It was a bright hot sunny day with a long commute to EindhovenCC where the game was being played. Before the match even began shivers were sent through the team’s spine as we read that the temperature was a mild 30 degrees Celsius at the time of play. We all knew this would be a challenge but perhaps not as big as we thought. Flo won the toss and chose to bat. After a quiet start, Harry found his rhythm and hit 4 exquisite boundaries in quick succession. Jacobus kept rotating the strike only to fall victim to a ball short and wide (how do you get out to that?) which he hit to mid off for 12. Following that perhaps came the weirdest moment of the season so far as Harry decided to leave a straight ball cannoning into his stumps. Safe to say Harry was as confused as any of the 22 players on the field as to why he left the ball. He made a valuable contribution of 19 before his demise. Nene didn’t last too long at the crease perhaps hoping to go back to his DJ duties back at VRA. Alyan coming in at 5 hit a beautiful cover drive before nicking one to the slips. Meanwhile on the other end Nirav thought it’d be a good day for some test match batting (which would be unfair to the English boys who seem to be going at 6 per over in their test matches.) Skipper Flo coming in at 6 was determined to build a partnership with Nirav but fell victim to a one handed screamer taken at slip. Next in Babette was clearing the rubbish with her brilliant sweeps behind square leg fetching her a handful of runs. Bogged down on the other end Nirav decided to unleash and scored 10 off a single over which ignited some fire into the game as if it wasn’t hot enough to do that already. Babette fell trying to go over mid off the next over and soon after Ali Baba also followed her into the pavilion nicking one to slips. The demise came shortly after as Nirav chipped one to mid off and Rehaan one to the bowler. Ramesh Babu got Sajjad to slog only to find a fielder to complete his 5ver for the day.
After posting a mere 96 on the board, the VCC bowlers had their work cut out to have a crack at defending this total. Opening with our ever-reliable Sajjad and Ali Baba who bowled wonderful first overs as Baba got one to nip back for an LBW. Then the batters decided to take the game on making very quick runs since then however losing regular wickets as well. Unfortunately for VCC a target of 97 was a bit unrealistic in order to defend as Eindhoven made quick work of it chasing it within 16 overs. As for the bowlers, Ali Baba and Flo got a wicket each and Stef priced out two scalps in the short bowling innings. A harsh reality check with Lots of lessons to be learnt. We’ll be back strong against Groen en Wit 2 at our home ground next week.
