PPCC Vs Thorpe Manhattans CC - Match Report

With the sun out but thunderstorms forecast the only lightning was from our PPCC bowling attack! Sid won the toss and decided bowl first in the timed game. Kunal and Dharmesh opened and really troubles the batsmen with pace and bounce. They bowled 10 and 8 overs respectively on the trot picking up a wicket each. The opposition were scoring at only 2 an overdue to our tight line and length. Rits and MP3 were first change and carried on where the openers left off bowling a good line and with good pace beating the bat many times. Rits with his ‘injury’ seemed to be back to his best and picked up 3 curtail wickets to take apart their middle order. MP3 picked up 2 wickets but could have had a few more if luck was on his side. Tushar bowled a couple of overs but the batsmen were going after us in the last few overs so Dharmesh came back on to keep it tight and pick up another wicket which was well taken in the end by Kunal even tho he made a bit of a meal of it! Thorpe Manhattans finished on 120 odd for 8 off 37 overs.

We knew we had plenty of time and chasing 120 odd shouldn't be to tough but we didn't bat deep and as we lost our last 6 wickets the previous week for 20 odd runs we knew keeping wickets in hand was key. It was the hottest day of our season so far and we were all struggling after lunch. Gaurav and Abhi opened and batting and were instructed by Sid to bat at least 15 overs and not give their wicket away. They did just that and batted around 10 to 15 overs until Abhi was out bowled. Our run rate was only around 2 an over so Gaurav decided to try and accelerate but was caught out. The run rate was up to around 4 an over so Biren and I kept pushing for singles and were looking in good shape until Biren was also caught out. Sid was in next but pushed one do their silly point fielder leaving us on around 60 for 4. We were in danger of folding but Forhad stepped up and gave me good support and we kept the scoreboard ticking and took some good quick singles. We needed 10 ish runs off the last 2 overs and Forhad was caught out. Tushar joined me to finish the game off in the last over with 5 balls to spare.

It was a tight game, tighter then it should have been but we got there in the end. Everyone contributed in one way or another so a good PPCC team effort.