ANZACs vs CCC
By playing High Point the very first
game of the season, the ANZACs got
their toughest game out of the way early. Lo and behold we found ourselves
pitted against last year’s runners up in the next game. Who the hell is
writing this script anyway? Who said god didn’t have a sense of humor? If
the object of these past two games was to bring out our
weaknesses…well….mission accomplished! Things didn’t bode well when Parth
(Skunk) came back from the toss grinning from ear to ear. Though quite
disenchanted by the sight, we of course assumed that he had won the toss.
Turns out we weren’t to win anything that day, but Skunk had reason to be
pleased as CCC decided to bat anyway, which is what we were hoping they
would do.
Skunk and Anirudh (Tack) took the new ball and in the 2nd over a terrible
mix up by the batsman and a sharp throw from Tack got rid of Ahmed. In
walked Arun and, fortunately, decided to take on the bowling attack.
Unfortunately, he connected very well. Fortunately, he got out.
Unfortunately, he’s already made a ton of runs. It was Nagi (Cobra) who got
his wicket by having him palpably LBW. Cobra should have had the wicket of
eventual centurion Fabian, but had himself to blame as a fairly
straightforward return catch was put down. Sunil (Zero) was the pick of the
bowlers as he stuck to a tight line and length. He was to pick up 2 wickets
– that of Prabhu who was caught behind and Pranav who was stumped. Both
gentlemen decided to stroll down the wicket with quite dire consequences.
Tack returned to clean up Shankar and with 5 wickets in the bag, the ANZACs
were sensing a comeback. It was not to be, as Yogi and Fabian closed out the
innings with quite a brutal assault and set us a daunting target of 244.
Lackluster fielding and untidy bowling cost us dearly as CCC were able to
cash in on the loose deliveries. Easy to do, when you bowl 6 of them in an
over! While that may be an exaggeration, there were enough to go around.
The batting started off well, without a wicket falling for the first 3 balls
and 3 extras on the board. The 4th ball wasn’t quite as good as Shekhar
(Shekhar), trying to middle ‘just one ball’, edged just one, and was out for
Sunil…er…zero. Skunk and Kam (Tiny) put up a partnership and saw off the new
ball comfortably. Tiny looked good as a batsman but terrible as a marathon
runner, as the 3’s were converted into 2’s and the 2’s into 1’s. Skunk fell
in trying to push the scoring rate along, holing out to Ronnie at wide mid
off. Tiny and Ketan (Lats) put together another small partnership, but the
ANZACs kept falling further and further behind.
Tired of walking his runs, Tiny called for a runner (or walker, if you are
sarcastically inclined). A few runs later, he too fell in trying to up the
scoring rate and that precipitated a collapse. Lats somehow managed to sweep
a ball straight back to the bowler and only Sudeep (Hal) managed double
figures after that. The ANZACs innings ended all out for 106 off only 21
overs. The target of 244 was never threatened as almost everyone got out to
extravagant shots in trying to score quickly.
Perhaps a lower target would have helped the batsman apply themselves
better. Definite work needs to be done on the field as it was almost as if
the fielder’s were statues. The batsmen could run at will knowing fully well
that the ball was going to be missed. The bowling wasn’t much better, with
only Zero conceding 6 runs per over or less. The good news is that the
spirits haven’t flagged one bit and a couple of focused efforts at practice
should get us in the match winning form that we once had. There’s better
news. Having played the top two teams in the league first up, we get to play
Greenville next, the only team to have finished below us last year. Who said
god didn’t have a sense of humor?
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