Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 9 - BK Rojaks vs Power(fore)play

A six point summary of the match between BK Rojak and Powerplay..(also known as ..too lazy to write a proper one)

Faltering lines bowled by Rojaks and  Powerplay took us to the cleaners and made a mockery of    records piling up a record 185 in 12 darn overs..which is nearly as much as what Comwerks managed to score in total from their 10 games last season.

Uninspiring fielding was only a side-effect than the cause for us getting hammered. We dived and jumped but more so to get out of the way of screaming shots.

Careless batting is not something you want to start with when chasing..but then when you’re chasing 186 to win what do you really care about? Throw caution to the wind and go for the glory shots, unfortunately Rojaks only did the former, latter never really happened.

Karthick is worth 20 runs by simply fielding, let alone bowling or batting; exactly what he reinforced on that day, except for that he is not one of kind in a team that’s really got some power-players like Dharmik as well. Powerplay is a team to watch out for..hmm..will Century Eggs be able to take them down?

Everything  wasn’t bad after all – some notable performances were  Pacman’s impeccable first over despite playing cricket after such a long time. Last time he played was for the West Australian indoor cricket team “Waca waca gooolagoongzoongies” in Boomerang series in the year of 1956 and then  of course the newbie Daniel Ralph who showed a remarkable comeback in the second over after conceding 1000 runs in his first over

Damn the past and move on is all we can say now. Look forward to some wins in the coming weeks given we have played most of  the tough teams already!

-          By Special reporter ‘Fake indoor player’

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 8– BK Durians vs Bloomberg

Round 3 of the cricket season and all 3 BK teams were stunned into disbelief with the worst start to a season on record........ a total of 6 games across the 3 teams and we remained winless!!! The elite of BK Durians had something to prove!

[cue cheesy chariots of fire music]

 http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=L-7Vu7cqB20

We met under the dodgy lamplight outside the cage and swore our oaths to break the losing streak..... with words of "just get the basic stuff right...and don't get out!" we pledged our allegiance to the cause. The game was against Bloomberg, the setting...... cage 3

We won the toss and elected to bat, and in the style of a true leader Lalith and Chris led the charge scoring 43 of the first pair, rising to the challenge, Jorgo and Tim also managed 43 despite Jorgo getting bowled first ball, and rounding up an amazing batting effort with some beautiful running between the stumps - Patrick and Rod finished the innings with an inspirational 35..... Total score 121

The depression on the side of Bloomberg was palpable from the first over of their batting where Jorgo, and then Tim each took 2 wickets during their overs, leaving Bloomberg with the almost impossible task of recovering (after the first pair) from a score of 9. Aside from a short spurt by the last pair, Bloomberg never really looked like being much of a challenge with a grand total score of 60.

Our Fielding - inspirational, Our bowling - magnanimous, Our batting - Spectacular! Lalith's captaincy - forgettable! BK Durians finally figured out effective batting pairs, and produced a performance worth writing home about........ and finally, got the win their confidence sorely needed......

[end cue'd music]

-          By Special reporter Tim “Lalith Modi” Jaja

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 7– BK Century Eggs vs Octopus

Our first game as one team, and unfortunately not a great result. Prashant and Adrian opened, with Prashant getting some nice shots in the first over. But, some sloppy run outs left them at a score of 12 at the end of their innings. Amy and Anil came on next, facing some good bowling from Octopus. Unfortunately, they were run out four times and caught once. Both Anil and Amy running across the field led to a massive bump; seen more from our rugby cousins. She was alright, and they finished the innings with -13, leaving us -1 for Gordon and Kumar who was testing the game out. They both played some good shots, and managed a decent 24 to leave us exposed at a total of 23.

The bowling was a little better. Through Prashant's bowling, the Century Eggs got two run outs, and a catch that was deflected from Prashant onto Adrian. The very next over, Amy came on and sent down a sizzler that was hit back to Adrian, who juggled it over to Amy. Gordon then took a fantastic stumping, leaving Octopus 33 after the first pair. The next two pair saw another two run-outs by Kumar, first on Adrian's bowling, then down the other end to Gordon. Another stumping by Gordon on Kumar's bowling, but the damage was done by Octopus finishing at 107.

Overall, losing 9 or so wickets will make your chances of winning very tough. We have to focus on well-executed batting, solid running between the wickets and not getting out. Our fielding was decent, and more practice on bowling to ensure we are not getting slapped around.

-          By Special reporter Julian Tate

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 5– BK Durians vs Marina(Chuckers) & Game 6 - BK Durians vs Power(fore)play

Caution: 'PG' Rating (some coarse language and violence depicted in these narrations)

The inaugural performance for the stinkiest team in indoor cricket, the BK Durians, was a keenly anticipated event in many calendars, as this was the first time Bedok had set their blinkers and were making a determined effort to win the Seasoned Pro league. With this goal in mind, we approached these 2 games with the intent of stamping our ownership of the competition and let everyone savour the sweet sticky smell of success……… Unfortunately, as the team name suggests, the pungent odour that wafted over the playing field smelt like a combination of rotting custard and onion, spiced with the failure of a tactical nightmare gone horribly wrong, and topped with an after taste of jorgo soiling his pants......... Yes, we failed miserably!

Molested by Marina..
The first game against newcomers “Marina”, which was playfully touted as our “warm-up game” got off to a horrible start with a woeful performance with the bat from Tim and Lalith, conceding no fewer than 5 wickets and finishing with a grand total of 16………and unfortunately that was one of the better batting pairs, it just went downhill from there….. One strategic point to note, is that when BK’s performance dips……..we don’t seem to recover well (i.e. unable to shake off the willies). This carried through to our fielding we were beaten soundly 134 vs 70

Raped by Powerplay..
The second game was our chance to redeem ourselves! The group huddle between games allowed us to recoup and re-focus, and I have to say, our fielding performance against (arguably) the best 5 batsmen in the entire league (powerplay had ringin’s Karthik, Kedar and Dharmik) was nothing short of spectacular, with a pinch of good old fashioned sledging thrown in to season the broth, we had the opposing team struggling to find runs……and a few key wickets we managed to keep them down to a score of 80!  Quite an achievable target one would think………… but wait, the unfalteringly familiar fetid fragrance of failure was ever there to smack us in the guts! A strategic withdrawal turned into a complete rout as more than 15 wickets were squandered in the short space of 12 overs……. So much so, that our grand total of “0” (no, I haven’t forgotten to write a number there, our score was zero!) was all karthik needed to throw all our hard earned sledging back in our faces.

All in all, an eye opening experience, obviously a LOT more work is needed on our batting partnerships, and also on our talk in the field…….. the key factor being that when someone makes a mistake, or a boundary is hit by the opposition, we as a team need to talk ourselves back into the game! The key moments where we looked like winning, were all when we were alert and applying pressure on the opposition – which became very obvious in the fielding portion of the second game.

-          By Special reporter Tim "Lalith Modi" Jaja 

Welcome the spin guru Muttiah Muralitharan

Kochi Tuskers have been debarred from the IPL due to financial irregularities (though they claim to have paid Lalith Modi way in advance), which puts a big question ahead of Muttiah Muralitharan, who do I play for now? Apparently that quest has brought the spin legend to Singapore where he is hoping one of the indoor cricket clubs will buy him, but when he was asked about it, he just nonchalantly replied saying “oh IPL issue..’chuck’ it..i am here for charity”..hmm, careful with the ‘C’ word Mr. Murali!

While that piece of news from our Fake reporter might just not be true, what is absolutely certain is that Murali is going to be in town and very much within reach for anyone keen and enthusiastic enough to cough up ahem..a 100 dollars..but all worth it if you get to spend some time with this absolutely fabulous gentleman legend of cricket

What's in the name?

Even Sir Don Bradman once said..“I might have never been as effective a batsman if I was playing with a different bunch of players every game”; ok he didn’t quite say it, but perhaps would have if he was asked that specific question. 

Dodgy opening quotes apart, the update for this week is that we have crafted a new strategy. As we looked through the performances of BK teams, what came out as a problem was that there were a different set of players playing each game, ie there wasn’t a consistency on who represented BK1 or BK2 etc…so first things first, we need to get that sorted out..and after engaging high performance consultants and doing a detailed Argus kind of post-ashes-ish audit etc etc (all in my mind) the decision was taken to split the entire BK indoor cricket pool of players into 3 distinct smaller pools of 8-9 players. Each of the three teams will have a captain/in-charge/bitch who will manage their respective pool, pick the team for the games based on the first/best available six players and of course borrow from another pool if they can’t find 6. At least it will ensure there is some kind of semblance of a consistency in what team and team-mates you get to play with on an ongoing basis. Should help the players grow along as a team, bond better , drink better and may be win games?? Nothing that we do, however will let us deviate from the basic guiding princicple of the club, which is all about participation and fun. Oh yes..btw we have entered a third team into the league, just to make sure there are enough games for all of the available BK players to get into. Also with this third new team we have a chance of making sure this team can go along winning games from the outset and who knows, this season might be ours…the same thoughts Kiwi cricket team must be having before entering into every single cricket tournament. Our magnificent changes  didn't just stop there.. We also decided to shun away suffixes to the BK teams such as BK-1, BK-2 etc..a little rebranding has never hurt anyone, so why not?

So we got all serious about getting the most right sounding names for the three teams and finally settled for:

BK Century Eggs
BK ROJAK
BK Durians

How awesome is that? Local flavored team names lah..can can can I say!

That's all the updates for now..more after the stinky BK Durians have kicked some asses in their first round of the games.

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 4– BK2 vs Organised Kaos

BK after  a 3 game losing streak, up agaist  Organised Kaos thisweek, , what can possibly go wrong on proving Murphy's law?

Jorgo was seen in action for the first time this season. Julian, Oliver, Chris and Lalith was joined by new kid on the block Dan, playing his first game for  the Kings.

Organised Kaos won the toss and elected to bat. What can one say about our bowling ? 147 after 12 overs speaks for itself. Then again, less painful way of looking at it:  Organized Kaos batted well.

On the lighter side of things, One of our Kings, redefined the art of bowling wide  , with some of the balls almost hitting the side walls!

Armed with a Mongoose in his hands , Chris Rogers stared butchering the ball like Matthew Hayden would have, and thus began the chase. Julian and Chris ended up at a promising 51 at the end of the first 4 overs. The second pair could only could manage to take the total to 71 assilly stumpings and some controversial runouts didn't help the cause.

Jorgo and Dan , the new boy, batted fluently but couldn't avoid the inevitable. BK ended up at a decent  score of 91, but of course well short of the target.

We will beat the Organized Kaos boys, Next time I reckon.

-          By Skipper Lalith “Malinga”

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 2 – BK1 vs Comwerks

First over was good warmup session for Comwerks, bowled by Pashant K who managed to keep comwerks quiet…but only the lull before the storm.  Miles handled the second over, by then comwerks started presenting their fireworks & scorecard ended up at 28. Third over was bowled by Amresh where we show skills of our experienced player counts. But I would say all our bowlers had genuine over arm action  compared few comwerks chuckers.

We missed some tough catches maybe we need to get some catching session from coconut pluckers. Overall there were just 4 comwerks wickets in the entire innings which tells how hard we need to work on our bowling skills.

Chasing was never easy but we did manage to get close to 121 against the set total of 126. First pair contributed 23 runs, second pair contributed 50runs taking score to 72 & last pair helped to reach total of 121.

It was runouts &  catches that comwerks did take advantage of. It was silly to run for second run after hitting four.

Well, even Bangladesh has once beaten Australia..so aberrations are part of the game!!

-          By skipper Prashant K

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 3 – BK1 vs Organised Kaos

Much as a disappointing game that it was, here's a miserable post match report exhibiting the rhyming skills of a 3 year old, but nevertheless....in this space, everything goes!

Up against organized kaos bk1 had to stake a claim,
Having already lost to Comwerks, We were wallowing in shame;
Winning the toss was perhaps the only victory for the day,
Inserting organized kaos to bat, we bowled to utter dismay;
Not everything was shit, there were a few bright stars,
Amresh swung, rod spun, while pat's fierce pace almost ripped their arse;
But others leaked and they leaked far too many,
Fielding, though, was alright; a sharp catch by pat and one shockingly by mani;
First of their pairs got just 24; but the other two really exploded,
whatever little chance we had, even that was eroded;
The pair of Scotts opened our batting, 149 was the target to get,
That Against the best bowling side, the current champs, lest we should forget;
Amy played a few shots, anil dug in too,
27 they managed having lost a wicket or two;
Amresh and pat went for the shots, fearless and brave,
But mindless running meant we only dug what was already our grave;
In came the final pair, mani & rod,
A 100 more to get, there wasnt even an odd;
Atleast we finished up at 100, against good attack,
We might be one down organized kaos, beware, BK2 shall get back!!

- By skipper ‘Money man’  Mani

Indoor Cricket Season 6: Game 1 – BK2 vs Octopus

With the start to the season game against our arch-nemesis team, Octopus, you could hear the boys frantically applying oil to the old rusty joints in a pre-game warm up.

After winning the toss, BK1 elected to field, and started with some tight bowling. Octopus, however kept the score ticking over averaging a boundary per over with wickets hard to come by. Final score to chase was 99.

Our batting innings was promising given that none of our players had swung a bat in anger for over a month, however Octopus’ tight bowling and wickets at key moments kept our score slightly below the required, with 82 being the final score.

BK Man of the match was Chris Rogers – with a promising return to the game, bowling 2 tight overs and performing well with the bat.

Highlights of the game were:-         

Ø  Hanging around waiting for the 6th Octopus player to show up

Ø  Tim J’s mind screw of the Octopus batter making him think he had returned the ball to the bowler, then running out the striker batsman when he tried to sneak forward a few steps

Ø  Julian Tate’s amazing first ball, clean bowling Octopus’ best batsman – that surprised everyone, including Julian, lol

Ø  Gordo’s spectacular catch and stumping off Lalith’s pace bowling

-          By skipper Tim ‘Lalith Modi’ Jaja

Indoor cricket season 6: A brand new start

Promise to bring every BK game report on this space for this season..alright most of the games, promise. For starters the undercover reporter is no longer responsible for keeping this running and now the trick is that the captain for every game is responsible for sending in the post match analysis..with a mix of facts and fiction..all depending on imagination levels. Remember "Implausible is nothing"

Btw..for those of you wondering where the hell Pacman has been..he's clearly busy in making money...but with the help of the undercover reporter we have  just uncovered one of his well kept secrets..after all match fixing is all about maths..math fixing 101:

Bedok Kings Cricket: Week 5 bulletin

(28^th Feb 2011)

The cricket world cup is in full swing now..which means we have gone beyond the first courtesy round of the test playing nations taking the associate teams to the cleaners..in fact now we witnessed Pakistan beating Sri Lanka..which caused immense pain to Lankans..but made Pakis worry even more..given they flash brightly once or twice in a big tournament and this match means they are done with their thunder…did the bookies see that coming? England finally relented and generously accommodated their friendly Irish neighbours into the big league by offering them a win out of nowhere; atleast it would mean they have more avenues to source their players from..KJ O’ Brien the next KP? India and England made most of the bookies sweat..some filthy rich and for the first time in 3 years an Aussie legspinner was accurate…i.e Shane Warne…for his accurate tweet-prediction on the India England match. Australia continues in the only way they know to play in a world cup..i.e thrashing everyone on their way. Luckily for them Ponting found form and first smashed a half century on the ground and then an LCD TV in the dressing room. What a shame to see the SL vs Aus match getting rained away…unreliable sources said that Ponting argued with the referee and wanted to review the rains but apparently better sense prevailed…though ICC is investigating if the rain was fixed..hmm…must have perhaps spotted a Pak player do the rain dance.

Round up for week 5;

 Game 1: BK1 vs BK2

Billed as the biggest clash in indoor league..and the fiercest of the fierce battles leaving even “Papua New Guinea” vs “Afghanistan” test match clash behind in the ratings chart…BK1 vs BK2 almost lived upto the expectations around it. It was a shame though that only 11 BK players turned up. Sledge master Chief had to miss the game as it clashed with the monthly manicure/pedicure appointment..but nevertheless he has vowed to move his facial appointment to be there for the upcoming games against lesser opponents.

The game began once we had the skippers appointed and the teams pulled out of a hat..heat was on right from first ball that was dispatched for a six ..and Jorgo and Yock feaured in record breaking 80 run stand..the best in the league so far..Simon Yock had his eyes set on an epic half century…and BK2 did nothing to stall the pursuit..but eventually ended up with just 46..or like the ladies  say..just one shot away from being wow. Nevertheless Yock and Jorgo set the tone and the rest of BK1 joined in to create what can be only termed as a harmony of butchery. An otherwise docile Rajan Jn too was pumped up. “we PACKED and DELIVERED BK2 to the dumps” is what Rajan had to say..proudly flashing his brand new DHL business card. Andrew Errr - the proud BK1 skipper came up with a gem, after the game got over “Err is human..Andrew Er is divine” said the pacman; some modesty that was, but who am I kidding..Kings aren’t supposed to be modest..are they?

After the humiliating defeat his team suffered from,  when skipper Aslam was contacted for his comments about the team’s abysmal performance.. he quickly switched to tagalog, showing off the language skills recruiters seem to have..in this case though, acquired through frequent Duxton road visits (Chief can speak thai, tagalog, bahasa, bangla and even Kiwi). That unfortunately was the only masterstroke that Aslam had for the day. Smokey ..glad from the fact that he let Aslam skipper the game..played the mundane smart ass card claiming that BK2 “let” that   happen just so that it would improve the net run rate for BK1.

Some cold beers after the game were flowing on to round the day off and the Kings were back to chit-chatting merrily around the plastic table..a skill no other team in the league can ever match.

Reportedly, some have found these numbers to be offensive.. .Stats here are therefore rated “PG”and publisher holds no responsibility for any trauma it may cause.

BK1 vs BK2 - BK1 stats
Bowlers	Wickets	Runs
Jorgo	3	-3
Andy Er	1	17
Julian Tate	3	5
Karthik Subramanyan	4	-3
Rajan	0	40
Simon Yock	5	-13
Batsman	Runs
Simon Yock	46
Jorgo	34
Rajan	17
Julian Tate	7
Karthik Subramanyan	33
Andy Er	15
BK1 vs BK2 - BK2 stats
Bowlers	Wickets	Runs
Alex	1	20
Aslam	1	14
David	1	40
Mani Padmanaban	0	36
Prashanth	1	22
Tom woods	1	26
Batsman	Runs
Tom woods	18
David	3
Alex	-2
Prashanth	-5
Mani Padmanaban	0
Aslam	11

Bedok Kings Cricket: Week 4 bulletin

Dated: 3^rd March’2010

The world cup has begun and some boring one sided matches already under way..with results just  as would be expected... India beating bangladesh Sri Lanka thrashing Canada, Aus humiliating Zimbabwe and beating them comprehensively in cricket too..Kiwis punishing Kenya; this one though I believe some Kenyans consider to be the upset match of the tournament; Then comes the awesome England vs Netherlands...an interesting match between two partially South African sides, which fittingly was determined by that fact that the side with most South Africans choked in the end...ouch. Sorry couldnt help that.

 As for the ramblings on the Kings’ games in week 4;

Game 1: BK2 vs Comwerks

On paper this should have been a close one, given both teams hadn’t won a single game in the league this far..clash of minnows sorts  (can’t help going with the favorite cricket worldcup buzz word). But not surprisingly BK hammered Comwerks, the real motivation was not to win the game, rather punish Comwerks for turning up as a side sans Serena..I mean how could they? What else would the Kings look for in the game against an opponent team which is clearly missing their most well-rounded player.

Game 2: BK1 vs Octopus

There is Karma and then there is instant Karma. What was dished out to Comwerks came around to bite us back..almost instantly,,like 5 minutes after BK2 walloped a fragile comwerks . If there was any talk about this being a a chance for redemption..it was true..but it was for Octopus..who in a way apologised for getting us close in the first game and unnecessarily raising hopes.  For a change we didn’t let a last over decide the fate of the match…we made sure everyone saw the result within the first four overs itself…afterall there were better things to look for..like smashing the shit out of other BK team in the home vs home encounter slated for week 5. Of course not to mention chief made an attempt to spice up the game by riling up one of the Octopus players with constant murmur from behind the wickets..no one knows what exactly transpired..but some close sources wishing to stay unnamed, say it was just a general enquiry about mother/sister that must have caused the heated debate or something like that; at least sledging score reads BK:1 – Octopus-0 :well done chief!

Comwerks vs Bedok Kings 2
Bowlers	Wickets	Runs
Gordon Falconer	2	5
Julian Tate	3	-3
Prashant	2	9
Rajan	1	10
Simon yock	0	14
Tom Woods	1	9
Batsman	Runs
Prashant	25
Rajan	12
Tom Woods	36
Gordon Falconer	29
Simon yock	24
Julian Tate	4
Octopus vs Bedok Kings 1
Bowlers	Wickets	Runs
Gordon falconer	0	30
Lalith Silva	0	21
Mani Padmanabhan	1	22
Sean Hankin	1	41
Simon Lang	0	24
Simon Yock	1	13
Batsman	Runs
Sean Hankin	11
Simon Lang	7
Lalith Silva	17
Mani Padmanabhan	10
Simon Yock	1
Gordon falconer	15