Saturday saw us host NJIT on quite an uncomfortable day. It was hot and 
humid, so we were glad to see the match end a bit early, but we'll get to 
that.

I won the toss and elected to bat. Atul and Prabhu went out to open. Both
of 
NJIT's opening bowlers were fairly accurate, not giving much room to play 
strokes. Being that it as Prabhu's first bat of the season, and Atul was 
looking for a score to get his season going, both batsmen were playing 
themselves in. Unfortunately, the running between the wickets proved
fatal, 
as Prabhu drove a ball to widish mid on and ended up standing next to
Atul, 
who was run out. This brought Lakshmanan to the crease for his first
innings 
for Columbia, and from the way that he timed his first ball for a couple,
we 
could see that we had a new batting find on our hands. Prabhu was out soon 
after, as was Joel to a controversial run out which saw him stand his 
ground, and Rishi embroiled in one of many controversies that day. He was 
eventually given out, even though we felt that the keeper had dropped the 
ball before breaking the stumps. Suraj joined Laks for a brief stand, and 
then Michael came to the crease for the only real partnership of the 
innings. Lakshmanan continued to time the ball to perfection, while
Michael 
took the aerial route, looking to score the bulk of his runs in
boundaries. 
With the two of them looking extremely at ease, finally bringing our
scoring 
rate well above four, we had to deal with rain. The rain came briefly, but 
hard. We were delayed in all for 15-20 minutes, with rain, and then
waiting 
for the ground to dry a bit. Unfortunately, though the ground dried rather 
quickly, the matting was still a bit slick, which cost us dearly, as 
Lakshmanan set off for a run, slipped and was not able to get up in time
to 
return to his crease, even though the keeper fumbled with the ball quite a 
bit. He ended with 44, which would no doubt have been well past the 50
mark 
had the footing been firmer.

At this point, Malik joined Michael, and played his typical innings,
carting 
the ball around the ground with great ease. Unfortunately, both Malik and 
Michael lost their wickets within overs of one another, and that was the
end 
of our innings. We went from 125 for 5 to 139 all out, not even batting
out 
our 35 overs. I'd have to say that the lack of time in the middle for many 
of our players resulted in some cavalier and casual strokeplay from many, 
including myself, so that we weren't able to last.

Given that we were defending against an asking rate of only 4, on a quick 
outfield, we had to bowl and field very well. We got the same kind of
start 
that we've been seeing all season, quick wickets, but many runs along the 
way. I opened the bowling and with my fifth ball dropped one short to
their 
captain who looked for the hook and top endged it 10 yards beyond square 
leg. Seeing that he was looking for this shot, I proceeded to bowl a
similar 
ball, just not quite as short, and when he went for the pull, he sent the 
ball right to Michael who held an easy catch at square leg. Michael opened 
at the other end and was getting significant lift from the wicket. He
didn't 
get a wicket in the first over, but was rewarded soon after. He had two 
quick wickets from two catches to Suraj, the second of which was a solid 
drive that left Suraj with a great deal of discomfort in his hands!
Michael 
had a third wicket towards the end of his opening spell, and with Warren 
taking over from me and striking in his first over as well, we had them at 
5/45 in around 9 overs. At this point Prabhu took over from Michael and
with 
slow leggies being tossed up at them, their batsmen were tempted, and lost 
two wickets to Prabhu before they decided that they should play him out
and 
proceeded to go into a shell against him. From the other end, though, the 
umpiring debacle began. Warren and Kishan both struggled with a bit of 
control, but the umpires began taking liberties with their calling of
wides, 
calling anything that the batsmen missed. And it was round about this time 
that they sent a batsman to the crease who proved to be impossible to 
dismiss, and I say that in all seriousness. This guy was not playing at 
anything, so that anything that was not hitting his bat or his body was 
called wide. And when the ball was bowled on the stumps, he would tuck his 
bat behind his back leg, and pad up to the ball, and the umpires refused
to 
give us at least 5 lbw's off of this guy.

With Prabhu's spell ending, I needed to keep some pressure on them, so I 
re-introduced Michael into the attack, and in his second, and last over,
he 
took his fourth wicket, and NJIT's ninth. With 15 runs to go for victory,
we 
were very much in it. Prabhu bowled out, so I replaced Michael, and 
Lakshmanan replaced Prabhu, and when I had to deal with their umpiring
first 
hand, I lost my cool. Without going into a rambling diatribe about it, 
suffice it to say that the lbw was effectively removed from the rule book, 
and even with the batsmen dancing around in their crease, wides were
called 
with the obvious realization that this was the only way that they could
win 
the match. Which is what they did, by one wicket.

By the end of the game, I had lost my voice from screaming at the umpires 
while trying to explain the basics of cricket to them, and needed two 
bottles of water to soothe my throat. The fall of wickets (1/4, 2/38,
3/39, 
4/41, 5/45, 6/85, 7/87, 8/111, 9/125) shows that we were always in it, and 
it just feels rotten to have been robbed, two weekends in a row now.

35 extras bowled. Though the umpires didn't help us, our bowling, one
month 
into the season is not nearly as accurate as it needs to be. That we
produce 
enough wicket taking deliveries to keep the matches close is masking this 
somewhat, but all of our bowlers need to work on this. Fielding was very 
good. A few passed balls and two dropped catches- one sharp one to Kishan 
and one return catch that Prabhu juggled with but couldn't hold- but we
did 
take 7, some of which were not easy. So I'd have to say that the fielding 
did support our bowlers this time round.

CUCC 139 all out (Lakshmanan 44 in 43, Michael 29 in 28, Malik 16 in 14, 
Vicky 3/13 in 5.5)

NJIT 140/9 (top score of 20, 35 extras- 18 w, and 9 nb- Michael 7/0/4/37, 
Prabhu 7/0/21/2)
NJIT win by one wicket