Hey, no rain in VT? Yes, that’s how we felt. It was a beautiful summer Saturday morning in Blacksburg with the temperature hovering around 80F. A couple of us had driven up the previous night while the rest followed on the day of the match. Many thanks to Ron Knight for officiating the match and maintaining a cordial and professional atmosphere throughout the game.
TCC won the toss and elected to bat judging by the dry conditions that prevailed. We started at ~ 11 AM. Raman and Rajesh Virkar opened the batting and had barely added 16 runs when Rajesh was bowled trying an expansive drive. In walked Ravi Renga and the pair added 40 runs with Raman doing the bulk of the scoring before Ravi succumbed to Ashutosh’s guile and was caught at cover for 4. Aravind didn’t last long. He was out for a duck caught off a fulltoss in Ashu’s bowling. Vijay came in and played the customary sheet anchor role with aplomb. Raman was his usual belligerent self and came up with some astounding shots down the wicket taking advantage of the short straight boundaries. Raman and Vijay added 63 invaluable runs off 10 overs. They waited for the bad balls and did not try anything outrageous. Raman fell in the 24th over for a well-made 57 in trying to accelerate. He just had one life when the fielder at long on spilled a regulation catch off Ashu and in the bargain gave Raman 6 bonus runs. It was a very good knock from TCC’s very own Sehwag considering that runs were hard to come by in VT, given the thick grassy outfield. Rajesh U. came in and added 20 more runs off 5 overs with Vijay. Vijay was runout in the penultimate over trying a non-existent second run. Even though they were only a few balls to spare, Senthil and Rajesh ran some real cheeky singles and took TCC to 148 off 30 overs. We really appreciated ROCC providing pizzas for us during the lunch break, thereby not prolonging the resumption of the second innings.
Aravind opened the bowling for TCC as usual and showed right away why he is regarded as a good allrounder by bowling a maiden over. Hari Namballa shared the new ball at the other end. Pinkesh, a leftie was sent in as the pinch hitter for ROCC and he promptly hit a straight six off Hari’s first over. But, the bowler had the last laugh when Pinkesh skied the next ball to Vijay at mid on who judged the catch to perfection. Omar didn’t last long and was out leg before to Aravind. Harish followed suit after being castled by a beauty off of Aravind’s bowling. Jiju, who was batting well till now was caught at thirdman off Amar trying to drive. Earlier, he had been declared not out after being bowled off Vijay’s waist-high fulltoss that was deemed a no-ball. The brittleness of the ROCC middle order was exposed as one batsmen after the other perished in quick succession. An excellent piece of fielding by Rajbal at cover resulted in Atul’s runout. Ashu, the southpaw, top-edged a ball from Rajbal and Rajesh U. held on to a good catch at midon. Aravind bamboozled Dakshin, ROCC’s keeper, by bowling him all ends up. The previous ball had visibly shaken him when he was hit on the ribcage in trying to hook. Amitabh threw his bat at everything that came his way. He benefited from Ravi’s generosity in the field when Ravi, one of TCC’s safest catchers dropped a sitter at thirdman off Amar. Had the catch been held, ROCC would have been skittled out for less than 50 runs. Raj Uchil, a revelation on the field bowled his leg spinners beautifully. He bowled Ravi, the next batsman in by beating him in the air. Suresh was runout by Uchil in great fashion when he tried a suicidal single. Amitabh was the last man out when he heaved Raj Uchil into the safe hands of Rajbal at deep midwicket.
All in all, it was a comprehensive 70-run victory for TCC and the first one at the VT ground. In hindsight, we should definitely cut down on the number of extras (26 in this match), especially considering the opposition in the upcoming matches.
(compiled
by Vijay Jagannath)