My apologies for a long report! The much-awaited rescheduled NCSU game finally took place. It was a day full of high drama. Having played a game against OCC just the previous day, some players who were playing against NCSU as well were keen on putting any signs of exhaustion behind them. It had rained heavily on Saturday at Shiloh and so we had to work on carefully getting the water out from the covers. Thanks to GHCC’s Faraz and DCC’s Pankaj (special thanks since he agreed just by virtue of being there at the ground!) for umpiring this game.

Rajesh Uppalapati captained in Ravi’s absence and unfortunately lost the toss. However, it seemed like a good toss to lose given the way we started bowling. Aravind and Paddy gave nothing away except one loose ball here and there. Aravind secured the first breakthrough by having Amit caught at mid-on by Rajesh. It was a good running catch by the stand-in skipper. Vishwas, the other NCSU opener was having a horrid time in the middle and he managed to get a nick while trying to judge Paddy’s outswinger. The edge could be heard even by folks in the pavilion, but to our sheer disbelief the umpire declared him not out. Sources say that the batsman admitted to being out later in the game. This was just the beginning of the drama that was to unfold. Vishwas followed soon after caught at slip by Charan fending at an away swinger yet again and this time fortunately there was no element of doubt. Krishnakanth and Sushil tried to stem the rot. Meanwhile, unable to withstand the mounting pressure, NCSU tried some delaying tactics by complaining against Cashif’s bowling action. Almost an hour passed in trying to get the MACC “gurus” on the phone since nothing concrete was available in the rules. Finally, the game resumed with Cashif and Raajeev starting the proceedings. Raajeev, who was bowling beautifully managed to get Sushil to edge an away going ball when he had scored only a few runs. Samir, standing up to Raajeev caught the ball, but to our chagrin the vociferous appeal was negated yet again! There had been a lot written about NCSU’s sportsman spirit, but we didn’t need any more testimonies since their batsmen refused to walk. Sushil went on to score 59 to add to our misery!! While they bowled well, we needed to continue taking wickets and Rajesh got Uchil into the attack and he responded by having Krishnakanth caught at point in trying to cut. The score read 3/46 off 11 overs when Vamsee walked in. Vamsee and Sushil carried on blending caution with flashes of belligerence. Vamsee’s effortless six over long-on off Charan was one of the shots worth remembering. Shibu got Vamsee caught at long-off by Rajesh. It was an awesome catch given the elevation of the ball. Vijay trapped Nikhil plumb in front while Charan accounted for Nihar, Jaiku and Anirudh with Nihar’s catch being spectacular. Aravind cleaned up tail-ender Krishnan with Shibu taking a well-judged catch thus restricting NCSU to 145. Rajesh fielded brilliantly as usual and took 4 catches in the process.

After the customary break of 25 minutes, TCC started the chase. Samir was severe on Krishnan by hammering him for 3 boundaries in his first over. After the first over, the score read 0/16. TCC seemed to be on a roll. Amit shared the new ball at the other end and got a wicket off the very first ball he bowled. Charan top-edged a pull and that landed safely in Krishakanth’s hands at deep fine-leg. Understandably, he was disappointed having played brilliantly in the rained-out game. That seemed to start the republic day parade for TCC. Shibu fell for a second-ball duck trying to slice Amit and Vinay took a good catch at gully. Syed’s poor form continued to haunt him and he was caught at gully off Krishnakanth’s 2nd over by Vinay who pulled off a stunning catch. Vijay collected his first duck of the season and was out first ball trying a flamboyant cover drive when the need of the hour was to stay at the wicket! That made it 4/20 n only the 2nd over. Aravind managed to avoid the hatrick and managed to put on 25 runs with Samir who seemed to helplessly watch TCC implode. Just when things seemed to be getting back to normal, Vamsee was brought into the attack and he got the much-needed breakthrough by trapping Aravind in front. Cashif was adjudged caught behind soon and we slumped to a dismal 6/56. We still had a glimmer of hope since Samir was batting in a very nonchalant manner. That hope was laid to rest when Faraz raised his dreaded finger to declare Samir leg-before off Nihar when the ball clearly seemed to be going down the leg side. Yet another decision went against TCC and we were now in doldrums. Rajesh was also added to the umpiring casualty list very soon having being declared leg-before. It was evident that all that NCSU needed to do was to get the ball to hit the pads. Tail-enders Paddy and Uchil seemed determined not to give up and they took the score to 87 when Paddy got hit on his lower lip from a ball that rose more than he had expected. He was in no shape to bat and had to be taken to the ER at Wake Med. The moral of the story is that one needs to wear a helmet regardless of how good one’s reflexes might be. Raajeev and Uchil tried delaying the inevitable, but TCC wound up at 103 with Raajeev being comprehensively bowled off Nihar’s bowling after having deposited an earlier ball in the infamous pond.

While it’s evident that TCC’s much-vaunted batting lineup caved in meekly, the quality of umpiring left a lot to be desired with crucial decisions consistently going against TCC and that seemed to a factor in the end result. We should put this behind us as one bad outing and come out victorious in our next match. Go TCC!