Details: Quite inexplicably, on a muggy and steamy day, the game, started off late at 11.30am just when it started to get baking hot. Pratik and Ashutosh opened with caution against Nikhil and Karthik. They managed to fend off the new ball while studing the bounce. Pratik got into a good stroking rhythm but Ashutosh perished to Sami soon after when DCC were at 31. Team man Neeraj found himself in the cherished 1-drop position after a long time. But the dude lived upto the challenge and supported Pratik while getting his eyes set. The 2 were now steadily going at around 7 an over. Some glorious timing shots were racing on the fast outfield like a bullet. Home run parabolas were sizzling to watch.

With the drinks break right round the corner, NCSU struck gold when a momentary lapse in Pratik's concentration saw his stumps getting rattled by Raj. It happenned when DCC was cruising at 69 in the 12th over. Still, it was a job well done. Ivan continued where Pratik left. He respected good balls while smacking any slight errors from the bowlers. Neeraj was playing to a perfect game plan and the pair setup another good DCC partnership. But laziness got the better of Neeraj and got out tamely to Vinod. Then Saurabh got into a comfort zone very quickly but went too far across to get bowled around his legs to Vinod.Then came the highlight batting of Mahesh. At this point, NCSU missed an opportunity to dismiss danger-man Ivan when a catch was dropped. Mahesh made use of every gap in the field to place the ball to perfection to fetch maximum runs. One monster 6 looked like it would clear the NCSU campus. Ivan continued to push the gas but his well compiled 45 was terminated by Vinod in the 26th over when DCC was cruising at 153.

Rahul got into a grove right off the bat but then a few errors costed DCC heavily. First Rahul got runout, then Rao followed suit in the same way and did not bother the scorers. Later, Rao was seen chatting with the umpire if he could have got the benefit of doubt to which the umpire said, it was probably very close if the crease was drawn at half the pitch distance. Mahesh was holding the show up for DCC but when his skier went a mile up, Mei did well to run in, close on the ball to bag the catch. At 8 down for 188, DCC was truly in trouble. Niranjan found himself in the middle. It was not the best of situations as the free spirited batsmen knew DCC did not have wickets for him to open up. So, he checked himself to begin with and drove a few balls from the meat of the bat.

Nikhil, on the other end, decided to teach everyone how to play golf. He had some vicious looking swings but connected lots of oxygen. Finally, he took a resolution to make contact with the ball and made the the stump do it. Then Tripurari had to fend off some tight bowling from NCSU, while Niranjan could not curb his instincts and yanked a powerful shot into the trees. The next heave was a wild one that only resulted in Trip getting no batting. Vinod was the pick of NCSU bowlers with 4 good wickets. DCC was clearly short of 25 more runs at 204 (which actually should have been 207 due to scoring error).

A long lunch break was followed by Raj and Karthik opening the batting for NCSU. Niranjan's first over was a beauty. Raj tried to take a few swings at him. The only ball he ended up connecting was a skier to mid-off where Pratik moved well and took a neat chest-high catch. Mahesh hit the flicx deck like McGrath and troubled Karthik and Vinod consistently. Both opening bowlers were on top form except the heat got the better of them and their last 2 balls of every over typically favoring the bat. Short spells looked like the logical choice. Rahul was quickly brought in. His first ball was a stunner and Karthik had no choice but to see his stumps fly. This led to a hooligan from the crowd running wild to Rahul and umpires had to get involved to take control of the rowdy intrusion. Vinod fended off 5 crafty balls from Niranjan before cutting one straight to Nikhil at backward point. The lad did everything right except to hold on to the catch. Still, Pratik's first over saw the end of Nikhil (NCSU's) with Mahesh running several yards in from deep cover and still have the soft hands to absorb the skier in his untraditional crocodile style.

It looked DCC had everything in control when Niranjan taught Nikhil (DCC's) how to hold on to sharp chances by taking a fine diving catch to terminate Vinod. Then Trip had his moment and grabbed a quick wicket. The asking rate had climbed to over 9 an over by then and it looked like a lost cause. But Siddarth and Wicket-keeper started building a good healthy partnership while chipping away the difference in a semi-aggressive pace and kept the asking rate constant. DCC was frustrated that they could not finish off while NCSU now were methodically approaching the game in a never-say-die attitude. When Siddarth got more and more confident, it even appeared that a win was not impossible. Then came the moment of the match which was the turning point of the game.

When 41+ was needed to win, a huge hit from Siddarth off Pratik's ball saw Niranjan standing near the long-on boundary line move one step at a time back to judge the trajectory of the ball. When he somehow felt the ball was going to sail past him for a 6, he just stayed put and pulled down a spectacular and stunning 1-handed catch. Everything would have been smooth if Niranjan had just stayed there to verify the spot of the catch but the moment was unbelievable to him that he started running in to celebrate the dismissal. Now, as expected, the debate started! Was he in? NCSU claims that one of his legs was outside the invisible boundary line. Rahul standing closest at long-off says the 2 cone markers were behind him. The umpires knew this was going to be the match deciding moment and wanted to assess the whole situation to get it correct. A detailed 10 minute discussion on the sequence of events was conferenced with Pratik and Siddarth. Then the deadlock was finally broken by the batsman himself. In a show of great sportsmanship, Siddarth asserted that if the fielder is sure he was inside, he would go with his word. DCC wonders how many batsmen in the league would have the courage to say that when the result was possibly a game decider. It was also nice to have 2 veteran umpires on the field handling the situation - as both teams knew it was not going to be 'some' decision but a fair one.

After that incident, Pratik pretty much cleaned up the rest of the NCSU batsmen. Only a few runs were added after the incident and DCC won officially by 34 runs (should have been 37 in reality but error was never corrected). Man of the match could be Pratik (34 runs, 4 wickets, 1 catch) or Niranjan (10 runs, 2 wickets, but 2 great catches including the game deciding one). If MACC has a trophy for good sportsmanship, DCC would like to nominate the captain of NCSU, Siddarth.

Shrini provided much needed 12th man services on a dehydrating day.