Season 53 Senior Tours

[NPD-PowerBug]

It's nearly time for the tour weeks to begin!

[NPD-PowerBug]

First up, an OD Div 1 tour. I shall remind everyone that it is a goal for us to go out there and win one of these during the next two seasons. This is our first opportunity at doing so.

We put in a small bid however it wasn't enough as India won the hosting rights and the tour will be played on Dry, Crumbling and Slow pitches...

Matches (All 04:30 start time)
Monday vs Canada (Dry)
Tuesday vs India (Crumbling)
Wednesday vs Australia (Slow)
Thursday vs Sri Lanka (Crumbling)
Friday vs New Zealand (Dry)

Squad
Hassan Iqbal [Crni Zmajevi Cricket Club]
Ubaid Kedar [Ashburn CC]
Rais Ameen [Birds 2nd XI]
Abu Reda [blackcat]
Al Capone [Murder Inc.]
Kaseem Sharif [Hard Yakka]
Kaden Musa [Rednut United]
Gadil Mukhtar [Birds 2nd XI]
Kamil Salah [Si's caught at silly point]
Akil Dhul [Birds 2nd XI]
Khayri Nasri [Birds 2nd XI]
Ubaid Mahmood [Space Wolves]
Mazin Ishaq [waityesno_sorrymate]
Yusuf Mohammad [Birds 2nd XI]
Ibrahim Nu'man [Birds 2nd XI]
Ziyad Khoury [Achmid's Soul]
Hud Sam [High Voltage]
Jabril Kamal [AllStars!]

Congrats to every manager (especially Birdmandipper!) who has got a player as part of this squad

[MrMoose]

Bird is the word

[NPD-PowerBug]

Our tour got underway today, but someone should've told the players! We dropped what an (unconfirmed) record SEVEN catches before drinks. And at that point we were completely out of the game because that opening partnership almost batted the entire 50. It's very very annoying to see such a statistic because we have the best fielding ratings in the division, I don't think we will drop 7 catches in total in the next 4 games.

In the chase we gave it a good go and avoided a big NRR hit, but ultimately we fell 57 runs short. Captain Capone with 111 the highlight.

Canada were the highest rating side and we were the lowest rating side (only an 11k gap though), and I feel like we were right in this game apart from the drop catches. We created 7 chances before drinks against them, in the 5 friendlies we played on a Dry this season (I know, we prepared so much for this and we still lost) we created 4, 3, 5, 5, 4 chances before drinks. Seven is just an absurd amount to let go, and in 25 overs! The bot I beat two weeks ago only dropped 4 for the innings!

Tomorrow we play India on a Cloudy/Crumbling, these matches become more important now that we have started 0-1. The ride has begun. Div 1 is tough but we hold our heads high and we go on to the next game. I want to show everyone that we belong and I hope that begins tomorrow

Go the UAE!

PowerBug

[MrMoose]

Oi oi.

2 Senior games down, the big boys shooting at 50%. Passing mark but apparently 50% is a bad attitude in this game.

Yesterday we played Canada on a Sunny Dry Pitch and it rained 100s. Sadly only one of those hundreds were for players wearing the UAE colours (go Al Capone you're a gun with a gun). This meant we lost rather convincingly. 7 drops in the first 22 overs and PB still says exceptional fielding is "essential".

Today we faced India on a cloudy crumbler and batted first. A team effort saw 237 on the board and our bowlers led by Kamal and Nasri bowled exception. We even took some catches today Bowling India out within 42 overs and getting a 63 run win to open the account.

Tomorrow we play Australia and a win against Australia would a) make PB happy b) help us avoid demotion c) keep us in with a sniff of finishing first d) put Australia in the bin.

They say great players have to overcome great rivals. I don't have any examples on hand, but they say this. Australia aren't even really our rival but boy oh boy it would be great to play a part in making Australia demote to Div 2.

[NPD-PowerBug]

It was a nice win indeed

I don't think we will drop 7 catches in total in the next 4 games.

We dropped 7 more today. So ummm, yeah. But at least we took 5 of the chances Fielding is still important, it's the fact that we have this high fielding which is seeing us make them chances in the first place

They're all big game but Australia is probably the biggest game of them all. See how we go at 04:30 tomorrow!

[NPD-PowerBug]

[MrMoose]

A win and a fielding performance that finally justified PBs fielding expectations!

The win keeps us in the hunt to avoid the drop drop but realistically need to win against New Zealand today.

That means it’s time for mathematically methodically matchups with moose.

The table is tight atm. Canada is clear top with 3 wins, NZ is clear bottom with 1 win and everyone else is in the middle with two wins.

So.

If we beat New Zealand
- we avoid the drop drop

If we lose to New Zealand
- our NRR becomes critical
If it’s a small lose and the india/aus game is a big margin then we jump to fourth (I think)

If Canada beat Sri Lanka
- they finish top

If Sri Lanka beat Canada
- pull out the NRR calculators
Most likely it’s between Canada and Sri Lanka. Sri Lanka would need a big win to bridge the gap.

Whoever wins the australia/India game avoids the drop and the other pulls out the calculators.

[NPD-PowerBug]

Well well well, what a week of Divion1 that was. Every team ends 3-2 or 2-3. We sadly end 2-3 but we survive, and that's pretty nice to see. This week definitely showed that we belong in Div 1 (all 6 teams can say this).

Al Capone was the star with the bat, 2nd highest run scorer in the division. Gadil Mukhtar was 10th in what I think is one of the best returns I've had form a WK of mine during tour week, nice to see runs there.

With the ball it was our two wrist spinners, Hud Sam and Jabril Kamal taking 9 and 8 which respectively. Ziyad Khoury and Khayri Nasri were 1st and 3rd for economy rate across the division.

And despite complaining about it all week, Ubaid Kedar and Khayri Nasri took 3 catches each which was equal most. Kamil Salah with 6 wk dismissals (4 stumpigs!) was a nice return too.

The big lesson learned from this tour, and it was an oversight by us, was that we toured 13 players over the age of 30.00. It meant that come day 5 we were struggling a bit with fatigue, and it resulted with us having the lowest MR of all 18 nations on Day 5.

It'll be the end of the road for some players after that tour, more on who those are will be written up in the weekly post in the General Discussion topic. But overall I am calling that a successful week, we remain in Division 1, we learn a few things, we competed well in 4 of the 5 games. Congrats to Sri Lanka as well for taking out the division, always nice to be able to say we beat the champions

Go the UAE!

PowerBug

[MrMoose]

Congrats to the senior lads!

I believe that tour means that there is now only one nation that is Div. 1 in both formats for both Seniors and Youths!
I'll let you work out which mighty nation that is!!

Now let's turn to the youth OD Div. 1 tour that starts Monday. Games are in Bangladesh so start 0200 daily.

[heppa]

Just need a win or draw today to survive another Div 1 tour. Not a bad effort considering this would be one of our worst batches of players ever.

[NPD-PowerBug]

The 'just' part proving to be the stumbling block at the moment.

[heppa]

It was never going to be easy to survive. It is what it is.

We move onto the next tour.

[NPD-PowerBug]

Introducing our tour squad for S53 OD Tour 2 (Division 1).

Squad
Hassan Iqbal [Crni Zmajevi Cricket Club] (20 caps)
Ubaid Kedar [Ashburn CC] (27 caps)
Hatim Ayasha [Rangas United] (Debut Tour)
Al Capone [Murder Inc.] (21 caps)
Shaquille Muttalib [The Wizard's XI] (Debut OD Tour)
Kaseem Sharif [Hard Yakka] (4 caps)
Gadil Mukhtar [Birds 2nd XI] (24 caps)
Snoop Dogg [Illawarra Dragons CC] (3 caps)
Ya'qub Shareef [Silly Mid-On CC] (Debut Tour)
Akil Dhul [Birds 2nd XI] (8 caps)
Quinten Lynch [Cover point] (Debut OD Tour)
Ubaid Mahmood [Space Wolves] (19 caps)
Sheik Yerbooty [Marching On Together] (Debut Tour)
Mazin Ishaq [waityesno_sorrymate] (8 caps)
Ibrahim Nu'man [Birds 2nd XI] (3 caps)
Atif Saleh [Warner Bees] (Debut Tour)
Hud Sam [High Voltage] (34 caps)
Jabril Kamal [AllStars!] (7 caps)

Congrats to every manager who has got a player as part of this squad

[NPD-PowerBug]

The first two games really have not gone well at all. Our batsmen have let us down massively across both games which is very disappointing. Our bowlers so far have stepped up alright, hoping to see a few more runs on the board beginning tonight vs Ireland