Main Umpire: HPCC Leg Umpire: HPCC
On a beautiful Sunday morning, ANZACs travelled to High Point to face PACC, the
team that was in high spirits after their victory against HPCC.
The game was started on time, with HPCC putting ANZACs in to bat first after
they won the toss. The outfield was really heavy and with lot of due, and the
flix pitch was as always unpredictable.
The ANZACs had a shaky start loosing first wicket in Parth, in the first over,
and then Sundar ran himself out in the second. Panda followed in and joined with
Satbir to stabilize the innings, but after a brief partnership, Satbir was
adjudjed leg before wicket. Simon who seemed to see the ball as the size of
water melons was adjudged run out to a direct throw, but he thought it
otherwise.
Shekhar joined Panda, when it seemed that ANZACs would not even make it to the
triple figures for two games in a row, but the gritty and determined innings
from both saw a good partnership of 34, when Panda was brilliantly caught at
covers. All the batsmen to follow chipped in with few run here and there and
ANZACs put in a score of 105 which then seemed to be pretty respectable, given
the start they had and the ground conditions.
After having defended a score of 98 against NCSU the previous weekend, the
ANZACs bowlers were determined to pull this off for the team too. The opening
spell of Parth and Hugh was fiery. They bowled with some purpose, and the
fielders backed them up with some very fine fielding and catching. The openers
were shown their way to the sidelines by Parth, having both of them brilliantly
caught at the first slip by Deepesh. Then in came Deepesh as a second bowling
change, who sent two other batsmen out with some very fine bowling, well
supported at the other end by Simon, and then by Satbir who too managed to take
two wickets.
A gritty innings of 34 n.o. by Bilal, PACC skipper in the end proved not to be
enough to take his team to the victory. Sudeep has been a revelation in this
season, especially in the last two games. In this game, not only he chipped in
with some gritty batting, but also took 3 catches and got a stumping.
Thanks to HPCC for officiating the game in all fairness. Also special credit to
PACC to be ready before the negotiated start time, and playing the game in very
high spirits and showing great sportsmanship.