Main Umpire: Anup Leg Umpire: Batting Side
Report:
TCC romped home with a emphatic 10-wkt win against PCC at the
Elizabeth Holladay school grounds. As it rained on Fri we decided to have a late
start (~12 noon) instead of the usual start time. It turned out to be a wise
decision since the pitch was wet albeit the outfield was nice and dry. Thanks to
OCC's Anup for unbiased umpiring inspite of quite a few appeals from either side
and to Nataraj for accompanying the team and helping out with scoring.
Ravi called it right yet again and we decided to field as expected given the
overcast conditions and that there was very little bounce in the wicket. Paddy
got the first breakthrough by catching Abdul off his own bowling. It was a good
catch given that he had to react fast on his followthrough by lunging forward
while trying to maintain his balance. Aravind cleaned up Solomon in his 2nd over
making it 2 down for just 3 runs. Aravind and Paddy kept the PCC batsmen on a
tight leash giving 'em absolutely nothing to drive at. The pressure on PCC
showed 'cos Murali who was prodding around undecisively miscued a flick that
went flying to Ravi . Kapil would have been out off Cashif's bowling, but thanks
to Vijay dropping a sitter at midoff, he survived. Leftie Ammar and Kapil
carried the score to 41 when Uchil bowled Kapil all ends up while trying an
expansive drive. PCC lost another wicket at 41 when Cashif got Ammar in his next
over by surprising him with a lil' extra bounce and Uchil held the simple lob at
gully. Sundar took care of PCC's skipper Irfan and again it was the miscued
flick and Ravi exemplified great athleticism by diving forward and picking up
the catch inches off the ground at short cover. Rajesh and Charan held on to
couple of good catches in the deep off Sundar and Uchil's bowling respectively
and TCC relentlessly kept pegging away at PCC's batsmen. Ravi got Aravind back
into the attack to deliver the final blows and he responded by cleaning Zulfi up
right away who was caught appreciating his shot before he hit one. Mahesh and
Khadir decided to prolong the proceedings by blocking at everything that was
bowled at 'em. They didn't go after the bad balls either. However, Mahesh showed
his prowess with a couple of good shots in the last 3-4 overs. Sundar had the
dubious distinction of allowing the only six in PCC's innings. Finally, after
adding 34 invaluable runs for the 10th wicket, Khadir was adjudged leg-before
off Vijay's bowling in the 30th over. Aravind, Uchil, Sundar and Paddy shared
the spoils with 2 wickets apiece while Vijay and Cashif got the remainder.
Overall, it was a great bowling effort. We spilled around 4 catches, but luckily
that didn't go against us.
TCC was too eager to start the chase without too much of a break in between.
With a banana and food bar for lunch, Charan and Ravi headed out. Imran and
Irfan opened the bowling for PCC and they beat the bat a few times. In 4 overs,
there were only 9 runs on the board. Mahesh, a left arm spinner was brought into
the attack and that seemed to open the flood gates for us. A deluge of runs
flowed especially from Charan's bat (or should we say Paddy's V-900). Mahesh was
clobbered repeatedly for sixers and boundaries. Ravi was playing himself in
beautifully after having survived a few leg-before shouts. In trying a
square-cut off Mahesh, he got a life when Murali failed to latch on to a sitter
at extra-cover. Later on, he pulled a couple of balls for maximum runs. PCC's
attack was taken to the cleaners and in just over 13 overs we wrapped it all up.
It was a great batting display given that we didn't lose a wicket in the
process, with caution mixed with controlled aggression, an approach worth
emulating in the matches to come.
Go TCC!
Man of Match : Charan Gowda
-Vijay Jagga