Since the announcement of our club, CVZ has been actively participating in 3 ongoing tournaments i.e. CSNL 40 Over League, Mr. Pickwick T20 League, and Cricket Switzerland T10 Competition.
Last weekend CVZ got a chance to represent Zug in Cricket Switzerland’s T10 Competition in Zuoz. This was CVZ’s first-ever official tournament since its inception. It was a tough competition against some of the best teams in the tournament, especially given the inexperience of the CVZ team in official tournaments. Though one of the key objectives of CVZ was to gain experience in the next level of cricket, however, the outcome of their journey in the Cricket Switzerland T10 competition was much more than just learning & good experience.
Given the strength of the CVZ batting strength as well as the bowling attack, it was not an easy cakewalk for any of the opponents. They were facing a tough challenge from the underdogs. CVZ did not only gain experience but also won some hearts with excellent sportsmanship and performance displayed by each CVZ player throughout the T10 competition.
And CVZ also managed to bring back some victory in their match against Novartis Cricket Club. CVZ managed to defeat the Novartis Cricket Club by a hefty margin of 80runs, and this turned out to be one of the highest margin victories in the Cricket Switzerland T10 competition.
CVZ Bowling Attack:
It is also not common for teams with high-quality batting to praise their opponent's bowling unit, however, CVZ was an exception, and the CVZ bowling department received a lot of appreciation for the quality bowling. Every team who played against CVZ or even watched the match praised CVZ bowling. While Naveen Malik’s pace was a surprise for the top cricketing teams in Switzerland, Ranjith Ramakrishnan’s bowling with precise line and length followed by surprise slower ones and spin were extremely deceiving for the batsmen. Ankush Hasani with his banana swings made the batsmen search for the balls, and Sridhar Ponnada’s bowling on the right line and length made most of the batsmen to struggle. Despite the unfavorable spin bowling condition (both weather and smaller ground), Sachin Balan was tough for the batsmen to pick. There were games, and CVZ gave 0 extras, which also shows the discipline of bowling.
CVZ Batting strength:
Ankush Hasani got his bat to speak, which made a huge difference in this tournament, and this will carry a huge momentum for the remaining season. Jitesh Godi’s blistering knock against Olten CC set the tone for our tournament while Malav Bhatt’s consistency in Swinging with the bat made the fielding team go for the hike several times to fetch the ball.
Kudos to Naveen Malik on his commitment to CVZ, despite suffering from fever, he played 2 matches and displayed some real power-hitting against Power Winterthur.
During the T10 competition, the team learned a lot of lessons in fielding, batting as well as bowling department, which CVZ is determined to work on and improve in upcoming games.
Captain of CVZ, Ranjith Ramakrishnan leads his team from the front. His excellent bowling performance kept us in the game until the last overs and his batting made it difficult for the opponent team to dismantle the CVZ middle order.
And last but not the least, a big kudos to all the players in the CVZ team, who went above and beyond to participate in the competition in Zuoz, some even had personal commitments, like birthdays, sick family members, etc. However, they stayed with the team and significantly contributed to transforming the CVZ team into a CVZ Family!