Match Details : http://tokyotornados.com/index.php/event/tokyo-tornados-vs-ceylonxi-11apr2021/

It was a great and first step for Tokyo Tornados as it is the Club’s first match in T20 at the International ground, so all the players were super excited, energetic, and stress-less to play the match.

The day was quite windy but fine weather to start a match. In the toss, the captain won and decided to Bat first. After the motivational discussion, both the openers (Sk & Krishna) walked IN. Both the openers took some time to settle down and Krishna took on the bowlers with back-to-back boundaries at backward square leg & Long OFF which relieved pressure on both batsmen. Later on, SK hit the bowler over Long Off for the Massive Six. Despite a Good Start and settling down, both the Openers lost their wickets in the consecutive overs. The unfavoured close LBW call of Sateesh puts Tornados 3 down for 21 runs. Since both the end new Batsmen, it might have favoured the bowling team. But Nagaraj and Praveen seemed to be in good rhythm, played sensibly, and started to build the partnership. Despite 3 wickets down, Praveen didn’t take the pressure and played his Nature Game. He started to push all the bowlers back to bay with his Boundaries. Nagaraj kept rotating the strike to Praveen and Praveen ensured to make the damage. The partnership was well built and at point, Tornados run rate was above 6 at end of 10 overs which will be the best platform to accelerate the runs and put the commanding total on board. But it turned out another way for Tornados, the magnificent innings from Praveen (36 Runs off 25 balls which includes 4 Fours, 1 Six) came to end to the new bowler introduced by Ceylon which also ends the Good Partnership of 49 runs. At the end of 12 overs, 70/4 is a good score, and time to accelerate was thinking at the camp but quick 2 wickets including settled Nagaraj & new Batsman Dinesh (for close LBW Call) in the 13th over had put a halt to the progress. Again two new batsmen at the crease for the remaining 7 overs to play and at that point adding 60~70 runs looks possible until the Captain played the wrong shot while taking up on the 9th Bowler Introduced by Ceylon. Despite the fall of Wickets at one end, Prathick played sensibly by routing the strikes and clearing the ropes which helped Tornados to cross the 3 figure total. Even though Patrick got a blow on his head when the fielder made the wrong throw while trying to make him run out, Prathick continued the innings and contributed with a handy 20 runs from 20 balls which comprised 2 boundaries. Prithiv and Deepak added valuable runs in the end and Tornados Inns wrapped up the below-par score (114 / 10 in 20 Overs). 

Wrong Shot selections from the Top order and settled batsmen unable to convert for big runs including fewer runs from the lower-middle order, additionally, 2 close calls for LBW of two Main Batsmen (Sateesh & Dinesh) made Tornados short of 30~40 runs. However, for the Tornados bowling lineup, the Total was well defendable since Chase is always challenging.

With all the positive talks, Tornados Captain led the bowling attack. Despite getting the opener on perfect incoming delivery, Mani didn’t have control on the swing. This favoured Ceylon to claim 15 runs in the first over where 7 of them came from wides. Prathick bowled beautifully from the other end which sealed the leak of runs. The pressure built by Prathick at another end gives another break for Mani. The energy level at Tornados was high as Ceylon lost both the openers and Prathick line also precise. However, Ceylon’s one of the star batsman (Prabath) decided to take on the bowler to avoid any damage to their team. As a result, despite the good line, Prathick was smashed for 4 boundaries in his 2nd over which includes a drop chance at mid-wicket, and at the end of 4 overs, Ceylon crossed one-third of the total (41/2). Mani decided to bowl one moreover which resulted in getting the settled Prabath who scored 25 runs of 13 balls. Again the Tornados got the chances to grab the game which was well seen. when Prithiv bowled out of heart with the threatening delivery to the Ceylon batsmen and at another end, Naveen continued to trouble the batsmen. Prithiv delivered another beautiful over which sealed the leak of runs but Naveen finds it difficult to focus on the same line which he delivered in the previous over. The exhausted Prithiv and looking for wickets, Captain bought in the Spinners at both ends. Both Deepak and Sushil bowled well in their respective first over but eventually leaked a run while trying to take wickets. As a result, at the end of 13 over, Ceylon stands tall with a Total of 96/3 from 55/3 of the last 8 overs. Tornado bowlers were good with line and length but missed to maintain it for all 6 balls which resulted in a couple of short balls per over & those were well punished by Ceylon Batsmen. To see the final luck, Mani re-introduced himself and also brings in Praveen and Parthiv, despite a couple of chance created including drop catch behind the stumps, Ceylon batsmen Bimsara (34 of 29 balls) & Dinusha (40 off 42 balls) ensure not to make any damage further to Ceylon and took the game away from the Tornados.

Tornados bowling unit is good to compare to their batting but uncontrolled swing in the first over by Mani & each bowler bowled Precise line in the first over and unable to continue the same on their 2nd over resulted in the dent in the bowling Unit. All bowlers need to focus on their Line and length & need to avoid any loose balls in an over.

The cricket in NK will be more competitive. Coming matches where even good balls will be placed well by the batsmen then NO MERCY will be shown on the bad balls.

Fielding Unit: 

Appreciate every one effort and saving boundaries. Particularly all the deep fielders did a good job. Still, we are behind the standard, we had a very good chance to convert 3~4 half-chances (those are chances for our level of cricket, not even half-chances) this didn’t include drop catches. Also, Ceylon easily converted single to double, this implies that we need to practice hard on the fielding drills. So we would have converted 50% of the half changes, at least the match would have been more interesting at the end,

Special Mention: Thanks for Vignesh to take up 12th Man. You did well during your fielding opportunity.

Pick of the Day: Prithiv (Bowling), Praveen (Batsmen)

Take Away from the Game:

Very good team and this is our first game as a team and a lot of talents identified. For the first game and against the champion team, this performance is too good even though it was not our 100% effort. If this game happened after a couple of practice matches then the result would have been different. To me, our team will do more magic in Japan Cricket. Let’s keep practicing, let’s play more cricket and learn from each other. Overwhelming that each player accepts their mistakes and seeks the way for improvement. THIS IS IMPORTANT FOR ANY TEAM TO SUCCEED. 

More important, at the END OF THE DAY – I think everyone might have felt the same as me “NO PRESSURE BACK HOME”.