May 3rd, 1998
After making us come at 12 pm for a 1 pm match Vijay turned up at 12.40 and guessed right with the toss. Again we chose bowling to channel Krishna's anger at having come early towards the batsmen. Krishna rewarded us with a very hostile opening spell of 3 overs. He kept the ball consistently around the off stump, pitching just short of good length. The pace and movement had the ANZAC openers in a lot of trouble. There were two edges one of which went agonizingly close to Ram, who managed get his hand to it, but failed to hold on. Amit on the other end kept plugging away and ANZAC's found runs hard to come by.
The 1st wicket fell at a total of around 12 with Stephen being run out by an excellent pick up and throw from point by Damodar. Peter had trouble reading Krishna's bowling and hence tried to swat Amit for some runs. The ball was not timed properly and Khalil at short mid wicket took a nice catch for the 2nd wicket. Rajesh came in for Krishna and almost immediately got a breakthrough. Trying to pull Rajesh down the leg-side Dave managed to just get a glove on to it. The ball went to Kalyan who unfortunately dropped it. This was to prove very costly for TCC. Kalyan who was playing his first game had trouble throughout the match getting used to the dual bounce especially down the leg-side. The couple of nice catches he did take unfortunately were ruled as off the pads. On the whole he had a rough afternoon getting hit in the jaw by one which popped up more than usual. Most of his rustiness was gone by the end of the game and he should be back to the old Kalyan by the next game.
Dave and Collins pushed the score along when Krishna bowled a lovely ball which beat Collins and took the inner edge to kalyan and gave him a well deserved wicket. In the other end, Dave kept the score moving with nudges and the odd hit for a four. Craig settled down to play some nice shots when Vijay (who bowled much better than at hampton) bowled a quicker one. Craig tried to pull it over mid wicket missed the line and was caught plumb in front. A crucial breakthrough... Immediately thereafter Amit took a nice a catch at short midwicket to dismiss Botha for a quack. The ball was struck firmly. Amit palmed and juggled with it before coming down with the ball left handed.
Dave in the meantime was give out (caught behind) but was called back by Vijay as we felt that the ball had grazed the pad. Did we regret that…Something had gotten into him…Must be the sun- and he took the bowlers for a ride. Sandeep, who bowled really well to Craig beating him with his variation, was pulled for a six. Anand was swatted for a massive six. We considered telling Dave to leave but decided against it. What he was doing was so unfair…J
Amit (who made Vijay's day) took another superlative catch at short midwicket to dismiss Smythe. The ball was hit a mile in the air and Amit who was turned all the way around ran backwards and took a great catch. The positive thing was that we had gotten a wicket. The negative was that Vijay was going to bowl another six overs in the next match as he had gotten three wickets here.
Dave on the other end was cruising along. He finally got out after 79 gutsy runs caught by Sandeep at deep mid off- a well judged catch, off Damodhar. The next batsmen added some 20 more runs (6 of them being contributions to the Salvation Army from Krishna in the last over) leaving TCC with the task of scoring 167 runs off 30 overs.
We started off very well with Damodhar playing off the middle from ball 1. Rajesh unfortunately went for a swing before getting his eye in and was caught by Craig at mid-off. We were 6 odd for 1. Ramesh almost fell off the 1st ball trying to drive the ball, getting an outside edge (as most of his shots are) and being almost caught in the point line. The ball was dropped and he survived. Damodhar meanwhile was playing quite well when he tried to heave a straight ball off Hardshaw in the leg side- missed the line and got bowled. It was definitely a big blow for TCC as he is a guy who can transform a game single handedly. In any case we were 14 odd for 2.
Ram came in and settled down to play a truly great knock as only he can. The body was perfectly behind the ball with the initial runs just coming off pushes before slowly moving on to a different gear. Ramesh overheard the ANZAC's say that there was this great bat on the crease and smiled a contended smile. The bowler came back and said that they were not talking about him…
In any case Ramesh played stationary french cricket refusing to move his feet and heaving at anything and everything- none of which connected. Things looked especially bad because Ram was batting on the other end showing how easy batting was. In any case Ramesh survived because the ANZAC's figured that by getting Ramesh out they will have to face a better batsman (they did not know that Vijay was next).
Ram's batting was a delight to watch. Drives on the V either side of the wicket. Anything short was promptly dispatched off the backfoot. Anything slight overpitched was swung across the line to the midwicket boundary. The partnership progressed with Ramesh getting most of his runs behind the wicket and Ram getting his in the front. Between them they used the entire field.
After fifteen overs TCC was 70 odd for 2. During drinks people were pleading with Ram not to get out and were pleading with Ramesh to do so. TCC needed a little more than 6 runs and over at that stage. The 1st over after drinks produced some good cricket with Ram convincing Ramesh to take available singles and not go for the big swings. ANZAC's were taken by surprise by the fact that Ramesh could hit some in the front of the wicket as a result of which 6 runs came off the 1st over.
The fifth bowler for ANZAC's started the new over and 13 runs came off it to bring the required rate to 6 an over. The score was 89 when Ramesh fell bowled by Whiteman after a lousy shot. Vijay went and played well and kept taking singles and giving the strike to Ram. Ram meanwhile was just continuing from where he left last year. Absolutely in control. His running between the wickets was superb and the score went up to 99. When again misfortune struck- Ram tried to go across the line to swing Whiteman down the leg side missed the line and was castled. 99 for 4.
Vijay followed soon after missing the line off a ball which kept quite low. We were 100 for 5. Fortunately TCC's batting line up is really deep with Anand and Khalil coming really low down the order. They batted quite comfortably to take the score to 107 when the rain came pouring down. One of the more entertaining shots was a "header" by Khalil for a four! In any case the match was abandoned when it was evenly poised and both teams got 4 points each.