COLUMBUS CRICKET CLUB
Despite the difficulty we had in putting together the eleven, it was most heartening to see that all players gathered at their meeting places on time and started the three and half hour journey at 730AM sharp and it was equally good to see that the CCIN team was already on the field, warming up. The tedium of the journey was immediately dissipated when we saw the immaculate ground they had it was a picture perfect half-inch cut outfield fast and even this would be our dream ground to create for our own club.
CCIN, playing with only 10 players, won the toss and elected to bat. Suhas Londhe and Sachin Menon started the bowling attack for us, the first over with two authoritative boundaries from Mazhar did not bode too well for us. Equally alarming was wayward length and the number of wides. Luckily, that proved to be a storm in a tea cup as, thanks to brilliant fielding by Sachin, we had our first wicket, a run out (Bhavin, for 0 without facing a single ball). Other than Mazhar (22), no one really challenged CCC bowlers they were inexplicably overly defensive and made our bowling look more menacing than it really was I mean, it is their ground right? Kosike brought some sanity to bowling with 2 for 15 runs. Eeshwar, despite a few wides, bowled well to earn a 3 wicket haul for 29 runs. Late in the innings, Mangipudi bowled wicket-to-wicket to earn 3 wickets as well, for 4 runs. We did field well no dropped opportunities Sachin and Murthy were excellent in the field. CCIN were bundled out for 117 in 32 overs, with wides and no balls accounting for 45!!!
CCINs opening bowlers were generally quick and accurate but that did not stop the CCC openers (Mangipudi and Venky) from keeping the scoreboard ticking at a healthy pace of nearly 6 an over. All you had to do was push firmly into a gap and two runs were there for the taking. Venky fell for 11 after playing confidently, LBW. Nithya moved the scoring pace a notch higher with regular cuts, pulls and boundaries and fell at 28 in the 13th over by then, the score was in the low eighties and it was clear that CCIN saw the writing on the wall. Mangipudi was steady on the other end his best shot being a lofted 6 over midwicket. To make things a little interesting, we lost three quick wickets (Mangipudi 30, runout; Darbha 3, LBW; Murthy 9, CBW) before Kosike (8) and Eeshwar (11) wrapped it up in a confident fashion, but not before Kosike hit the shot of the day a sweep/pull off a medium pacer to the midwicket for a huge six. Despite Haris Chivalrous batting sacrifice, four of us did not get to bat we are sometimes victims of our own success, I guess I mean, we did try to help ourselves with all those wides J))))
All in all, it was good day of cricket played in wonderful surroundings on a bright day against a sportive team and although we were never seriously stretched, it was good to see another clinical victory for CCC. Would have been nicer if we batted first and piled up a tidy 250 plus runs first!!!
All those chickens who shied away from the long drive missed a nice day of cricket J))))
The MOM deservedly went to Mangipudi for his effective show with both bat and ball.