TCC crushed GHCC by a whopping 135 runs at Greenville on July 17th 2004. The match started at almost 11 am. We were anxious to finish the match early given the forecast for the later half of the day. Man, it seems so cliched that I have to mention about the threat of rain in almost every report (Hurricane season I guess!). Thanks to Vinod from TWCC for driving 3 hours one way to umpire the game and to GHCC for being excellent hosts as always.

The outfield was lush green as compared to our previous visit. Winning the toss certainly helped our quest to better our run rate. Ravi and Charan opened the batting for us. Snehal and Faraz shared the new ball for GHCC. Both seemed to generate genuine pace and with the wicket being bouncy, our openers felt that runs were hard to come by. However, being blessed with good temperament, both our openers decided to spend some time in the middle by seeing the shine off the new ball. Charan seemed in sublime touch even though he had not attended a few practice sessions owing to a heavy work schedule while Ravi was cool and composed as usual. The outfield had a little more grass than what we needed and so the batsmen found themselves running between wickets a lot more. The humidity was pretty high. As a result, Charan started getting cramps and he reluctantly accepted a runner in Cashif. Before we realized, the openers had put together their first century stand of the season. Kudos to Charan and Ravi! It was the perfect shot in the arm that TCC needed, especially having come into the match with 2 back-to-back defeats. In the 18th over with the score at 120, Ravi fell when he square cut Kam straight into Ahmed’s hands at gully. Even though he had just 38 against his name, the southpaw had batted with a lot of commonsense by curbing his shot-making instincts. Syed was sent in as No. 3 and was specifically instructed to stick around given the lean patch he was going thru. GHCC had no clue as to what they were up against. Syed launched a murderous assault on the hapless attack and showcased what we fondly call "The Biriyani Effect" (he claims that he hasn’t had his share of Biriyanis of late!). 78 runs were scored off just 8 overs! Both Kams and Kamlesh Naik were clouted all over the ground. It was a great sight to watch Syed announce his return to form in a grand fashion. Satta, an ex-NCSU player, accounted for Charan by taking a skier off his own bowling. It was a good catch since he had to cover some ground. Runs flowed in oodles and in 28 overs we had racked up 235 runs and 250 was looking imminent. Aravind was caught at deep midwicket by Satta off Snehal while Rajesh didn’t bother the scorers this time. Syed was the last man out for a superb 84 off just 45 balls with 8 boundaries and 5 huge sixers. He was involved in a comical mix-up with me while trying to steal a non-existent run in the last over and TCC made 245 for 5 in 30 overs.

We were treated to some yummy sandwiches by the hosts and the second innings resumed after a 30-minute breather. Aravind and Paddy opened the proceedings as usual for TCC and kept the batsmen on a tight leash by bowling down the corridor. Kams and leftie Fahad wafted their bats repeatedly outside the off-stump and scored runs off edges. GHCC had somehow managed 38 runs in 10 overs. Sundar and I were introduced as the first and second changes respectively. I got Kams out of his misery and Ravi took the skier at cover. Fahad followed Kams to the pavilion having miscued a pull off my bowling and again Ravi ran around from mid wicket and comfortably made the catch. Faraz and Vaibhav took GHCC to 78 with the former going for the bowling. Charan trapped Vaibhav in front for 8. Aravind was brought back into the attack to get a few wickets. He dismissed Faraz right away with the score at 82. I have to say that it is the best catch of the league that I have seen thus far. The ball took the top edge of Faraz’s bat when he miscued a flick off Aravind and the ball went up by miles. Aravind, sensing that Nataraj stationed at mid-wicket was in no position to make the catch ran all the way and dived forward and picked up the catch just before the ball hit the ground. He was in some pain having landed awkwardly while diving. Faraz made a quick 37 in 25 balls. From here on, it was downhill all the way for GHCC since their tailenders just tried delaying the inevitable. Charan took 3 wickets while Aravind, Nataraj and I took 2 apiece. Charan deservingly was voted the Man of the Match for his invaluable 83 and 3 scalps. Syed ran a close second for his lovely and entertaining 84. Go TCC!