After a couple of days of heavy rain, no one thought that this game would even get underway. But with a lot of 'patch' work to Shiloh from members of both teams and the umpires from DCC, a game got underway around 2.30pm. ANZACs won the toss and put TCC into bat in a bid to probably use the damp conditions against TCC's strong batting line up.

ANZAC's gamble paid off when the TCC openers (Ravi Renga & Charan Gowda) found the runs hard to come by, backed by a tight spell of bowling from Parth Patel and Satbir Minhas. The pressure to keep the score board ticking forced the first wicket, a run out, when Ravi called for a tight single and started off but Charan negated the call. Jeff fielded the ball smartly and sent in a good throw to beat Ravi to the non-striker's crease (1-10/1.4). Ravi, who recently bought a good pair of GN cricket shoes, to help with his feet's grip on field, needs to probably work the ham strings a lil' more :).

TCC's next bat, Samir Tikare as usual played himself in and along with Charan worked on seeing the ANZAC's opening spell off. ANZACs first change bowler, Simon seemed to be having problems with the damp ball and ended up sending a few juicy full-tosses to Samir, who gladly deposited them to the leg side boundary. Meanwhile Charan, who seemed to be in fine nick, hit an over-pitched ball from Parth directly back at Parth, who held the sharp chance (2-21/4.4). The second over from Simon produced another wicket against the run of play. Samir after carting Simon's 'mildly' over-pitched stuff all over Shiloh, mishit a rank full toss into the hands of Satbir fielding at mid-on (3-56/7.4).

The fall of this wicket, brought Aravind Narayanan & Vijay Jagga together in the middle, a left-right batting combination that has saved TCC the blushes several times in the last couple of years. And they did exactly that once again with the TCC innings being at a precarious position. The duo stitched together a partnership of 88 valuable runs, working through the ANZACs middle-inning bowlers. In the 18th overs, ANZACs brought in off-spinner Sunil Patil who had Aravind caught in the deep for a well made 47 (4-144/20.2). Sunil bowled an excellent spell of 6 continuous overs to return with figures of 6-1-24-1. The next couple of overs saw a dip in the run rate with some tight bowling from Ketan Shah and Sunil. TCC's next bat Syed Nisar, did not last long again getting caught in the deep while trying to hit himself out of the run-rut (5-147/23.1). Syed who named his daughter 'Sanaa' just like Saurav Ganguly, needs look at some other icon for a "get-out-of-trouble" solution :). Vijay Jagga soon followed, caught in the deep off Parth, while trying to accelerate the scoring (6-152/24.3).

With the fall of that wicket, TCC's tail was exposed and ANZACs had five overs to close the innings. However TCC's vice-capt., Rajesh Uppalapati who had a terrible run of form last season, chose the right moment to get back into nick. Rajesh, along with support from Cashif Ansari and Dhanraj "Raj? Uchil (16 of 6 balls) put together 52 runs to finish the innings at 204 with Uchil going pretty heavy on Harman Singh's last over. Uchil who has earned the rating of 'strike bowler' from TCC's capt., must be expecting an class upgrade to ‘strike all-rounder :).

The teams took a 20 min break to catch their breath. The ANZACs chase started at 5.20pm and what a start it was! Satbir Minhas, one of ANZAC's steady bats, got an Aravind'special for the first ball of the innings, sending the off-stump on a walk (1-0/0.1)! Satbir, who had a excellent outing in the field (3 catches, 4ov. for 1), stood there in disbelief and pinched himself. Aravind, one of TCC's still-surviving bachelors, had returned a week before from a trip to India without a 'bride' (though the rumor-mill has it that the search rivalled the 'Search-for-Iraq's-WMD', but Aravind rejected all the aspiring applicants) ... all-in-all, looks like his trip was good for TCC's cricketing season :). Parth Patel came in and played a sensible innings, seeing of the good balls and punishing the bad ones. Harman, the other ANZACs opener, survived a torrid spell of fast bowling from Aravind which included several missed edges and a confident caught-behind turned down by the umpires; while Rajbal Balan (yours truly), kept things tight from the other end.

The first ball of the 5^th over, finally nicked Harman’s blade for TCC’s keeper Samir to hold on to a high chance (2-14/4.1). The over also saw Rajbal put his new Whirlpool washer to the test ... Parth forcefully drove an over-pitched ball from Aravind, between cover an mid-off. Rajbal who was fielding at cover made a “late” diving attempt to stop the ball and ended up in a puddle of mud (2nd in size only to Shiloh’s Barbee Pond). When Rajbal finally got up, there were a few white areas left on his clothing and couple of tadpoles jumped out of his pockets. Rajbal, whose mind probably expects the body to react 15yrs younger than the 36yrs it actually is, needs to learn that muscles slow a teeny bit down with age :). The 6th over, bowled by the recently titled “Muddy”, saw the fall of the next ANZACs batsman-Tarun, to a ball that came in and rose sharply. Tarun tried to take his bat out of the way, but ended knocking the ball onto his stumps (3-19/5.1). With dark clouds rapidly appearing, TCC managed to get another 1.3 overs underway before Mother Nature decided take things over. ANZACs’s chase was interestingly poised at 41/3 in 7.3 overs when the captains and umpires declared to call the game as a rain-draw.