Corporate Internal Cricket matches

In 2007, when the tournament started for the first time, it was a disaster for our (Technology) team. We entered the tournament with a lot of hype (as we have many corporate players) but were eliminated in the first round. 2008 was not that cruel for us. We won the league match with Data In puts but lost to Financials (eventual winners) in the Semis.

In the league stage we played with Securities which is a good team in their own right. They won the toss decided to bat first. In a 12 overs match you want all your big-hitters to have a go in the middle for the most part of the innings. They made a mistake of saving their hitters for last, and promptly paid for their mistake. We got the 2 of their (supposed to be) best batsmen, one for run-out and another for a dreadful half tracker which was missed completely by the bats man only to get bowled. Final few overs flourish took the score to 60+, which was reasonable but not competitive. We had a good opening stand between Vinay and Raghu Vamshi, followed by Rajesh and Srivatsav. How can there be a Tech team's match without drama, there were few jitters towards the end where we lost couple of wickets in quick succession and the required scoring rate was floating around 7.5. At the end of the day, Vatsav's composure saw us through the final hurdle rather easily. Raghu vamshi was the star with the bat. As we got BYE in the next match we entered into semis.

In Semis, it was a repeat of last year tie(then it was a league match), Data Inputs. We knew batting was not their strength and we wanted to fold them out rather cheaply by bowling first and chase a relatively small total. In this match as well they won the toss and decided to bat first. But we were unable to take early wickets that started proving costly. We have been bowling at least one bad ball per over which they capitalized. Scoring was soaring at 9 per over in the first 6 overs. We slowly clawed back and managed to restrict them for 90+ in 12 overs. We started disastrously with Vinay getting out in the 1st over. Wickets kept on tumbling and the required rate soared to around 10 with 5 overs to spare. Vatsav and my self batted for a while to keep the chase alive. I got out soon. When we were pushed to wall by the Req.rate, DP joined Vatsav and then it was purely magical. Vatsav scored 40+ in 20+ balls and DP scored around 20 in 10 balls and we were in finals. Thats what I call a comeback.

The win in the semis kept the spirits up for us and we are ready for BI-GP team who trounced defending champions - Financials in their semis match. This time as well, I asked Satish (opp captain) to call the toss and he won and they decided to bat first. So that made a 3rd consecutive chase for us. Per me this final match belongs to Santosh, who opened their innings and played beautifully at the top of the order, scoring 20+ in quick time. We leaked runs with few bad balls in the power play but few quick wickets pegged them back. Subbu played sensibly and last overs flourish took the total to a competitive 110 in 15 overs. BI-GP had good bowling unit and we were confident of our batting, which made it anybody's match. We started rather well this time with Both Vinay and Venkat started to look good. Again it was Santosh who bowled well and kept the run rate in check, with sensible support from the other end. We managed stay afloat for a while with runs coming steadily. When Vatsav and I were at the crease, we were confident that we could see it through. But when Vatsav nicked one to the WK for a not so good delivery the hopes were fading fast. I started connecting the ball well and Raja Sekhar and I were doing reasonably OK. We needed 22 from the last 2 overs. We both got out in quick succession which put a lot pressure on the next batsmen to hit boundaries and we eventually fell short by 15 runs. But it was a good match.

We are hoping to continue the trend next year as well, which should make us winners of Internal tournament.

Excel trick - Pasting unique records from a selection

I have some values in the excel sheet in a column. I want to find the distinct values in that column. Most of us (at least until now I was doing this) first sort the values, then delete the rows while retaining the distinct values. Here is a functionality that excel offers us.

Click on the "Advanced" in the "Sort & Filter" functionality group in the Data Menu item.

In the dialog box that follows, select the range of cells (which has duplicate values), select the pasting region and check the check box "Paste Unique records only".

Mixed opening to Corporate Season - 2009

The corporate season has started with 2 back to back matches on Saturday and Sunday.

Vs ***Ridge team - Nizam College grounds - 14th NOV

By the way we have a new captain for this year Vinay. We lost the toss and were asked to field first. Big DP opened the bowling and i shared the new ball with him. DP as usual was very good with the ball with good pace and length. I started my over with a short ball well outside the off stump. Luckily for me the batsman went after it and hit it straight down the throat of Bhaskar (Sweeper cover position) who held on to a good catch. It would have been a definite wide. Though i did not give many runs away that was not the best over with almost all the balls pitching well short of good length. Slowly settled into good rhythm and bowled another 2 overs economically. On other end, DP bowled well and runs have dried up. At the end of 8 overs they scored 28+ runs with the loss of 4 wickets. But they picked up the pace from there with shots all round the ground. It was pretty much one man show for the opponent. I can't recall the name of the guy, but he scored 89 runs out of a total of 141. I gave 14 runs in the 4th over i bowled and ended up with a tally of 4-1-23-1.

The chase began very well for us, with Vinay and Subbu giving us best of the starts. We raced to 30 in 3 overs before hitting a lean patch. Subbu got run out and Bhaskar did not last long. Srivatsav and Vinay settled the nerves for a quite period and then upped the tempo. Requiring 9 per over in the last 8 overs, both cut loose. Srivatsav fell for a well compiled 36 with the team needing 35+ runs in the last 5 overs. Vinay and Satish made a short work of it and we won with around 2 overs to spare. Vinay was unbeaten on 70+ score and Satish on 20. I must say Vinay played a high quality innings to see the side through, keeping cool head in difficult times and making a merry when going got easy. We will definitely remember this match for some time.

Vs GE Money - PG College Grounds, Sec'bad - 15th NOV

We lost the toss again but this time we were asked to bat. Even though we were helped by a wayward bowling, start is not as good as it was in the previous match. Vinay departed early and the we scored @8+ rate in the first 4 overs but we lost 3 wickets. Again it is the time for consolidation for Srivatsav and Subbu. They batted well, finding boundaries every now and then and kept the scoreboard ticking at a good pace. By the end of 14th over the score was around 90, then suddenly we lost wickets in a heap. We lost Srivatsav (hitting a short and wide ball firmly but staright into the hands of point fielder), Subbu and BigDP in no time. I went in at that moment and concentrated mostly on giving strike to Santosh who has been hitting the ball really well. He played a cameo of quick 30+ before getting out. Fireworks did not stop there, Prasad took over from Santosh and continued the hitting. I perished after scoring 10 of 13 balls with 2 overs to spare. Vasanth and Prasad finished the innings at 148.

We were reasonably happy with our performance and went into the field. First 3 overs are like any other match. BigDP bowling well with pace at good length and with me bowling (too)short pitch balls but getting away luckily. Again I got a wicket for a dreadful ball short and wide, this time Prasad took a good running catch. But my luck ran out in my 2nd over. I leaked 21 runs in that over conceding 5 consecutive boundaries. It just happened so that whatever i tried went for the boundary, i was either too full, or too short or on the legs or too wide. The pressure is relieved and batsman got into their groove. Scoring never stopped from that moment. They got stuck into every one and started scoring at a frantic rate. At one point i thought match would be over 13-14 overs. Hitting was clean and precise. When they wanted to hit a six they cleared the boundary fielder easily and when the wanted to hit a four they hit into the gaps. Our pace further eased their cause with ball coming nicely onto the bat. Though they did not hit spinners as badly as the medium pacers, they weren't kind to the spinners either. But spinner definitely slowed the pace of the scoring and brought some respectability for final analysis. Vasanth took the wicket of the big hitter. They finally folded the match in 18th over, leaving us with the hope of reaching next phase subject to NRR. my figures in this match are forgetful numbers 2-0-24-1.

I don't know what could we have done differently, we definitely missed Satish though I cant say the result would different, looking at their clean hitting. Perhaps after seeing their batting style in first few overs, we could have slowed the pace and shortened length a wee bit.

So the weekend which started as good as it can, ended badly. I will remember both the matches for good batting; one on happy note for Vinay's quality innings another on not so happy note but for very good batting by opponents.

Few good words

1. It is not wise to poke our nose into the matters that are not our concern.

2. Change in posture, signs, actions, pace, conversation, looks and expression indicate the working of mind.

3. It is difficult to kill even a weak man who does not easily trust others but easy to kill a strong man who readily trust others.