GPL-1....yet again!!

What a day it was! four very good teams met today in the two semifinals and the finalists of GPL-1 made it again to the final.

The first semi-final was between the 16 Radians and the Villains. The Villains bowled a terrific line and length and reduced the Radians to a low total of 16. The best bowl of the innings was the last bowl of the innings by Manish Kanth who bowled Rajeev with a perfect leg cutter round the wicket. The batsman could not do anything about it. Many would have believed that it was curtains for the Radians but they showed a character today very rarely seen. The batsman also were responsible for the hapless condition of the Villains. Radian bowlers kept blocking them by yorkers and the batsmen offered half-defensive and half-lofting shots and were comprehensively bowled. The Villains fell short by 4 runs though their captain hung for a long time. The Radians were 'very expressive' about their win. It was a great match.

The Second match between the Red Hawks and the Barmy Army was won by the Hawks in a grand fashion. Batting first the Hawks posted a total of 46. Maker was as free flowing as ever after Mahendra got out cheaply. He gave a solid start to the team and after that Suvojit, Deva Prasad and Kalpit helped the team to reach a decent score of 46. For the Barmy Army i think Arjun deserves a word of praise. I have liked his bowling through out the tournament and he would definitely be my pick for the bowler of the tournament. Coming back to the match , wickets kept falling for the Barmy Army, and their main batsman Mohit also got out cheaply. Red Hawks kept the pressure on continuously before Shubham gave some lusty blows. But they were not enough and the Barmy Army was bowled out on 21. The Hawks are into the final and i think they would like to settle the scores of GPL-1. They are in a great form, both cricket wise and spirit wise. They are just one step behind clinching the title. We wish them and the Radians good luck for the finals.

Vijay Purohit
(Captain)

End of Roads?

The UnderDogz are almost out of the run for the last four places and it has been a disappointing tournament for us. The reasons for the same are mixed i'd say. One would be bad luck and the other ofcourse being poor cricket at times, which added to the bad luck. There have been controversies relating to our team, and surprisingly every body showing interest in our team. But we would definitely take some positives out of this tournament for the upcoming Goodwill Series. We will focus more on our cricket. Captaincy is another issue which i have been thinking seriously about and it shall be decided before the Goodwill Series. Coming to the other teams and matches, i think the 1st years have played well and their bowling was impressive against us today. 26 was never going to be a tough target and they surpassed it. We decided to play Janmejay today and he bowled and fielded brilliantly. The match between 16 Radians and the Red Hawks was an interesting one but the Radians got home courtesy two brilliant knocks by Abhishek and Khanjan. The former i think played maturely today and saw that his team reach the semis. Khanjan also played a gem of an inning. 2nd Years are a good side too. Purple Haze also is one team who has not got what it deserves. One reason perhaps would be their bowling, which if gets better, will make them a formidable line up.

The last phase of the tournament would be quite interesting to see.

Tough Times

Much has been said about the UnderDogz and our performance, but i truly believe that the results could have gone our way, but for some sheer lack of luck. I think our combination has been right and the squad has given its 100% commitment. Words of praise for Shreyans Mehta who has come in to the side and given some solidarity to the middle order. He has been superb behind the wickets too. I think some reckless shots have added to our misery. But over all, our luck has been teasing us through out the series. There have been some loopholes, particularly some drop catches. They were half chances but you need to convert those if you have to win matches. It has been heartening to see the Red Hawks perform really well. They have got their original squad (minus Anand), who played the Final of GPL-1.

Rest later.

Vijay (Captain)

How the teams figure so far...

Tally

Sr. No.	Teams	Play	Win	Loss	Points
1.	RED HAWKS	4	4	0	8
2.	16 RADIANS	3	2	1	4
3.	THE VILLAN’S	3	2	1	4
4.	BARMY ARMY	2	1	1	2
5.	AMATEURS	3	1	2	2
6.	UNDERDOGZ	4	1	3	2
7.	PURPLE HAZE	3	0	3	0

Fortune does not favour the UnderDogz

We lost once again in a very crucial tie against The Villains, who got back to back victories against 16 Radians, and us.

Their match against 16 Radians was low scoring, with them batting first and scoring 14 runs. Parth has not been clicking in this series. Most would believe this to be a no-contest with 16 Radians winning hands down, however, The Villains bowled superbly and won the match. Their bowling has been tremendous, and a notch or two better than other squads. But their batting has been over dependent on Parth, and they should get their act together as regards the batting is concerned if they are to win the series.

Their next match was against us, more or less a do or die match for us. We chose to bat first and scored 28 runs, not bad considering that their bowling was nothing less than lethal. We were unlucky in the sense that Vijay got out in an absurd manner...instead of being a six, the ball refused to fall from the roof, a very rare and unfortunate dismissal indeed.

We, as a team bowled very decently, but Jeet stuck to the crease more than we would have liked him to, also scoring a few in the process. After him, Parth and Nirav Bhatt perished cheaply, and Nirav Meena came in. He batted sensibly, and for a time it seemed he would take the Villains home. But finally he fell and Soham came in.
We understood that this was the last batsman, Villain has not really performed with the bat in the GPL grounds. We tried our best to dismiss Soham but he remained in the crease. He was fortunate to be dropped twice, once in the boundary, hitting a six in the process.

He concentrated on getting 2 runs from the side, almost getting out once in the process, but he managed to stay on and win the match for his team.

In a match between the Amateurs and The Barmy Army, the Barmy Army managed to win with some difficulty, even though the Amateurs had scored only 8 runs, and were playing with 5 players.

Red Hawks then comfortably beat The Amateurs. Inspite of the 38 runs the Amateurs had put on board, the match proved to be a cakewalk for the Red Hawks.

16 Radians played and comfortably won their match against Purple Haze.

In the last match of the day, the Red Hawks faced Purple Haze. Red Hawks batted first, and courtesy Mahendra's and Kalpit's brilliant hits, scored 80 runs. I fell that Purple Haze could have utilized their bowlers in a better manner. Though Purple Haze were not really in the game, they put up a brave front and managed to score 44 before all their batsmen got dismissed.

As regards our own performances and other things, keep watching this space. Plenty of discussions to come.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

GPL 2 : The first 2 days

2 days into the tournament, and we already have witnessed more exciting matches than we can probably fathom.
For the uninformed here is how the teams have fared so far :

UnderDogs : Played 3
Won 1 (Purple Haze)
Lost 2 (Red Hawks, Amateurs)

Red Hawks : Played 2
Won 2 (UnderDogs, The Villains)

16 Radians : Played 1
Won 1 (Barmy Army)

Purple Haze : Played 1
Lost 1 (UnderDogs)

The Villains : Played 1
Lost 1 (Red Hawks)

Barmy Army : Played 1
Lost 1 (16 Radians)

The Amateurs : Played 1
Won 1 (UnderDogs)

As the statistics show (or even if they don't) Red Hawks (erstwhile Knickers United/Blockbusters) have been playing fantastic cricket, they have looked solid and with Abhinav Maker's return they seem to be gelling well.

16 Radians played very well and outclassed a good team in their first match. But with the increase in competition, they cannot be termed as the sole favourites this time.

Purple Haze continue to be unpredictable, their batting as always has been good, but their bowling continues to haunt them. I, however, continue to hope that they will go on to cause a few upsets in the series.

Now, The Villains, their team looks good on paper, but they lose decisively against Red Hawks today, it may have been bad luck, or it may have been the tough opposition, that we cannot say for sure, but the answers will be there by tomorrow.

Barmy Army, consists of first year students, and they lost their tough match against 16 Radians, but for newcomers, they played out of their skins and managed to impress, they too could cause a few upsets. Their batting line up seems very good.

As regards the Amateurs, I have mixed opinions. On one hand, two of their batsmen played tremendously today, and looked good enough to take their team through the 10 overs, but on their dismissals, the rest of the team just collapsed. As regards their bowling is concerned,once again, two of the bowlers, (one being one of the batsman I just wrote about) proved to be excellent.
Of the two bowlers, one in particular terrorised our batsmen with his off spin.
But, the team, in totality is probably not good enough to last throughout the tournament.

As regards our own performance, I would be discussing it a bit later, so keep watching this space.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

GPL-II: The Curtain Raiser

So the wait is about to end! After two friendly tournaments GPL-II has finally arrived with much anticipation and excitement. The tournament shall be played from the 28th of August, spreading over a week and involving 6-8 teams. The registration for the same is open now. Though, we are not still sure of the exact number of teams and their composition, but we are sure about a few. The UnderDogz will play their original squad, minus Anand Nair, who will be missed greatly, given his extra-ordinary fielding abilities. We are having team talks regarding our sixth player and will very soon decide the issue. I assume that the Radians too will play their original team. The team which opted out of the Challenger Series was Abhinav's (21 Centurians) Team and it will be interesting to see their team composition. GJ-6, i think more or less will have the same bunch of player.
The UnderDogz will look forward to break their semi-final jinx. I think our batting has improved to a great deal, with the lower order (Specially Kanishq) contributing valuable runs. Vinit is looking in good touch. Amit and i need to get some match practice to get into the groove. We definitely are desperate to clinch the title this time and i hope we will play good cricket to ensure the same.

AWARDS

Best Batsman : Ajay Sah. He batted like a dream, and in the process, made himself an icon player.

Best Bowler : Sachin Baid. He took wickets, bowled a consistent line and length, and gave away precious little. Any batsman who underestimated him, paid the price.

Best Fielder : Mudit Shah. He is serious, even when he is playing. He gave 'everything' a whole new meaning. Impossible fielding feats were achieved and his fielding ensured that his team had to chase a lot lower than they perhaps deserved to.

Best Team Spirit : Team Delhi (Purple Haze). They were written off at the very beginning. However, in the very first match of the tournament, they proved otherwise, they beat The Underdogs, and after that everyone took them seriously. Though they lost the other matches, the margin of defeat in every case was very little. Here is hoping that they play up to their full potential in the next series.

First 50 : Vijay Purohit. Save the best for the best occasion. Vijay Purohit played a captains innings against the UnderDogs' traditional rivals, The Blockbusters. The fifty not only won the UnderDogs the match, but also helped them from being eliminated from the series. Also note, this was the only 50 scored in the tournament.

Entertaining Player of the Tournament : Mahendra. Period.

Flop Player(s) of the Tournament : Yet to be Decided.


Suggestions and comments are welcome and will be added to the list.

16 Radians clinch The Challenger Series

In a breathtaking display of their skill and talent the 16 Radians ensured that all their detractors keep their mouths firmly shut as they went on to win the Challenger Series in a nail biting match against GJ 6.

But, more on that later, first the semi finals...

The First match of the day was between GJ 6 and The Blockbusters.
GJ 6 started off as the firm favourites, and they put up a respectable score for the Blocbusters to chase.

The Blocbusters started on a positive note courtesy Shreyans. From the first few overs, it appeared that GJ 6 would be losing once again to the Blockbusters (they had earlier lost in the league stage) but, a few quick wickets, and things appeared more than a little shaky for the Blockbusters. After, Shreyans, Mahendra, Suvojit and Deva departed, things were always going to be difficult.

Sarthak Guru gave them a glimmer of hope by hitting a couple of huge sixers, but soon he and Arjun departed in quick succession, succumbing to the pressure of the few remaining deliveries. And, thus GJ 6 was through to the finals.

The next semi final was between us (UnderDogs) and 16 Radians.

Our first blow came in the form of Kumar Janmejay's absence. His illness caused him to 'NOT ONLY' miss our crucial semi final clash but also his Class Test in the morning.

The fact that we came to know that he wasn't playing only a few minutes before our clash led to us panicking...however, hats off to Dhruv for playing for us in such short notice.

We won the toss, and after having a team talk, we decided to bat, going against our usual practice, the reason of this is because we perceived the 16 Radians as 'uncomfortable chasers' and we were hoping to post a 50+ total, which would have pressurized them.

Our plans however, remained just that, plans. Vijay got out in the first over itself by a wonderful delivery by Abhishek Chaturvedi. Vinit came in with one single thought on the teams mind, 'survive'.

Vinit did that, and more, he was scoring at an average pace, and he remained on crease, which was our sole intention, however sometime during the fifth over or so, runs slowly began to dry up. Vinit was playing brilliantly, and hitting shots with wonderful timing, but somehow the ball just refused to cross the boundary with as much regularity as it should have, sheer poor luck actually. Vinit himself was not comfortable with the situation, and he suggested that someone else do the batting. Which we all agreed to, at that point of time.

That proved to be the undoing, Amit, Anand and Dhruv tried their best, but they were pressurized to make quick runs, and fell in the process.
Vinit came back again, for the last seven balls, and tried his best, but the pressure to score runs coupled with brilliant bowling, restricted us to a measly total of 36 runs.

This was definitely not a total that would trouble the awesome batting lineup of 16 Radians. But, we sure as hell tried hard, our fielding was great (modesty be damned), and we tried our best to pressurize them into making some mistakes. But, Ajay Sah seemed invulnerable, until a loose shot placed outside finally ended his superb innings.

After Ajay, the enormously talented Abhishek Chaturvedi came to bat, but could only score six before Vijay took a superb catch to dismiss him.
Nirav Meena came in next, and kept his cool, despite the verbal volleys coming to him from the UnderDogs members, we were trying our best to distract him, but he was too experienced to take notice of all this. He kept the scoreboard ticking and finally was caught by me, but by then his job had been done. Khanjan came in next, and got the remaining runs in a flash, and we, The UnderDogs were out of the tournament. We tried our best, but we were beaten by a better team.

The final match was destined to be a run fest, with GJ 6 and 16 Radians both in prime form.

GJ 6 decided to bat first, and thanks to Nirav Bhatt and Parth Bhatt, set up a huge total of 62 runs.

Most of us assumed that 16 Radians had no chance, because of their tendency to choke while chasing.

However, an in-form Ajay Sah, who has blossomed from being a 'slam-bam' make do batsman to an enormously thinking, entertaining and reliable one had other plans. His 48 not out was beautiful and could not have come at a more appropriate occasion. Sadly though, in order to take no risks in the final overs, Abhishek Chaturvedi and Rajeev batted in his place so as to take the team home safely, thus denying him (and us) to a half century greatly deserved.

GJ 6 tried everything to defend their total, but could not do so, they tried everything in the books, but 16 Radians were too good, though I personally felt that Nirav Bhatt deserved to bowl both of his overs.

In the end, both the teams played good cricket, with 16 Radians playing 'just' a bit better than their counterparts to win The Challenger Series.


Contributed By : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

16 Radians win the Challenger Series

16 Radians defeated GJ 6 in a nail biter.
Full Review would be made available by 10.30 pm IST (9th August, 2008).

Exciting Semi Finals and Finals on the cards

First and foremost, the original composition of "The UnderDogs", is back. We have always stressed that the chemistry of the team is very important, and right now, we are back with the original six players.

We had five teams at the start of the Challenger Series, and one team had to be eliminated, so unfortunately, Team Delhi (Purple Haze) had to depart. They had played some outstanding cricket and looked all set to reach the semi-finals, but the Blockbusters defeated them in a thrilling encounter.

Tomorrow, the semi-finals and finals are scheduled to take place, while The UnderDogs face 16 Radians, Blockbusters will face GJ 6 in the Semi Final stages.

The current favourites of the tournament appear to be GJ 6, apart from their defeat against the Blockbusters, they have been playing good, competitive cricket, and it will be exciting to see whether the Blockbusters can defeat GJ 6 again.

On the other side, we will be facing 16 Radians, though we defeated them today, it was not their usual line up which we faced, but come tomorrow, we have the mean task of defeating a full strength 16 Radians, which, by any standards, will not be easy.

Co-incidentally, GJ 6 is the only team that we, The UnderDogs, have never defeated, and if they beat the Blockbusters, and should we defeat the 16 Radians, we will be looking to change that piece of statistic.

Its amazing to have Vinit and Janmejay back, they being a part of the team is very important to us and our overall performance, as we have stressed from time to time.

With us 6 on the field, something clicks, and we give that extra effort that perhaps normally we would not have. The only other similar feeling is probably when we play the Blockbusters, our traditional rivals. When these two fiercely competitive teams compete, you can literally feel the tension and excitement in the atmosphere.

We love to play them, and (I guess) vice versa, so we hope that the two teams get to clash in the finals. That would be the ingredient of one sure-shot great match.

Best of luck to all the teams and may the better team win...

Contributed By : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

The Challenger Series

The Challenger Series unveiled today and with a great upset win by Purple Haze (Team Delhi) over the UnderDogz. On a sluggish and wet pitch, Purple Haze managed a score of 36 and defended it well, though Kalpit's innings almost saw us home, but it was not to be. Ashwath, i think bowled brilliantly and his leg spin is quite deadly. He just needs to control his line a bit. Dhruv and Ashwath both batted well. I got out on a peach of a delivery which spun just a bit with some flight and i could just drive it out. Our batting wasn't well shaped due to the absence of Vinit and Janmejay. Nevertheless, we played poor cricket. Our next match was against the Block Busters, who will miss the talented Sagarnil in this series. We chose to bat this time and thankfully my bat did something this time. This was my first half century in this format, and by par the best innings i have played on the venue. We were 57 in 7 overs and then Anand and Co. help the team put a tall-score of 82 runs. Many would have considered it a one sided match, but Suvojit Halder had other intentions. His knock of 42 kept them in the run, but after he fell they could manage 58. The next match between the Block Busters and 16 Radians was won by the Radians and the following match between Purple Haze and the Radians, also by the Radians. In this match though the Radians posted a total of 84, Anup bowled brilliantly for his 3 wickets. The following match between GJ-6 and us, was won by GJ-6 again, as we posted a low total of 34 which was surpassed by them. Manish Kanth playing for our team bowled a great spell and got rid of the dangerous Parth. But Sahil batted well to see them home.

The series is in an interesting phase and we shall see who advance to the last four.

Keep visiting the blog.

Vijay Purohit
The UnderDogz (C)

Build up to the Lakshmi Bakery Challenger Series (LBCS)

The Lakshmi Bakery Challenger Series (LBCS) is scheduled to take place from the 5th of August, and we The UnderDogs are extremely charged up for it.
Our team composition remains the same for the series, and this time we expect to better our Goodwill Series performance.

Apart from Amit Sharma, the rest of us have been playing in practice matches from time to time.

Vinit has been bowling and batting excellently, and remains in top form.
Vijay Purohit, our captain, has been batting well, though he is not bowling as good as he would like to, but knowing him, I am sure that he would save his best for the series.
Janmejay has been in good bowling form too, though he has the potential to bowl much better. He has not been getting enough chances with the bat, and I am sure that after some practice he would resume with his explosive batting.

Anand has been bowling well, which comes as good news, as we would be having more options at our disposal as regards our bowling is concerned. However, he too is not at his peak as far as batting is concerned. He didn't get too much batting practice in the Goodwill Series, and I am sure that he would be keen to smash some balls when he gets the chance.

Personally, I am currently happy with my batting form, I have been getting sufficient practice in the last few days, and have been middling the shots, it would definitely prove advantageous to our team if I, being the last man, go in there and am able to get a few runs at the end of the innings. However, my bowling has been a cause for worry, I am getting a bit predictable with my bowling, and also, am not releasing the ball in the right manner.
The positive that I can take from this is the fact that I know my weaknesses, another good news is that I can now bowl leg spins, though I have not yet tried that in the matches, so that should add an element of unpredictability to my bowling.

Talking about other competitors, the good news (or bad, depending on the perspective) is that Suvojit is back in form, he scored an almost flawless 42 this afternoon, which is good news for the Blockbusters. Sagarnil too, has been in good touch, though he has not fully utilised the good starts he has been getting. The Blockbusters composition may change to an extent, Arjun Bhattacharya and Shreyansh Mehta are not likely to remain in the squad, and may move on to other teams.
There have been rumors that Arjun Bhattacharya is likely to form a team of his own, comprising of himself, Shreyansh, Sarthak Guru, Sayan Chakraborty, Dibyojyoti Sarkar and an unknown 6th Player, which may possibly be Sachin Baid. Though so far, Arjun and Sachin, both have been denying this possibility as mere speculations.

There have been many other rumors, which have not been confirmed so far, one being that a new team is being formed comprising of Mudit, Parth, Sagarnil, Rajeev, Ajay and Khanjan. If this is true, then they would surely be the favourites of the LBCS.

BUT, let us wait and watch to see the developments, and yes, keep watching this space.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

When the going gets tough, the 21 Centurions get going

This afternoon's final match of the Goodwill Series was a heart stopper. The 21 Centurions beat their opponents GJ 6 in a tight match and captured the imaginations of one and all.
Batting first, Romit finally ended his run drought and scored in a manner that could be described by only one word, 'blitzkrieg'.

Romit was rock solid, and gave a smashing start to the 21 Centurions innings. But just as he looked good enough to set a big score up for his team, he was dismissed by a wonderful ball.

Abhinav Saxena then played a pivotal role and took the tally to 40 runs.
From there on things went spiraling downwards for the 21 Centurions, no one else contributed to the score, even the usually prolific Mudit went for a duck this time, and the total score remained 40 runs after the innings ended.

40 was not a huge target, but it was not an easy one either, if the bowling remained disciplined then it would be tough for GJ 6....and it was.

21 Centurions bowled in an exemplary fashion but GJ 6 went on making steady progression. in spite of the loss of regular wickets. Abhinav Maker started an onslaught and it appeared GJ 6 would go on to win, but after Maker was out, and Sahil had just come in, Nirav Meena stepped in to bowl.
He dismissed Sahil, then Parth and then Trushil in consecutive balls, to get a hat-trick for himself and to wrap up the match in a stunning fashion.

The celebrations of 21 Centurions was a sight to see...they were ecstatic, and rightly so. Along with us, they were also written off prior to the start of the tournament. They too were underdogs in the same sense as we are, so we, naturally were rooting for them.

Abhinav Saxena's commitment was amazing, he would and could do anything for the team.
Nirav Meena, though he did not have a good tournament with the bat, he more than made up for that with his wily bowling. He managed an amazing hat-trick when it was needed the most.
Romit, was an integral part of the team and showed in the finals what he was capable of doing. He lived up to his words.
Praveen, bowled and fielded with commitment and more than made up for his average batting display.
Puruaj, normally not an avid cricketer, proved that no matter what he does, he does with passion and zeal. His fielding skills saved precious runs for the 21 Centurions.
Mudit, my favourite batsman, played FANTASTIC cricket, in all aspects, he is an one man army, and does everything without giving any hint or display of emotion.

The 21 Centurions deserved this series, and we, the UnderDogs congratulate them and hope that they continue playing with the same set of players.

P.S: Keep watching, we will soon have loads of updates to our gallery.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

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GJ 6 oust The UnderDogs to reach finals.

This morning the second semi - finals took place, and GJ 6 played brilliant all round cricket to reach the finals of the Goodwill series, which will take place at 4pm.

We won the toss and decided to field first, Soham opened the batting and gave a solid start to the team, Hardik continued from where Soham left and was looking in good touch before he got dismissed.

Though we had plans to counter the batsmen, we were not really able to execute them well, as a result our gameplan to some extent went haywire.

Vinit bowled extremely well and bowled 2 maiden overs, but our plans of keeping him for the end overs were not possible as we needed the wickets before their batsmen got settled.

Our middle overs were so-so but the main thing on our mind was that Parth was on the crease, and only 2 wickets had fallen so they could afford to take chances, also the fact that we had to bowl all 6 members of our team was playing on our mind.

I myself, (Kanishka) bowled the eighth over, and conceded eight runs, Parth was getting into the groove and the score was 40 runs.

The last two overs were bowled by Anand and Amit respectively, and it was at this time that Parth let loose his flurry of boundaries. Amit especially got hit badly and conceded 28 runs in the last over.

We needed 83 runs to win, a daunting task needless to say, but we still believed that we were in the match. Vijay opened the innings and looked good, but the fact that he didn't have time to settle eventually got the better of him.

We sent Anand up the order, hoping that his pinch hitting would take us out of the potential mess we were in.

But, Anand, who has batted brilliantly throughout the series, appeared uneasy in his role as a first down batsman, and after sticking around for a while, got out.

Vinit came in, middled a few balls, but the fact that we were (perhaps) playing for a lost cause must have somehow bothered him, and he too fell.

Now Amit, the anchor of the team, was our last chance, but he too gave in to the rising pressure and got out.

Kumar Janmejay, who too, has been having a wonderful series with the bat and the ball came in. But, at the back of our minds, we knew that it was only a matter of time before we lost.
He hit a huge sixer before succumbing to GJ 6.

As I came in, GJ 6 was already celebrating, and after a few balls, I too got bowled by an excellent delivery. Thus, 'The UnderDogs' made an exit from the Goodwill Series.

GJ 6 were in very good touch and were better than us in both the batting and bowling department. They kept the cool and never gave in to pressure, Parth's half century will be remembered for both his beautiful strokes and for his cool temperament. His innings, truly took us out of the game. Their bowlers were bang on, and we could learn a lot from their disciplined line and length.

We have learned a lot from this 6 matches that we have played in. We as a team, know our strengths and weaknesses, our dedication and commitment to the sport was always evident. We plan to field the same team, with no changes in the upcoming Laxmi Bakery Challenger Series, and later on for GPL 2 as well.

Later on this afternoon, the finals will be played between GJ 6 and 21 Centurions. Both the teams are on a high, though the odds will be in favour of GJ 6 for their consistency. But, knowing 21 Centurions, they will give everything to this match, and I personally feel that for the 21 Centurions to emerge as the champions, they all have to play well.

Nirav Meena, who is a good all rounder, has not really clicked with the batting so far, Abhinav Saxena too has not lived up to his true potential, both the players need to click.

Pururaj needs to improve his fielding and bowling, if he is to bowl at the death overs.

Mudit, who is a terrific batsman in terrific form, just needs to keep doing what he has been doing. His ability to not to let the pressure get to him has seen him through all sorts of tough matches.

I, personally, want 21 Centurions to win, but keeping history in mind, feel that GJ 6 has the edge.

See you all at 4pm.

And yes, keep visiting the blog for more information and updates regarding our team, Goodwill Series, Laxmi Bakery Challenger Series, GPL 2 and everything else that comes up. Thank you all for your support.

Contributed by: Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

Our loss in the Semi Final today was quite disappointing for all the players. But, we have a lot of positives to take from this series. We played brilliantly as a unit. Amit and Vinit were good with the bat. Janmejay has proved himself as a brilliant and match winning all rounder. Kanishka's balling has been terrific through out. Personally, the series was good for me in patches with the bat but i m quite content with my bowling. Parth's innings and GJ 6's performance was terrific today and if they go on to play like this in the final, they can win the series. All the players in our team were from earlier GPL teams, who had faired badly. So this goes on to prove once again, that its not the individual but the team which is important. I would like to thank my team for supporting me and my decisions (thought they were always collective). I take the responsibility for the loss though it was just a bad day.

We hope to perform better in the coming Challenger Series.


Vijay Purohit (Captain, the UnderDogs)

21 Centurions rout 16 Radians to reach the Finals

First things first, we witnessed the mother of all matches this afternoon. The semi final match between 21 Centurions and 16 Radians was considered by many as a no contest. 16 Radians were the favourites, and after their first debacle against us, The UnderDogs, they made a sparkling comeback and hardly showed any weaknesses. They were in formidable form.

In contrast, 21 Centurions were impressive only in bits and patches, they lacked the consistency of the other teams. Some considered their entry into the semi finals as somewhat of a fluke, as they only had to be better than Team Delhi and The Blockbusters, both the said teams failed to impress in this series.

But as they took field against the 16 Radians, the determination showed, their first minor victory was in letting 16 Radians field first, they have been a weak team while chasing.

After the initial few wickets, 16 Radians seemed all set to cruise through to another easy victory. But Abhinav Saxena was due to make some runs, and he appropriately chose this occasion. After getting a few runs on the board though, he fell.

Mudit, was at his best, leaving the dangerous balls and punishing the ones he deemed fit, he played a gem of an innings to take his teams total to a formidable 60.

Chasing to get 61 is not an easy task, but if there was any team that could do it, it had to be the 16 Radians, who have a history of getting high scores. Moreover, there were a few inexperienced bowlers in 21 Centurions, and they could count on their overs to let loose.

But the bowlers bowled tightly and wickets fell at regular intervals, and soon there was only one man who was coming in between the 21 Centurions goal of sealing a final spot, Rajeev Tak.

Rajeev, as we all know, has been in tremendous form, if anyone could carry 16 Radians home, it was him.
It was a wise decision on part of the team to save up Mudit's quota of bowling, so Mudit had 2 overs to bowl, with Pururaj bowling one over in between.

Mudit's first over was tight, and 16 Radians required 19 runs to win from 12 balls, of which Pururaj was to bowl 6.

Rajeev unleashed himself in Pururaj's over and scored 12, all seemed over when Pururaj dropped a relatively easy catch of his own bowling.

Mudit came in to bowl the last over, with 16 Radians needing 7 runs to win.

Mudit frustrated Rajeev, even giving 3 wide balls in the process, but Rajeev nevertheless managed a few runs somehow, and 2 runs were needed to win. Then, Rajeev unnecessarily hit a ball straight, Romit and Parveen both rallied behind it, and for a moment it seemed the ball would be dropped, but Parveen held on to it like his dear life, and Abhinav Saxena started celebrating in his usual wild fashion. A hell of a match, a hell of a victory.

In other news, in the league matches, The Blockbusters finally showed their true colours against Team Delhi, who were pulverized for just 2 runs!!! Needless to say, The Blockbusters won.

GJ 6 lost against 16 Radians earlier on, ending their winning streak, but they went on to defeat the would-be-finalists 21 Centurions in a convincing fashion.

Tomorrow, we play our semi final match against GJ 6. The match is scheduled to take place in the morning, so it would be a different experience.

Both the teams are playing good cricket, and its a tough choice to decide between the two teams, though GJ 6 has an edge as they have earlier defeated us in the 'one' match we have lost in this series so far.

But, we are in good touch too, and everything seems to be working perfectly for us, so expect another cracker of a semi final.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

Mother of all games...

Today,it was one of the biggest upsets that cricketing world would have ever wittnesed...Abhinav Saxena lead team beating 16th block team in a nail biting & a well contested Semi-Final.After witnessing the joy on the 21 centurians faces I could relive the moments which I saw on the television screen some years back, when minnows like Kenya had beaten West Indies in 1996 World Cup.Here I would like to mention that the spirit of 21 Centurians was always high as compared to 16th block.It was there self belief which took them to their maiden finals.16 th block were very close yet they were so far from reaching the final.They were few positives that they would be taking from this series like-Rajiv's form, he played a superb knock on a loosing cause...but his fire works would always be remembered(specially his ton against the Delhi team),also Khanjan bowled a good line length during the entire series,was bit unlucky today as he wasnt able to quite capatalise a good bating form.Sachin, today I feel was quite unlucky with bat & bowl,but surely he would return in good form in the upcoming GPL 2.The player who didnt play upto his potentials was Abhishek, the only thing he needs to understand is Dude! stop experimenting & taking other teams for granted.Lets see what happens in tommorows crucial encounter between the Underdogs & GJ6.

Fall of the Radians!

What a semifinal! The script for the 21 Centurians couldn't have been better. After a poor start, i.e. loosing 5 wickets on 22 runs, it was Mudit all the way. He had not played well in the tournament, but i guess he saved his best for the Semi Final. Before that, i must mention that the Centurians had lost 4 wickets on just 4 runs and Abhinav played a gem of an inning to take the team to 22. 16 Radians looked under pressure for the first time and after their top order collapsed, it was upon the last man Rajeev to take the team to the finals. He almost did that, thanks to a dropped catch by Puru off his own bowling. But Praveen took a splendid catch to rap up the innings and win the match for the Centurians by one run. The Radians were aghast and shocked. All credit to the Centurains for a wonderful display of all round cricket.

Now, the UnderDogs meet Gj 6 in the 2nd semi final tomorrow morning, which should also be an exiting game, given the form of both the teams. We are full of confidence right now and would like to execute our plans on the field.

We played a friendly match with the Blockbusters today, and won the same with ease. The boys are rearing to go.

Contributed by - Mr.Vijay Purohit (Captain)

Raring to do well in Semifinal

So far we have played to our potential and with team unit. Winning four out of five matches in the league matches are considered as good if not the best. After finishing the league matches I hope that we have garnered some respect from the opposition team. If the rain god doesn't disrupt today's matches, the series is likely to finish on Tuesday. The main concern for our team is that none of our players have experience of playing in big match. But the best part of our team is that we are playing with brains, we have gelled well, our fielding and bowling has come out very good and surprisingly our batsmen are in good touch. Each and every player has contributed with bat in this series so far. After winning against some tough opponents, there are lesser possibilities that we will not live to our expectations. I would personally like to thank our captain Mr. Vijay Purohit for his leadership, Kanishka Chakrabarti for his unbelievable commitment on the field, Amit Sharma for his quality batting, Vineet Chaudhary for his all round performance and Anand Nair for his explosive batting and tremendous fielding. I personally believe that I have improved a lot in my batting on this ground and my bowling was always considered as an asset.

So to sum up we are fully fit and eager to give our best in the Semi final of Goodwill series. The team is in good form and would like to maintain it to win the series.

Love and lots of panti....


P.S. Thank you for being such a great blog audience. Thank you for all your comments and feedback. We enjoyed reading the good, the bad, and the ugly. Please keep it going, we look forward to it.

Contributed by : Kumar Janmejay (Player)

WHY IS OUR CAPTAIN THE BEST?

It was few months back when the GPL1 had just ended, after a lot of on field & off the field action.I was sitting outside and was bit disappointed with my personal as well as my team performance,and even was regretting to play in GPL 1.Before, I could mourn for our failure as a unit, I saw someone approaching and calling me, as he came nearer I realized that was Vijay( Captain of one of the weakest team in GPL1), I m saying so because they were beaten quite comprehensively by nearly all the teams.But, still there seem no signs of grief & sorrow on his face.I guess he was the only one who seemed quite normal after miserable performance shown by his team.He asked me whether I would like to join his team, I wont lie but initially I was quite reluctant, but there were few things that forced me to change my mind.The first thing was his enthusiasm for the game & his never say die attitude.Secondly, he made me realize that its not the individual who matters but the support which he gets from the team even if he fails which creates the zeal in the player to play well.Hearing his views I realized if we play as a unit we can surely turn the tables, thats what we did in this series.No matter, even if we don't win a single game from now on, we would still take a lot from this tournament.We did what nobody expected us to do?We bit the invincible 16th block..n many others as well..All credit goes to our captain who not only showed trust in us,but also motivated us to play well each time.Three cheers for our Captain...

SHAH RUKH KHAN: AN INSPIRATION FOR“THE UNDERDOGS”

Shah Rukh Khan aka King Khan loves going where no one else has managed to and so do we. SRK is an inspiration for the entire team and like him; we proved today that we are not a team, to be taken lightly.

We are very proud to say that we are a great fan of him and his tremendous energy. We believe that his kind of temperament and positive attitude will ultimately make us feel like a true champion on the field.

It is you, supporters and critics, and your generous wishes and comments that have always driven the passion in us. The thirst for victory is now stronger in us after losing to GJ 6. And our motto is strengthened by the faithful supporters who chant along with us, even in our weakest moments. With four wins and one loss in the league round, we are in a position where we can go a long way in the tournament. And the fact that we are a force to be reckoned with cannot be denied.

Regarding “publicity gimmick”, as alleged by some people, I would like to add one of favorite quote of SRK: - I am SRK, I am publicity. Publicity follows me wherever I go.

P.S. - It is well known to the world that what Shah Rukh Khan touches becomes gold.

Posted by - Kumar Janmejay (Player)

Road to the Semi Finals

First of all i would like to thank all those who helped in making the ground worthy of play today, in spite of the fact that after early showers today play was very unlikely to take place. But with in 40 minutes after the rain stopped, we worked our asses out to make sure that we get play today. Due to this herculean effort, we were able to witness four matches today. I would like to compliment team Delhi on their performance with the bat in their maiden tournament on this ground, though they are out of the run for the semifinals.
Coming back to the UnderDogs, we played the last match of the day and it was once again, a brilliant performance with the bowl, restricting the 21 Centurians on just 22 runs. Small totals can be tricky some time and i played a very rash stroke when we still weren't off the mark. But our Mr. Dependable Amit once again played patiently to make sure that the target was surpassed without any further loss of wickets. The Blockbusters once again failed to make any impact today and were routed out of the tournament by the 16 Radians. The Radians are once again back into their old form and will be tough to beat. It will be interesting to see how their match against the GJ 6 shape, who also have won all their matches till now.

I would like to say that our bowling, fielding and batting has been quite brilliant in the tournament and that is the reason why we top the table right now. But all the four teams making it to the semi final are very balanced and competitive and it is difficult to say at this moment, who will win this Goodwill series. But it definitely has been a joy ride as far as the UnderDogs are concerned and we would certainly like to continue with the same squad in GPL-II. Lets see how things shape up.

Vijay Purohit (C)

Analysing the disaster OR Why The Blockbusters got busted?

At the beginning of the Goodwill Series, 2 teams were touted as the favourites. One of the teams, 16 Radians, is still considered to be the favourites.

However, the other team is already out of the tournament, and so far, have lost 4 matches out of the 4 they have played. The 'other' team, 'The Blockbusters' have a squad which is anything but lackluster. Sagarnil, Suvojit, Deva Prasad, Arjun, Shreyansh and Kalpit are all good players, and they, at least on paper, have the firepower to carry the team to the final stages of a series.

So what went wrong ?
For a start, it could be the initial overconfidence of the team, they played a tough first match, which in all likelihood they were expecting to win, but underestimating GJ 6 was a big mistake, and though a close contest, The Blockbusters lost. That was a huge blow to their ego I guess, plus the fact that they got out for a measly 14 or 16 runs must have shaken up their confidence.

Their second and third matches were on the same day, with little gap between them, against 21 Centurions and us respectively. They were expecting an easy win against 21 Centurions, but they got a huge shock when they realised that the squad consisted of stalwarts like Mudit and Nirav Meena, apart from Abhinav Saxena and Romit. Before they knew what hit them, they had lost the match.


The bubble had burst by then, after seeing our solid performances, it appeared that they really did not believe that they could beat us. Their body language said it all, (refer to picture) moreover, Sagarnil's batting was not in touch, and a lack of another solid batsman in the team really did them in. They lost the match, and in all likelihood, realised to their horror that they were virtually out of the series.
Almost all the players, apart from Deva Prasad, seemed shaken and ruffled, their confidence at an all time low. To further worsen things, their next match was against 16 Radians, who were in solid touch.
They lost, even before the match had started, they lacked the belief that they could beat a team like 16 Radians. After the 16 Radians had batted, the Blockbusters needed more than 50 runs to win, it is at this time I heard Suvojit say that such a score will be tough to beat. This attitude rubbed off on the other teammates as well, they lacked the will to try.

Suvojit, who was going through a lean batting phrase himself was the last person to bat, he tried hitting his way back to form, but did not quite succeed. In spite of a few hits, he did not look good and wasn't hitting the ball the way he would like to. He finally got out, a soft dismissal.

Another factor, that perhaps contributed to the downfall of the team, was the inclusion of Shreyansh Mehta. A good batsman and perhaps the best wicketkeeper available, he perhaps was not really compatible with the other players of the team. There was a constant dispute about who should keep wickets, the other contender being Arjun Bhattacharya, who indeed did the wicketkeeping from time to time. Shreyansh perhaps, did not feel at home with this team, and this factor cannot be ignored.


Tomorrow, the Blockbusters play their last match of the series against Team Delhi, they would definitely like to end the series in a positive note and be ready for GPL 2, but, that is if Team Delhi lets them.




Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

UnderDogs on a roll

Once again, the UnderDogs proved their mettle on a day that saw some rainfalls, and play being interrupted.
But first things first, though the league rounds are not over yet, the semi-finalists are now certain.
The semi-finalists are : The UnderDogs, GJ 6, 21 Centurions and 16 Radians.

The two teams that are out of the competition for sure are Team Delhi, and our arch rivals The Blockbusters. Both having lost all 4 games they have played. Tomorrow they play each other, and we would love to see the match.

Neither of the teams are bad, but while Team Delhi is just getting settled on this ground, the Blockbusters contain players used to the format and the ground, yet they have not played up to expectations. This just goes on to show how important mental strength is, in this game.

I firmly believe that we have been winning matches, because, we believe we can.

Today, we defeated 21 Centurions convincingly, and its a great feeling to have 3 wins on a row. Our only defeat has come against GJ 6, who have played 3 matches, and have won all 3. They are looking very good.

But looking even better is 16 Radians, who have found their lost touch, and are absolutely punishing and pulverizing every opponent they are facing. Their only defeat EVER has come against us, in the first match of the Goodwill Series, their batting lineup is tremendous.

Though it is unlikely that we will face them in the Semi Finals, it is possible that we meet in the finals of the Goodwill Series. It promises to be a hell of a match.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti

The Tought Gets Going!

There is an old saying which goes like this "when the going gets tough, the tough gets going". Well, i am proud that the boys proved that today, in both the matches. Our first match against team Delhi came in as a surprise, as they batted in their first match, like none of the teams have so far. But we stuck to our plan and after an extravagant start gained by them, we were able to restrict them under 50 runs. But anything above 40 is competitive on this pitch. We changed our batting lineup today with myself opening the batting today. I just had one thing in my mind: to stay on the wicket as long as possible. The ploy worked as i was able to take runs on the looseners. All credit to Amit and Anand that after my wicket they took the team home. It was a thorough professional performance. We had to win one match after that to make sure that we are in the final four. The next match was against the Blockbusters. They had plenty of things to say about us prior to the said match but i am sure they will consider a change of opinions now. They tried hard, but 32 was never going to be a winning total against a team, whose batting line up is in a sublime form. Our decision of promoting Janmejay up the order worked and he won the match single handedly for us. It goes on to prove that we are a strong unit and any one of us is capable of changing things around, when the team is in a dicey situation.

Rajeev's inning against team Delhi was by far the best innings i have seen on this ground and words fail me how to describe his magestic 100. He will be a threat for all the teams. Our next match is against the 21 Centurians and it will be a good one for us before the semi finals. Mudit will be their key batsman but we cannot rule out the allround talents of Abhinav, Romit and Neerav Meena.

The best thing about our team is that we are jelling with each other quite superbly and it is showing on the field. I hope that we continue our winning streak.

Vijay Purohit (Captain)

How the Goodwill Series stands....

Before I start, we would like to thank Shailesh Sharma, he has believed in us from the very beginning, and when no one thought we could win a match, he believed we could lift the cup. So Shailesh Jee.....thanks a tonne, and we would definitely try to live up to your expectations.

Moving on, the league stages are almost halfway through...and while we The UnderDogs have reached the Semi-finals already, its still not quite sure which other teams will be there for sure.

16 Radians, the favourites, have played 3 matches and won 2, their remaining matches are against The Blockbusters and GJ 6. Going by the form of the 16 Radians, they are likely to move on to the semis without much trouble.

GJ 6 are looking deadly with 2 wins out of 2 matches, one of their victories coming against us, but they are likely to play without the services of Sahil Shah, which will be a major blow, still, they are likely to reach the semi finals by virtue of their already strong position.

Now, the remaining 3 teams are Team Delhi, 21 Centurions and The Blockbusters.

The Blockbusters have lost all of their 3 matches which may come as a shock to some. Sagarnil not playing as well as he would like to would definitely be THE reason behind these losses. Overconfidence and lack of communication and co-ordination could be the other, but in any case, even if they win their next 2 matches, its unlikely that they would make it to the semis. Especially considering their fact that they will face 16 Radians in one of these 2 matches.

With the Blockbusters almost out of the scene, that leaves Team Delhi and 21 Centurions vying for one position. Team Delhi has lost 2 games out of 2, but those, (if I may say so) have been against quite tough competitors and they impressed in both the games. If they improve with each performance, I think they have it in them to go all the way, their next games are against 21 Centurions, GJ 6 and The Blockbusters. The game against the Blockbusters would be in Team Delhi's favour, the other 2 games would be tough, so they would really have to play out of their skins to make it to the semis.

But don't write off the 21 Centurions either, they have won 1 match out of 2, and they are looking good, our next match is against them and we are not taking them lightly in spite of reaching the semis.

But at the end of the day, my money is on 21 Centurions to be the 4th team, but Cricket, apart from being a gentleman's game, is also an unpredictable one, so nothing is final, until its final.

Looking forward to tomorrows play, when things will become clearer, and yes, keep visiting the site, we'll keep you updated.

Contributed by: Kanishka Chakrabarti (VC)

UnderDogs All the way....

WHAT A DAY! WHAT A DAY!
This afternoon we had plenty of matches, hence plenty of action as well.
Good news for all you UnderDogs fans, we are through to the Semi-finals.

Our first match was against Team Delhi, who made their debut today, unlike the other teams, we did not underestimate them, and gave them due respect. They batted first, and put up a very respectable score of 46 runs. We always knew it would be a competitive score and hence a tight match was on our hands, but captain Vijay Purohit played a innings to prove his iconic stature, his 24 runs were very crucial, and by the time he was dismissed, we were cruising towards a victory. Amit and Anand took it from there and insured we were home and dry.

The next match was between The Blockbusters (our arch rivals) and 21 Centurions, which was a close contest, but 21 Centurions managed to win the match. Mudit Shah took the field instead of Sayan, and showed why he is my personal favourite batsman. I personally love his temperament, he refuses to get ruffled by anything or anyone when he is playing.

Nirav Meena's bowling also stood out, a thinking bowler in my opinion. Abhinav Saxena's batting has not clicked so far, but he is bowling beautifully as well. Pururaj's fielding and commitment showed why he deserved his place in the team.

21 Centurions then played against 16 Radians, second match in a row. They however lost, learning the important lesson, no matter how confident you are, don't play back to back matches.

Abhishek Chaturvedi then played a superb innings ensuring that the 16 Radians won comfortably, almost all his shots resulted in huge sixes.

The next match was touted to be the battle of the series, it was between the UnderDogs and The Blockbusters. We were riding high due to our victory against Team Delhi, and they were still upset about their loss against 21 Centurions. We were looking to continue our winning streak and they were anxious to start one themselves.

We won the toss and decided to field first, Kalpit was missing from the action, but they were confident about the team and decided to go ahead with 5 players. This decision probably came from overconfidence as earlier on in the day, Suvojit had commented that they could beat us with 5 players.

We could sense that they were in a low and in a defensive position, we gambled and went on to play aggressively, the decision paid off, because after Shreyansh Mehta was caught in the first ball of the innings, they withdrew into a shell. Suvojit was the second batsman and he played very defensively, finally getting dismissed with only six runs on the board at the end of around five or six overs. We went for the kill, they did not bat too badly after that, but at the end of their innings their scorecard read only 32.

We needed 33 to win, which is not usually a very tough target.

But then, Vijay, who was in good form, knocked down the stumps by mistake, and we were suddenly a bit nervous. Vineet came in and was playing quite well, before Deva Prasad got him, his usual delivery that stayed low, Vinit was unlucky, though Deva Prasad deserves all the credit. Amit Sharma, the anchor of the team was up next, but we couldn't help but feel a little panicky. He was scoring at a regular pace before he edged one outside, suddenly it seemed that the fortunes had turned, and we were snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

And then, magic happened. We decided to gamble a bit with the batting order, instead of Anand, who usually comes in that position, Kumar Janmejay was sent in.

His promotion worked like a miracle, he played sensibly, slowly, looking out for the loose balls. The target figure approached, but the mood was tense. Everyone knew that our lower order was not much to write home about, and the Blockbusters could sniff victory, they were charged up.
But Kumar Janmejay had other plans, he went on, steadily.
Finally, the winning runs were aptly scored by him, who hit a smashing six to knock the Blockbusters virtually out of the tournament.

The next match was between Team Delhi and 16 Radians. Team Delhi bowled first, and soon were in an enviable position, the score read 22 runs for 5 wickets. Everyone assumed that things could go only downhill for 16 Radians. But, they as a team, saved their best for last, Rajeev was the last batsman, and managed an unbelievably quickfire century..yes..you read that right, century. Though aided by some lackluster bowling on Team Delhi's part, Rajeev was in tremendous form, middling every shot, and rarely hitting anything apart from sixes. The crowd chanted in unison...."icon..icon". That sort of batting can be demoralizing for any opposition.

Normally, we the UnderDogs, like to see other players' batting, and try to find out any chinks in their armour, but sorry to say, we couldn't find any in Rajeev's batting.

After that innings, no one seriously believed that Team Delhi could win the match, but must specially mention Raunak Jain's batting was pretty good, they posted a decent score of 39, which is normally a satisfying total. In this case though, it was nothing as compared to the mammoth total of 16 Radians.

But, we must admit, the batting of Team Delhi is pretty commendable, and Ashwath and Shubham were pretty good with the ball as well. If they improve their bowling a bit, I think they could cause quite a lot of upsets.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (Player)

Team Delhi REVEALED

The 6th team finally made their debut, they are Team Delhi.

The composition is as follows :

1. Anup Koushik
2. Ashwath Sitaraman
3. Dhruv Sheoran
4. Raghavendra Bajaj
5. Raunak Jain
6. Shubham Yogi
7. Suraj Prakash

Severe Backlash for UnderDogs

The last few days have been a bit of topsy turvy for 'The UnderDogs'...to start with we were told that we were fielding a losing outfit, however after seeing our performances in the first two matches, we were appreciated and encouraged even by our opponents in the Goodwill Series.

Also, we started another kind of initiative, this blog, a first of its kind in GNLU for a team.

We were appreciated not only for this concept but also for the contents.

However, this morning, it has come to light that someone has written our teams' name in various blocks of our batch, including several floors.

People have automatically assumed that such an act has obviously been committed by a member of our team, but such an assumption we insist, would not be correct.

Firstly, we have our own way of publicity, that is, this blog, we do not need to go around writing our teams' name anywhere and everywhere.

Secondly, we have no intention to carry out such works of vandalism, if we may say so. So, please, kindly find out who has committed this acts before pointing fingers at us.

We have also been accused of going overboard with the publicity. I would like to ask what publicity have we done? Apart from the creation of a blog, we have done nothing at all to promote ourselves. Had we done so, we would not have been called the 'UnderDogs'.

We are level headed and sane, and we are in no fool's paradise, we do not consider ourselves to be the best team, as a matter of fact, if I recall correctly, I had earlier even stated that '16 Radians' are the favourites of this tournament.

All we are here to do is play good, competitive cricket, and thats what we will do.

This blog is as much about us as it is about the tournament, so it would be wrong to comment that this blog is just a tool for publicity.

Lastly, I would like to state Suvojit's comment on the blog, : -
I dont have much to comment upon in this blog. This team has consistently proved their cheapness. First of all this team is a fake copy of a Hockey team in Malaysia. http://underdogsmalaysia.blogspot.com/ This link takes you to the original underdogs webpage. This team has no regards for sportsmanship. Copying logos is an example of the degrading standards of this team. Nextly, writing on walls in the dark is another such retrograte act. I aptly rename this team as "The Streetdogs".

This comment is seriously in bad taste, we are no professional cricketers, if copying logos is an example of degrading standards of the team, then we have nothing to say.

I am also curious to know how we are a fake copy of a malayasian hockey team....there are other things I am curious about, such as the meaning of the word retrograte.

My message to Suvojit is to not to comment for the sake of commenting. We are here to play a game that is cricket, not to pull down each other.

And I would also request the person writing our teams name, not to indulge in such activities, please.

Thank You.

Contributed by : Kanishka Chakrabarti (Player)

Looking Ahead

Tomorrow's matches will be quite crucial for us, if we have to book a berth in the semis. I believe that now there are six teams playing, so we will have a knock-out stage in the tournament between four teams. I think we stand a good chance of making it to the final four, if we get our act together as we did in the opening match. I hope our batting line up shows consistency in the coming matches, as our bowling has been quite outstanding so far. Vineet, Amit and Anand have been in good touch and the lower order has also contributed quite significantly. My personal form has been a matter of concern for the team and i hope to contribute with the bat in the remaining matches. I would like to praise Anand for his brilliance in the field and with the bat, Amit for his amazing temprament, Kanishka for his unbelievable commitment and Janmejay for his lusty hitting and useful bowling. I sincerely believe that we are a bunch of confident and balanced players and hope that we prove all odds wrong.

Contributed By : Vijay Purohit (Captain)

A Special Thanks

Make no mistake, 'The UnderDogs' is not comprised of the 6 us who are playing the cricket matches, there are many more who contribute to making the team and keeping the spirit of the UnderDogs alive.

At the very beginning I would like to thank Yashovardhan Singh (Yash), he is not taking part in the Goodwill Series but that does not stop him from regularly following our matches and analyzing them. He has given our confidence a boost. Besides he is a regular follower of our blog and keeps giving valuable inputs.

Next of course is Deva Prasad, Sagarnil and Suvojit, they are all from other sides competing in the tournament but that does not prevent them from giving constructive criticisms which we take very seriously.

And last but not the least is Sayon, for being....well, himself.

Thanks a lot guys, we couldn't do without you.

A name at last ?!

Finally, we have found out the name of Abhinav's team, there has been a change to the squad as well. The team is now "21 Centurions".

Instead of Sagnik, Nirav Meena has stepped in, which is good news for their team, as Nirav Meena is a good all rounder with experience in the GPL grounds.

So expect more intense competition in this Goodwill Series.

Another good news is that the rain has finally stopped, but no play was possible this evening, apparently the pitch is a bit damaged as well, but no worries, everyone will work hard tomorrow to sort out the issue, provided no further rainfall occurs.

Keep watching this space for more information related to 'The Underdogs' and the current series.

Rain plays spoilsport

Much to everyone's disappointment, rain ruled out any chances of play this afternoon. What's more worrying is the fact that the rains may continue for days. Lets hope that the weather gods turn kinder.

Barely 5 minutes before, I crossed the ground hoping that water wouldn't have accumulated in the pitch....needless to say, the pitch was hardly visible. Making play impossible today.

Tomorrow, however, promises to be an exciting day, two teams are scheduled to make their debut, one being Abhinav Saxena's team, which is still unnamed. Coincidentally, the same team, which was earlier unable to find the requisite six players, has now at least 8 players to choose from, lets hope the captain chooses wisely.

The other team, as I hear, consists mostly of 21 Block players, I do not have the full details, so it would not be right on my part to comment on the team and its composition.

Regarding Abhinav Saxena's team, most are not considering them as serious competition, mostly due to the fact that their will be 2 to 3 players in the said team who will be making their debut in the GPL grounds, and hardly anything is known about their abilities.

Personally, we would not make the mistake of writing them off, we know that they would be eager to impress and if any of the teams take on them half heartedly may regret later.

As a matter of fact, we, being underdogs ourselves, know the exact feeling. '16 Radians' did not take us seriously enough, and paid the price, and we are not going to repeat the mistakes they committed against us.

Besides, the team consists of experienced players as well, Abhinav Saxena and Romit Aggarwal are surely going to be in the team, and both are excellent all rounders capable enough to demolish any team on their day.


In any case, unless the rain ceases, the Goodwill Series is likely to be stretched, and much of the excitement is undoubtedly going to be diminished. So lets just hope that tomorrow we get a full day of cricket.

Signing off....and yes, keep watching this space.

List of Participating Teams and respective Players

THE BLOCKBUSTERS

Arjun Bhattacharya
Deva Prasad
Kalpit Lodha
Sagarnil Banerjee (I)
Shreyansh Mehta
Suvojit Halder

GJ 6

Hardik Dave
Parth Bhatt (I)
Sahil Shah
Shashwat Patel
Soham Joshi
Trushil Vora

16 RADIANS

Abhishek Chaturvedi (I)
Ajay Shah
Khanjan Jasani (I)
Manish Kumar
Rajeev Tak (I)
Sachin Baid

ABHINAV SAXENA'S XI *

Abhinav Saxena

Praveen Kejriwal
Pururaj Bhar
Romit Aggarwal
Sagnik Sinha
Sayan Chakraborty

* Team's name not decided at the time of posting.

Apart from the above-mentioned teams, there is of course 'The Underdogs', and another team whose full details are yet to be furnished. The said team is supposed to play their maiden match of the series on 12th July, 2008.

And just in case you are wondering why we STILL believe '16 Radians' to be the favourites, check out the fact that they have 3 icon players in their squad.

UnderDogs cause shock upset

"a bunch of losers screaming for attention!!!!!!! more so with Kanishq leading from the front.....nothing personal guys....but stop flattering yourselves!!!!!!!"
- Sagarnil Banerjee ( The Blockbusters)


Personally, we respect Sagarnil both as a person and a player, and we respect his opinion as well, however, we feel that he made his comment a bit too soon. In our first match we defeated '16 Radians' in a convincing fashion, though things were not all rosy as we were beaten by 'GJ6' afterwards.

But after our first 2 matches of the Goodwill series, (which we played back to back) we believe we have gained a lot in terms of confidence and experience.


Going back to Sagarnil's comment, we beg to differ as regards flattering ourselves.

We are 'The Underdogs'...and rightly so, none of us have substantial experience in the GPL Ground, and we were ticked off by most, but as we have always maintained, this 'underachievers' tag, along with the fact that no one really expects us to give serious competition has worked to our advantage.

Though there is still a long way to go, we feel that we have made a good start to the tournament, and hope to continue in a positive manner.

Talking about the other teams, we have to give due credit to 'GJ6'. They played excellent all round cricket, and deserved to win both the matches they played in. Parth, in spite of getting out cheaply against us, remains a threat. Hats off to his skill and temperament.

'16 Radians' were good too, but perhaps, overconfidence did them in, however, they still remain the favourites to win this series. Khanjan, Sachin and Rajeev are in tremendous form, and simply cannot be ignored.

'The Blockbusters' took part in a low scoring match, which they eventually lost against 'GJ6', but the match was very close, their bowling in particular seems lethal.

We are next scheduled to play against 'The Blockbusters'. Most of the members of the team were in the finals of the GPL 1, so we have to remain cautious, led by Sagarnil, who is known for leading from the front, we cant afford to take the match easily, and we won't.

Meanwhile, we'll keep you updated, so keep watching this space and keep your fingers crossed for us.
Thank you.

- The UnderDogs