TCC went into their 9th match of the season with sheer determination and no complacency whatsoever even though we have always had the better of RCC whether it is a practice match or a league encounter. However, it turned out to be one of those "bad days" at the office with RCC defeating us by 39 runs.

Keyur P. won the toss for RCC and decided to bat first without any hesitation. Samay and Naimish opened the batting for RCC. Samay was lucky not to be caught off the very first ball he faced off Aravind. The ball flew just wide of me standing at mid wicket. Not to take anything away from the cricketer par excellence that he is, but he rode his luck quite a few times with the ball either landing in no man’s land or falling just short of a fielder. Aravind had a bad first over and at the end of 2 overs they had amassed 21 runs. Aravind recovered quickly and bowled Naimish all ends up and yorked Ashish a couple of balls later leaving RCC tottering at 2/21. In hindsight, I felt that this was one of the turning points of the game. We let Chirag and Samay consolidate instead of focusing on taking wickets on a continual basis. They took the score to 74 adding 50 invaluable runs in 10 overs. Samay did the bulk of the scoring as expected. Rajesh hurt his fingers on his right hand while trying to catch Samay and had to be taken to Urgent Care. Raajeev, the 12th man for this match substituted for him for the remainder. Later, we found out that he needed 14 stitches between his index and middle fingers! Paddy caught Chirag off Charan. Andy joined Samay and was lucky not to be adjudged leg before a couple of times when the ball would have hit nothing but the stumps. Samay was splendidly caught by Charan at deep mid-wicket when he miscued a pull for a well-made 61. Andy was finally declared lbw to Nataraj. Sachin slogged around and was another lucky batsman to have survived a confident caught behind appeal off Charan’s bowling. He didn’t last long though since Nataraj decided to disturb his furniture. Keyur Patel and Keyur Sanghani added 51 runs in 7 overs for the 7th wicket. I felt this was the 2nd turning point since we allowed tail-enders to dictate terms instead of wrapping up the innings. I could not contribute to the bowling at all since I had a sprained back and chose to rest after 22 overs due to unbearable pain. Ranga, who had just come by to watch the match obliged to substitute for 8 overs. RCC finished their innings at 171 for 7 after 30 overs, a total that seemed improbable at the beginning. Nataraj topped the tally with a 3-wicket haul followed by Aravind who captured 2. Paddy and Charan claimed a wicket each.

Thanks to Syed’s wife, we were treated to some good lemon rice, desi pickles and chips instead of the usual subway sandwiches. Ravi and Charan opened the innings and were focused on building a partnership. 17 runs were on the board off 4 overs when disaster struck. Charan was unlucky to be adjudged leg before off Keyur for 6. Shibu and Ravi carried on without any more damage and the score read 44 off 9.5 overs when Ravi completely mistimed a pull off Chirag only to see his stumps rattled. Aravind walked in and played some glorious flicks and cuts before his bread and butter shot (flick) proved to be his nemesis yet again. Sachin seemed to have scooped the ball inches off the ground. Since I was in no shape to bat at that time, Syed was asked to go at number 5 instead and we were hoping that the middle order would stem the rot. That was not to be. Our middle order batsmen chose to go the aerial route with some reckless shots and paid the price when the need of the hour was only to consolidate and rotate the strike. Paddy was adjudged lbw for a duck. I went in at number 8 (thanks to Charan for being the runner) with Rajesh deciding to follow despite his injury. Rajesh, seemingly in a lot of pain didn’t stay too long and eventually skied the ball to Sachin and wickets kept tumbling at regular intervals with Nataraj being declared caught behind when the ball clearly brushed only his trousers. Sanjay displayed character and ability to stay without throwing his wicket away. He smacked Keyur S. for 3 consecutive boundaries. Off the last ball of that over, Charan wanted a quick single and Sanjay seemed to be caught totally unaware. He ran hard but couldn’t beat Keyur P.'s direct throw to the non-striker’s end. Had he dived, he probably would have made his ground. Oh well! Lots of coulds, ifs and buts change the complexion of a game. Frankly speaking, we just have to get our acts together in the coming games if we want to make it to the playoffs. Of course, we found ourselves at the receiving end quite a few times from an umpiring perspective which in fact turned the match away from us, but we have to learn to take it in our stride and focus on coming back with vengeance.