Final 2003 : CLCC at CCC
Report by Ron Knight

I was asked during the awards ceremony after the championship finals to
say a few words in summary of the match.  One thing I said was that if I
was going to say harsh words when people behaved badly I would have to
give credit where credit is due and admirable sportsmanship is
displayed.  Accordingly before going on to give any further match report
I have to say that it was a pleasure to umpire for both CCC and CLCC in
the finals match Saturday, and to do so in company with Fergus
Robertson.  The weather was as good as we saw this year for a cricket
match, and added to the enjoyment that we had a good crowd of
enthusiastic spectators and a fine lunch served between innings.  The
Charlotte spectators brought their 4 and 6 signs and showed how to
support your team with vigor without getting out of hand.

CCC won the toss and elected to bat first.  They began with methodical
batting that survived the early loss of an opener's wicket to a runout
while non-striker.  He was caught leaning the wrong way and after a good
stop and throw-in by the fielder he was just barely out.  (Please post
the scoresheet to the website, guys--I don't remember everybody's
names!)  So CCC were 6 for 1 at the beginning of the third over. 

An even more odd runout claimed CCC's fourth wicket, when the batsmen
thought that a boundary had been scored and stopped running.  The runout
was not close, but of course the question was whether the ball was in
play.  I was the bowler's end umpire on the play and had not seen any
signal from the fielder that told me there was a boundary, and I had not
signalled or called a boundary.  But there was some sort of ambiguous
gesture from the fielder that led the batsmen to stop running.  I was
watching the fielder closely and did not see any deliberate intent to
deceive, and the spot where the fielder said the ball had stopped seemed
to me to be pretty much where I thought I had seen it stop.  So I was
forced to rule that the ball was never dead and therefore the CCC
batsman was run out.  CLCC of course exploded in rejoicing at my
decision, but it is to CCC's credit that they accepted the decision
without any explosion of their own.  Of course anyone could see that the
decision was correct by Law and had to be accepted, but that hasn't
stopped some teams from getting into arguments with the umpire before
this season.  CCC made it an uncontroversial matter, although of course
it was unfortunate and a shame it happened the way it did.

Between the two runouts, PK came in as the fourth change bowler and took
the first two bowler's wickets of the innings, one bowled and the other
LBW.  CCC were 56 for 4 in the 17th over when the second runout
occurred, a steady but unglamorous start to their innings.

At this point, however, CCC's deep batting lineup asserted itself, and
the target was raised to respectable levels by some aggressive batting.
Particularly valuable to CCC was Bejoy, who was not out and the highest
scorer for them.  However, he owes his "not out"  to the fact that I
purchased and set up new stumps for the occasion, with nice deep bail
grooves.  I watched from square leg as he received a delivery and
partially blocked it, only to have it dribble into his stumps anyway.
But the bails remained in place.  Although I have several times seen a
delivery glance the stumps on the side without displacing a bail, I
think this is the first time I had seen the ball hit the stumps from the
front without breaking the wicket.  So Bejoy can thank me for saving his
asterisk.

CCC's final total was 157 for 7.  Gopal's second bowling spell netted
him two wickets later in the innings, and Mayur took the last of the 5
wickets credited to a bowler.

We did have a quite delicious meal in the Shiloh picnic shelter during
the lunch break.  I don't know what it was, but I liked it.  I'm sorry I
couldn't have eaten more of it, but it is not wise for an umpire to
spend his second innings distracted by thoughts of how thirsty he is. 

Fergus must have really enjoyed watching me squirm, as it did seem to me
that the nasty decisions came my way.  The man must live a good life.
In the very first over Arun delivered a ball which smacked the striker's
pads firmly and CCC went up.  I was quite certain that the striker had
played the ball and gave a quick not out.  Then I realized that CCC were
still appealing and figured that the ball must have been caught, which I
had not witnessed.  Fergus confirmed to me that the ball had been fairly
caught, and since I was sure it had been played my finger went up.  Odd
that there was a similar situation that caused controversy in the
previous CCC semifinal.  But very gratifying that there was a lot less
arguing about this one.

CLCC were opening at a slightly higher scoring rate than CCC had, but
they lost wickets in the 5th, 6th and 7th overs, bowled, caught and LBW,
while the score stayed at 22.  In the 5th over Arun bowled a ball that
pitched a foot outside off stump, and the batsman let it go by.  I was
completely astounded to see the ball disappear behind the batsman and to
hear the sound of the stumps being knocked down, particularly as I had
not noted much swing through the air before the ball pitched.  It was an
amazing delivery. 

In the 6th over Vijay had a wicket maiden.  In the 7th over Ani as
non-striker watched me give his partner out LBW, but agreed that middle
stump would have fallen to the delivery.  It was a class act as a
sportsman by Ani, but he was determined that he would show more class
than just as a good sport.  He showed class as a batsman Saturday as
well, scoring 86 runs before finally losing his wicket. 

The brief report on the website says that Ani and Chandu began their
sixth wicket partnership with the score at 32 for 5.   My own card says
that the score was more like 49 when the fifth wicket fell, a blinding
catch made by Prabhu at first slip off Pranav's bowling.  Again I do
hope the scoresheet is posted, because I didn't record names and I may
have this wicket displaced from another part of the innings.
Nevertheless it was a terrific catch whenever it was taken and whatever
the score was.  It was pretty much the only bright spot for CCC in a
long middle of the innings.  CLCC had several good overs just before
drinks to take the score to 92 at the end of the 15th over.  Ani led the
charge, joined by Chandu for the sixth wicket.  Chandu's 32 along with
Ani's 86 pretty much spelled the end for CCC.

However, CCC did not give up.  Although they were frustrated in
attempting to take wickets between the 10th and 25th overs, they did
manage some good containment bowling that saw many overs in which CLCC
did not make the required run rate.  But Ani and Chandu put just enough
boundaries into the mix to ensure that they never fell completely behind
the necessary rate.  I believe from my notes that Chandu finally was out
caught in the 25th over, a wicket maiden for Shankar, and that Ani was
finally bowled by Arun in the 27th over, but I may have these two
backwards.  At any rate, at that point the score was 151 for 7 and the
outcome of the match seemed ordained.

CCC fought until the very end, however, and Vijay took an eighth wicket
LBW with the score at 154.  But Parimal was still at the crease and he
top-edged the first delivery of the 29th over above the head of the
keeper and to the boundary for the winning four runs.  I was asked after
the match whether Parimal would have been out LBW if he had missed the
ball, and I'm sorry to say I have no idea about that at all.  Once I
heard the ball hit wood I was concentrating only on whether it was going
to reach the boundary fence.

Bowling for CCC, Arun netted 4 wickets and Vijay 2.

There was no suspense at all about the announcement of the Man of the
Match, who was of course Ani.  Chandu and Bejoy certainly deserve
honorable mention for batting, and Arun for bowling, but the choice was
obvious.  A very steady and classy batting performance that was a
delight to watch, even though it did have us chasing balls in the woods
more than I enjoyed.

For me personally it was a terrific end to the MACC season: a good,
tight cricket match played in perfect weather with a good umpiring
partner between two competitive but sporting teams before an
appreciative crowd.  The awards ceremony afterwards reflected nothing
but good will and erased all memories of previous controversies.  If
only all cricket matches could be like this one!

See you at the Pack Hunt 2003 this weekend!

Ron Knight