To start off, HCC arrived early inspite of the 4-hr drive.The game started about 10:45am with HCC winning the toss and opting to bat.They were able to field only 9 players for this game since they had some folks giving exams in the next couple of days.TCC started with a bang with captain Aravind leading from the front by capturing Ghalib’s (HCC’s captain) wicket off the very first ball he bowled!!The ball kept low and darted into the batsman rattling the furniture on the way. Hari Prasad came in and batted very nicely given the dire straits that his team was in – 0/1.The wicket proved to be of dual nature, the odd ball literally rolling on the mat. Hari Namballa shared the new ball with Aravind, but wasn’t his usual self spraying the ball all over the place, but definitely surprised the batsmen with a couple of balls that kicked up off the seam. Vishi, the other opener was caught by Renga (or his belly!) at first slip off Aravind and HCC was teetering at 18 for 2. Hari Prasad and Ram Prasad stemmed the rot by taking the score to a respectable 70 when Rajesh Virkar had Ram edge one onto his stumps. Prakash proved an able ally to Hari Prasad, but the latter lost his wicket when the score was 89 in a fortuitous manner. Syed, TCC’s stumper cum leg spinner deflected striker Prakash’s straight drive on to the stumps catching Hari a couple of inches short while trying to back up at the non-striker’s end.After this wicket, HCC lost their way.Barring Bhakta who slogged a little in the death overs, the others didn’t lend any support to Prakash who remained unbeaten on 24.HCC was all out for 136.Aravind and Syed got 2 wickets apiece while Sundar and Rajesh V got 1 each.TCC bowled well to restrict the opposition to a low score, but gave away 27 extras, an area that definitely needs discipline in the upcoming matches.
TCC began the chase
pretty well with a run rate of ~ 6 and got to 34 in quick time thanks to
Ravi Renganathan and Rajesh Virkar. Ravi batted with great maturity and
curbed his natural instinct to go over the top and decided to take 1s and
2s. Rajesh was bowled off the inside edge off Hari Prasad’s bowling. Vijay
came in one drop, played himself in with a couple of crisp drives down
the wicket, but threw his wicket away trying to distort the bowler’s rhythm
resulting in an inside edge on to his stumps. Aravind came in to bat and
was his usual self driving and flicking with aplomb.They carried the score
to 80 when Ravi succumbed to Ghalib’ guile.He gave a tame return catch
falling 3 short of what would have been a well-compiled 50. Syed, who is
Mr.Dependable for TCC hit a boundary and when he just seemed comfortable was
caught by Hari Prasad at square leg trying a flick off Prakash.TCC barely
crossed the hundred mark when Aravind was declared out caught by Ghalib at
mid on off Prakash. Rajesh U came in and batted in commonsensical fashion
that was actually the need of the hour by rotating the strike. Balaji played
with a straight bat for a few balls and decided he had had enough by pulling
Ghalib for a flat six over midwicket. But, he was a victim of aggression and
was trapped plumb in front off Ghalib with the very next ball. Amar came
in and prevented any more catastrophes from happening. Rajesh U. and Amar
took TCC home and we won by 4 wickets! In the end, it was a good game of
cricket with no arguments and controversies.TCC loaned a couple of fielders
to HCC when the latter was fielding.
(compiled
by Vijay Jagannath)