While Vinit Indulkar is a classy batsman who has been playing cricket for long, he is also one of the most experienced and elegant batsmen in the Mumbai cricketing circuit. While on the other hand Paul also needs no introduction, the man who kicked up a storm with his batting in IPL in 2011 with a blistering century for Kings XI Punjab. Also apart from his IPL, Paul is known for his attacking batting and is a dangerous customer to deal with at the top order.
These two talented batsmen recently showed their class in the Purshottam Shield Tournament at Cross Maidan.
Parkophene Cricketers who won the toss elected to field first with an aim of restricting CCI (Cricket Club of India) to a low total. However, in form Paul Valthaty made quite a statement with the bat as he scored a brutal 71 off just 51balls. Right handed Paul started attacking from the word ‘go’ and kept the scoreboard ticking as he smashed 10 fours and 4sixes at a strike rate of almost 140. The way Paul was playing certainly gave us a déjà vu of his 2011 IPL hundred! But that was not all, classy batsman Vinit Indulkar at no.3 also played a perfect innings as he scored 89 off 100balls to solidify the CCI innings. While Paul was attacking & a treat to watch, Vinit was all about temperament and elegance combined as both the bigwigs of Mumbai cricket helped CCI score 283/10 in 66.4 overs. The bowlers did a decent job with fast bowlers Badrey Alam and Nishan Singh taking 3wkts each.
In reply, Parkophene Cricketers scored 222/10 in 46.2 overs where in Amogh Bhatkal and the experienced Pradeep Sahu top scoring with 49 & 43 respectively. Right arm medium pacer Krutik Hangewadi came up with a match winning bowling spell of 6/121 in 18 overs which helped his team defend the total successfully. Even though Krutik went for a few runs but he covered it up by taking wickets at the right time. The powerful CCI team won the match by 61runs and it was definitely Paul and Vinit with the bat while Krutik with the ball who stood out in the match. Also, it would be noteworthy to say that this is Paul’s 4th consecutive score of 70 or 70+ this year.
Paul’s last 4 innings in last 4 weekends-
75 vs Bombay Gym police shield
70 vs parsee Gym police shield
73 vs Bhatnagar cc Purushottam shield
71 vs Parkophene Purushottam shield
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This year’s Giles Shield has been promising and exciting with a right blend of perfomance and some great matches. Giles has certainly gone on to prove as one of the best breeding grounds for aspiring youngsters to polish and refine their cricketing skills. Some of the recent matches played also had some great performances and here are the updates.
In the match at United Cricketers ground between Vidya Mandir School and Matunga Premier School, VPM school won the toss and elected to bat first. Batting first, they were all out for 139runs where in Aditya Lokhande bowled a fantastic spell of 5/46 in 13.5 overs making him stand out amongst all the bowlers. From the batting side, hardly any batsman managed to create much of an impact apart from their solid opener Mrunmay Parulekar who scored a fighting 58 to rescue his team and help VPM post a score of atleast 139. Had he not fired, VPM would have been all out under 100 odd runs. However, VPM School gave a fitting reply with the ball bundling out Matunga Premier school for just 109runs. Omkar Ambavkar bowled a match winning spell with excellent line and length as he took 6/31 in 6.1 overs which helped his team win the match by 31runs.
In the match between SVIS Borivali vs IES at the MB Union Cross Maidan, SVIS won the toss and elected to bat first. Opener Raj desmukh who has been in excellent form continued to impress with a yet another blistering ton scoring 113 and anchoring his team’s innings with some elegant cricketing shots. Skipper Ayush Jethwa also scored a gutsy 71 which took the team total to 258. Defending a total of 259, IES were bundled out for just 88runs where in Aditya Baliwant simply stunned the spectators with his amazing bowling. Young Aditya came up with excellent bowling figures of 8/14 in 8.1 overs which did the maximum damage. Left-arm spinner Aditya bamboozled the batsman with his effortless spin as he single-handedly demolished the opposition’s batting line up. He is certainly a revelation in this season of Giles Shield. Eventually, SVIS borivali won the match on the back of Raj’s batting and aditya’s fantastic bowling.
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There is much more to hitting a cricket ball than just swinging the bat, in fact- far from it! Batting is a
whole body activity- from moving to hit the ball using the legs to- swinging of the bat and arms.
As you lift the bat behind first to generate force and then bring it forward to hit the ball, a lot of muscles
are at play. Posterior deltoids, pectorals, anterior deltoid, biceps and triceps are some of the muscles
that work at optimum to provide a smooth forceful swing. Also to be noted is that different types of
strokes recruit different muscles. The transfer of body weight to every shot is important. Transfer of
body weight occurs either onto the forefoot or onto the back foot to allow rotation of the body for
horizontal straight shots. The spine and core muscles have to be able to control this rotation to avoid
knee, foot and shoulder injuries.
Some key pointers for batters to improve your game and reduce the number of injuries are as follows:
- Use compound movements: Train your body with compound movements instead of single
muscle isolated strength training. Training with compound movements will help you to maintain
stability while you bat and yet give you the mobility that you need. - To progress with training or not: This is a dilemma that has no clear cut answer. Your body will give you the inputs but you will have to pay attention and heed. Gradual progression with enough recovery is ideal.
- Frequency of training: This depends on the intensity of your training but ideally 3 days a week with enough recovery days built in are recommended.
- Know your body: To know your strengths and weaknesses in terms of muscle strength, mobility and stability are essential to coach and train the right way.
Follow these guidelines to train well by understanding your body and bat away! Prevent injuries by
paying attention to the muscles at play but if injured, don’t despair. See a sports physiotherapist who
understands the biomechanics of cricket to get you back to playing as soon as possible.
Some all-rounders have an inborn ability to change the game on their day. They can be brutally dangerous once they get going. We all know how Maxwell, Afridi, Symonds were like at International level! Well, we got to see almost a similar sort of perfomance at the local level where in Akhtar Shaikh simply dominated with the bat while also contributed with the ball to help his team win the match.
Played at the MIG Cricket Ground in Bandra, Namrata Motors won the toss and elected to field first. Batting first, Route Mobile did an excellent job with the bat as they notched up 192runs with the loss of 6wkts in 20 overs. Even though their top order failed to give a flying start, it was their middle order bats Ajinkya Belose and Tanush Kotian who resurrected the innings back. Carrying the positive momemtum left behind by ajunkya and tanush, akhtar shaikh who came in at no.7 changed the script of the game in a span of 20-30 minutes as he scored one of the fastest fifties in Mumbai this year. Akhtar remained 59* off mere 17 deliveries which included 5 fours and 5handsome sixes at a staggering strike rate of 347!
Defending a total of 192, Route Mobile restricted Namrata Motors to just 125/8 in 20 overs. Tight bowling along with discipline showed by the bowlers helped them win the match by 67runs. Chinmay Patil with 2/12 in 3 overs was the pick of the bowlers while Akhtar Shaikh also chipped in with good bowling figures of 2/18 in 3overs. Dinar Gaonkar also took 2wkts. It was a match where Route Mobile dominated from start to end while all-rounder Akhtar Shaikh was declared ‘man of the match’
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Cricket has seen free flow of cricketers from the cricket playing countries to India.
The recent example of 16-year old Josh Lam flying from Brisbane to Mumbai to hone his batting skills against spin bowling is an unequivocal evidence that India is the land of spinners and the preferred choice for any non-subcontinental cricketer to master the art of batting against the spin. Lam, who is also an off-spinner himself, chose the Achievers Cricket Academy in Mumbai that is headed by Subramanian Doraiswamy and Ashok Kadam. After undertaking sufficient research about the Achievers Cricket Academy, he chose the academy to improve his batting skills against the spin bowling.
As per Subramanian aka Subbu, “Initially Josh was not that comfortable batting against the spinners, but after a couple of sessions, he broke the shackles and started playing aggressively against the spinners. His aggression came in the form of sweeping the ball and dancing down the track without any fear. Naturally a backfoot player, Lam took some time to adjust to the spinners but he looked at ease against the medium pace bowlers”.
Since he was in the land where the production of world’s best spinners takes place, he decided to learn more about the off-spin. Josh is a strong boy which allows him to bowl his off-spinners at a good pace. The coaches in the Achievers Cricket Academy worked on his wrist positions and showed him variations which were effectively added by the Brisbane-lad to his repertoire.
Both Subbu & Ashok Kadam worked closely with Josh over 3 weeks to help him improve his batting and bowling.
After the India trip, Josh Lam seems to be well-equipped with both, bat and ball, to face his counterparts back at home in the club matches.
This video is a demonstration of how to play back foot drives while batting.
Back foot drives..it is usually played to a short delivery pitched just outside the off stump bouncing between knee and waist high.
The shot can be played anywhere between mid off and covers..
Head, shoulder and back foot move back and towards the line of the ball
The front shoulder dips slightly and The back foot stabilises parallel to the popping crease.
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Sumeet Khanna is an active cricketer, playing at top divisions in MCA.
He is a MCA Level O certified coach. Apart from coaching at few clubs in western mumbai, he contributes to cricketgraph regularly to help the cricket community at large.
This year’s cosmopolitan shield tournament has witnessed some great performances as well as some fabulous matches. The players have performed really well and they have also worked upon their fitness to extract the best out of themselves.
One of the recent matches of Cosmopolitan which were played on 10.12.17 witnessed some exquisite performances too. Played at the western railways cricket ground between Young Parsee CC and Kridangan Cricket club, Kridangan CC won the toss and elected to field first. Right handed opener Praful solanki gave one of the finest starts of the tournament as he scored a flashy 135 off mere 88balls (16fours, 3sixes). Praful also got an in-form partner in Megh Adhvaryu who scored 2back to back tons in Kanga and continued his stellar form in this tournament too. Left-handed Megh scored a beautifully destructive 153 off just 99balls which took the game away from the opposition while also stitched a 243 run stand with the elegant Praful Solanki for 2nd wicket. This is not the first time, Praful and Megh teamed up to create a big partnership, they have done this earlier in Kanga too. It was on the back of their strong batting, Young Parsee scored a mammoth 466/4 in 41 overs. Kridangan in reply ended their innings at 76/6 and handed over a big win to Young Parsee CC by 390runs. It was a match dominated by the young Parsee players where in Praful and Megh stood out all the way till the end.
Another player who has been a revelation of sorts in Cosmopolitan Shield is the Young all-rounder Rohit Singh. Left handed Rohit Singh in his debut season of Kanga league representing Prabhu Jolly cc in D division impressed all with his all-round cricket. In five innings he scored 180 runs with 3 fifties and also took 11 wickets giving away only 82 runs. But that was not all, Rohit came out with another fine all-round performance in the Cosmopolitan tournament too. Representing Merry Cricketers and coming to bat at no.4 position he scored 32 runs in his side’s total of 202. Rohit also helped while defending this score with his nagging & accurate bowling as he took 5/24 in 9overs which helped his team beat Shahpur Spencer cc by 14 runs. Rohit was well supported by Viren Dathia ( 52 runs) & Adesh Karangutkar ( 31 runs & 6-1-15-2) both Students of M.D.College.
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One of the best leg-break bowlers of India and also one of the most experienced bowlers of Mumbai cricket who was picked up by the Rajasthan Royals in IPL at the age of 41 purely on the basis of talent in 2013- Pravin Tambe keeps on raising his class with his effortless spin bowling. Even at this age he is giving young players a run for their money and one of his recent exploits came in the Purshottam Shield Tournament ’17 where he single handedly ran through the batting line up of Muslim United to fetch his team a great win.
Played at the iconic DY Patil ground in Nerul, DY Patil team won the toss & elected to field first since they have a strong bowling line up. Their decision to bowl first seemed to be spot on as they restricted Muslim United team to a paltry score of just 78/all out in 25.1 overs. Only 3 batsmen managed to score in double figures as the rest of the batting line up crumbled against the wily spin of Pravin Tambe. Slow left arm spinner Iqbal gave good support with 3wkts but it was their right arm legbreak bowler Pravin Tambe who stunned the opposition with amazing bowling figures of 7/57 in 10.1 overs. Pravin showed his vast experience and variety with the ball to bundle out the opposition to a low total.
DY Patil who have a strong batting line up too chased down the score comfortably in mere 10.2 overs with the aggressive Aman Khan remaining unbeaten on 40* off 22balls. DY Patil won the match by 8wkts and it was surely the veteran spinner Pravin who stole the show with his class bowling. Also Pravin Tambe who was declared the ‘best bowler’ as he had taken 7wkts in the finals & overall 15wkts in the Police Shield Tournament just a few weeks ago is certainly looking in very good form!
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All-rounders are always special as they possess a god gifted ability to perform well both with the bat as well as with the ball. On their day, they can single handedly life their teams to commanding wins and hence they play a very pivotal role in cricket.
The month of November had some great performances with the ball, with the bat but all round performances are very hard to come. After a intense shortlisting for November rankings, Cricketgraph has finally come out with the top 5 for the month Of November 2017.
Joint 5th- Rakesh Naik- 3/12 and 90 off 156balls, Esplanade Liberals vs MB Union CC, Kanga League ‘17
Rakesh Naik had a good season of Kanga this year and he continued his form vs Esplanade Liberals at Cross Maidan. His team MB Union CC bowling first restricted Liberals to just 114 in 32.4 where in left arm spinner Rakesh Naik was the pick of the bowlers with 3/12 in 9 overs. In reply his team MB Union declared their innings on 300/5 where Rakesh was the 2nd highest scorer with a gritty 90 off 106 deliveries (9fours, 2sixes). Eventually, with the help of his all-round show, MB Union CC won the match on 1st innings.
5. Rishi Shah- 96 & 3/23, IES VN Sule vs SVIS Kandivali, Harris Shield Tournament‘17
Winning the toss and electing to bat first, SVIS team lost couple of early wickets and were seen in bit of trouble but then Rishi Shah took complete control of the game and smashed 96 runs. Rishi was seen in good form and ensured that his team reaches a respectable total of 244/8. What’s more he also helped his team successfully defend the total as he took 3/23 with the ball too which helped SVIS win the match by 79runs.
4. Sujit Nayak- 53 & 4/76, Parsee Gymkhana vs CCI, police Shield Tournament ‘17
Two old prestigious teams of Mumbai namely the Parsee Gymkana and Cricket Club of India clashed against each other at the Parsee Gymkhana ground in Marine Lines where in CCI won the toss and elected to bowl first expecting the pitch to support the bowlers. Parsee Gymkhana with two tons from their batting line up scored a decent score of 367/7 in 70 overs. From the bowling side it was the experienced Sujit who was the pick of the bowlers with 4/76. Chasing 368, his team did a good job where in contributed with a solid 53 with the bat too but his team eventually fell short of 20runs. Even though his team lost the match, Sujit was a really bright spot in the team.
3. Salman Khan- 51 & 5wkts, MIG CC vs Islam Gymkhana, Police Shield Tournament ‘17
Even though in this match his team lost the match and above that his perfomance was dwarfed by Sumit’s back to back double hundred but not many know that Shoaib had given a great perfomance in the same match. MIG CC notched up a mammoth total of 472/8 in 70 overs where all the bowlers of Islam Gymkhana were thrashed for runs but it was their off spinner Shoaib Khan who bowled really well as he went on to take 5/140 in 19 overs becoming the pick of the bowlers. Islam Gymkhana were all out for just 248runs but Shoaib once again chipped in with the bat too at the middle order scoring a fighting half century!
2. Pratham More- 107 off 70balls and 4/39, Yashodham High School vs CNMS, Harris Shield 2017
Harris has always been a platform which gives opportunities to talented prodigies to play at their fullest. Pratham More is one such kid who has showed a lot of promise for his age and looks set to progress leaps and bounds in cricket. The left-arm orthodox spinner is also a proper all-rounder and is a must have for any team. Quite evident from his current form where he took 6/10 in 7overs in the 1st match a just below this match and followed it by a stunning all-round show in the second. In this match against CNMS, Yashodham high school were made to bat first and they managed to score a good total of 198/6 in 34overs. All thanks to this young lad Pratham who single handedly took his team towards a respectable total with his towering century scoring 107 off just 70 deliveries (14fours, 2sixes). CNMS were restricted to just 125/all out by Yashodham boys and Pratham contributed with the ball too in the same match as he bagged 4wkts to make it a complete all-round perfomance!
and Finally at no.1……..
1. Ayush Bidwai- 57 and 5/39, Fatima High School vs Bhadra High School, Giles Shield Tournament ‘17
Played at the Young Zoroastrian Club, Azad Maidan, it was a match between two promising teams namely Fatima High School and Bhadra High School where in Bhadra school won the toss and elected to field first. However, Fatima High School showed their mettle with the bat and proved Bhadra that bowling first wasn’t the best of the decisions. Fatima High School notched up a very healthy total of 458 where in all-rounder Ayush Bidwai provided a crucial contribution with the bat at the middle order scoring 57 off just 43balls (7fours). Defending a total of 458, off spinner Ayush came up with excellent bowling figures bamboozling the batsman with his spin taking 5/39 in 10 overs which eventually helped his team win the match by a big margin of 345runs.
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Rajvardhan was only in 3rd standard when his potential was identified by Mr. Pravin Gogari who then started bringing him at the DSC ground at an early age. Initial days were good and so one day Pravin sir motivated him and gave him an opportunity to lead as a captain for a tournament when he was just 8 years old and under his captainship they won the match. Raj scored 69 runs in the first match.
Later with the help and guidance of Shri Dilip Mhambre, Raj got admission in one of the most reputed school for sports- Vidya Mandir School (VPM). During this period he met the most respected cricket coach Vidya Paradkar (mentor of Zaheer Khan, Ajinkya Rahane, Hasib Hamid amongst others). Vidya sir identified his potential as a pacer and started his training towards it. His mother, Mrs. Pooja Rao also took lots of effort to take him every day by local trains from Dahisar to Chruchgate (i.e. Cross maidan) during rush hours. Initial days were not that great as an achievement, but eventually due to the vision of Vidya sir he started showing results on the ground.
Raj played Bhaskar Trophy (under 12), 2016. Also Giles shield and Harris shield are been played by Rajvardhan under the guidance of school coach Mr. Shridhar Pathare. His first Giles shield was in 2015-2016 where he took 11 wickets in all. They finished the league as runner ups. Raj’s second Giles shield was in 2016-2017 where took 8 wickets in all. Rajvardhan also got selected in MCA under 14 in April, 2017 summer camp in the Sachin Tendulkar Gymkhana Team, Kandivali. His team was a runner up. He scored 50* and 5 wickets in all. In 2017, Raj got an opportunity to play Worli Cup from the team Dadar Parsi Club (DPC) lead by Bhosle Sir and in Harris shield in 2017, he took 2 wickets in 2 matches.
His consistent run with the ball continued and finally his refined perfomance what he is actually capable of came off in the third Giles shield in 2017-2018 which is still going on. In the first match he took a stunning 7wkt haul while giving away just 20 runs in 6.1 overs and in the second match he took 5 wickets for mere 7 runs with 1 maiden & 5 overs. In his first match which was played at the United Cricketers ground against Children’s Aid Society, Rajvardhan completely ripped though the entire batting line up as he single handedly troubled the batsman with his impressive pace, line and length. It was his bowling spell which helped his team win the match in a commanding fashion by 363runs. The 2nd match which followed for Rajvardhan was equally impressive as this time he helped his team defend a low total of 145runs against the promising Ryan International School. Right arm fast bowler Rajvardhan came up with another match-winning bowling figures of 5/7 in 5 overs which restricted the opposition to just 32runs all out and eventually winning the match by 113runs.
Not only has Rajvardhan showed genuine potential as a pace spearhead who can make you win matches single handedly on his day but he has also displayed consistent progress in the last 2years. Also with the line and length coupled with the discipline at which he is bowling, Rajvardhan looks poised for a bright journey ahead in cricket.
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