An enthralling one-sided competition took place on 5th of November between Dynamites & Collage Designs at Chereshwar Club in Trombay in the ongoing Architect Premier League (AT20) . Winning the toss first, Dynamites won the toss & chose to bat upfront. From the very first over the openers started to assault the bowling attack keeping the run rate always above 10 Runs per over. While M Kanankia gave adequate support at the start of the innings with a brisk 40 off just 26 balls, it was the onslaught of Shaheen Mistry which completely changed the game! We have seen Gayle & Mccullum tearing apart the bowling attacks in International Cricket, similarly it was Shaheen Mistry who performed with a similar feat scoring an unbeaten 165 off just 69 balls at this level. The knock was a sight to behold which comprised of as many as 10 huge sixes and 20 boundaries. Legside or offside, it did not matter, Shaheen smashed the bowlers in all parts of the ground with complete ease and a stamp of authority.
Mistry’s 165 ensured his team reached a huge total of 265 in 20 overs thus putting Collage Designs into huge pressure of chasing. While on the other side bowlers like A shetty and Sawale bowled wonderfully well for Dynamites to restrict the collage designs and put them under pressure. The pressure was quite visible as the opposition quickly gave away wickets one after another bundling them out for just 48 in just 10.2 overs!
Avinash Yadav born in India but now a resident of Scotland plays for Grange Club in Cricket Scotland Eastern Premier league recently visited his family back in Mumbai, India. Since he had some spare time he thought of honing his cricket skills both with bat and ball. Avinash is a left arm orthodox bowler who usually bats in the lower order. His brief to CricketGraph team was to bring more variety in bowling and improve his batting skills to get a chance to play up the order.
Cricketgraph.com aligned 2 coaches for him in Mumbai with the likes of Sandeep Dahad and Rohit Rane. SD to focus on bowling and the mental aspect whereas Rohit Rane stepped in as a specialized batsman coach. A total of 4 sessions were designed for Avinash, 2 each from Sandeep Dahad and Rohit Rane.
Initially, Sandeep Dahad decided to watch him from sidelines and observed his existing skills. Immediately SD observed some technical errors and guided Avinash through basics of spin bowling like grip, the landing, use of non bowling arm. Avinash was made to bowl for hours until the basics were clearly understood and absorbed. SD also emphasised the importance bowling in right areas with a decent amount of flight to deceive the batsman. Together they also worked towards the dreaded carom ball.
Later half of the session was conducted by batting coach, Rohit Rane, who drew the attention towards his front position while batting. “His natural front foot position is a bit awkard and it goes completely cross which limits his stroke play” said Rane. “I advised him few front foot routines which should correct his stance in the long term” Avinash got a chance to bat against a variety of bowling from both pacers and spinner alike.
We spoke to Avinash to find out how the session went. “The entire session was very useful and I can feel a significant difference in both my bowling and batting abilities. Some very basic things were ignored by me in the past and I am hopeful of correcting this with loads of practise. My goal is to play for the Scotland national team and hope these tricks of trade help me reach my goal”.
Cricketgraph team wishes all the very best to this cricketer from Scotland.
Ayush Jethwa
Some outstanding performances from Shivam Dubey & Karsh Kothari, DY Patil thrashed the Western Railways Sports Association with an outright win in the ongoing Times Shield.
It was Shivam with the bat in the first innings where he brought up an enterprising century. Dubey’s aggressive knock was a sight to watch laced with some amazing fours and sixes. While his side was struggling at 30 for 5, Shivam came in and changed the complexity of the game to a different level showing great strength with the bat and amazing shot selection as well as forming crucial partnerships. The 6-feet tall hard hitter of the ball did not only enthralled the crowds with the bat but also bowled fantastically well generating raw pace and bowling superbly for his 3/22.
Another player who shone bright for DY Patil was this talented left arm spinner Karsh Kothari who has been playing for DY Patil since last 4 years bowled a mesmerizing spell against a good batting line up picking up as many as 9 wickets in the game apart from contributing with the bat too. Kothari’s 4/30 in the first innings and 5/30 in the second innings was also a major reason for his side’s comfortable win against the equally competitive Western Railways “A’. The 6f t 3inches tall spinner bowled really well but the first wicket he took in the 2nd innings caught out in first slip, was his personal best scalp.
Grip- Mind & Body Connection: The way batsman grips his bat will determine the kind of stroke he would play & the force application in his strokes played in different directions of ground cause grip facilitates the maneuvering of bat suitable for stroke play.
The mind & body coordination about grip is, the grip over handle of bat is the very connection point of a batsman’s mind and the palm, fingers holding the bat so the more comfortable and the more precise grip a batsman has on his bat, the meticulous will be his stroke play.
The connection/conformity of mind and the palms, fingers gripping the bat is the key , the deeper the connection better the transfer of a batsman’s intention of playing desired stroke on the bat.
Great batsmen mostly are very selective about the feel of grip on bat & its handle type. The feel over grip of bat could be developed through practice but the first feel while selecting the bat is the most rewarding.
Finally , once the great feel of holding bat is developed through correct grip & various strokes are played well then the batsman simply needs to have faith , thorough belief every time he bats & in scoring relentlessly to win more & more games for the team avoiding any distractions from mind or environment.
Some wonderful things emerged out from the Apollo Cricket Club vs Aiming Masters Club match and the most noticeable were the performances of these two players Amogh Kartik and Aurojyoti Biswal taking their team Apollo CC through to the next round of CPCC.
Winning the toss, Aiming chose to bat first and they never knew what was there in store for them. Brought into the attack in the seventh over, biswal destroyed the entire batting line up with a majestic bowling spell picking up 3 crucial wickets and giving away just 8 runs in the first innings. Biswal did not only broke the partnership and did not allow the opposition to settle but also was the chief reason why the Aiming Masters Club were bundled out for just 86 runs in total in the first innings. Even in the second innings, Aurojyoti displayed some wonderful off spin bowling picking up 5 wickets for 36. While this was with the ball, it was Amogh Karthik with the bat who played a superb and a timely knock off 66* to take his team to a thrilling win wherein he smashed a big six in the 2nd last over when his team needed 10 runs to win the match. He was unbeaten and finished the match in style.
No doubt these fantastic performances made the Apollo team win the match by 6 wickets. But one more thing noticeable was this talented little kid Atharwa Binde. Though he scored 7 in the 1st innings, his 7 came off as many as 70 balls in the first innings and also came against a bowling attack which was attacking and troubling the batsman the whole time with pace, short balls and bouncers, he stayed there at the crease like a rock oozing class & patience while the wickets were getting lost at the other side. Atharwa did show a lot of maturity with the bat. Even his 2nd innings 32 was a knock which was very fruitful for the team and his temperament and timings were something which got everybody’s attention in the match.
Playing for Tata Sports Club in the recent match against Air India Sports Club in Times Shield A division match, KP showed everyone his class,grit and grace with a fantastic 190 in the first innings and an unbeaten 52 in the second innings.
Opening the innings and as usual taking his time to settle at the crease like any genuine opening batter, Pawar was the anchor right through the innings and it was just too good to see on how he handled his entire knock and also took his team out of trouble when the chips were down at around 160 for 5. Kaustub effortlessly sailed his team out of trouble with a fantastic 190 in the first innings. To add icing on the cake, Pawar continued his good form in the second innings too with a 52*.
Kaustub Pawar fell short by 10 runs on his way to 200, he fell trap to an LBW , however that does not deter away the fact in any way on how great the knock was.
Kaustub played some magical shots over the covers which were a treat to the eyes but his six off Siddarth Trivedi was the highlight of his brazen 190. With this Knock KP surely would like to make a strong case for his position in the Mumbai Ranji team.
One of the final decisive factor for batsman in stroke making is his back lift & push back.
Back lift position could be between wicket keeper to 2nd sleep, it could be medium, high or low as suitable to individual batsman and push back is what gets a batsman’s shoulder & elbow in line with approaching ball and also further enhances back lift. With appropriate back lift if push is done properly, means suitable for strokes in off side, straight or leg side, or even for cut, pull, sweep then the stroke making becomes very fluent & effective in terms of power /timing, placement & consistency. Most batsmen with excellent hand eye co ordination have very consistent pattern in their back lift & push back. Very few batsmen are aware of it & purposely practice back lift & push back for mastery in each stroke.
The mind & body connection here, the more consistent / rhythmic the batsman’s mind’s thought process towards facing the ball/ or stroke making, then the smoother & crisp will be the back lift & push back while playing strokes.
If we look at most great batsman with their run scoring consistency & timing on ball always have very rhythmic push back & are very consistent with their back lift pattern.
A batsman who wants to achieve great height in batting is supposed to have an un-mess able back lift & push back for most strokes he plays so that the bat swing for strokes is very smooth and stroke timing is crisp.
Surely one of the sweet stories any cricket fan would appreciate is the story of this humble leg-spinner batsman from Mumbai called Bhavesh Patel. The 29 year old cricketer who finally got a call to play for county cricket for Dawdon Cricket Club in the Durham Cricket League Div 1 of UK County Cricket.
A story of a modest beginning playing for Sind’s Sports Club for the past three years in the A Division as well as for Accountant General L&R Club for the past four years, his hard work did pay off as Bhavesh Patel finally got an opportunity to play for Dawdon Cricket Club in UK. Bhavesh Patel who has mostly toiled hard and practiced at cross maidan and other local grounds of Mumbai since last 15 years surely cherishes the experience of playing on a foreign soil. His team finished third in the league and his personal favorite moment was the match against their local rival CM Park in that tournament where he performed smartly with the bat with a 40 not out when his team had lost some quick wickets wherein he eventually steered his team to a fighting total in a must win match! Bhavesh Patel was also quite decent and economical throughout the tournament with the ball too.
Check Bhavesh’s Bowling statistics from the link below:
http://durhamcricketlge.play-cricket.com/website/web_pages/161272
Batting stats available at : http://durhamcricketlge.play-cricket.com/website/web_pages/161271
Bhavesh Patel who is a leg-spinner batsman has also earlier played for Ranji Trophy Mumbai & Considering his talent & the hard work he is putting it wont be far off to see him play in more competitive leagues like IPL.
CricketGraph.com got some excerpts about the recently concluded under-19 North eastern tournament which was successfully held in Nagaland in October 2016 from Rahul Bharadwaj who is the participating sponsor of the tournament. Rahul Bharadwaj also happens to be the England Level 2 Coach & NIS from Patiala in cricket. He has also coached Mumbai Lions in 2016 in the BCCI tournament and Kota Chambal tigers in Rajesthan Premier League.
Following is the excerpt,
The Under-19 tournament was held in the month of October 2016 and was held in the Sovina Stadium in Nagaland. The teams which took part in the tournament were Nagaland, Mizoram, Meghalaya, Upper Assam & Arunachal Pradesh.
The tournament witnessed some wonderful matches as well as some terrific individual perfomances. Overall the tournament was quite a success and also many players came out performing brightly from it. Some notable mentions are Tahmid Rehman who is an off spinner from Nagaland who did exceptionally well and so did Shivam who is an off spinner from Upper Assam. Opening batsman all-rounder Manav Bal also did well in the tournament.
The tournament witnessed some great matches and individual performances and ended on a positive note with Meghalaya and Nagaland being the joint winners with equal points in the tournament.
Cricketgraph expect to see an equally thrilling tournament next year too and update about it to our cricket lovers.