Short and Sweet… all in all a Solid Start

(By Gautam Sundaram, Commonwealth Cricket Club)

Boston Gymkhana ‘C’ v Commonwealth CC 2^nd XI

Saturday, May 14, 2005

Wrentham I

The weather was finally kind to CCC ‘B’ to permit a complete game. Since all the pre-season games and the first game of the season were washed out there were a few nervous butterflies fluttering around and anxious to get the first game started to put it behind us. The weather forecast was not comforting predicting showers around late afternoon. It was clear that in order to enforce a win CCC ‘B’ must bowl out the opposition and score the runs quickly.

Although Rajiv Srinath, the acting skipper, lost the toss, we were asked to field first and got exactly what we wanted. Amit Deshpande and Gautam Sundaram opened the bowling for CCC ‘B’ and gave a very good start with Amit claiming the first wicket and Aditya diving forward to pull a great catch off the bowling of Gautam and Boston Gymkhana were 5 for 2. The rebuilding was very slow and the run rate never crossed 2 and at 10 overs Boston Gymkhana was 18 for 2. Rajiv pressed in bowling changes in an effort to change the momentum and involve everyone.

A total of 7 bowlers were used and everyone got a wicket. The pick of the lot was Vijay Devadass who cleaned out the tail with 4 for 14. Boston Gymkhana was all out for 63 in 28.2 overs. A good effort by everyone to dominate the entire first session. There were 20 extras out of a total of 63, something for us to keep an eye on in the coming games.

Kushal Pushtoonyar and Aditya Kothekar opened the batting for CCC ‘B’ and were cautious to begin the innings. Unfortunately the openers were not able to build their innings and CCC ‘B’ was 15 for 2. Naresh Holla and Vasif Shaikh settled down and start chipping away at the runs and Naresh was out with the total at 32. Srinath Chavali joined Vasif Shaikh and started playing their shots and took control of the game. Srinath Chavali was eventually out at the total of 62 trying to end the game with a big hit. Vasif took care of that with a huge six over the long on boundary to finish the game - CCC ‘B’ gets their first Win of the season!

Boston Gymkhana ‘C’ is very enthusiastic and played hard and we wish them well for the rest of the season.

Our next opponent is UAA, a team that recently moved down from Division I to II. We will face a stronger batting line up. Let us focus on what we need to do to win our next game… I know it sounds familiar, lets take this One Game At A Time!