Chantilly v/s PSCC match report

PSCC began its fourth season since its revival by playing its first game in the Main league South tournament against Chatilly Cricket Club at Kettering on May 14th 2006. Chantilly, the North league champion from previous years boasted the top run scorer from last year Raj Chintala and the prolific scorer Srinivas Garimella in their lineup. Having been defeated by Chantilly last year during the round robin trophy, PSCC was gearing towards its season opener. PSCC had until now lost each of its season opener and the daunting task of taking on one of the best clubs in the league loomed upon them similar to the weather throughout the approaching week. In addition PSCC was missing some of its key players from the previous season in this season's opener. Subash, the highest wicket taker for the club from 2005, was out with a shoulder injury, Viren having joined Monument in the offseason, Maninder, Parthu and Choksi attending graduation scheduled for the same day as the game. Last minute withdrawal by Charan for his candidacy meant that PSCC lost its opener and a seasoned bowler from last season.

Ramesh (Cheeru) leading the team for his second season won the toss by default since Chantilly did not have the required players by toss time and had no hesitation in selecting to bat first. Abhishek and Herman opened the innings for PSCC. Herman was the first to go in the 6th over when he knicked one to the keeper. Good tight bowling by Chatilly meant that the going was slow for PSCC and in an effort to get things going Abhishek was run out following a misunderstanding between him and Vivek. Shiv, the leading run scorer for PSCC from 2005, then joined Vivek and stabilized the innings till the first drinks break. The going was slow and just when the two batsmen looked like settling down Vivek was bowled and PSCC was in deep trouble at 24/3. Mahesh joined Shiv and both of them put up a good partnership. More importantly runs began to pick up. Shiv played some glorious shots including an effortless six over cover.

Mahesh too joined in with Shiv to put the bad balls away for runs but the second drinks break saw him lose his concentration. Rajaram then gave Shiv support and again built up a partnership. Two wickets on either side of the third drinks break of Rajaram and Shiv meant that PSCC had lost all its momentum and it looked like PSCC would fall short of batting out its quota of 40 overs. However some good contributions by Cheeru, Wagla and Venky saw the innings till the last ball and added valuable runs at a good pace to take the total to 142 all out in 40 overs.

With both the opening ball bowlers from last season not playing (Subash and Viren), Herman took the new ball and gave PSCC a dream start picking up a wicket off the first ball. With rain looming, Chantilly sent in Shiva Prasad to open and score runs quickly and he tried to pull the first ball only managing to sky the ball to short cover where Potineni took a good catch. PSCC was pumped up and a couple of deliveries later Herman got through the defenses of public enemy number one Rajesh Chellapan who had scored last year in Chantilly's win. 2/2 and Chantilly looked in deep trouble. In the meantime rain had started falling lightly and the ball kept getting wet. The bolwers Herman and Rajaram struggled to control and Chantilly began to up their scoring.

A few boundaries and just when things were looking bleak, a superb catch by Venky in the gully off Herman saw the WMCB leading run scorer from last year Raj Chintala gone. The jubilation was met by Srinivas Garimella coming to the crease and Cheeru immediately brought Mahesh into action. He started off right on line and picked up a wicket in his first over and all of a sudden Chantilly was 44/4. Srinivas Garimella and Ramana Darbha stabilized the innings and went about building a partnership. But PSCC started tightening things up and both teams tried to wait for the other to falter. Mahesh was bowling beautifully and was finally awarded when he sent Ramana's stumps flying and it was 74/5 in the 16th over. Rain started picking up and the PSCC players appealed to the umpire and play was stopped and break was taken.

PSCC took the field with light rain still falling and would have picked up another wicket but an appeal for lbw against the new batsman Vishnu was turned down and then a run out chance was missed by Rajesh when the batsmen went for a second off a misfield to Wagla at mid off. Chantilly had the run rate and both batsmen were keen of defense to ensure that they got through to the 20 over mark without losing another wicket to pick up the win and 2 pts. The rain had started to pick up and the ball was getting very wet. Finally with 4 balls left to complete the 20th over, the rain picked up and the players walked off the field.

There was some heated argument off the field with the Chantilly players accusing the PSCC players of wasting time and ensuring that 20 overs had not been bowled but rain poured down and the field became unplayable. Having waited out for more than half an hour, the umpire and the two captains inspected the pitch and the field and finally decided to call off the game as a draw. Finally today the WMCB website put up the result between the two sides as a draw and both teams walked away with a point each. Thus PSCC managed to get its best start in a season till date by drawing out the first game and picking up a point. More importantly the best team in the group also took away just one point and it will be interesting to see the final outcome.

The final scores - PSCC - 142 all out in 40 overs (Shiv - 48, Wagla - 16) and Chantilly - 90/5 in 19.2 overs (Herman - 42/3, Mahesh - 11/2). The entire scorecard can be viewed here.