As the international tennis season wound to a much expected close in Flushing Meadows, a few miles away and on a less known and maintained, yet a more realistic meadow the final stages of another much anticipated, albeit in much smaller circles ... ok ... circle, post-season knockout were being initiated. And the result of this match was in keeping with its own pre-match expectations as well.

What was unexpected on the day, which started relatively early, was the sight of scores of people crowding most of the sprawling Van Cordlandt Park indulging in sports other than cricket. There were soccer matches and baseball/softball games being contested heartily on almost every square inch of the insides of venue, while its perimeter was being orbited out of cricketing usage by cross country runners. Unsure about whether this was the norm for every weekend and had to be confronted by his team only because they had arrived particularly early on this occasion, or whether this was another famous scheduling eccentricity courtesy of a certain Mr. Leslie, Venu started communicating to his team members his anticipation of potential venue changes. Much to the cricketers' relief the pursuit of goals, home runs, and finish lines soon gave way to that of wickets, fours, and sixes and CUCC laid the mat and established the boundary almost at the stroke of noon.
The toss that followed soon yielded the second and last unexpected event of the day as Lakshmanan made a rare wrong call. At this level, this could only mean one thing and so even before the opposing captain could officially notify the umpire and Venu of his decision, Gokul had started padding up to get ready for his role behind the stumps just as Michael made the first of his many timely inquiries of the day about which half of this innings would he have to don the box, pads, and wicket-keeping gloves for. His next such inquiry was made as the team walked up to take the field after a quick and dirty fielding practice session. This time he demanded to know which end the bowling was to be kicked off from so that he could prepare himself for his tigerly prowl and houndish protection from his corresponding fielding position. The rest of the team is split between those who are unaware of any such intentions of his, let alone abilities, and others who are yet to see any evidence of either. In the most recent of his string of inspired moves, most of which seem to include Sunil, Venu brought the named bowler on to open the innings which he did in swinging style. A few edges flew temptingly out of reach of the close-in fielders but runs from his end mainly came in wides. Dileep, from the other end, started his spell with, as later on pointed out by Kaustubh, a certain swagger indicative of someone taking the ball with a few more-than-decent spells behind him. The swagger was matched by the ball's own relentless support of its left-handed holder and the beauty of the combination lay for the rest to behold, not the least of whom were the batsmen at the crease. Four wickets fell in quick succession and brought out the high and mighty claims of early beer and even one announcement of an early shut-eye from certain quarters of the team. The first one of these - we are back to the wickets now - came as Dileep was continuing his harassment of what clearly were batsmen not used to playing a consistently swinging cricket ball. This ineptitude made the Bullets' openers display itself with much alacrity immediately and a lack of mind and matter later, as they assumed offence to be the only form of defense and proved it to be right, if only from the CUCC bowlers' own perspective. #1, Ali, was given out, LBW, to a ball swinging from middle to leg and probably missing leg in spite of having hit him on the full - we have already established the wicket-taker. For the die-hard Bollywood fans among the readers, it was Dileep. The second wicket was all thanks to Siva although Sunil had done his part before that particular delivery in ensuring the opener's frustration at the constantly away-swinging balls hurled at him. Always the one who has appeared to be the more likely candidate in the team to actually display the aforementioned feline and canine traits - a la Michael Partridge - when it comes to fielding cricket balls, his time under the sun, albeit a soothing, cloud-hidden, breeze-caressed one, came in this match as he snapped up a mercilessly slashed ball from above his head. He was pinned to his position at point as the batsman had found him with pin-point precision, but the speed of the ball traveling to him at much above eye-level required high levels of skill to stop, let alone catch, it and Siva us up on his toes and to the task. Sunny, of Russian roulette fame from the previous match involving the two teams, perished before he was able to cock his trigger this time around. #4, Afaq, was bowled clean by Dileep in his next over . That was to be the last of Dileep's two wickets for the match in a spell of familiar control and menace and unfamiliar numbers in the wickets column. The next and last one of Sunil's wickets was that of Ifthikar, their wicket-keeping, #3 batsman, who had managed to drag the Bullet's innings close to a hundred runs during the teams' previous encounter. This time around his iffy start could not be wiped under the rug - rather mat - by a long innings as Sunil forced him to play for the non-existent away swing after having gotten him accustomed to that very style of bowling. A classic paceman's dismissal of a top-order batsman at any level of the sport. All the sticks behind him had been disturbed from their original arrangement. This brought their only blazing gun for the day, Moid, to the crease. Thanks to a sensible approach taken by him and  #6, Munny, the Bullets showed the first signs of resistance. The two were determined to see Dileep off and managed to do so unfazed by the two consecutive maidens and a one-run over that were to be his fifth, sixth, and seventh respectively or, for that matter, by the 'gamesmanship' of Siva and Gokul aimed at unsettling the fast-developing game plan. The partnership saw Moid flourish into his forties and Munny inch his way into his teens as the team score headed towards respectability. Gokul exchanged roles with Michael at the drinks break. Soon, Moid's fifty, which had threatened to be a foregone conclusion for a while, was reached. Bowling changes had already been made in vain, well in advance of this event from the southern end, that first saw Madhura and then Kaustubh replacing Sunil, who was struggling with niggles in his shoulder. Inspired by the milestone he had reached, Moid seemed intent on unleashing a flurry of strokes against the CUCC bowling, but another timely change made by Venu brought Prabhu into the attack. A couple of tight overs from the wrister and Moid seemed to have decided to give the blue sky that was bereft of the usual aerial advertising an orbiting cricket ball as a placeholder. A thigh-high full toss was blasted over the gap between long-on and deep midwicket and was headed for maximum but Gokul decided he had a say in the matter as well. Running to his right from a widish long-on, he covered 15 yards and still had to make a final lunge to his right and backward to hold on to the ball while falling to the ground a mere half foot inside the boundary ropes. In what many considered to be the turning point of the match, Gokul just happened to be the one in line on the given day to exhibit what has become a healthy habit for CUCC this season as key moments have been seized by eager individuals to keep the team alive amidst mayhem. The opening thus created was widened by another deluge of quick wickets as the dykes of the Bullet innings never found their Hans Brinker. Munny had decided to take things into his own hands but was rudely reminded about the value of sticking to one's core competency as the flame of his long vigil was extinguished by the breeze of a seemingly invigorated Kaustubh's swing, as he bowled his second spell from the northern end. The rest of the batting wilted under the iron wrist of Prabhu from one end and waned from the choreographic, if not prestidigital, precision of Kaustubh at the other, not to mention a cameo with the ball by Lakshmanan that induced a mighty-go-blighty adjective of "county professional- like" from Siva. A semblance of gumption was shown by their #9 and #10 batsmen as they put on twenty odd runs before the last two wickets became part of Lakshmanan's statistics. The Bullets' magazine ran empty at 136 with two unbowled balls in the innings.
As the erstwhile fresh cotton clouds gave way to used q-tip ends in the sky, the anxious opening pair of Gokul and Siva entered the field five minutes before the schedule start of their innings, much to the embarrassment of the umpires as the usual order in which the participants enter the field of play was reversed this time around. The bullets lived up to at least one aspect of their name as they rattled out high-decibel unmentionables at each other almost from the word "play". Wides were being ridiculed, shots bisecting fielders with a precision more akin scalpels than bats and chased by them unsuccessfully were met with bitter words of wisdom, and anything that was hit higher than six inches off the ground, regardless of its proximity to the fielders in the horizontal axis, was cited as a catch dropped. As the openers and - as later admitted by themselves - umpires continued in utter bemusement, the already shaky English used by many members of the Middletown Bullets was dealt a further and severe blow as they seemed convinced that the word team could indeed be spelt with many I's and U's thrown in. This approach, if it can be called that, worked against the attempts made by at least one CUCC opener to concentrate on his task initially as he played an uncharacteristically y risky shot. An attempted pull from Gokul yielded a top-edge off Kashif's bowling and the resultant local six was tracked down by their backward square leg fielder, Zahid, only to be dropped almost untouched in what was to be one of only two legitimately dropped catches. In a shocking display of lack of leadership, Kashif - also the captain - rued this chance and lived up to his own name by reminding the culprit and the rest of his wards well into the innings of what could have been "if only" that catch had been taken. Siva hit the boundary first with a measured square cut that raced through point to the stands. He was generally timing the ball well when he managed to keep up his end of a different bargain as far as CUCC habits go - a bad one at that - of losing wickets against the flow of events. His wicket brought the prolific Kaustubh to the crease for a memorable CUCC partnership as first he, and then Gokul, took to the bowling and made short of their run-chase. One of the rare aspects of CUCC's batting highlighted by this partnership was clearly some sharp running between the wickets with precise calls and responses mostly made possible by the guile, willingness, acumen, and judgment of Kaustubh. His hard hitting, although bringing Gokul's heart to his mouth on a few occasions at the non-striker' s end, has now become a much expected part of his time at the crease and did not disappoint on this occasion either as he took Sunny for five consecutive boundaries in one particular over, much to the chagrin of his teammates who were unwilling to accept his own claims that good batting as opposed to bad bowling was the reason for the run-fest on view. Gokul, on the other end, started cautiously but got into his own just before the drinks break as he dispatched Kashif twice to the cover boundary, though uppishly, and then hooked Afaq to a six over the short boundary at backward square-leg. From that point on, the match almost seemed destined to fall into the laps of CUCC. The internal unrest among the Bullets continuing unholstered merely helped the CUCC batsmen keep the muzzle that was already pointed in their faces firmly positioned there. The terminal shot out of the barrel came in the twenty first over, ironically as it did, not off the bat but from a wide, putting to rest the mischievous intentions of Kaustubh and Gokul of keeping the Bullets working aimlessly for a few more overs before firing the last run at their own volition.

Both batsmen remained unbeaten in the end making well deserved fifties. KD reached the milestone first and Gokul raced from 39 to 51 with hardly 18 runs left to win. Dixit for his part rotated the strike well to give Gokul a chance to get to 50 which he obliged by smacking a huge six, a four and a couple of runs to scamper to his fifty. Well done guys. MichaelP who was padded up since the fall of first wicket was left to rue another missed chance to bat - which seems to be happening more often with KD and Gokul knocking off the winning runs.

As the cross-wire shifts from the Bullets and focuses on Port Mourant and CUCC goes from strength to strength getting ever so close to fulfilling their promise from the early part of the 2006 season, they are now a mere two matches away from what could be a memorable end to a season resplendent with numerous illustrations of team spirit and a willingness to make one's presence felt when it mattered. And yet, they are a whole two matches away from that.

Guys a great all-round effort by the team. The catches standing out clearly with Siva, Gokul and Sunil taking some excellent catches to keep the opposition down.