2016 Division 4 Captain Report

Author: Ganesh Ramasubramanian

Fixture Meeting:

Being the BCF League Chairman and the captain of the second team I had to arrange, reschedule again and again for everyone.

We as 12 stars wanted to play our second team games first to give enough opportunity to all and to tap the best resource for the first team which represent in Division 1. By April start everything was finalized.

By mid-May I had to reschedule almost all of the games for KUCC as they have many school going lads in their team. I will come back on this topic later.

Game 1: Opponents: Antwerp CC-2

Date: 14-May-2016

Result: 12Stars-2 won by 14 runs (scorecard)

Ramesh captained the game as I had to go to India.

Antwerp CC fielded their strongest team. Almost everyone from their first team represented. 12 Stars fielded Ajay and Anshul who are our star players from 2015. We played also 2 new players in the team: “Swaroop Poduval” from Heerlen and “Sandeep Raina” from Mechelen.

We scored 216 in 43.2 overs. Sandeep Raina playing his first league game scored 44 runs. Anshul (29) and Ramesh (24) contributed to the total. Anshul took 4 wickets and Ganga 3 wickets and Antwerp were short of the target by 14 runs.

Man of the Match: Anshul for this excellent bowling taking 4 wickets and contributing with the bat.

Summary: 

12 Stars-2 (216 allout in 43.2 overs, Sandeep Raina: 44, Anshul: 29, Ramesh: 24 Ajay: 21)

Antwerp CC-2 (202 allout in 44 overs, Niaz: 50, Simon: 27, Anshul: 4/44, Ganga: 3/26)

 

Game 2: Opponents: ICCB

Date: 19-Jun-2016

Result – ICCB won by 3 wickets (scorecard)

We took on our arch rivals (break away) team. We have never won against ICCB in a league game. Captain Gannu want to change that and he came quite early to find out that the pitch was full of mud and our players are taking teas in the corner instead of making the ground ready and warmup !!! Then, we prepared the ground with ICCB guys and ICCB won the toss and elected rightly to bowl first.

 

Ganesh & Swaroop started the innings. Again Swaroop didn’t live up to his expectation again and got out giving a simple catch to the keeper. In another couple of overs Ganesh also got out in the same way. Then, it was just going in and coming out affair. We got out quite cheaply for 81 odd runs. The runs weren’t enough to defend and ICCB reached the target in 27.1 overs. Still our league failure with ICCB remains and ICCB are promoted to Division 3 in 2017.

Man of the Match: None 

Summary:
12 Stars-2 (81 allout in 34.4 overs, Amit: 20, JD:15)

ICCB (82/7 in 27.1 overs, Manoj: 3/25)

 

Game 3: Opponents: RBCC-2

Date: 25-Jun-2016

Result – 12 Stars-2 won by 43 runs (scorecard)

We met our friends RBCC-2 in their ground. This time it was a bright sunny day and we won the toss and obviously elected to bat first.

Ashish opened the innings with Prem. They steadied the innings and scored 31 and 15 respectively. Then Ganesh and Bhushan went in. Bhushan got out quite cheaply to a bouncer from Khurram and Amit joined the party. Both Ganesh & Amit proceeded with caution and then scored quite freely. They had 110 odd runs partnership and RBCC bowlers gave up their fight during that time. Then, Ramesh(33) cameo lifted the score to 245/9 in 45 overs.

The target was always in the minds of the RBCC batsmen. But Judson had other plans!!! Judson generated lot of pace and he and Ganesh (standing wicket keeper) advised the openers Muneeb and Pankaj to wear the helmet. Both ignored our comment and batted without the helmet. Pankaj got hit on the skull by a bouncer from JD and he fell to the floor. He had to be taken out and kept on ice. To our surprise he didn’t go to the hospital and the next day doctor informed him that he got a fracture in the skull !!! RBCC were never in sight of victory until their captain Khurram came in. He gave many catches and as usual we dropped them all !!! At the end he had to be bowled by JD. Bhushan bowled beautifully in the mid innings and restricted their run chase and took 3 wickets. Nauman and Nikhil took 2 wickets each.

Man of the Match: Ganesh (52) & Amit(53) for their hundred run partnership which completely took them apart.

Summary: 

12 Stars-2 (245/9 in 45 overs, Ganesh: 52, Amit: 53, Ramesh: 33, Ashish: 31)

RBCC-2 (202/9 in 44.5 overs, Khurram: 88, Muneeb: 29, Bhushan 3/25, Nauman: 2/21, Nikhil: 2/34)

 

Game 4: Opponents: PCCB

Date: 10-Jul-2016

Result – 12 Stars-2 won by 72 runs (scorecard)

We played with PCCB in our next encounter. PCCB kindly agreed to start the match at 2:30 pm in the afternoon as we had our T20 Quarter-Final against KUCC. We won the T20 game and 5 of us rushed to Middelheim, Antwerp to play against PCCB. We agreed to play 40 overs a side and won the toss and elected to bat first.

Ashish started the innings with Prem. Prem got out immediately and was cursing himself for a long time as Ashish was scoring freely. Rahul went in and accompanied Ashish for some time. Then, Anshul asked (in fact tortured captain to go for batting) and went in to bat with Ashish. He scored 34 valuable runs and was showing his bat after each shot that he can play !!! By then, Ashish scored his first century for the season and was playing at his will. Ganesh then joined and came back quickly. Ashish could have easily surpassed Ajay’s 155 landmark but gave his wicket quite cheaply. We took the score to a massive 292 runs in 40 overs.

PCCB was losing wickets at regular intevals and only Jawad Mian batted for some time. Ganga almost took a hatrick in the match !!! Ramesh bowled quite good length and took 3 wickets. Captain gave bowling chance to all as we had enough runs on the board. We won the match quite comfortably and had nice drink & chat after the match.

Man of the Match: Ashish Jadhav for his outstanding 141

 Summary:
12 Stars-2 (292/7 in 40 overs, Ashish: 141, Anshul: 35)

PCCB (220 allout in 37 overs, Ramesh: 3/43, Ganga: 3/18)

Game 5: Opponents: MCCB

Date: 17-Jul-2016

Result – 12 Stars-2 won on forfeit

Only 6 players turned out from MCCB and the play had to be cancelled.

Game 6: Opponents: KUCC

Date: 30-Jul-2016

Result – KUCC won by 5 wickets (scorecard)

T20 final with Exiles was also on the same day. Being League Chairman I tried in vain to reschedule this match with KUCC and they didn’t agree at all. So, I even picked up the umpire “Steve Tripp” on the way from his home in Gent and went on to the Ostend ground. We played “Saurabh Vig” a new player (friend of Anshul) from Leuven.

We batted first as KUCC players were late and Prem opened the innings with Sandeep Rana. Sandeep was quite unlucky to be given LBW and was angry with the umpire. Prem played his part and scored 34 valuable runs. Then, Saurah, Vijay Kaushik, Ramesh went in and came out quickly. Only Vijay scored 15 runs and stayed at the crease for some time. Ganesh even advised Ramee not to go before him and he didn’t listen. Then, Ganesh went in and made Shreyans run out !!! Shreyans wanted to bat and was quite right to be pissed off with Ganesh. Vishal joined the party with Ganesh and both proceeded with caution. Vishal had to be advised each over by Ganesh that he need to stay at the wicket as there were lot of overs left and he scored 34 runs. Both took the score to 172 in 45 overs.

KUCC started innings with Sultan and Faisal. Faisal was taken at deep long on by a very good catch by Ganga. But then 12 stars fate of dropping catches came into effect. 5 catches were dropped for the other opener Sultan!!! One catch was even a sitter for Shreyans and he himself couldn’t believe that he dropped. At the end Sultan scored 65 runs and that was enough to propel KUCC innings past our target in 38.1 overs.

On the one hand we had the T20 cup and in another we gave up our promotion to the third division by losing this crucial match.

Man of the Match: Ganesh for his effort for batting out for 45 overs and scoring 46 not out and in bowling taking 2 wickets. 

Summary:
12 Stars-2 (172/9 in 45 overs, Ganesh: 46*, Prem: 34, Vishal: 34)

KUCC (174/5 in 38.1 overs, Sultan: 65, Ali: 33, Ganesh: 2/23)

 

Game 7: Opponents: Gent CC-2

Date: 28-Aug-2016

Result – 12 Stars-2 won on forfeit

Gent CC played on the previous day a Division 1 match and hence couldn’t get players for the next day.

Lessons learnt in 2016:

• We started the second team to give enough chances. Now after 4 years we are at a stage to even represent third team. We need to move on and the second team MUST have their own identity. At least I believe I have redirected the energy of some of the players towards this goal.

• At least 50% of the second team players have a winning attitude.

• Second team game shouldn’t be considered for fun according to me and the players need to:
  • Come on time
  • With proper attire
  • Do warm-ups
  • Do practice
  • And then go into the field &
  • Give their 100% effort

• Every decision by the captain on the field of play (elected by the Club members) must be respected. Players can always go at the start of play, end of each over and give their inputs to the captain in a positive manner.

• There is no problem in having fun. But we have enough time to socialize and celebrate at the end of the game with a victory. Then, the celebration tastes even much better.

• Every member should feel that they own the club and take their effort to keep things moving. Instead of waiting for the captain to come to the field and ask, one can do the following:

• Move the kit, stumps, chairs, tables etc., from the garage to the ground.
• Arrange the boundary flags, outer circles, mark the crease, bails, chalks at appropriate place.
• When the umpire is already there, give even the team sheet (Already the team is known the previous day).
• Match Ball alone need to be taken from the Captain and given to the umpire.
• Same also holds good for cleaning up the ground.
• Please note that Captain is only on the field of play and not for doing all the Club activities.
• Captain especially feel embarrassed to ask the club members to do all these activities.