PERFECT end to the Leauge stages!!!!

Rakesh S.

Team 1 also had a very exciting Saturday. I lost the toss and Cuyahoga decided to bat first. Had I won the toss, I would have elected to field
first anyways. Kamal and Irfan opened the batting. Kamal was his usual self. Playing every ball on its merit and effortlessly punishing any
loose balls. A fast outfield ensured easy boundary. Irfan was first to go, caught behind brilliantly by Ravi P. off Prasad's bowling. Rizwan
and Kamal then put together a 150+ run partnership. At the 15 over break they had scored 123/1, over 8 runs per over. Runs kept flowing.
Of the 7 bowlers I tried no one seemed to control the flow. Patrick finally struck removing both Kamal and Rizwan. Both caught behind by
Ravi P. Rizwan walked to a faint nick whereas Kamal's was a more pronounced snick, but not before Kamal had hit 100 and Rizwan 55.
Things came under control a bit after that although no one was able to compeltely stop the run flow. Prasad bowled a very good last over with
3 runs and 2 wickets. In the end Cuyahoga had scored 263/8 in 35 overs. Patrick and Prasad 2, Rakesh and Sunny 1 were the wicket takers with 2
run outs. With a huge score Cuyahoga players were feeling quite elated and their tongues were wagging with some unprintable comments.

Our chase started with Ravi and Gautam. Very 2nd ball with no socre, Ravi N. gave a simple slip catch which was promptly dropped by Rizwan.
From then on Ravi N. and Gautam took on the bowling with 10-11 runs an over. Gautam was first to go. Bowled by Kamal completely missing a pull
and loosing his off-stump. Ravi and Ani continued from there on keeping the scoring rate around 10. In the 8th over Ani went once too often
over the top and was caught at long off. Despite reminding himself of keeping his head down, the very next ball Ravi N. was gone to a very
good catch at cover boundary. The score at that point was 72. Patrick and Sunny then went on to repair the damage. By the time Patrick was
out caught behind to a mishit, the score was around 170 and the asking rate around 6. Prasad went cheaply and I was declared LBW (need to send
our umpires for a training course in LBW to other local teams for a few weeks :-):-)). We still needed around 70 runs with 13-14 overs to go.
Sundeep then brought lots of cheer by getting of the block right away. At the other end Sunny was going great, except for a bit of rough time
against the leg spin of Rizwan when Sunny's off stump survived some extremely close calls. With 9 runs, 4 wickets and 4 overs to go,
Sundeep gave catching practice to the bowler. Ravi P. the hero of our last encounter with Cuyahoga walked in and walked back out, caught
behind playing a forward defensive stroke of the first ball he faced. He walked back to some sharp comments from Imran. A sense of urgency
came over the CCC1 camp. Srinivas went in next with 3 more balls in the over left. He was asked to just defend and get the over through and
give Sunny a strike. Srinivas did his job and Sunny was back on strike. After some lengthy deliberations Cuyahoga brought Rizwan back on
remembering the trouble Sunny had against him. First ball was a mishit over covers for 2. 2nd ball Rizwan made the mistake of bowling a full
toss. The ball almost landed on Lee Road. With scores now tied, CCC1 folks lined up at the boundary to charge in. Sunny promptly obliged by
tapping a single to mid on. In the end Sunny remained unbeaten at 83. Patrick 45, Sundeep 36, Ravi N. 29, Ani and Gautam 15 each were the
main scorers.

A very exciting run chase and a team effort for the win. Overall Bowling and fielding was OK. We probably dropped only 1 or 2 catches.
Cuyahoga also benefitted from some really sloppy umpiring. Two plumb LBWs were not given. Kamal was at the non-strikers end. After the over
I asked kamal about the LBs. Kamal was honest enough to say they should have been given. I then asked for a change of umpires. Irfan was not
too happy to be removed as umpire but another dicey decision and things could have detoriated fast. I received a phone call from Karthik this
morning to check on the scores. After giving him the details of our run chase, I profusely thanked him for doing the team a great favor by
ensuring Irfan's departure from the team. :-)

Team 1 and a few of the Team 2 folks celebrated the win by heading out to Applebees on Northfield Road.