It’s do-or-die time for the teams

ICL Notes

Ian Harvey

It’s been a fortnight of exciting and absorbing cricket in the Indian Cricket League and also quite nice and cool as compared to last time when I was here.

And now that it’s the semifinal stage, the contest surely will provide for more thrills. Here on it’s a do-or-die for every team and we, the Chennai Superstars, are looking to lift things up. We didn’t have a win in our last game against Delhi Jets but make no mistake, we shall come good.

The one good thing to me is that the pitches have got better and better throughout the tournament and with it the scores have got bigger and bigger.

It was nice for me to get the team off to a decent start, on Wednesday night, against Delhi Jets and I would only be too happy to make better contributions in the next two games and hope for my team to win. But it’s always easier said than done. The standards of the competition have gone up. As for us, the fielding has been outstanding.

We are pitted against Kolkata Tigers on Friday night, the first of the two semis. The Tigers are a very good side and have a good momentum going for them. To top things, they had an amazing win on Wednesday night. In comparison, we haven’t performed too well but don’t forget that we did beat them before in the league stage and we will look to take the confidence into the semifinals.

We expect the contest to be a high-scoring affair and we do have the depth in our batting and also some players who can stand out with their performances. But the basic aim is to get everyone to do their job well. We would not want to rely on one or two players. Cricket is more of a team game and we will try to play it that way.

Thanks to the snow on the mountains, there is a dip in temperature, adding to the drama under lights. But that’s no big worry for our Superstars, as some of our players are from England and it is still a lot warmer here for them than back home.

I’m sure that the semis will be a very good game wherein we will go in as favourites simply because we have beaten the Tigers before.

What is imperative for us is that we sit down and work out some fresh plans to emerge victorious. You shall see the plans unfolding once we get out there once again.