WCC Batting

An emphatic 6 Wkts win for CUCC. CUCC lost the toss and were put into field first with 9 players on the field. Sunil and Suraj were stuck in traffic and couldn’t make it till the end of the 10^th over. After a quite 3 overs what started was one of the most amazing 7 over spells from Dileep who swung the ball into the batsmen and cut it away off the seam to tear apart their top order. He ended up with 6 wickets, almost picking up batsmen at will. He got one LBW and 5 (#3 to #6, 4 guys for ducks) clean bowled's as he single handedly demolished the opposition. Venu at the other end tied up the batsmen and went wicket less in his 7 overs. At 40/6 their number 7 bat showed great application and scored a very well deserved 62 and fanned the batting as he played with tail enders. Prabhu was at the receiving end as he had injured his hand trying a catch, and couldn’t grip the ball properly and went for a few. Laks bowled well to remove their top scorer and Arvind took a catch off of Lak’s bowling to finish their innings. Laks ended up with 3 well deserved wickets. Nabil and Sunil bowled well to keep the batsmen tied up and Sunil was unfortunate not to be awarded a wicket as a clear caught behind was turned down. One incident during their batting - the ball clipped the batsmen's pad and just took the bails off. Keeper nowhere near the sticks, the umpire consulted with THEIR leg umpire and gave the batsmen out. Batsman refused to walk and after much shouting and yelling he did finally leave. Bronx All Stars ended up with 150, thanks to their #7 as no one else reached 15.

CUCC chasing 151 to win were off to a great start as the second wicket put on a 70 run partnership. Nabil coming back after a long layoff started authoritatively but fell soon after to a dubious LBW decision. That bought MichaelP in and third game in a row he got off the mark first ball with a 4 (and hit to the same spot). Gokul and MichaelP tore the bowling apart as they were picking up the boundaries (and the 6’s) at will. And as has been the case, MichaelP fell for 36 after getting a start. Unfazed at the other end Gokul kept going after the bowling and reached a well deserved 50, with Siva running for him, as he started cramping up. Laks fell and soon Gokul’s stay at the crease ended. Siva and Arvind took us home only to find out from their scorers that there was still one run to win (by now they had shaved off 3 runs from the scorebook). What followed was absolutely horrible and horrific umpiring. Siva walked away from the stumps even before the ball was bowled, as he was not ready, and got bowled. Turned around in horror to see the fielders appealing and the umpire giving it OUT!!!!!!!

Another incident during our batting, appeal for a stumping and was turned down by CUCC leg umpire. Their captain told me at drinks break that though they did not complain on the field that they were officially playing under PROTEST. Not sure how their fielder at long on could see the stumping as he was clearly upset and yelling all the time. Anyways we chased down 151 in 27 overs with 6 wkts left. Umpiring was sub-standard, started off well but once he got under pressure from opposition, started wilting. Clearly not the way any umpire should be treated, the opposition's continued barraging of the umpire didn’t help either side.