Heavy rain the preceding week caused a delayed start to the match vs Trindies, again at Oxon Hill. The run ups had to be cat littered and there was slush in the infield. The grass on the outfield was wet as well. Not an ideal day for cricket but there are very few of those in any case. Trindies won the toss and decided to bat as the match was reduced to 35 overs a side. The first session of play amounted to one ball, a wide, before the rains started up again. After this stop-start session, the rain abated and play resumed.
Anil (Doc), in supreme form this season, in his very first over had the opening batsman edge one through to the safe hands of Rajiv behind the wicket for 0. Doc provided another breakthrough quickly when a full toss was hoicked straight up in the air for Rajiv to complete another simple catch. Bowling a fuller length consistently, Anil had No.4 clean bowled and No. 5 playing across a full straight ball to be plumb lbw. A superb opening spell accounting for the top order of Trindies. Sameer who opened with him from the other end, had Bally chip one straight to Viral at short cover and half the Trindies side were back to the benches. No. 6 Mangar battled gamely to try and fix the innings with Ronald who ran himself out for a non existent run. Sagar was miserly bowling first change ,not giving hittable length or width to the batsmen who were trying to build partnerships. Vishnu and Mangar again battled hard before Sagar claimed Mangar by trapping him in front. Viral and Ankit bowled very well in tandem and it was a struggle for the Trindies batsmen to generate any kind of momentum to put Washington under pressure.
Viraal tried out Raj and Shounak as bowlers with 3 wickets left. Nos. 9 and 10 along with Vishnu managed to eke out some runs to push the score past 100. Calver was claimed by Ankit who beat him in flight as he was charged by the batsmen only to be bowled. Shounak got his debut wicket for WCC as No. 10 charged, missed and was stumped by Rajiv. Vishnu was run out in the final over of the innings and the struggle for Trindies ended at 105.
106 to get. Same target as with Punjab Lions the previous week where we won by 7 wickets.
Things did not go as smoothly this time though. We did not start well this time. Sameer (4) and Raj (6) got out trying to loft the opening bowlers to offer simple catches to mid off and point respectively. Sharath and Shounak tried to settle things down. Trindies bowling was not threatening but was effective. Not bowling width or drivable length, gently moving the ball either way, discipline was their mantra. Shounak edged one to the keeper to fall for 6. We were 3 down for not much when Rajiv joined Sharath in the middle. The pair of them built a partnership that involved keeping the good balls out and scoring off bad ones. Percentage cricket with no risk taken. That however did not stop Rajiv from launching a couple of rockets out of the boundary.
Determined to keep going, the pair added more than 50 runs to take the score close to the target. Calver, a 60 plus years old fit pacer, was rewarded for his persistence as Rajiv (24) played on to end a good innings under pressure. Viraal (1) hit one back straight to the bowler and by the second break, we needed 22 runs with 5 wickets in hand. Seemed like a canter still but the very first over post break, Palash (1) again hit one straight back to the bowler and Jagan (0) slogged his second ball, missed it and was out lbw. Trindies was back in the game and the pressure was right back on WCC. With 3 wickets to go and 22 runs to get, it was anybody's game. A couple of cheap wickets and it would have been all over. Sagar joined Sharath, who held the innings together for WCC and both of them played smart, sensible cricket to take the team close. In the 31st over, Sharath (39*) and Sagar (8*) ran a brace to complete the chase without fanfare but without further heart attacks.
The same target which was chased down losing only 3 wickets last week, was won with 3 wickets remaining this time. Such is cricket! The batting was, to put it simply, bad. Washington managed to stave off an embarrassing loss to add 3 crucial points to their tally.
Next match: vs. United CC at Web Center. Better batting is the goal next week.
Let's see how that goes.