Everest Cricket Club of Columbus, Ohio

It was a wet morning to start with, and GNCC2 elected to field first after winning the toss. The ball was not carrying at all, and the ECC openers had to adjust their game by playing defensively. Stanfer made a patient 11 off 31 balls, while Waleed made 26 off 27 balls with only one six. By the first break, the match ball was totally useless, and had to be changed. Whereas, the changed ball started swinging abruptly costing ECC three quick wickets. Fahad bin Rafi, and Ahmad anchored the innings, and added about 50 runs on the 5^thwicket, including a massive six over cover by Ahmad. After Ahmad got out, the rest of the batsmen provided ample support to Fahad bin Rafi, who by his excellent running took the target to 146 in 34.4 overs.

GNCC2 batsmen started well, but couldn’t adjust to excellent swing bowling by ECC attack bowlers, and ended up losing two wickets on consecutive balls in the 6^th over by Ahmad, one bowled and one LBW. Then Fahad Khan took an excellent catch off of Zain’s bowling to remove the third wicket, followed by a direct hit runout by Shravan. Kushal and Varun from GNCC2 put up good resistance assisted by substandard fielding by ECC dropping at least 10 catches, and missing out on a couple of runout opportunities. Fahad Khan remained unlucky not getting a wicket as he got ECC a few catches that we couldn’t hold on to.

ECC regrouped, focused and took the match back by bringing in Stanfer and Ahmad back in attack supported by good fielding. Shravan took an excellent catch off of Ahmad’s bowling to remove the all important wicket of Kushal, while with all the pressure created by Stanfer’s tight bowling caused the GNCC2 batsmen to panic, and they started losing wickets. GNCC needed 17 off 18 balls, and ECC needed 4 wickets. However, Ahmad conceded 10 runs in the over, although bowling out one batsman meanwhile. Now GNCC needed 7 runs in two overs, and Stanfer produced a gem of an over and only conceded 3 runs also inducing a runout supported by tight fielding by ECC. Equation by this time: 4 required off 6 balls with 2 wickets. ECC seniors decided to go with Ahmad’s bowling, and although the over started with a wide and a leg-bye, there was a caught behind next ball, followed by three LBW appeals which were put down. However, Shravan showed absolute presence of mind running out the batsman who was trying to sneak in a single on the last LBW appeal sealing the victory for ECC by 1 run.

Bowling:

Ahmad 6.4-0-30-5

Zain     3.0-0-12-1

Batting:

Fahad Bin Rafi   33 (66)

Ahmad              28 (35)

Fielding:

Shravan -- 2 runouts, 1 catch

Fahad Khan - 1 catch

It was a good day for cricket to begin with. UCC won the toss and decided to bat first. UCC openers were in an attacking mode but Usman stopped them in the second over of the innings, good catch by wicket keeper Stanny. But they kept building the momentum for next 5-6 overs which saw close to 80 runs on the board for One wicket. ECC had its share of bad luck as some close LBW calls were turned down. With only one slow bowler in the squad, Ahmad bhai bowling change to bring Sunil paid rich dividends. Sunil started in the 9 over and broken the partnership with a brilliant catch by Uday at long on boundary. Sunil started to take wicket per over for next four overs of his overs with a dead plumb, caught and bowled with a diving catch to his right, disturbing the middle timber twice, at that time the score was around 83/6. UCC were clueless and decided to block Sunil delivers. And now comes Tater, fielding for Ankur took one of the best catch, plucked the speeding bullet with one hand of Ahmad's bowling. With three wickets left, UCC started building partnership and Usman got the breaking through, Sunil took a good catch running backwards. Both Uday and Ahmad disturbed the wickets to close the innings. Zain is unlucky not to get to wickets but he is great with his left arm pace bowling. At the end the score read 151 all out. Good fielding by everyone to restrict UCC.

Stanny and Waleed gave us great start, with Waleed seeing the bowl like a football and hitting three massive sixes. He was a feast to watch and Stanny giving a good support on the other end and they put on together around 60 runs in between them with Waleed stealing the show for his 46 runs with a strike rate of around 200. Akhil came in number two, and he was out quickly after a small partnership. Shashi is exceptionally well by stealing single and double. Stanny was out after a well made 27 at that moment score read around 100. Sahsi made around 25 before he was out. Ahmad, Usman,Uday Ankur and Sunil were out cheaply leaving the last pair with 17 runs to score. Zain and Sajid kept their never and steered us to home. Awesome batting by Zain by coming in lower order and scoring around 20 with a run a ball. ECC scored the winning run in 3 balls to spare.

All in all, it is a nerve bitting game. Great fielding and catching by everyone..Stood out were Tater's and Uday's catch.Great commitment from Akhil, Shashi, Ankur, Sajid and of course superb wicket keeping from Stanny. Good bowling by Uday, Usman, Zain, Sunil, Ahmad and  Sashi. Great batting by Waleed, Stanny, Sashi and Zain. Great way to start the season. Go ECC.

Match Summary:

UCC- 152/10 in ~31 Overs. Sunil 5/17, Usma 2 wickets, Ahmed 2 wickets and Uday 1 wicket

ECC-153/9 in 35 Overs. Waleed 46, Stanny 27, Sashi ~25 and Zain ~20.

Man of the Match: Sunil Thumma(7-1-17-5 and 2 catches)