VCC’s Zomi team played against Qui Vive at Westvliet ground 2 on 14 July. The VCC team was quietly confident after a really well disciplined performance the previous week against log leaders ACC. However, star batsmen Rutger was not available for this game after another excellent batting display against ACC. A number of other key regular players were also still unavailable and the game would prove to be an uphill battle.
At arrival, the much younger Qui Vive team members were very friendly in greeting the VCC team, but the moment they started batting after winning the toss, it was clear that they were serious about winning this match. Their opening partnership was solid without being spectacular, although the batsmen quickly pounced on some short pitched deliveries when presented with the opportunity. Lailesh bowled a disciplined opening spell and Vishal was as accurate as always. After a 60 run opening stand, Vishal got through the defence of the one opener and bowled him. The next three wickets were taken with really good catches at regular intervals. Rob took one at square leg and Colin took a marvellous catch millimetres of the ground at long on. Thereafter the fielding effort unfortunately went south and a number of catches were dropped while the batsmen were attacking the bowlers very aggressively. Mike Corder joined the VCC team on short notice. He came through with an excellent bowling display against some hostile batting and bowled his full complement of 7 overs taking 1 wicket for 42 runs. Rohit Khanna played his second match for the Zomis. After being wicketkeeper the previous week, he showed his versatility by bowling a very important spell and ending with 2 wickets for 35 runs from his 6 overs. Qui Vive completed their innings with a very competitive score of 217 for 6 after their allotted 35 overs.
The VCC batting innings got off to a poor start with the top 3 batsmen all getting out without making double figures. Fortunately Lennaert played a sensible innings in accumulating 12 runs and all-rounder Rohit had a wonderful knock ending with a score of 63 runs. While Rohit was blazing away, captain Guus was batting with cautious, controlled aggression to bring the required run rate down. Vishal joined Guus after Rohit unfortunately lost his wicket, and while they were batting together there were still some hope for the VCC team. Vishal was however dismissed for 16 and there-after none of the remaining batsmen could combine with Guus to put together a partnership of substance. Guus was eventually left stranded on 31 not out, with the team being bowled out for 176. Qui Vive deservedly won the match after some really good batting and making sure they regularly took wickets before any partnership could become too threatening.
After the game all eyes were on the most amazing Cricket World Cup final between England and New Zealand. What an absolutely extraordinary game of cricket, let alone World Cup final. All our players left inspired by the events at Lords’, even pondering about what could have been in days gone by…
Scorecard
