Main Umpire: Dave Kumar Leg Umpire: Samay Vithalani
Report:
It was the showdown that TCC was eagerly waiting for having
faced an ignominious defeat in the league phase against the same opponents.
ANZACs, the number one team in the league thus far were going into this match
with a 10-1 record and hence weren’t breaking a sweat, but little did they know
that the rug would be pulled under their feet. As for the ground conditions,
Shiloh was looking lush green after the grass had been mowed a couple of days
ago, but there was plenty of dew on the surface. Thanks to Dave Kumar and Samay
Vithalani (RCC) for officiating our match.
ANZ won the toss and decided to bowl first as expected. Parth and Hugh opened
the bowling as usual and were their usual restrictive selves not willing to give
any freebies. TCC’s openers Ravi Renga and Raman kept their cool, being content
to rotate the strike while looking for the odd boundary. The score trickled
along nicely to 48 without loss off 12 overs when Raman nicked an off-cutter
from Deepesh into Shekar’s hands at slip. Samir Tikare and Ravi put their heads
down and carried the score on to 121. Ravi a.k.a TCC’s Jayasuriya was a treat to
watch flicking and pulling bad balls away with utter disdain. A rasping pull for
four off Simon will be remembered for sometime ‘cos the ball disappeared into
the boundary. It was really nice to see Samir back in his elements. A straight
six off Ketan was an example of sheer timing. Samir fell when the score read 121
in trying to sweep Sunil, ANZ’s offie. Aravind joined Ravi and the pair took the
score to 138 when Ravi was!
unfortunately run out trying a second run. But, he had helped TCC with a
well-compiled 71. Aravind launched into the bowling with one of his customary
pulls almost making the railroad tracks. Rajesh U. was also trying to accelerate
the score at the other end. Aravind and Rajesh fell eventually and some good
bowling in the death overs saw TCC lose quick wickets. 5 wickets fell with just
20 odd runs added! I should say that we were denied at least 20-25 runs ‘cos the
ball stopped just shy of the boundary many times thanks to the heavy outfield.
After the usual 30-min break, we started defending our total. Parth and Satbir
opened the innings for ANZ. Aravind and Sundar shared the new ball for us.
Aravind beat both batsmen all ends up and in one over Satbir fished at the ball
5 consecutive times and still managed to be there. Parth was watching the ball
carefully and was content rotating the strike. Satbir tonked a six off Sundar
and was starting to look menacing when Hari got him caught by Raman at deep
squareleg. Satbir, in trying to pull was beaten by the pace of the ball and the
ball just ballooned to Raman. Shekar didn’t last long and was yorked by one of
Hari’s express deliveries. Parth and Ketan played out a few overs with the
latter being lucky when Ravi Renga dropped a sitter at midon. ANZ would have
been in a deeper mire had that been held. Raajeev Kalyan was the unlucky bowler.
Parth started to open up. A square-drive off Hari rocketed away with none of the
fielders needing to move. Just when !
the match was starting to get away, Vijay broke ANZ’s back by dismissing Parth.
The ball sped along the ground catching Parth completely off guard and he looked
in total dismay. Ketan faced the same fate in Vijay’s next over. As they say,
you need a slice of luck as well along with all the hard work and we definitely
got it! The rest of the batsmen couldn’t do much damage since we had them
reeling under immense pressure. Panda was run out, courtesy an excellent throw
from the deep by Raman. This report wouldn’t be complete without a mention for
Dhanraj Uchil. Uchil has been absolutely outstanding this season for TCC. He is
the utility cricketer that we boast of. He mixed his leg spinners beautifully
and tied ANZ up in knots. Raman juggled and held on to Shaluka off Uchil while
Aravind exemplified what great catching in the deep is all about. The catch he
took to dismiss Sunil was superb ‘cos that could so easily have been a six.
Uchil finished off with great figu!
res that read 5.2-0-14-5. He richly deserved the MoM award. TCC won by a
whopping 64 runs and will now face CLCC in the semi-finals at Reedy Creek in
Charlotte. Great going team!
- Vijay Jagannath.