Whilst countless thousands chose to spend a glorious Sunday indoors at Northeast Ohio’s First Annual Duct Tape Festival, those who prefer more noble pursuits ventured off to Richmond Heights, where Cleveland 1 took on the new Columbus based lineup known as Fours and Sixes.

Gautam lost the toss AGAIN and proceeded to forget what the decision was AGAIN!!! Ritesh arrived for his first game looking perfectly dressed for a game of tennis, his six years out of the game must have led him to forget basic clothing requirements for our great game. Thankfully Murali was nearby in his whites and took to the field. Whist Ritesh was venturing out into suburbia, the Cleveland 1 side made their way out into the field with difficulty, thanks to the grass that was higher than 30 centimeters (Around 1 foot for our American readers) in places. We all regretted leaving our matches at home. Once on the field Gautam set his field and it was all systems go.

It wasn’t long before Cleveland 1 got an early breakthrough with Ani dismissing Dinkar for a golden duck in the second over. What was to follow was a fairly steady procession of wickets, some Hindi lessons for Michael and Ravi predicting hat tricks at the most unusual of times. Maybe it was a lack of skill on behalf of fours and sixes, maybe it was brilliant bowling by Cleveland 1, maybe the 4s and 6s batsmen couldn’t see our fieldsmen hiding in the long grass, regardless of what it was the wickets continued to tumble at a very rapid rate. Unfortunately there were five catches of varying difficulty dropped in the field however we were given one dismissal caught behind. We had the joy of seeing Kamal dismissed lbw for 2. Alas not Cuyahoga’s Kamal, the waters of Lake Erie will part all the way to Canada before we ever see something like that happen. By the time Kaushal snared his second victim Fours and sixes were all out for 43 in 22 overs with bowling figures as follows….

Gautam 4-2-9-2

Ani        4-1-8-1

Sujay     6-2-7-2

Kiran      5-2-9-2

Kaushal  2-0-3-2

Jayendra 1-0-3-0

As you can see all bowling figures were impressive and it was very difficult to single anyone out. However it would probably be Sujay who gets the nod, not just for his two wickets, or being the most miserly bowler I have seen in the competition, but the figures do not show that he did bowl without a lot of luck at all. Gautam once again bowled beautifully as did Ani in probably his most accurate spell, it was good to welcome back Kiran, Kaushal bowled with considerable pace and JP bowled the one over of spin for few runs.

For the batting side Vijay scored 10, Raj 9 and Extras top scored with 21.

Following the path that we hacked out of the countryside to get into the middle, we retraced it back to the sidelines where Gautam threw on his helmet and told Ravi that the required total of 44 should be taken care of quickly. Subscribing to the theory of former Pakistan opening batsman Mohsin Khan that there is more room in the air than on the ground. Gautam and Ravi took care of the runs in 2.5 overs, 17 legal deliveries…describe it as you please, the victory was massive, and it only makes you wonder what sort of score we would have made if we batted first. Whilst there can be no denying that the standard of opposition was not as strong as it had been in previous weeks, the attitude displayed by both sides on the field was of a high standard ensuring that first and foremost this game we all know and love is a gentleman’s game, and does not lower itself to bad behavior and temper tantrums in sports that bombard the TV screens over here.

With such a short game having taken place, the Cleveland 1 side took part in an extended training session that provided us all with some much needed practice in the middle. Nationwide 2 will be venturing up I-71 to take us on next Sunday…lets be ready for them!!!

PS. A special note of congratulations to our comrades in Team 2 who recorded a comprehensive win against Sohail… I mean West Virginia University. WVU is a side whose results to depend on the success of one man but the others in the side play good team cricket. It was pleasing to hear that Team 2 beat a side that edged them out last year. It’s a good sign of the improvement taking place within the side and within the Cleveland Cricket Club…. lets keep the ball rolling in 2004.