TCC vs CCC, Shiloh Park, June 15th 1998; TCC wins by 6 runs
You can be sure about one thing when CCC and TCC play against each other- an absolute run-fest. Throw all sense and logic out of the window. These games invariably turn into dog fights, with the result decided in the last overs. Last year TCC chased a total of 195+ against CCC and won at Duke. CCC later chased totals of around 170 in two matches to beat TCC. So all in all a great rivalry. And this game did not disappoint either…
CCC won the toss and put us to bat. Not surprising as we would have done the same thing if we had called right. In the absence of Kalyan, Ram and Damodar opened the innings. Both the batsmen had come off great performances in the previous match and were exuding confidence. CCC started with Vijay and Imran. Damodar got TCC off to a great start playing his strokes from the go. Ram on the other end was his usual solid self and we got off to a flier. Damodar was particularly severe on Vijay driving him on either side of the wicket. Ram on the other end had a beautiful drive for four and we were cruising at 35 odd in 4 overs.
Imran on the other end, bowled one of the best spells I've seen him bowl against TCC. He made full use of the new ball by pitching it up and making it move consistently off the pitch. Despite this both the batsman were settling down when Ram played over a ball from Imran which kept low to lose his off-stump. Ramesh went in, and with Damodar in good nick it looked as though that TCC will brush away the early loss of Ram.
Sanjay, noticing that Vijay was being read well by Damodar made a quick change to bring in Pravin on the other end to bowl. Damodar greeted him with a huge six over midwicket. The next ball was pitched a bit short but kicked higher than expected. Damodar, who had given himself room to pull the ball was committed to the stroke. The resultant shot drove the ball a mile in the air and Pravin took a well judged catch at the runners crease. Damodar had done his job by getting TCC off to a good start. But we had lost two of our better batsman in the first 5 overs.
Anand came and unfortunately had to face a real wicked first ball. The ball pitched close to the off-stump inviting Anand forward and then moved to take the outer edge to give a regulation catch behind the stumps. It was a wonderful ball from Imran and would have gotten the wicket of a well settled batsman- let alone one facing his 1 st ball. A huge blow- this- for TCC as Anand had really middled the ball in practice and played some great strokes. On the whole Anand had one of those bad days which occur for even people like him. TCC was 48 for 3.
Vijay came in. On the other end Ramesh was batting well keeping his end up. A full toss from Pravin was driven for a six over covers. Seeing that Damodar had left, Sanjay got Vijay back into the attack. Vijay and Ramesh endured two torrid overs from Imran who consistently beat the bat but was unlucky not to find the edge.
After 2 overs, Vijay started middling the ball and showed his intentions with a lovely extra- cover drive for four. The runs were coming quite freely and the important thing was to retain one's wicket. At long last Vijay had gotten back his batting form and looked set for a long stint. And as usual, he fell to a ball which kept low (identical to the Anzacs dismissal). Having committed to the backfoot he could not do much to that ball from Pravin which hit his leg and then his offstump. A good inning nevertheless and a useful partnership to bring the score to 78 for 4.
Khalil came in and batted as only he can. Three consecutive balls he was beaten outside the offstump. The fourth one was a full toss on the leg side and was dispatched with minimum fuss over the backward square leg boundary for a six. Ramesh on the other end was doing ok. Shankar's warm-up ball was swung over square leg for a six. After missing the first three balls of Shahid's over the fourth and the fifth were driven over covers for consecutive sixers.
After playing well Khalil was beaten by a flighted ball from Shankar and was stumped by the keeper. The author felt that he had enough time to get back but unfortunately was looking at the umpire for a leg before decision, when the bails were removed. TCC was 100 odd for 5.
Yeshpal came and thus began the most productive phase of TCC batting. This guy is in a zone these days and can hit anything and everything out of the ground. And he showed his entire repertoire. Lucky enough to be reprived at the mid-wicket boundary early in his innings- he made CCC pay. A great shot over cover-midoff for a six. A pull over midwicket for a lovely four. The another drive through cover for four – all shots were pure joy to watch. This coupled with some quick running between the wickets- and the pressure was back on CCC. Ramesh concentrated on giving the strike to Yeshpal as much as possible.
After an excellent innings of around 20 runs- each of which were very well struck shots- Yeshpal pulled a slower from Shankar w/o getting to the pitch of the ball. The ball dropped to where mid-on would have been when Ahmed running in from deep mid-on took a great catch. By the time Yesh got out TCC was out of the woods and cruising along for a bid score. Krishna came in and started batting in his unique style (!?). A well struck drive went to the point boundary (he would later remark that his square drive in the LEG side was the best shot of his inning!). He gave the charge to all the bowlers creating havoc and getting two more fours in no time. Altogether doing exactly what we wanted him to do…
In the meantime Ramesh got to his 50 with a four off Imran and then pulled him over mid wicket for another six. By now he was seeing the ball quite well. The onset of the slog overs saw a flurry of runs peppered by the loss of wickets. With 5 batsman left, all TCC players went for their shots. After another six over extra cover Ramesh fell for 68, lofting a overpitched ball from Vijay to Ahmed's hands at mid-on.
Following Ramesh, Rajesh went in. As I have mentioned before ,nothing ever rattles him. Calm and collected he took singles- giving Krishna the strike. Krishna made a quick fire 15 (3 fours) before lofting a slower ball from Imran to give Ahmed another catch.
Naveen went in- playing his first match for TCC. An unassuming guy with a massive backlift giving him immense power behind his shots. He went in with 3 overs to go and struck some big blows- especially in off. Every shot was off the middle of the bat. A lovely offdriven six was the pick of the shots. He faced 8-10 balls and scored 15 runs. These runs were to prove very crucial in the end. Going away from the stumps to pull a ball, Naveen was castled in the last over after a nice cameo.
Amit and Rajesh kept the scoreboard moving in the last over with Rajesh responding to calls for quick singles with Amit. It was fun to watch Rajesh run those quick ones. Altogether a great batting performance…Ironically two of our openers (Amit and Rajesh) went in the end to bat, showing the depth of TCC batting.
Not one guy was complacent during the break- we wanted to win this comprehensively. CCC being a good batting team, we told ourselves we will follow two simple axioms- bowl to the stumps giving no width to drive and reduce wides. Easy to say…
It is pretty amazing how long term prognosis can be done with the 1st over. Vijay opened with Rajesh- our best bet to bowl straight and use the new ball as he did against MCC. The 1st over produced three wides. This essentially defined our bowling. Pravin opened out with a six off a full toss from rajesh and the flood gates opened. Krishna had a reasonably good first over (although it had 2 wides) but things got from bad to worse after that. CCC were going for their shots to keep the required run rate from climbing and succeeded brilliantly at that. The initial run rate was close to 9 runs an over.
Just when things were looking bad for TCC, krishna produced the first breakthrough. An edge from pravin had gone between Vijay and Ram earlier. This time krishna induced a thick outer edge and the ball flew to the right of Vijay at short gully. Vijay threw his 300 lb (chiseled ) body and came up with a stunner inches away from the ground one handed. Comparable to Yesh's catch last year against CCC (at gully again).
Ahmed came in and krishna bowled two very good balls and then undid all good by bowling two lousy ones. The first one was over pitched on the leg side and promptly dispatched for a six. The next was again outside the leg stump and was pulled over backward square for a four. Runs were coming at a rapid pace and to compound things our safest pair of hands – Anand- dropped Ahmed at deep mid-on. Things did not look good for TCC when Ahmed got out pulling a ball over to Vijay at mid wicket.
Shankar came in and had problems timing the ball. A ball from Damodar went ohh..so close back to him. But he stuck around until he got his timing right- and then went on to play a long innings studded with lovely shots. Nair meanwhile got out after a good stint, to Vijay – the ball rapping the pads first before hitting the bat- lbw. Vijay insists that he was cutting the ball both ways at that stage. The author very much doubts whether this was true – if Vijay can move the ball then so can Naveen (!), but in any case Vijay was the pick of the TCC bowlers with Damodar.
Sanjay joined Shankar and the score moved nicely till Shankar was bowled by Vijay off one which kept low. Although losing wickets regularly, CCC had kept up with the run rate. When finally Shankar was out caught by Krishna at the extra cover fence, we thought we were home dry. Think again…
Last ten overs- CCC needed 83 to win. Vijay and Imran were at the crease. Imran who had a lovely initial spell in bowling- went berserk. Yeshpal (who had a fine initial spell) was given the task of bowling the end overs. And in one over Imran nearly changed it all. Ball was whacked from the offstump over midwicket. Ball two was again pitched up and launched into the stratosphere. We breathed a sigh of relief when ball three was a maiden and were rewarded by another mammoth hit off the 4th ball (which was well pitched up) for another huge six. 18 runs + change in that over.
We were at our wits end when Vijay got out caught by Ram at deep mid wicket- bringing the other Vijay. Imran was finally out caught by Ramesh at the backward point boundary after a blistering knock. TCC's bowling can be defined by one Krishna over- the 28th .
Ball one was pitched short- the ball hurried off the pitch- no run. Krishna had decided on this line of pitching short- after seeing yeshpal getting hit by pitching it up. An excellent decision. Ball 2 was hit for a single. Ball 3 was a wide. Ball 4 was a lovely ball- beating the bat. Ball 5 and 6 were wides. Ball 7 and eight were good balls getting just singles. Unfortunately 6 runs were taken so far out of which only three were off the bat. And ofcourse there was one more ball remaining- the last one- which should not have been even their if not for the wides. This ball was pitched up and was heaved over deep mid wicket for a huge six. 12 runs off the over –out of which 9 could have been easily avoided by just staying off wides. All the good work done with the well bowled deliveries were undone by the wides. And that too not in the first over- where one is warming up- in the 28th over, by the bowler who TCC depends on for breakthroughs…
In any case that six brought down the rate to 14 runs in 2 overs. And we survived as we bowled two of the best overs in the end. And ofcourse it did help that their big hitters were gone…Nevertheless, Anand bowled a very good over giving just five runs and a wicket with yeshpal taking a well judged catch to get Vijay at deep mid on. Damodar who had bowled brilliantly so far was given the last over and did not disappoint making the batsman play each ball. Only three runs were scored in the last over and we won by six runs.
In summary, it was a great game. Kudos to CCC for a great performance and wish them luck along their way. As for us, this is a game we would have lost last year. We won this because of our ability to hold on to catches. Simple catches- but crucial nevertheless. Shankar- krishna, 'Big' Vijay-Ram, 'Keeper' Vijay-Yeshpal, Ahmed-Vijay, Imran-Ramesh were all taken – and we survived. Also helping us was the passion by which people wanted to win the game. Case in point Yeshpal standing dejected after Imran' assault, Krishna apologizing to everyone after that six which he gave- and ofcourse the hi-fi 'ing that followed each CCC dismissal. Although it would have been nice to win by a better margin- the fact remains that this was a great win that couldn't have been achieved w/o every individual chipping in. And the whole pleasure that comes with beating CCC - is primarily because we know it is going to be a good close game. Get set for JCC next…