SPCC v USC, League Game 3, Columbia CG

Bowlers produce another victory for SPCC.

Deepak Bhat and Baseer Ahmed

May 4th, 2008

SPCC 123 for 6 (Wajahath24, Harish 23*, Aditya 20, Harshad 3-23,Neeraj 2-33) beat USC 122 (Saurabh 26, Subashis 3-21, Praveen 3-22, Kalyan 2-29) by four wickets. Man of the match: Kalyan Popuri

Columbia…Columbia…. Columbia…haaaah…both sweet and sour memories of that ground. With such memories the SPCC cavalcade reached the ground around 10.00 am. The umpires arrived on time. As usual the SPCC captain lost the toss. The umpires arrived on time. SPCC lost the toss and was asked to field. The new ball was handed over to Tarun. Facing him were Kartik and Neeraj. Kartik had been a centurion in a previous game and was in good form. Tarun’s first over was tight. Kalyan was brought on for second over and what a first ball he bowled! It was a tight in swinger, which foxed the batsman, and he was clean bowled. 

After that the two batsmen had a little partnership going, which was broken by Tarun. Ball was slightly outside off stump and had the batsman edging the ball, which was well accepted by Mani in second slip. It was a very well judged catch as he had a split of a second to react. Meanwhile on the other end Kartik was playing sensible and was looking dangerous but he was soon out when Kalyan had him playing a little forward and he scooped a catch, which went over the bowler’s head into the safe hands of Deepak at mid-off.  Deepak made it look simple but took a very important catch for the team. Here is the secret…when ball coming towards to him, he is not seeing the ball but a big TEN! With these 3 wickets SPCC put the brakes on the USC innings. The two overs before drinks were maiden overs. After 12 overs, USC were 53 for 3.  A memorable and praiseworthy, new ball spell from SPCC opening bowlers!

After the break USC came out strong and attacked SPCC’s bowling. There were some fine shots played by USC batsmen at this stage. Subashis and Praveen were introduced and they bowled a very tidy spell and got wickets at regular intervals. USC batsmen were unable to decipher both of their bowling. Subashis got two wickets in an over of which both were catches.  One was an impressive catch by Mani in the slips again. Mani is doing an exceptional job in the slips. Deepak took the other. Both Praveen and Subashis finished with three wickets each. USC was finally out for 122 runs in 23.2 overs.

SPCC batting started with Anish and Wajahath opening the innings. They played steadily for few overs and runs were coming at a slower rate. USC bowlers bowled tidy line and length with the new ball and didn’t allow the openers to score freely. This all changed when Wajahath hit a beautiful sixer. And soon the flow of runs started to increase. Wajahath and Anish played intelligently trying to see the new ball off. Wajahath was soon out playing a loose shot, but his 24 runs were important contribution to the team score.  Aditya was sent as the first down batsmen. He also played some exquisite shots for his 20 runs.

After this USC fought back and took 3 quick wickets of Aditya, Tarun and Trilok in space of 8 balls. Soon Mani also lost his wicket. One reason for this mini collapse was also due to some dubious umpiring decisions. At this stage SPCC still needed 40 runs with 4 wickets in hand. Any way, again it was left to Baseer to start his ‘rescue act’ and take SPCC to the finishing line. He along with Harish made sure that the remaining runs be scored without any more hiccups. Have to say the six that Harish hit was a sweet one.

Soon SPCC reached its target in 22.2 overs and somewhat exorcised the ghost of 2007 two wickets loss in the semifinal. It was SPCC’s second win of the season.

Thanks to Deepak, Kartik and Praveen’s friend for coming all the way to Columbia and supporting the team. It was again good teamwork all around for SPCC. Fielding was good. Wicket keeping by Harish was excellent and so was the bowling. Let us keep on playing this way and god willing we will reach that final frontier. Our strength is our teamwork and as some body has said “Coming together is a beginning.  Keeping together is progress.  Working together is success. “

Let us continue with the same spirit.

GOOOOOO SPCC!!!