July 29, 2007

South Park seamers took full advantage of the early morning moisture and did not let Tanglewood to settle on the wicket. Venkat Siva bowled superbly and was getting the perfect movement. Baseer and Khurram assisted Venkat’s attack and destroyed TGCC batting line up. TGCC bundled out scoring just 106 runs.

Day started with the fear of evening thunderstorm. The beautiful Tanglewood ground was already wet from Saturday’s heavy rainfall. Looking at the ground conditions, it was obvious that team bowling first will get the advantage. The toss was crucial. Both teams were hoping to win the toss. Coin flipped and went in SPCC’s favor. Without any hesitation SPCC Captain Baseer decided to field first.

Venkat Siva was given the opportunity to attack from West end. He was pitching the ball at the right length. A dropped catch in the first slips saw another addition in the slips. That decision was rightly rewarded when Mayur edged the ball at second slip. Siva did not change his tactics as he puzzled another batsman, which gave away a catch right into the hands of the keeper. Baseer also got charged up and forced Mayuresh to edge the ball again into the safe hands of the keeper.

Siva kept on confusing TGCC batsmen. Raman got frustrated and lofted the ball high in the air. Amit spare no chance to take this easy catch. TGCC lost its fourth wicket with only 12 runs on board.

Muzaffer and Khurram were brought into action. Muzaffer too bowled very economically with good line and length. While from the other end, Khurram decided to go aggressive. He got success when Harish took this brilliant low diving catch. It was Harish’s third successful dismissal behind the stumps.

Amar played sensibly along with Sunny. Both players played some good strokes but because of dampness on the ground, the ball failed to reach pass the boundary line. Sunny was trying to pull every ball but got trapped lbw. He could not uphold Khurram’s express delivery.

Amar scored 31 runs with three fine looking boundaries. A change in the bowling also results in him going back to his sitting buddies. Amit was the bowler. He did not get much success in getting wickets but he was no doubt the most economical bowler of the day.

Faruqh got dodged by Baseer’s slow delivery and got bowled out. Soon Deepesh went back to players’ stand without troubling the scorers. Wajahath, the Superman of SPCC, pluck the beautiful catch from air. Bivinder showed some resistance but Prasant got run out by a beautiful throw from Anish. TGCC were all out for 106 runs.

A very quick burst of shower during the lunch break provided the same atmosphere for TGCC bowlers. TGCC was looking to bowl like SPCC’s Siva. Bivinder bowled outstandingly but he did not get much help from his other fellow bowlers. Muzaffer was the first one to go when he got bowled out by Bivinder’s swinging delivery. Sumit did not survived long in the ideal bowlers’ condition and edged the ball in the slips. Anish got unlucky, when he got leg before by Mayur.

After the departure of Anish, Amit was sent to provide support to SPCC opener Rahul. Rahul played very sensibly through out from the start. He kept the strike most of the time. He relied on quick singles and doubles intially. Amit lost his wicket, when Amar took this amazing catch. SPCC lost its fourth wicket with 89 runs on board.

Rahul finally decided to go after TGCC bowlers. He batted fiercely and remained not out till the end of SPCC innings. In his innings of 69 runs, he smashed seven 4s and two tower high massive 6s. SPCC chased this target in 18th over with the loss of 4 wickets.

It was a well deserved win by SPCC. All the credit goes to SPCC seamers, especially Siva, Baseer and Khurram. They did not allow any TGCC batsmen to settle on the crease for long. Not to forget Harish, who was amazing behind the stumps and took three brilliant catches. Thanks to Tanglewood guys for the good game.

Man of The Match: Venkat Siva