POOL X - Ranking By Samish Kilam - week-3

Well, picking a #1 wasn't easy this week. On one hand we've Megabytes, who with all their talent are blowing the opposition away and on the other hand we've the current champions, Brownstown, who are doing the same even with some of their top players missing. After a lot of thought, We've decided to declare both teams the joint #1's this week.

On a side note, with respect to a comment from Raghu - I wasn't joking. I've been saying it for years - every chance I get ;)

Rank	Team	Why
1	MegaBytes	Megs scored 100 runs in 20 overs. Gautham is back among runs - by his standards. He scored a cool 38 with one 6 and two 4s. Only 14 of his 38 runs came in boundaries and 24 came in ones and twos - which, if you ask me, is a sign of a very good batsman especially in DCL. Here's more - if you don't think Gautham, Jeet, Matta, Aditya and Binod (add Raghu, Ranga, Hari etc etc) are enough to give you nightmares, they've added a new player to their roster - Mr. Praveen Kumar. A solid middle order batsman and a very capable bowler. It may be wise for the opposition captains to carry some aspirin with them when playing Megs, just in case ;) Megs bowling was just what you expect - excellent. Jeet, Hari, Matta and Gautham were among wickets and no bowler gave more than 3 runs an over. Next up RBCC. RBCC better brace themselves. This is going to be a tough game for them. 80:20 Megabytes.
2	Brownstown	Have muscled their way back to top. With Yasir missing from the playing 11, others had to step up to fill the void, and boy did they do a good job. Rehan scored an awesome 46 and was supported well by Kamran with an excellent 38 (only two 4s) to post a big score of 143 in 25 overs. They were supported well by their bowlers to bundle RBCC for 81, hence making a mockery of my pregame prediction of a close game. Bukhari had 2 wickets for 13 runs and Javed finished with 2 for 12. All of a sudden this BT team looks better than last years - what can be more scary than the Champions getting better?Next up Bridges. A 80% BT team should win this easily. They need to watch out for Phani though. 80:20 BT.
3	GLCC	Beat Strikers by 13 runs and finally have the monkey off their backs. No team in DCL can now claim to have played GLCC and NEVER lost to them, oh wait, Gladiators can. Damn you Viju!! (I can see Manjit laughing his a$$ off). Mind you though, it wasn't easy. Strikers fought till the end before going down to some good GLCC bowling and fielding. Samish scored a quick 28 and was supported well by Avinish and Manpreet to post a decent score of 83 runs in 18 overs. Vijay, Manpreet and Samish had 3 wickets each to finish Strikers off with 70 on board. The highlight of the game was GLCCs fielding - Avinish, Manpreet,Vijay and Anil all had some great catches. Next up Stars. Stars have usually batted well against GLCC, but in DCL, it is the bowling that wins you the games. Should be an easy game for GLCC. 70:30 GLCC
4	Juggernauts	Beat Gladiators in a close game and hence settled the debate for the #4 position as both Glads and Strikers lost their games. Ajay, Ramesh and Anand took care of the batting and our own Saxena along with Ramesh and Nilesh handled the bowling department. Anand was as usualy miser with his bowling. Nothing spectacular, but that is how Juggernauts are. The whole team contributes and more often than not, they end up on the winning side. They've a bye week and play BT a week after that.
5	Strikers	Lost to GLCC but gave them enough fight to occupy the #5 spot. Shailesh was excellent with the ball claiming 5 wickets for just 10 runs. He took the fight to GLCC when they looked set for a big score. He was well supported by Parthiv, Kapil and Ashok. Strikers batted well enough to keep the required run rate in check but kept losing wickets at regular intervals. They were undone by some great catching by GLCC - one of which was that of Tushar's who had scored a compact 18 runs until then. Tushar is by all means one of the best batsmen in DCL and his record this year is for everyone to see. Strikers surely missed Amitabh who could've helped them close the game in their favor.Next up Gladiators: Should be a close game if Gladiators can field their best team. Strikers are known to lose focus every now and then. I'll have to lean towards Strikers or I wouldn't keep them ahead of Glads in the ranking - but only by a bit. 55-45 Strikers.
6	Gladiators	I may be wrong but I was told that Gladiators were missing some of their top players going into the game. Even then they were able to give Juggernauts a great fight. Rakesh and Raj had a good all-round game and Sudharson and Srinivas were excellent with the ball. They were one good knock away from the win. I was told that the highlight of the game was some great catching by both teams. In his email, Viju mentioned that his Gladiators enjoyed playing with Juggs. Just so you know Viju, we all do ;)
7	Bridges	Had a bye and take on the Champions this week. Bowling will be the key. They'll need to use Phani wisely to have any chance in the game.
8	RBCC	Have disappointed me again. As mentioned before, they've some of the most talented players in the team, but some how they are not as consistent as the should be. I'm not sure if they were able to place their full team and I won't be able to talk much about their batting (incomplete score sheet) but their bowling was mediocre at best. They allowed BT to score close to 150 runs which doesn't often happen in Pool X. However, Praveen and Naveen were able to get some wickets, not sure at what cost though. They are facing Megabytes this week and I don't see it getting any better for them. They've to beat one of the top teams to be considered an elite team.
9	Stars	Stars did well considering their ranking. They were able to score over 60 runs against one of the best bowling attacks in the league. However, as mentioned earlier, their weakness is their bowling. They gave away 100 runs in 20 overs. Just like RBCC, they'll have to beat one of the top teams before anyone can consider them a threat. They are capable of surprises though and let's hope they don't surprise the next team they play (GLCC) ;)