Batting collapse in the last overs saw SPCC losing a close encounter

April 08, 2007

SPCC surrenders superb hold on the match and in the end to lost it by 32 runs. SPCC’s enthusiastic and positive approach in most part of the match turns to batting disaster in the end losing to HPCC by 32 runs.

South park’s team arrived at the HPCC’s home ground on a chilly wintry like day, quietly determined and confident, not only to upset HPCC ‘the reigning champions of MACC league’ but to establish in the league as one of the most improved and disciplined cricket team. With immense firepower in its arsenal to challenge the best in the league, it sure could have happened but for the complete collapse in middle and lower order batting. The coin was flipped at around 10.15 AM HPCC won the toss and elected to bat first as expected.

HPCC started their batting badly by losing their openers quickly to some fine bowling by Rahul and by 22nd over HPCC were reeling badly at 106/6 under pressure with most of their top batsmen back in the pavilion including the danger man and hard hitting batsmen Ghias and with the exception of Shami and Manzoor their only recognized batsmen at the crease. SPCC’s fielding and body language was simply outstanding until this point. This was the time to nail the coffin on HPCC’s Batting. Unable to break the offside cordon, Shami tried to play every shot on the leg side, he carefully chose his regions between vacant fine-leg square-leg and mid-wicket regions in the deep. With a lot of gaps in those regions and no fielders in the deep he was mighty successful in picking easy boundaries.

Before SPCC team could even take notice of what hit them Shami and to some extent Manzoor easily collected a dozen or more boundaries in that region. Eventually this partnership grew in confidence and broke the shackles that were put on HPCC’s batting and took them to 206/7 after 31 overs. With 4 more overs to go Shami was looking to push the target past 250. At this point Muzaffer was introduced back into the attack. He quickly settled into a offside line determined not to allow the HPCC batsmen play the ball in the on-side. After beating shami with a few deliveries he enticed him into a shot and shami was caught at long-off by a well judged catch by wajahath in the 32nd over. Muzaffer again came back to bowl the 34th over and got rid of both the remaining batsmen with some sensible bowling. Finally HPCC successfully overcame the blues of a batting wobble and achieved a respectable and fighting score of 222 all out in 33.3 Overs.

SPCC started their batting confidently with Swapan and Muzaffer putting on 20 without loss. However HPCC's menacing pace attack of Manzoor and Fawad were craving for quick blood by generating tremendous pace and movement off the seam. Swapan finally succumbed and was bowled through the gates by Manzoor 'their most successful pace bowler of last year'. Mandeep joined Muzaffer and soon they grew in confidence with Muzaffer content on playing the anchor and rotating the strike and Mandeep trying to play the aggressive game successfully. The left and right combination was working wonders with HPCC captain left with very few options in the field. When Mandeep was carving huge boundaries over the top of bowlers head SPCC were now cruising at this point in time. When the score was around 83 for 1 in about 12 overs - Mandeep perished at this stage of the game when he lost his concentration and tried to hoist spinner Shami over long-on once too often and was not successful in clearing the man standing deep and was caught near the fence by a easy catch by Manzoor of Shami. At around 83 for 2, SPCC's Rahul entered the fray and with Muzaffer at the other end he quickly settled into aggressive role and again a similar partnership started to brew between Muzaffer and Rahul. Rahul disdainfully was putting to sword every bowler that came his way, he first forced Shami out of the attack by launching 2 massive sixes between long-on and long-off and he then cut loose on hafeez the other spinner by smashing him for a 4 and 6 in one over.

The partnership between Rahul and Muzaffer never allowed HPCC to get back into the game and by 24th over SPCC were past 150 and were cruising towards a comfortable victory with a target of 70 plus to get in around 11 overs and with 8 wickets in hand. At this point Muzaffer played an effortless cover drive off of Hafeez for 4 but the very next ball he tried to clear the heavens on the midwicket region and was caught at the boundary by a well judged catch by Billal. In the next over when Rahul was also caught trying to pull Ghias over square leg, Panic struck the SPCC's formidable batting line-up and quickly Harish and Baseer were out without troubling the scorer. In the end Amit,Guru and Sudhakar succumbed to the pressure and SPCC were wrapped-up for 190 with 2.1 over still remaining.