ANZACs vs CCVT
At 8:30 Saturday morning the
field inspection committee met in the
middle of Shiloh Park for an assessment of expected playing
conditions for the day. The field did not look promising. As anyone
living along Crabtree Creek can attest, a substantial amount of rain
had fallen on the RTP area over the previous 24 hours including a
heavy overnight downpour. There were standing puddles all around the
field and upon removing the covers a lovely mud pit was revealed.
Had we had a few girls in bikinis ready to do some wrestling then the
cricket game would most certainly have been called off for better
pursuits. Instead phone calls were made to the Hokies (still no word
on what the word Hokie means) to tell them to turn around and head
back to Blacksburg. They had driven down the night before so it was
agreed to meet at the field and make a determination.
With the 9:30 game time fast approaching VT finally arrived and
somehow were not deterred by the rising tides on the field. They
obviously are the glass-half-full type as they were convinced that a
game could soon be underway. This, despite the fact that Tony
Greig's traditional "key test" on the pitch found him up to his elbow
in mud! Led by their extremely gentlemanly captain, Shrikanth, VT
managed to railroad the Umpire and the ANZACs team into agreeing to
give the field time to dry before calling off the game. The teams
would reconvene at high noon for the next pitch evaluation.
The ANZACs who were at the ground proceeded to Shekhar's apartment in
a despondent mood for a late breakfast during the wait. None of them
wanted to play the game under the conditions, but there was a certain
sense that the game would inevitably go ahead. After reconvening at
the pitch this sense grew. The field had dried substantially, though
puddles remained, and Shrikanth's insistance on waiting all day only
grew. With Simon not at the field there wasn't anyone who was
willing to get in his face and run them off back to Blacksburg.
Again it was decided to wait a while longer to make a final decision.
At 2PM it was inevitable. The field had dried substantially and
amazingly the morass we call a pitch had firmed up sufficiently to be
playable. A game was going to happen.
In conditions such as these the toss was critical. Shrikanth called
incorrectly and Hugh was more than happy to put them in to bat.
Amazingly there were rumors that VT would have chosen to bat had they
won the toss. The ANZACs were joyous at this outcome, but they were
still pissed off that the game was happening at all. A call to Simon
summed it up "What the #@!!& - you guys are actually going to
play!!" So the game went ahead with the first ball bowled at 2:40,
five hours after the initial game time.
The team was rather fired up at the fact that they had to play in
these miserable conditions and this was fairly evident in Parth's
opening spell. Four wides, one going for an extra two, and a no-ball
later VT were off to a good start at 7 without loss. Hugh's first
ball wasn't any better, but then the bowlers and the team settled
down to a great half an hour of play. The next four overs were
maidens and included the all important wicket of Prabhkar, VT's best
batsman. VT were only able to pick up singles here and there as the
bowlers kept it very tight. The change of bowling to Satbir and
Deepesh saw the fall of two more wickets and VT were in trouble at 24
for 3 after 11 overs.
Then came Satbir's third over. Ankur is not VT's best batsman, but
he is their most dangerous batsmen. He loves anything down the leg
side and is more than willing to open his shoulders. Satbir's first
ball of the over was a full toss on the legs. Ankur took a mighty
heave but fortunately missed as it thudded into his pads. He was
visibly angry that he had missed this great chance to pick up some
runs on a low scoring day. The next ball would give him a chance to
redeem himself. Satbir seemed to think he was playing at Fenway Park
and pitched another full toss on the legs. This time Ankur sent it
flying over the railway tracks. Five minutes later the ball was
returned. For anyone who missed the last delivery an instant replay
was available on the big screen in the middle of the field as the
third delivery was a full toss on the legs despatched over the
railway tracks for six. The somewhat quiet VT crowd, not usually
known for their vocal support of their team, were in uproar at this
turn of good fortune. This ball was more easily retrieved as the
fielders knew that area of the tracks well. Again the ball was
returned to Satbir who at this point had been informed by the captain
that the goal of bowling was to pitch the ball on the off stump.
This lesson apparently didn't quite sink in as the fourth ball of the
over was a full toss on the legs which was promptly smote over the
railway tracks to a round of gentle applause from the crowd. Another
five minutes later the ball was returned to a field wondering whether
Satbir was about to be confined to the ranks of batsmen-fielder-
scorer, where Jonathan currently is banished. He finally seemed to
have learned his lesson and was more than pleased to give up a single
to Ankur and deliver the final ball of the over to someone else. But
the damage was immense as VT had scored 19 runs off the over almost
to double their score!
With Ankur back at the strikers end for the next over he looked to
continue his rampage against Deepesh. Eight runs came off the first
four balls but his agression finally was his downfall as he skied a
ball to Sundar. He had scored 30 runs in just 13 balls out of a
total of 51 putting VT back on track for a decent score.
However, VT is known as a bowling side for two reasons. Firstly,
their bowling is better than the league average, but the converse is
also true. Their batting is far below league average. With not a
recognized batsmen in sight the wickets began to tumble. 51/4, 56/5,
64/6, 68/7, 69/8. At this point Parth was given the ball to relieve
some of his agression on the tail and though he did start with
another wide, he ended the innings with his third and fourth balls of
the over. VT were all out for 72. The ANZACs had bowled well all
around:
Parth 4.3-2-10-3 (two runs off the bat)
Hugh 4-2-3-0 (two runs off the bat)
Satbir 3-0-26-1
Deepesh 6-0-20-3
Sunil 4-0-9-2
Ketan 2-0-2-1
Parth and Ketan opened the ANZACs innings under strict instructions:
see off the new ball. This they did to perfection. Ketan got a four
on a thick edge over third man, but otherwise the batsmen played
within themselves and allowed the runs to come. The bowlers helped
in this regard. Wides were a regular occurrance and the score slowly
ticked along at the required rate. Parth finally played an ill
advised shot to be bowled for 5, but by now the score was 24/1, one
third of the way to the target. Satbir came in and looked in good
form taking runs from almost every ball. However, he was a little
too aggressive and skied out to mid off. Two balls later Ketan
played around a ball and suddenly there was a little concern in the
ANZACs camp as they were 41/3 with two new batsmen at the crease. At
this point a good spell of bowling with some quick wickets could see
the ANZACs in trouble.
The next over was bowled by Kunan with Shekhar facing his first
delivery. Shekhar was determined to get his eye in, but the first
ball was short outside the off stump and the batsman couldn't resist
the opportunity to punch it through the covers for four. The next
delivery was outside the off swinging away and Shekhar just
shouldered arms to let is pass harmlessly by. The next ball was the
same, just a little wider and the umpire asked him to bowl it again.
The fourth delivery was wider still and again he was asked to bowl it
again. The fifth ball over the over the keeper took in front of
first slip and the sixth he took diving beyond first slip. At this
point Shrikanth decided it was time to rewrite the rules. He
obviously thought he was playing at Fenway Park too as he visited the
mound to relieve the pitcher. After initially believing the bowler
to be injured and this was a legitimate move the ANZACs were suddenly
in uproar at this blatent disregard for the rules of cricket.
Shrikanth was again completely open minded in his understanding of
the game, but a few minutes of waving the rule book in his face saw
him bring the bowler back on to complete his over. His next two ball
he bowled to second and third slip respectively. He finally got his
line back and bowled out the over but by now another 12 runs were on
the board and the ANZACs were back in the drivers seat.
The rest of the game saw Shekhar and Sundar content to wait patiently
for the runs to come. Only when the target was within four runs did
Shekhar play an impatient slash to be caught in the slips. Sunil
went in and calmly knocked the ball over gulley for the winning
runs. Top score of the innings was Wides with 19, followed by Ketan
for 17 and Shekhar for 16. The final ball of the game was bowled at
6:17, ten hours after the ANZACs first arrived at the field. They
were more than pleased then to send VT back to Blacksburg with their
tails between their legs. It's a long drive home when you know you
have been offered a rained out game, but chose instead to lose.
This win sees the ANZACs firmly entrenched at first on the MACC
points table at 9-1-1. But first place is not guaranteed. A win
against CLCC is needed in two weeks.
Home