Notable performances:
Prabhu 4 Wkts, Sunil 3 Wkts, Vishnu 19 Runs.
May 21st,
2006
CUCC defeated Cultural
Cricket Club by 119 runs recording their 9th consecutive victory
in as many games played and the 3rd consecutive league victory
this season.
Sunday morning started out
as sunny and cloudy but the commencement of the game coincided with an
uninterrupted drizzle brought in by rain-bearing clouds that meandered
across from the southwest. Laks, marshalling the side in Venu’s absence,
won the toss for the second time in a row, and after a protracted discussion
with the rest of the team, chose to bat. The innings was opened by Arvind
and Gokul, the latter recovering from a fever and making it in the side
providing us a strong batting line-up. From the way the opening bowlers
started, Cultural seemed in possession of a very strong bowling attack and
in effect a good side. But the two opening bowlers were blanketing a
“weaker-than-expected” opposition, a fact made obvious by the first
bowling change. Both Gokul and Arvind started cautiously but Gokul quickly
got into the groove and started stroking the ball with aplomb.
Contrastingly, Arvind was struggling to time the ball and we witnessed a lot
of “swing-and-miss” when he was on strike. The run rate however never
slowed down with both batsmen turning the strike over at a good frequency.
The partnership, which had amassed close to a hundred runs, ended when Arvind
perished in an attempt to accelerate the scoring further. At this
point it had already drizzled quite a bit to make the wicket wet and
slippery for the ball to skid on to the bat. Meanwhile, Gokul had already
raced to 50 with a flurry of boundaries without any of us realizing it.
Despite being deprived of an opportunity to celebrate his half-century, he
continued to time the ball with nonchalance. Laks replaced Arvind and was
dismissed without contributing much trying to flick and getting trapped LBW.
KD and Kunal followed and played some classy strokes, quite characteristic
of them, to add quick runs and, also provided good support to Gokul who, by
now, was toying with the bowling at will. At 95, Gokul was made aware that
he was inching towards a personal landmark, which quite unexpectedly made
him retreat into a shell. After having taken a while to get from 95 to 99
due to the fact that most of the strike was held by the batsmen at the other
end, he was finally dismissed LBW attempting a wild swing across the line in
a desperate attempt after his century. Spectacular batting by Gokul and
some fantastic hitting towards the end by Vishnu and Sunil, who clobbering
the weak bowling, ensured that CUCC ended up with an enormous score of 254,
the second highest score by CUCC and the second score above 250 this season.
Cultural started with a
very positive attitude in pursuit of the target. However, Sunil and Gokul
effected a classic opening bowlers’ dismissal to put Cultural under a bit
of pressure early on. Unnerved by this early loss, their #2 (Faraz) and #3
(Abdul) batsmen played some aggressive shots to accumulate quick runs before
Sunil bowled the Faraz and Kunal took a superb catch diving forward to
dismiss Abdul off Madhura. Prabhu replaced Madhura and bowled with great
control to stem the scoring rate, while Sunil effected another dismissal
bowling their #4 batsman (Malik). Dileep replaced Sunil and took a good
hammering in his first over only to be replaced by Laks. Their #6 batsman (Moom)
started clubbing the bowling to score some very quick runs. Moom skied one
to deep midwicket towards KD who tried to take it “straight down his
throat” but missed it by a few inches and ended up “jawing” it.
Madhura took a well-judged catch at long off to dismiss Imran (#5) off
Prabhu’s bowling. Laks sent Shav’s (#7) middle stump cart-wheeling
bowling him for a golden duck. Kaushif (#8) tired to attack Prabhu’s
bowling by standing half way down the pitch but failed to make contact with
a delivery that was spun with experience and was stumped by Gokul with the
greatest of ease. Kamran took a brilliant catch inches off the ground at
deep cover to dismiss Talat and Prabhu finished the innings off by
dismissing Moom plumb in front. CUCC ended up winning by 119 runs owing to
an excellent batting performance by Gokul (LBW for 101), great bowling by
Prabhu (4 wickets in 5 overs) and fantastic catching by Kunal, Madhura and
Kamran. Keep up the great performance!