Watching the Bombay Boys play and writing for them has always been a treat. And much as I have tried to put off writing about the hopeless debacle that ensued on Saturday, June 28th, it was either this or an entry in my diary, so I might as well say it out loud.
Disclaimer : The reminder of the email is intended to be unbiased yet not intended to offend anyone.
Looking at this match in the perspective, I would say there were a host of events that went bad causing the team strategy, if any, to fail. The idea of experimenting with the batting order for one looks to be a bad idea now; maybe one wouldn’t be saying this had Bombay Boys won. But they didn’t and its safe to say that we cannot afford this again. 4 ducks in the team. Kind of hard to digest. Only 2 double digit scores. The second one barely making it in at 10. The skipper Chakra and Dada gave a somewhat admirable stand, considering the circumstances, pulling in 10 and 8 respectively. KT and DevAnand giving in their share of 7 and 8 as well. The Wall, Satchit, barely edged up 3 runs. Needless to say; the others Asif, Arvind, Monty and Arun walked back to the pavilion the same as they had gone in to play. The series of ‘bowled’s one can understand; but the catches? Well, if the team knew they were losing wickets I wonder what prompted each of them to keep flicking their bats? At the end of the batting innings; the Bombay Boys wicketkeeper Vikram is clearly the one who pulled them
through with the batting innings; making a good very sensibly played 34 taking the team to a very well defendable score of 92 when at times it looked like even 60 was a good enough score.
Now the real test began. It was upto the bowlers and the overall fielding to fall into place. The initial 10 overs were a pleasure to watch. The top order of the Indian Colts was bundled out for a measly 27 at the end of the first 10 overs. The Indian Colts had to make 66 in 10 overs. The Bombay Boys were all set for a victory. Well then, what failed? Misfields, totally unecessary extras, short balls, full-tosses, missed really-important catches. The next 10 overs had all the mistakes one should learn from to get better in the game. Colts had lost atleast 4-5 wickets in the first 10 wickets yet they won the match fair and square with 3 wickets to spare. OK, the Bombay Boys performed badly; but we have to admit; they made an awesome comeback too and played to win. I applaud the 3 hugely hit sixers from IC to each of our mainstream bowlers. Even though I thought then that a couple of runs would have made the difference, thinking back, now I beg to differ. Where they made 93, they could also have made 100. What we needed was a good score maybe 120+ and each of you know we could have done it.
Its bad enough to lose a match but losing to a team who has lost every other match; never won a single one before and wins straight against the Titans, well that doesn’t sit too well. Were the boys too complacent? Probably yes. Indian Colts was percieved to be a poor team and did the boys think this was too easy? Probably yes again. (Saturday’s opponents don’t look so tough?? Reality check needed here !!) Another mistake to be learnt from. Its important that we end the losing sequence with just this one. Thanks to Naren and Nitesh (and probably even Feroz) we have the entire match caught on tape (shortly to be uploaded on KM .. LOL .. Just kidding Arvind), and what better take-away but to analyze and ensure that every match henceforth is played with a vengeance.
As Monty and Arun rightly remarked; its high time that BB has the Australian attitude : Never to lose. If it’s a poor team; lets beat them even more aggressively. That’s what makes them the trend setters. Its important that BB takes this defeat in stride, positively and make up for it the next matches. This loss has cost us dearly shifting our positions within the group as well as overall. Right now; the only thing to hope for is that this doesn’t play a part to any downslides. To make it to the top, BB is going to have to play it tougher with stronger teams like Indian Knights and Indian XI.
As you can see, this week’s score came in pretty late compared to the usual SLA of 2 hour; as well as 4 totally unrelated pics of nature seem to be in KT’s Orkut album which says Match 6 : Bombay Boys Vs Indian Colts (PS : I do find that a little humorous and empathize with the players). Most of the BB team has been down in the dumps since the catastrophe; Stop whining and get over it guys. Move on; learn from it and make sure you play so well that people don’t remember this one anymore. Most of us in IT have a short memory anyways.
Am sure Harshad had a good time umpiring; the poor person got stuck in a tight spot because of the neutral umpire not making it, some say the umpiring costs did cover his Farmer's Market expenses though and Vijay needs to come for a match which the BB wins to prove that he’s not the unlucky omen.
Over and out,
Deepa.
