COLUMBUS CRICKET CLUB
CCC
played against WVU in the last game of the league phase where the result was
immaterial as CCC had topped Group D after Cleveland-2's defeat against
OSU-Students last week. WVU had no chance of making the playoffs regardless of
the outcome of this game.
Sohail,
the WVU captain won his 7th straight toss to ask CCC to bat first.
Experimentation was the name of this game due to its nature, and Ravi Darbha
walked in to open the batting along side the in-form Venky. Venky started in
his normal aggressive fashion, stroking the ball well on the offside and
playing his shots freely. Darbha on the other end looked rather restrictive in
his shot making before he fell caught-behind on a rising ball. Murthy, Manju
and Abhi fell at quick successions after that to have CCC tottering at 69/5.
Eswar was holding fort on one end when Bharat walked in. Bharat decided to play
his natural game despite the situation, and the runs started flowing freely
after that. Bharat missed a well-deserved fifty by 2 runs. Vineel walked in
next and little did he know at that time that this was his day. He was hitting
the ball confidently, stroked sweetly timed offside shots and ran between the
wickets very well. He displayed superb batting worthy of a top order batsman -
and within no time reached 42 before his innings ended. This was a brilliant
knock and at an absolutely needed time. Eswar, first with Bharat and then with
Vineel gave two crucial partnerships for CCC – he was finally out before Vineel
for 30 runs – an excellent innings marked not by glorious strokes, but by
yeoman patience. An ordinary looking innings, but which benefits the team
extraordinarily.
Sai
made 19 runs, ending the CCC innings with a big 6 over mid-wicket. CCC lower
order propelled the team from 69/5 and then 136/6 to 228/9 in 35 overs.
Outstanding performance!
With
some of the star CCC bowlers, Sekhar and Amit rested for this game, Vineel and
Suhas were given the responsibility of the new ball and they obliged. They
struck at regular intervals after Vineel sent off Sohail, the WVU captain
caught behind. Both the bowlers kept a good line and length thus getting
rewarded with regular wickets. Suhas was accurate in rattling the stumps of WVU
batsmen on a couple of occasions. WVU batsmen showed some resistance in the
form of a partnership between Ashok and Krishna but at no time in the game were
they even close to chasing the CCC total - AND ANY BIRD ON THE GROUND CAN TELL
YOU THAT!!!
There
was brief moment of concentration lapse from CCC bowling and fielding. It was
quickly corrected and the WVU innings ended at 103, thus keeping CCC unbeaten
in the league phase of the Midwest Cricket Tournament 2005.
Vineel
and Bharat were the joint Men of the Match with their timely performances.
CCC
now tops Group D and therefore will directly play in the quarterfinals of the
tournament on the weekend of Aug 13-14.
Abhijeet Deshpande
Bharat Jataprolu
Wilson Fernando
Ravi Mangipudi