Everest Cricket Club of Columbus, Ohio

It was a beautiful day to play some cricket. The ground was mowed to perfection and outfield was looking excellent.  The entire team was on the ground before time and warming up. ECC was all pumped up and ready to thrash any obstacle in its course to victory. The biggest question of the day for ECC before the Toss was “Should we Bat or Bowl first”. Knowing that bowling has always been ECC’s strength and looking at our captain  trying to decide whether to bat or bowl first gave everyone the feeling that ECC’s batting is not far behind ECC’s Bowling.  UCC won the toss and the question was answered, ECC was going to go bat first.

Our Openers Stanny and Prashanth bhai looked dangerous and in excellent form.  UCC put their best bowlers to stop our dynamic duo from scoring runs but our openers were too good for UCC to handle.  Prashanth bhai and Stanny were keeping the pressure on UCC by stealing clever singles, doubles and scoring some very well placed boundaries when Stanny unfortunately got run out but not before providing ECC an ideal start. Score was 51-1 in 8 overs. In the dugout no one put their heads down and Waleed came in to replace Stanny. He and Prashanth bhai batted beautifully till the end of first session stealing runs every chance they got. Waleed did not let his leg injury get in the way of him putting pressure on UCC.

After coming back from the break Waleed was looking to go after UCC’s bowling when he got bowled out on a delivery that stayed low and hit his stumps.   He was disappointed as he knew he was in form and it was just hard luck that the ball did not bounce as much as it usually does on ECC’s pitch. After Waleed’s departure in came our indestructible wall “Fahad bhai”. He looked like he had only one objective in mind “To play his natural game and stay there for complete 35 overs”. With Fahad bhai being on the pitch gave confidence to Prashanth bhai to go after UCC. He hit a huge 6 over long on fielder. The fielder thought he had a chance to catch the ball but he was unaware of the power put in the shot by Prashanth Bhai.  He was in full momentum when he struck another shot which came off the bottom of his bat and got caught. It was a pleasure watching him hit 62 runs at a strike rate of over 120  with some gorgeous on drives you will see at this level. Fahad was joined by our Mr. Dependable BalaJi who batted beautifully and took on where Prashanth bhai left off. Just when Fahad bhai started to up the run rate-he got caught  when a powerful cut found fielder at sweeper cover. In came our powerful hitter Mayank who had his team and some beautiful crowd cheering his every stroke :). The power with which Mayank plays his shots was underestimated by UCC which they pretty soon realized when Mayank hit the ball with a pull shot at deep mid-wicket. The fielder caught the ball but paid the price, his thumb was dislocated with the amount of force behind the ball. Unfortunately he still held on to it which meant Mayank had to walk back to the dugout.

It was the time for our captain to come on the crease and show everyone what he’s made of. He played some excellent shots; hit a humongous 6 straight down the wicket.  Bala continued playing excellent shots with Tara giving him full support. It was looking like there is no stopping Balaji when he mistimed a shot trying to over the top and got caught at short mid wicket. ECC was 205/5 in 33 overs when Balaji fell. In came Naresh who stayed at the crease with our captain and helped the team reach an excellent score of 217-6 in 35 overs.

Even knowing that ECC’s greatest strength is its bowling and the score it put up for UCC to chase was extremely difficult to say the least, No one in the team took the game lightly. In fact the team’s commitment and energy level was at its highest level.  Our Star bowler Uday opened the bowling with some good swings. UCC’s batsmen were unable to read Udays bowling who took the wicket of Irfan in his first over, credits to Naresh for taking an Excellent running catch at covers. Naresh supported Uday completely by bowling some beautiful Yorkers, keeping the bowling tight and not giving them any easy runs. Uday’s second over, he got in form Praveen Bellamkonda out by bowling a fast and wide  inswinging full toss outside off stump which the batsman tried to hit over the slip cordon. Looking at the speed with which the ball was travelling everyone one though it was flying over wide off the second slips to the boundary until our captain caught it single handedly with batsman leaving in disbelief.  Looking at Uday’s bowling one could assume that he could read the batsmen’s mind, which became apparent when he bowled an out swinger to the Subodh who tried to play a slice shot but only managed to knick it and was caught nicely by Prashanth bhai at point. From here onwards there was no stopping ECC. Everyone know how great Fahad bhai‘s bowling is and UCC was threatened by him. This was readily apparent by some controversial calls made by their leg umpire but Fahad bhai did not let this get to him and kept bowling magnificently. Mayank also kept his bowling line and length precise and bowled excellent spell making batsmen work for every run.  UCC’s batsmen were trying to build a partnership, Heat was taking its toll on the fielders, with Abhish and Bhavik playing sensibly and forging an good looking partnership and ECC knew it needed a breakthrough. As has happened many times in the past it came when Abhish took on Balaji at short mid off trying to steal run from a on drive only to find Balaji's powerful direct hit shattering the stumps at the bowling end. It was beginning of the end for UCC. Captain Tara then had Ravi plumb LBW and then got UCC captain Praveen caught at covers with Ahmad taking an well judged high catch. Tara then got dangerous Julfi who inside edged a flighted top spinner to the stumps. With Pressure building and batsmen trying for quick singles, Bhavik's end came when striker did not respond to a call for quick single and both batsmen ended up at same end and Tara smartly got Bhavik run out who played an extremely sensible knock of 53. Fahad bhai then took final wicket with some excellent bowling and brilliant stumping by Prashanth bhai. Hats Off to Stanny for his exceptional effort in trying to catch the ball at long off, this left Stanny with an injured shoulder (Get Well Soon Man). Throughout ECC’s bowling there was not a single moment when the bowler/fielders were not cheered up. It was an excellent example of team effort winning the game. Also stand out were couple of excellent saves by Mayank fielding at point and short mid off. As usual our flying horse Naresh was involved in many great saves. Special Thanks to Usman for being there for the team and filling in for our fielders. Ankur did great job manning the square leg boundary. Indeed it was a fitting end to ECC's glorious league campaign. ECC finally won by 64 runs.

Man of the match: Prashanth Bhai played a glorious knock of 62, Balaji again proved his worth by helding middle order together and hitting gorgeous 41 and forging good partnership with Fahad, Mayank and Tara, Uday cleaned up UCC top order with 3 wickets up front. However for the second consecutive match, Man of the match goes to Captain Tara for his all round show who first coming in at number 7, scored 33 Not out in just 21 balls providing ideal finish to ECC's inning and then came back to take 3 key UCC wickets, got UCC half centurian Bhavik run out and held a brilliant catch to send back UCC best batsman Praveen Bellamkonda.

Now its Playoff time and hope ECC continue its winning ways. Good luck and Go ECC!!