January 25

I am heading off to Adelaide to spend time with Neethu and her parents as their anniversary was tomorrow. However, Neethu’s dad will be joining us on Friday as he’s working in Melbourne. This was planned a couple of months ago, and I managed to use up my flex leave for Friday without touching my annual leave. The intention was to stay until Friday morning, so I could fly back in time to play against Eastlake as we continued our push towards semi-finals. Now with my brother and his friend coming to Adelaide on Friday, those plans had to be shelved, which meant another week of cricket lost.

I anyways would expect the team to beat Eastlake given our steady improvements across bat and ball, particularly against Weston Creek Molonglo and Queanbeyan, where we competed and won the former but not the latter.  I am looking forward to possibly spending a now free Friday with indoor cricket, then gym as Neethu will be busy with her work the whole day. It would allow me to practice the ‘Early not late’ mantra that Luke was telling me through our past sessions with bowling that will allow me to rotate the trunk efficiently, generating pace, bounce, and swing. These were the things that weren’t coming out in past games were I probably was at best military medium pace. The inspiration came from an old YouTube video from Luke, but I was focused on where his subject, Cody Butler, was loading up before delivery stride. Cody was on the Top Gun Pace Bowling competition in Perth back in the 2012-13 season, where he was clocked in the 130s. Thereby he was a great example to learn from. I had been shadow bowling a few times and found I was going through my action a lot quicker than before, but I really need to actually try with the ball in hand. 

As I was leaving the airport, it was going to be the last time I will see my parents in Canberra before they fly back tomorrow evening. It’s always emotionally gut-wrenching when they leave you after they stay 1-2 weeks with you and do a lot for you in terms of cooking and cleaning. To be honest, I broke down a few times in 2015 when they departed Canberra after staying with me. But the good thing is, they are always at the other end of the line, and they do visit now and then whenever feasible.

On the flight, I continued my travel routine in reading cricket related literature. I had Mark Nicholas’ A Beautiful Game then I had Allan Border’s Cricket as I see it and Adam Gilchrist’s autobiography True Colors. I always like to read these kinds of documents as I always look for ideas that could improve my game. It may be little rich adopting ideas from those who played top-level (domestic and international) cricket. Still, these cricketers were also playing club cricket on turf like me and many others who are currently playing. Reading a chapter on Fast Bowling from A Beautiful Game gave me inspiration when there was talk of short skinny cricketers bowling fast and making an impacting particularly Late Malcolm Marshall who became the greatest West Indian quick (and one of the greatest quicks) of all time who also spent over a decade under Nicholas’ captaincy in Hampshire. I’m no different from Malcolm as I’m under six feet and weigh under 80 kg yet became stronger through the gym. 

I reached Adelaide after 8pm and Akhil Menon, whom I met on Neethu’s birthday, fetched me to took me home. It was good as we can discuss what we could possibly do on Friday as I was keen to practice my bowling as I will not have any other cricket engagements this week. It’s perfect that he sincerely wants to get back into playing club cricket like he used to until a few years ago. While he indicated his interest in wicket-keeping, I suggested to him to work on all aspects of cricket – batting, bowling, and keeping. Having a versatile player will be really good, particularly in lower grade cricket. Not just that, Akhil used to bowl, and it will be useful to rediscover his love for bowling.

January 26

Today’s Australia Day and Indian Republic Day. It’s a dual treat for all Indians living in Australia, including my own. There’s always cricket action for both the Australian and Indian cricket teams every year on this date, and today’s no different. Last year these teams played a T20 match at the Adelaide Oval as preparations for the World T20. This year, India is hosting England in a T20 game in Kanpur while Australia is back at the Adelaide Oval against Pakistan.

Despite the cricket being on TV, it’s good to see on our club’s private Facebook group that the 5th-grade captain Joe Laria has initiated a net session to get some of the 5th graders to train ahead of the match against Eastlake this weekend. I think Joe has been talking about this moment for a while, so he’ll be happy that people have become receptive to his initiative. It has been hard to get all, let alone most the 5th graders to practice, but this is a start if we want to peak leading into the semi-finals.

I usually watch cricket when I’m not playing nor training. But today was not the case. Instead, I’m watching back-to-back  Bollywood movies in Tea Tree Plaza. It is the first time I’m doing this as I only come to watch just one film and go. However, the lure of watching two excellent movies that released simultaneously was too good to pass up.

I actually quite enjoyed watching Kaabil and Raees, which were both released the previous day and indeed won the hearts of the critics. Hritik Roshan was superb in his portrayal of a blind man seeking revenge against those who raped his equally blind wife. I honestly thought the corrupt cops who helped cover up the rape weren’t pursued, but I understood the ones who committed the horrendous crime were punished through the law of karma. It was amusing that the cop who tried to get our hero arrested failed as the STD booth owner was also blind. Nevertheless, justice was served because it was undoubtedly a very cowardly act to attack a helpless woman and push her to suicide. So I’m glad that our blind hero went away scot-free.

Raees was equally a perfect watch. Shahrukh Khan showed his thrills and emotions like his previous movies as he, in his avatar of Raees, battles the authorities while dealing with his liquor business and caring for the innocent in his colony in Gujarat. I also liked the performance of Nawazuddin Siddiqui (a well-known character actor) who tries to rein in King Khan successfully by killing him in the end. It was contrary to my expectations, which was that Raees would serve his time in jail and then released in the end as he surrendered for the sake of his people.

It was a perfect day watching these good movies. I was quite stunned about Australia’s batting, which was too good for Pakistan in a high scoring fixture. David Warner again continued his superb one day form from 2016 with 170 off 128 balls while it was good to see Travis Head make triple figures for the first time during his 128 in front of his home crowd. Despite the high scoring encounter, Mitchell Starc took wickets and kept the runs down too much like Hasan Ali did in his maiden five-for in Sydney. It shows that there’s always hope for bowlers in a batter centric environment in cricket if they execute their skills and plans under pressure.

January 27

As usual, I posted my thoughts of both Raees and Kaabil on Facebook. This has started since last year and has continued on.  Amit Pardeshi commented on my Kaabil review that as I write so well, I should consider a career in writing. Ha! Do a Chetan Bhagat who sacrificed his banking career to pursue a similar career? I don’t think so. I can’t leave my day job, which I really like, especially being in public service.

Furthermore writing is like cricket for me. Both are passions and interests which will remain that way.  Perhaps he was just joking, but that’s me. I occasionally cannot decipher things that were really jokes. Anyways, no harm intended.

Today I’m looking forward to spending a day that wouldn’t be out of place for top-level cricketers. I am on my day off from work, so I have plenty of time to spare as Neethu’s working today. I spent three hours with Akhil and his friends playing cricket in Glenauga in the nets behind their school. There were two turf grounds when we arrived, but we were practicing in the nets. I had the opportunity to use the four-piece balls that Akhil’s friend Jeet Patel provided for the use which was good as I had a white ball in my hand which I was able to get it to swing it considerably but not always consistent due to my constant desire for pace that results in drainage of energy. The consistency came in later in the session when I go for the 3 point movement – right knee left foot kick, right knee combined with the ‘Early not late’ mantra with my hands.

Batting I felt was a bit of a gain once I changed my grip on my bat while following prior advice with my bat swing. I batted all right when I defend my stumps and play shots. I was savage on Jeet whenever he flighted the ball, so I could come down the wicket and hit him over his head. Nevertheless, I was committing the same mistake that international batsmen make, which was to play for the turn but get beaten by one that doesn’t. He had the arm-ball and encouraged him to attempt the cross-seam variation, which was effectively used by wicket-to-wicket finger spinners like Rangana Herath and Ravindra Jadeja to get balls to spin and some to skid with the arm. I also challenged him to bowl in a situation like last two overs against an aggressive batsman like me to help him mentally prepared for scenarios that involve him deciding and manipulating his field. He didn’t do too bad. He got me out in the 12th delivery while conceding just 12 runs.

As it turns out, Jeet also plays turf cricket like I do but more of a batting all-rounder who bowls finger-spin. He had been in a rough trot with the bat, but the way he batted and bowled against me showed he had talent. He just needed to be prepared mentally to succeed. The late Richie Benaud said that cricket is 90% mental and 10% skill, but don’t try it with 10%.  I suggested to him to give himself time at the wicket to build his innings for the first 10-15 balls then rotate the strike before playing expansively. He’s only 19, so he’s got time to shine. But he has the knowledge to pass on to Akhil to help him bat and keeping.

By the time we finished and ate lunch at Hungry Jacks, it was about 4pm when we arrived back home. I decided to head to the nearby gym to get some much-needed gym time after a few days’ absence from Monday. I spent about 1.5 hours in the gym. So basically, I spent almost my full day in physical activity, which was quite rare. I saw the line up for tomorrow’s fixture against Eastlake. Obviously, I was out, and so was Ben (who’s on a cruise) and Govind (due to family reasons). Coming in is Vishal Suresh and the Isons, Michael, and Thomas. On paper, we have an excellent batting line-up, but can we deliver. Despite my absence, we have a decent bowling attack led by Adam O’Connor and Joe Laria with Thomas, Jess Howard, and Sam Anavatti as support. I think we should win, but we must be cautious since Eastlake pushed us to the finish last time, and we were beaten by a bottom four team that was in the last place. I wish not to be disrespectful towards Eastlake, but I back the team to win.

Sachit and his friend arrived in Adelaide after Neethu’s dad arrived from Melbourne. I had an opportunity to drive the family’s Toyota Kluger, which needed care while going around bends and turning as it’s a much bigger car than all the ones I’d driven. I had further experience with it earlier in the day with the anticipation of driving it tomorrow. To finish off the day, all of us watched the semi-final in the Australian Open between Nadal and Dimitrov. Only Sachit, Neethu’s dad, and I stayed right towards the end, which becomes a five-set match that lasted nearly five hours. I compared this to the 2010 World Twenty20 semi-final between Australia vs. Pakistan. After so many twists and turns, Nadal prevailed through which will be between two greats in the final between Nadal and Federer on Sunday evening.

January 28

Today was spent going on a drive to a couple of wineries in Barossa Valley, and the Whispering Wall, followed by dinner at Arya’s. It was a typical stinking hot day, but I didn’t think the weather in Canberra was any different. On the cricketing front, it was a good day for Ginninderra with 3 wins in the five grades. 3rd and 4ths won on the first innings, so did 1sts only to register what was their 11th outright victory ever in 340 games since the 2003-04 season (if the facts are to be correct). Remarkably, the big boys fought back from a setback when I read in the Canberra Times that James Coate who bats in the top-order left-handed and bowls spin was ruled out for the rest of the season courtesy of a freakish injury to his finger which was damaged when the roller shutter of the canteen at Kippax Oval slammed down at a faster pace than he expected. I would have felt that it was a big blow given that it was James’ first season in 6 years (he was making a comeback), and he played a part in mentoring the younger spinners during pre-season. Nevertheless, true character has been on display with this outright victory courtesy of Luke Ryan, who continues to have a superb season with the ball in hand with 6/69.

It’s good to hear that the 4ths finally broke through in 2-day cricket despite being a precarious position last weekend at 8/79 chasing 127. After a strong bowling effort in the first weekend led by Caleb Stevens and captain Chakra Ravinuthala, Amit Pardeshi, I heard made 52 to help win on first innings. At one point, they needed to score 158 in 25 overs, and they were off to a decent start at 0/55 after 9. But had fallen short despite Chakra’s 50. Good game it was and thankfully 4th-grade were the beneficiaries.

Unfortunately, my mates in 5ths couldn’t quite pull through losing by 4 wickets having made 188. Once again, Ian Chattin, who made an unbeaten century against us last time, rode his luck on his way to 95. As the case throughout the season, the catching let us down, which would have helped us seize these kinds of moments. It was the second time we lost to a last-place time this season. It just shows any team can win on any day. It happened for us when we lost against Eastlake and Tuggeranong and when we even defeated Weston Creek Molonglo, who were previously unbeaten. Not to worry, there’s still time to turn it around with five games to go. We only played one perfect game against Wests-UC when I took my five-for, thereby we are yet to play another classic match since. These last five games will allow us to execute at least one classic match.

On another front, I was happy to hear that Jeet has started becoming positive, and he felt good when batting today. He batted for 10 overs and scored about 10 although they intended to save their 2-day match. In that situation, it was good he was positive. Even in any position, scoring 10 runs and batting for 10 overs is a reasonable rate, which means he’s spending time at the crease to score his runs. I am pleased my advice has rubbed off on him, and he appreciated that. Jeet’s only 19; thereby he can make mistakes and learn from them now rather than he’s in his mid to late 20s. I want to be an excellent sounding board to Jeet without interfering with his game. I hope moving forward this innings will be a turning point for him, and consistency will be part of his game like it has been for me on synthetic wickets from late 2014 to early 2016 with the bat and also throughout this season with the ball.

I have a confession to make that is related to playing grade. During late 2013-14, I was working in an IT consultancy firm, Visagio when I got a placement for the WA Health Graduate Program in 2014 which I was part of the recruitment before joining Visagio one month later. Although I spoke to a few key people including my Dad, I decided to continue in Visagio and decline the graduate program position as my current job was paying a lot better than the other despite the uncertainty of job security that WA Health (being in the public service) can offer.

It was costly when I was laid off from Visagio soon after. Three months later, I joined a national garage doors enterprise, Centurion Garage Doors to look after the nationwide IT-related systems until I attended an interview for a placement for the Australian Taxation Office graduate program in 2015. This time, it was too good to pass up after what previously happened but I was skeptical since I was leaving the home comforts to take on a crucial job interstate in Canberra.

At the time of the move, I was playing in the lower grades of the South Metropolitan Cricket Association competition in Perth for Riverton-Rostrata. Sometimes I played as a bowler, sometimes as a batsman and sometimes as an all-rounder. I had played 65 games, took 62 wickets and scored 413 runs. Having moved to Canberra, I then joined Canberra Workers Redbacks and played 17 games, took 12 wickets and scored 221 runs. It was in my final season with the Redbacks that I decided to give grade cricket a go and I haven’t looked back since.

Put it this way. Had I accepted the WA Health position, I would be in Perth for pretty much a very long time as the public service guarantees job security more than the private sector. Furthermore, I would have continued playing in lower grade cricket for Riverton-Rostrata and possibly played 100+ games, took 100+ wickets and scored 1000+ runs. So Grade cricket wouldn’t have happened at all since the WACA Premier Cricket competition was very competitive including selections.

Even if I had moved to Canberra after my career mishaps, had I not known about the ACT Premier Cricket competition through my own network, I would have been playing for the Redbacks and possibly played 100+ games, took 100+ wickets and scored 1000+ runs.

Now it doesn’t matter. Here I am taking part in Ginninderra in Grade and I have taken my first ever five-wicket haul and learned some valuable lessons in all facets of my game from my coach and senior players. Of course, I had that facility in Riverton-Rostrata which partly was why I joined an organized set-up in grade cricket only after realizing that synthetic wicket cricket in Canberra wasn’t to my liking.

Although I do regret what happened in my personal career, I’m grateful for what happened afterward with my job and cricket, both of which are going quite well.

 

 

January 10

I had felt quite rusty throughout the training session today, but these kinds of feelings have occurred frequently during the season. Today was a hot day. It was 34 when I arrived at training and when training finished around 7.30, it was slightly cooler, but it was 32 degrees. My bowling was a bit of struggle when I failed to hit a consistent line and length, but that’s typical given the differences between the practice synthetic wickets and the actual turf wickets. I later had realized, though, that I found it hard to replicate my current bowling action that is based on Ben Hilfenhaus as I had noticeably got stronger during the holiday period. I would need to make a tweak in my bowling action and focus on generating bounce and swing and use my shoulder to generate pace, much like Mitchell Marsh, Marcus Stonis, or Hilton Cartwright.

With that, I will need to develop some change-ups that may be in pace or length but will require constant practice before I take it out to the games. It’s essential; otherwise, I’ll be predictable to good opposition batsmen. In other words, I need to outsmart the batsmen like Dennis Lillee, and Glenn McGrath used to do. While listening to the commentary during a Big Bash League game, I heard Ricky Ponting saying that variation should come in the middle of the over rather than at the start or in the end. What he implies was that it’s essential to start and finish an over well, and we should try to keep it simple at those times. At the moment, I have variations, but I need to suss out when and what to use. It’s essential to check the intentions of the opposition and bowl accordingly.

That was one of the lessons I had learned today. Earlier, I got a useful tip from Lochlan Christian (In my view, Ginninderra’s pin-up boy of nearly 2m who’s built like a big unit) while we were going through some batting drills.  He says that I have a chance to push at the ball with the low back-lift or hit the cover of the ball with a high back-lift. He found that I was trying to load up and hit the ball in one motion, which threw out my timing. Pushing at the ball isn’t my style, and it was discouraged by the coaching squad at Southern Cricket. Hence, I went for the latter approach, which outlines my desire to hit the ball and be positive in defense and attack. I might be suspectable to the occasional yorker, but I’m up for the challenge. I don’t think I couldn’t be attacking as my Gray-Nicolls Kaboom became very light. Still, I was able to play some attacking shots against the spin of Sam Anavatiti and the seam of Jess Howard (who bowled with an ankle that was bombarded courtesy of a Joe Laria yorker).   

That was lesson number two. In between the batting and bowling, I did some slips catching with Matty Andrews, the 3rd-grade captain. The catching had improved since I started working with Matty a couple of months ago. He noticed how well I was able to move either side to catch balls around my stomach, but he felt I’m missing the low-down catches due to the weight being back and not forward and had given me a couple of useful pointers on how I can overcome that issue. I hadn’t been tested much on the catches above shoulder height, but it’s all about watching the ball right through to the hands. Hopefully, it’s something I can translate into the outfield catches that could happen on Thursday. When I told Joe about my fielding work, he said that the catching is all in the mind and suggested that I adopt the attitude of wanting to take the catch rather than thinking, “Oh crap, it’s coming to me” before dropping it. Nevertheless, as indicated before, I’m ready to adopt a positive attitude to my fielding.

Thankfully during training, I was able to keep a low profile regarding Diary of a Grade cricketer. Mick Delaney, our coach, warned me to stay grounded, although I’ve gained a lot of attention through the massive increase of likes. When I arrived at training, I found out that Chris ‘Griffo’ Griffin had promoted my diary through the club’s public Facebook page. Basically, the word continues to go out, and it remains to be seen how popular this diary can get overtime. On to training for Thursday, although I am quite concerned about the weather leading up to match on Saturday. I certainly wouldn’t want to see another match washed out.

January 12

It was a really really hot day today, with temperatures in the mid to high 30s throughout the day. As a matter of fact, it was in the mid-30s between the time I finished work and when I went to training after 5pm. Unfortunately, I was ruled out of selection for this week as Dad asked me to attend house inspections on Saturday afternoons, which was clashing with the game against the unbeaten Weston Creek Molonglo. It is tough to say no to Dad, especially with house hunting, as more important than a match as I need to find an excellent place to rent for at least 12 months. I figured though given that I was going to miss a game around the Australia Day long weekend this month, it was ok to miss this weekend, and the next besides, I hope a place gets found before the end of this month.

Bowling continues to be in progress as I have been able to extract swing regardless of the pace I was bowling at (I was occasionally trying to bowl with a fast whippy action). With that, I was able to hit the edges of the batters and beat their bats in the nets, but the length wasn’t that consistent. I was looking through my previous footage from what I did with Southern cricket so I can keep a note of the components that will help generate consistent bounce and movement.  My batting was somewhat ok. It didn’t start well when I realized that I was playing away from my body, but once my elbow was right on my stomach, it allowed me to play closer to my body, which brought more fluid shots, particularly while facing spin.

I had decided, though, that given there’s a likelihood of me not playing any grade games this month, I can continue to still attend training to continually hone my bowling action and batting technique so that I’ll be up and running to play for the rest of the season. Although it would have been nice to play every game, especially against the best, it allows me to build confidence in my own bowling action.

January 15

Yesterday, it was such fantastic news for the 5th grade to upset the previously undefeated Weston Creek Molonglo at Reid Oval. Last time we faced off, they defeated us by 7 wickets chasing down our 4/166 in Aranda. The scores were very similar. Weston Creek was bowled out for 163 in over 25 overs, and we tracked it down by about 15 overs to spare despite having only 10 men for the game. When I saw that Weston Creek was 6/104 after 13 overs, I was wondering whether they were playing a Twenty20 game or a standard 45 over one. But it was a reasonable effort from the team to dismiss the best batting team in the 5th game. It was good we sent them in as they were a perfect chasing side. So I suppose asking them to set the pace may have worked in our favor when Joe Laria, our captain, took 5 wickets, making him the 3rd player in our side to take a haul in 5th grade. Not to mention being our leading wicket-taker and perhaps within the top 5 for the grade (displacing me). Although not having me around was a bit of a bummer, Joe’s performance shows that we have great bowling options in Joe, myself, Adam (who took 3 wickets in that game), and Will not to mention Dom Ross who took a five-for last season. Having such a bowling depth will be useful if any of us has a bad day with the ball. Ironically, I’m writing this because Joe was telling me that he never had such a seam-bowling depth at the same time last season.

We managed to chase the runs down courtesy of Farhan Qureshi (a.k.a Faz), who usually plays in the higher grades as a fast-bowling all-rounder. He was playing as a batsman due to an injury that prevents him from bowling. He finished unbeaten on 60, and he got assistance from Umesh Patel, who batted through the innings to make 49 not out (deserved a fifty). It was heartening to hear Umesh make runs after a tough start for the season. He’s proven to be very adhesive and hard to get out at the crease from the moment he joined us from the 3rd game in 5ths. Thereby It was good that his hard work has finally paid off in a significant way. It’s all about trusting your processes and technique and believe that a substantial contribution was around the corner. That feeling happened for me this season until I got my five-for, and it’s happening for Umesh. Hearing Umesh getting runs will be a big confidence booster for us, with the season winding down. Having Umesh and Sammy Gautam (continued his consistency with 17) making runs at the top hopefully can provide us with good starts at the top of the order, and already, both these batters have developed a good friendship on and off the field which will significantly help.

Today to get some match practice, I accepted an invitation from Umair Yousaf to play in a Public Service League game in Kaleen against the Australian Bureau of Statistics in a 40 over match. It turned out to be a very close low scoring contest in which we lost by 2 wickets defending just 92 with 10 players. I made 2 not out batting last by ensuring I kept my elbow close to my body so that I don’t chase deliveries wide of me unless I move my feet. I would have made more if my partner Khurram Shehzad had responded quickly to my call for a gettable single to a deepish point in which he was run out.

We managed to lose by just two wickets was courtesy of a very late burst from Shahnawaz Rasheed, who took 4 quick wickets after drinks, but that doesn’t cover from the fact we didn’t make enough runs. Had we batted the full 40 overs, we could have won. I opened the bowling as I expected because Umair had previously given me the new ball twice last season. I didn’t bowl too badly, but I felt at times I couldn’t generate swing and length consistently as I occasionally bowled a little short. I wasn’t helped with sore triceps, which make it hard to consistently bowl the ideal delivery.

Nevertheless, I am happy with 5 straight overs for 11 runs with a wicket that I described as an unplanned slower ball as I was trying to find my rhythm in my 2nd over. That ‘slower ball’ dipped on the batsman that played across it and missed when the ball took out middle stump. I was stunned because it wasn’t an excellent delivery, but it pleased my teammates. I suppose rubbish takes wickets some times, especially after you bowled well most of the time. Now I have something to work one leading into the coming week at training while there’s continued uncertainty whether I will be playing next weekend.

During the game, I told Umair if he knew that several of the people he knew, like Shalan Ahmed, Tim Pigot, Gurjiv Singh Khera, and Paul Moger, had left North Canberra Gungahlin to play for Woden Wanderers. He mentioned that there weren’t going to be multiple 5th-grade sides this season, unlike last season. So there was a massive surplus of players with 5th grade having one side per club which disadvantages clubs like North Canberra Gungahlin. I guess it’s a shame that 5th grade this season will not cater to multiple teams for some clubs, but that’s how it is, and we must respect the rules and regulations set by the Cricket ACT. It also implies that I’m incredibly fortunate to play grade cricket in Australia, let alone in ACT for Ginninderra. It means I took my opportunity at the right time with a club that had made me welcome as a guest last season. Look at me. I had prospered so far this season. However, I really feel for these guys that won’t get the chance because I would have been in their situation if I joined that club as it was close to home for me.

January 17

Today was an absolute scorcher of a day. When I reached training after 5.30, the temperature was in the mid to high 30s, and two hours later, my car’s radar was showing 41 degrees, although it then dropped to 32 upon reaching home. I’d certainly felt that I got a lot from training on a hot day. Focusing on the mechanics of my bowling action, including the steady acceleration of the run-up to the co-ordination of my body parts, helped me to gain considerable out-swing away from the right-hander and in-swing to the left-hander. As a result, I was able to stand my ground against the higher-grade batters when I induced plays and misses and the occasional edge. I quite enjoyed bowling to them, mainly our PNG imports Kipling Doriga and Hiri Hiri Patana, who appreciated the amount of out-swing I was getting. On that subject, it’s always good on a personal note to watch them from a close distance regarding their training routines, and I marveled upon their fitness standards at times whenever they do sprints or bodyweight exercises. From that, you can always think there’s something you can take away from these guys and incorporate that into your own methods.

Going back to the bowling, I felt that my bowling against left-handers was also a considerable improvement when I use variations of movement, which gave me delight whenever the left-hander plays for the swing and gets beaten all ends up.  If I could work on my accuracy a bit more while delivering those change-ups to the right-handers, then I would become a more potent bowler over time.

Fielding towards the end was a good learning experience, although I cramped up and saw the strap of my watch fall off while I took a catch. I don’t know what happened, but it was the second time the strap fell off in cricket during fielding. I should have put it away after the first time, but I didn’t. Nevertheless, it wouldn’t be an issue getting it fixed up when I go to India in May. What I learned though from Sam Gaskin, who was running training, was to get really low to assist with a good pick up and throw if you need to effect a run-out. Furthermore, he and Mick Delaney advised us to be ready to back up the bowler or keeper regardless of where the ball eventually goes. It makes you be switched on every ball, which in turn prevents avoidable overthrows, which are free runs.

January 19

Today was, fortunately, a much better day for cricket as it was a lot cooler than Tuesday and so I was looking forward to bowling today. Although I would have the opportunity to bowl immediately upon arrival, I decided to work on my catching with Daniel Leggett. Keeping in mind the tips Matty Andrews suggested to me last time, I was able to catch deliveries below my knees as I was able to have my weight on the balls of my feet rather than the toes. After warming up, I went straight to bowling, and I felt that my whole left arm was failing me throughout the afternoon, although I was able to beat the batsmen with my outswinger at times. People have asked me if I’m bowling leg cutters, which weren’t the case. The ball was simply hitting the seam and just going away from the right-handers. As it appeared, the left-arm pain came from a sore left rear deltoid, for which I cannot recall how it happened.

Batting was a bit of a positive, although I got out twice to spin bowled off an inside edge. I was following Lochlan Christian’s advice he gave me some time ago, which would help my timing. It worked well whenever I hit the ball legside, although I was later hampered when my old and trusted bat, the Gray-Nicolls e41 that I purchased after the 2012-13 season, had a big crack on one of the edges. It had only come to my attention when Prasad Karlapur told me he heard a crack just after I worked his delivery onto the leg side. Now the bat was truly gone as it already had a crack below the toe, so I will have to discard it sooner rather than later.

January 20

I really felt that I made a mistake in sitting out tomorrow’s clash against Queanbeyan when I realize that I wasn’t going to move into a house nor attend any afternoon house inspections tomorrow. I was devastated when playing 12 was named, and I wasn’t on the list. I had given up any hope of a last-minute recall, so I was hoping that the game gets called off as it had rained during the day. However, I was in 5th grade once Joe called me, and John Prior messaged me on Facebook Messenger to tell me I was playing. Joe offered me to play 4ths as both Thomas and Michael Ison withdrew, but I told Joe I wanted to play under his captaincy, which pleased him very much. In saying so, I do not mean to criticize anyone else’s leadership. Still, as I specified before, Joe has played a big part in my strong performances with the ball so far, having backed me and given me responsibility by bowling at least 6 overs a game. With the Isons dropping out, Dom Ross went up a grade that opened up for my comeback for my first game since the 4th-grade one-day semi-final. Joe was happy for my inclusion for another reason: with Vasu Patel also dropping out and Adam O’Connor returning, he had a pretty impressive bowling armory in me, Joe himself, Adam, Jess Howard, and Ben Peel. As we were chatting over the phone, he was hoping with this arsenal, we could bowl them out for a reasonable score and win like we did last week against Weston Creek, which should secure our semi-finals spot and put everyone on notice. Now we got to hope the pitch dries out for us to go and play. There’s a strong likelihood of us playing a shortened match like we did against the same opposition earlier in the competition. Still, it depends whether both the pitch and the outfield being dry enough to start playing. Otherwise, we can walk away with a draw, which will be good for us as we stay in the top four.

January 21

Thankfully the pitch was kind enough to start a full 45 over game as they weren’t any rain since 6pm last night. Upon sighting me, Andrew Loveday and Chris Arcella began calling me ‘Hurricane,’ my nickname that they gave me. Furthermore, they had given Adam O’Connor the nickname of ‘Squirtle,’ after the Pokemon, which Adam clearly hates. Honestly, I don’t understand why Adam’s called Squirtle, but that’s how it is. Joe won the toss and elected to field as he is banking on our strong bowling attack to restrict Queanbeyan. But the Queanbeyan openers got off to a good start much helped by Ben Peel’s inability to control the ball as he bowled some filthy full tosses and a dropped catch off Jess Howard’s bowling by Sandeep Kumar. They put on 43 for the first wicket until Adam struck with a caught and bowled to dismiss Aaron Thorn for 22. Before I came onto bowl, I joined Archie and Andrew in the slips cordon, and I was dumbfounded that they still continue talking about the so-called Italian cricket team that they were going to register for the Olympics especially how they were planning to recruit both Dominic Ross and Jess into their squad. Apparently, they told me that there were going on about this for years, but I think it’s all trash. No offense, but I’ll be happy to actually be proven wrong by these blokes one day.  I came on to bowl second change after Jess completed six overs at the start. I struck on the third ball off my fourth over when Govind Thiagarajan caught a Tony Askins mishit. I celebrated with a dab, which I thought was cool when I saw Carlos Braithwaite celebrated with it every time he took a wicket. Ben soon yorked Graeme Alexander to have him LBW, and Sam Anavatti had the other opener lbw as he played back rather than forward. They were 4 for 85 in the 29th over at the 2nd drinks break due to the warm weather. Queanbeyan fought hard, but we bowled them out for 158 in the 43rd over. Sam took another two wickets after drinks to finish with 3/32 off his 6 overs. Joe chipped in one for himself via a caught and bowled before Adam O’Connor clean bowled the tail like he had been doing all season to finish with 4/16 off 7.4 overs, which were his best figures for the season.

The wicket was slow and low, which meant changes in pace for the quicks; in addition, the spinners could benefit from it. That’s why Sam got his rewards as did Adam, although his rewards were through aiming at the stumps like he does at the tail end of a bowling innings. With his 4 wickets, he becomes our leading wicket-taker for the season with 17 wickets.

I was happy with my comeback game on this deck. I was able to bowl tidily and occasionally used my changes of pace only when I heard murmurs of the likes of Ben and Joe suggesting to bring the spinners in. Nevertheless, I was happy the way I used my slower balls, off-cutter, and the occasional in-swinger, and I only went for one boundary, and that was in my 2nd over.  The result was 8 overs, 2 maidens, 1 for 18. The Hurricane’s comeback was a success. I wasn’t at my best pace, but I was still able to keep the runs down throughout my spell. I was filthy that I didn’t get a chance to bowl out, but sooner or later, Joe wanted to turn to spin, so I understood where he came from. At least, my figures won’t be spoilt, so the bowling figures look pretty good.

As we had 12 players, I decided that I wasn’t going to bat today. I would be satisfied with just turning up and bowling as I actually had been feeling unwell again over the past few days. Despite my absence from the batting order, unfortunately, our batting fell to pieces. We lost wickets at regular intervals, and once again, the Queanbeyan bowlers squeezed us like a sponge as they bowled us out for 116 after 40.5 overs. Sammy Gautam continued to make double figures again with 13. Andrew Loveday looked like coming good before he was LBW trying to hit to cow corner. Out for 13. When he got out, we had a chance to get close through Ben, Joe, and Adam being capable, quick scorers. They certainly gave us hope of springing a comeback, but it wasn’t for the case when Ben (made 9), Joe (12), and Adam (21) were all bowled. Jason Cooper indeed held the innings together with 30, which I presume was his best innings this season, but the start of our chase just killed us. The father and son team John and Michael Fern played a part in our demise with 6 wickets between them. John got the ball running for them in a straight-through spell of 9 overs, 3 maidens 3 for 14. Then Michael cleaned up the tail with 3/22 off his 3.5 overs. The remarkable thing was that none of our batsmen were out caught as seven of our batsmen were out bowled, and the other 3 being LBW. It’s probably the benefits of bowling wicket to wicket on this pitch and targeting the stumps. It was an approach that worked for them exceptionally well this season; that’s why they’re in the top 2 in the competition. I don’t think we disgraced ourselves in defeat given we were in the contest with bat and ball, but like last time, the first 10 overs of both bat and ball killed us. We do have a chance to go back into winning ways, but the good thing is we could breathe a little easy for a little while as we face Eastlake, ANU, Wests-UC, and Tuggeranong over the next 4 games. They are no means weak opposition, but we have beaten them before this season, which should give us confidence ahead of these clashes. Hopefully, we will be able to seal our semi-final position before March. Unfortunately, I won’t be around next weekend against Eastlake, but it was still lovely to go out there and play.   

No cricket for the week

I had actually decided early in the week that I wanted a week off away from training and playing and instead focus more on my strength training as I wasn’t going to play today. I know some people who won’t like what I did but it gave me time to think about my mental approach towards it. I’ve always had a technical approach for my cricket which will always be with me as I will know what I did wrong and how I can correct it.

I think I had always had a fear of failure from the time I started playing cricket in the 2003-04 season and it’s still there when it comes to fielding. It’s still there for batting especially if I have to hit out immediately when I come to the crease and fielding when I occasionally hope a ball doesn’t come my way after I drop a catch. Perhaps as the great Shane Warne says, we need to keep it simple. From now on then, I just hit the ball while looking to score, bowl the ball and hit the deck and catch and field everything that comes my way. At the moment, I’m in a very good club with very good people, I just need to change the mindset and be positive. Everyone knows including myself I have potential but mental games are what we have to master to unlock the potential.

Basically, come next week, I’ll look to be positive and forget about the fear of failure and see where it takes me for the rest of the season. I am a little bit confident then I was on the new year with a new Albion lid being delivered from The Cricket Warehouse in Melbourne. On the subject of the lids (the term for helmets), I’ve been infatuated with Albion since I purchased my first helmet in 2004-05 and they were well known. My last helmet was an Albion Club that I bought in 2012-13 season but I decided to replace it having copped a few knocks on the head during practice and in the game between then and now.

Thankfully, I’m grateful for Cricket ACT not to enforce the helmet regulations set by Cricket Australia for their first-class and international cricketers. I would be disappointed to part with my new Albion helmet if it was the case given I had recently bought it on New Year’s Day. However, keeping in tradition for my all Gray-Nicolls gear, the Gray-Nicolls helmet worn by David Warner and Shaun Marsh seemed a good one to buy in the future should we be forced to follow the mandatory helmet guidelines.

Last night before watching the Big Bash League fixture between Adelaide Strikers and Hobart Hurricanes, Vishnu Chari showed me his bats including his newly bought Kookaburra Kahuna. To him, these bats were of the right size for him, but when I picked each of those bats and was able to lift and swing them, they seemed too light. It was the case when I lifted each of my Gray-Nicolls bats a few hours earlier. Perhaps I’m indeed getting stronger which means I have to make slight adjustments to my batting technique at practice next week so I can just hit the ball with timing and power. It may have augured well for my bowling since I could try to bowl a little quicker than before while giving priority to bounce and movement.

On another no

Increase of Popularity of Diary of a Grade Cricketer

The popularity of the Facebook page of the same name as this site has gone through the roof since the new year. It was around 50 likes during this time but currently, it has crossed 600. I’d couldn’t believe it but I knew Chris ‘Archie’ Arcella and Andrew Loveday played their part by promoting my online diary. I was exclaiming to Archie that I couldn’t believe these state of events. He said that I’m a great author that provides a great insight into a level of cricket that not many people know about. He also likes the fact what I write is real and reliable. It is also something people can picture of a guy trying his best which makes it a well-written story that everyone likes to read. On that note, that was the aim of this online diary, to detail every single moment of my grade cricket career and tell it as it is immediately rather than compile one huge autobiography like international cricketers do which occasionally brings out skeletons from the closet and break several friendships.

With these well-written stories, Archie also mentioned that he and Andrew certainly felt they made the right decision to join Ginninderra and they thought I was one of the main guys that made it an enjoyable experience for both of them. I too enjoyed having around because they’re awesome guys who bring a fair amount of chat and humor which helps us to relax and to unsettle the opposition. I think Andrew has now addressed me as Hurricane know instead of my first name so that nickname has certainly stuck.

Yesterday, I had made a comment on ESPN Cricinfo for the New Years test match between Australia and Pakistan when I said that Australia should enforce the follow on and if they have to bat again, so be it because they need to get use to batting last for their upcoming India Trip. The ESPN Cricinfo commentator for the test, Nikhil Kairo said that the delayed start (and subsequent washout of the first session) could possibly force Australia to enforce the follow on. What happened next what I thought was plain ridiculous when my club president Chris ‘Griffo’ Griffin posted on Facebook that I was on Cricinfo. I thought what’s the big deal because I made my own comment and not that of Diary of a Grade cricketer. I mean everyone posts their opinions on that site so what’s the point until I realized that Griffo was trying to make me look famous. It was all a good laugh.

Going back to the increase of popularity from 50 to 600, I jokingly thought that if I was paid for every Facebook like and view and visit my online WordPress site, then it would pay off my rent for a year or my HECS/HELP debt in one hit. But I obviously don’t write stuff for money, I simply write because I want to express my thoughts to the public much like current and former international cricketers do but without burning bridges (i.e destroying friendships) and creating controversy.

Still thinking of that five-for

I just can’t seem to get the five-for I took against Wests-UC in December which remains my first ever haul in all forms of cricket. I nearly took a five-for in Perth in their South Metropolitan Cricket Association competition for Riverton Rostrata against SJ Blues on a hot Australia Day. I finished with 4 for 92 off 21 overs in a 2-day match in 7th grade and had a truckload of catches missed off my bowling.  My captain at the time Andrew Taya remarked in his end of year write up that I was destined for an 8-for had those catches been taken. I had thought of the time it was my only chance of what’s considered equivalent to a batsman’s century. Thankfully, that five-for has come on the Turf wicket at Keith Tournier Oval in Ainslie on what was a batting paradise.

The interesting point about this was leading up to the match against Wests-UC, people like Govind Thiagarajan and Sammy Gautam said something like, “Come on Rohit, you’re going to get five wickets today” and yet I didn’t but on that game I did. I think that five-for justified my decision to move to Turf away from Synthetic because turf wickets give you a chance especially if there are grass patches or cracks on the wicket. Furthermore, it gives you the opportunity to showcase your skills like reverse swing that you wouldn’t do on Synthetic pitches. Immediately Andrew told me he had a suspicion that I would take 5 wickets in our next game but I wonder if the stars will align for that to happen.

Happy New Year for 2017. It was nice to have a break away from the game for at least a couple of weeks in Perth away from the cricket pitch. I had instead spent time in the gym, working on my strength in all my muscles. The ideas came from Cricket Strength and Cricket Mentoring Fitness from Instagram, which will help towards strengthening the muscles and thereby bowling faster.

It is something I had started to seriously dream about bowling fast. I’ve seen YouTube videos of Devon Malcolm, Michael Holding, Allan Donald, Malcolm Marshall, Duncan Spencer, Wasim Akram, and Waqar Younis as well as live footage of Brett Lee, Mitchell Johnson, Pat Cummins, Mitchell Starc, Dale Steyn, Kagiso Rabada, Shoaib Akthar, Wahab Riaz, Shane Bond, Adam Milne, Lockie Ferguson, and Billy Stanlake. I, too, wanted to bowl fast, but the more I tried, the less accurate I would become. I also come to realize that bowling fast also puts heavy stress on the body, especially the back, so going for out and out pace isn’t always recommended.

I had basically shelved my pace ambitions for now and decided to focus on extracting swing and bounce given that what gets batsmen out on turf in Canberra. Nevertheless, I had been working in practice to improve my run-up and ensure that I follow through well. I’d also worked out if I contract the trunk as Dennis Lillee suggested in his autobiography Menace, then it can make a difference with pace as well as swing and bounce. So it’s something I’m focusing on during my weight training.

While all the words are about increasing my pace, there’s also a strong possibility that weight training can also help my batting routine, technique, and even my power. The expectation is that the added strength will help my consistent back-lift and bat swing along with the power in my shots that will allow me to hit the ball a bit harder than before. I was looking forward to a session to bat while in Perth because I wanted to practice watching the ball, but that session never materialized.

Nevertheless, it was good to go to Perth to catch up with some familiar faces while continuing the strength work. I also had a chance to relax in front of the TV, watching the Aussies steal a victory against Pakistan in the Boxing Day test despite time lost to poor weather. They had won the game because they always had believed that they can win while Pakistan was already thinking of a draw with a chance to level the series on a turner in Sydney. The one thing that I took away from that always believes we can win as long as we have a positive attitude. There was more cricket watching with the Big Bash League (BBL) already in full swing, and it’s no secret that I have enjoyed six-hitting and also when fast bowlers hit the stumps.

Speaking of the Big Bash, there were a couple of occasions that I saw BBL teams at the airport. Early last year, while flying home to Canberra from my India trip, I saw the Brisbane Heat squad (Ben Cutting, Daniel Vettori, Shane Bond) in Sydney, and earlier in the afternoon, I’ve seen the Sydney Sixers squad in Adelaide. There was Johan Botha, Joe Mennie, Jason Roy, Brad Haddin, Moses Henriques, Sean Abbott, and coach Greg Shipperd. I would have liked to had a chat with some of the guys, particularly Brad Haddin, to ask how his family is keeping given that was the main focus of his recently released autobiography, My Family’s Keeper. However, I was honestly too shy to approach any of them, and I had thought it would be best to leave them alone given they were trounced by the Strikers by 48 runs on New Year’s Eve. Not just that, but we also need to remember that each individual is also entitled to their own privacy.

Soon after arriving in Canberra, I was greeted with the news I was waiting for that my five-for was finally published in MyCricket, so a big thanks to Adam O’Connor, who tolerated my constant nagging to get the job done. 5/18 off 8.5 overs with 2 maidens were entered into the system. With that, I’ve become the highest wicket-taker for our 5th-grade side, the 3rd highest wicket-taker in the entire 5th-grade competition, and also propels me in the top 10 for the leading wicket-takers for Ginninderra for all grades (currently 9th spot).

It would be nice to finish the season within the top 10 wicket-takers for 5th grade (even the top 20 would be fine). On top of all that, I also gained a nickname, ‘Hurricane’ that was given to me by Chris Arcella, and already he and Andrew Loveday have started flouting the hashtag #whynothurricane. To be honest, I quite liked the nickname, and it probably suits me when I triggered a collapse by Wests-UC during my five-for when they crashed from 1 for 52 to 5/57 and perhaps when I took 2 quick wickets to derail ANU’s chase of 180 the week before.

The season is about to resume, but I would prefer to continue working on my strength work, given that there’s a strong likelihood of not playing 2-day cricket on the 7th of January. JP is more than happy it seems to allow me to continue my good form this season. I hope the Hurricane strikes big at least once from here.

 

With the Christmas/New Year break approaching, it is now time to review the performances of Ginninderra, the 5th-grade side, and my own performance. 

Ginninderra

I don’t think anyone would give us a chance of competing, let alone get into finals this season in at least one of the grades. During the off-season, our current coach Mick Delaney wanted us particularly our 1st-grade side to be competitive across all formats of the game.

The Twenty20 segment of the season wasn’t successful, but at least 3rd grade got into the semi-finals because they were knocked out. Twenty20s, to be honest, is more luck than anything else. So, no-one should be critical of how it went.

The white-ball one-dayers was a big success with 1st, 3rds, and 4ths reaching the semis. This was in massive contrast with just the 2nds reaching the one-day semis last season. It is of no wonder that the club was delighted with these results regardless of how we went into the semis. 1st grade, as I was told yesterday at the Christmas Party, just snuck in with their 1 run victory over Queanbeyan. It may have gone the other way with 4 runs needed off the final over with 2 wickets in hand. Thankfully, 1st grade held their nerve.

The two-day cricket matches have started well with the top three grades with a win under their belt. The practice of batting for long periods in the nets when the policy of “If you’re out, you’re out” would have part a significant part with the batting. Particularly with 1sts and 2nds posting 300 plus against Norths recently. I wouldn’t want to forget the 1st-grade first innings victory over the cross-town rivals in Wests by 5 runs defending 208. This was because Luke Ryan bowled the team to victory despite the passing of his grandfather. This was in the Canberra Times, and it’s certainly was an inspiring story to read. I admired his courage and determination to win despite losing an extremely close member of your family. The level of support Luke was given justifies the supportive culture of the club. 

So far, judging by these results, the club’s in a perfect space and Mick certainly deserves credit for what he did by starting pre-season earlier than usual and encourage each other to continually improve. I don’t know what was different because this is my first full season in Ginninderra, but I feel positive vibes immediately with the higher grade guys at training.  What I know, though, is that more emphasis is being placed on reliable batsmen going up the grades, perhaps that may have triggered the improved performances.

5th Grade

I never expected our 5th-grade side to be among the top-four leading into the season, given that the top four grades gets first picks of the better cricketers. But that’s what happened. We’re in the top four having won 5 games, lost 4, and saw one game abandoned without a ball being bowled. It helped that the 5th-grade competition had one side per club this season as last season saw some clubs (including Ginninderra) put out at least 2 teams. 

I’m happy that we’re in a reasonable space, but it could have been a lot different if Tuggeranong didn’t beat us recently. Honestly, we were complacent, and they took advantage of our complacency. At the same time, we’ve managed to compete with our fellow top four teams in Queanbeyan, Weston Creek Molonglo, and North Canberra Gungahlin, but they had pulled away with the points.  Nevertheless, we will be playing these clubs at least once more in the season, and we should give ourselves a chance of winning, provided it’s a collective effort. 

Our fielding continues to be a work in progress as the outcomes haven’t gone our way, but everyone is putting in the effort to improve whenever they can, including me. Nevertheless, though, our batting and bowling are coming along. 

Firstly with the batting. Sandeep Kumar is undoubtedly our leading run-scorer with nearly 150 runs. He has been instrumental to our victories so far with match-winning knocks of 49 (against Eastlake), 37 (against ANU), and 34 (against Wests). Our captain, Joe Laria, also has played some crucial knocks for us with 45 not out (against Eastlake), 26 not out (against Wests), and 29 (against Tuggeranong). Not to mention his match-winning 51 not out against Weston Creek Molonglo in 4th grade to pull the team into the one-day semi-finals in which he made 14 not out. Adam O’Connor has played a couple of essential knocks in the middle order (29 against North Canberra Gungahlin and 30 not out against Weston Creek Molonglo), and Sammy Gautam has played his part with consistent, quick starts at the top of the order (23 against Eastlake, 17 against ANU, 36 against Wests and 15 against Tuggerangong) having started the season with 2 runs in 3 innings.  Michael Ison has also played his part with an unbeaten 35 against Tuggeranong and then 87 against Weston Creek Molonglo. Since then, he has been playing in 3rd grade.
The bowling so far has been impressive, I believe. Joe had told me that he didn’t have any decent pace bowlers in his team, but he’ll be happy that he has an adequate supply of them this season. So far, the stand-outs have been me, Adam and Joe, with all three of us taken at least 10 wickets this season. Adam, at times, had bowled without luck, particularly in our three consecutive defeats with edges and catches not going to hand and plays and misses from the batsmen. It is to his credit that he has bowled well with 2/14 against Wests in the first game of the season; 4/26 against ANU and 3/17 against Tuggeranong.

Similarly, Joe has bowled well this season, particularly with pace whenever his back doesn’t play up. So far, we’ve encountered some roads in Forestry and Keith Tournier Oval. Still, Joe has prospered, given that he’s a hit the deck bowler, and he took 3/35 against North Canberra Gungahlin, 2/27 against Eastlake and 3/21 against Tuggeranong. 

Other people have played their part in taking wickets or keeping the runs down, but us three have been the chief destroyers. 

Myself

I haven’t discussed myself much in the 5th-grade review, but the focus in the upcoming review is more on my goals and performances this season. 

As mentioned before, my long-term goal is to play 100 games, take 100 wickets and score 1000 runs in grade cricket by the age of 40 or so. Hence, I have about 10-15 years to achieve the three milestones. If we do the breakdown, then I need to (on average) play at 7-10 games, score 70-100 runs and take 7-10 wickets.

Let’s see how I’m progressing towards these targets:

• Play 7-10 games. Achieved (2 games in 4ths and 8 games in 5ths means 10 games so far)
• Score 70-100 runs. Not yet reached (15 runs in 4ths and 14 runs in 5ths gives 29 runs)
• Take 7-10 wickets. Achieved (1 wicket in 4ths and 12 wickets in 5ths gives 13 wickets)

So, I’ve met the target for both the games and the wickets but not the runs at this stage. I need at least 41 runs in the next 2 months after the break, but it depends whether I’ll get any batting opportunity during this time. If I do, I’ll back myself to score runs and bat time because I’m no mug with the bat. 

The bowling though, it’s on another plane. Considering this is my first full season ever in grade cricket, to achieve your goal of taking 10 wickets in the season is a significant achievement. Furthermore, at this stage, I’m the leading wicket-taker for our 5th-grade side with 12 (and I would be third of the 5th-grade competition and within the top 10 wicket-takers for the club only if my five-for had been updated on MyCricket. I’m still waiting for that to happen Adam!!). 

These are my performances to date:

1.  1/24 (6 overs) against Western Districts & University of Canberra (won)
2. 2/14 (9) against Tuggerangong (won)
3. 0/32 (9) against North Canberra Gungahlin (lost)
4. 1/30 (9) against Weston Creek Molonglo (lost)
5. 0/23 (6) against Queanbeyan (lost)
6. 1/20 (9) against Eastlake (won)
7. 2/36 (7) against ANU (won)
8. 5/18 (8.5) against Western Districts & University of Canberra (won)
9. 1/21 (4) against Western Districts & University of Canberra (lost)

Overall I’ve taken 13 wickets @ 16.77 with Econ 3.21 and SR 31.3. So far, it’s pretty impressive figures to date. It shows that I’m a genuine wicket-taker and can keep the runs down at the same time.  

However,  what if I then combine my performances in wins and losses

• 11 wickets @ 10.18 with Econ 2.81 and SR 21.72 in wins
• 2 wickets @ 53 with Econ 3.79 and SR 84.00 in losses

This does imply that the success of my team depends on me to a certain extent. When we win, I’m more penetrative and can keep the runs down. However, in defeats, I have gone for a few runs and look second rate. On the other hand, though, I felt I’ve haven’t bowled too badly in these situations when you provoke plays and misses and chances that don’t go your way. 

This means I should continue to hit the right areas, swing the ball and extract bounce like I’ve been doing so far. The truth behind my success this season is because of Joe, my 5th-grade captain. He’s given me the opportunities to bowl long spells as he’s seeing that I’ve been developing great rhythm in my bowling, and as a result, the rewards came. When you get such backing from your captain, it personally motivates you to perform and also lifts your team. The chairman of selectors, John Prior, deserves credit for my impression season also because he put me into a side that can get the best out of me. 

Furthermore, as touched upon before, the work Luke Wimbridge and the other coaches at Southern Cricket did with me since the end of the 2012-13 season with my bowling has paid off. They’ve helped me to hone my bowling, which I later realized was beneficial to the wickets here in the ACT. The good thing is that Luke is always a Facebook message away if I need any cricket related advice. 

I am also profoundly grateful for my coach in ACT, Dr. Masud Rahman. He encouraged me to believe that I was good enough for grade, and I’m happy that I followed his advice once I got sick with City & Suburban as it wasn’t that serious to my own liking. I’m made the right choice, and I’m happy that I’ve put in the hard work in the off-season with both my skills and fitness, which has played a significant part in my success to date. 

So far this season, I’ve bowled with both the new and old ball using both the red and white ball. I’ve managed to swing the ball every game I’ve played. Sometimes a little bit, sometimes a lot. The last game I’ve played, the 4th-grade one-day semi-final, I’ve also learned the art of reverse-swing while bowling with a 30 over old white ball.  These are the skills that have helped me take wickets.

What next?

I remembered at the Christmas Party last night that Mick has asked us to think about how we can get better. Right now, it will be my catching because I’ve dropped every single chance that has come my way. I’m still working on it, and I hope to keep working on it with encouragement from the club. Given that I’ve recently suffered a bruised left shin, I would like to refine my ground fielding techniques without experiencing similar pain again for a while. 

On the bowling front, I would like to hone my in-swinger without compromising my natural out-swing. Furthermore, I would like to practice reverse-swing with an old red ball which will be beneficial in 2-day cricket or in the latter stages of a one day match. 

With no cricket, for now, I should look to work on my strength and power at the gym and possibly catch up with Luke while I’m in Perth. 

So far, a good season considering it’s my first ever season in grade cricket. More to come, but I should aim to take more wickets and enjoy the pleasant moments with the ball while it lasts. 

I was still suffering from my bruised left shin from the 4th-grade semi-final that we lost. I found it challenging to walk pain-free, and attempting to run was out of the question. Thus, my preparation for the weekend was deeply affected. I could perhaps practice my sharp catching, but given that I cannot bowl or attempt to take high catches or practice ground fielding since there’s running involved, I decided to rest on Tuesday rather than attend training.

The weather leading up to the weekend was extremely wet, and thus Thursday training was canceled. Sadly, the wet weather continued on Friday, and ultimately most of the matches were called off. In turf, if it rains and the wickets are not covered enough from the rains, then the weekend’s play gets called off. Even if the wicket is dry from the rains, I needed to be told that the outfield will need to be reasonably dry. That’s what I had learned from other people and from my prior experience against Queanbeyan last month.

I suspect most of the guys in our club will be disappointed that there’s no cricket, particularly Chris ‘Archie’ Arcella, who was going to line up against his former club, North Canberra Gungahlin, in the hope that we could smash them in 5th grade. Anyways, I was hopeful that we may see our game rescheduled, but as Ben Healy told me, it will be challenging to find a free weekend. So at least we walk away with our first points against a fellow top-four team for once.

With all the grades except 2nds being abandoned before the start despite bright and sunny weather, I ended up at Vishnu Chari’s residence to watch the Australia v Pakistan and India v England test matches. As the afternoon went on, both Vishnu and I learned that 2nds won by 1st innings defending 300 and were 1 wicket into their mission for outright victory through a Facebook post in our group. We both decided to head out to Kippax early to cheer the guys on.

Unfortunately, when I arrived, there was no cricket. As it turned out, both Norths and Ginninderra decided to close proceeding early that started only at 1pm. So 2nds are off the mark with a win in 2-day cricket.

Then came the Christmas party at ‘The Nest’ which is what Kippax 1 is referred to. It was the first time I was stepping on this ground ever. It is a multipurpose ground as cricket and football are being played there. I immediately had thought that it will be great to go out and play at The Nest one day.

Nevertheless, it was great seeing plenty of familiar faces. Quite interestingly enough, I only knew a few people from the club during pre-season. By now, I knew almost everyone who turned up at the Christmas party, but I was hanging out more with Vishnu and a few guys from 5th grade, mainly Archie and Andrew Loveday. Nevertheless, whenever I said hello to a few people, those guys (they know who they are) mentioned that they’ve been reading my entries and enjoyed reading them.

While the positive publicity was there, I never was prepared for feedback from our club president, Chris ‘Griffo’ Griffin. I was initially puzzled when Griffo wanted me to pull me aside. Anyways initially, I couldn’t hear what Griffo was telling me, so I managed to get hold of him while we were at the finish line for a footrace between the fastest guys in the club. Griffo mentioned that I wrote something publicly regarding my view on selections on a previous entry, which caught his eye through John Prior, the chairman of selectors and Mick Delaney, the head coach. Believe it or not, what I wrote matched their views, and they were astonished by what was written. Griffo himself acknowledged and commended me for writing such stuff, which meant that he, too, was also enjoying what I’ve written. Furthermore, he was appreciative of the fact that I lost 10 kilos since the end of last season when he checked it out on Facebook.

I was welcoming constructive criticism for everything I write in my entries, but Griffo’s positive feedback tonight was the icing on the cake. It helped to enjoy a great Christmas party that was filled with good food and activities. I quite enjoyed all you can eat BBQ and the deserts, particularly the Black Forest Cake and the Caramel Cheesecake. I also enjoyed Jess Howard bagging Archie for costing her a maiden 50 last weekend against Tuggeranong when she was stranded on 15 not out. But I refused to believe Archie and Andrew when they think that they can send across an Italian Cricket team for the 2024 Olympics. I love their optimism, but it’s honestly all trash talk, much like Archie believing I was good enough for a Big Bash League contract for Hobart Hurricanes.

Overall, a good night out with everyone enjoying each other’s company. That’s Ginninderra for you given as mentioned before; they’re one of the most sociable cricket clubs in ACT Premier Cricket. It helps strengthen the club chemistry, which in turn enhances the chemistry during practice and in the games.

December 9, 2016

The euphoria following my maiden five for continued since last Saturday. Chris ‘Archie’ Arcella had tagged me on a Facebook post regarding Hobart Hurricane’s search for the final spot in their Big Bash League roster. I found it hilarious yet flattering; hence I indicated that I should be playing in 1st grade to being called up for something like this. The well-wishes for the five-for were coming from the Ginninderra players, and one of my ex-coaches, Luke Wimbridge, was coming in on Facebook.

To top it all off, nothing beats praise from a higher grade cricketer being said face to face. That’s what happened recently at training when Jak Wilcox, the tall left-arm quick who plays in our 1st-grade side, gave me a warm handshake and a few words to congratulate me on receiving a five-for against our cross-town rivals. This kind of appreciation is one of the reasons why I joined Ginninderra. Everyone’s out there to support each other on and off the field, plus people from all grades are being treated equally. If someone scores a 50, 100, or takes five wickets or hat-trick, there will be congratulations all round. No factions. No grudges. No junior/senior divide. Nothing.

Before training on Thursday (which was the only training session with the Tuesday session canceled due to Australia vs. New Zealand game at Manuka Oval), I was going through Youtube videos on reverse-swing and the techniques on how it can be executed. I was contemplating adding a few more skills to my armor, especially with a much older ball on certain pitches.  Furthermore, I was also shadow practicing my wrist position for the in-swinger, given that I would like to add a variation to my bowling, especially with the new ball. I managed to try it with some success on Thursday, but the training was hampered due to showers pouring down at around 6pm.

As it seemed, that would have been my only cricket activity all week given that I wasn’t going to play over the weekend with Neethu, my fiancée coming down from Adelaide, and I wasn’t going to initially play on Sunday given that I wasn’t selected in the higher grade semi-finals. So I was entirely down and had resigned myself for no cricket during the weekend.

However, later today, after picking Neethu up from the airport, the 4th-grade captain (and secretary of Ginninderra) Chakra Ravinuthala asked me if I could play on Sunday when Sidu Macal withdrew. I took the opportunity on and told Chakra that I will see him at Kippax 2. As a matter of fact, given that I had managed to take wickets as he expected, including the five-for last weekend, it was kind of him to consider me for selections in the semi-final. Actually, he asked me to keep Sunday free which is what I did. I am incredibly grateful for Chakra for presenting me with the opportunity for the following three reasons:

1. The semi-final was against our cross-town rivals, Wests-UC
2. We were playing on the club headquarters where we usually train at Kippax Oval no. 2
3. Exposure to the white ball.

I haven’t had an opportunity to bowl with the white ball yet, but I knew that it presented a chance to use my honed technique to extract movement from my body. I would love to get my hands on the white ball and bowl with it even if it’s a few overs but I will have to wait and see. I only bowled a few balls with an old white ball at training during the preseason, but this is a different experience altogether.

December 10, 2016

I had fun yesterday with Neethu. We went to Lennox Gardens to have our pizza lunch before going to Max Brenner’s Chocolate Cafe (I had a waffle with banana, strawberries, and chocolate ice cream) and then to AMF Bowling Center in Belconnen. In AMF, I was bowling with a bowling ball, not a 4 piece cricket ball. For once, I was obsessed with speed. I was in the mid 20s km/hr with occasional forays in the 30s. Still, I manage to average approximately 100 points per game.

We later had dinner at Bollywood Masala in Kingston (close to our accommodation for the weekend in East Hotel), and the dinner was excellent as well as the service was quick. It helped when we came at a less busy time. It was during the dinner that I was greeted with the shocking news that our 5th grade lost to Tuggeranong by 2 wickets defending 121. I would have thought things would go pear-shaped for Joe Laria, our captain. Mostly, my absence was significant as was Will Thomson’s when he got promoted to 4ths for the 2-day clash against Norths.

Furthermore, Dominic Tran pulled out at the last minute. So fielding with 10 people was going to be tough this time around. So Tuggeranong proved me wrong by beating Wests than us, so I admit it wasn’t nice to call them the whipping boys of 5th grade, and I do apologize for that statement. I also acknowledge that I was insensitive to Dominic’s absence, thinking he was supposed to play, so I also apologize for the insensitivity.

December 11, 2016

It’s game time, and I’m about to check out of the East Hotel to drop Neethu off at the airport and then get ready for the semi-final clash that I’m still incredibly grateful for. Given there’s no Ben Peel, Sidu Macal, or Adam O’Connor, I would hope to take advantage of a newer one-day white ball and seek to swing it immediately by opening the bowling. Still, it will be Chakra’s call later on either when we bowl first or second.

We eventually lost the toss, and we were to bowl first on a wicket that Vishnu Chari described it as slow, low, and flat. We managed to break through early when Natarajan held out to Prasad Karlapur at Mid-off in the second over of the innings off Jess Howard’s bowling. But Allan Xu and Damien Whitelum were hard to dislodge despite the tidy efforts of Jess, Prasad, Cody Linsday, and Tom Parr. Quite the contrary from Vishnu’s assessment, the wicket started to misbehave from both ends when balls started rearing up from a length during the Wests’ innings.

I later managed to get a go bowling in the 30th over, given the tidy start with the ball we had. I would have like to take advantage of a newer ball earlier on, but I had the white ball that was heavily scuffed up on one end and shiny on the other. I finally got a chance with the white ball ever (apart from a few balls at preseason training) to bowl with. I was trying to bowl out-swing, but in my first over, it swung in instead. It was probably how I was able to clean bowl Whitelum after he made 55 when the ball hit the top of the middle stump. I broke through in my third delivery with the white ball, and I felt I was away.

Soon after, Chakra had Yorke brilliantly caught by Joe and then trapped Ewart lbw in the following over. It was interesting that the umpire gave it out not only after a prolonged appeal, but he appeared to shake his head before that. That’s how everyone saw it, but I shouldn’t discuss further as umpiring decisions for discussion is taboo, especially on Social Media.  So we were in the game.

I should have at least had Xu caught behind when the ball swung out instead of swinging in, given that the rough side was on the right side except the chance was missed. Regardless, I was able to reverse the white ball. All the talk about the white ball being like a dog’s breakfast after the first 10 overs or so yet I was able to extract bounce and swing with the white ball. Once again, all the work I did with Southern Cricket came into the fore, although I developed experience with reverse swing in my short four-over spell that went for 21. Basically, 1/21 off my 4 overs, which gave me my 13th wicket for the season with one more weekend before Christmas/New Year break. I would have liked to bowl more, but thankfully, Chakra pulled me out at the right time; otherwise, my confidence would have been entirely shot.

Anyways, Amit took over from me and effected a middle-order wobble. He bowled Xu through the gate to end his innings on 36, which lasted for about 40 overs. He soon trapped Josh Rowland lbw to a ball that kept low when he went back. He made 47. Then he had Singh stumped on his first ball, which left Singh in disbelief and took 2-3 minutes to get off the pitch. Amit soon took his 4th when bowled Wilson, who kept out Amit’s hat-trick ball.

Cody later got the wicket of Toby Chugg, and he executed his yorkers well in the last over of the innings. He should have got a second wicket, but I dropped a catch having run in from deep mid-wicket and instead hit me right on the outer palm on the left-hand. It was the same place where I hurt myself while training on my birthday in our fielding sessions. I was also dealing with a bruised left shin having stopped a drive off Chakra’s bowling earlier, but it was no excuse for dropping the chance having done the hard work in getting to the ball in the first place.

Wests finished with 9/195 off their 45 overs, and we needed to make 196 to advance to the final. Rob, the Ginninderra groundsman who prepared the Aranda wicket in our game against Weston Creek last month, was giving us iced orange Gatorade, which was good given that it was warm and most of the team was tired from yesterday’s effort. Tom was supposed to open for us but he had to leave at 4pm for his work that was starting at 5. So Chakra and Vishnu opened. Vishnu was resolute while Chakra was trying to give us a fast start. They added nearly 40 in 7 overs before Vishnu was bowled for 9 by one that cut back into him. That was the start of the precession we had that killed our chase. Chakra was out for 30 when the fielder spilled a catch at cover before he caught it on the rebound much to our disbelief. Amit was clean bowled. Jason Cooper gloved a ball to the keeper. Then Sumanth Purelli, Vijay Selvarathnam, and Prasad were caught at slip off Yorke’s bowling when they edged deliveries that spun and bounced. Cody was clean bowled through the gate. Then Jess and I were outdone by balls that hardly bounced. I edged mine to the keeper before Jess was trapped LBW.

I nearly perished on my first ball when I got a ball from Yorke that spun and bounced, which created a leading edge. I realized I was playing with hard hands, so I loosened my bottom hand and the next ball, I got off the mark with a couple. I was looking good batting with Joe, and I was determined to keep batting till the end, and hopefully, we could keep the chase intact. But I got out for 6 caught behind as discussed and Joe finished with 14 not out. He was stranded and batted quite well. Although he’s a back-foot player, he showed an ability to adapt and get forward. That’s why he was not out in the end.

Anyways, we got smashed. Wests were through to the one day final next Sunday, December 18th, to play either Norths or Queanbeyan. Joe and I ended up discussing cricket as I was driving him to his parents’ house in Kaleen. As I touched upon before, Joe is a cricket nuffy and has excellent ideas for the game like I do. We were discussing certain things about what will happen for us and the lower grades after the Christmas/New Year break. I’ve told Joe that I wouldn’t mind going up the grades if they need a bowler that was consistently performing like myself. As I had touched on before, Joe was the main reason for the consistent performance since I had been bowling at least 6 overs a game.

I later learned in the loss against Tuggeranong that we were about 7/40 before being dismissed for 121 courtesy of Archie and Joe making 29 each, and then Jess made her personal best of 15 not out. Then Adam and Joe were amongst the wickets but not enough to dislodge me from being the team’s leading wicket-taker in 5th grade for now. Apparently, I was complementing Archie’s batting through Facebook Messenger when he said that the team missed me. I assured him that I will be back for the next game against Archie’s former club, Norths, on his old turf in Harrison. I suppose we may have a strong team to choose from, and I hope I will be amongst the playing 12 for next weekend. I think Joe was telling me that I may need to open the bowling again, although I’ve taken wickets with the older ball in the past two weeks.

Unfortunately, the bruised left-shin was later to be showing some swelling when I tried to compare my two legs. It was yet another injury to add to my collection that has happened from playing cricket. I would have thought it was unfortunate given the circumstances of how it happened, but perhaps I thought I should have gone back to basics by using the long barrier technique even if the ball was hit quite hard. I want to show commitment, but now getting hurt will be in the back of your mind since it happened previously.

It does have an effect mentally when you hurt yourself like this, and it will undoubtedly come back to haunt you when we attempt half-chances at training in the future. I want to improve my fielding for sure, but I need to do it in a way, so these things don’t happen much.

November 28, 2016

Yesterday, I was thrilled that I was in the top 10 wicket-takers in 5th grade alongside Joe Laria and Adam O’Connor despite not taking any more than 2 wickets a game. Later today, once all the scores were in, we were within the top 20, but several of us were on 7 wickets apiece. I felt that it was the first time I had been consistent with ball in hand since the 2012-13 and 2013-14 seasons that were on synthetic wickets. Last season, it took me about 10 bowling innings to take 7 wickets, and after the first 7 games, I had only taken 5 wickets and would have gone for plenty more than 3.25 that I’ve conceded so far.

It just reinforces the focus on the process of hitting the right length and generating swing and bounce most of the time. The performance on Saturday in my previous diary entry showed that I wasn’t just a new ball bowler. I can only bowl with an older ball. Apart from training with an older ball this season, I had been honing my bowling swing and bounce at Southern Cricket with very old cricket balls. This was similar to how Sir Curtly Ambrose, the West Indian fast bowler, prepared before an international game using a very old cricket ball, which helped him take wickets and starve opposition batsmen of runs.

I realized that I don’t have to bowl all my nine overs at the start. Instead, I can bowl some overs with the new ball and some with the older ball, preferably before the slog overs. That approach will allow Joe to rotate his bowlers a bit more than before. Even in a 2-day game, I can bowl short spells at different times of an innings because I can generate swing and bounce with both the new and the old ball.

Given that the top 4 grades were still locked in 2-day action, my thoughts were switched over to selection for our upcoming fixture against Wests. Adam was to be unavailable for the next two weeks, at least. So that will leave us with 11 to choose from. However, if Govind Thiagarajan, Chris Arcella, Samrudh Anavatti, and Blake Nitschke return, then JP will have his work cut out to select a squad of 12 out of possibly, 15 available players.

Hence several people will have to make way, but the question will be who. One thing is for sure, I would like to play and improve on my last outing against Wests. I believe I warrant selection given that I’ve bowled reasonably well this season, but that remains to be seen.

November 29, 2016

I was very much surprised that I found out that Wests lost to Tuggeranong over the weekend by 6 wickets, having only made 99. Tuggeranong, by that stage, had not won a game and were undoubtedly the whipping boys in 5th grade. It was why Joe had thought about experimenting against Tuggerangong like me coming on 1st change and possibly a batting promotion. I would think twice before we do this at all after this result.

Tuggerangong’s victory over Wests I felt gives us the confidence to continue our domination against our cross-town rivals, given that we’re comfortably in the top four even if we lose over the weekend. But it will be dangerous to write them off yet given that Damien Whitelum, their regular captain, had scored 80 odd and a 120 odd since the last time we played them. That’s provided he plays this weekend. As it showed last time, getting him out before he could inflict severe damage was one of the reasons why we managed to sneak home in a low scoring thriller.

On another note, there had been talk in the past about this diary given that people from the club had been reading it. Dominic Tran was even suggesting that it could be turned into a Ginninderra blog. That’s a fair point Dom I thought, but this is more to discuss a bit more about my own insights and preparations for cricket than anything else. Secondly, what if I, for some reason, move clubs or even leave Canberra, then the diary will no longer by just mine. Hence, let people contribute their pieces or possibly start a blog for the club. Nevertheless, it’s adorable to hear people talk well regarding the content I’ve written.

Going to training, it was an ok session. I continued the good work with the bat last week, but I had unfortunately dragged a pull shot back into my stumps. Bowling was ok. I beat the bat a few times, but I then struggled throughout the afternoon with my length. It was frustrating because I was able to get results on turf. Still, on practice wickets, which are obviously much bouncer, it makes it easier for batters, notably in the higher grades, to get comfortable off the back foot.

Nevertheless, I have been able to not just generate swing off the seam and off the air but also through my trunk rotation later in the day until it got dark. While I don’t want to give much away if opposition players read my diary, but I could play a round of different kinds of swing generation in the hope of catching a batsman’s wicket. For once in a while, I was looking forward to fielding because I wanted to practice watching the ball all the way through to the hands, which could explain why I tend to drop more catches then taking them. I was reasonably happy with my throwing at least and later on my catching when we were trying to go for half chances rather than bailout at the last minute.

Later on, after training, I felt that I needed some subtle changes to my run-up that will allow me to hit my lengths better with my unplayable swing and bounce. I would really like to have another crack at bowling at training to regain my confidence ahead for the weekend.

November 30, 2016

I was still trying to decipher the reasons why I bowled short, but as Vishnu told me since the Turf pitches aren’t as bouncy as the practice nets, it’s just the right length to bowl. Nevertheless, I was contemplating another change of bowling action. In the last few weeks, I was focusing too much on pace and thought to stick my focus on rhythm, swing, and bounce and fix the run-up that will give me speed to support these attributes.

Furthermore, I was experiencing left foot pain all day despite taking a couple of painkillers in the morning. I think the jumping and landing from bowling over the last few weeks may have started to take its toll. And I think it’s slowly becoming harder to consistently generating the swing and bounce I always crave. Hence, I was experimenting with another different bowling action to minimize the jump and the landing effect. I really liked it because my left foot doesn’t experience pain at all, and I have been able to incorporate the little technicalities that Luke that talked out in the bowling to trouble all kinds of batsmen on various surfaces.

Now it will be a matter of trying this out at training tomorrow. But I’m hopeful this will be an action that will stay with me for at least this season.

December 1, 2016

As it turned out, I went back to my other action when I couldn’t find any rhythm with my new one. I wasn’t that threatening as before. I figured that if I knew where I was going to land, I could easily coordinate my action better to hep generate the swing and bounce. It was one of the reasons why I have bowled reasonably well in the matches this season. I think I was more confident with my current action only after practicing bowling by myself. Using my body, I felt I can get the bowl to move more, but the key for me is to get my lines right. Swing bowling is considered by coaches as ‘risk and reward.’ If the ball swings, batters will struggle. If it doesn’t, then the bowler will be struggling.

As I indicated earlier, I was a little confused regarding the lengths I should bowl at training. I got a bit of encouragement from our chief selector JP who told me to bowl the lengths I bowl in matches. I mean, you can try to get the ball a little fuller in practice, but the problem is that on turf, the batters can just get underneath the ball quickly.

Before heading to training, I packed the Gray-Nicolls e41 bat that I stored away after last season instead of my Gray-Nicolls Kaboom bat, which has become a little light for me. I had initially put the e41 bat away, given I wanted to stick to my newer bats on turf. But, my increased strength had changed my intentions when the Kaboom became a little light. I used the e41 with mixed results, although I had my usual power when playing spin. Thankfully I didn’t get out, and neither did my batting partner Dominic Tran. If either of us gets out, then we have to run five, which is as bad as seeing your innings terminated when you get out.

Before batting, which was at the start of training, everyone did fielding. It made sense because all top four grades will be in the field at least this weekend; hence we need to work on it. It was also suitable for several of us 5th graders to continue working on our fielding given it has been a constant let down. My catching technique was frowned upon by Matty Andrews, the 3rd-grade skipper (who also was impressed with how I mentioned him previously in my online diary). Hence, he spent time with me developing soft hands and correcting my position to take any catch left or right, high or low. It wasn’t too bad when I caught most of the balls that came to me. It was more towards letting the ball come to you than anything else.

My thoughts immediately returned to selections. Now Adam and Dominic were unavailable. So with Govind and Archie coming into our side, we have 12 players regardless of whether Samrudh or Blake are available. For once, it seems I may not be needed to bat, but you never know.

December 2, 2016

As it turned out, I was in playing 12 when the teams came out on Facebook. Govind and Archie were playing in place of Adam and Dominic Tran. So, we have a solid batting line up. As I said earlier, I was anticipating not being required to bat. I told Vishnu this over MOC at work this afternoon, and he immediately thought differently.

He had been chatting with Joe during the week, and he thinks I’m a worthy 6, 7, or 8 as I have demonstrated my ability to know where my off stump is my defensive technique and my ability to score runs. Furthermore, Vishnu wants me to change my attitude when it comes to batting. He says I cannot go around and say I’m just a bowler because it can count against you for selections in the higher grades. I consider myself a bowling all-rounder and would welcome opportunities to bat provided. I have support from my captain even if I fail. To be honest, it doesn’t matter which grade I play in as long as I get a bowl, which is my primary preference. Playing as just a batsman doesn’t sit well with me, as I indicated when I played in the Twenty20 early this year.

I’ve had a chat with Joe regarding my chances to bat. He was considering a batting reshuffle this weekend and beyond to give other guys a go. It’s a gutsy move with the season still up for grabs, but at the same time, the experimentation can work really well for us when the finals come round. I’ve told Joe that I would prefer batting around five or six, given that I would like to play myself in before teeing off in the last 5 overs. That’s usually my style because people will be asking too much if I have to score immediately off the first ball.

Looking at the opposition line up for tomorrow, Joe told me that Wests only have a couple of good bowlers, which meant the backup bowlers tend to leak runs a bit more. Perhaps, it may not be a bad idea to have a crack with the bat tomorrow, if possible. I also found out that their regular skipper Damien Whitelum who twice made big scores in this season, wasn’t playing. Given that they have struggled without him (especially against Tuggeranong who beat them), we should still win.

I’m hoping we can bat first and put on a good total on the board, but it depends on the pitch. Last time we play at Keith Tournier Oval against Norths, they made 225, and it was a perfect track to bat on. One of the reasons why I’m hoping we should bat first was because I found out that Will can only be available to play from 4pm onwards, and hence, he’ll be available for just the 2nd innings. He can just turn up and bowl when we bat first; otherwise, we will be down a bowler if we have to bowl first.

I’ve told Joe that if Will’s opening, I would like to come on first change from his end if the wind is blowing sideways given that we’re similar bowlers. If Will’s unavailable, then it seems that I have to open the bowling, which is fine by me, given that I’ll have the end of my choice, plus I’ll be bowling the first over. Plenty of food for thought for our skipper, but I will have to wait and see how we go.

December 3, 2016

The wicket was similar to the game against Norths. It was perfect for batting.  The good news was that we had first use of the wicket when we won the toss and chose to bat. I managed to negotiate my way to bat up the order this time, and I’m batting at six. Will was pleased when I told him that we’re batting.

For the time being, it was the Sammy Gautam show. He was confident having made runs in the last two weeks, and he continued to channel his inner Sehwag. He swung hard, and that helped when edges flew over the slips cordon. This was indeed a stark contrast to the batter who made 2 runs in 3 innings. It was a testimony that the presence of Umesh Patel has helped him to start scoring decent runs. We were 2 for 81 after 15 overs at drinks, thanks to Sammy. He put on 25 with Umesh for the first wicket before adding 50 with Andrew Loveday, who threatened to perform but didn’t when he fell for 14.

We soon crashed to 4 for 96 after drinks. Sammy’s fairytale ended on 36 when he poked a catch to slip before Vasu Patel was stumped off Neil Hathaway for 2. That meant I was in. I had plenty of time to bat so I can play my natural game of batting for time before teeing off later. It worked when I put on a partnership with Vishal Suresh when we were 4 for 124 after 30 overs when we took drinks. Darab Fateh (who took 2/28 off 9 overs) and Neil Hathaway (who took 2/22 off 9 overs) was hard to get away, so we tried to go after Will Sackett and Brad McDowell. As a matter of fact, Sackett bowled a wide delivery outside off stump for me to square drive him for four.

Joe at drinks requested me to keep going but show a bit more intent. Vishal and I continued to take quick singles. A facet of my game that I believe I had improved immensely over the last 10 years. But both of us were soon out in consecutive overs. Vishal was run out trying to run two but was undone by a good throw and not running the first one hard. Me, having been bowled the short ball to pull, I failed to keep the shot down and hit a catch straight to square leg. Both of us made 14 apiece, but I was annoyed that I threw away a good chance of a long innings. Archie felt the pull shot lacked conviction, which costed my wicket while Vishnu later after the game thought I was rusty, given my limited batting opportunity.

Nevertheless, Archie really liked the way I batted my loud calls, mainly. They were loud and clear, and it even silenced the opposition. Sammy was telling me that he should learn batting from me, particularly on the calling side.

If we look at the bright side, my dismissal allowed Joe Laria and Sandeep Kumar to bludgeon the bowling in the last few overs to help us finish with 9/212. Sandeep made 34, and Joe was 26, not out. Wests were heard saying that they were into the tail, but as it proved that we don’t have any tail. Wests had to blame themselves for not bowling accurately and being disciplined enough. They conceded 48 wides and 6 no balls on the way to concede a total of 62 extras.

Will immediately arrived from his work at Manuka Oval to take the new ball with Dominic Ross. Although Will struck in his first over bowling Justin Keats, Wests were cruising at 1 for 52 after 10 overs. Dominic Ross had taken for a bit of tap, especially when he bowled too full and was driven through the offside for boundaries. I ended up replacing him, and we soon had Wests 5 for 57 at drinks after 14.1 overs.

My first wicket was an LBW to dismiss David Galeano, which I believe was pad first despite Galeano indicating otherwise. It was a while since I claimed a wicket in this manner. I was trying to swing the ball out, but it went straight on and hit him in front of the stumps. Will claimed the other opener, Toby Chugg, in the next over courtesy of a low catch by Vishal at mid-on who caught it with his fingertips. There was plenty of chat between Will and Chugg. I had heard that Chugg was having a go at me by telling me to shut up, but I honestly didn’t understand a thing.

My next over brought me a second wicket when I bowled Jack Dobson with a ball that came back in as opposed to moving away as I hoped. It might have hit a crack. I nearly had a third wicket when I spilled a return catch off Surojit Samanta’s bat (who averaged 0.40 with 2 runs in 5 innings). I couldn’t believe it and had lost my cool entirely. I usually in the past have taken caught and bowleds, but this chance should have been taken.

I eventually got Surojit bowled as he tried to drive and out-swinger that shaved the off stump. Unfortunately, tempers flew when Surojit was given a send-off, and he was pissed off with us, saying that we were unfriendly. It was at that moment that Adam, who came down to watch us play, gave us a spray for such childish behavior. He says we can provide chat to encourage our bowlers, but it shouldn’t go overboard. I took equal responsibility for our behavior and had decided to mellow down for the rest of the game.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t get any more wickets in a 6 over spell, but I should have had a fourth when Darab Fateh edged a ball in the slip cordon, and Archie spilled a catch when he dived in front of Umesh at first slip. I had figures of 3 for 7, at the time my best ever figures in grade cricket for Ginninderra, and immediately went off the field. It was at that moment Joe gave Andrew Loveday, Govind Thiagarajan, and Sandeep Kumar a bowl, and all claimed a wicket. Andrew removed Josh Rowland courtesy of a good catch by Govind. Govind dismissed Neil Hathaway courtesy of a good catch off a thick edge by Vasu. Sandeep then bowled James Lockley. It was 8 for 110 after 30 odd overs. We could have taken drinks, but instead, Will then Dominic came back on to bowl with no success from one end.

I went back on the field on Joe’s request and immediately took the ball from the other end, replacing Sammy Gautam, who bowled his only wicketless over. I had three overs left, and I had a chance of achieving something special. In my 7th over, my first over back, I had Fateh LBW to a straight ball that didn’t swing. Now I had 4/7. One more wicket to go to achieve something special.

I couldn’t get a wicket in my 8th over. I had figures of 4/14 at this point. Thankfully neither Will and Dominic took the final wicket, which was a relief because I now have one last over to achieve a special milestone. But I nearly had it taken away when Joe told me to rest, but he later retracted as he was just joking and immediately handed me the ball.

Although the wise thing will be to keeping doing what I was doing, I eventually decided to mix it up. I was bowling to Alexander Szabo. The first ball was my stock out-swinger, play, and miss.  The second ball, I attempted an inswinger it back in using an out-swinger grip but with the shiny side on the left side, which Szabo dug out. Third ball was an attempted wobble ball with a wide grip. Overpitched and driven by Szabo for four. I tried cross seam for the next two deliveries. The first one, the fourth in the over, played out by Szabo. Then came the crowning glory; the second cross-seam delivery was hit in the air by Szabo, and knowing I was heading for a special moment, Sammy took a good chest mark catch, his first for the club.

I’ve done it. Five wickets in the innings. The first time ever, I’ve achieved it in cricket, and I’ve done it on turf on one of the most batting friendly wickets in the ACT. 5/18 off 8.5 overs, and I was extremely pleased with that effort. Wests all out for 132, and we won by 80 runs. Last time I played on Keith Tournier Oval, I bowled too full and too wide most of the time. Bowling wicket to wicket while trying to swing the ball brought terrific rewards.

December 4, 2016

People have asked me what it is like to take five wickets, and I will say it’s a great achievement. All the coaching I received from Luke and Masud has paid off. Luke had obviously played a significant role in honing my bowling, which has become extremely useful on these wickets. I later realized he was right when he told me that I may have found my bowling role in 5th grade. I had opened the bowling for the first 6 games of the season and only taken 5 wickets while keeping the runs down. Since relinquishing the opening role, I had taken 7 wickets in the last two games. I would have actually opened the bowling yesterday if Will didn’t show up in time for the 2nd innings, which could imply that I may or may not be able to take 5 wickets in an innings.

Masud should be given equal credit for my success. Had he not encouraged me to play grade on turf, then I would be languishing in City & Suburban and possibly being taken to the cleaners on synthetic wickets. Now, having given turf a crack, I have taken 12 wickets in 8 games and have become Ginninderra’s leading wicket-taker in 5th grade this season. Hopefully, I will be amongst the top 10 wicket-takers after round 8 during the upcoming week.

I am also grateful that both JP and Vishnu during the week encouraged me to not change my bowling much and not worry about the end result in the nets. Furthermore, JP deserves more credit for selecting me in 5ths that allowed me to get overs under my belt every game. I don’t think my achievements would have occurred anywhere else.

I almost forgot another reason why I got five wickets was because of Joe Laria’s belief in my bowling. He had bowled me in every game I’ve played in 5th grade, and he always thought highly of my bowling from the very first game. He should start to believe that we can beat anyone on any day, given that we have an extremely long batting line up and a decent pace bowling trio of myself, Will, and Adam. So far, the trio had played two victorious games this season, and I hope we continue to play together and dominate the opposition, especially against Norths, Weston Creek, and Queanbeyan, whom we’re yet to beat.

Over the coming week, I’ll look to continue my catching practice with Matty Andrews, having spilled a caught and bowled yesterday. Apart from that drop and the missed dolly off Govind’s bowling, our catching was much better than the last few weeks. It’s essential against stronger teams that we continue this intensity.

I have bad news for my team-mates and readers. I will not be playing the coming weekend with my fiancee being in town. Hence, there will be no entry for next weekend. As a matter of fact, it will be a good game to miss given we’re up against Tuggeranong (as I said, they’re like the whipping boys of 5th grade). I nevertheless expect the boys to win without me. I’m not disappointed to miss the game, but I’m sort of disappointed not to be batting because I could fill my boots against them.

Anyways, unless Joe or Adam takes 6 wickets against Tuggeranong, I’ll still be comfortably our leading wicket-taker until I return for the last game before Christmas against Norths back in Keith Tournier Oval.

November 20, 2016

Yesterday I wondered whether I should bother with training because it was going to rain. As it turned out, the forecast was for showers late at night, so it would be worth turning up to practice after all. When I left the office at around 3:30pm, it was 33 degrees, and it was going to be a warm afternoon at practice. It did slightly cool down a little, but it was still warm.

During the nets session, we were all pulled aside by our president Chris “Griffo” Griffin asking us to keep the playing grounds and facilities tidy after each match. This was all contributing towards changing the outside views of our club, which included wearing the club polos to games. Griffo has a fair point, I thought because since we’re using the facilities of each of the turf grounds weekly, we should be looking after it too. I remember that in City & Suburban, individual clubs were fined by ACT Sportgrounds for not keeping the hard wicket grounds tidy after each match.

Back to training, we were still adopting the “if you’re out, you’re out” mentality at practice. It made sense, given that the 2-day matches were starting this weekend. Hence, everyone must try to bat as long as they can. For the bowlers, including myself, it’s about training to bowl aggressive maidens, which make the batsmen play but also make it hard for them to score off you.

Unfortunately, I couldn’t bowl like Allan Donald and ended up back to bowling like Ben Hilfenhaus, which was fine because I would like to continue swinging the ball and generate bounce to complement my much-improved run-up. I felt I bowled well. I bowled testing lines and lengths and got the ball to swing away from the right-handers at times without bowling a single half-tracker.

Then it was my turn to bat. I didn’t start well when I failed to stop a vicious in-swinger from Tariq Khan from hitting my pad despite batting outside my crease. Given, the LBWs cannot be given out in the nets, I continued to bat on; otherwise, it would have been an absolute shocker to be dismissed first ball in the nets. Thankfully, I made slight technical adjustments with my stance and continued my game plan from last week. Maybe I could have tried to advance to the spinners a bit more when they flighted the ball slightly, but this wasn’t the situation to try new things. It was a bit of distraction, though, while batting when flies were buzzing around you while being warm, but I managed to get through. I didn’t bat on the right towards the end or so because Matty Andrews, the 3rd-grade captain, needed bowlers to bowl too.

Sensing that the bowlers in my net were heading to Matty’s net, I decided to ‘retire’ and stop batting. It was also because I love to bowl a lot more than batting due to the stronger mental side. With the bat, it takes one mistake, and your innings is over. With the bowl, if you mess up your bowling a little, then there’s that likelihood of regrouping and finishing well. I wanted to bowl at Vishnu Chari so I can practice my lines against left-handed batsmen. I couldn’t quite bend the ball back into him, but I managed to bowl around the off-stump line to him most of the time and almost had him caught in two minds where he was close to edging a ball as he was trying to leave. I wasn’t actually bowling at full pace as the grass that I was running on was quite wet, but I still managed to keep it tight.

Once Kris Oliver got out, all the 1st-grade bowlers came to our net with the possibility of trying to get Vishnu out before sunset.  But Vishnu seemed immovable much like Dominic Ross was until he played an uncharacteristic shot to get out. Vishnu, in particular, looked comfortable against the spinners when leaving or playing shots. Finally, Vishnu chased a wide ball of mine and edged to where a second slip would have been. Nothing ball, nothing shot, remarkable result.

It was past 7.30 when Vishnu got out, and many people had gone home except for a few of us. My shirt was drenched with sweat all around, but I still managed a lap around the oval to finish up. It was a great session because I was indeed the last man standing (but it would have been a different matter had I not retired to bowl at the end). I had indicated before training that I will be available for 2-day cricket if they’re experiencing a bowler shortage, but I will have to wait and see.

November 22, 2016

I would really like to play 2-day cricket because it suits my natural defensive game where I could bat for hours and hours if given a chance. I had previous 2-day cricket experience not just on my Ginninderra debut last season but also having played 2-day cricket in Perth, albeit on synthetic wickets. I remember really well that for two weeks in a row in 2013-14, I was at least able to bat till tea time (and a little bit beyond it) having come into bat within the first 10 overs of the innings on those occasions.

Yesterday Chakra, the 4th-grade captain, casually asked me how I was doing. I told him that I haven’t been getting the results, but I’m at least keeping the runs down. The stats can back me up. I’ve played 6 games, taken 5 wickets at an average of 28.60 (strike rate of 57.6 balls per wicket), and have conceded at 2.98 runs per over. I further added that I’ve also been unlucky, given that the chances had fallen short or been dropped by fielders. Even though I still had an attacking field in matches, I had been short of luck. But I further mentioned to him that I’ll keep going what I’ve been doing and the results will come.

I had been thinking about 2-day cricket selections and would have been nice if I played alongside my friend Vishnu Chari one day. Given that several people aren’t likely to be available both weeks, I might be a chance. Still, Vishnu told me not to consume my mental energy about such things because selections are a tough job and should focus on enjoying the game and having fun. He was right about the fun and enjoyment aspect, and I should appreciate the fact that I’ve been given the opportunities to open the bowling in each of the six games so far and have successfully offered control.

Selections are indeed a tough activity. I’ve been there myself when I was previously a captain in my old clubs, so I should appreciate what I’ve got. As long as I keeping building pressure and taking wickets when it comes while maintaining my diet and fitness, I’m sure I’ll get opportunities as a bowler in 2-day cricket this season. For now, it’s training time.

Training worked out, ok. The bowling certainly was left to be desired against the right-handed batsmen since they were able to leave balls quite comfortably. But I felt I got better as the session went on. I had swing and bounce, but the accuracy was something I had to focus on at match time. I bowled better to the left-handers, though. I couldn’t quite swing the ball as I could against the right-handers, but I managed to land the ball around the 4th stump line a bit more, which became much more natural line to leave the ball.

Nevertheless, the biggest gain of the session was my batting. As suggested by Sam Gaskin from last week, I reverted to the process that helped me score runs last season in City & Suburban, where I was even hooking the ball in front of square off the pace bowlers. I may have got a bit carried away at times with the bat, but I felt a bit more decisive with more intent. My footwork against spin was more forceful than previously, which allowed me to either go back or forward. It was the same against the pace bowlers, and I really liked the lofted pull shot I played off my captain Joe Laria. I thought to myself, pretty good for someone who bats last in 5th grade. Nevertheless, I will back myself when my batting chance eventually comes. Even if I’m playing two-day cricket, I should play like I did today because I can put pressure on the opposition through my power while keeping to my basic plan, which I was doing today.

Tomorrow afternoon is when the selections will be emailed out, so I will only know then whether I’ll play 2-day cricket sooner rather than later. Nevertheless, I’m currently happy with my role in 5ths despite my lack of batting opportunity.

November 26, 2016

I initially wasn’t going to play due to a family emergency that happened at lunchtime yesterday while I was out eating at Papparich. At that time, Cricket took a backward step, and hence I’d immediately withdrew my availability. So I wasn’t picked to play any of the games. It was pretty full-on with all sides having 12 players.

As the afternoon had turned into night, the family emergency had subsided, and I would be available to play. Still, there’s a possibility of me going a weekend without cricket, and I felt disappointed. Then I realized that Archie couldn’t play, and JP asked me to play for 5ths. It felt good to be back.

However, it will remain to be seen whether I’ll be opening the bowling. I learned that Will Thomson is making a comeback into 5ths, and when I began with him in the first game of the season, he bowled tidily and took wickets while I went for a few runs despite taking a wicket. It didn’t work out because we are similar bowlers, and hence we want to bowl from the same end. To me, either of us will have to open the bowling, and I was okay with coming on first change when I spoke with Joe later that night. Joe said he will coordinate a discussion with him, me, Will, Adam, and Dominic Ross on who should open the bowling.

I didn’t realize I forgot my usual fruit and carbs that I usually consume every Saturday until I was close to the ground. I felt I could just get by with a big feast in the morning, but it would remain to be seen. The wicket seemed good for batting, but ANU sent us into bat. Sammy Gautam continued where he left off last weekend. One shot that got all of us wonderstruck was his lofted off side slash, which was certainly reminiscent of his idol Virender Sehwag. Sadly, he perished for 17, which helped us to give our best opening partnership of the season. Umesh Patel did his bit to provide us with a platform while making his highest score for the season, 16. Umesh later told us that the pitch was tough to bat on being an up and down wicket, and the pre-existing cracks were widening up. Their performances allowed Sandeep Kumar, Vishal Suresh, and Vasu Patel to cash in and help us to 8 for 180 in our 45 overs. Sandeep made 37 off 63 balls, Vishal made 32 off 43, and Vasu made 21 off 19.

During training on Thursday, Dominic Tran was talking up Vishal being a junior Virat Kohli. To me, the comparison seems legit. Same helmet and bat as well as the mannerisms and the batting approach and routine. He was a little shaky at the start but looked fluid. It would have been nice to see him make more runs, but he did his bit.

It was a bit of a different bowling approach than in any of the earlier games. Will, Adam, and I all wanted the same end. Which meant Dominic Ross opened the bowling with Will. The ANU openers got off to a steady start adding 30 odd within 12 overs. There were plays and misses and edges through the slips. Not to mention, we screwed up two easy run-out opportunities, particularly one where both batsmen were stranded, but Sammy tried to throw to the keeper quickly, but he was way off target. This infuriated Joe, and he said that accuracy over speed should prevail in run-out opportunities. The start left Will frustrated particularly with Josh Butson during an impressive 7 over spell. It took another mix up to give us the first wicket to dismiss Butson.

Adam soon after dismissed the dangerous Zahid Mumtaz caught by Vishal as he tried to hit over the top. We were told he’s a six-hitter, but he failed. We were right in it at drinks when they were 2 for 57, but we were sloppy in the field afterwards. Ground fielding and catching were unsatisfactory, and I contributed to the effort by dropping a chance of Tom Harrison. I was disgusted not only because the catch was coming straight to me, but it was also the third chance in a row I spilled off Adam O’Connor.

I was feeling down, as usual, having dropped a catch, and I was immediately was replacing Adam in the 29th over where they were 2 for about 90 odd. This situation was very different as I had been opening the bowling every game so far. However, I’ve been practicing generating swing and bounce with an older ball at training for some time. So I was confident that I will be able to perform in a different role later in the season. My first over went only for one run. Then the first ball of my next over, I took an edge of the Luke Magyar only to fall short of Umesh at first slip.

Nevertheless, I knocked him over with a ball that came into him and knocked his middle stump. I told Masud Rahman, my former cricket coach, who officiated this match that the ball has started to reverse, given that I was trying to bowl my stock out-swinger. However, Masud thought that the ball hit the crack. Anyways, I let out a big roar having claimed the wicket because I wanted to release my stress from last night’s family emergency.

I claimed Oliver Reynolds, who came down from 4th grade by bowling him with a full in-swinger. Apparently, I had broken the middle stump, and it was later thoughtfully replaced by one of the ANU players. However, I bowled without luck after that as chances from the left-handed opening bat were shelled, particularly in the slips, which took a decent dent on my overall figures. I finished with 2 for 36 off 7 straight overs, but it could have been better. I went off the field as I was tired and felt that fresh legs in Dominic Ross, who replaced me in the field will help us in the last few overs.

Just before I went off, Joe gave Dominic Tran the ball with the equation, 43 in the last 6 overs. It didn’t finish well having been hit for two fours, but he got the wicket of the captain Sandeep Gangal LBW (which was the only LBW decision in the game). When I finished my spell and went off, the equation was a run a ball in the last 4 overs, but they had 5 wickets in hand. It was going to go down to the wire. However, we had both Will and Adam up their sleeves, with both of them having 2 remaining overs each.

Adam claimed a wicket of John Piechowski in the 42nd over courtesy of a good catch by Vasu Patel in the deep. It was 6/161. Will claim two wickets in the next over, the 43rd. The first was a skier which was well held by Joe to dismiss Daynon O’Rourke before Lachlan Robertson was clean bowled. It was 8/163. 18 needed off 12. It was tense, but Tom Harrison was still there. But sadly, there was no fairytale for him when Adam clean bowled him for 79 and the no 11, David Lyons on the next ball, the final ball of the penultimate over, the 44th. ANU all out for 167, and we won by 13 runs. Will finished with 2/15 off 8 overs and Adam, 4 for 26 in his full 9 overs. Adam certainly deserved his wickets after a tough last three games for him without no reward.

We just won our second game in a row, and we are now within the top four with December approaching. It will be nice to continue our winning ways, but fielding continues to be an area of improvement for us. We sang the club song again, and I was presented with the broken stump as a reward. I was certainly pleased that I posted on Instagram about it. One comment till now from the 3rd-grade captain Matty Andrews which read “Pace. Real Pace”. I was undoubtedly grinning about that, but actually, I wasn’t that quick because I was just trying to swing the ball and generate bounce than pace. It was quite funny that our keeper for the match, Andrew Loveday, was trying to scare the captain Sandeep Gangal because I broke a stump. The stump is now in my room and perhaps going to be a piece for keeping sake for a long while.

Thankfully, not having the fruit and carbs did not affect my performance, but I had enough energy to go for a run around the entire O’Connor oval before heading home. The stats look a little better now after today. 7 games, 7 wickets at an average of 25.58 per wicket, a strike rate of 47.1 balls per wicket, and an economy rate of 3.25 runs per over. Bowling with an older ball helped my luck, although I needed to control my accuracy a little, particularly against the left-handers. It’s a role I may have to do for some time. So far, encouraging start with room for improvement.