"Cleveland1s batting depth sees it through"

Chasing in high pressure knockout games "yes of course" we have to
stick to our game plan and for the zillionth time dont panic. Gautam's game
plan was simple and wise but sunny has another week to count his zeros
in the zillion and of course including the one he scored a golden one
of that. The record for chasing this year for cleveland lay intact as
they reached with more than an over to spare against a team that was the
dark horse of the competition.

Amid fears of rain ruining the weeks play, the sun shone brightly at
rhodes park for the all important semi final clash between seeds 2 and 3.
COBCA (columbus bengali cultural association) was a team of recruits
from OSU graduate students, having lost only to cleveland2 in their march
to the semi-final. Gautam won the toss (i think he would win over a
girl more easily than winning a toss) and no surprise deceided to chase.
We once again made a pledge to keep our cool as we did against CCC in
the quater finals.

Gautam opened with a more attacking field with 2 slips and a gully.
There was drama very early in the match as an inner edge fell short of
RaviP and another one falling short of Jayendra at point. Patrick and
gautam combined well to keep the batsman on a tight leash out side the
offstump when a delivery from patrick kicked off from good length and fell
into the hands of vignesh at gully. Worse was to follow for cobca as
Kallol Basu slashed at gautam only to see Gauvrav pull of a blinder
stretching full to his right. The most consistant batsman for COBCA vibash
was at the crease and cleveland1 was hoping to get him early. Vignesh
was brought in to bowl in place of gautam and he straight away picked up
2 wickets with one of them a beautiful piece of stumping from RaviP.
COBCA lost 4 wickets for 40 odd runs and they switched to survival mode.
Sujay was brought into the attack and he responded by forcing Vibash to
chip one in the air to midwi! ! cket only to see Vignesh put down
a running catch to his right. But cleveland1 got over it quickly and
kept bowling a tight line denying easy runs to COBCA. The smoking gun
took over from vignesh and soon got Parul with a well flighted delivery
that clipped the legstump. But JPs research mind began experimenting as
he tried bowling six different deliveries an over (i bet JP is
emulating Akram) and ended up bowling 12 instead!!! this forced Gautam to give
the ball to RaviN. Ravi bowled well within himself and picked up the
jerkin clad vivek iyer wiining a LBW shout. JP got better with every over
and finally ended with 2 wickets to his name while all this time Vibash
slowly moved to 46 when patrick pulled of a exceptional catch at sqaure
leg to dismiss him. Gautam and sujay returned for the slog overs and
took some stick as Mitul smashed 3 sixers to push COBCA to 138/9 in the
alloted 35 overs.

Cleveland1 innings began with Gautam and Sujay, the opposite team not
willing to let RaviN open since he was off the field for 10 overs. Sujay
presented a solid defence to the accurate COBCA bowling with a close
shout for caught behind the only skirmish in the early overs. Normal
proceedings began at the other end for Gautam as he punished anything that
was pitched up with consummate ease, but that rush of blood led to his
downfall as he played all over a full ball to be bowled. CCC1 was 13/1
at that stage. RaviN walked out to bat and there was a sense of caution
as both players nudged and ran well between the wickets. RaviN was
dismissed LBW trying to play his favourite pull. He made 17. Vignesh joined
Sujay with the score at 45/2 in 14 overs. CCC1 had their best defences
out there and they sensibly took the score to 62 in 18 overs. Sujay
started to open up and picked up vivek iyer for a boundary over mid
wicket. But perished the next ball p! ! ulling it startight to short
midwicket. Ani came and went as he was caught at the long on boundary.
Entered patrick the saviour from the last game, and vibash was brought
into bowl only to see patrick strike him over long on. Parul who bowled
with good pace and nip reserved his best for Pat as he got one to move
the other way and had pats offstump knocked back. At this stage CCC1
needed 53 from 54 balls with mike and vignesh in the middle. The next 7
overs were the best phase in the match as mike and vignesh ran COBCA
into desperation by taking quick singles of virtually every ball. The only
short ball from Vivek Iyer was pulled to the square leg boundary by
vignesh and mike followed it with two boundaries to midwicket. 30 were
needed of 36 balls as the disciplined COBCA attack started to wilt under
pressure and started conceeding extras. The runs continued to flow of
every ball as both batsman scamperred between wickets at every
opportunity. Mike departed with 12 runs needed for vi! ! ctory in 3 overs.
Sunny was the next man in and he tamely offered a catch to square leg.
8 were needed of 14 when vignesh attempted a pull shot and the ball
went to gully and was dropped by the captain. Gauvrav and vignesh put all
fears to rest by scoring the 8 runs in the next 5 balls to signal CCC1
entry ito the final of MCT. Vignesh ended up scoring 31 NO with Sujay
28 and Mike 22.

The lower middle order once again came to the rescue when the chips
were down. There are still some areas to work on, CCC1 conceeded 37 extras
out of 138. The batting must make sure that we do not leave it to the
lower order who have done a commendable job and it is time to repay them
in the final. We also thank Rajan, Romi, Badri and Ani's wife (Pallavi)
for coming out to columbus to support us.

It is a final against OSU on Sept25th and we expect great vocal support
for OSU in their homeground. Speaking for our team we expect the whole
club to make it on saturday and support our team for the one last
victory this season. Lets bring home the cup!!!!