Match: VCC 3 vs VVV 5
Venue: VCC Ground 2
Date: 18th July 2021 (Sunday)
Author: Dinesh Joshi aka (DJ)
It was a hot sunny day, ideal for the Indian expats in our team & for our honorary Zomi, Rutger “Jonty’ Beekhof. Our Skip Rohit lost the toss and we were, as expected, asked to field.
After a quick warmup consisting of catching drills, the ball was tossed to Navjot. The left-hander’s line was immaculate from the word go. Not to be outdone, Sono at the other end fired in with pace and accuracy.
After five overs, the Amsterdamers were on 22 comprising of a couple of boundaries and with many a dot ball. With pressure mounting, Sono bowled one of their openers. The other opener followed suit in the following over to Navjot. Nobody charges down to Navjot and expects to hit him for six. A mistimed shot and a skier was comfortably caught by safe-hands Vishal.
The next over saw the departure of Batsman number 3. Smart fielding by Jena and a throw at the bowler’s (Sono) end resulted in a runout. Runs off the bat dried out. Tight bowling, smart field placing and good all-round fielding ensured that no runs were easily scored.
Naman replaced Navjot and Ashish took over from Sono. Ashish threw in a short-pitched bouncer which their No. 4 gently lobbed the ball into Sono’s hands. The score was 30 for 4 after 11.1 overs. One wicket maiden was followed by another as Naman took another VVV scalp.
To cut a long story short, Ashish and Naman steam-rolled the rest of the VVV batting line up for a grand total of 39 in twenty-odd overs. Impressive effort by all concerned. Ashish finished with figures of 5.3 overs, 3 maidens, 3 runs & 4 wickets. Naman was 6-2-9-3. Good fielding by all and the one area we have improved on greatly this season is our catching. One catch a piece for Nitesh, wicketkeeper Rohit and the cream of the lot was by Jena in the slips.
After two very impressive opening partnerships in our previous matches, Rohit & Jena strolled out to the middle. Perhaps due to over-confidence, both the openers returned back to the pavilion getting caught playing expansive shots. Retesh played well scoring 9 from 15 with one stylish upper-cut to the boundary off a full-toss.
Rutger got off the mark with his favourite shot, a swash-buckling square cut. The next delivery hit Rutger’s pads but clearly, there was bat involved. Loud and persistent LBW appeals were screamed out. The following ball involved another LBW appeal which added to the pressure on our umpire and he was eventually given out. Unlucky Rut!
Naman (7*), steady as ever & DJ (6*) got us over the line in the 7th over. Yet another impressive win for the 3rds. That is 3 out of 3 and at almost halfway through the shortened season, we look positively towards our next game.
