Titan

Below Par, Painful & Porous

Walt H. Rambaransingh | Date 06/05/17

On an overcast and rainy June day, the Palm Beach Titans continued their 2017 South Florida Premiere League 40 over campaign. This quarterfinal match of the 2017 SFPL 40 over post-season would be played against Challengers SC. Challengers won the toss and elected to bowl first.

Chucky & Prateek opened the batting. After establishing a 7 over, 35 run opening partnership, Chucky lost his wicket at the end of the 7th over scoring just 16 runs. Krishna replaced him at the batting crease and contributed to a 10 over, 44 run partnership with Tiki before he lost his wicket in the 18th over after scoring 18 runs. Skipper Andre replaced Krish and helped settle the batting with the stoic Tiki at the other end. Directly after scoring his half-century, Tiki lost his wicket in the 31st over after a staunch 3rd wicket partnership with Skipper Andre that produced 67 runs. During that 3rd wicket partnership, Skipper Andre hit four 6s in the 25th over. Anglin replaced Tiki and contributed to a quick 6 over, 55 run partnership with Skipper Andre. Anglin lost his wicket in the 37th over after scoring a quickfire 15 runs while Skipper Andre lost his wicket 2 overs later after scoring a team high 81 runs. At the end of 40 overs, the Palm Beach Titans had 237 runs on the scorecard with 7 wickets lost. Batting highlights included Skipper Andre’s 81 runs and Tiki’s 50 runs. So at the end of the 1st innings, the Palm Beach Titans had to defend 237 runs.

Krishna & Anglin opened the bowling with rain threatening. Krishna had an expensive 1st over and was replaced by Sanjay who took the first wicket with the 5th ball of his first over (3rd overall) via a spectacular diving catch by Skipper Andre running in from the long-on position. After a maiden over from Anglin, Sanjay took the 2nd wicket of the match with the 4th ball of an expensive 5th over via a WK catch by perennial super keeper Tiki. Rain then began. The second wicket fell in the 5th over with only 28 runs on the opposing scorecard. Over the next 4 overs, the team leaked almost 50 runs with the wetness of the ground playing some havoc with the grip that the bowlers had with the ball. Play was stopped at the end of the 9th over due to rain. After almost an hour rain delay, play resumed on a wet outfield. The innings was reduced to 32 overs and the new target for the opposing team would now be 207 runs. Skipper Andre struck quickly after the break by taking the 3rd wicket on the 2nd ball after the rain delay. After that wicket, the porous bowling began again with the team bowling contingent allowing a 101 run 4th wicket partnership that included many quick singles, several dropped catches, some questionable umpire calls and below par fielding efforts. By the time that 4th wicket partnership was broken, the opposing team only needed about 20 runs for victory with many overs and wickets left to achieve that win. Challengers score the needed 207 runs in 22.1 overs. The only fielding highlight was Skipper Andre’s diving catch running in from long-on to remove the on-strike opening batsman. The only bowling highlight was Anglin’s maiden over. The rest of the bowling contingent had overly expensive economies. The Palm Beach Titans lose by 5 wickets. Palm Beach Titans CC Bowling details of the day are below:

Krishna – 1 over, 0 maidens, 9 runs, 0 wickets.
Anglin – 5 overs, 1 maiden, 21 runs, 0 wickets.
Sanjay- 4.1 overs, 0 maidens, 48 runs, 2 wickets.
Nagarjun- 2 overs 0 maidens, 34 runs, 0 wickets.
Andre– 3 overs, 0 maidens, 24 runs, 1 wicket.
Tanmay– 4 overs, 0 maidens, 40 runs, 0 wickets.
Atif– 3 overs, 0 maidens, 30 runs, 2 wickets.

The Palm Beach Titan’s bid for a championship in the 2017 South Florida Premiere League 40 over competition came to a jolting, crashing end in a quarterfinal loss against Challengers SC. Batting highlights included Skipper Andre’s 81 runs and Tiki’s 50 runs. The only fielding highlight was Skipper Andre’s diving catch running in from long-on to remove the on-strike opening batsman. The only bowling highlight was Anglin’s maiden over. As painful as this quarterfinal loss is, the team has to learn lessons from it and practice against the deficiencies that caused this loss. Yes, we had to deal with poor fielding conditions (that caused injuries to at least 3 players) and some questionable umpiring but as one teammate acknowledged, we need to learn to manage these situations better as they will happen again in future. Below par fielding and porous bowling in wet fielding conditions had a large role to play in this loss and, again, we need to manage these situations better by practicing and improving our control & performance. At the end of the day and this painful loss, two old sayings continue to be proven to be true. Practice makes perfect & catches win matches.