Piedmont Tigers declawed by Ruthless Southerners

August 05, 2007

Baseer Ahmed played captain innings and scored massive 138 runs. SPCC’s seventh wicket partnership saw 120 plus runs coming in last 7 overs. Piedmont Tigers had no clue when Baseer savagely destroyed the out of town cubs. In his maiden unbeaten century he smashed eight 4s and whacked fourteen 6s. Amit, Wajahath and Harish contributed in batting while Khurram, Muzaffer and Sandeep traumatized PTCC with their deadly bowling.

Match started under the blazing sun with temperature expected to reach 100 degrees. Baseer won the toss and decided to bat first. The newly wed Wajahath, who just came back from India, was sent along with Swapan to open up SPCC’s innings. Swapan got confused and lofted the ball into bowlers’ hand. Amit and Wajahath played sensibly relying on quick singles and doubles.

Wajahath got out while trying accelerating the run rate. With in two balls Rahul, the key player of SPCC got bowled by a beautiful delivery by Waqar. Very soon Amit came back to the player’s stand when got bowled out by Ali. He was just 7 runs short of his third fifty as he became the highest scorer for SPCC in the current season.

Muzaffer and Venkat added firely 25 and 10 runs respectively but both players became victim of this energetic kid Sarfaraz. Harish, the man who scored century against the same team few weeks ago, was again sent to rescue SPCC. Harish and Baseer played prudently and played some good looking strokes. SPCC were hoping the see yet another big innings from Harish but luck did not favor him as he got out leg before.

SPCC were 220 runs with the loss of 7 wickets at the end of 28 overs and were hoping to get past 300 runs. Baseer told Khurram to play wisely and to let him keep the strike as much as possible. The plan worked. SPCC managed to add 122 runs in last 42 balls of the innings. Khurram kept giving strike to Baseer and Baseer went barbaric on the inexperienced Tigers. Baseer showered Reedy Creek with huge sixes.

Temperature was at its peak. Sun was burning furiously and so was Baseer’s bat. Every other ball was going out of the ground. It was an amazing quick innings from the Captain. PTCC tried every tactic but failed to stop the mad onslaught by SPCC’s skipper. SPCC score past 300 runs for the record third time in the current season and became 2007 highest scoring team in MACC.

SPCC knew that PTCC will try its best and will play aggressive from the very first ball. That’s exactly what they did. Rahul started the bowling attack. First ball, Asim swung the bat blindly and lofted the ball at long off but the catched got dropped. Muzaffer got hit for a boundary in his first over but he showed the batsman that you ain’t the boss. Stumps were flying when Asim got bowled out by Muzaffer.

Soon Muzaffer strike and sealed the lips of PTCC’s big mouth Bakhtiar. It was another high lofted shot with no power. Muzaffer got the second wicket when Jawad got caught at the mid wicket.

Khurram, who missed more than half of the season due to his back injury, was in full swing. First he removed Yaser with his fast and furious delivery. Yaser went all the way backfoot and got bowled out. Then in the same over he knocked out the stumps of Sarfaraz with a perfect inswinging yorker.

One can see the fear on one of PTCC’s batsman’s face. Cashif’s legs were shaking. He stood long enough but kept avoiding the missiles coming from the bowlers’ end. Finally he gave up, when Subashis sent this panic stricken fellow back to his sitting buddies for the second time in this season. This inexperienced slogger got caught behind by the keeper. Harish proved his credentials again and took this wonderful catch. Harish took hatrick of catches in two consecutives matches.

Sandeep with his short run up showed no mercy as well when he took back to back wickets of Ibrar and Waqar. Sandeep bowled very economically and took 2 wickets for just 9 runs. Khurram and Subashis removed the tail enders as PTCC were all out with only 160 runs on board. SPCC won the much deserving match comprehensively by huge 182 runs.

SPCC would like to thank Anish and his family for their support and Guru for his encouraging words. Later SPCC players congratulated their manager Subashis for becoming father. SPCC players celebrated the win with their new Jingalala theme. Deepak mesmerized everybody with his dancing skills.

Man of the Match: Baseer Ahmed