ANZACs vs CLCC
The fifth seeded Anzacs traveled to Charlottelast Sunday to take on the fourth seeded Charlotte Lions. Having stocked up on essentials such as beer and cigarettes and as an afterthought, some Gatorade, the Anzacs prepared to do battle with some stretches and retches. Here the small but growing Charlotte crowd was treated to an exhibition of some fine yoga, calisthenics, and what not. Even as Satbir and Harman were bent over forwards at a 90 degree angle, Yogi was bent over backwards at a similar angle and Sudeep was lying on the ground at a 180 degree angle (but that was because of the hangover really). The morning was spiced up even further with  Satbir's declaration that he had been watching Hugh all morning. Hugh is now having second thoughts about his choice of his bride-to-be. Simon went to toss and came back holding his thumb pointing at the opposite angle to what we had hoped. Lest this match report becomes a strict lesson in geometry, we had better quickly get to the cricket. We were commanded to bat first. We obeyed. Not too well though, as it turned out. The drama unfolded the 5th ball of the 2nd over as Yogi took off for a non-existent run and was comfortably run out for a respectable duck.
Respectable, ‘coz his replacement Satbir got a nasty rising ball very next ball to be dismissed for a golden duck. Ketan followed soon after, playing a rash stroke, and the Anzacs were tottering. Harman who had been playing beautifully till then, decided he didn’t want to be sensible any longer and one wild swish later the Anzacs were 26 for 4. The Anzacs were shaking like an earthquake. In order to stop the shaking we needed a good knock from Shaker, I mean, Shekhar. Panda and Shekhar steadied the ship a bit, putting together a useful partnership. After looking good for a while, Shekhar heaved away, and to his dismay found the resulting snick taken beautifully at first slip after the keeper deflected the ball. Shekhar looked considerably shaken by his misfortune. Sunil and Panda continued the repair job with Panda beginning to open up and hitting some good shots. The suddenly, in some twisted corner of his brain, Panda got the idea that he could run faster than a speeding bullet and took off for a suicidal run. He could only run as fast as a man with an over indulged tummy, and kept on running (rather slowly) back to the pavilion. Simon and Sunil kept going though, and Simon settled down nicely to play a few rousing shots all around the wicket. The slog overs were a bit disappointing for us, and despite a late cameo by Parth, we could only make 133 runs off our allocated over. Simon ended up unbeaten on 42 runs. Has this man ever been dismissed this season?

 


and Hugh came to the party with some hostile bowling. We knew we had to bowl extremely well to defend this total on this ground against a team that knows only to well how to play here. ParthParth started things off very nicely picking up a wicket off the first over of the innings. Hugh followed suit the next over, trapping the dangerous Parimal plumb in front of the stumps with a peach of a delivery. For a while it seemed that the CLCC batsmen merely brought the bat to the wicket as some sort of an ornament. More balls hit the pads than any other part of the batsman. The Anzacs probably appealed more than they had through the entire season combined, but it appeared as though the umpire had completed his quota of LBWs for the day. After surviving the opening bowlers, the batsmen were greeted with the sight of Simon steaming in to bowl. Simon effected the much-needed breakthrough, getting Bharath caught by Sudeep, who took a sharp chance. Simon was to pick up two more wickets, and the Anzacs went into the first drinks break firmly in control of the game with CLCC reeling at 52 for 5. The break was the turning point, as the Anzacs seemed to have lost their intensity and allowed the lesser accomplished of the CLCC batsmen sneak their team back into the game. They slowly batted us out of the game, and before we realized, they had put CLCC firmly in control. We kept fighting though, but despite a great effort by everyone, CLCC ended up winning quite comfortably with 5 wickets in hand and an over and change remaining. We spent a shell-shocked couple of minutes wondering what went wrong, then realized there was beer in the cooler. We attacked the above said entity with gay abandon and before you knew it the Charlotte ground was filled with the sound of a slightly modified Queen’s ‘We are the champions’. The modification of course being the substitution of the word ‘champions’ for ‘losers’. One also saw the humor in the fact that the only person injured during the day was the Anzacs’ 12th man. Really, that about summed it all.
It’s been a great season, but for some of us, the season has only just begun. We can now look forward to the touring Anzacs going out and conquering the rest of America. Not with cricket skills of course, but with our beer imbibing skills. Hope to see you all in the coming matches and not the least in Sarasota.

    
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