by Chaitanya Halgekar
Death bowling has been one of the strong points of Anand’s Cricket Academy in Nitin Shirgurkar’s Belgaum Premier League. They have won more than twice solely on their effective death bowling.
The reason behind their effective death bowling is their strategy of keeping the best bowlers for the final overs. Parappa Morade, the strike bowler is always used after 12 overs by skipper Ketaj Kolhapure. Akshay Juvekar, other prime bowler is also reserved for the final overs.
Today, in the qualifier game, ketaj Kolhapure again resorted to this strategy and brought Parappa in the attack in 14th over. But, the result was different. Although Parappa gave just 6 runs in his first over, he was smashed for 11 and 15 runs in his next overs.
This tremendous attack against Parappa forced Ketaj Kolhapure to choose Nityanand, the spinner over Parappa to bowl the final over. Thus, the strike bowler of Anand’s Cricket Academy, Parappa Morade couldn’t even complete his full bowling quota. The result- the opposition scored a massive total of 191 in 20 overs.
When asked about this backfired strategy Ketaj Kolhapure gave a rather simplified and logical reason, “Every day is not a Sunday. On same day they will bowl well and on some days then won’t. It’s ok.”
It is important to analyze the reason behind the failure of this well-thought out and so far effective game plan. When Parappa came to bowl the score was 120 for 2 wickets and two very experienced batsmen were playing. Plus they had the license to go for the kill as plenty of wickets were in hand.
And this is very it went wrong for Parappa. The batsmen studied him in his first over and went after him in his next overs. Parappa was simply surprised by this attack and offered no challenge.
Of course this one backfired strategy alone cannot be blamed for Anand Cricket Academy’s loss. But at the same time, this tactical error cannot be neglected. Because now in the knock-out stages even one mistake is enough to send teams back home.
Today’s Result
- Anand’s Cricket Academy vs. Neena Sports Club- Neens Sports Club won by 29 runs.
- Sairaj Yuvraj Warriors vs. Potdar Vijaya Cricket Academy- Sairaj Yuvraj Warriors won by 04 wickets.