Humber cricket captain Ibtisam Chughtai acknowledges the team played their worst game ever in the deciding match during a recent tournament. They needed to win the game to qualify for regional semi-finals.
“We gave too many extras,” he said. “It was our worst game ever. We gave 15 extras while bowling, which was our strong point.”
Nevertheless, Chughtai remains hopeful and optimistic about future tournaments despite his team not qualifying for the regionals.
The losses and the way they lost are lessons learned. Chughtai said that will include knowing when to mess with opponents’ minds.
“I don’t think that this loss has affected us in any way, but I think it has boosted our confidence because we were playing a very defensive game when we were under pressure,” he said.
Chughtai said that overall, he thinks that it was a great experience, and his team learned from it. Whatever comes next is best for them.
The team lost the semis of the tournament that was played at the Kitchener campus of Conestoga College on Feb.17, 2023.
The regional tournament was played between eight teams, including St. Clair and Mohawk College. Out of three matches, the Humber cricket team only won one, against Conestoga College.
Humber College won by 10 wickets against the Condors.
The other two matches were played against George Brown College and Fanshawe College.
George Brown College won by 20 runs, and Fanshawe won by three runs against Humber.
All the matches were based on five overs.
Chughtai, who is also an all-rounder, said his team took their first match, against Fanshawe, too easily as his team was overconfident, That stemmed from a previous win at the University of Toronto Mississauga tournament.
In the second match, his team gathered some motivation from the coaches, which led to their win against Conestoga, he said.
To qualify for the semifinals, Humber had to win the last match against George Brown, which they unfortunately lost, Chughtai said.
“If we hadn’t given those extras, we would have done it way before,” he said.
“At the end, we need eight runs from one over, which we could easily make,” Chughtai said. “I think there was way too much pressure on our batsmen. All our wickets had fallen, and they were bowling and fielding pretty well.”
For the regional tournament, the team attended a two-hour late evening training session at Humber College’s North Campus.
Chughtai said that his team had pretty much strengthened every aspect of the game and there was anything his team had not practiced.
In the practice session, he said that he knows that their fielding was weak, so rather than playing more matches, his team improved their fielding, especially the bond between the teammates, which helped them win the upcoming championship.
Chughtai said the loss has boosted his team’s confidence and strategy making.
“Now I know how to tackle that situation. We need to get on top of the other team. We need to play with them, play with their minds,” Chughtai said.
He also said that he is very confident and motivated, and his team will give their best for future tournaments.
Fahad Choudhry, an assistant coach of the Humber Cricket Team, said that the confidence of his team has not shaken after that loss and that the way they have performed in this tournament is significantly better than the previous games they have played.
He said winning and losing is part of the game, and he is happy with how the boys have performed in this tournament.
“We are pretty happy, and we are super confident that moving forward, we will win a lot more tournaments,” Choudhry said.