Main Umpire: CLCC Leg Umpire: CLCC
Report:
You could feel the excitement in the air! Both teams were looking to draw their
first blood in their debut MACC match. SCCA was in at 9 am ‘prep’ing
the ground and warming up. CCCC came as a pack – looking keen and
well-knit .
A good crowd of SCCA supporters were expected to cheer the team. Already at 10
am, Ken Barbor, the person instrumental for a lot of what SCCA ‘is’
now, was a early spectator with his wife!
The toss came at 10:30 sharp. Blessington (The Cap of SCCA) won the Toss and
decided to take the field –decision based on a mixture of ground
conditions and defensive approach.
The match got underway at 10:40. Glen, the star fast bowler of SCCA, routed the
opening pair in his very second over. Blessy scored his first wicket on his very
first ball. (Glen took a splendid catch in the slips) In the same over, Blessy
showed his presence of mind to run a wandering Bharat out. At 33 for 4, CCCC was
desperately looking for a partnership and - it did come! Sharat played a
Captains knock, scoring 54. Siddharth scored a supporting 31. Archie (19) and
Kalyan (12) delivered the ‘lift’ the team needed towards the end.
SCCA did well in restricting CCCC for only 62 at the end of 15 overs, but lost
its way and gave away 110 in the next 15.
Disaster struck SCCA early on! At 5 after loosing 2 very useful batsmen (Milind
and Matt), the spirits were sinking a little bit. While Zeeshan was trying to
soothe out the quick fall of wickets, Janardhan played his natural game. Jana
Scored a quick 20 (of 11 balls) before he was caught. Ijaz went in when the
score read 39 for 3. The ‘ever ready’ man played a repeat
partnership with Zeeshan. Together they scored 108 runs. CCCC tried 8 bowlers,
but none delivered the break. Instead they were hit all over the ground. After
starting unusually quite, Zeeshan treated the crowd with some excellent stroke
play! He scored 22 runs of Sarat’s last over, before he was run out. Ejaz
remained not out at 39 – The total grossly underestimates his contribution
for the Team’s Victory. In short, It was Zeeshan’s and Ejaz’s
day! Congrats! to them and SCCA.
SCCA would like to extend a special thanks to the Umpires from CLCC for their
consistency and professionalism. Their were some testing times (atleast 2) and
they did wonderfully well. Thank you.
SCCA would also like to thank the CATO and DST crowd for cheering the team to
victory.