CCC1 ECC Tie an exciting encounter

Rakesh S.

Team 1 tied ECC in an exciting match. Due to prospect of rain the matches were reduced to 25 overs a side. I won the toss and as the
ground was wet, invited ECC to bat first. They started of well with some good hitting. ECC kept the score ticking at 6-7runs/over. We held
some good catches - Prasad 3, Kaushal P. 1. Kaushal's was an excellent and very well judged skier at the mid-wicket boundary. In the end ECC
scored 173 in 25 overs. Sundeep and Ani bowled well in the middle overs to keep the score in some check.

Our response started off well. Ravi N. and Gautam kept up with the scoring rate without loosing their wickets. Ravi N. was first to go in
the 11th over for a well made 40+. The score at that point was 73. Another wicket fell without much additional score. That brought Prasad
to the crease. At the drinks break 90 runs were needed of the last 10 overs. Prasad and Gautam both had some lusty hits at that point and
brought the equation down to 23 runs in 24 balls. Everyone felt that the win would be easy from that point on. But Prasad got out at that
point and the scoring slowed down. We lost another quick wicket resulting in the equation being 7 runs in last over to win. First ball
was hit for 1 run by Sundeep. 2nd ball was hit for a 2 by Gautam. 3rd ball Gautam was out for a very well made 60+. Ramit went in with
Sundeep on the non-striker end. 2 dot balls meant 3 needed of the last ball to tie and 4 to win. Seemed like we had let the win slip by. Last
ball of the game, Ramit missed to connect. It went behind the stumps between the slip and the keeper. Prasahant, I believe was fielding at
slip. He seemed to have some injury to his leg so was a bit slow in retrieving the ball. Heavy outfield coupled with the fact that Puneet
was bowling, the ball didn't travel too far. Sundeep and Ramit ran for their lives. By the time the ball was retrieved and returned to the
keeper two runs were scored. Sundeep came for the third run. Fortunately the keeper was pulled to the side to collect the ball. By
the time he could collect and throw at the stumps. Sundeep was safely in. Unfortunately he was running so fast he overran the stumps and was
too far down to turn around and attempt the 4th run to win the game. Based on the tournament rules, it was a tie game even though we had
lost only 5 wickets as opposed to 7 for them. A very exciting game with quite a few ups and downs.