SPCC v HPCC, League Game 1, Reedy Creek Park
SPCC beat HPCC by 5 wickets.
Deepak Bhat
& Anish Raghavan
June 14,
2008
SPCC
285 for 5
(Baseer 118*, Tarun 55*, Anish 27, Swapan 20, Manzoor 3-61)
beat HPCC 282 for 9 (Qaiser 82,Amit 54, Chias 37, Praveen
3-42, Baseer 2-29, Trilok 2-58) by 5 wickets.
Man of the match:
Baseer Ahmed.
This is the one of the win that eluded SPCC team few times in its
five-year history in the MACC league. So this win is an important
milestone for this team in defining its character and success. It is
the testimony to SPCC team spirit on which this team was build. We
like to dedicate this victory to all the former players who been
part of our journey together. Starting from Satish and Jagi, who
took this team for the first time to play against the champion team
HPCC at High Point and Rahul and Muzaffer who made this team believe
last year that we can beat this HPCC team or any other team in the
league.
Finally the day had arrived. It was a big game, which had been
rescheduled. It was against HPCC with which SPCC did not have a good
record. Finally the game started at 11.00 pm. The weather was in mid
90’s with some breeze.
HPCC
innings
As
usual Tarun started the proceeding for SPCC. He was hit for two
sixes of his first two balls by Mushtaq. But he had his revenge
later when he clean bowled the batsman. Sadashiva was introduced
from the other end. He kept things tight with his over. Meanwhile
both the batsmen were getting set. They started playing well but
soon Sadashiva was rewarded for his efforts when he got the batsman
playing early and was caught by Mani.
After that Praveen was introduced as the first change in the 8th
over and he started about his business as usual. He got Mandeep
clean bowled, which was a pleasure to watch. Mandeep was one of his
three wickets. Have to mention of the batsmen who were playing well
and HPCC score was 85 runs in 10 overs. Subhashish was introduced
into attack and he bowled a very good and tight spell. Meanwhile
HPCC batsmen continued to pile on runs. They were running very good
between wickets and putting pressure on SPCC fielders. At the end of
25 overs, HPCC was 175 runs with 7 wickets down.
After that HPCC captain played a good sensible innings. Trilok
finally got his wicket and was among another wicket the very next
ball when he had the batsman clean bowled. SPCC lost its way a
little in the last 2 overs where they were hit for some considerable
runs. HPCC finally ended their innings at 282/9 in 35 overs.
SPCC
innings
SPCC
started its proceedings with Swapan and Sumit opening the innings
for SPCC. Sumit soon returned back when he inside edged the ball on
to his own stumps. Anish and Swapan started to build up the innings.
Swapan hit a beautiful six one of the many that were to come on
later and Anish hit some exquisite shots on the offside for
boundaries.
Swapan was clean bowled to Mansoor. Trilok joined Anish in the
middle. Though Trilok started well, he played a shot he would like
to forget and returned back. Anish was out to the bowling of Mandeep
while to trying to accelerate the scoring. Mani was starting to look
well set after hitting some boundaries but was stumped beautifully
by the keeper. Sportsmanship of Mani has to be mentioned here
because the Umpire was not sure but Mani walked away from the
crease. So now it was left to Tarun and Baseer to steady the
innings. The important thing was to establish a partnership and not
lose a wicket. The time when Tarun went in was a crucial one when
SPCC had 109 runs on board and 5 wickets were down. There were still
173 runs to be scored to win the match. And that is what our
friends, Baseer and Tarun did. They stood there with the belief that
they have to win this game.
Tarun played really sensibly where he kept on rotating the strike
and let Baseer do the batting initially. Once he was set he showed
everybody what he could really do. He has a god given gift on the
offside and he used his talents really well. The six that he hit on
the offside is something that you only see high caliber player do.
As for our captain what can one say about him. What a year he is
having. The determination that you see on his face is a lesson to
everybody that whatever the situation be, never give up and give
your best. He completed a well-deserved century which had about 12
sixes in it. SPCC reached the target in 34.1 overs. What
magnificent batting partnership that was! Also a memorable win,
which will be remembered for a long long time.
Despite of all these shortcomings we stood united as a team cheering
on everybody. Would also like to specially mention about the efforts
of Abhijeet who kept every body hydrated by bringing in water after
every few overs. Appreciate your efforts Sir.
Lastly this was a very emotional win for SPCC. If you see Subhashish
smiling that means something big just happened. Just kidding I am
sure Subhashish would be smiling a lot other times too. But to see
the faces of our senior players and the way other Alumni players
were calling up and conveying their greetings was a great sight to
watch. It meant we had achieved a great victory. But remember people
this is just one more obstacle that we have conquered and we still
have a long way to go. Let us keep our heads high and keep our
humility and we are good to go.
Quote of the day
Humility is the
solid foundation of all virtues.
Go SPCC…..
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