On July 25, 2004 two teams came together to do battle against one
another. It was an auspicious day for the Cleveland Cricket Club
welcoming back Patrick back into the line up. Due to work commitments
Patricks had been unavailable, now that he has returned his presence in the
somewhat unpredictable middle order we hope will be valuable. The toss
was performed and it was in to bat we went. Joining Gautam in the absence
of the good surgeon was our master behind the stumps, and a man who is
also quite familiar with the stethoscope Ravi Padmanabhan.

Unfortunately for Ravi his stay was all too short being clean bowled by
Ram, a combination of a good delivery and Ravi being shellshocked to
receive a good ball in amongst all the garbage being hurled down.
Unfortunately Gautam did not keep Viggy company for too long as ! ! he was
dismissed for what looked llike a well conceived plan, caught at mid off
for 8. This bought in the very much in form Ani to the crease and before
long he began to hit his stride and the runs began to flow. It seemed
as though a big score was on the way until he too was dismissed for 45
off 43 and CSU rejoyced. Unfortunately Patricks stay was all too short.
A lack of footwork + two minds + a good ball dismissing you = RUSTY!
Its good to have that one out of the way.
Michael joined Viggy at the crease and in the midst of some steady
bowling consolidated until Vignesh tragically played on for 21 off 49.
Sunny also looked quite assured in his twelve deliveries until being
dismissed trying to sweep for 5. All of a sudden Cleveland were 6/107.
Gaurav and Michael sought to regain the initiative with some good running
and it was unfortunate that Michael was dismissed having just hit a six
the previous delivery for 19. All was not lost that over as Gourav
dispatched a six! ! in that very same over and with Sujay added some
valuable runs. Gourav, now batting with the assistance of a runner was more
than capably supported by the skillful Sujay lifting the score over 150
then 160 before Gourav was ran out for a very well made 23. Murali
lasted only a short time and his dismissal was off the very last ball of
the innings with the score at 172. Sujay remaining not out for 20.Whilst
Gautam was seeking 250 before the game 172 did not seem to be the
worst score possible. The grass was long and the boundaries deep. The
lower middle order showed some fight that had not been seen so far but
the challenge lay ahead.

The opening attack lined up in the usual way with Gautam and Ani, and
they bowled a very good line and length but were unfortunately unable
to get a vital breakthrough. That changed whenl Ani combined with
Michael running out Appurva in the sixth over for six. What was to go on for
the rest of the innings was a mix of good batting from some CSU
batsmen, some dropped chances by some Cleveland players and a level of
umpiring not seen since, since, since I hate to say it ......LAST WEEK!!!
Anand who went on to make a vital 35 survived what can only be described as
a beyond all reasonable doubt stumping. This made Ravi, Sujay and
Patrick...yes Patrick get angry thats how bad it was. Despite that decision
and some others the fact was we were unable to get another
breakthrough. In fact it was not until over number 26 that it came when the brakes
were being succesfully applied by some tight bowling from sujay and
Sunny and then a couple more wickets fell
and the game was wide open. Unfortunately Sujay ran out of overs. His
seven overs for twenty four and no wicket do not come close to
describing how well he bowled. If the umpiring was even sub-standard he would
have walked away with at least two wickets. Looking back the 29th and
30th over cost us dearly. conceding 11 and 14 off successive overs had
more to do with poor efforts in the field than umpiring. CSU batted
themselves into a winning position by the last over when they
required four runs to win and they did so off the very last ball to
deliver
a win which was celebrated in very muted fashion.

Our bowling did vary throughout the day. Whilst there was an all out
assault on our width by the batsmen on occassions and the umpires
constantly some bowlers did bowl quite well! ! . The aforementioned Sujay
bowled well but the best figures went to Sunny whose 3 for 38 off seven
overs swung the game back our way.

Our batting threatened to take hold of the game but did not. A bit of
fight shown by the lower middle order was probably the only new
positive. Alas today it was not to be.