CCC seems to be in the habit of taking matches into tense moments before wrapping it up. Whether CCC wants to make sure that the audiences get their share of excitement or wants to tests the nerves of its players, it is unknowns. But in its true fashion, the game against Fort Wayne CC was a thriller that ended in CCC's favor.

Ajay won the toss in his first tenure as captain for CCC and decidedly chose to field on an uneven and unknown pitch. Ajay was clear in his pep talk that the bowlers learn from the previous day's game and concentrate on getting their line and length rather than worry about pace.

Srinath started the day's proceedings in his usual exemplary manner. He was mean, tidy and unfailing in his perfect line and length. Fort Wayne's captain Praveen who played really well had no choice but to defend Srinath's bowling and give him due respect. Kasif started from the other end, but due to lack of practice, found it hard to maintain his line and gave away quite a number of extras. Ajay took Kasif off after two overs and brought Ram Mohan on to the attack.

Ram Mohan stuck really early when the batsman floored a simple catch to Ajay at short mid-off. Ram Mohan ended the over with a maiden wicket. Bharat started off the next bowling change with a mix of his spinners and medium pace bowling. Though Praveen stuck a couple of big blows, he was very well checked back by Bharat. Bharat was very unlucky as a couple of shots went into no man's land and a gettable catch was missed by the long off fielder. Ram Mohan was changed at the other end just as he was getting tired and Ajay brought himself to attack. Ajay kept his line and length and bowled a couple of tidy overs and beat the batsman a couple of times. Just as the batsmen were getting settled, Manju was brought into attack and he stuck immediately. He bowled Praveen off his second ball. The ball was perfect in length and kept low. Praveen tried to cut the ball and was beaten to his off stump. Manju stuck again after drinks interval and the new batsman gave a hard catch to Ram Mohan who caught the ball that was threatening to clear the boundary with ease. Ajay immediately brought Srinath into attack.

Srinath terrorized the batsman but was unlucky to get a wicket. Ajay changed the bowling, bought himself into attack and bowled the next batsman with a yorker. At this stage CCC pounced back into the game and stepped up the attack. The fielding came to its expectations and thus resulted three run-outs out of which two were almost direct hits and one was a beautiful throw from the boundary by Deepak.

Fort Wayne had some pretty good sloggers who took advantage of the short boundary and were hitting huge blows. CCC bowled and fielded pretty well during the later half of the game to ensure that Fort Wayne did not get too many runs. In the end Fort Wayne made 134 runs off 25 overs. CCC had given away 31 extras.

Sean and Ram Mohan started CCC's batting. Both the openers played pretty well and showed some pretty good running between the wicket skills. When the score was in the upper 20s Ram tried to steer a ball and was caught on the off side.

Manju went in next for what was a long haul. Manju and Sean checked the bowling and took some good singles. Sean was punishing the loose balls and hit two beautiful boundaries. Sean got out to an outstanding catch on the offside for a well deserved 19 runs. This was one of the few examples of some brilliant on the field display by the Fort Wayne team.

Manju played a beautiful innings with some great shots and a very good mix of singles and twos. He played the bolwers confidently and was very comfortable during his first game for CCC. Ajay was initially attracted by the short boundary and tried to clear the fence too often. He later relaxed and got a lot of singles and twos with Manju. Together, they took about 25 singles and a couple of twos. Ajay hit Praveen for a huge six on the square leg, but got out caught right on the long off boundary of Srivats for a well made 17 runs and thus ended a 40+ runs partnership with Manju. Manju also immediately departed when the long off fielder brought out another superb catch on the boundary line. He made a fantastic 27 runs.

This had Bharat and Deepak on the crease. They both ran some pretty good singles, but tried one too risky and paid for it. Deepak sacrificed his wicket for the team when he walked away from the crease in favor of Bharat. Bharat continued the singles with Srinath, but got out trying to force the pace and got a leading edge that resulted in a high catch.

This had Srinath and Kasif on the crease. Srinath was in a very familiar stage where CCC needed 28 runs of 4 overs to win. Srinath and Kasif took some very nice singles and with Bharat running for Srinath, the singles were made to look very easy. Srinath hit a huge six and a four to completely tilt the game in CCC's favor.

Srinath did it again! Kasif was run out trying a too risky single again. Raj went in next with 4 runs of 4 balls to win. He hit two runs of the first ball and ran a single of the next ball that was a wide and made the required runs.

This was a game with swinging fortunes and CCC once again proved that team effort was very crucial to victory. Everybody chipped in with their contributions and lead the team towards victory.

Manju and Srinath were declared as Men of the match.

Scores:

Fort Wayne CC : 134 / 9 in 25 overs
( Praveen 27, Niraj 25, Kamran 18, Srivats 14)

CCC Bowling
BOWLER	Overs	Maidens	Runs	Wickets
Srinath	5	2	11	0
Kasif	3	0	23	0
Rammohan	4	1	17	1
Bharat	5	0	26	2
Ajay	5	0	18	2
Manju	3	0	12	2

CCC Batting : 135 / 7 in 24.3 overs
(Manju 27, Sean 19, Srinath 19 n.o., Ajay 17)