Game Report - September 6, 2008
MCC verses PCC
On Saturday MCC lined up against PCC in a must win situation. Roshan’s point’s table calculation (best scenarios) showed that we had to win this game to make it to the second round. The worst scenarios were dependent upon other teams losing/wining, or us garnering enough points in a “lost game” to make it to the second round. However, for MCC, when it came to crunch time, it delivered big. PCC has beaten us twice in the previous encounters, but the third time was not going to be a charm.
After wining the toss, Skipper decided to bat first. This time Khan was trusted to open the batting with regular opener Zafar Khan. The fireworks started from the get go … as Zafar pulled the first ball for four. Zafar was not done yet; he smashed a couple of more boundaries for goodness’ sake, and took a single on the last ball. Now it was time for the other opening bowler to face the music, and he literally did. Poor chap had no idea what to do, when he was creamed for three consecutive fours. In fact it looked like the whole team had no idea. At one point there were five people moving the field around, and Zafar took complete advantage of the situation. As he was racing towards another 50, scoring at will and using the gaps amicably, the race was cut short by a run in a dreadful LBW decision … 49 runs of 19 balls is not a bad day Zafar - if you ask me. In fact many accomplished batsman in this league will long for such a strike rate. After Zafar’s departure, PCC got another lucky break, when Gavin (coming after a long lay off) edged to keeper. After two quick wickets, PCC saw an opening and went with full force to make inroads in the middle order. But it was not going to be their day, as Khan hunkered down the one end, while scoring at a brisk rate (39 in 41 balls). While skipper (31 in 40 balls) started to punish any lose ball that came his way. Between both, MCC was able to build a substantial partner ship of 96 runs. In captain’s quest to give every paid member a fair chance, Niel Day was promoted to middle order, and he did not disappoint the skipper (17 in 15 balls), well done. In the end MCC was able to set a target of 208 for 8 wickets in 30 overs.
For PCC, it was not an easy target, but attainable. They were facing an uphill task, and hence came out with all the guns blazing. One of the openers was swinging at almost every ball. These slog shots created an opportunity for us in the first over, but he was dropped. That one drop cost MCC 33 runs, but the guilty party made it up for it by taking a very difficult “running” catch at long on. In the entire PCC’s innings, we dropped more than 6 catches, and it almost cost us the game. Not a very good sign, if we have to go all the way, we need to practice - catches win matches. Note: Every one (including the skipper) needs to practice catches before the start of the game. !!
After the opening bowlers were unable to make any break through, in came the young Aussie, known has OCL’s Brett Lee … Gavin Bruhn. From one end Nish was suffocating the runs, and from the other end Gavin was taking wickets at frequent intervals. At one point it felt like a tango dance in a grand ball room. For OCL Brett Lee, he could have had another five-for in his second outing, if it wasn’t for the dropped catch. Darn it… what a come back Mr. Lee!! Nish was also rewarded with two very important wickets …which basically broke the camels back and thus handed us a comprehensive victory :)