| Scorecard - DCC vs. NCSU |
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DCC vs. NCSU
Headline: DCC wins a close one against NCSU
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Match Report With Raleigh drenched with overnight rain on Fri, it looked like the match between NCSU and DCC would not happen. The 9.30 am start was moved to 11.00 on Sat. After waiting for a long time, NCSU players brought the bad news that the sports authorities had closed Miller Fields which was totally insane because the ground was getting amazingly drier by the minute. Nearby Athletic park was considered but there was too much crowd and NCSU players rightly decided to abandon that ground too. Finally after pursuing NCSU guys to do something to get the game on, they explored the nearby baseball field. It was so small but the flicx pitch was expected to compensate for the 40m boundary! So both teams decided to have a game instead of going home and worrying about reschedule. Umpires from KMCC (Salman and Usman) were there all along from 10.30 am although the game only commenced at 12.40 on a surprisingly bone dry outfield.
DCC lost the toss and was asked to bat. While Neeraj continued with his woes in the very first over, Ivan played his usual stylish game. Nikhil and Naresh used the pitch conditions to their advantage and got motivated when they saw Sanjeewa underestimating the direct throw of agile Vinay and he was run out in the 2nd over. Raghu then ably suported Ivan who was doing the bulk of the scoring mostly over the baseball fence but the latter got a clever loop from Azzam and got bowled. It was 43/3 by 7 overs. Srikanth and Azzam then pressurized the DCC batsmen and got rid of resilient Raghu. Pratik got the stick end of a bowl that never rose more than an inch from the ground to hit the base of the stump on 2nd bounce. Hari was the next victim of the sharp NCSU fielding as he was caught short of the crease thinking it was an easy single. This reduced DCC to 73 for 6 by the 12 over break. Srikanth came in and surprised Shankar with a quickie to uproot the stumps. It looked like DCC had to scramble to get to 100 ripped open by a disciplined NCSU attack. But then, as always, things started to go in the other direction for DCC when least expected! Rahul who had been patiently looking at every batsman come and go put his head down and continued to milk runs methodically. Ravi made a quick fire 17 to take the total close to 100 before becoming Azzam's next victim. Then Rao played the innings of his life by working slowly with tons of overs were left. Finally, Rahul had someone to build a partnership with. They took DCC to 129 by the 25th over when Rahul could not keep a low straight one from Naresh hitting the pads in front. He made a valiant 26. Then 11th man Saurabh, by no means a player of that position, provided the much needed support to Rao. Bond went after the bowling to power his way to 39 while guarding the occasional low zippy ones. In the 30th over, NCSU finally stuck; but the last wicket partnership was worth a valuable 35 runs which proved to be the difference between winning and losing that day. Srikanth finished with 3/32.
NCSU started the innings in style. Both Binoy and Sohail looked very comfortable. Hari and Rahul tried their best to dent NCSU but the 2 batsman were cruising at 34 in 6 overs when finally a square cut by Sohail was neatly gobbled by Raghu at deep point of Rahul. Then Vinay continued from where Sohail left and NCSU were comfortably placed at 45 for 1 in 8 overs when Vinay swung nothing but air to gift Hari a well earned wicket. Then Vivek moved across and missed a straight fulltoss from Ivan and NCSU were reduced to 46/3 in 9 overs. Then set-bat Binoy committed suicide by running for a non-existing single. DCC was back in the game. But Srikanth and Krishi played very sensibly and started to pull NCSU to the target but Pratik struck back and got the much needed wicket of Krishi shattering his stumps. New man Naresh had no clue and was glued in front and got plumb LBW. Nikhil and Gautham tried to revive NCSU and they did. They brought the equation to 25 of 24 balls with a well struck 6 to close the 26th over. But Gautham perished in the same manner as Azzam - both victims of Pratik's disguised straight ones. With only 1 wicket left, NCSU needed 20 to win in 3 overs. A very tight runout chance in the next over went the batsman's way. Then in the 29th over, Arjun tried to lift one over the ground. It looked like he succeeded but Ivan feeling the fence behind him stood, waited, caught and moved inwards away from the fence - things that can so easily go wrong for any fielder in that situation. But it was Ivan not any fielder! That brought DCC to a sweet victory with Pratik taking 5 wickets and running off with the $10 Ravo Challenge. All bowlers for DCC pitched in their best on a hot day. Umpire Report Umpires from KMCC (Salman and Usman) did a fantastic job. They were on top of all the decisions. They were very patient too with the 3 hour delay at the start of the match and the slow over rate. Thanks to KMCC. |
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