Pattaya Cricket Club earned their first win by subduing the Superboys Cricket Club at the Pattana Sports Resort on 6 February 2022. On a sunny but breezy morning, the game was a must-win for PCC to keep their final play-off hopes alive. This was supposed to be double header for PCC to catch up on matches delayed under the last covid-19 phase. Unfortunately, the second match was also deferred.
The Superboys lost the toss and PCC decided to put them into bat as the breezy conditions might allow for some swing. Ryan Driver opened the bowling with Tom Fogden against the batting pair of Ashutosh and Dr Mustapha. Ryan was getting plenty of outswing but Ashutosh still managed a boundary off the first ball and 7 from the over. A good start, but it did not last.
Tom’s left arm medium-quicks were getting huge amounts of inswing and Ashutosh unwisely left a ball that came back and removed his off stump for 8 runs. Ryan kept Dr Mustapha quiet with a maiden, whilst Tom removed Irfan, LBW, for a Golden Duck with another huge inswinger.
The Superboys could not get away and lost Gaurav for 2, caught behind by Colin Clark off Tom for his 3rd wicket in three overs. The wheels had fallen off the Superboys’ trolley who were 14 for 3 off 6 overs.
Bernie Lamprecht and Habby Singh took over the bowling and soon made their mark. Zeeshan went for 2, caught behind off Bernie and Habby with his mixture of wides, no balls and leg-spin bowled Dr Mustapha for 14. At this point Ashervad provided some resistance to the PCC attack and carried his bat for 25 not out, but the run rate was slow. Drinks at 15 overs saw the Superboys at 50 for 5 and struggling.
Pattaya’s fielding saw a few catches slip through fingers with Trevor Moolman dropping an edged ball at 3rd man, whilst Jainish Parikh couldn’t hang on to a low ball at short extra cover. However, he redeemed himself with a very sharp catch at leg gully to remove Mohak for 7 off Andy Emery.
Ashervad lost his support when Bernie bowled Captain Harsh for 13 and Andy mopped up Faisal, bowled, and Partha stumped off the last ball for not paying attention in the final over. The Superboys completed their innings on 94 for 9 off 25 overs – an undefendable score against PCC’s big hitters.
PCC opened with Wez Masterton and Colin Clark against Harsh and Partha. Only one run off Harsh’s first over as Wez was swinging and missing, but 22 off Partha who didn’t appear again. Colin didn’t quite get hold of a ball and was well caught in the deep by Mohak for 3, but PCC had scored 45 from 5 overs at this point and were cruising.
Wez then hit Harsh and Dr Mustapha around the ground until a slower ball from Mohak caused him to sky a ball to Zeeshan at short mid-wicket for 37 from 22 balls faced. The loss of both openers brought Luke Stokes and Ryan Driver to their creases and although Mohak’s bowling was accurate, the remainder of the attack was systematically taken apart with good running between the stumps and runs steadily accumulated. Zeeshan got blattered for 24 in one over by Ryan who scored the final runs, a boundary for 34 not out and the match concluded on 95 for 2 from 13.2 overs and a win by 8 wickets with 2 extra bonus points.
A good all-round performance from PCC with very economical and decisive bowling coupled with good batting at 7.5 runs per over. The Man of the Match award was given to Tom Fogden.
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