TCC romped home with a emphatic 10-wkt win against PCC at the Elizabeth Holladay school grounds. With the hurricane season in effect not too long ago, the threat of rain loomed large and there was rain in the forecast for Saturday. However, it rained on Fri and so we decided to have a late start (~12 noon) instead of the usual start time. It turned out to be a wise decision since the pitch was wet albeit the outfield was nice and dry. Thanks to OCC's Anup for unbiased umpiring inspite of quite a few appeals from either side and to Nataraj for accompanying the team and helping out with scoring.

Ravi called it right yet again and we decided to field as expected given the overcast conditions and that there was very little bounce in the wicket. Paddy got the first breakthrough by catching Abdul off his own bowling. It was a good catch given that he had to react fast on his followthrough by lunging forward while trying to maintain his balance. Aravind cleaned up Solomon in his 2nd over making it 2 down for just 3 runs. Aravind and Paddy kept the PCC batsmen on a tight leash giving 'em absolutely nothing to drive at. The pressure on PCC showed 'cos Murali who was prodding around undecisively miscued a flick and Ravi exemplified great athleticism by diving forward and picking up the catch inches off the ground at short cover. Kapil would have been out off Cashif's bowling, but thanks to Vijay dropping a sitter at midoff, he survived. Leftie Ammar and Kapil carried the score to 41 when Uchil bowled Kapil all ends up while trying an expansive drive. PCC lost another wicket at 41 when Cashif got Ammar in his next over by surprising him with a lil' extra bounce and Uchil held the simple lob at gully. Sundar took care of PCC's skipper Irfan and again it was the miscued flick that went flying to Ravi. Rajesh and Charan held on to couple of good catches in the deep off Sundar and Uchil's bowling respectively and TCC relentlessly kept pegging away at PCC's batsmen. Ravi got Aravind back into the attack to deliver the final blows and he responded by cleaning Zulfi up right away who was caught appreciating his shot before he hit one. Mahesh and Khadir decided to prolong the proceedings by blocking at everything that was bowled at 'em. They didn't go after the bad balls either. However, Mahesh showed his prowess with a couple of good shots in the last 3-4 overs. Sundar had the dubious distinction of allowing the only six in PCC's innings. Finally, after adding 34 invaluable runs for the 10th wicket, Khadir was adjudged leg-before off Vijay's bowling in the 30th over. Aravind, Uchil, Sundar and Paddy shared the spoils with 2 wickets apiece while Vijay and Cashif got the remainder. Overall, it was a great bowling effort. We spilled around 4 catches, but luckily that didn't go against us.

TCC was too eager to start the chase without too much of a break in between. With a banana and food bar for lunch, Charan and Ravi headed out. Imran and Irfan opened the bowling for PCC and they beat the bat a few times. In 4 overs, there were only 9 runs on the board. Mahesh, a left arm spinner was brought into the attack and that seemed to open the flood gates for us. A deluge of runs flowed especially from Charan's bat (or should we say Paddy's V-900). Mahesh was clobbered repeatedly for sixers and boundaries. Ravi was playing himself in beautifully after having survived a few leg-before shouts. In trying a square-cut off Mahesh, he got a life when Murali failed to latch on to a sitter at extra-cover. Later on, he pulled a couple of balls for maximum runs. PCC's attack was taken to the cleaners and in just over 13 overs we wrapped it all up. It was a great batting display given that we didn't lose a wicket in the process, with caution mixed with controlled aggression, an approach worth emulating in the matches to come. Go TCC!