Game Report - September 20, 2008
MCC verses PCC - Oregon League SEMI Final
Match Details
On a cool and cloudy Saturday of September, Shuaib once again won the
toss and wisely elected to field. [Certainly we all can agree that:
if nothing else, our captain is very good in calling the correct side
of the coin on a consistent basis!] He then, went on to produce one
of the best bowling spells of the season. Portland batsman could not
read the swing of the ball; wickets tumbled like our 401K plan did,
last week. Roberto, at the other end, gave good support. Shuaib ended
with a 5 wicket haul.
At the drinks break, PCC collapsed to 75 runs for the loss of five. A
very cheap PCC inning looked possible at this stage, and Ellen began
to worry about retuning home early without watching ample cricket.
MCC bowlers and one of its fielders were not about to disappoint
Ellen: the bowlers strayed, batsman attacked, catches were spilled,
and dives were made to places where the ball used to be…. Saad and
Haroon batted well for Portland; their totals, together with our
standard quota of 50+ runs in wides made the score to a strong 214. A
good direct hit by John, to end Haroon's inning, was the only fielding
highlight for MCC.
As usual, the mid-inning conversations under the alder tree covered
all the subjects under the tree and under the overcast sky. This
time, topics ranged from: effectiveness of Khan's Lasik surgery, taste
and nutritious aspects of blueberry tea, relative danger of snakes and
Malayalees, holes in Nish's shoes, intricacies of baseball curve
balls, curves on bar-maids we encounter on the last post game outing,
frugal nature of certain communities, size of some one's calf mussels,
likely hood of rain interrupting the match …yada ….yada ….yada…..
Roshen's mom and the better half were present at the field; thank God
that they did not stick around to watch Roshen bat! A very well
dressed and secretive looking Mohit and Jay showed up for few minutes
- as if they were attending a Cosa Nostra funeral wake.
Early in its reply, MCC lost John to a good ball. Nishant gifted his
wicket trying to make a cute shot. This brought the skipper and his
deputy together. What followed is certainly the most sensible
batting: 143 runs came from the partnership. Zafer's inning was
carefully crafted and far less flamboyant than his usual innings. But,
this is indeed what the doctor (and the skipper) ordered. If it
wasn't for the 'athleticism' of the Olympic beach volleyball players,
I would have ranked his inning as the best sports thing I saw, this
summer. (Sorry Zafar, I don't think you still would have won, even if
you had worn those bikinis!) Shuaib made nearly 40 runs, and Zafar
carried the bat at an unbeaten 126*.
Zafar gave a pair of chances towards the end of his innings. For PCC,
dropping those catches turned out to be fatal. From a solid position
of 163/2, MCC added excitement to the game by sinking to a score of
200/7. There was more drama in the MCC pavilion than a typical Latin
soap opera, that you see on Univision. Roberto, Lokesh & Roshan
walked-in and walked-out without adding much to MCC scoreboard.
[Again, I suspect that all will agree that: these actresses in the
Mexican soaps are a lot easier on your eyes than any of the above
gentlemen. ….OK, I admit, these "stars" are mostly plastic, but even
the purist has to admire the craftsmanship, at the very least!] All
of the sudden, Khan had to re-emerge from under two blankets (and a
hot-water bottle) to get ready for batting! Nish, who had a leg
injury (and was hopping for avoiding batting), was forced to pad-up.
Nish was thinking on which would be the "proper" time to "pretend" an
injury - to request a runner if he had to bat.
To everyone's relief, Paresh and Zafar brought the game home without
anymore Maalox moments. Sumit was the best of the PCC bowlers. He
kept good length and line. Roy produced an economical spell: mixing
good in-cutters and quality "chuckers". Both teams greeted after the
game. An excited Nish was wandering the field wearing the full
batting gear: pads, helmets and alike, and was discussing going the
beer joint in that fashion! I had stayed past my curfew time, and
thus unable to report on the post game celebrations.
We will play the finals against Beaverton on Saturday (venue, yet to
determined). Make yourself available for the game and the post game
celebratory / consolatory beer session. We will just change the color
of the brew – pending the outcome! Even if you are not picked for the
team, you still can cheer, and might even get "suckered" into writing
the match report!
-George Mukalel