We lost against a better side

Playing against MCC is always special for me. They have been the most consistent sides in the league for many years and they are a very professional unit. I feel my competitiveness goes a notch or two higher when i play against them. This week i had a definite plan in my mind. I wanted to bat first and score somewhere around 235 -250 and put them under pressure while chasing. We lost 2 quick wickets but the defining partnership of the innings between Hemani and myself laid the foundation for a massive assault in the last ten overs. I was impressed with Hemani's innings, In my eyes that is exactly how a one down batsman should play. I was disappointed to see us losing our last six to seven wickets for 60 or 70 odd runs. We threw our wickets for the most part with some poor shot selection including myself. In the end we could only reach 206 with one over to spare.
        I had seen last week what my bowlers are capable of and i had no doubt that if we repeat our last week's performance we will emerge victorious. My goal was to get some key wickets in the first 15 overs. We managed to get 2 wickets at the break. After the break i introduced spin attack from both sides and my strategy worked when we got 3 more wickets. They needed 70 + runs with 5 wickets in hand. At that point i felt like the only thing stood between our win was Abid. I have toured with Abid on many tournaments and i have seen him play on many occasions. The guy is simply remarkable. He is a complete cricketer in my eyes. He plays with so much ease against every attack that sometimes it seems unreal. His running between the wickets is extraordinary.
        Things were getting a little dodgy in the middle with continuous drizzle which was making bowlers life a living hell. The run-up, the grip, the heaviness of the ball, i mean it was extremely difficult to bowl. We kept our attack with frequent bowling changes but things did not click and MCC took the game away with Abid returning unbeaten.
        To me leadership is 75% leading and rallying your troops and 25% improving and introducing winning ideas. We were not as good in our fielding as we were in last weeks' game. I think in the end our players gave whatever they had but we lost to a better team that day. I have already marked Apr 23 on my calendar in bold for our rematch against MCC. 

See you next week until then signing off from Southwest

Jam