Main Umpire: VTCC Leg Umpire: Batting Side
Report by Ramesh (QCCC): This was the first away game in the league for
QCCC and they reached Virginia Tech Crickcet Ground by 9:45AM. Due to
non-availability of the regular Virginia Tech. pitch the match had to be
conducted on a FLICX pitch rolled over the hard surface of a softball field.
Hence, the start of play was delayed by 45 minutes and the match started at
11:15AM.
ROCC won the toss and asked QCCC to bat first. QCCC lost its dashing opener
Siddharth in the opening over for a duck and found itself in deep trouble after
loosing Graham in the 4th over for just 7 runs. However Sameer looked very
comfortable in the wicket and was scoring with ease while saravana was playing
cautiously at the other end. After sameer departed for 19 runs, QCCC kept
loosing wickets regularly and soon found themselves bowled out in 22.4 overs for
just 89 runs. The ROCC bowlers had bowled 34 wides and it turned out to be the
top scorer in the whole match.
QCCC opening bowler Saravana struck in the first over by taking the wicket of
Dakshin in the 3 ball of the innings. However Vishal and Jiju of ROCC were
playing comfortably in the middle and nothing seemed to be working for QCCC
capatin ramesh. He had already made 2 bowling changes by bringing in kalyan and
Sandip to replace himself and saravana. Moreover, Jiju was dropped at point and
had survived a very close LBW appeal from Kalyan in the 8th over of the innings.
Jiju tried to steal a virtually impossible single and ran himself out in the
10th over. After his departure QCCC bowlers kept taking wickets regularly at one
end while ROCC opener Vishal was standing all alone at the other end. Meanwhile,
Graham took an outstanding catch in the first slip to dismiss Pinkesh of the
bowling of Siddharth. Grahams catch would definitely be one of the best catches
in this whole season. The priced wicket of Vishal came when Siddharth ran him
out with a direct hit at the bowlers end in the 18th over. It was a matter of
finishing the match for QCCC bowlers and they bowled out ROCC for 71 runs in
19.3 overs to win the match by 18 runs.
This win was defintely an unforgettable one for QCCC and it was their second
straight win in the 2003 season. The man of the match was Kalayan of QCCC for
his match winning performance with outstanding bowling figures of 5.3-2-12-3!