The day started with the toss between both captains, which brought a familiar outcome. No points for any guesses. C2 was put into bat. Determined to simmer the heat and the Mountaineer bowling attack, Nikhil and Rajan stepped out into the middle. A familiar sight ensued. The opening bowlers were seen off with relative ease. The first change of bowling offered something novel to C2 fans. It showed Nikhil mistiming a shot of Hari to mid-off. This was too early an exit for Nikhil, who has set such high standards for himself and the team in the past. Rajan appeared more confident than ever, and with our own resident Dravid (Nikunj) joining him, started to carry the onslaught. Much to Rajan's dismay, his innings came to an end with a fine caught and bowled by Vikas. The parade was starting to take shape much to our anguish. Nikunj fell rather meekly to allow Captain Marvel to mend the damage done. Lokesh and Shiva did their part to put C2 on cruise control past drinks going at 4 runs an over. Lokesh was next to depart caught LBW to Amol and all of sudden it seemed hotter. Sai was next to join Shiva, who was beginning to chalk a great innings. However, Sai would not trouble the scorer too long falling to silly shot over point.

You've probably heard the saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going". C2 fans got a chance to see firsthand what that meant with Shiva and Sameer out in the middle. With the heat starting to get unbearable at 95F, Shiva and Sameer put forth a gutsy effort with the bat to keep risk minimal and produce an array of shots. It was an innings of character for both, who've been stereotyped as just hard hitters. The pair slowly milked the bowling for ones and twos until the bowlers' nerve fell apart. Then the melee began with Sameer cracking some stunning shots over square. The early disaster had been thwarted. With C2 cruising along with 150 on the board, Sameer exited. Kuljeet and Sundeep did their part to nudge the score along and help Shiva at the other end. I fall short of words to fully eulogize Shiva's effort. Even with unbearable conditions, he kept his nerve to push the team and in doing so crossed a major personal landmark. Could the reader actually believe that this was Shiva's first 50 in the MWC tourney? Yes, quite hard to fathom isn't it. With a formidable total of 191, C2 entered lunch to recuperate and to rehydrate. The stage was set and if the Mountaineers had to live up to their Basketball team, they had to surge past Mt.C2, which stood as tall the K2.

The strategy of the C2 bowlers was to keep extras down, since the neutral umpire for the day loved to check the length of his arms every other minute and to get Sohail, the nerve centre of the Mountaineer attack, out as early as possible. Any guesses at the outcome? C2 fell short in both aspects. The reason was not the lack of effort or nerve on the part of the C2 bowling attack. The true reasons were the unbearable conditions, the immense talent of the one-man army Sohail and yes, of course Umpire One-Arm-Distance. The C2 bowling attack was almost starting to submit to its woes and to make things worse the Lion of Punjab, Kuljeet, pulled a muscle and had to retire briefly. Wonder-boy from the last week could not find his niche, owing to run up difficulties and knee strains. The Mountaineers had put on a stance and began to dictate terms until the first break without a loss of any wickets. After the break, however, Lokesh, as smart and astute as ever, brought himself, Sameer and Hiren into the mixture. The result was impeccable accuracy from the trio with the ball and WV bats with waning energy levels. The batsmen probably wondered where they had landed, with the trio screaming "Cleveland is Our House". Hiren was the first to strike, trapping Manish LBW. Strap on Mountaineers! An avalanche is predicted in the forecast. The Avalanche was none other than Hiren. Within the next couple of overs, Hiren wiped out half the batting line up. Before you could say "avalanche" he had already planted dreams of the return drive in the heads of his foes.

Lokesh assisted with a couple of tricks of his own to get two more. All of a sudden the Mountaineers were looking like school kids on one end with their Grand Daddy on the other. Sohail deserves much praise and respect from any team he visits. His game is undoubtedly immaculate. Although he was trying to fight his way through C2 as a lone crusader, Cricket unfortunately is designed to be a team game. Defeated in purpose of winning with a losing team, he started to flare open with his bat. He did get lucky with a few fascinating shots but ended up back in the pavilion after landing the ball into the safe hands of Sameer, who at fine leg took an outstanding catch. Mt.C2 would not be conquered today, with 42 more yards to the summit. The pair of Amol and Vikas also deserved much credit and respect that finished the game with their cameo. They avoided WV being all out with a score of 149.
The Men of the Game were Shiva, Hiren for their excellent performances from C2 and Sohail of WV for his effort with the bat.

Stay tuned for more challenges thrown at Mt.C2 standing tall in all its splendor.