TCC at CLCC

It was a beautiful breezy sunny day at Reedy Creek Park in Charlotte as
I arrived to mark the creases. Unfortunately for my plans this was at
the same time as CLCC arrived to mow the field and prepare the pitch.
So the first thing I need to say in this report is that this conflict in
plans was simply an unfortunate coincidence. If I seemed irritated it
was at the inconvenience, not at the work being done by CLCC to prepare
the ground and the pitch for the match. They worked hard and deserved
commendation, not irritation.

TCC arrived in good time, but due to the delay in my completing my
pre-match work we did not start the match until 10:55. TCC won the toss
and elected to bat first.

Umpiring with me was Saurabh Mishra of the Queen City CC. I very much
enjoyed meeting and working with Saurabh. For the first time this year
I got to stand at square leg for half the match as Saurabh held up his
end of the umpiring duties. We communicated well and consulted each
over about the ball count. We sustained some accusation that we
miscounted three overs, but an examination of the scorecard showed that
there was only one 5-ball over. Amazing that it doesn't ever seem to
occur to anyone that perhaps it was the scorer who missed the ball,
rather than the umpires.

TCC were well restricted by the CLCC bowlers in the opening overs,
accumulating only 20 runs after 9 overs for the loss of one wicket.
Samir Tikare came in at number 3 and ended up being the highest scoring
batsman for TCC and for the match, with 54. He watched two partners be
given out LBW, amazingly enough agreeing with both decisions, before
finally giving up his own wicket with the score taken to 103 after 20
overs. In the end TCC batted the entire 30 overs for the loss of eight
wickets, with the last four wickets being bowled down, and reached a
score of 166.

On the old concrete pitch, with the short boundaries at Reedy Creek
Park, 166 would not have been much of a target, but on the Flicx pitch
the ball was keeping low and it was difficult to score except on bad
balls. TCC would have preferred to have set a higher target, but still
they took the field determined to defend the one they had.

Although CLCC were behind the required run rate of over 5-1/2 runs per
over until late in their innings, they stayed well ahead of TCC's totals
over by over. For example, they had 46 runs after 9 overs, in contrast
with TCC's 20. Conversely, they did lose wickets slightly faster than
TCC had, which of course kept the interest up. An early contributor to
CLCC's batting was Kunal, who scored 30, the second-highest total of the
match. But he fell victim to a disputed LBW decision in the 19th over,
the fourth wicket to fall, at 104, while TCC's third wicket had fallen
at 103. At this point the match could clearly go either way.

I said in my last match report that one of the things I like best about
cricket is that the momentum and advantage can change so many times
during the course of a match. This match was no exception, but the
momentum and advantage tended to change subtly, with the match fairly
evenly balanced until the very end.

The decisive stand determining the outcome of the match was put on by
Ashish and captain Shashi of CLCC, who took the score from 104 to 146
before Shashi was finally bowled in the 25th over. After two more
strong overs from CLCC, Raj Uchil took the ball with the score at 162,
five runs from victory, and three overs still to bowl. It looked as
though Raj had been chosen as the sacrificial lamb to give up the
winning runs, but instead he gave up only two runs and took two wickets,
LBW and caught, as well as having a strong second LBW appeal that was
turned down. This left CLCC at 164 for 7 with two overs still to bowl,
and TCC was showing that they had not yet given up the match.

But Ashish was still at the crease. After facing three dot balls in the
29th over, Ashish sent a delivery behind him to an empty part of the
field on the leg side, and he and his partner ran the three winning
runs.

TCC 166 for 8 in 30.0 overs; CLCC 167 for 7 in 28.4 overs: CLCC wins and
qualifies for the finals by 3 wickets.

Saurabh and I had a particularly difficult time selecting a Man of the
Match. The top scorer (Samir with 54) and top wicket-taker (Raj Uchil
with 3) were from the losing side; although the Man of the Match can be
from the losing side, and both of these were considered, we eventually
felt that it was necessary to go to the winning side for our choice.
Unfortunately CLCC used 8 bowlers to take the 8 TCC wickets; 6 bowlers
took a wicket, with 2 of these taking two wickets, so there was no
outstanding wicket-taker; there was some good containment bowling by
Abhi and Gopal, but you seldom see MoM given for that. Kunal certainly
deserved consideration for his 30 from the bat. But the top batsmen for
CLCC did not produce any particularly outstanding bowling figures, so
there was no all-rounder worthy of selection. In the end Saurabh and I
agreed that the decisive part of the match was the 4th-wicket stand of
Shashi and Ashish. They split the runs between them, scoring 21 and 22
runs, so Saurabh and I had no choice but to split the award and name
Shashi and Ashish as joint Men of the Match.

Good sportsmanship was on display from TCC and CLCC throughout the
match, and I look forward to seeing a good sporting match between CLCC
and CCC in the finals. There were a few spectators it would be nice to
see CLCC leave behind when they come, however. I have always enjoyed
umpiring at Reedy Creek Park in the past exactly because they generally
have more enthusiastic spectators there than at the other League
venues. It is a pity that at times this enthusiasm gets out of hand and
becomes abusive. What can be done in safety by three spectators in Eden
Gardens or The Gabba has much more potential for unsafe conditions when
the same three spectators in a much smaller crowd can grab control of
the tone of a match and there is no organized security. I have no
complaints about the conduct of either CLCC or TCC, and I don't know
what can be done about spectators who are not under the control of the
teams. But we cannot allow conditions to become dangerous for players,
spectators or umpires in our matches.

Still, there were many spectators there who were keenly enjoying a
close-fought match between two teams playing in the Spirit of Cricket.
I thank them all and my partner Saurabh Mishra for a well-conducted
cricket match that was fun to be a part of.

See you at the finals!

Ron Knight