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

UnderDogs Revealed !

For those of you who have been waiting with bated breath...waiting eagerly for the announcement from our side...you can rest easy now...The UnderDogs have been revealed.

The team is as follows (in alphabetical order)
1. Amit Sharma
2. Anand Nair
3. Kanishka Chakrabarti
4. Kumar Janmejay
5. Vijay Purohit (C) (I)
6. Vineet Chaudhary

* C - Captain
I - Icon Player

Our team is perhaps appropriately named as 'The UnderDogs'...there are various reasons for the same but primarily the reason being the fact that we, as an outfit are considered to be the underdogs pertaining to any cricket tournament.

This tag rests lightly on our shoulders, and we consider this to be an advantage...no doubt our opponents will be forced to eat humble pie after our stint on the field.

Amit Sharma:
An useful all rounder, who is known to give a smashing start to the innings, undoubtedly, one of the Stars of the tournament.

Anand Nair:
An aggressive all rounder, he has improved by leaps and bounds since the last GPL, and makes an explosive addition to the team.

Kanishka Chakrabarti:
A potent bowler known for his on and off field antics who can turn the ball quite a bit, on his day he could be devastating for the oppositions.

Kumar Janmejay:
He is known as the silent killer, a thinking player with a good understanding of the game who has a straight drive to die for.

Vijay Purohit:
The icon player of the team, an illustrious all rounder. Widely believed to be one of the most promising players GNLU has ever produced.

Vineet Chaudhary:
A classy batsman, who can do a bit with the ball as well, a veteran of many cricket matches, he has quite a few tricks up his sleeve for the tournament.

Watch this space for more wallpapers, updates and downloads.