Leaving India, the last thing on my mind was playing for the University Cricket team! It was just amazing to come back to playing professional cricket which I had completely abandoned about 10 years back in Mumbai.
Our university cricket tour started as a disaster, which was well expected. Neither did we have any practice nor did we know our fellow mates! Despite the short-falls, we lost a nail biter against St. Andrews by 3 wickets. For the next match the team was in high spirits thinking that the last match was practice enough to beat the next competition-Napier University. Not very well known, Napier University is situated in Edinburgh and it was their home game this time round. Taking cue from our loss in the last match, we let the opposition bat first which turned out to be the worst decision of the day! In a 45 over match, they hammered us for 300! It was the first time many of our players even stood on the ground for one inning of 45 overs which meant that our legs were giving way before our batting. The weather (5-8 deg with chilly winds) I must admit got the best of us and we bundled out for a measly score which is un-mentionable!
All in all, we had a ball in the park (not in good way!) and realised we need more of endurance training rather than cricket practice for actively competing in weather conditions here!
Our university cricket tour started as a disaster, which was well expected. Neither did we have any practice nor did we know our fellow mates! Despite the short-falls, we lost a nail biter against St. Andrews by 3 wickets. For the next match the team was in high spirits thinking that the last match was practice enough to beat the next competition-Napier University. Not very well known, Napier University is situated in Edinburgh and it was their home game this time round. Taking cue from our loss in the last match, we let the opposition bat first which turned out to be the worst decision of the day! In a 45 over match, they hammered us for 300! It was the first time many of our players even stood on the ground for one inning of 45 overs which meant that our legs were giving way before our batting. The weather (5-8 deg with chilly winds) I must admit got the best of us and we bundled out for a measly score which is un-mentionable!
All in all, we had a ball in the park (not in good way!) and realised we need more of endurance training rather than cricket practice for actively competing in weather conditions here!
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