Niranjan, who gashed his finger earlier with a deep bloody cut, decided that he will still play even if he had coma. Ahmed and Yogi opened CCC's batting against the veteran attack of Niranjan and Mahesh. All 4 responded well! A methodical start by the batsmen were countered by some great balls from the duo. A few quarter and half chances went CCC's way. Medical officers adviced Niranjan to get his 6 overs straight should he go into fits. Ivan came for a quick change and kept troubling the batsmen while being economical. Still, CCC were looking quite comfortable at 50 for no loss after 10. Ahmed, sadly, had a bumpy ball hit his face and had to be helped off the field. That did not deter the warriors. Vishwas looked comfortable and steady progress by CCC with no wicket losses had DCC on the backfoot. Yogesh was going great and was cutting and driving at will. Vishwas was no different. Pratik started bowling well and tried to break the partnership that was looking ominous before the mid-innings break but, by the 15 over mark, CCC had powered to 91 for no loss and it looked like a long day out for DCC.

The Durham boys then regrouped and the forgotten team song was finally sung. That did the trick. After the break, the much needed wicket of Yogesh came with a brilliant piece of catching by Ivan off Pratik. Yogesh struck the ball flat like a missile but the Carribean dude moved swiftly to his left at long-on, lept high and stretched his arms skyward to a ball that would have sailed atleast 30 feet into the woods. Pratik had got rid of the dangerman yet again. From then on, DCC put the brakes on. Rahul stuck to a good line and length and gave little room even to a set bat in Vishwas. Mahesh then produced the most breathtaking spell of his career in the slog. He first removed the anchorman, Vishwas when Sanjeewa took a nice thick edged catch. Pressure of good bowling at both ends slowly eroded CCC and wickets were tumbling. Deepesh got back in rhythm for a very tight over. Vijay swung a lot of air instead of the ball, but finally connected one that sailed out of the park. The joy, however, was shortlived as Rahul got his revenge by taking a stunning circus catch off Mahesh at deep wicket to dismiss the captain; the Doctorate student ran around (close to a mile) before plucking the ball 3 inches off the ground. Unfortunately for CCC, that was just the beginning. The 2 players connected yet again in similar fashion only this time Rahul had to go the other direction to terminate the parobola. The last over from Mahesh saw 4 wickets fall and CCC were stranded at 176 for 9 in 29.5 overs with Ahmed rightly deciding not to risk his injury with only a ball to spare plus a 5th wicket in the over looked too likely.

The momentum had swung in DCC's favor. Instead of looking at a mammoth total, DCC had a more reasonable score to chase. Still it was a score that CCC could defend 8 out of 10 days. But this was one of those 2 days. Ivan and Raj opened while Vijay and Ajay operated the cherry. First over was all Ivan's. He spanked shots in astonishing fashion with top notch cricketing style. However, Ajay ripped one straight at Raj who was slow to bring the bat and was out for a first ball duck, LBW. That brought in the little Srilankan. He was sizing up the bowlers while Ivan was like a formula-1 machine. The ball was coming on well off the pitch and the pair relished the true surface. Ivan was simply brutal on anything that the bowlers erred. Runrate was consistently at 9-10 runs per over as Ivan and Sanjeewa played as if the dam had busted. Ivan dispatched the balls to all corners of the field better than Viv Richards. But old dog, Vijay, struck back with a slider that trapped Ivan low and straight in front. Vijay pulled the game back in CCC's favor at 42. In the same over, he broke through the defense of Pratik to shatter the stumps. It was deja-vu with CCC back in the match at 42/3. When Pranav rattled the pegs around Hari's legs shortly thereafter, DCC was looking to save the skin. Mahesh now had a tough situation at hand. He had to fight his back pain and CCC's comeback wrath. Carolina had dented 4 wickets even when DCC were going at a whopping 9 runs an over. But Sanjeewa and Mahesh handled the pressure like machos. Mahesh started off steady, worked on the singles, limited his touchy going-nowhere flicks while building run-a-ball pace with Sanjeewa who was holding the key to the show. The little master's temperament was as spectacular as some of the strokes from the willow. Powerful sweeps, dramatic pulls, glorious straight drives and impressive cut shots were all the 360 degree arsenal he pulled from the bags. Runs from singles to sixes were looking classy from Sanjeewa's bat. By 14th over DCC had raced to 92/3.

This was when Mahesh took over the match. A bad over from CCC saw Mahesh fully capitilazing. Pull shots and hooks cleared the tree lines and must have shattered car glasses on Hwy-54 just 200 yards away. By the break, DCC was well placed and it was just a question of whether they could hold the wickets till the end. They did and did it in brutal fashion. Mahesh went back and started showing why he spends 6 hours a day in the gym. No bowler was spared. Sanjeewa also was not going to let down his concentration. Guys in the pavillion were getting more tired than the batsmen in the middle as tons of calories were spent yelling and singing. When Yogesh took a bullet sting catch at long off to finally dismiss the ex-captain, only 12 runs were needed. Niranjan lifted one out of the ground and Sanjeewa yet again produced the winning runs with a delightful offdrive in the 20th over. Mahesh with a merciless 59 and 4 wickets at a critical stage runs off with the $10 local award reserved for MVPs only.

Thanks to umpires, Faraz and Paras, for Dicky Bird(s) style officiating with an umpire rating of 100.