Main Umpire: Kapil Leg Umpire: Batting side
Report:
Comfortable victory for GRCC over SPCC by 79 runs
On another fine day for cricket, GRCC hosted SPCC, in this round 11 encounter.
Dhiren (GRCC) won the toss and elected to bat.
GRCC innings
Ramesh and Sastry (in the absence of regular opener Sravan) provided a good
start for GRCC with 40+ runs in quick time. Sastry was the first to go, slashing
a widish delivery from Jagi straight to the man at the extra cover fence. Ramesh
followed soon after getting a faint edge to the keeper off the bowling of Mahesh
for a well made 30. Vicky2 and Amarnath then got into the partnership building
mode. Vicky2 found some rhythm straight away and was stroking the ball while
Amarnath took some time to get his timing right. Their partnership put GRCC on
the road to a challenging total. Vicky2 was unfortunately run out for an
important 38 runs. That brought Salim in and both he and Amarnath tried to go
for the kill. Amarnath however holed out off the bowling of Jagi for an
excellent 40 runs and Salim also followed suit soon. Vicky, Bala, Khanna, Dhiren
all used the long handle to good effect and with the help some excellent running
between the wickets got the score to a challenging 209 for 7. SPCC, for their
part, stuck to a decent line and length and managed to restrict the damage to
some extent.
SPCC innings
After some excellent lunch provided by GRCC (a nice ploy by GRCC to put them to
sleep ... ), SPCC started the innings with Mahesh and Harish. Both the batsmen
seemed to look comfortable against the opening combination of Subin and Bala.
Bala, though pitched a little short initially and was taken for a few runs.
Dhiren then made the move of the game by bringing Salim in place of Bala.
Salim's fuller length provided the exact tonic for GRCC as two SPCC wickets fell
in very first over. The first one was a run out made possible by an excellent
pick-up and throw from Vicky at point to the bowler; Harish being the victim.
The very next ball saw Guru play a full toss towards backward point where vicky
diving to his left pulled off a brilliant catch. Salim almost got a hatrick when
the ball took the egde but fell just inches short of vicky2 at first slip. These
early wickets put GRCC in the driving seat and SPCC were forced to go into
consolidation mode. Bhanu and Venkat provided some brief resistance to the
constant attacking bowling from GRCC before they fell trying to push the scoring
rate. Mahesh was the lone exception among the SPCC as he played the GRCC bowlers
with great ease. He however fell late in the innings after scoring a well
deserved half century. The SPCC tail folded up without much resistance for a
final total of 130, giving GRCC a comfortable victory by 79 runs.
Umpire
We would like to thank Kapil from PCC for his great umpiring. He was consistent
with his decisions and handled the job professionally. Thanks kapil.