3Peat - The Fall Open Gold Cup Finals !!!

The clock moved forward for Day Light Savings, as everyone lost an hour of sleep, not to mention that most of us might already be turning and churning right and left all night long before the big event. The game day sun rose slowly as it marked the beginning of a fine summer, and with that brought out the love, passion, aggressiveness, hunger to win and most importantly a desire to bring back home the Gold one more time for the Immortals. For those who are not aware – this was the day when two teams, The Immortals and TCC clashed against each other in what was to be a nail biting Cricbay Fall Open Gold Cup Finals, and what a humdinger cricket game it was as the winner was decided in the very last over, as the match went all the way down to the wire.

Having played 4 seasons now, the Immortals were a much more solidified camp, an outfit which had risen from the ashes but had made its way to its own self earned glory, beating some of the best teams in the league, losing some crucial games, and even having experienced a tie in the Gold Cup Finals just one season back against the Eagles, but later on going ahead and winning it in the Super Over. But having said that, the opportunity at hand, the tough battle and a much deserved title on the line, for this bunch of fanatic cricket lovers, individuals with tremendous talent and temperament, yet playing for the team with utmost dedication and sincerity, was the second ultimate prize (next best to the Platinum Cup) the Cricbay League could offer – The Gold Cup !

With 2 silverware (Gold Cups) already in the kitty from the past 3 seasons, the Immortals were all raring to go to make it a 3-peat and bring back the momentum heading into the Regular Season kicking off in 2 weeks time. But their opposition, a team who had come on top this season with some tremendous game plays, some well disciplined bowling attack and some batting stalwarts – TCC, had even more heart into the game playing for the Gold and delivering the Immortals a taste of what they had to offer.

There were no clear favorites except for the fact that the Immortals out on out, were kind of the dominant team and more prone to winning yet another Gold, but their opposition were not to be taken lightly, having shown their other counterparts what they had to offer in their last two games leading into the Finals. The ground – a perfect 360 with just a distracting batting cage behind the keeper’s back, the pitch famously known for high scoring games, the teams raring to go, and up went the coin, and the Immortals winning it, chose to bat first.

The Immortals were to a shaky start as their first wicket fell quite cheaply with the score reading 10, but the first wicket partnership started to bring the momentum back on track. Opener Viral and keeper-batsman Ronak steered the ship towards the break of 10 overs steadily but a bad miscommunication between them saw Viral getting run out right before the break. With two wickets down and just 35 on the board at the break, the Immortals had the perfect platform to launch themselves into attacking the opposition and taking their team to a respectable total. One more wicket fell quickly bringing the Immortals captain Darshil to the crease. He and Ronak made sure that the flow of runs kept on coming with some quick singles, fast paced doubles and two hits to the fence by Ronak, one of which was actually caught by a fielder in the deep but to the batsman’s reprieve he accidentally touched his team-mate outside the boundary rope, thus turning a great catch into a well deserved six. The sideline for the Immortals were jumping in delight as the runs kept on coming. Two quick wickets well without moving the scores and for the final 6-8 odd deliveries it was left to the Captain and the Vice Captain Aditya to deliver their final blows to which Aditya did it in style with a big six (the first of his Cricbay career) at the very last ball of the Immortals innings.
The Immortals total : 83 for 5 in 20 overs. (Highlights: Viral 14, Ronak 27, Darshil 14*, Aditya 9*)

The job half done, but the dents fully made on TCC’s morale, the Immortals went into defending their total and inching their way towards the Gold. Having known TCC’s reputation of scoring huge runs for the past two games, the Immortals were up on all toes as Bhupesh and Nirmam started the attack, but were quickly thrown on the back foot with some frustrating running between the wickets by TCC’s batsmen and with plenty of runs coming in the first 5 over slot with no wickets down, it was left to Aditya to bring back the momentum in the Immortals favor. The first ball that he bowled and the batsman being beaten for sheer pace saw his stumps uprooted and the bails flying in the air. A much needed crucial strike and Karan(Keko) alongside Jaishal made sure the scores were almost leveled at the break with a wicket each, TCC getting 35 for loss of 3 wickets at the break.

Madhu the middle order batsman was looking threatening as he single handedly seemed to be taking the game slowly away from the Immortals, but he was also running out of partners at regular intervals. A fine direct hit by Jainip and a tipped off catch from Karan(Keko) to Bhupesh off Darshil’s bowling wiped off half of TCC’s side, but the runs were still coming at a decent pace, as almost all the Immortals bowlers were taking fine hits along with some sloppy fielding giving away couple of free runs. A fine catch and a vigilant run out by Viral pushed TCC even further down the barrel, with leaving the last 4 wickets needing 9 runs off the last two overs.

Some tense moments, some words exchanged and some misfields later, it was all down to these last two overs. Karan(Keko) went in first, delivering one of the best over of his life giving away only 3 runs and on the way getting the prized scalp of Madhu who scored a fighting 36 taking his team on the brink of the victory only to falter at the end, getting caught in the deep by a fine catch held by Jaishal. Madhu's valiant effort was even applauded by the Immortals players as he left dejectedly towards the dugout. But that did not stop Karan from delivering yet another blow as Viral held on to a fine catch in the very same over.

The scoreboard now read, 6 runs needed off 6 balls for TCC, 2 wickets is all that Immortals needed for kissing that Gold. It all came down to Aditya to bowl the crucial last over. Once again he successfully uprooted the furniture giving away only 2 runs and with 3 balls to go TCC needed only 4 runs to win. One wicket was all that the Immortals needed to seal the fate. Aditya came in with all his fire sending down a quick fast delivery, the batsman lunges into driving it towards the cover, only to find Jainip’s hands, and off the Immortals went as everyone made a run for the stumps, grabbing them, hurling them in mid-air, sparking off celebrations, emotions flying over their heads, joy, ecstasy, as they hurdled up to do a victory jump dance, shoulder to shoulder, finally winning this topsy turvy battle.
TCC total : 80 for 10 in 19.4 overs. (Highlights: Aditya 3/11, Karan(Keko) 3/15)

Score Card

Pictures

The Immortals had did it again, winning 3 Gold Cups in 4 seasons, 2 of which came in back to back seasons. One thing that might have stood out in all these 3 Gold Cup victories, was the fighting spirit from the Immortals camp, the players not willing to bow down to a few hits or a few misfields, the individuals stepping up to the occassion and bringing their A-game up their sleeve on the field, and most importantly the positive attitude that oozes out of these lads wearing the Immortals tee, when it comes to playing a fine game of cricket - anytime, anyplace, anyhow !

The Immortals were undoubtedly the supreme team when it came to playing the Gold Cup it seems, and their dominance along with the way they carry themselves on and off the field are remarkably worth praising. The Immortals players profile speaks for itself, as it clearly indicates that there is not a single match winner that would stand out - but it's all a team effort and a team game when it comes to winning and winning ! Of-course individual performances are what the team entirely depends upon but unlike other teams where the entire team revolves around a single super star, the Immortals - mind you, have 15 super stars uniquely placed, to whack you out of the park, bowl you out of your guard or simply break you down with their approach in the field !

So when you play the Immortals, be there, but be aware ! Who knows you might just be going home regretting having played the confident yet modest Immortals !

Go Immortals ! Let's step up one notch and bring home the first Platinum !

Cheers
Samy

History in the making - The story behind The Immortals !!!

As said, it takes two to tango, but then it took 11 of us and some more to dance to the tune of a sport, called Cricket, a sport, which is so crazily followed, talked about and played all round the year in the country where we all hailed from. After all Cricket, runs in our blood, we breathe, dream and live for cricket, especially now that we get only 5 hours worth of it, on the weekends as compared to those endless summer cricket sessions during school and college days back in India ...

Well, I am not here to rant about how great the game of Cricket stands, as there are no recipies that I can describe to explain the taste of this awesome game, but I am here to jumpstart a Blog, an entity which definitely for years to come would stand out to symbolize the greatness of certain players ... Speaking about players, this Blog is all about Cricket and only Cricket ... This post is just to traverse down the memory lane, almost over a year back in 2008, when out of the blue, this team called The Immortals was formed ... Mind you, a year back, no one even cared what the name was, but this time of the year, 2 seasons old, that same name has now become a legend in the making ... Most of us out here, cannot think about Cricket without the Immortals :)

It so happened, in Feb-Mar 2008, our Ex-Captain, Savan Patel, brought the ONLY ingenious idea till date (He cannot be blamed for being a Bluish Michigan, after all Ideas are hard to come by) ... It so happened that he had played this league called Cricbay before, and he and I were discussing about registering a team and getting most of our friends here in the Bay Area to get involved in playing Cricket over the weekend ... After all it had been a long long wait to get something going in terms of sports (at-least for a majority of us), and we were almost going paranoid about putting our feet in the wet sand of old age and sinking in quite rapidly ... So that is how, The Immortals were born, and we registered, formed a team, got the necessary gear, which ridiculously consisted of only 2 bats and a set of stumps ... After all we just wanted to go out and have some fun, who thought a year back, that The Immortals are going to mean serious business down the line, and I personally never even thought that I would be creating this Blog for The Immortals ...

Well as they all say, what starts well, always ends well, even though ironically in the situation here, it never looked as if it was going to end so soon ... The Immortals started practicing, trying to shed off the rust which was for so long being accumulated on the bones for some, and for some it was just a layer of rustness which would have to be lipo-sucked to get rid of those tyres which till date have not yet deserted their faithful daddy (if you know who I mean) ... But nevertheless, the excitement of just playing Cricket was too much in the camp, and even though we lost a couple of early practice games, we were not disheartened ... It was the first time, that all of us were playing a hard-tennis ball game, on a baseball field, with some orthodox fielding restrictions ... Experience was yet to come and the team was still a baby but growing at a fast rate ...

The Regular Season 2008 started, and the team was doing quite decent enough, and everyone was having fun ... Winning was not the top most priority, but surely was needed to get the team going, and then came a hard loss, a loss which was never meant to be at the end of the first round, and it pinched everyone so hard, that for the first time, the bench was so hot and steaming about the loss, that everyone thought they had found a common goal - Winning for The Immortals ...

The second round was a tough ordain, and with all sorts of calculations in place, we were eyeing the ultimate prize of the tournament - The Platinum Cup ... End of the second round, it came down to one last game, a do-or-die situation to enter the Platinums and capture the last berth and advance to the playoffs - But as the Cricketing Gods up above thought, these bunch of chums still need to think a lot, get some bad experiences to mature as a team, after all why should they be given a rosy script ... So be it, we lost that last game too again at the end of the round, and we found ourselves playing the Gold Cup - but, to cheer us up, we were ranked # 1 in the Gold Cup.

Playoffs, the team found their act together, match after match, not one single player, but as a team we made progress and it paid off... We found ourselves playing the Gold Cup finals ... But amongst all this progress of the team, also came progress in other departments ... We got ourselves regular dose of Water, Gatorade, we also got couple of decent bats, bails and what not ... But we never got ourselves a decent enough Kit to carry these around ... (And till date while I am typing this post, we still do not have that much talked about Cricket Kit/Bag) ...

Well anyways, shedding the criticism for the existing Immortals management (after all we are going to get our own team t-shirts this season, god knows when, but we are still hoping for it), let us get back to where we were in the Gold Cup Finals - to keep it simple - WE WON THE GOLD CUP !!! The first season, that we played in Cricbay, and we were the GOLD CUP CHAMPIONS ... What would be a better morale boost to get the team going on and hold on to its players, although at any point of time it never seemed that anyone is thinking of quitting and going back to their boring lives ... We were ready for the next season (although it turned out to be a night mare with an early exit, and I am not going to post anything for that) ...

So overall it has been a long journey, and we are still no where near our destination ... The team is still hungry to win, the fire just keeps on burning within, and the desire to perform better each weekend keeps The Immortals train going .... Looking back, it has been a great pleasure and fun to be a part of this fanatic cricket lovers, non-sensical buddies, good cricketing minds, lazy arses, awesome performers (any day) and over all it has been great to be a part of The Immortals ... I hope this blog, keeps on running, and the team members at-least be pro-active and be a part of this too just like they are a part of everything else on the Team ... After all at the end it is the "TEAM" who wins and shines out in the rough :) ...

3 Cheers for The Immortals ... May we keep on winning !!! And I look forward to comments and memories of the past year from all my team members ... This could be a lot of fun to re-collect certain incidents which we always talk about ...

Samy ...