“At last we are on the board!” sums up TCC’s huge sigh of relief after securing their first win of the season. It was not so much the opposition that caused TCC to sigh, but it was the rain gods who have not been very kind. TCC would like to thank Niranjan and Pankaj from DCC for umpiring this game.

Ravi won the toss yet again for TCC and decided to bat as expected. Samir and Charan opened the batting for us. Ravi decided to demote himself to no. 3 given the lean patch he was going thru of late. PACC’s opening attack lacked penetration and they were treated with utter disdain by our openers who deposited Shami and Kamran repeatedly outside the playing arena. One of Samir’s pulls went into the now famous pond and the ball had to be replaced as early as the 5th over. Charan, a former under-22 player for Karnataka, India was presenting a beautiful straight bat. A couple of crispy drives raced to the boundary with the opposition helplessly watching. They took the score to 78 without breaking a sweat in just under 8 overs when Charan was adjudged leg-before. Samir didn’t last long and was leg-before as well trying to pull. He had made 45 in quick time! Vijay joined his skipper who had come in at the fall of Charan’s wicket. The two southpaws put their heads down and started to go into accumulation mode, waiting for the bad balls and not trying anything outlandish. Ravi signaled his return to form with a couple of exquisite cover drives. The pair added 74 runs in 11 overs when Ravi was bowled off his pads in trying to accelerate. There was a brief collapse with TCC losing 2 more wickets in quick succession. Aravind didn’t get his eye in and was caught at mid-wicket off a leading edge in trying to play his customary flick. Vijay followed soon foxed by a leg-cutter for a well-compiled 45. Rajesh and Sundar tried to go about their acceleration in the usual way with the former hammering a couple of big ones that almost made it into the railroad tracks. Sundar was runout yet again not grounding his bat! I guess including some salad as a part of his diet may help? Rajesh carried on with the rest of TCC’s tail and we made 227 in the allotted overs. 250 seemed realistic at one point, but the collapse in the middle order put paid to our expectations. Something to chew on in the upcoming matches…

With clouds lingering throughout the day, we were too eager to get on with the game without too much of a break in between. We gobbled up the Subway sandwiches and were ready to go. Aravind and Paddy started the proceedings for TCC mixing good balls with wides. Thankfully, the good balls were aplenty which resulted in PACC’s openers getting frustrated. The Rajesh-Paddy combo effected a good runout, giving TCC the first breakthrough. Paddy got his first wicket having Wasim caught at deep mid-on by yours truly (Rajesh, thanks for the fielding drills!). Paddy almost got Jansher out as well with a miscued flick, but the ball fell just short of Vijay at mid-on. Jansher took advantage and decided to showcase his talent. A straight six off Sundar stood out. TCC’s strike bowler Uchil got Murtuza caught at deep square-leg by Aravind making it 3 / 38. The run-rate kept climbing much to PACC’s chagrin. Imran, PACC’s stumper and Jansher seemed determined to take on TCC and they took the score to 74 when the former was adjudged leg-before off Uchil. Nasir, a pinch-hitter joined Jansher and they decided to take the bull by the horns. Nasir was severe on Nataraj and Cashif throwing his bat at anything that was pitched up. The pair had added 40 runs in just over 3 overs when a piece of excellent fielding by Aravind at long-on resulted in Jansher getting runout. It was an awesome throw from the deep to the batter’s end. Nasir lacked support from the other end and after wafting his bat a few times and connecting hot air, he was bowled off Vijay. PACC’s tail didn’t wag too much and Cashif, Aravind and Uchil cleaned ‘em up. Uchil topped the bowling with 3 wickets. We did well to control the sundries this time. All in all, it was a satisfying victory!