Aravind (TCC) and Shankar (CCC) went for the toss and lady luck favored Aravind. CCC, the three-time finalists, has a famed bowling lineup in its ranks. This did not deter TCC from choosing to bat first. Ravi Renga and Raman walked in to face the opening attack of Arun and Vijay Kumar. Right from the word go, Raman was very aggressive. Anything short or overpitched from Arun was dispatched to the fence with an attitude. Meanwhile, Vijay bowled an excellent line and length and did not give any room for the TCC openers to score. However, in the 4th over of the day, Vijay Kumar pulled a hamstring and retired for rest of the match. He was replaced by Ajai, who used the awkward bounce of the wicket to repeatedly surprise Ravi and finally claimed his wicket with a LBW decision. TCC was 35/0 in 5 overs. Arun was replaced by Praveen Chandrasekhar beguiled Raman with a clever slower one who tried to flick and the ball flew off the edge to Shankar stationed at gully. TCC were 37/2 after 7 overs. TCC squandered a wonderful start by losing a couple of quick wickets and CCC seized the initiative thru some excellent bowling by Praveen and Ajay. The need of the hour for TCC was to steady the ship and steer it out of troubled waters. Instead, a brilliant direct hit from Arun from square leg to the non-striker’s end caught Samir Tikare just short of the crease. TCC were woefully tottering at 38/3. At this difficult time Vijay walked in to give company to his captain Aravind. With uncommon common sense batting, the pair posted a fifty partnership and took TCC out of trouble. Meanwhile, Shankar replaced Praveen and Pranav replaced Ajay. Both of them bowled a very controlled line and length and started to frustrate the TCC batsmen who were looking for runs.
At 85/3 in 17 overs,
Aravind tried to leg-glance Praveen and was caught by the keeper trying
to glance the ball down the leg side. Soon Shankar snared Syed, who, in
trying to clear the fence was caught by Arun at the long on fence. TCC
was once again staring down the barrel at 100/5 of 20 overs. Rajesh Uppalapati
walked in to to join Vijay, who at the other end was playing an innings
of controlled aggression. He stayed at the wicket, curbed his urge to hit
and instead decided to rotate the strike and waited for the bad ball. Right
from the outset, Rajesh was aggressive and he bludgeoned 23 runs off 18 balls
taking the TCC score to 140/5 in 25 overs before being caught on the boundary
line by Pranav. Sundar, Raj Uchil, and Trin Viswanatha pitched in at the
end to post a score of 173/8 in 30 overs. Clearly, the total was the direct
result of mature game from Vijay and couple of cameos from Aravind and Rajesh
U.
Lunch was taken around 1:30 PM and the clouds began to look ominous and the rain started to get heavier. When it subsided, CCC started their innings with veteran Ahmed and Fabian. Ahmed signaled his intentions by dispatching Aravind to a first ball boundary. Hari Namballa shared the new ball at the other end. During the fifth over of the match, Aravind had the last laugh when he got one to nip back into Ahmed's pads and umpire Dave agreed with the vociferous appeal. The rain, incessant by then, reduced the mat to a wet and muddy condition, virtually making it impossible to play. The outfield too started to get wet and at 3pm both the captains decided to call off the match with the umpire having no objections whatsoever.
(compiled by Vijay Jagannath & Vishwa Trinarayan)