Conway beats an emaciated Commonwealth

(By: Nafis Ahmad)

It is not often that one would like to write about a lost game, but on this occasion, the writer felt compelled to narrate what transpired on a day that saw bursts of scintillating performances that are better recorded in words than in numbers alone. Commonwealth First XI (CCC) took up the field with ten players and the ever reliable Johnny Wright, with major players missing due to personal and other commitments. On the other hand, Conway fielded people from as far as New York and Amherst, to make up a strong line up.

CCC won the toss and decided to bat on a murky day, with a slight chill in the air that made the proceedings pleasant. CCC opened with the make-shift pair of Khushal and Basu, owing to the late-arrival of their other opener. Khushal could not make use of the opportunity and top edged in the second over off of Wildman. Sai joined Basu, and the pair started to milk some runs at a reasonable rate. Basu got fluent as he batted on and a few shots square of the wickets and a straight six of Wildman, signaled his return to form. However, the ever-probing line and length of the US veteran, Donovan Blake, found a faint edge on a nippy delivery off Basu’s (20) bat when the score was 47. Nafis joined Sai and continued to work upon the good foundation laid down thus far. At the 20-over drinks interval CCC were firmly placed at 91 for 2.

After drinks, Maurice Blake started to bowl around the wicket and settled into a dignified line and length. The stranglehold accounted for Sai (30), caught and bowled by the left-arm spinner. Sathish joined Nafis but was stymied by the floaters bowled by Reid. He was bowled by Reid for 4 when the score was 130. Clearly, the best portion of the CCC innings was now over, with middle-order making no dent on the bowling and tamely gave their wickets away. Nafis (59) skied one, in an effort to increase the scoring rate, and was caught when the score reached 152. The rest of the tail added 14 more runs and CCC was all out (9 down) for 166.

An episode worth mentioning is that of little Johnny Wright. Conway captain refused to bat Johnny, as he was not listed in the original lineup. As another CCC stalwart failed to show up for the match, we were forced to bat Johnny as number eleven but for the refusal of the Conway captain. The six or so balls that Johnny would have faced would not have made a dent on the result, but a little kid could have gotten the encouragement, that may prove crucial in years to come. We are all getting old, believe it or not, and we should encourage youngsters to take our places, to keep cricket alive in USA.

Conway faced the accurate and attacking spell of pace bowling from CCC seamers -Sameer and Sai. Both bowlers bowled an immaculate line and length from the word go – they bowled zero wide balls in the sixteen over spell. Such accuracy is usually rewarded. Sai got one to leave Ramas, and had him smartly caught by Kiran Natraj in the slips. Sameer induced a leading edge from Buffong and had him brilliantly caught by the omni-present Sai in gully. The left-handed Williamson was caught and bowled on the very last ball of Sai’s spell. At the 20-over drinks break Conway were at a precarious, 70 for 3, owing to some fabulous medium pace bowling from the CCC opening pair.

Sathish and Ambrish picked up after the opening pair, with the former really bowling to a solid line and length and troubled the well-settled Wildman. But it was Ambrish who got the US veteran caught on square-leg, by the specialist backward-of-square catcher, Somendra Basu. It was an important wicket and Basu held on for dear life. But that was the end of successes that CCC was to have that day. A spate of dropped catches, made it hard for the make-shift fifth bowlers, Nafis and Venkat, to contain the barrage of strokes that Donovan Blake (74 not out) unleashed. In retrospect, as long as we held our catches, we remained on top of Conway, but whence we flouted the basics of catching and fielding, our weak bowling line-up was thoroughly exposed.

Conway accomplished their target in the 33^rd over of the game, but not without jitters and hiccups. This emaciated CCC team played with a lot of fervor, and for a long while made it look like the outcome can be as unpredictable as the attendance of some its stalwarts!!