SPCC v SCCA, League Game 8, Lakhany Ground, Gastonia

SPCC lost by 43 runs.

Baseer Ahmed

July 20, 2008

SPCC 183-8  (Yasir 32, Sumit 24, Kalyan 21) 
lost to SCCA 225 (Abhi 64, Sanjay 48, Praveen 5/41) by 43 runs.

Player of the match: Praveen Namburu

Again it was sunny and humid day to play the game of cricket. SPCC lost the toss and the game was underway as SCCA decided to bat. This was an important toss that we lost because the chasing in temperature around 95 degrees would be a tough ask in Gastonia ground.
SCCA innings
Kalyan and Tarun opened the bowling spell for us. SCCA started cautiously with Sanjay and Ashok. Tarun got the first breakthrough as he got Ashok LBW with a beautiful in-swinging delivery. Sanjay on the other end was dispatching short balls to the fence. Sachin joined Sanjay but he was soon caught behind.
SCCA reached 100 around 15 overs and for the loss of 2 wickets. The dangerous man Abhi was at the crease. He made a double century in the last game and was playing brilliantly. If would not have dropped his 3 catches then it would have been a very different outcome of this game. Abhi made 64 quick runs and Sanjay made 48. SCCA ended their innings for 225.  Praveen took 5 wickets. The energy Praveen brings to the game even after driving for 2 hours is remarkable.
   
SPCC innings
Swapan and Yasir opened for SPCC. Swapan started cautiously but Yasir started playing some big shots from the word go. He hit some awesome shots. We were 40 for no loss around 10 overs. Swapan provided the needed start but was bowled in 12th over. He played couple of good shots for boundaries. Mani was the next man in but Yasir soon got out trying to clear the long-off boundary. He made 32 runs. Mani looked good but was unlucky to get bowled on a ball that just rolled and didn’t bounce at all. Losing Mani and Yasir in quick succession was a big blow and we never recovered from it.

At this stage we still had 130+ runs to make @ 8 runs per over. Venkat was sent up the order to keep the run rate in check but he failed to do so. Sumit and Tarun looked like they were building a good partnership but Tarun didn’t last much long and was bowled. Sumit played sensibly to hold one end and rotate the strike. Baseer was the next man in but couldn’t last long. Abhijit and Kalyan didn’t lose hope and batted very well at the end to make sure we reached a respectable score of 183 runs.

It was just an unlucky day for SPCC and we need to fight back to get into the winning streak again.
 Quote of the week "The real glory is being knocked to your knees and then coming back. That's real glory. That's the essence of it." by Vince Lombardi

Go SPCC