Main Umpire: Salman/NCSU Leg Umpire: Batting Team
Report:
Under Cloudy Skies That Threatened Rain The Greenville
Hurricanes Stormed Shiloh With A Convincing Win Over The Newly Named Khaleel
Memorial Cricket Club (formerly DCC): The Greenville Hurricanes won the toss and
with less than favorable weather conditions elected to field first. KMCC (DCC)
took the field ready to wreak a little revenge on the Hurricanes who had
narrowly beaten them earlier in the season in Greenville. Umpire Salman of NCSU
Cricket Club called for the start of the game and both sides took the field
hoping that the weather would hold for the duration of the match. Fawad and
Baseer opened the innings for KMCC. Both of the batsman played sensibly and
steadily scored runs against some tight bowling by GH opening bowlers Majid
Rafiq and Faraz Rafi. The fall of the first wicket came with Fawad's LBW
dismissal by first change bowler, Captain Gaurang Patel, with 17 team runs on
the board. Fawad was replaced on the wicket by Imran who fell into a nice
partnership with Baseer. The partnership managed to put forty-two more runs up
on the board before GH Hurricanes bowler Uzhair Sheik broke the spell by bowling
Imran in the 10th over. KMCC wickets began falling quickly with the introduction
of GH's new swing bowler Snehal Patel who managed to bowl Baseer, Musafar and
team Captain Salman while KMCC put only 6 more runs on the board. GH bowler
Uzhair Sheik managed to pull off two more wickets with an LBW for Salman A. and
a beautiful catch by Faraz Rafi for the fall of Ali's wicket. KMCC sent in Jatin
who tried to steady the team by finding the boundary more than six times for an
overall score of 37 Not Out. Unfortunately, the GH bowling attack was relentless
and opening bowler Majid Rafiq took wickets 9 and 10 with an LBW to Asad and by
bowling Kashif. Majid also assisted with the final wicket by catching Arif's
shot off of Captain Gaurang Patels bowling. The KMCC innings ended with a scored
of 118. Both teams were watching the sky as they took a lunch break. The wind
had picked up and there were some sprinkles of rain, but after a short break the
teams took to the field for the Hurricanes innings. Veteran player Kulwant
Persaud and Kam Desai took the field determined to stay and make their mark
after a rough week last week against COCC. Kulwant tested the waters with a
single off of opening bowler Baseer's first ball. Kam let his first ball go for
a dot but came back fighting on his second ball when he pulled one down the
leg-side for a boundary. The partnership finished out the first over confidently
with 11 runs. As the wind picked up and the temperature dropped the partnership
quickly found it's rhythm and tore in to the KMCC bowling attack. The
partnership went on to score a century in 11 short overs. Kulwant's wicket was
the first to fall shortly after by LBW. Desai managed to hold steady throughout
the innings by putting an impressive 34 runs on the board !
with his straight and sensible play. The GH Captain Gaurang
Patel replaced Kulwant at the wicket and managed an impressive six into the
trees and a boundary before being bowled by Asad's deceptively moving ball.
Majid Rafiq then came in looking to finish up the innings but fell prey to KMCC
Arif's economical and tight bowling and a great catch by Kashif. GH's final
batsman was Snehal Patel who could only stand and watch as the Kam Desai, showed
his batting sense by smashing a final boundary to win the match with 121 runs
and 7 wickets left in hand. It seems that after a very long first season and a
rocky start to season two the sometimes unpredictable Greenville Hurricanes have
finally found their sea legs. Thank you to KMCC for hosting us and for the lunch
of sub sandwiches and good luck with the rest of your season. Thank you, also,
to Salman for your fair-minded officiating. We'll see you again on the field.