Washington Cricket Club

Washington Cricket Club News story


Payback time!!

17 Aug 2013

This was the second time WCC was playing Damascus this 2013 season. After the Division game loss we weren't taking it lightly even after a series of wins. Super-8 trophy was also at stake as this was a must win for WCC before playing the Lions. 
It was a great day for cricket and WEB Center had the outfield of the season. Grass cut short and dry meant that it was going to be a high scoring game. WCC won the toss and elected to bat with technically all 11 batsmen :) 

Tarun and Sameer started cautiously as Damascus started the proceeding with their most dependable Prabhjot and Ankur. They bowled an impeccable line and made it hard for our batsmen to score to their liking. Around the 8th over mark Sameer (01) thought of cutting lose but to no avail as he got caught at mid-on. Raj joined Tarun and rotated the strike well. We survived the first 15 overs with 45 on board but all 9 wickets intact. Raj perished to their spinner Massod after a well made (26). The in-form Kalyan (19) goes in next to live upto our expectations. Along with Tarun, they whacked all bowlers during their partnership all over the small park till Manish got rid of a dangerous looking Kalyan. Shounak (05) went in next but soon perished alongwith Tarun (61) as it was a tall order to get the ball over the fences off of every ball. Well played TC !! Washington was around 140 for 5 at the end of 30 overs and given the shorter boundaries and quick outfield we probably needed to look at 200 plus just to be safe. 

Two new but attacking batsmen in form of Viral and Vijay join the boundary fest. Slightly delayed entry for Viral as the spinners had almost bowled out their quotas but he still managed a Quick-fire or Viral-fire 26. Vijay on the other hand massacared Ankur and Prabhjot's economy rate by some clean straight drives over the fences. Vijay hit the second fifty of the game 54 off 26 balls. This innings showed lot of class and character. Bowling was not wayward at all but Vijay played all his drives with a lot of elegance and on the rise. Thanks Vijay it was a treat to watch. Rajiv, Palash, Murali got to bat too and did their part after Viral and Vijay gave us the score we needed towards the end. At the end of 40 overs we were 227 for 9.

WCC started with the most dependable new ball magicians Murali and Sameer but it wasn't quite the start we were looking for. Batsmen scored freely and weren't slogging to our dismay. Soon after the introduction of Ravi, Viral and Vijay wickets started coming at regular intervals. Rajiv was at his best behind the stumps and got rid of their in-form Ravi with a fabulous stumping. Rajiv took some incredible catches too. 

Ankur alone stood tall but had no support from his teammates. Although we dropped a sitter early, but again that's cricket. With one or two wickets in hand Ankur took the charge and decided to go for everything. Hitting sixes at will but with Viral's re-introduction Ankur (95) perished to a good pressure catch at mid-off by Murali. 

Outstanding performances by Tarun, Rajiv and Vijay. Great team effort guys !!