Notable performances:
Sunil 36 runs, Arvind 24 runs, Pavan 20 N.O.,
Dileep 2 Wkts, Venu 2 Wkts.
On a gloomy Saturday morning, Rain gods could have spoilt the game. However, knowingly or not, Columbia University Cricket Club is going for their 5th
straight win (2nd Straight in Mini-league), the rain gods made way for a beautiful-warm day of cricket.
Ashok, CUCC president and captain of this match, rushed to toss and before
he could utter "Gayatri Mantra" the toss was made. Obviously, Ashok lost the toss and Hoboken elected to bat first.
Dileep opened the bowling for CUCC with a Maiden, followed by Venu, both hit tight lines troubling the inexperienced HCC's opening batsmen. With 5 overs down and only 7
runs on the score board, it was just a matter of time the breakthrough would come. Venu in his 3rd over got the breakthrough by appealing successfully for an LBW (rather
relieving the batsmen of his misery). Abhi, the next batsmen, though scored the highest (23) for HCC, was never comfortable and most of
his runs came of risky lofts or misfired hits to the boundary. In the meantime, wickets tumbled at the other end in regular
intervals. Kunal was introduced in the 14th over and took 3 warm-up overs to get into his wicket taking ways (This was Kunal's 1st match of the 2006 season). Monty was also brought into
attack from the other end and had immediate success, taking a smart caught and bowled offer from HCC's top scorer Abhi.This
confident booster brought the best so far from Monty, who also generated great pace and control,
bowling 2 maiden overs in the process. Kunal on the other end found his "deceptive
in cutters" working well to have 2 of HCC's batsmen bowled. Kunal' impressive bowling read 5 Wkts in 7 overs.
"Way to start a new season Kunal"
Arvind and Sunil, who was moved up the batting order, opened for Columbia. Arvind started conservatively, however, Sunil had other plans. His 36 of 17 balls that included a
effortlessly flicked "Six" and 7 fours is proof of his striking power. When Sunil was out, caught of a
mis-queued shot, score read 57/1 (6th over) out of which Arvind had scored only 4 runs. By this time the match was almost over, it was left to "Columbia's strong batting line-up" to complete the formalities. Though we
lost 2 wkts unnecessarily, Pavan and Ratesh held their ground to take CUCC past the required runs. Pavan (20 runs, 4 Fours, N.O.) doing the most of the hitting and Ratesh
providing good strike rotation from the other end.
Winning was made easy, due to the fact, Hoboken fielded a relatively weak team. However, CUCC need to improve a lot, specially, in the areas of catching and fielding to take the tougher challenges that lie ahead.
Nonetheless, it's 2nd straight win in as many Mini-League matches (5 in a row, including
friendly's). Keep it going CUCC. Thanks Ashok, for captaining the side, a job well done (and the mat duties too).