Main Umpire: Ron Knight Leg Umpire: Fergus Robertson
Report:
I would like to thank Sircar & co. for the awesome arrangements
made for the finals. The crowd for their great support and Mr. Khurram Khan for
the award ceremonies. RCC won the toss, good toss to loose as pointed out by
Hari, and elected to bat on a perfect day for cricket. Satbir and Ashish J
opened the RCC innings. Ramesh and Hari started the bowling by hitting their
line and length from the start. Satbir rode his luck in the initial going when
he was dropped 3 times with in a span of 5 overs. I guess the final demanded
some initial jitters. The moment that broke the shackles was Dhiren's blinder of
a catch (Straussesque) in gully to dismiss Ashish with the score on 24/1 in 7.3
overs. Samay joined Satbir and immediately was given a reprieve of the bowling
of Raj. With things in disarray, GRCC took their first break at 10 overs with
score on 54/1. The next 10 overs were pivotal and turned the game in GRCC's
favour. This was mainly attributed due to good bowling by Raj, Khanna. Both of
them cut the singles and made the batsman go for rash shot of good deliveries.
Samay tried to clear long off but was unsuccessful, good catch by Vicky C (53/2
in 11.3 overs). Satbir soon followed when he tried to cut Khanna but found Nat
at point (62/3 in 14 overs). Andy played an uppish square drive and was caught
by Vicky A at point of Raj, 70/4 in 17.3 overs. Chirag got lbw by trying to play
across of Khanna, 86/5 in 20.5 overs. 10 - 20 overs yielded 45 runs and 4
wickets. After this the danger man was Keyur P. Just when he looked to step up
the pace Dhiren got him when Keyur tried to clear long off, good catch by Vicky
c (99/6 in 24.2 overs). The rest of the RCC innings were finished off through
some good fielding, especially the cheeky direct hit from Khanna to remove Keyur
S. RCC ended with 125 in 28.4 overs. Nat and Amar opened the GRCC innings. Samay
started the bowling bang on target and Keyur S followed suit. Amar broke the
monotony when he hit 2 fours of Keyur's second over. With a small total to
defend both openers played it safe and took the occasional boundaries provided
to take the score to 38 for no loss in 10 overs. The match was in a balanced
state. Immediately after the break Andy provided the first break-through by
removing Nat lbw. Vicky C joined Amar and crafted an excellent partnership of 51
runs. Both of them ran well between the wickets and took what the bowlers gave
them. Amar mixed in a few big hits to make sure that the run rate does not get
out of hand. With the various bowling changes not producing the required effect
Samay decided to take matters into his own hands and immediately struck by
bowling Amar (47) with score on 89 in 20.4 overs. In the next over Satbir got
Shas lbw to give RCC a chance to come back into the game. Vicky A joined Vicky C
with 33 runs required of 48 balls. Both of them played sensibly and kept the
strike rotating. Some tight bowling from Satbir and company kept RCC in the
game. In the end with 13 runs to go and 3 overs left Vicky C hit two consecutive
boundaries to make things easy for GRCC. It was then a matter of time before
which we could reach the target. Hari hit the winning run by playing Mayur to
backward square for the much awaited final run with 4 balls to spare. RCC gave a
spirited fight right till the end. The pivotal point in the game was the dropped
catch on Amar by Satbir when he was on 12 and Vicky C's consecutive boundaries
in the 28th over. A job well done, GRCC are 2005 MACC CHAMPIONS!!. I would like
to appreciate the good umpiring from both Ron and Fergus. They were consistent
and impartial through out the game. Amar was given Man of the Match for his
innings of 47.