Sunday June 27, 2004: The scene was set for Rakesh and Ramit's farewell
game; Cleveland CC1 playing Nationwide 1 at home. We had arranged for a
barbecue on the field to celebrate the contributions of these two
gentlemen to our club as a whole. Thanks to Sunny, who who did most of the
barbecuing, it was a thoroughly enjoyable day. Those who missed out....
well you missed out on great food and a feast of batting that one gets
to see once in a blue moon!
The Nationwide team trooped in and Gautam for a change won the toss and
elected to bat. Ravi N and Gautam opened the batting. The opening few
overs were steady until Ravi launched into one of his pull shots and the
runs started to flow. The bowling was pretty steady. Ravi then got out
bowled to probably the only really good ball that morning. Vignesh
joined Gautam and the two joined to form a useful partnership to get to the
drinks break with about 82 runs on the board. The break worked against
us and both Vignesh and Gautam got out in successive overs. Ani came in
and seemed like he was trying to get his eye in. Ritesh also got out
LBW and Sunny was out bowled. Seemed like a collapse in the offing. Ravi
P joined Ani in his first hit this season. It seemed like he started
off fluently from where he left last year with his trademark pull shots
on display. He was then run out. Rakesh was sent in to stem the flow of
wickets.... and he did that very well before he was out cau! !
ght. The run rate until then was still a little above 5 runs an over.
Sujay joined Ani and then Ani put on a batting display that was truly
majestic.. yes, I think only one adjective does justice to his batting
that day-majestic!
With about 10 overs still to go, Ani went from 50 to post a hundred
with more than 12 sixes to his credit. Each of them clearing the boundary
by some distance. One of them landed just by the trees and missed
Sunny's SUV (for which Sunny was very dissapointed!). It was a feast true to
the occasion! Badri did manage to capture few moments of the
ANIhiliation!.... The innings wound with Cleveland CC1 all out for 247 with Ani
out bowled on the last ball.

A funny moment at the innings break.. Gautam invited the Nationwide
team to join us with the barbecue... their captain told him- 'We've
already been grilled'!... such was the impact of Ani's innings.... the
innings assumes greater significance since Ani was suffering from fever
earlier in the morning!

A ritual has been started in team 1 to recognise contributions of
players in a game- the player contributing significantly to the teams
performance leads the team onto the field.... however, being Rakesh and
Ramit's farewell game, they did the honors of leading us onto the field for
the second innings. Gautam opened the bowling and the Nationwide team
began in right earnest with the 2nd ball being clouted for a 6. Frankly,
that was the only time that the Nationwide team seemed to be competing.
From then on it was good bowling all round with steady fall of wickets.
Rakesh doing the 'wicket countdown!' in Kaushal's absence.

Sujay with 2, Ani, Kiran and Vignesh with one wicket each were the
wicket takers. Rakesh got 3 wickets to his credit. with 3 wickets to go,
Gautam tossed the ball to Ramit to turn his arm over... so, for the first
time in the Midwest league Ramit got a bowl and he wasted no time by
getting a wicket of his very first ball!... he took another wicket and
ended up with respectable figures of 1.4-0-2-2. Why was he never given a
bowl before?- blame it on previous captains :-D !

The margin of victory was massive- Cleveland CC1 beat Nationwide 1 by
158 runs!... some had an entended barbecue session after the game.

All in all, another convincing victory leaving Cleveland CC1 the only
4-0 team in the league.. big game coming up against Columbus CC on July
11; win in that one will go a long way in enhancing this team's
building repution as the team to beat!