SPCC v CCCC, Pre-Season Game 2, Reedy Creek Park

Karthik and Tarun star in 4-wickets win

Deepak Bhat

March 9th, 2008

CCCC 151 (Jinal 82, Karthik 4-18) lost to SPCC 152 for 6 (Tarun 40*, Baseer 20, Mani 20) by 4 wickets

Well it was a cold morning to begin with but was sunny all the time. The ground looked like it had just recovered from the rainstorm that happened on Friday. Anyway, match started about 10.30 am. As usual our captain lost the toss. Somebody should get him the coin that they use in movies where both the sides are either heads or tails!

So the new ball was given to Deepak and the match was on. Tarun was called upon for the second over and he also started good. He provided the first break through for SPCC.  Kalyan and Baseer were came in to bowl soon and they too kept the runs tight. Baseer bowled a slow one and Deepak caught the batsman on the leg side boundary.  CCCC were two down quickly! Rushabh was run out soon, thanks to some smart thinking from Abhijit who knew at what end he should throw the ball.

By end of 15 overs CCCC scored 75 runs for three wickets. Karthik was introduced after the break and he bowled very well. It was like he had something special for breakfast that day. In one over he took three wickets of which two were bowled and one caught behind. He was also on a hat trick when he came to bowl the second over. But alas he could not get a wicket on the first ball. Karthik without ado stuck on the second ball, therefore getting his fourth wicket.

SPCC captain continued  with more bowling changes by rotating Srinath, Mani, Abhijit and Hari. They too kept the pressure on. CCCC batsman Jinal, who was dropped twice, reached his fifty and was on his way to a hundred. But Deepak trapped him,chus ending his innings at 82. CCCC was eventually bowled out at 151 in 28.4 overs.

SPCC started their batting around 1.00 pm which was an auspicious time. Our openers were Sumit and Sudhakar. Soon SPCC was one down when Sudhakar got bowled. Sumit lost his wicket too soon after. One good thing for SPCC is that CCCC was giving away so many wides that SPCC never had to worry about the run rate.

Swapan batted well and was joined by Tarun. Tarun was in a blazing form playing some superb shots. After the fall of Swapan’s wicket Baseer joined Tarun in the middle. Both of them got a good partnership going. Baseer was soon out due to inadvisable shot trying to accelerate the innings. Hari also lost his wicket at a bargain price and hence it was then left to Mani and Tarun to finish off the innings. Both batted well and SPCC reached its target in 20.4 overs.

Overall it was a good practice for all players. Teams left the ground by 3.30 pm.