COLUMBUS CRICKET CLUB
Team CCC’s
Blitzkrieg leaves ECC reeling.
CCC had won all the three games they played so far in the MCT. The home ground advantage they had in these games was intelligently utilized. The Fourth encounter of the Mid-West tournament was (technically) the First Road Game for CCC. We did not have to ‘hit the road’ much for this game, as the ground is located in Columbus. It’s a totally different pitch, though. The stage was set, CCC were to take on ECC on their home ground at Rhodes Park.
It
wasn’t long before ECC won the toss and elected to field.
Venkiah
(Venky) Bodavula and Ravindran Nithyanandham gave CCC a flying start. They both put on 26 runs for the first
wicket before Ravindran was out after a quickfire 21 ( 26 for 1). Abhijeet
walked in next and along with Venky
made sure the good start was not wasted. Venky has been playing very well this season. He continued to do that with alarming
ease. Surely a sign of a batsman in
form. Abhi was defeated on 19 edging
one to be nicely completed by the wicketkeeper. In comes Hari Sundaram. He has been unlucky in earlier games to
get out when he seemed poised for a big one.
Here one could see the determination on the part of Hari to stay the
course. Venky had an attack of cramps and had to take a runner. He was gone soon after that, making a solid
37. This brought Bharat to the
crease. He was in immaculate touch,
timing the ball brilliantly. It was a
joy to watch him clear the ropes on multiple occasions. Hari’s determination had served him well
today. He made it to the 40’s. He had been rotating the strike very well
and allowing Bharat to play his natural game.
He was gone edging the ball to the keeper. Hari (43) Played a very balanced innings,
just what the doctor ordered. Murthy
was next to go of the very first ball he faced. Lawrence bowled a beauty bang of the offstump, which kissed
Murthy’s bat and made its way to the keeper. Vinod Kosike gave Bharat good
company and witnessed some breathtaking shots from the non-strikers end. Bharat hit the ball in
all directions causing panic in the opposition camp. It looked like Bharat was inching towards
the fastest century of the season but was unlucky to get run out, the only way
the opposition could have got him on that day. Bharats histrionics was a treat to watch. A fabulous 76 of 49
balls. Vinod Kosike continued where
Bharat left off, making a valuable 24 of 16 balls. CCC ended on 245 for
six of 35 overs.
ECC
had an uphill task ahead. Devin Patel
and Jim Persuad gave them a brilliant
start. In particular Devin being the
demolition man. It was the first time
in the season the CCC opening bowlers went wicketless. Bharat turned to his spinners who immediately
put the brakes on the scoring with the help a tight line and some sharp
close-in fielding from Murthy and Venky.
Then Abhi
delivered, sending back Devin (63 of 51 balls) – well caught by Vinod
Kosike. He shared a 92 run 1st Wicket partnership with Jim. After that
it looked like the pressure was getting to ECC. Wickets fell at regular intervals, on each
occasion the slow bowlers causing the damage. Abhi was the pick of the bowlers
today taking 4 wickets {4-26} supported by Ravi Reddy {3-35}& Bharat
{2-24}. The bowlers were well supported by some skillful wicket keeping of Hari
and tight ground fielding. It was too
much to ask for ECC at the end. They finished their innings at 160. An all-round performance by CCC
comprehensively beating ECC by 85 runs.
Wilson Fernando
Abhijeet Deshpande
Bharat Jataprolu
Ravi Mangipudi