With the weather windy and overcast, the sun doing its best to appear but never really succeeding, Quick won the toss and put VCC B into bat.
Matthew opened the innings with Pranav at the other end. Starting slowly, Matthew was bowled, fortunately off a no-ball, clipping the high full toss onto his wicket. Unperturbed, he soon hit a fine four before losing his wicket for 5.
It soon became apparent that the slow out field made running a second run very hard, even a well struck ball slowed down quickly before reaching the boundary.
Aadvik was next in but with a big swing of his bat on a straight ball was clean bowled. Team Quick were bowling very accurately stump to stump, forcing the batsmen to play shots to try to split the field, no easy task with the ball refusing to run away on the outfield.
Rosalie came in at four and after playing a few balls was bowled for one. She was followed by Vashu who played some nice straight drives scoring six singles which on another day deserved at least 12.
Pradyumna scored a very nice 8 runs, and was unfortunate to be given out when the ball bounced twice and rolled onto the wicket. Vinay was dropped early on his innings lasting 10 dot balls for his duck. Aaron also failed to trouble the scorer, stumped for a duck . The Quick team’s wicket keeper was excellent. He stood up to the wicket and looked very assured behind the stumps.
Opener Pranav was still there for the last wicket. His innings started slow but he gained confidence. Towards the end, hitting the opposition for three fours and several twos, a big achievement on the slow outfield. He was dropped in the last over and concluded the innings in a vain attempt for a second run off a wide, leaving Adi way out of his crease. Well done Pranav, A fine innings, carrying his bat for 28 not out. The final score 115 all out with three balls remaining unbowled.
The Second innings started with a difficult first over from Arron who struggled to find his length and conceded 11 runs. The Quick opener struck the ball hard but in the air. After avoiding the fielders on more than one occasion, finally struck the ball high to Vinay at mid off who took the catch well, dismissing the hard hitter for 16 off the bowling of Vinay. The second opener retired early on 9 not out. With two new batsmen at the crease, the scoring rate slowed down. The first six overs went for 36, the second six for only 21.
The Quick wicket keeper was starting to look dangerous hitting the ball with more fluency when he chipped the ball up to bowler Pravan who, diving forward, took a brilliant catch. Next ball he followed up the sharp fielding by clean bowling the hapless batter.
A period of tight bowling continued to keep the run rate down and the pressure on. Matthew bowling his second over, with good flight, bowled his opponent out. After 15 overs with a score of 67 and 4 wickets down, the match was too close to call.
As the wind grew stronger, so did VCC’s confidence as it became clearer that if they continued to bowl good line and length, the opposition were struggling to get the ball away. With 35 needed off the last seven overs, VCC increased the pressure when Wicket keeper Rosalie took a great catch off the bowling of Aadvik.
With four overs to go and 28 required, Quick retired a second batslady. More tight bowling forced the drought of runs to continue. 21 runs were required off the last two overs. This soon became 16 off the last over.
The responsibility was given to Pravan. First ball a dot, second a four, things were getting tense. A dot ball eased the VCC nerves. The next ball was a full toss, hit the wicket but correctly called a no ball. Another dot, two balls to go. In the penultimate ball Quick attempted a quick single which resulted in Matthew running out the stranded opposition. The last ball went for a bye, an irrelevance; the end result a victory for VCC B by 10 runs.
Well done to the team who with two wins out of three are starting to work well together and learning that if they bowl straight and accurately, with accurate fielding they can defend a modest total.
-SD
