POOL X - Rankings By Rajesh Velnati - week-6

Rank	Team	Why
1	MegaBytes	This is 9th straight win for Megs. Matta’s repeated performance collapsed Jugs batting. Next up is GLCC. This will be the game of the DCL 2009. Unless some miracle happens, I am sure this will be rehearsal for finals for both the teams. So I am sure both the teams will be paying with the full strength. 50-50 chances
2	GLCC	GLCC took their revenge by crushing BT for 30 runs. I am sure this will be shocker for last year champs. Ashraf is back with 5 wkts spell and supported by Vijay Namburi. With Ashraf back in action, I am sure GLCC is ready for a big fight next week
3	Gladiators	Even though Glads lost to bridges, I believe, Glads is a balanced team if they play with their full strength. Viju will be definitely looking to compete for the championship this year and I am sure he might have done his home work by now to move beyond playoffs. Next up is STARS. By looking at the history of STARS, Glads should be winning the next game. But they will be facing STARS full strength along with a surprise bowler. I give 60-40.
4	Strikers	Had a bye last week. On given day Strikers is a dangerous team but they are not consistent. They just need to focus on the game. Next Up is Jugs. They will decide whether to play with STARS or POOL Y team. I give 70-30 chance to Strikers
5	Bridges	Bridges team beat Glads in Lansing. By now all the teams knows Bridges weakness and should know how to capitalize. I am sure Viju might have concentrated on Phani & Aditya. But another player stepped up other than Phani & Aditya in the batting and this time it’s Naveen who made a difference for Bridges. Next up is RBCC. It should be a comfortable win for Bridges. I will give 70-30.
6	Brownstown	Loosing to GLCC so badly might have shocked BT. I know that BT is struggling for the players this year. I don’t believe they have showed their strength yet to retain their championship. It will be tough for BT to move beyond Playoff if they don’t correct their mistakes
7	Juggernauts	Jugs lost to Megs so badly. Matta’s magic worked well. Looks like Bala & Joy is not showing their strength yet. Next up is Strikers. This game will decide whether Jugs will play with STARS or Pool Y team. I am sure they want to play with STARS since all the Pool Y teams are looking stronger now but they have lost to STARS in round 1. I give 30-70
8	Stars	STARS lost to RBCC. It was a 5th straight loss in pool X. Even though STARS are in loosing streak, I didn’t get many chances to play with my full team this year. We won against Falcons, Jugs in round 1 and lost to GLCC. These are the only 3 games we played with full team. Against GLCC, It was a close game and we almost scared GLCC. The costliest mistake we have done on that day was dropping at least 7 catches. We are looking beyond playoffs this year and I am sure our bowling strength will make a difference. Next up is Glads. It will be a practice game for both the teams as it will not make much difference on the outcome of this game. I am sure STARS needs a morale boost and Glads needs good practice. I agree with Samish that DCL games are favored to Bowlers. It’s the bowling strength that wins the games in DCL. I also agree with him on his other comment that the team should know how to win even without their full strength
9	RBCC	RBCC won against STARS. STARS were 13/6 at one point of time but RBCC was unable to capitalize the situation. STARS made 71/8. Also RBCC chased the target in 18.3 overs by loosing 6 wkts. I know both the teams didn’t play with their full team. I am not fully convinced with RBCC that they will move beyond playoff’s this year. I wanted them to move but I think they have to do lot of home work.

POOL Y - Ranking By Ravish -week-4

Cougars, Greens and Lions not being active this week, they dropped down one rank. Falcons back to No.1. Again, not much is happening in Pool Y. Teams backing out, giving walk over, not posting the results, not entering scorecards makes Pool Y not a place to be in. There’s an “I m bored with it all” kinda attitude from some teams.

Rank	Team	Why
1	Falcons	As anticipated, Falcons were in fact charged up after being idle last week. Though it was a fairly easy game for them, 179 is phenomenal. Batting first they did as much damage as possible. Aravind started the fireworks and the rest followed suit. Falcons have an all rounder skipper Srikanth who appears to be in his peak this season. Consistently contributing every match. They also have another all rounder in the making – Rajeev. Apart from being an exceptional bowler, he could also bat considerably. I think this is the highest DCL score from Falcons, or is it? Bowling, they didn’t have to do much trying to defend the monumental score and Rajeev led the attack along with Munish and Praba Siva taking 3 a piece. Going at this rate Falcons will soon lead Pool Y and march to the play offs brimming with confidence. Move up a rank after beating Spiders convincingly.Not playing this week since Beavers are out of the tournament. So they get 4 points plus bonus by default.
2	Cougars	Idle last week. This week they get to play the unpredictable PTS. Cougars will try and win this one. Can’t take PTS lightly after they beat teams like VP, Indus and Tigers.
3	Indus	Move up the table after beating Dark horses convincingly. Raj batted through with an unbeaten 25, supported by his fellow all-rounder Anand. Other batsmen Nizar, Sagar and Akshat chipped in with a valuable 18, 13 and 14. A good batting line up, Indus is a team capable of posting such big scores against some good teams too. Bowling, Azeem as usual did the damage along with Jestine, Somajit and Akshat. Milind is not seen much this season. I guess he will be back for the play offs. Raj’s addition to Indus this season will be vital. Assuming they will see off Spiders with ease, their game against Lions and Cougars will be crucial for their eligibility, a situation they would never have envisaged of.No game this weekend.
4	Lions	Idle last week, Idle this week.
5	Greens	Didn’t get to play last week. Greens will face A2C2 this week. Sriram will have to move his pieces with caution, since this game will take them closer to play offs. They will have to play their full team. Wonder if Sumit is going to be back. I got a chance to see his game last season. A classy game with a subtle touch of audacity. Very effortlessly clears the ground. Hoping to see all these players in the play offs to make the league more and more interesting. Sathish and Sriram will be crucial as ever in bowling. Batting, they have a lot of options to exercise. Result likely to be in favor of Greens - 70:30.
6	Vision Phoenix	VPs are just losing it. Don’t know what suddenly happened to them. Did they lose any key players or is it just not working out? Don’t know what happened in their last game, but looks like their bowling faltered yet again and they got the same treatment they got from Indus and Cougars recently. Batting didn’t look that great either. VPs were in a very position beginning of the second round. But they are losing it with every game and if they don’t get their act together its bye bye DCL 2009 for them. Playing Tigers this week. If there’s a game it will be a tough call, since both these teams are going back and forth. I am more inclined towards Tigers considering their better bowling than Tigers. 60:40 against VP
7	A2C2	Idle last week, Alex and his boys will be on their toes against the Greens. They need to give more than their usual effort to keep the Greens at bay. What will be Alex’s strategy? Like I said he should come up and play a long innings and leave Bobby and Saurab to anchor the middle order. Just a suggestion. Bowling wise, Kondal will be crucial along with Himanshu and Samir Chitre. They need to do their bowling changes efficiently. Against Greens, considering the experience and talent that Greens has it will be against A2C2. 70:30 against A2C2.
8	Tigers	Gave a walk over to Lions last week since they didn’t have a playing 11. Hope they make it this week against VP. Tigers can very easily win this game even if they go with 7-8 players. So Vishal, go for it. 60:40 to Tigers.
9	PTS	Where is the score card ?
10	Spiders	Spiders were no match for the mighty Falcons. They lost the game in the first half itself conceding 179 runs. From what I remember their bowling wasn’t that bad. Spider’s batting superstar Karthik managed just 12 runs. He seems to hit atleast one six every match though. Agnelo was even better this time with 2 six. Spiders are playing DH this week. A good chance for them to see a victory.Against DH - 80:20 for Spiders.
11	Dark Horses	Where is the score card ?

POOL X - Ranking By Samish Kilam - week-4

Rank	Team	Why
1	MegaBytes	Megabytes hold on to their #1 ranking with another dominating win. It was Matta's and Jeet's turn to step up this time. Matta scored 41 runs and took two wickets besides effecting a runout. Jeet scored 20. Megabytes are toying with their oppositions - winning this game comprehensively even after 3 of their most established bowlers took the back seat. No bowler went over 3 runs an over and almost all bowlers were among wickets. They play Gladiators this week. Both teams have a history and it is going to be a tough game. Gladiators have shown that they are capable of beating some good teams and have shown poise in chasing big totals - which is not an easy thing to do in DCL. It will be an interesting game but I pick Megabytes 60 to 40
2	GLCC	This is one of the changes in the rankings this week. GLCC claimed the 2nd spot from Brownstown mainly due to BTs loss to Bridges. GLCC got the job done by beating Stars even though it wasn't as convincing as they would've liked. Abhishek was the star for GLCC scoring a chanceless 53 n.o. I can categorically say that it was one of the best innings played in DCL history and I'm sure that anyone who saw it won't disagree with me. Krishna and Vijay then took care of the bowling department with good support from the rest of the bowlers. Have a bye this week.
3	Brownstown	The champions maybe down but they surely are not out. They lost a close game to Bridges - another exciting team. Kamran, Faraz and Mr. Dependable Javed were among runs. Kamran top scoring with a solid 25. They put up a defendable total, but their bowling failed them. Most bowlers gave 4 and above runs per over which is quite high by DCL standards. They play Juggernauts next. Both teams are equally strong on paper. This might be the closest game in Pool X this week. It is hard to predict a winner here. BT 51:49 ;)
4	Juggernauts	Continue to be our #4 team. Had a bye last week. They play BT this week and I expect it to be a cracker of a game.
5	Gladiators	Have claimed the 5th spot from Strikers by beating them convincingly. Gladiators have once again proved that they are one of the top teams when it comes to chasing big scores - the quality that is very rare in DCL - and guess what, they did it without their star opener Raj Gumbar. Ganesh (38 n.o.) and Shankar (35) led the way for Glads, achieving the target with over 6 overs to spare. There is no doubt that they are one of the most exciting teams in DCL this year and Viju and co. will be looking to continue their winning ways against other “superstar” teams. I'm quite sure that the game with Megs will be fiercely fought. If Glads pull this one off, which I'm sure they're capable of doing, it'll be hard to keep them out of the top 3 ranked teams this year.
6	Bridges	Bridges beat the champions in a close game and they too did it by chasing a big score. Aditya, Phani, Kishan and Naveen led the chase and achieved the total with 1 over to spare. Deepesh, Phani and Milin bowled well to restrict the strong BT batting. With this win, Bridges have shown that they belong in Pool X. The next step for them will be to show some consistency. Aditya and Phani are two exciting players and Kishan has done a great job with this team. I hope they continue their winning ways and make this league more exciting and competitive. They play Strikers this week in another sure to be exciting Pool X game. I tell you this is the most interesting week in Pool X so far. It will be interesting to see how Aditya and Phani will handle Parthiv and co. Based on their current form, I pick Bridges in a close fought game. A lot will depend on how Phani is used in this game - as a bowler. 55-45 Bridges.
7	Strikers	This is their second loss in a row. They were missing Parthiv, but good teams know how to win without their best players. Tushar and Amitabh gave a few runs too many and Abhishek and Jegan were the only players in double figures. Strikers' strength is their bowling and they should've been able to stop Glads with all the fire power they've. They play bridges in the next game and have to find a way to stop the slide.
8	Stars	Stars have definitely impressed me this week. They played their best bowling side against GLCC and did a great job. The old horse Ravi was at his best and was supported well by Yogesh and Prasanna. Yogesh hardly bowled a bad ball and took an exceptional catch during the game. The fact that they were able to score 88 runs even after 4 of their batsmen were out without scoring says a lot about their batting. Nimesh gave GLCC a scare and was excellent towards the end of the game putting together close to 30 runs with last two batsmen. Their fight has put them at #8, ahead of RBCC but will need to win at least a game to stay there. They've a BYE week.
9	RBCC	Shastry was brilliant with the ball and was well supported by Vikas and Venkat, but for the most part RBCC were disappointing. They were bundled out for 55 even when Gautham, Binod and Jeet didn't bowl a ball. To make it worse they were able to run 3 batsmen out, one of which was their best batsman Vikas. It is not really a matter of concerns in terms of playoffs since all teams from Pool X make it to playoffs, but if they want to go deep in playoffs, they've to use the bye week to rethink their strategy and start making necessary adjustments. They too have a BYE this week.