Vikas Bowled by Kayur 14/20 Pravin Not Out 11/17 Hari Bowled by Jagdish 5/14 Total: 144 all out in 31.3 overs ___________________________________________________________
Match: Plano Tigers Vs Dallas Stars (Aug 25, 2002 sunday) Result: called off due to storm Venue: Plano Russelcreek Park. (Match Report by Ajit) After winning the toss, dallas stars decided to bat first. Saurabh and Rajan shared the new ball and both found it difficult to control the swing. First 10-12 overs had lots of wides (umpiring was harsh- anything on the leg was given wide). Saurabh did managed to get a wicket in his very first over (caught - sri bhagavan). In the first 15 overs stars scored 92 runs with a loss 2 wickets. Saurabh and vikas took one each. Tigers fielding and some inaccurate bowling (wides) were the main reasons of such a high score in the first 15 overs. Easy catches were dropped but good thing was there was no shouting on the field when the catches went down. Encouragement came from each and every fielder and bowlers didn't loose heart despite of dropped catches. The patience paid off and immediately two wickets fail after the break. Nitashu took the first one-Ajit took the catch and sri bhagavan took the secon one, this time kal was the catcher. In the next 15 overs 8 wickets fail and stars bowled out to 155 in 29.5 overs. Graham took two catches and one run out (Ajit-Graham), sri took two, raghavan, nitashu (caught and bowled), and saurabh (unfortunately on a no ball) took one each. Legendery South African batsman graham pollock once said that cricket is a simple game "see it and hit it" I think cricket is more simpler than that "catch it and win it" I will talk about catches later but first I want to mention about bowling performance. For a long time I have seen hari bowling very good during practice and now getting rewarded in all recent matches. Hari bowled splendidly and he was the pick of the bowler. He bowled with a of side field and kept every batsman under pressure. He was rewarded with 3 wickets (may be 4, I apologize, I don't have a score sheet with me). Good work hari!!!!! Saurabh was little rusty but he was also unlucky. He took one wicket and one catch went down on his bowling. Rajan needs to work out on his fitness. He was bowling well but I have seen him bowling much better than what he bowled on Sunday. Vikas was playing after very long time but he bowled well. He took one wicket and bowled to his field. It was good to see vikas back in action after a long long time. I introduced nitashu after first break. He bowled well (as usual- no need to tell). Took three wickets. What can I say about sri bhagavan. He was doing everything right. Took two catches and one wicket. Two catches went down on his bowling but continued to bowl with good temperament. Raghavan bowled one decent over (gentle medium and not muralitharan style). Fielding performance in the second half was very good and tigers restricted stars to 155 all out. Niashu and graham opened tigers inning. Both added 70 runs when graham (25-35) lost his wicket. Both played very well, kept rotating the strike and took every possible run. Raghavan joined nitashu (50*) and pair added 20-25 runs. Tigers were cruising towards victory and the only way they would have lost the match is by throwing their wickets. When the score was 92 for 1 in 18 overs, play was interrupted due to strong winds. We had no choice but to call off. We deserved to win but you can't do anything against nature. Catches: We have played some great cricket this season and the credit goes to each and every player who contributed on and of the field. Pravin and srinadh fouthe for our position in div A before the league and at present we deserve to be in div A. we are a good side and we have beat the best team in dallas but we also have a ability to become the best team in dallas. There are many players among us who are very talented. Pravin finds himself in a difficult situation every time he selects final 11 for a league match. This just tells the depth of our side and the number of good players we have. Then why don't we win more regularly. Don't we bat well or bowl well. I don't think so. The reason we don't win is because of our fielding. We have dropped more than 20 catches during 40 over league season. If we look back to our matches which we lost, Carrolton, hawks and ismailia. We lost those matches because of our fielding. I don't want to go into the score card but we all know we scored heavily, bowled well but lost by 15-25 runs. We dropped around 6 catches per match in those three matches we lost. Those three matches made the difference of tiger being number 1or 2 and number 6. In this league, one-drop catch (batsman # 1-5) is equal to 20 runs. What will our bowlers and batsman's will do if we start dropping 6 catches per match. We can finish this season by winning knock out league and we don't need great performances from our players. Our batsman's and bowlers are doing a good job and good performances will come automatically (nitashus 100 against DCC1, piyush is scoring more than 50 in every single match). ALL WE NEED TO DO IS TAKE CATCHES!!!!!!! Lets play to our strength and finish this season on a winning note. Ajit
Plano Tigers Vs Dallas Bulls (August 18, 2002 at Plano Russel creek NW pitch) Match Report by Sangam This is my first attempt to write a match report. So keeping my fingers crossed and hoping this will give a good picture about our match with Dallas Bulls. Compared to all these hot summer days, it was a nice day for cricket as it had some breeze. We were late to start but compensated that in the field. Pravin was hoping that we could bat if we win the toss, but unfortunately we lost and they put us to field. We started with Nitashu and Hari with the ball. Kiran D. Singh and Harvinder were the opening batsmen for bulls. Kiran D. Singh had scored a century in the league match and had earned a good name with both bat and ball. Well, guess what, Nitashu got him in the first over with a beautiful delivery putting his stumps to roll away. Anoop came in next but nitashu got him to snick to salauddin behind wicket in the very next ball. Hatrick chance for nitashu, but Sunil who came in next played defensively to finish the over. Sunil and Harvinder started to roll the score board a bit but before they could get settled Nitashu struck again with a full-length ball to get Harvinder LBW. Hari joined Sunil and they decided to play through defensively till nitashu was done with the spell. They were not taking any risks. This is when Rajan and Vikas brought in by pravin to break the partnership. They did a good job of keeping the batsmen in check and Vikas struck with a good delivery and Hari ballooned the ball in the air towards Nitashu in mid �off only to get a good running catch. Tigers were on the top at this point with four of the bulls gone for less than 35 runs. Shekar joined Sunil and they were mixing singles and doubles and occasional boundaries from Sunil. Sunil played some stroke play and was going for some uns. At the 15 overs break Bulls were 66 for 4. Few overs after the break pravin brought sangam into attack and Shekar started off with a boundary. But he was bowled in the same over. Next was Vijay to come in and he wanted to give a Stand to Sunil. But at this point Sunil was tempted to go for big ones and he went for a high short into the air and sangam got him C&B. Srini Joined Vijay and he were looking good with some few stroke plays. Pravin brought in Nitashu at this point in place of saurabh and got a C&B with a beautiful return catch. Srini was back to the pavilion. Other batsmen couldn�t stick for long except for bharath who put 17 and was out in the last over. Bulls were all-out for 141. Hari�s bowling was excellent with 4-0-11-0, which helped to get the initial batsmen to struggle and give away some wickets. Saurabh also contributed with some few overs. Nitashu finished with 5 wickets, Sangam with 3 and Rajan & Vikas with one each. Tigers opened with Salauddin and Graham. Both were good in getting the runs straight away. The bull�s bowlers were moving their ball with very less control. Couple of extras contributed to our total score. Both our opening batsmen dominated on it. Salauddin displayed with his favorite point shorts fleeing the ball to boudaries. The batsmen were looking good but after couple of overs graham missed the line of a ball from anoop and got bowled for 14. But raghavan joined Salauddin and he played sensibly rotating the strike. He had couple of boundaries to his credit. All this time salauddin was unstoppable by the bulls and he was going for a long innings. Bulls brought in Kiran into the bowling attack but none of the bowlers could create any problem for the tigers. However, raghavan finally went for a bad short and gave a catch at point when the total was at 89. But at this point tigers had enough overs but needed to keep the score moving without loosing more wickets. Anil joined Salauddin and he played some stokes and gave good stand to salauddin. The batsmen just had to complete the formality and reached the total of 142 in 25 overs. The highlight of the batting was the 73 of 63 balls from salauddin carrying his bat. Anil was not out on 26. Overall the game boosted the confidence winning by 8 wickets. We need to take these practice matches to the next level and perform similarly against better teams. Bulls Total = 141 in 29.4 overs Tigers Total = 142 for 2 in 24.5 overs Tigers Batting: Salahuddin Not out 73/63 Graham Bowled Anoop 14/20 Raghavan Ct B Kiran 18/21 Anil Not Out 26/20 Tigers Bowling: Nitashu 6 ovrs/32runs/5 wkts Hari 4 ovrs/11runs/0 wkt Rajan 6 ovrs/23runs/1 wkt Vikas 6 ovrs/33runs/1 wkt Sangam 6 ovrs/28runs/3 wkts Saurabh 2 ovrs/12runs/0 wkt
Plano Tigers versus UTD Eagles. Played on Sunday August 11th, 2002 at Plano Russell Creek Park (NW Pitch). Match Report by Raghavan (Result: Tigers won by 16 runs.) Overnight rains had made this match up unlikely, but once we got down to the park, we felt we could start at 9:45 a.m. Rajan assumed that the rains would cancel the match and was happily watching Ind v/s Eng test match when pravin called him and told him to come asap to the ground. Danny (Dhananjay) was the 11th man. UTD Eagles won the toss and elected to field Plano Tigers Batting -------------------- Pravin decided to try out as a opener with Nitashu. The outfield was wet and getting runs here would be a big problem. Nitashu and pravin started cautiously. Ashar khan, the leading strike bowler, twisted his ankle and had to retire to the pavilion. Pravin played a wonderful hook shot to start things. Asif bowled an excellent delivery, (that cut from middle to off stump) which would have troubled any batsmen and Pravin was bowled. Graham came in next. Nitashu was not his usual self and was having trouble timing the ball. The pitch also added to his woes by keeping low at times. Nitashu played some good stroked in between but was caught by the wicketkeeper off Amir Tariq. The score was now 30 in 10 overs. Raj came in next and he and graham started rotating the strike. The score after 15 overs was 55/2. After the break, Pravin gave instructions to speed up the run rate. Raj in the event of scoring quickly lobbed a simple catch. Anil joined graham. Graham hit some excellent shots and was beginning to speed up the run rate but unfortunately he skied a catch and was dismissed. Kal and anil went about doing some repair work after the loss of both raj and Graham in quick succession. Muneeb decided now was the time to bowl his slow deliveries. Kal went for a big six in a desperate attempt to speed up the runrate and only managed to sky the ball. Raghavan then joined Anil in the middle. Bahadur, the man of the match from the previous league game for UTD Eagles came to bowl. Raghavan hit for an excellent inside out shot over extra cover and then pulled him for a four behind square to take 13 runs off his over. Anil and Raghavan took lots of singles and doubles and were getting 7-8 runs per over. The score now was 84/5 in 22 overs. Anil played early and lobbed a simple catch to short mid-wicket. Srinadh joined Raghavan and this was going to the decisive partnership in the end. Srinadh played some excellent shots and Raghavan was giving him company by running 2's and three's. They had put on 40 in about 5 overs when Raghavan decide to up the tempo and lost his wicket. He ended up with 26 off 20 balls. Srinadh also lost his wicket the next over and rushed off to meet up with his gang at Anand-bazar. Rajan and Hari played sensibly and tigers finished up with 146 in 30 overs, which looked a decent total considering where we were at one point. Everyone contributed with the bat with lots of 15's, but no one could carry his bat and make a big innings. The middle 30 feet of the pitch was wet keeping balls low, which made it a bit difficult and the outfield was pretty slow as it was damp. UTD Eagles batting -------------------- Rajan and Hari were the opening bowlers for tigers. The openers from UTD eagles had to face some hostile and intelligent bowling from hari. Nitashu took over after rajan had bowled just a single over. Nitashu got ejaz to play early and got a simple caught and bowled. Ashar khan got a chance to make up for his misfortune while bowling, but he tried to flick Nitashu and graham took an excellent on the leg side on the very next ball. Nitashu was on a hattrick and UTD 25/2 in 8 overs. Kal took an excellent diving catch to dismiss the other opener. Nitashu bowled out his six overs for 2 wickets and hari even though he went for some overs against Muneeb, did an excellent job of keeping the batsmen in check. Raghavan came on to bowl the 15th over and immediately got Kiran to edge one to Graham. UTD were 52/4 in 15 overs. Asif came out to join Muneeb and this was going to be a crucial partnership for UTD. Raghavan took asif's wicket when he played too early to a drive and kal took another excellent catch at point. Rajan went for some runs against Muneeb. Hari took an excellent catch at short cover to dismiss Muneeb off Raghavan. Tigers were now thinking that Victory can't be too far. UTD required 80 in 13 overs now. This is when Raghavan and Rajan went for sixes and fours. Two very expensive overs (14 and 10 runs each) and the match started to move back towards UTD Eagles. The runrate came down to a manageable 40 in 8 over. Pravin then decided enough is enough and decided to bowl. Nitashu of all people dropped a simple chance of the first ball at long off. Danny then took an excellent catch off pravin. Pravin took 2 more wickets in his next over, when graham took a skier behind the wickets and one guy clean bowled. 5 overs and 20 runs to get and a wicket remaining. Raghavan was asked to bowl now and he got the batsmen to pull his wrong-one and hari completed another excellent catch at short cover and tigers had won by 16 runs. A hard fought victory but teaching us once again not to relax at any stage of the game. Raghavan with 4 wickets, pravin with 3 and Nitashu with 2 were the chief wicket takers. Hari took one wicket. Tigers took 9 catches in total. Almost all the catches were taken, which again proves that catches make all the difference between winning and loosing. Kal took 2 excellent catches at point, with first one taken by one hand ended up on CNN's 'play of the day' at 10pm. Hari took 2 excellent low catches kneeling down at short cover. Danny also took a very good catch at long on. And last but not the least Graham took 3 very good catches behind the stumps that should more than cover for the couple that he dropped. Nitashu took 1 catch on the rebound canceling out the one he dropped. Pravin was planning to give bowling to everybody but with the match becoming close in the end that did not happen. In all 5 bowlers bowled. Nitashu, Hari and Rajan each bowling 6 overs, Raghavan 5.4 overs and Pravin 2 overs. Brief scores: Tigers 146/8 in 30 overs (Raghavan 26, Graham 19) UTD eagles 130 allout in 25.4 overs(Raghavan 4wkts, Pravin 3wkts, Nitashu 2wkts) Tigers Batting: R B 4 6 Nitashu ct b Amir 12 13 0 0 Pravin Bowled b Amir 8 11 1 0 Srinadh LBW b Asif 12 12 1 0 Graham ct Jay b Amit 17 45 1 0 Raj ct Asif b Amit 12 25 0 0 Anil ct Jaideep b Asif 13 21 0 0 Kal ct Asif b Muneeb 3 7 0 0 Raghavan ct Muneeb b Amir 26 20 3 0 Rajan Not Out 12 9 1 0 Hari Not Out 4 5 0 0 Danny DNB Tigers Bowling: (For more details, need scorecard from UTD Eagles) Nitashu 2 wkts Pravin 3 wkts Raghavan 4 wkts
---------------------------------------- Plano Tigers versus Hawks Played on Sunday August 4th, 2002 at Sandy Lake 40 over league match Match Report by Raghavan. The game began at 9:15 am with Piyush captaining the tigers for the first time. Tigers had everything to play for in this match. A victory here would assure them an overall fifth position and a play-off against Plano Cubs. The other prospect would be a tough match against Carrollton. Hawks won the toss and elected to bat. Nitashu pulled out at the last minute, deciding to rest his injury and Srinadh played in his place. Raghavan was the 12th man for the game. Hawks Batting ------------- Kashif and tariq opened the innings for hawks. Tigers had a new opening pair in saurabh and ashok. Nistashu and Rajan (injured) and Pravin (in India) not available for this game. Ashok induced an edge from tariq off the second ball of the game, but chetan dropped a difficult chance at first slip. Ashok bowled a nice first over and he was beginning to find his rhythm. Saurabh on the other hand was having a tough time controlling the new ball. Saurabh went for a couple of fours. Kashif and tariq had a tough time against Ashok. Hawks had reached 16 for no loss at the end of 5 overs. Saurabh got Kashif to mistime his drive and ashok took a sitter at mid-off. Najeeb joined tariq at the crease and both the batsmen took full toll of some sloppy bowling by tigers. Tariq was hitting the ball well and he was going to make tigers pay for the dropped catch. Piyush decided to bring himself on after 12 overs. Piyush made the breakthrough immediately with raj taking an excellent catch at short third man at dismiss tariq for 42. At the end of 15 overs, hawks were 86 for two. Shoaib was the best batsmen in the hawks team and tigers had to dismiss him cheaply. Sangam was bought on from the other end and he immediately started with a good line. Srinadh dropped a difficult catch at short cover off sangam. Shoaib and najeeb were beginning to stroke the ball well till sangam got najeeb to drive early and gokul took an excellent catch at short cover. Bharat joined shoaib now and they were in for some good fortune. Tigers dropped around 6 to 8 catches in the outfield. This was to prove their undoing in the final analysis. Shoaib went on to make his 50. He was belting sixes and fours all around the park. Bharat was then dismissed by Piyush. Wickets kept falling regularly but the run rate was in excess of 6 an over. When shoaib was finally dismissed for 79, hawks had reached 250. Hawks managed to make a very decent score of 279 in 40 overs and set a stiff target for tigers to chase. The only saving grace was the excellent figures of sangam and some tight bowling by gokul. Ajit also kept very good and managed to add another stumping scalp to his records. As for the ground fielding and especially catching, the less said the better. Tigers batting Piyush and raj were the two openers for tigers. 280 off 40 overs with an asking rate of 7 was not going to easy but with Piyush in good touch anything was possible. Piyush as usual began in style. Teymoor was taken for a couple of fours in his very first over. Raj was doing the sensible thing by rotating the strike. Tigers had reached 50 in about 7 overs and hawks made a bowling change. Bharat got Raj lbw and tigers lost their first wicket. Ajit joined Piyush and both of them were rotating the strike and putting away the loose balls. Piyush had just stuck a huge six of asif and he went for a similar shot of a high full toss. Srinadh was standing as a leg umpire and he thought the ball was legitimate. Piyush had to go for a well-made 54. Salauddin joined ajit. Ajit took two fours of rehan?s first over and was looking in very good touch. Ajit had reached 27 when a played a half hearted pull to imran and gave a simple caught an bowled. Ajit threw his bat away in disgust. Ajit has got out in similar manner for the last 4 games. Kal joined sal but he half drove a ball to point and tigers were in some trouble now. Chetan joined sal now and tigers needed 120 off 23 overs. Someone had to play the 40 overs. Sal hit an excellent cut for six over covers. 20 overs and 100 to get. Just when things were starting to look good, sal gave a simple catch to Bharat. Gokul played some good shots but holed out to deep extra cover going for a six. Srinadh joined chetannow and Srinadh looked in good touch. Chetan was taking quick singles and twos and Srinadh was putting the bad balls away. Chetan was looking very tired, when he missed a straight ball and was bowled. Once Chetan departed the chase began to look difficult. But when Srinadh took 16 off one Rehan Shah's over, there was a brief glimmer of a miracle. Rehan refused to return to bowling after that treatment. Ashok lasted a single ball. Saurabh known for his lusty hitting needed to stick with Srinadh till the end if tigers had to win this one. Srinadh was keeping the Scoreboard ticking and saurabh was playing sensible and rotating the strike. 50 runs off 5 overs was going to be a tough one but with Srinadh still there, one couldn?t write tigers off. Srinadh hit a huge six and followed it up with a four. 36 off 3 overs now. Saurabh tried to hit out and was bowled and Sangam finally got to bat. Sangam was rotating the strike. 26 off one over. Srinadh took a couple of the first ball, but was run out on the second ball. Tigers finished up with a respectable 257 all out. An excellent chase and ensuring that tigers ended up with a run rate higher than hawks and googlies. Srinadh made an excellent 44 off only 29 balls. Piyush again made an excellent 54. Ajit and Sal made 27 and 25 respectively. Chetan made 33. Everyone got a start but unfortunately no one could carry his bat through. The batsmen did their bit but the largesse in the field earlier in the day meant 280 was too much to chase. A largely good outing by the batsmen proved to be futile due to an eminently forgettable day for the bowlers and especially the fielders. This concludes our campaign in the 40 Over League Phase, finishing fifth out of 12 teams. If someone offered that to us at the start of the season, we would probably have jumped at it! Be proud of our achievements this year. We have come a long way and much progress has been made. While we are proud, we are also mindful that there is scope to improve. Scores: Hawks 279 in 40 overs Sangam 2/39, Gokul 2/44 Tigers 257 all out in 39.2 overs Piyush 54, Srinadh 44, Chetan 33, Sal 25, Ajit 27
Plano Tigers versus Carrolton Played on Saturday July 27st , 2002 at Sandly Lake (Day/Night Match) (Match Report by Srinadh) Carrollton won the toss and elected to bat. Carrollton scored 185 in 30 overs Main scorers for Carrollton included Imran (30), Kashif (50), Zahid (50) and Nadeem Haroon (30). Excellent bowling from Sangam (2 wickets). Rajan bowled well in patches. Srinadh bowled 3 overs in the slog overs and took 1 wicket giving away just 13 runs. Tigers began their chase disastrously losing skipper Ajit in the first over. Raghavan, Graham and Danny all departed in quick time. Chetan played well and scored 20 odd. After that Anil and Srinadh put on a 50 partnership with Anil scoring 31 runs and Srinadh scoring 25 runs. After that Saurabh and Raghu were playing well. Saurabh hit a six off Zahid and then the lights went out - signalling an early end to the game. About 6 overs were still left with Tigers needing 50 odd.
Plano Tigers versus Ismailia Played on Sunday July 21st, 2002 at Plano Russelcreek park (Match Report by Srinadh) Gokul (captaining the side for the first time) won the toss and batted first. Tigers lost Raj (run out), Raghavan, Gokul and Srinadh all in quick succession to the guiles of Kamran Lakhani :-) Chetan, Graham and Danny put up a fighting score of 130 odd in 30 overs. Tigers got three early wickets - Saurabh, Ashok and Hari bowled very well. Hari also took an excellent catch at third man and Chetan took a blinder at slip to get rid of Najmi. Thereafter Salim Kotadia and Tanveer put on a big partnership and finished the game with many overs to spare. Highlight of the game: Discovering that India Gate serves Chat.
Plano Tigers versus Metroplex Played on Sunday July 14th, 2002 at Plano Russelcreek park (NE pitch) (Match Report by Srinadh) Skipper Raj won the toss and elected to field. Tigers took regular wickets with Gokul, Sangam, Chetan, Nitashu, Hari and Sri Baghavan all bowling well. Metroplex never got going and were all out for 128 in a 35 over game. Sri took an excellent catch at point. Tigers coasted to victory with Raj scoring 58. Kal and Srinadh finished it off in the end. Tigers Batting: R B 4 6 Salahuddin ct Uday 18 21 1 0 Raj Bowled Jitesh 58 84 2 0 Chetan ct Hasu 13 12 1 0 Graham Bowled Hasu 7 17 1 0 Kal Not Out 14 18 0 0 Srinadh Not Out 3 1 0 0 Gokul DNB Total 128 for 4 wkts. Tigers Bowling: O M R W Rajan 4 1 13 0 Saurabh 7 1 21 1 Raghavan 7 1 25 3 Sanagam 7 0 26 2 Gokul 5 0 21 1 Srinadh 1 0 12 0 Chetan 0.4 0 0 2
Plano Tigers vs. UTD Eagles (Match Report by Raj Badoni) Sunday, July 7th 2002 Russell Creek, Plano NE pitch 30 overs match The game began at 9:30am, but it felt like screaming noon in July heat of Texas. When Eagles won the toss, Tigers were only relieved to save the after-lunch dog hours for Eagles to field. Asif and Ejaz opened to face Nitashu and Sri�s new ball attack. They reached a quick 50 in 8th over when Saurabh got Ejaz caught by Pravin at short mid-wicket. In the very next over, Nitashu got the prized wicket of left handed Munib who completely missed the shot playing on his leg side but was caught at point by Sri juggling the ball between his hands. Asif batted sensibly playing straight and built another 50 runs partnership with Mobi to cross 100 mark with 2 down. After the break, Rajan and Chetan bowled a good line to contain batsmen when Chetan got Asif to generate a catch well taken by Rajan at well-made 47. Rajan got newcomer Bahadur bowled out in next over before he could settle. Wickets kept falling almost every other over after that. Sri and Chetan wrapped up the end up at 153 in 26 overs. 90% of the wickets were well taken catches, precisely what Tigers had hoped to accomplish with �catch-generator� attack. Sri took one international level catch at short square leg with just one hand above his head. Nitashu, Pravin, Chetan, Rajan and Vinay took one safe-make-it-easy-look catch each. Raj and Srinadh opened for Tigers inning. They paced themselves, where left-handed Amir bowled a penetrating line making it hard to hit. Srinadh retired to attend a personal business. Graham joined and started with a big looming six over long on. But soon Bahadur struck big and got Raj, Graham, Vinay and Chetan to generate catches in his 2 consecutive overs. Score suddenly read 58 for 4! With Sal also retired to go home early, and Pravin doling out a catch on a cross-bat shot, suddenly 154 target looked difficult. Nitashu and Saurabh steadied the inning, not taking any chances, pushing and cutting the ball and running for quick singles and doubles between the wickets to stay till the end. Nitashu�s 48* and Saurabh�s 35* pulled Tigers out to their running streak of victories in the 28th over. With Tigers� �catch-generating� attack, didn�t know that even batsmen would stretch it that far! 100% of Tigers� dismissals were caught out! UTD Eagles 153 all out in 26 overs. Asif 47, Mobi 38 Chetan 4 wickets, Sri 2,Rajan 1, Nitashu 1, Suarabh 1 Plano Tigers 154 for 5 in 28 overs. Nitashu 48*, Saurabh 35*, Bahadur 5 wickets Scorecard: Tigers Batting: Tigers Bowling: O M R W Srinadh Retired (Airport) 13/15 Nitashu 5 0 20 1 Raj C Muneeb B Bahadur 13/38 Sri 4 0 31 2 Graham C B Bahadur 9/11 Saurabh 4 0 25 1 Salahuddin Retired 1/4 Vinay 3 0 18 0 Vinay C B Bahadur 0/2 Rajan 6 0 33 1 Chetan C B Bahadur 2/8 Chetan 4 0 13 4 Pravin C Wktkpr B Bahadur 3/8 Saurabh Not Out 35/15 Nitashu Not Out 48/28 Sri DNB Rajan DNB --------------------------------------------
DCC 1st XI v Plano Tigers (Division A, 40 Overs NTCA League match) ------------------------- played at Russell Creek Park NE wicket on 6/30 ---------------------------------------------- Match Report ------------ The Backdrop: ------------- On a dull day with threatening skies and weather forecast of rain from ncb5i to weather.com, two sides were slated to meet at Plano's Russell Creek Park. Let me introduce you to our opponents DCC 1st XI: By far the most successful and consistent team in the league coming into the game with 15 points already in the bag having won 7 of their 9 games and having lost only to the mighty Carrollon. Among the DCC roster - the batsman with more than 500 runs this season alone - Rahul Kukreti, the evergreen Dipak Patel who has played county cricket in the UK, the best swing bowler in town Sudarshan and two of the best spinners in the league - Shahab and Tahir, not to mention Patrick Gayle, their captain who has played first class cricket for Jamaica in the late 80's and Carl Thompson the 6 and 1/2 foot Jamaican who played for US team before. Contrast that with a Plano Tigers side that was fresh from conceding 300 runs in the previous game to Carrollton and half wondering if the 1 point from the potential rain was a possibility. But then again, according to many people, we were not supposed to be here in the first place. The stage was set for another steam rolling by DCC of their opponents. Clinical demolishing achieved through aggression, common sense and smart cricket. That or a miracle. The toss: -------- In what turned out to be an excellent toss to win, Pravin called correctly and put DCC in. Perfectly logical given the possibility of rain later and also the cloud cover. DCC 1st XI's innings -------------------- The ultra consistent Rahul and skipper Patrick opened the innings for DCC. Pravin shared the new ball with Nitashu. (Rajan called in yet again at a late hour to say he couldn't make it and the 12th man for the game Srinadh was asked to wear his whites). Pravin settled down to bowl an excellent line and length and Patrick was clearly not enjoying playing Pravin one bit. Rahul stared off steadily, never flamboyant but always keeping the score ticking along nicely. Nitashu pitched it a little too short at times but was also mostly accurate. The score reached 50 odd in around 10 overs when Nitashu, in the first of several good pieces of fielding, ran Patrick out with a beautiful stop and direct hit from gully. The duo that has been the nemesis of most teams this year, Dipak and Rahul were now at the crease. It wasn't difficult to figure out what makes these two guys tick! They are both very strong mentally, play well within their limitations, push the singles and twos until the fielders drop tired and play an immensely cerebral game. Before you realize, they would have put on 100 runs. During this time, Pravin was almost done with his spell. He bowled a tight opening spell conceding only 29 runs in his 8 overs. Ashok then was introduced into the attack along with Piyush after Sangam was having some difficulty gripping the wet ball. Ashok settled into his rhythm and began to frustrate Dipak by bowling in-cutters into him which he couldn't cut in his favoured point, cover area. The ploy paid off and after a few dot balls, Dipak played an uncharacteristic cross batted pull that merely resulted in the ball being skied to mid wicket where Chetan took a well judged catch. This was a big wicket. Sudarshan came in at number four to partner Rahul who was playing in his usual style. Rahul was severe on anything short and kept Srinadh who was fielding at point very busy. Rahul ran his singles and twos well and concentrated on building a big score, never looking in trouble but not looking to dominate either. There is a lot to learn from Rahul, especially about his mental toughness, determination and discipline. Sudarshan went for a similar shot off Ashok and Chetan held another important catch. Off the very next ball, Noman khan found himself nicking to keeper Ajit off Ashok and suddenly DCC were about 110 for 4 in 22 odd overs. Rehman then joined Rahul and once again did not last too long, nicking Nitashu to keeper Ajit who claimed his 9th wicketkeeping scalp of the season to power him to the top of the NTCA standings as far as keeping scalps go. Gokul was introduced into the attack, this time late since both Ashok and Pravin bowled out 8 great overs each and Gokul produced a big wicket. That of the big hitting Carl T or "T" as his team-mates call him, trapped plumb in front for 1. Tahir was frustrated and subsequently bowled for 10 by Gokul, Shahab was run out thanks to an excellent throw from long off by Nitashu and Sachin was lapped up by Piyush, caught and bowled for 0. Nobody gave any support to Rahul who had by this time reached 99 in the 37th over with the DCC score reading 192. This was when Gokul got Rahul to cut to deep point where Srinadh held the catch and Rahul had fallen short by 1 run of what would have been a well deserved ton. Tigers were at their bubbly, energetic, busy best in the field on this day. Every catch that came was held, two excellent run outs were produced and the ground fielding was top class, saving at least 20 to 25 runs that normally would have been scored. Perhaps it was the fact that Tigers were the underdogs by far in this game, but the Tigers had a lot of fun in the field and responded brilliantly. 192 all out in 37 overs. A gettable score, but then guys this was DCC. They had demolished people earlier even after being bowled out for low scores. The bowling honors were shared by Ashok 3 for 39 in 8 overs, 3 for 14 in 4 by Gokul (now the second highest wicket taker in Div A!) and excellent support from Pravin, Piyush and Nitashu. Tigers Innings -------------- Ajit and Piyush strode out to bat and Tigers were a wicket down in the very first over when Ajit was caught in two minds whether to cut Carl T or not and ended up holing out to Noman Khan in the covers. Nitashu walked out to join Piyush and looked good right away. Piyush launched an assault on Sachin who shared the new ball with "T" and Piyush welcomed his spell with a breathtaking half cut, half drive that cleared the cover boundary. Another square cut and a flick through mid wicket later, Sachin was promptly taken off the attack and asked to rest at long on/third man. Various bowlers like Tahir, Shahab were tried but neither batsman was in any trouble. The score was progressing nicely at a rate of 6 an over which was above the required 4.9 or so. In a desperate move. Patrick brought on Sudha who was not planning to bowl due to his rotator cuff problem. In his second over, Sudha got Piyush to play down the wrong line and sneaked one through bat and pad to rattle the stumps. Glenn McGrath would have been proud of the send off that Sudha gave Piyush in his celebration routine:) Piyush was out for a cracking 43 off 32 balls. Today was to bring forth and strongly highlight the emergence of another precocious talent in the Tigers rank besides Piyush. His name is Nitashu or "Nitchu" as Nadeem Haroon has so lovingly named him :) Kal joined Nitashu with the score reading 82 on 15 overs with 2 back in the hut. Kal took his time and survived a couple of close calls early on and settled down to give Nitashu excellent support. All this while, Nitashu looked in supreme touch with some straight as an arrow drives, cuts and especially short arm pulls behind the wicket. DCC's assumption that the departure of Piyush would send Tigers into a tailspin was not quite accurate on this day. Nitashu continued to dominate the DCC bowlers and in the 29th over reached a well deserved century, the first in the short history of Tigers in a league game. Nitashu has matured into one of the top all rounders in the league and with age on his side (he has been 20 for the last 2 years :)), he has a bright future ahead of him. Not even the departure of Kal for a crucial 18 or Ragahavan who fell in his eagerness to finish the game early could prevent the Tigers from registering the biggest win in their history. Tigers defeated DCC 1st XI by 6 wickets with more than 10 overs to spare. The entire team charged into the field and dramatic scenes followed. DCC 1st XI is still probably the best or second best team in the NTCA. But on June 30th, they were second best to this young, growing Plano Tigers outfit. Tigers' cell phones were clogged with congratulatory messages from all over the Metroplex. The giants of Dallas cricket had been beaten. The journey that began with a rout at the hands of Metroplex had survived many twists and turns to take Tigers to the biggest thrill of all. Time to put relegation worries aside. Time to seriously think of playoffs. Time to celebrate. Time to feel vindicated about our worth and merit to belong in Division A. Tomorrow may be another day but today is one for the history books. Scores: DCC1: 192 all out in 36.3 overs Plano Tigers: 193 for 4 wkts in 29.3 overs
Plano Tigers vs Carroltton CC, June 23rd , Sunday at Sandy Lake ground. Brief Match Summary: This was a day when Tigers had 3 regular bowlers missing (Gokul, Sangam and Rajan) and replacements had to be called in at the 11th hour. The team owes a great deal to these Players who stepped in at the last minute and gave their best on the field. This was not the day for Tigers. Without teeth in bowling, Carrolton ran away the score to 298 for 7 in 40 overs. Tigers came back with a great fight with Piyush (82) and Nitashu (77) giving a great start with 139 run first wicket partnership and run rate always above 7 an over. But the middle order was not able to capitalize on this wonderful start given by openers. Tigers lost wickets in quick succesion, with lower order putting on a fighting come back, but the score of 298 proved a tall target that required several big partnerships, which did not materialize. Tigers ended up with more than respectable total of 242 runs in 35 overs, but still short by almost 60 runs.
______________________________________________________________________________ Tigers beats ICC (Match Report by Raj Badoni) Plano Tigers vs. ICC Saturday, June 20th 2002 Russell Creek, Plano NE pitch 30 overs match Tigers had 2 matches back to back, ICC game on Saturday and Carrollton league game on Sunday. For this Saturday game, Tigers played their 2nd team(Cougars for now):Raj, Kal, Chetan, Graham, Rajesh, Saurabh, Jeevan, Sri, Vikas, Hari, Madhav. ICC won the toss and chose to bat. With cool breeze that morning, Tigers already wanted to field first. Ketan and Jimmy opened facing Vikas and Saurabh with new ball. While Jimmy looked strong from the word go, Saurabh got Ketan to edge a snick off to Graham early behind the wickets. Praful(50) joined Jimmy (19) and they put on a quick 60+ run partnership. Saurabh struck again generating a catch from Jimmy to go to Jeevan at deep gully, who took a well judged catch. At this point, Raj brought Sri to bowl from other end and he got Naeem to give a catch in the very first over. In the middle overs, while Hari maintained an accurate line containing the batsmen, Sri had batsmen commit mistakes grabbing 2 more catch generating wickets. Chetan took highest scorer Praful�s wicket, again caught out while Hari bowled Jay out at 2. Naveen (24) and Vinit (34*) stayed on playing some un-orthodox shots but nevertheless mounting ICC innings to 194 for 9 at the end. Chetan and Raj opened for Tigers. Raj played a half-hearted shot over gully to be caught out early when score was 30. Graham and Chetan put on 40 runs partnership running well between the wickets when Graham was castled in the 10th over. Chetan was soon to go on a pull catch at well made 40 runs with 5 boundaries. Kal and Rajesh steadied the inning taking singles to see through the break. Rajesh got castled in the first over after break at 20, a good support to build with Kal. Saurabh started with his aggressive no-dot-balls batting, but fell for a catch. Where Saurabh left, Jeevan took over aggressive attack picking out bowlers and running well with Kal between the wickets. Although he got castled at 15, he looked like he was bound to hit a big score. Sri and Vikas were gone quickly, although Vikas�s dismissal by leg-umpire against main-umpire was questionable. While wickets were falling at other end, Kal kept his head down to build inning, only to open at the end hitting 28 runs in last 2 overs with Hari. A superb 43* inning to win this match in 28 overs. Vikas took 2 early valuable catches, Graham 2, Sri 1, and Raj had 1 run out. Without the main strike bowlers (Gokul, Nitashu, Rajan, Pravin, Ashok, Sangam) who were resting to play for next day game, this 2nd team of Tigers managed to win it�s first match, thanks to �catch-generating� attack by Sri, Saurabh, Chetan, Hari and Vikas. It was a highly positive team building experience for the club. Everyone put in their best on ground and supported fellow team members. Srinadh, Raghavan, Pravin, Sangam, Nitashu all came to watch, help with umpiring and offer excellent support to Tigers� new team in their debut match. ICC 194 for 9 in 30 overs Praful 50, Vinit 34*, Naveen 24 Sri and Saurabh 3 wickets each, Hari and Chetan 1 each Plano Tigers 195 for 8 in 28 overs Kal 43*, Chetan 40, Rajesh 20 Scorecard: Tigers Batting: Tigers Bowling: O M R W Chetan C B Praful 40/33 Vikas 6 0 36 0 Raj C B Naveen 9/16 Saurabh 4 0 ? 3 Graham Bld Rajesh 11/13 Hari 6 0 ? 1 Kal Not Out 43/30 Sri 6 0 ? 3 Rajesh Bld Rajesh 20/29 Jeevan 1 0 ? 0 Saurabh C B Jay 11/9 Chetan 5 0 ? 1 Jeevan Bld P.D. 15/7 Madhav 2 0 ? 0 Sri Bld 3/2 Vikas C B 2/2 Hari Not Out 4/2 Madhav DNB -------------------------------------------------
FWL v Plano Tigers ------------------ 40 Over League game ------------------- played at Ft. Worth on 6/16 ---------------------------- Match Report (By Srinadh) ------------ Pravin won the toss and Tigers made an excellent decision to field first. The pitch had not dried out completely and hence the game was played on a matting wicket (mat was put over the astro turf). Given that, one could not predict the behaviour of the pitch in addition to the fact that the cloud cover was threatening to favor the bowlers, it made sense to insert the opposition. FWL innings ----------- Raees and Faisal opened the innings for FWL. Nitashu and Pravin both bowled excellent opening spells. In fact Faisal was let off on the first ball of the innings when Chetan floored a difficult catch at first slip. In the third over, Nitashu got one to move away and got Raees to nick one and keeper Ajit took a superb catch diving to his right and plucking the ball inches from the ground. FWL decided to send a pinch hitter in the form of Waqar (who in the past has been the nemesis of this Tigers team - two years ago he scored a century against a 9 man Plano1 team!). This wasn't going to be his day however. One slog and two overs later, Nitashu castled him with an express delivery that swung a bit too. Faisal who was lucky to survive as many as three chances (in addition to the first ball let off, he was put down in the covers by Gokul although it was a tough chance and then Srinadh took an excellent high catch at point off Nitashu only to be told that it was a no-ball!) was finally sent on his way with Pravin getting him bowled behind his legs. Islam then scratched around and did not look all that good but managed to score 19 before Gokul bowled him around his legs. FWL were around 75 odd for 4 with the average around 4.5 runs an over. Nadeem Khan came in at the fall of Faisal's wicket and looked good straight away. He concentrated hard and put away the short and long hops. He was the only FWL batsman who looked comfortable on this day. He lacked any support from the other end and wickets continued to fall in a hurry. Usman Shuja was trapped in front by Piyush, Abdullah (16 runs) shouldered arms to be bowled off Sangam, Adil was run out by Piyush. Saeed joined Nadeem and they put on crucial runs and it was at this juncture that Tigers looked like they were losing the plot a little bit. The fielding and bowling deteriorated for a short time and that was enough to prop FWL up. At the second drinks break, FWL were 149 for 7 off 30 overs. A couple of bad overs later, FWL reached around 175 odd. Fortunately Saeed was out lbw to Raghu and Jawad was out soon after, bowled by Piyush. Nadeem Khan finally holed out to Piyush for a well made 75. FWL were bowled out for 184 in 34.3 overs. Piyush bowled an excellent 6 overs for 17 runs claiming 2 wickets and a run out, Gokul and Nitashu picked up two wickets each and Sangam bowled his 8 overs for an excellent 32 runs besides claiming 1 wicket. Pravin bowled really well conceding only 17 runs off his 5 overs and claiming 1 scalp. 184 was about 35 runs more than what we should have allowed FWL. Tigers innings -------------- Piyush and Nitashu resumed their partnership and Piyush this time looked determined to play till the end. Nitashu gave his senior partner great support. They put on around 70 runs in 13 overs and looked to be coasting along when a needless run out ended Nitashu's enterprising innings. Gokul came in at number three and was looking to find his form back. He was beginning to look good when his innings was terminated by an excellent running catch by islam on the mid wicket fence. Tigers were 106 for 2 after 21 odd overs. Ajit joined Piyush. All the time, Piyush took his time to read the pace of the wicket and was putting away anything loose with nonchalant ease. He played some terrific square cuts and a couple of pull shots off the leg spinner that went for sixes. He curbed his natural instincts to ensure victory. Ajit continued to look good and played some pleasing shots all around the park. Tigers were about 45 runs from the target when Piyush was done in by the pitch. The ball stopped completely and Piyush was halfway through his shot - a wonderful, responsible and high class innings of 82 off 81 balls came to an end. FWL players were also generous in their applause as he walked off. Raghavan joined Ajit but Ajit once again fell in the 30's caught in front of the wicket. 13 runs to go. Six wickets still standing. Easy. Right? Well, not exactly :) Srinadh strode out and received a shocker from the gentleman in the white coat. On his first ball was rapped on the pad, the ball hitting him outside the line of the leg stump and high on his thigh. The FWL Lions teams went up in a huge appeal, more to put pressure on the umpire than because of any conviction about the lbw. Much to the batsman's amusement, the umpire obliged and ruled the batsman out. Anil was the recipient of another dubious decision as a half hearted appeal for caught behind was upheld. Raghavan and Raghu played well and held their nerve to see Tigers home. Tigers had triumphed by 4 wickets with 6 Overs to spare. Tigers thus snap a 2 match losing streak with an emphatic 4 wicket win over FWL. Piyush's return had a lot to do with our revival but in general there was a marked improvement on the field and the spirit and camaraderie had made a comeback. Teams all around the Metroplex now consider us a good team. Let us live up to that label and test Carrollton and DCC1 to the fullest. Scores: FWL - 184 all out in 34.2 overs Tigers - 185 for 6 in 34 overs.
Plano Tigers vs Plano Cubs (June 9th 2002) at Plano SW field. Here is a brief synopsis of the game: (By Srinadh) Arjun won the toss and elected to field. Tigers innings -------------- Gokul and Nitashu were the latest combination Tigers tried. Gokul was out relatively early caught behind by Sameer off Farhan, perhaps a little unlucky to be given out. Excellent partnership between Ajit and Nitashu. Tigers looked to be heading towards 250 at one stage. However another middle order collapse and some mindless batting later, Tigers were bowled out for 193 in the 37th over. The last 6 wickets fell for 34 runs. Nitashu - 72 off 58 balls, Ajit 39, Raghavan 27. Arjun picked up 4 wickets. Cubs innings ------------ Sanjay looked rusty and started by chancing his arm and trying to slog his way into form. He was moderately successful thanks to a dropped catch by Srinadh. Sameer while looking utterly at sea also managed to score 25. Sanjay was out stumped to Gokul for about 20, Sameer was caught by Srinadh in covers off Pravin for 25 and Manjush was then caught by Anil off Pravin - Anil taking a well judged catch. The score then was about 65 for 3. Chakri survived an anxious first over where he was beaten 4 balls in a row from Pravin. Thereafter a rusty Chakri who never looked in good touch and an enterprising Nikhil Kanodia completed the formalities without too much alarm. The Tigers fielding helped their cause along with several dropped catches and the ground fielding and general enthusiasm and spark was missing. Tigers turned in an utterly listless and humiliating performance in the field. The injuries to Nitashu, Rajan and Srinadh did not help much either. In the end Cubs triumphed by 6 wickets but this was an awful game of cricket where the worse side lost rather than the better side winning. I am too disappointed to analyze this defeat, too despondent to pick out the weak points, too tired to write a match report, too wiped out to write anything smarter than this. For now this will have to suffice. But the cricket we played cannot suffice in the remaining games. We will need to shake ourselves out of our slumber and fight for our lives yet again. In a couple of days, I might be able to do that. Not today. Scores: Tigers - 193 all out Cubs - 196 for 4 in 32 overs
Plano Tigers v Ismailia CC -------------------------- 40 Overs League Match (Match Report by Srinadh) --------------------- played at Lonestar Field on 6/2/2002 ------------------------------------ Shilpin won the toss and inserted the Tigers to bat. Tigers innings -------------- Raj opened the innings with Piyush. As expected Fawad started with the short stuff to both batsmen while Adil bowled a testing line and length from the other end. The short stuff did not bother Piyush or Raj for that matter too much and Tigers reached about 50 for no loss in the 10th over. It was at this stage Raj hit a full toss back into Fawad's hands. Nitashu joined Piyush who all this while was not unduly perturbed by either bowler. In fact in Fawad's second over, a boundary and a six over third man was a taste of things to come later in the innings. He made it all look very easy as he was seeing the ball so early that he had ample time to duck. Nitashu was then bowled off Amir without troubling the scorers too much to one that kept a trifle low. Ashok then joined out in the middle. Ajit was playing beautifully and timing the ball very well. He played some wonderful drives on the up, a couple of pulls and some delectable cuts. Ashok held one end up and was looking to accelerate matters when he fell. The run rate was all along hovering around 5 runs an over. After 25 overs, Tigers were 126 for 3. A score of 240 and upwards looked eminently gettable. Piyush and Ajit then cut loose. Piyush played a half pull, half flick off Fawad which cleared the mid-wicket fence for a huge six and was easily the shot of the day if not of the season! A few shots off Piyush's bat later, the score read 161 for 3 in 30 overs at the second drinks break. However Piyush fell soon after going for a big one over extra cover and finding a grateful Amin at deep extra cover. Piyush made a brilliant 67 (in 47 balls) playing both pace and spin bowling with equal ease, but particularly enjoyed taking the spinners to the cleaners. Ajit followed soon after, caught at point off Vinod for an excellent 53. The lower middle order failed to capitalize on the great work of Ajit and Piyush. Srinadh and Gokul looked to be building a partnership when Gokul played on to one from Vinod, Srinadh was caught by Salim off Shilpin as he tried to go for a six over long on and Raghavan fell soon after to Vinod. Rajan then played yet another sensible innings and remained unbeaten with 20, Pravin was run out going for a non existent single and Sangam was run out off the last ball of the innings. Tigers ended up with 221 in the allotted 40 overs. Ismailia innings ---------------- Aziz and Sunil walked out to bat. Nitashu and Rajan settled down to bowl a decent line and length. After four non eventful overs, Pravin brought Sangam in an effort to provide a breakthrough. However with the ball still very new, he went for some runs. Rajan on being brought back produced the wicket of Aziz trapped plumb in front. Sunil and Amin then put on another well crafted partnership. They ran well between the wickets and while neither looked threatening, kept the scorecard ticking away nicely. Gokul, Piyush, Rajan and Nitashu all bowled well and did not allow too many freebies. The ground fielding was good but the same cannot be said of the catching. Sunil was lucky to be let off when he hit one high in the air just behind the bowlers head. The run rate was always around 5 as needed. Gokul eventually produced a breakthrough when he had Amin bowled. Shilpin strode out to bat and looked very low on confidence. It was not long before he hit one to Nitashu off Piyush. Najmi then joined Sunil and the asking rate around this stage was 6 an over with about 75 off to get in 12 overs or so. Najmi was run out by a direct hit from a diving Srinadh at short mid wicket. Salim then joined Sunil and was very lucky to be given not out on a return catch off Nitashu. He was then let off by Sangam off Ashok and went on to compile a streaky 21. He was eventually snapped up by Nitashu caught at short mid wicket. Vinod then joined Sunil and the two attempted to get the remaining 45 runs through running singles and twos but thanks to a mix up, Srinadh kept his cool to run out Vinod at the bowler's end. Ismailia were now 6 down with 38 odd still to get in 6 overs. Tanveer then hit 13 runs off Ashok's over, the 25th of the innings. Sunil was then bowled by Sangam in the 26th over for a well made 60. Sangam bowled a great 26th over only giving 3 runs and getting Sunil out. Tigers were very much back in the game again and Amir joined Tanveer. The two hung on although with a few alarms including two dropped catches in the 27th and 28th overs. 13 needed in 2 overs and Rajan bowled a good 29th over giving away 7. 6 needed off the last over. Sangam bowled the first ball straight but a streaky push through the covers and another cover drive and a no ball later, Ismailia had managed to hang on to sneak a 3 wicket win with a mere 3 balls to spare. Ismailia an excellent team in the league huffed and puffed to a win and overcame a fighting performance by Tigers on the field. The ground fielding, Nitashu, Gokul, Piyush and Rajan's bowling, Sangam's bowling at the death and the never say die spirit were the positives. The catching left a lot to be desired. (Srinadh's ground fielding was exemplary with 2 outstanding runouts which brought Tigers back in to the game -----Pravin). All in all an excellent effort by Tigers to make Ismailia work very hard for a very close win. The winning streak ends. But nothing to be ashamed about. The better side on the day won but not before experiencing a spirited Tigers performance that has been the hallmark of the 2002 40 over season thus far.
Plano Tigers v UTD Eagles CC ---------------------------- played at Plano Russell Creek Park NE Wicket -------------------------------------------- on Sunday, 5/26 --------------- Match Report (By Srinadh) ------------ Tigers only managed to get hold of 10 people on this long weekend Sunday. Sri Baghavan captained the side on this day and upon winning the toss, decided to bat. (This was one of those rare weekends when Sri put cricket before his wife :-)) It was decided that this would be a 30 over a side affair. Tigers innings -------------- Ajit opened the innings with Raj and Tigers immediately got off to a rollicking start. Ajit looked in good touch and more importantly looked relaxed and composed. The run rate was always in the 7 an over range. Raj overcame a tentative start to provide good support to Ajit. The two put on an opening partnership of about 110 odd runs when Raj fell for 35. Ajit and Graham continued the good work. Ajit reached his fifty and looked set to get a big one but fell in a rush of blood. He made 70 excellent runs. Raghavan was unfortunate to play too early and hole out to short mid wicket. Nitashu and Graham then played out the remaining overs with Graham scoring a strokeful 52 not out and Nitashu compiling a quick 48 not out. Tigers ended up with what looked like a formidable 239 for 3 in 30 overs. UTD Eagles innings ------------------ Eagles got off to a quick start too and were at one stage 50 for no loss in 5 overs. The heavy lunch at Taco Bell combined with a lethargy that seemed infectious throughout the Tigers camp meant that Eagles were the recipients of some extraordinary generosity from the hosts which took the form of many wides, very poor short pitched bowling, long hops and lazy fielding and backing up. The only redeeming feature of this Tigers performance in the field was the catching - three by Raghavan (he also produced a crucial run out) and one each by Graham, Rajan, Ashok and Ajit. UTD Eagles came close to beating Tigers - they at one stage needed 90 runs with 4 wickets in hand with all the top order back in the hut but a spirited late order comeback aided largely by some poor cricket by Tigers meant that they needed a mere 24 runs in 24 balls with 3 wickets in hand. The equation then became 7 runs needed in 12 balls with 2 wickets remaining. And finally 3 runs needed in 11 balls. However Ajit produced a wicket in the 29th over and off the next ball, Eagles went for a suicidal run and Raghavan and Ajit combined to stop them 3 runs shy of what would have been a fitting win. However Tigers hung on barely to pocket a victory. Ajit deserves credit for stepping up to bowl with the game pretty much lost and doing a good job. Ashok took 3 crucial wickets including that of Muneeb their best batsman. Hari and Nitashu bowled relatively decent spells. Scores Tigers 239 for 3 in 30 overs UTD Eagles 237 all out in 28.3 overs The winning streak is now 5 games. But only just. Time to wake up and improve perhaps? Scorecard; Tigers Batting: Tigers Bowling (Need to get it from UTD Eagles) Raj stumped Muneeb 35/46 Ajit stumped Ijaj 69/61 Graham Not Out 52/38 Raghavan C B Naushad 0/3 Nitashu Not Out 48/25
Plano Tigers v DCC 2nd XI ------------------------- 40 Over League Game ------------------- played on 5/19/02 at Plano Russell Creek Park SW wicket ------------------------------------------------------- Match Report (By Srinadh) ------------ This was yet another do or die game for Tigers after the Googlies game in which the Tigers "did" rather than "died" :) Pravin won the toss and promptly invited DCC2 to bat. DCC2 innings ------------ Dennis and Raaz were the openers for DCC2 and they squared up against the bowling duo of Nitashu and Rajan who shared the new ball. The cool temperatures coupled with a steady breeze aided the two Tigers' opening bowlers and Rajan and especially Nitashu settled down to bowl very probing spells from both ends. The bat was beaten with regularity and finally after a couple of streaky boundaries, Dennis Vengala was castled by a beauty from Nitashu that cut in sharply to shatter the stumps. Shashi (Player of the Week when DCC2 beat Carrollton earlier) did not last long either and after surviving some close calls, played on to an express delivery from Rajan. The score now read 27 for 2. To make matters worse for DCC2, their captain and veteran campaigner Pankaj Patel was run out thanks to a terrible mix-up and Raghavan and Ajit combined to affect this crucial run out. In the matter of 10 tight overs, DCC2 were reduced to around 30 for 3 with all three top batsmen back in the hut. The pavilion was suddenly shell shocked and smart alecy comments gave way to a stunned silence. Naved and Raaz then went on to put on the best partnership of the game and were looking to repair the initial damage. They were moderately successful and a couple of bad overs ensured that the score progressed to around 100 in 27 overs. However, Gokul then struck and in the first of three excellent wickets, took out Raaz for an extremely streaky 32 caught by Rajan at shortfineleg. Naved departed soon after, playing a pull shot too early finding a gleeful Piyush stationed at mid wicket specifically for that. Cap then played a couple of good looking shots but was then taken by Piyush on the long on boundary off Rajan. Stanely was adjudged leg before to Gokul and Delroy and Vijay tried to stay put and play out 40 overs. Delroy was then run out in an outstanding effort by keeper Ajit who took an excellent return from Raghavan from deep cover and in one action threw down the stumps to find Delroy inches short of his ground. Vijay too was run out thanks to excellent presence of mind by Rajan at long on. Huda was smartly stumped by Ajit off Sangam in the last over to ensure that Tigers would not be penalized for bowling their 40 overs in a tad over the allotted 3 hours. DCC2 had been skittled out for a paltry 154 in 39.2 overs. The Tigers fielding was outstanding on this day. Three run outs were made and every catch was taken. The fielders were fired up and complemented the bowlers who turned in a magnificent performance. A special mention needs to be made of Ajit's top notch wicket keeping. Sangam bowled an excellent spell of tight offspin and Gokul bowled his 8 to return an excellent set of figures with 3/35. Nitashu returned to bowl out his 8 overs for an outstanding 18 runs. Rajan too turned in a tremendous effort bowling his 8 overs for a mere 19 runs and claiming 2 wickets. Piyush too as usual bowled 5 overs with minimum fuss and kept things quiet. Tigers innings -------------- Nitashu and Piyush opened for Tigers. Piyush carried on from where he left off against Googlies and the run riot began. The much talked about Shashi went for 21 runs in his first over. Piyush played his trademark drives and cuts and drew applause from even the DCC2 fielders for one particular shot through cover that was the shot of the day. After 6 overs, Tigers were 61 for no loss! Nitashu put his head down and concentrated hard, running well and giving the strike to his senior partner who was in a purple patch. Piyush had no less than 7 boundaries in his 35 off 27 balls when he fell to Naved bowled round his legs in a freak dismissal. Unfortunately, Ajit then fell in the same over playing a pull shot too early and scooping a simple catch to Huda at short midwicket off the toe of the bat. 68 for 2 in 8 overs. These were the only two alarms in the Tigers run chase. Piyush had done the initial damage with the carnage and thereafter Nitashu played some great shots off his legs and also in front of the wicket and was ably supported by Ashok who was his usual calm, cool and busy self. The two finished the game off in style and with minimum cause for alarm. Nitashu remaining unbeaten with a brilliant 59 including 8 hits to the fence and Ashok with a valuable 25. The target was reached with more than 18 overs and 8 wickets remaining. One can't speak for others but Tigers' Sunday was at least not wasted! An emphatic win to build on the excellent Googlies victory. The winning streak continues. The quest to prove our worth is headed in the right direction. Still a long way to go, but let us just stop and savor this moment for a while. It is special. Scores DCC2 - 154 all out in 39.2 overs Tigers - 155 for 2 in 22 overs ___________________________________________________________________
Plano Tigers v CCCC Googlies (Match Report by Srinadh) ---------------------------- 40 Over League game ------------------- played at Plano SW wicket on 5/5/02 ----------------------------------- Match Report ------------ Overnight thunderstorms and rain meant that most Tigers thought that turning up to the field was a mere formality in order to obtain the 1 point for rainout and go back home. However, what followed was a sequence of events that enabled a match to be played that at one stage looked impossible. The sun that was peeping out now and then, a strongish breeze, the determination of the two teams to play and above all, an umpire with tremendous enthusiasm and a fresh approach, Mr Kamal Merchant, combined to cause this game to be played. The two teams spent 2.5 hours to soak up the water and apply sand and at 12 noon, the two teams agreed to play a 30 over game. Murali won the toss and put the Tigers in to bat. Tigers innings -------------- Piyush and Salahuddin opened for Tigers and Piyush immediately took a liking to the Googlies' opening bowlers. The first over itself produced no less than 10 runs with two delectable shots on the off from Piyush. Unfortunately Salahuddin got a leading edge and was out relatively quickly, caught by Thiru off Sanjay. Ajit then joined Piyush and the two batted well together and ran well too. Piyush was in blazing form, playing some wonderfully wristy strokes on either side of the wicket and was causing the Googlies' think-tank to keep putting fielders on the boundary for protection. At the end of 7 overs, Tigers were 61 for 1 wicket, going at nearly 9 runs an over. However, Murali brought himself on in the 8th over and struck with his first ball, trapping Piyush in front with one that didn't turn at all. Piyush had played a very pleasing innings of 39 runs in a mere 21 balls. Teymoor joined Ajit and steadied the ship. The run rate dropped to more human levels and Tigers went to drinks with the score at 89 for 2 wickets(15 overs). All this while, Ajit was looking in good touch and was playing sensible cricket, not taking any risk but yet putting the loose ones to the maximum. Ajit was unfortunate to be bowled by Harsh after playing on and he was out for a good looking 29 runs. That wicket fell in the 18th over with the score at 93. Nitashu did not last long and was caught behind off Nadeem. Teymoor was tragically run out soon after just as he was looking to be stroking the ball well. Teymoor's runner Salahuddin was a little late in reacting to Gokul's call. Srinadh walked in to bat but Gokul fell soon after, chasing a wide delivery from Nadeem Mian for wicketkeeper Siji to take a magnificent catch. Mohan joined Srinadh and the two put on a quick partnership of 35 odd runs. Srinadh was stroking the ball well and hit a couple of boundaries and six to up the ante. He was bowled by Ankur off his third ball, playing on to be bowled, after the first two had gone for 10 runs. Srinadh scored 23 off 11 balls. The score read 135 for 7 in the 24th over. Mohan got out trying to up the run rate, caught by Murali off Nadeem. >From there on, Pravin and Rajan played some very sensible cricket, putting on a priceless 37 runs in the last 5 overs. Pravin remained unbeaten with a captain's knock of 24 while Rajan chipped in with 20 not out. Tigers ended up with 180 for 8 wickets in their allotted 30. Googlies innings ---------------- Harsh and Salil opened for Googlies. Nitashu was given the honor of bowling with the new ball and he immediately settled down to bowl an excellent line and length. Rajan too started off well. At the end of 5 overs, Googlies were restricted to 15 runs for no loss. The openers continued to play steadily and never looked in command but were not unduly troubled either but for a couple of alarms - a very difficult chance put down by Rajan off Nitashu and another one put down by Sala. After 11 overs, Googlies were 54 for no loss. The game was still in the balance at this stage with all 10 wickets in hand for Googlies, but the asking rate creeping up slowly. While the openers were regulary getting beaten by Nitashu and Rajan's pace, they were taking no risks and were trying to see off the pace bowlers. At this stage Pravin brought in Sangam to break the opening pair and Sangam indeed struck in the 12th over when he got Salil to play one too early and tap an easy return catch back to a delighted Sangam. Ankur Kapoor was sent in as a "pinch hitter" and he along with Harsh played till the 17th over when the score was 91. Again the game was still very close. All this while Sangam, Mohan and Gokul were doing a decent job with the ball keeping the extras down and not letting any big hits. The asking rate was now 7 an over. Gokul then struck, getting Harsh to hit straight to Sangam stationed at short mid wicket. This was a big wicket. Siji did not last long and was trapped plumb in front by Mohan. 93 for 3 in the 18th. In walked Murali and along with Ankur immediately played some sensible cricket and two were ticking along the score safely. This is when Pravin brought in the 'secret weapon' (Piyush) to bowl in the the 24th over, in which he only gave 3 runs and right away frustrated both batsmen. The score read 144 in the 25th over. A mere 37 runs were required in 5 overs with 7 wickets still standing. Piyush and Mohan were now bowling. In a very eventful 26th over, Srinadh produced a run out from deep mid wicket when the batsmen hesitated with the second run, a straight throw from the fielder and good take from Salahuddin found Ankur short of his ground. In the same over, Piyush clean bowled Murali and the game now tilted back in Tigers favour. From 144 for 3, Googlies were 149 for 5 after 26 overs. 32 runs required off 24 balls. Mohan bowled yet another impeccable 27th over and limited Googlies to 3 runs and also got Srini clean bowled. 29 now needed off 3 overs and the tension within the Googlies camp was palpable. Another miserly over from Piyush in which he also ran Rohit out with a direct hit meant that the task had become difficult for Googlies. Piyush had only conceded 10 runs in his 3 overs at the death with 1 crucial wicket of Murali and a run out. Googlies were left with the herculean task of getting 26 off the last 12 balls. Mohan and Piyush then wrapped up this win for Tigers with the last two overs only producing 8 runs. Tigers had won by 17 runs! A facile win by Tigers thanks to a great effort by Piyush, Mohan, Nitashu (6 overs for only 22 runs) with all the bowlers sticking to a good length and some excellent fielding. The Tigers were charged on the field - every wicket was celebrated with unusual fanfare and spirit. After the two losses to Googlies last year in the league, this was a sweet win. This was a 100% team effort and the whole team contributed to this victory. Thanks to Raghavan for subbing for teymoor and he did a wonderful job in the outfield showing yet again that he was a complete team man as was Raj who was his usual encouraging, helpful self during the tense final overs. A special thanks to Piyush for coming all the way from Tulsa. He is one hell of an addition to the Tigers' lineup. This match report would be incomplete without a mention of the excellent umpiring of Mr Kamal Merchant who was not only firm, fair and professional but also a wonderful person to interact with. His fresh approach of encouraging both teams to work on the field and get it ready to play should not be forgotten. Nadeem Haroon also did a good job as umpire. Scores: Tigers 180 for 8 in 30 overs Googlies 163 for 7 in 30 overs _______________________________________________________
Brief scores and highlights (Match Report by Srinadh) -------------------------- Plano Tigers v United CC played at Lonestar field on 4/27 --------------------------------------------------------- United CC won the toss and batted first in a 30 over game. United CC innings ----------------- None of the United batsmen got big scores but several got into their 20's and a couple of them into their 30's. Until around the 22nd over or so, Tigers had the run rate in check but then the fielding went from lethargic to pathetic and the bowling wilted a bit too. A few expensive overs between overs 22 and 30, ensured that Tigers would be chasing yet another stiff target and yet another target that could have been at least 30 runs fewer with some sensible fielding and slog over bowling. It really is time we learnt this. A redeeming feature of the Tigers fielding was the catches that were held - Raghu held two, Chetan had one in the slips and Sangam had a good catch at cover. Good bowling from Sangam as usual, Rajan and Sri chipped in with 3 wickets and bowled well for 4 of his 5 overs. Pravin bowled a good line and length and Chetan did an adequate job in his overs. Tigers innings -------------- Chetan and Raj was the latest combination that Tigers tried in this game. Chetan made a positive start and looked to be stroking the ball well, a six off Siva being the highlight of his cameo. However, he was a little unfortunate to get out to a high full toss (could have been a marginal no-ball call), hitting to cover in the air for Raghu (substitute) for pick up his third catch of the day. Raj followed not too much later, picking out the long on fielder in an attempt to go over the top. Nitashu did not last long either and was stumped off Ayaz. Ajit and Srinadh came together in the 11th over with the score reading around 44 for 3 wickets. Looking at the mounting asking rate, the two then stepped up the tempo and ran well between the wickets. The two put on a half century partnership in quick time. A few boundaries and a couple of sixes eased the pressure considerably. (While Ajit was still trying to find his timing, Srinadh played aggressively to keep the required run rate from going above 8. He was timing the ball well and played one of the two crucial partnerships of the day, giving resepct to the good balls and putting away the rest... Pravin) Srinadh departed with the score around 95 in the 18th over. Raghu fell to an uppish shot trying to clear long on. Raghavan and Ajit then complied another excellent partnership and batted for about 8 or 9 overs getting 7 or 8 runs every over. They ran well between the wickets and also put away the loose ones to the maximum. Raghavan lost his wicket in a bid to keep up with the mounting asking rate for a well made 31. Ajit then cut loose and hit two sixes in the 28th over which all but settled the issue. Graham was Ajit's partner at the death. Ajit remained unbeaten on an excellent 77 inclusive of 3 sixes and about 4 boundaries. The important thing was that he stayed till the end and finished the job. He kept on talking to the batsman at the other end and was on the ball all the time. This is a welcome return to form for him ahead of the important league games. Once again the Tigers pulled off a win from behind sharing a stiff target. A pleasing win even if we need to work on a few things with the fielding and bowling at the death.
Tigers beat Hawks by 6 wickets on Saturday under lights! Summary of Plano Tigers vs Hawks (D/N match, April,20, 2002) by Srinadh. Brief scores: ------------ Hawks scored 186 all out in 28.3 overs. (Excellent bowling from Salahuddin (4 wickets) and Sangam (2 wickets for very few runs) and good support by Ashok, Rajan. Ajit had 2 wickets in his 3 overs. Raghavan, Hari and Saurabh were the other bowlers. Catches taken by Teymoor, Rajan and two very good catches by Srikanth. Srinadh had a direct hit run out too :) For Hawks, Shoaib, Muneeb and Ausaaf were the main scorers. Tigers 187 for 4 in 28.2 overs: Salahuddin scored a beautiful 87. Excellent support from Ashok (33 off 28 balls - coming at one down) and Teymoor (28 off 20 or so balls). (Thanks to Saurabh for running for Teymoor - he did an excellent job). These three guys almost single handedly won the game for us. The Sala-Ashok and Sala-Teymoor partnerships made the difference. Ajit and Srinadh completed the formalities at the end. Hawks had about 7 of their regular guys. So all in all a very pleasing win. Scorecard: Tigers Batting Tigers Bowling O M R W Graham Bowled Teymoor 0/1 Rajan 4.4 0 28 0 Sal Bld Teymoor 87/75 Ashok 5 0 21 1 Ashok Bld Ashif 33/29 Saurabh 1 0 12 0 Teymoor C B Chika 27/25 Raghavan 2 0 20 0 Ajit Not Out 4/3 Salahuddin 3 0 11 1 Srinadh Not Out 4/1 * 1 Hawks runout was caused by Srinadh -----------------------------------------------------------
Plano Tigers v Metroplex CC Match Report written by Srinadh. --------------------------- ------------------------------- 40 Overs League game -------------------- played at Plano SW wicket on 4/14 --------------------------------- Result: Plano Tigers (160 for 7 in 40 overs) lost to Metroplex CC (243 for 5 in 40 overs) by 83 runs Tigers won the toss and elected to field with the outfield still wet from rain on Saturday afternoon. Metroplex CC innings -------------------- Sameer and Bhikhu opened the batting for Metroplex. Rajan and Pravin shared the new ball. The openers never looked threatening but were not too troubled by the new ball bowlers either. Rajan and Pravin began a little cold and were having trouble with the slippery run up and that resulted in a few too many wides. The fielding was not inspiring either. In the ninth over of the innings, Nitashu was brought on and he struck soon after taking out Bhikhu with one that beat the batsman for pace. The opening partnership had put on 48 runs which were not very convincing but counted all the same. Anil strode in to bat and almost looked like a replica of our own Anil :-) Anil survived some close calls and eventually went on to build a partnership with Sameer. The two put on 60 runs in the next 14 overs and this was the period when Nitashu, Ashok, Mohan and Gokul bowled a tight length and kept the score under check. In the 24th over, Ashok got rid of Anil caught by Mohan at cover. Sameer departed in the very next over caught by Pravin in the covers off Gokul. The score at that point read 120 in 25 overs with the game still wide open. >From then on, Uday and Vasu and then Patil accelerated matters, ran well between the wickets and were the recipients of some largesse on the part of the Tigers bowlers and fielders. Fielding was very lax and a a handful of expensive overs undid the good work of earlier. Gokul bowled an excellent spell giving away only 38 runs in his 8 and add to that two wickets. (Salahuddin held an excellent catch off him). Mohan was his steady and accurate self and Ashok did a good job too. Metroplex ended up with 243 in their allotted 40. This was at least 50 runs in excess of what they should have got. The main culprit was the number of extras - no fewer than 45! And too many misfields, lethargic fielding, poor throwing and backing up all contributed to this. Tigers innings -------------- Graham and Salahuddin looked to be building an innings when both got out in the same over hitting the ball straight into fielders' hands. The score after 7 overs read 32 for 2. To make matters worse, Nitashu was done in by a direct hit by Uday from mid-on and was run out in a close decision. 37 for 3 in the 8th. Ajit did not last long either, picking out the point fielder in a lapse of concentration. 43 for 4 in 14 overs with the required run rate climbing up and wickets falling thick and fast. Anil then took a painful blow on his hand (X-rays revealed a cracked bone and he is out for 2 to 3 months unfortunately) and had to retire. Srinadh then was run out in a mix up and shortly thereafter Gokul perished for a quick 17 off 14 balls. At 72 for 7 it looked as if Tigers would not even last 25 overs. Ashok and Rajan then batted for 19 overs and enjoyed themselves showing the top order that with a little bit of common sense and resolve, there was nothing special in the Metroplex bowling. Ashok remained unbeaten on 51 off only 43 balls while Rajan made 38 well crafted runs. Tigers ended up 83 runs short. None of the batsmen got out to good balls. It was a spineless display by the batsmen. Lack of partnerships, lack of application and resolve. They will need to pull up their socks quite a bit for the ensuing games. One lesson to be learnt is that Metropex managed 243 runs with the top score being 48! That tells us that we don't need fifties and hundreds from everyone to win. All it takes is for 3 or 4 batsmen to cross 30 and one or two to cross 40 and we have a decent score. Tigers will need to learn quickly from their mistakes and bounce back in the next league game. -----------------------------------------------
Tigers Vs Ismailia CC Saturday, March 23th, 2002 Match brief: This Friendly match was arranged at the last minute on Friday and we managed to scrape together 11 players in the end. Ismailias were dying to play and so did we to get 20 of our guys play a match this weekend. We managed to organise saturday afternoon match against Ismailia and sunday game against FWL. Chetan as many of you know has a wonderful attitude and is always agreeable and is always a game so long as he can be on cricket field. Chetan led the Tigers in this match and he had to borrow a few guys from the UTD Eagles team to make 11 for this match organised at last minute. Chetan won the toss and elected to Bat first. Graham and Chetan the batting and had a very solid start, nicely rotating strikes and being careful about not risking runouts. The first wicket fell at 40 when Chetan was out for 20 in about that many bowls. He mostly gave strike to Graham who was able to build a tidy innings of 45 runs when he finaly got out. This was a good innings by Graham and allowed him to regain much needed confindence as he started playing for us after a couple of years break. Next batsmen to go in were UTD Eagles players and this was not their lucky day. Aasif is a very talented Batsman, but today he went in during slog overs and was not able to make his usual big score. Many wickets were lost trying to slog as there were not many overs left. In the end Tigers scored 140 in 25 overs. All throughout the Tiger's innings Ismailia players were trickling in. They went from only 9 to 15 over the 2 hour period. Towards the end of Tiger's Batting they had their full regular team while Tigers were missing more than half of their regular players today. Ismailia with their full Batting strength did not find this total very difficult to surpass. Although Tigers bowled well and managed to get 5 of their Batsmen out. Nitashu who had come in to collect the Kit bag for Sunday's game couln't resist bowling. He ended up bowling a very tight 5 overs along with very good bowling by Chetan, Saurabh and Raghawan. It was a good outing and opprotunity to get some practice for most Tigers. -----------------------------------------------
Tigers Vs Fortworth Lions March 24th, 2002 Match Report to follow soon: Highlights: FWL won the toss and decided to Bat first. FWl score: 234 in 40 overs. Fisaal Akthar and Waquar (the wrecker) were the main scorers. Both scored around 50 runs each. This was Captain Raes's comeback match. Raes has been playing for many years for FWL and is a excellent cricketer. But his timing was not quite there and was bowled by Pravin at 15. Tigers Batting: 205 for 9 in 35 overs. Sangam was retired hurt and Anil had to leave due to emergency so we ran out of batsman otherwise we were on our way to vicotry. Gokul and Nitashu had a great batting partnership in the middle. The Early batsmen failed to have a good start. Salahuddin, Kal and Ajit were out cheaply. If not for Nitashu and Gokul's long partnership match would have been over early. But in the end we came close to winning. Gokul also bowled well and so did all the other bowlers. Rajan and Nitashu bowled from south end with the wind very well. Vikas and Pravin also bowled well each taking two wickets bowling against the wind. The bowl was cutting in nicely and so I bowled around the wicket for this match. Gokul started from north against the wind and that didn't work well. So I brough in Ajit for one over to allow Gokul to change the sides. Ajit has worked out in the past as change bowler, but today this gamble didnot work. Waquar and Faisal put him away for 20 runs, mainly because of the wind. The outfield was so slow that even with small boundary it was hard to hit fours. Sixers were easier. Raghu played for us after a break and for a while he was rotating the strike really well and giving strike to Gokul. But he was handicapped by a small bat for his height and a ball sneaked under his bat to the stumps. Scorecard: Tigers Batting: Tigers Bowling : (Need scorecard from FWL) Kal Bowled Jawad 1/11 Sal c B Kamran 2/11 Nitashu ? 72/64 Ajit c B Arif 15/28 Raghu Bowled Jawad 8/10 Gokul Bowled Jawad 56/ Srinadh C B Jawad 5/6 Vikas C B Jawad 0/1 Pravin Not Out 6/6 Rajan bowled Adil 14/11 ---------------------------------------------
Tigers Vs Caroltton CC March 10th, 2002 Match Report to follow soon. Brief summary: Zahid Bheda won the toss and decided to Bat first. This was the match where Tigers didnot have the full team. I came into hand the Ball and leave, but ended up playing. Carrolton put on 189 for 9 in 30 overs. Main run getters were their Captain Zahid, and of all the people their Wicket Keeper who usually doesnot get a chance to Bat, made some quick runs in the slogovers. Allen who was dropped once made about 25 runs. Nadeem Haroon who normaly piles on runs for Carollton, was cheaply scalped by Nitashu (clean Bowled). Their opening batsman was cought by Pravin at deep square leg off Saurabh. Zahid was cought by Nitashu at deep midwicket off Chetan's bowling. And finaly Allen was cought by Pravin off Mohan's last over. In the end Caroltton made 234 for loss of 9 wkts. Plano Tigers were chasing 189 in 30 overs, requiring close to 6 runs/over. Salahuddin and Graham opened the batting for Tigers. Graham was first to fall in second over lbw. Kal joined Sal when Sal got out after scoring some 20 runs. Now Ajit went into join Kal and they rotated strikes and scored some 20 runs together. There were some quick triples ran by the two. Then Ajit gave a simple catch to short midwicket and was out for 15 runs. He stood there for a full minute starring at midwicket fielder, not beliveing what had just happend. Nitashu now joined Kal and they were playing steady but at a snail's pace. Nitashu was being distracted from the task on hand by the Carollton's wicketkeeper-cum-comedian. The Batsmen were scoring at 4 runs an over when the required run rate kept on climbing. At 16 overs score read only 64 runs. The required runrate climbed to 11 runs. Finaly Kal started to go after the ball and lost his wicket in the process. He was followed by Chetan, who was now forced to hit out because of required run rate and he perished trying to slog for no fault of his. Nitashu got holed up at long on at score of 35. Then Saurabh and Mohan tried to make the runs. Mohan actually was connecting well and scoring at 12 to 15 runs an over. Then finally 24 runs were needed in last 2 overs when Mohan got out. Tigers were all out for 163 in 28 overs. Scorecard: Tigers Batting: Bowling: O M R W Graham 1/5 Rajan 6 0 37 4 Sal 9/19 Nitashu 5 0 31 0 Kal 21/44 Sangam 5 1 32 0 Ajit 17/22 Mohan B 5 0 32 1 Nitashu 29/29 Chetan 3 0 11 2 Anil 2/4 Saurabh 3 0 24 0 Chetan 5/7 Pravin 1 0 7 0 Rajan 7/4 *Mohan B 34/13? *Saurabh 1/1? *Sangam 16/7? *Scorer (Sangam mixed up last 3 batsmen) ---------------------------------------------
Tigers kick off 2002 season with exciting win (Match Report by Srinadh) --------------------------------------------- Plano Tigers v Hill Country Cricket Association ----------------------------------------------- Played at Plano SW Wicket ------------------------- Feb 24 2002 ----------- Pravin won the toss and elected to field first given Tigers' penchant for chasing well. The windy conditions also added to that decision. Hill Country CA Innings ----------------------- Rajan (playing his first match in several months) and Pravin opened the bowling for Tigers. The two openers survived a couple of close calls and looked to be getting their eye in and were beginning to run some quick singles between the wickets. Rajan was looking close to his best in phases. Pravin struck in the fourth over, trapping Amit in front of the wicket. Thereafter, Ruchir, their No. 3 batsman and Paddy, other other opener build a long partnership and paced their innings beautifully. Without taking any risks, they ran wonderfully well between the wickets and kept the scoreboard ticking. This was a great lesson for Tigers to learn on how to build a score without really taking any risks whatsoever. Both reached their respective fifties. At the half way mark, the score read around 114 for 1. Eventually, Ajit who bowled a good line and length had Ruchir stumped with the score reading around 140 odd. Shortly thereafter, Saurabh took an excellent catch in the deep to get rid of Paddy off Gokul. Thereafter, Sanjay Singh played a cameo and the others around him contributed their bit and Hill Country ended up with 236 for 6 off the allotted 40 overs. Gokul and Ajit did a great job cutting the flow of runs in the middle overs. Tigers didn't do too much wrong on the field other than bowling too many no-balls and their failure to block off those singles and twos. Tigers innings -------------- Salahuddin and Chetan opened the innings. Chetan looked to be stroking the ball well but touched one down the leg into the hands of the keeper in the third over. Nitashu, reverting back to his regular Number 3 position kept Salahuddin company and the two played sensibly seeing off some hostile bowling from Shuja. They played themselves in and built a good partnership. Salahuddin especially played some delectable late cuts and slashes over point. In the 20th over with the score reading 100 for 1, Salahuddin was adjudged leg before for a well compiled 33 off 48 balls. From here on, Tigers needed 7 an over to win. Ajit and Nitashu then tried to step the tempo up and put on around 25 runs when Ajit hit down the throat of deep mid wicket in a lapse of concentration. Gokul then joined Nitashu and they too put on 20 odd before Nitashu was caught behind for 39 runs. The score at that stage read 140. Gokul and Srinadh then put on a 50 partnership in the next 7 overs. Gokul played a great knock, farming the strike and putting away the loose ones to the maximum. Srinadh departed in the 33rd over with the score at 190 odd. The asking rate was between 6 and 7. Gokul finally departed for an excellent 46 off 38 balls in the 36th over with the score at 210 odd. Rajan (15 off 14 balls), Pravin (7 not out off 6 balls) and especially Saurabh (14 not out off 11 balls) then held their nerve to secure the thrilling win in the last over. Scores Hill Country Cricket Association --> 236 for 6 in 40 overs Plano Tigers --> 237 for 7 in 39.2 overs Postscript: An excellent win to kick off the new season. We need to cut down the no balls and wides, field better and run better between the wickets. But all in all, a pleasing win. Thanks to Vikas for getting the Pizza. Everyone is reminded (yours truly included) to get their $5 into Vikas the next time they see him! Full Scorecard: Plano Tigers Vs Hill Country CC Match Played At Plano Russelcreek Park (South West), 24-Feb-2002, Friendly 40 Overs Plano Tigers Win by 6 wickets Toss won by Plano Tigers Hill Country CC 1st Innings 6/236 (Overs 40) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Amit lbw b Pravin Amin 12 0 0 0 Paddy* c Saurabh b G Subramanium 55 0 0 0 Ruchir st Srikanth b A Ranade 54 0 0 0 Abhi not out 14 0 0 0 Anuj c Pravin Amin b G Subramanium 1 0 0 0 Amol b H Reddy 27 0 0 0 S Singh b R Rajan 23 0 0 0 Majad dnb - U Shuja not out 4 0 0 0 extras (b6 lb9 w20 nb11) 46 TOTAL 6 wickets for 236 Bowler O M R W wd nb R Rajan 8 0 43 1 4 2 Pravin Amin 6 0 26 1 1 - Nitashu 8 0 54 0 2 6 G Subramanium 8 0 28 2 2 - A Ranade 5 0 34 1 6 - Salahuddin 2 0 17 0 1 - H Reddy 3 0 17 1 - - Plano Tigers 1st Innings 7/237 (Overs 40) Batsman Fieldsman Bowler Runs Bls 4s 6s Salahuddin lbw b S Singh 33 48 6 0 Chetan c ? b Sanjay 3 5 0 0 Nitashu c ? b Amol 39 84 1 0 A Ranade c ? b Amol 12 12 1 0 G Subramanium c ? b Amol 46 38 5 0 Srinadh run out 13 19 0 0 R Rajan c ? b Amit 15 14 0 0 Saurabh not out 14 11 1 0 Pravin Amin* not out 7 7 0 0 extras (b2 lb11 w26 nb16) 55 TOTAL 7 wickets for 237 FOW FOW FOW 1-0 2-0 3-0 4-0 5-0 6-0 7-0 Bowler O M R W wd nb Sanjay 4 0 24 1 - - U Shuja 8 0 34 0 - - S Singh 8 0 25 1 - - Paddy 8 0 61 0 - - Amol 8 0 37 3 - - Amit 4 0 34 1 - - ---------------------------------------
Practice session: Feb 17th sunday 10am-1pm. We had another good turn out for this practice session with fielding and catching drills. About 15 people turned up for this. And I would like to thank Arun Vittala of DCC to come down for this practice and coaching our youngsters and giving excellent tips to all the players (both bowling, batting and running between the wickets). As some of you know Arun has been around on Dallas Cricket Scene for almost 20 years and contributed heavily towards the growth of cricket here. Before moving to Dallas he played in Ranji Trophy in India.
Plano Tigers v United CC (Match Report by Srinadh) ------------------------ played at Lewisville Lake, Sunday, Feb. 10 2002 ----------------------------------------------- Match report ------------ As I was driving to the ground at around 9 am in the morning, the weather forecast on the Radio Station warned people from venturing near the city's lakes as strong gusts of 25mph were predicted and temperatures would feel like below freezing due to that. Sure enough, when we reached the ground which is located on the banks of Lake Lewisville, it felt like we were in the Arctic circle! Pravin won the toss and elected to take first strike. I am not sure he could have got 11 people to come and field even if he had decided to field! With the others huddled in Anil's van, Chetan and Graham trooped out to bat. Tigers innings -------------- We lost Chetan (bowled), Graham (run out) and Hari (bowled) in the first 3 overs. Raj (17) and Srinadh (23) then went about repairing some of the initial damage and building a semblance of a score. They batted for the next 9 overs which produced about 50 runs when both departed in similar fashion - bowled by Shams off extremely slow deliveries due to the bowler bowling against the wind. Salahuddin then furthered the score along. Salahuddin departed in a bid to up the scoring as did Vikas. Anil then hit a few boundaries, while others around him (Pravin and Srikanth) perished in a bid to slog and Tigers ended up with a modest 118 in the allotted 25 overs. United Innings -------------- United began in circumspect fashion and lost Rizwan relatively early - struck in front of the wicket off Vikas. Vikas then remained in the limelight by running out United's Number 3 batsman in a brilliant pick up and throw. The score then was 29 off about 6 overs. Ayaz then hit a big ones before he departed caught by Salahuddin. Saurabh settled down to bowl a good length after proving expensive initially and eventually scalped the wicket of the United Number 5, caught behind by Srikanth. However from then on, United upped the ante and despite losing another wicket, with Saurabh claiming a good catch at long on, United strolled to a win with about 5 overs to spare. Vikas showed definite signs of being back to his best. Pravin was accurate in his tow overs. Sangam, Saurabh and Salahuddin bowled well in parts. Scores Tigers --> 118 for 9 in 25 overs United --> 119 for 5 in 20 overs Postscript: Between innings, we had a sandwich spread and that was the highlight of the day. Far from being ideal weather for a picnic, it still was a grand success. Thanks to Raj, Hari, Sangam, Pravin and Srinadh for providing the raw materials and to Anil for use of his van as pavilion cum restaurant at lunch time!
Plano Tigers Practice session ------------------------ played at Russelcreek Park NW pitch, Saturday, Feb. 02 2002 ----------------------------------------------- There was a comprehensive Practice session with intensive Fielding and Catch practice drills on Saturday afternoon. For cathing Tennis balls were used to eliminate chances of injury but still have the same benefits as a cricket ball. Srinadh managed the fielding and catching drills with help from Sangam and others. Gokul also gave pointers to good fielding tips and helped with the drills. This was followed by regular Batting and Bowling session coordinated by Raj. 18 players participated in this exhaustive practice session. It was very well conducted and the turnout was high and everybody really enjoyed. There will be more of this, hopefully every other weekend or once every three weeks at least during the early part of the season.
Plano Tigers vs Tyler CC **Match Report ** January 27th, 2002, Sunday Russell Creek Park, Plano 30 over friendly match Pravin won the toss and decided to bat first. Tigers again decided to experiemnt and send bowlers up the batting order with not good results this time. Salahuddin, Pravin, Sangam, Raj and Anil all got out cheaply and Tigers were 5 wickets down in just 20 runs. Then Ajit and Nitashu came to bat and it was another story. Siji from Collin cnty was snooping around to bat as a 12th player in the team. He along with Vinay, Chetan, Madhu, Graham and rest were today expecting to bat as the wickets were falling at regular intervals. But Ajit and Nitashu had different plans today. They played very sensibly pacing their innings, not taking any chances and playing along the grounds. They played like this for 10 overs with 5 runs an over. Once their eyes were set, they started to gently accelerate the scores, with further acceleartion in last 6 overs at 9 or 10 runs an over. They took the final score to 210 runs in 30 overs. With Ajit scoreing 96 runs missing his maiden century just by 4 runs. And Nitashu scored 74 runs. Both were unbeaten at the end. Graham had to remove his pads after being padded up for 20 overs. Tyler started their innings in a quick fire manner as they were chasing 210 runs in 30 overs at 7 runs an over. Paresh and Bikhu open the batting scoring at 6 runs an over. Nitashu got the first break getting Bikhu cought behind. But Tyler continued at brisk pace with Uday joining Paresh at the other end. Pravin brought Sangam in earlier than normal to rein-in the Batsman. The trick worked and Sangam got Uday clean bowled. Tyler kept loosing wickets every 20 to 25 runs. In the end they put up a brave effort to chase Tiger's 210 runs, but fell short by 17 runs and Tigers won this well deseved vicotry in a very friendly environemnent. The match was played in a very cordial tension free atmosphere. Raj, Thanks for organising Pizza lunch.
Plano Tigers vs Collin Googly/Gulley **Match Report ** January 20th, 2002, Sunday Russell Creek Park, Plano 25 over friendly match Tigers lost the toss were put to field by Collin cnty Captain Harsh. This was the day Pravin had decided to experiment and have batsmen do the bowling and Bowlers do the batting. As the fate would have it that was not to be. Tigers started pace attack with Vikas and Nitashu. Nitashu got early break with Rajesh slashing a shorter pitch bowl to covers where Pravin took a running catch. Shailin who is a very good batsman came in place of Rajesh with all intentions to get down to scoring quick runs. But that was not to be. Vikas bowled excellent short of good lentgh bowl that sent Shailin's Off stump cartwheeling down the south end of the pitch. That brought Siji into bat. And Siji is never in hurry. He decided to hunker down and built a solid base of Collin Cnty's innings. He had a good partner in Shahjahan on the other end who also was batting sensibly. Two of them dried up the wickets for Tigers. Hari replaced Vikas and Sangam came in place of Nitashu. Sangam got the run rate slow down for a bit. But now Siji was getting into run gathering mode. To stem the runs Pravin brought Gokul on the other end. AFter 1st shaky over Gokul got down to the business of controlling the batsmen and got a wicket in his second over. Things got a bit under control and then Gokul had to leave as he was just filling in place of Rajan who got called to work at the last minute. After the change of batting ends Salahuddin was brought into bowl at half time against the wind. Collin cnty batsmen were just waiting for the second half to bat with the wind and decided to start slogging except for Siji who was still playing good cricketing shots. The second spells of medimum pacers and spinners did not bring any relief. And the runs were flowing away and at the end of their innings they made a huge score of 205 runs in just 25 overs. Tigers were facing a uphill battle looking at more than 8 runs an over in 25 overs to chase. But Tigers decided that we will give them a fight and not give the game away. Salahuddin and Chetan opened the Batting with decent start but run rate was short of what was needed. Chetan who played his maiden innings has good temporament and good selection of shots. He looked good at the pitch but was beaten by the extra pace due to wind. Nitashu went one down and started to score runs but run rate was still only about 5 runs an over. Sal got out after scoring 20 runs and total was 45 runs in 9 overs. That is when Pravin decided to promote himself in the batting order and go in to bat in 9th over. The collin cnty guys at this time were jubilient and were teasing us that only 10 runs an over is required for the remaining 16 overs. Little did they know that we had decided to NOT GIVE UP no matter how tough the task looked. Nitashu and Pravin were rotating strikes and then in 11th over Pravin asked Nitashu to start accelerating the score, which Nitashu promptly did. He scored quick 25 runs and fell to Shahjanh in a good catch held by Harsh at midwicket. Score was 85 in 14 overs. Vikas came in his place and as usual started to play aggresively. Unfortunately he was runout and Pravin asked Srinadh to come in who had just come in to watch the match for a hour or so. Score was 110 runs when Srinadh came into bat. Pravin and Srinadh talked and decided that we are not going to give up no matter what. Pravin tried to give strike to Srinadh as much as possible. Srinadh started to hit fours and sixers. SCore was going up by 10 runs an over for 5 overs. Then 15 run an over and one 20 run over. At this point Pravin had started to hit out also. In the last 3 overs Harsh brought in slow bowlers and scored slowed down to 7 runs an over and Tigers fell short by just 10 runs. Final Tigers score was 195 runs in 25 overs. With Srinadh scoring around 57 runs and Pravin around 30. ________________________
Plano Tigers vs Collin Cnty CC **Match Report ** Jan 13, 2002, Sunday Russell Creek Park, Plano 25 over friendly match Scores: Tigers: 169 in 25 overs. Salahuddin 25 runs, Raj 25 runs, Nitashu 25 runs. Sangam: 3 wckts. Pravin : 1 wckt. Collinn cnty: 171 in 23 overs. ***Help*** I need a detailed match...Any Volunteers ? ****
Plano Tigers vs Plano Cubs **Match Report by Raj** December 9, 2001, Sunday Russell Creek Park, Plano 27 over friendly match Tigers won the toss and chose to bat on this nippy Sunday morning. But the dazzling sun was out and breeze was dying down. Between 25 and 30 overs toss, it was decided to play a 27 over match. Nitashu and Raj opened the inning having Raj bat without a runner first time after the summer. While Navin bowled sharp good length spot balls, Mohan Sayani bowled rising deliveries with the new ball. However, both Tigers dug in defending well and taking runs mostly on the off side to build a strong partnership of 85 runs. At this point, Raj walked out on captain's call at 30, plus he was tired running. Kal Krishnan joined Nitashu who was at 41. Kal did well to rotate strike to let Nitashu face most of the balls while Nitashu unleashed his hitting all over. For the first half of the 27-overs, he batted carefully partnering with Raj, but turned into a menacing man to the bowlers in the last 10 overs striking and timing well and also taking doubles with excellent running between the wicket with Kal. Nitashu reached his century mark in the 26th over. His unbeaten 103 and Kal not out at 17 (including a six over long on boundry) capitalized on the steady opening partnership to build up 169 in 27 overs for no loss. With an asking run rate of 6.3, Sanjay and Kishore started Cub's inning. Nitashu after his unbeaten century didn't really rest much and was back in full swing attacking with the new ball. Sanjay wanted to not go under any pressure and was swinging from the first ball he faced. But he edged a rising ball to give an airy catch. Keeper Gopal ran well behind the slip region to judge an excellent catch. Nitashu's sharp deliveries on the off-side did the trick again and got a nick off of the next batsman Ravi's bat to be caught behind. (Both regularly open for cubs, and were gone in first two overs). With two regular batsmen sent back, Tigers were heavy on the Cubs in early overs. Third wicket was gone when Raghu took a good one-handed catch at mid-on off Pravin's delivery, which he made look like plucking a cherry off the tree. Kishore was however batting confidently playing his strokes when he lifted one in long-off area to be caught in the safe hands of Nitashu at 29. Tigers struck early with catches-win-the-matches effort to dispatch top 4 batsmen back to pavilion at 60 when Nagi dug in for a long inning . Sanagm bowled tricky to take two wickets in two successive deliveries and made it one-sided game. Finaly Nagi's long innings came to end when he was well stumped by Gopal off Pravin's delviery. After that tailenders were scooped up by Kal, Hari and Hemanth. With Nagi's hard worked 48 and Kishore's 29, Cub's 11th wicket fell at 144. Tigers won handsomely never letting go their tight grip over Cubs either in batting, bowling or fielding. Nitashu's outstanding man-of the-match performance with his unbeaten 103 and two top wickets, Raj's 30, Kal's fast partnership in slogging overs, Gopal's excellent catches and stumping, Sangam's sharp bowling attack were the highlights in the team effort to have such a resounding performance in all the areas. Tigers Batting: 169/27ovrs for loss. Nitashu 103*, Raj 30*, Kal 17* Tigers Bowling: 2 wickets each by Nitashu, Sangam, Pravin and Hemanth. 1 wicket each by Kal and Hari. Catches: 1 each by Raghu and Nitashu and 2 catches and 2 stumpings by Gopal. ______________________
Plano Tigers versus Irving CC. (Match Report written by: Raj Badoni) Nov-25, 2001, Sunday Russell Creek Park, Plano Southwest pitch 30-overs friendly match Pravin and Raj somehow scrapped through till last minute to bring 11 guys together on this Thanksgiving Sunday including two guys from Plano Cubs. ICC won the toss and we were put to bat on this gorgeous day picking more wind from south by the afternoon. We lost Raj early hitting an overpitched ball at short mid-wicket where Jimmy stopped it and fumbled through to catch it just above the ground. Gopal joined in and was soon caught behind on a rising ball taking the edge off the bat's shoulder. Tigers were 2 down quickly when Gokul walked in. He started off very confidently with a high strike rate while Ashwajeet was playing tentative seeing two wickets fall so soon. Just when Gokul seemed to connect so well specially on leg side, he flicked one off his leg only to be caught behind at 14. Naveen joined Ashwajeet and the two took the inning to the 15th over at 69. Ashwajeet was digging in with two's and one's and looked good for a long inning when he was caught out at 23. First over after the break had Prakash bowled! This is when Pravin walked in with a determination that was soon to become the best part of Tiger's inning. Navin wasn't bothered by fall of top order wickets and continued in his aggressive approach. His partnership with Ashwajeet and now with Pravin looked good to go through the last overs when he pulled at long on to be caught at 21. Score read 92 for 6 and still 10 overs to go!! Sangam joined Pravin and they put on some brave and well taken 50 runs for the 7th wicket! Pravin played a captain's knock unbeaten at 47 (highest score) playing carefully not to lose his wicket and pushing the ball through point and slip region in last 10 overs for one's and two's along with two boundaries. Sangam supported very well rotating the strike in his 20 runs. Hemanth ran for Pravin when he got tired and was instrumental in doubling up and taking cheeky singles with Sangam. Pravin hit a beautifully timed six over the mid-wicket boundary to add 19 runs in last 2 overs with Hari. The 5th wicket(Prakash) fell at 82 when Pravin walked in and he stayed put to double it to 161 (for 8) with Naveen, Sangam and Hari. Jimmy and Shailesh started ICC's inning aggressively making very quick runs. With many extras included, they pulled off a solid 77 in 11 overs when Shailesh was bowled by a beautiful delivery from Sangam in his first over of bowler change. Gokul soon joined him at the other end. With a mixture of very attacking off spin and leg spin from two ends, they both used all their 6 over spells to get three clean bowled, and two catch dismissals. But runs kept coming including extras. Tigers tried everything (including close calls that were not given out) to attack and pulled ICC off to 28.3 overs close match grabbing 7 wickets. Sangam took 3 wickets, Gokul 2, Hemanth 1 and Hari 1. ________________________
Plano Tigers vs Collin Cnty CC . Nov 18th, 2001 at Plano Russel creek Park. ---------------------------------------------------------------------------- (Match Report by Srivathsan Bhagwan) ------------------------------------- On a beautiful Sunday morning with a strong breeze and the sun peeping out of the scant clouds to offer a glimpse of the pleasant day yet to unfold, Srinadh(Tigers Captain due to Pravin's indisposition courtesy some unfriendly virus) won the toss and did the obvious. Ashwajeet opened with our injured Raj(Hemant as runner). The very first ball saw Ashwajeet commit to preconceived front-foot play and handed an easy one at very short cover. Nitashu started off on a tentative note with some fishing on off. Then a nice partnership off 66runs with Raj ensured a platform for later batsmen to pile on. A straight six behind the bowler's head was the hallmark of Raj's innings of 27. Then Anil(32) 'Rock of Gibraltar' and Raghu made some quick runs followed by some lusty hitting by Nitashu who was out after scoring 66 well deserved runs. The rest of the batsmen played some percentage cricket to take the score to a fighting total of 169 / 30 overs with a few wks to spare. Nitashu and Ashok opened the bowling with a few freebies thrown in (setting the trend for every bowler coming on later and giving away a few and the opposition got 31 freebies towards the end of the match) and the first wicket fell against the run of play. Mihir hit one towards midoff and took off and Sangam was quick to pick up and return the ball to umpire's end where Ashok completed the formalities. Ashok struck the next blow when he had Sanjay caught well by Nitashu. Salil and Rohit just began to repair the damage when Nitashu struck. Rohit found his wooden furniture disturbed. Then Sri coming in at one change(obviously not getting into a good rhythm) dropped a couple short. The third ball was also short but it bounced hard and Salil tried to get over the height on the off and hit into deep point and it was a very good catch given it was coming straight into Srinadh's throat. The top 4 CCCC batsmen were back in the cave and Tiger tails were beginning to wag. Then Nagaraj(playing positively) and Thiru tried to get CCCC back in the reckoning(with some anxious moments for the fielding side) but a good burst of seam bowling with effective pace from young blood Hemant(Thanks to Srinadh's confidence in him) and tight bowling from Sangam and Hari ended any further aspirations of the other batsmen. With the final wicket of Nagaraj, Tigers wrapped up the match with a margin of 32 runs. Excellent performances from Nitashu, Anil, Raj with the bat and Ashok,Hemant,Sangam with the ball and good support from rest of the team were the highlights. It was a sweet victory to cherish and brings with it a hope that we will have many more to come aided by a strong team spirit and an environment of fun. ______________________________________
Match report for Plano Tigers v Ismailia CC (By Srinadh) ------------------------------------------- played at Lanka Ground on Sunday 11/4/2001 ------------------------------------------ Tigers won the toss and elected to bat. Tigers innings -------------- Salahuddin and Raj opened and we lost Raj early having played around a full length ball. Nitashu joined Salahuddin and the two showed signs of building a big partnership when Nitashu was bowled by Aziz. The score read around 40 for 2 at that point. All this while, Salahuddin was playing fluently and stroking the ball to all parts of the ground, looking in fine touch. Anil kept him company and the two batted till the 20th over when Anil was run out for a well made 31. Srinadh then was run out in the same over going for a quick single. Gopal didn't last long and eventually Salahuddin was out for a very entertaining and responsible 55. Thereafter, wickets fell at regular intervals (Pravin, Kunal, Hari all perished soon - Sangam unbeaten on 7). We were eventually 142 for 9 at the end of 25 overs. Ismailia innings ---------------- Aziz and Salim opened the innings for Ismailia and Nitashu and Pravin bowled really well to restrict them to 30 at the end of 8 overs. At that point, Salahuddin and Gopal ran out Salim. Vinod came in at 3 and batted in his trademark fashion, running quickly between the wickets, putting pressure on the fielders, putting away anything short. And Tigers wilted with several misfields and lethargic throwing/backing up. The match looked to be running away from Tigers with Ismailia 91 for 1 at the end of 16 overs, when Sangam took out Vinod, having him caught and bowled. Shilpin joined Aziz but Aziz departed soon caught behind by Gopal off Hari. Thereafter Tigers fought back really well and wickets fell at regular intervals - Sangam and Nitashu in his last over bowled particularly well. With 4 overs to go, Isamailia still needed 21 runs to win. Salahuddin bowled the 22nd over and gave away 5 runs. So with 3 overs to go, they needed 16 to win. Srinadh gave 3 runs in the 23rd over and Ismailia were left with 13 to get in 2 overs. Salahuddin then bowled an excellent 24th over and gave away only 3 runs and taking a wicket. Ismailia needed 10 runs off the last over with 1 wicket in hand. Srinadh gave 3 runs off the first 2 balls. The third ball was pitched short and was hit for a six by Shilpin and off the next ball they scored the required single, Thus Ismailia won by 2 wickets will 2 balls to spare. I know this is getting stale now, but again Tigers came so close to winning from a seemingly improbable situation. We were missing a few of our regulars but we still came close to upsetting a relatively strong Ismailia side. What is encouraging is our will to fight and not give up. Salahuddin and Anil's batting, Nitashu, Pravin and Sangam's bowling and also Salahuddin's two overs in the end were the highlights of the game. __________________________
Match Report for Plano Tigers v United CC (By Srinadh) ------------------------------------------ (played at Lewisville Lake, Sunday Oct. 21) ----------------------------------------- Tigers won the toss and decided to insert the opposition since conditions seemed favorable to bowling and given Tigers' track record with chasing. United CC innings ----------------- United began in brisk fashion with Karim and his partner looking to score quickly. They both rode their luck before Sangam ran out one of them. Thereafter Karim continued to chance his arm and managed to get runs although he never looked convincing. At the other end, he lost partners at a regular rate. At the drinks break, the score read 81 for 3 after 15 overs. The bowling was not too impressive and overs 15 to 20 produced the most fruitful period for United with their score progressing to 154 for the loss of 4 wickets with Karim and Ayaz looking to accelerate. At that stage, they looked set to get to 200 and beyond. However, some tight bowling and keen fielding restricted United. Salahuddin bowled really well and picked up 4 wickets in addition to a well held catch at long on. Nitashu, Gokul and Sri also bowled well in their overs. Ajit as usual held two catches. Tigers fought back well and United eventually finished with 169 all out in 28 overs. Tigers innings -------------- Raj and Salahuddin opened and we lost Raj, bowled by a yorker from Rizwan. Gokul joined Salahuddin next and Salahuddin launched into a tirade against Venkat taking him for 18 runs in an overs including 4 beautifully timed boundaries. Tigers quickly reached 47 when Salahuddin managed to hit down the throat of long on he departed for a superb 32 in quick time. Off the very next ball we were dealt a double blow when Gokul was bowled by Shams. Anil then joined Ajit but Ajit was then out stumped with the score reading 55. Anil and Srinadh then added about 40 runs in the next 9 overs. Srinadh was then done in by a beauty from Ayaz that pitched and turned after drawing the batsman forward. Nitashu and Anil then played for the next 5 overs but the asking run-rate kept mounting. Anil was out for a dogged 29 and Gopal and Sangam did not last long. Nitashu played a a wonderful little cameo and was finally taken going for the kill with the asking rate then 10 runs an over. When Pravin walked in to bat, Tigers still needed 31 runs off 3 overs. He was joined by Sri when Nitashu was out. It looked like Tigers would lose the game by a big margin. In the 28th over, we managed 6 runs. We still needed 25 runs in 2 overs and the equation looked out of reach. However, Pravin and Sri played some wonderfully intelligent and brave cricket and ran till they almost dropped dead :) Sri and Pravin both hit a boundary each at this tensioned filled, nerve wracking juncture (29th over). We were then left with 10 runs to get in the last over. Pravin put away the first 3 balls for 6 runs and this was followed by a wide. So we then needed 3 runs off 3 balls to win! Pravin tapped the ball on the square and set off for what looked like a "percentage" single. However, the wicket keeper in a brilliant show, took off his glove and threw the stumps down to run Pravin out. Tigers fell short by 2 runs. Tigers all out for 167 in 29.4 overs. Yet again, we lost by the narrowest of margins (after that 1 run loss to Hawks). But we should take pride in this defeat. We never gave up. We showed a lot of character in coming back the way we did in the last 10 overs on the field and then the effort of lower middle order and the spirited fight back from the veterans of the club (:)) was laudable. As our one and only Navjot Sidhu says - "A good lather is worth half the shave" (goodness knows what the heck he actually means but I'll use it anyways :)), we should treat this game as a good learning experience for our campaign in Division 'A' next season. ___________________
Match report for Plano Tigers v. Dallas Bulls (By Srinadh) ---------------------------------------------- (played at Plano Ground - Oct. 14 2001) --------------------------------------- Tigers won the toss and elected to bat. This was a 22 over match. Tigers innings -------------- Plano decided to experiment with the batting order and opened with Pravin and Rahul (from DCC - he filled in for our 11th man). The innings got off to a steady start before Pravin holed out in the 7th over. Thereafter Rahul and Salahuddin added around 20 runs when Salahuddin perished in a bid to take the attack to the Bulls bowlers. Ajit joined Rahul and started stroking the ball beautifully. Rahul then fell for 29 at around a run a ball. That brought Nitashu to the wicket and what followed was a run feast from Ajit and Nitashu, which included some brilliant running between the wickets, a few wonderful strokes along the outfield (which incidentally is the best outfield in the Metroplex without a doubt) and several sixes. Ajit especially took to Hari and put him away for 23 runs in one particular over (this included a few wides). Ajit eventually retired for a wonderful 61 continuing his rich form. Nitashu played an innings of controlled aggression and showed us all what he is really capable of. He remained unbeaten on a well made 44. Tigers ended up on a formidable 204 at the end of 22 overs. Bulls innings ------------- O Nitashu opened the bowling and got rid of their opener off the third ball of the innings caught behind. Ashok then struck off his first ball for the Tigers with a swinging yorker beating their number 3 batsman all ends up. Thereafter Surya and the other opener put on a few runs in their best partnership but never really threatened to challenge the huge asking rate. Hari then got rid of the other opener off his first ball for the Tigers. Thereafter Sangam and Hari bowled well and choked Surya who eventually was done in by a fast off spinner from Sangam. Sangam ended up with 2 wickets, Hari with 3 wickets, Ashok and Nitashu with 1 each. Gokul and Srinadh then polished off the tail leaving the Tigers winners by close to 110 runs. It was a pretty comprehensive victory and everyone contributed to it. It was good to see the newcomers - Sangam, Ashok and Hari doing their bit and also Nitashu getting his form back and Ajit continuing his great run with the bat. This was a rare victory for Tigers after batting first! _____________________
Match: Plano Tiger Vs Carrollton Hawks (Match Report by Ajit) Result: Tiger lost by one run ---------------------------------- Carrolltons Inning Hawks started their inning in a quick fashion and the opening pair put 110 runs in the first 15 overs. At that time it looked that hawks will score in excess of 200 but the credit goes to plano bowlers who did a very good job in the second half. Pravin, Nitashu and gokul bowled a steady line and the run rate was brought down from around 7.2 to 5.8-6.0. Part time bowlers (Ajit & Nitashu) did decent job to check run rate. In the end hawks scored 190 in the alloted 30 overs. ---------------------------------------- Planos inning Salahuddin and Ajit started planos inning and plano lost their first wicket (Ajit) in the 5th over. After that nitashu and sala played very sensibly by rotating the strike and kept the asking run rate below 7.0. The first one to go was sala (well made 35). The next small partnership was between nitashu and raghu. Both added 20-25 runs. After nitashu (35) and raghu got out, gokul and srinadh started dominating hawks bowlers. ZThe best part was they were rotating the strike and were also putting bad balls to maximum. The asking run rate by that time was close to 8-9 per over. Gokul(35) lost his wicket when the equation was 30 balls 40 runs to win and the brave Raj (despite leg injury) joined srinadh the end it all came down to 12 balls and 18 runs to win.........6 balls and 9 runs to win, still srinadh and raj batting. srinadh got out (35)on the 4th ball of the last over and the equation was 2 balls and 6 runs to win, Plano managed to score only 4 runs and we lost by 1 run. ----------------------------------------------------------- The good part of the match was our comeback in bowling and restricting hawks to 190. The middle order played exceptionally well and the credit goes to sala(opening), nitashu(1 down), gokul(4 down) and srinadh(5 down). Three of our players (Raghu, Sabih and kartik were playing their first match). Raghu was playing for the first time after couple of years but he showed the signs of good all rounder. Couple of matches for him and he will come back to his best. Nice to see gokul and nitash giving all round performance, we need allrounders. Srinadh is back in form and sala continuing his good form. (Let us not forget the 3 great catches taken by Ajit in point, deep midwicket and c&b....the only catches taken by Plano in this game--------Pravin) --------------------------------- PS carrollton was playing to his 80% strength with all regular players. We gave them a very good fight. In the end we fell short by one run. I think the reason for this was our running between the wicket. We need to convert 0's into 1 and 1 into 2's and if all our top order and middle order batsman (including me) work on their fitness, we will be a tough team to beat. *********************
Match report of Plano Tigers v Metroplex (By Srinadh) ---------------------------------------- (played at Hindustani Ground on Sunday, Sept. 23, 2001) Metroplex won the toss and elected to bat. Metroplex innings ----------------- The openers got off to a steady start but were unable to force too many runs as the outfield was still very wet and the ball was becoming soft and needed to be wiped with a towel every few balls. Nitashu and Madhu both bowled a steady line and Madhu eventually struck, twice in the 8th over leaving Metroplex around 30 for 2. Thereafter, Metroplex tried to accelerate but lost wickets every time they threatened to cut loose. Zeeshan (1 wicket) and especially Gokul (3 wickets) bowled beautifully in the middle overs and Ajit then wrapped things up in style with 3 very crucial wickets, including that of Uday. The fielding was keen and Sangam and Ajit held two very smartly taken catches. The bowling was accurate for the most part, with all the five bowlers doing their part. Metroplex who never really got going, ended up with 115 all out (in 24.3 overs). Plano Tigers innings -------------------- Ajit and Salahuddin opened and progressed to 20 odd in 6 overs when Salahuddin was adjudged Lbw. Thereafter, Sangam (run out) and Nitashu got out in quick succession. Gokul then joined Ajit and the two put on 30 odd runs useful runs before Gokul got out trying to up the run rate. All this while, Ajit looked in wonderful form putting away the loose balls and looking very comfortable in not so easy conditions to bat on (the ball was not coming on to the bat and the outfield was very slow). The shot of the day was a pull shot off Jagdish that cleared the deep square leg boundary. Srinadh then kept Ajit company and the equation looked to be going Tigers' way when Ajit holed out at deep mid off for a magnificent 57, with Tigers still needing 29 to win off as many balls. Thereafter, the innings lost some momentum (4 run outs in the innings did not help matters much) and when Srinadh departed in the 24th over with 14 still required to win, the match seemed to be over. Tigers eventually folded up at 104 in 24.3 overs, having come very close to upsetting a full-strength Metroplex side. In conclusion, it was a well fought game and inspite of fielding a depleted side (Pravin, Rajan, Mohan, Raj, Vikas, Danny and Anil, all missing in action), we came very close to winning. __________________________
Match report for Plano Tigers v Carrollton CC (By Srinadh) --------------------------------------------- (25 over league game played at Sandy Lake on Sunday, Aug 26th, 2001) Result: Carrollton CC beat Plano Tigers by 4 wickets. Plano Tigers innings -------------------- We won the toss and elected to bat. We lost Danny in the first over and Nitashu not too much after that. Salahuddin and Ajit then took it upon themselves to build the innings while not losing any opportunity to put away the loose balls. The two put on about 70 runs before Salahuddin got run out for a very well made 30. Ajit then cut loose and played some handsome shots and got to his 50 with an excellent strike rate. However, he fell in an effort to up the run-rate for the team and holed out in the deep for a chanceless 51, having played a knock of the highest quality. Thereafter the innings lost momentum and wickets fell at regular intervals. Teymoor got into the 20's but Sukhbir, Srinadh, Gokul and Mohan, all perished in a bid to slog. Plano Tigers ended with a decent score of 148 which easily was a good 30 runs short of what it might have been had the lower middle order carried on from where Ajit and Salahuddin left off. Carrollton CC innings --------------------- Carrollton started in a hurricane fashion and their openers took about 35 runs in the first 2 overs. At the end of 5 overs, the score read 56 for no loss. Sukhbir then settled down to bowl a good line and length and troubled both batsmen. He eventually broke through and got three quick wickets while Rajan bowled a probing spell from the other end. At one stage, Carrollton were 92 for 5 wickets. Shahnawaz then hit a few lusty ones to take the issue beyond doubt although his wicket (c Pravin b Nitashu), did give a brief glimmer of hope for the shortest time. After that opening partnership, it was always going to be hard for the bowlers and they did suffer. Carrollton eventually got there with 4 wickets and almost 8 overs to spare. Scores: Plano Tigers 148 for 8 wickets in 25 overs Carrollton CC 149 for 6 wickets in 17 overs _______________________