After a winter of great preparation in our new indoor facility, VCC 2 was more ready than ever for the first game of the season. The sun was shining, our ground looked pretty as always, and for most of us, this was our first experience with the hybrid grass wicket. Eindhoven 1, who 
finished second last year, won the toss and sent us to bat. After Babette de Leede’s unlucky dismissal, Jacobus Nel (38) and Nehaan Gigani (34) built up the innings nicely with a 64-run partnership. But after that, the wickets started to tumble… Laurens Boissevain (18) lost his wicket at a score of 123-5, after which the innings completely collapsed, unfortunately. Wickets fell so quickly that our last batter Sajjad Kamal almost got timed out… We were all out for 132, this was disappointing but there were some runs on the board and VCC 2 was ready for a fight in the field in the second innings, especially after the pep talk in the dressing room by Emiel!
From ball one we tried to build pressure and take every chance that we could. This was going to be crucial in defending our 132 runs and especially since Eindhoven dropped five catches. Sajjad Kamal (1-19-8) and Riccardo Goncalves (1-18-5) started off well with both one wicket. Rehan Waheed (1-14-4) and Jacobus Nel (3-11-6) also joined the party with very good catches from Amrit Singh and Sajjad respectively. Our fielding, in general, was very tidy, with great stops in the inner circle, especially from Stijn de Leede, Laurens Boissevain and Amrit Singh, and attacking boundary fielding from Shirsak Banerjee. The plans, at times very creative, even so creative the umpires got confused by it, of captain Floris de Lange (1-20-10) and vice-captain Nehaan Gigani seemed to work very well until number 7 and 8 got a 32-run partnership. They looked to bring Eindhoven home but after an energetic drinks break and a short pep talk, we decided to give it our all once more. At a total of 100, it was Nehaan (3-6-2.2) with the breakthrough (100/7), this was a crucial moment in the game as this brought the tail from Eindhoven to the crease. Nehaan and Jacobus (3-11-6) cleaned up the tail together for just 1 run. Eindhoven 101 all out! VCC 2 starts the season off with a win, and what a win! Bring on Groen & Wit 2 next week!
