The Final was played at a sunny and very hot AIT ground on Sunday 12 May 2024. PCC were brim full of confidence after subjugating Asian Stars to a comprehensive thrashing the day before and BBCC were confident having won all 13 matches and having beaten PCC twice this season. A win for PCC would be poetic justice as such a win was how PCC came second last year.
PCC were bolstered by the return of Luke Stokes, fresh from his Premiership win with The Southerners and thus there was a good mix of pace, spin and batting within the team.
Andy Emery conducted the toss with Shantanu Tambe, as witnessed by the umpires, Tauseef Khalid and Robin John, which was won by BBCC who decided to bowl first. Luke took his usual No 1 spot and Roshan Perera moved to No 2 to face the pace of Vivek Yadav. The first few overs started well for PCC as they scored 14 of a partial over from Mohnish. He bowled a full toss to Luke which was driven back at the bowler who almost caught it but split the end of his finger and needed hospital treatment.
The ball still went for a 4. PCC were scoring at a steady 6 runs per over when Luke was deemed to be out, caught for down the leg side for 18 by the keeper, Kamlesh Singh, off Pradeep Maurya’s first over. Meanwhile, Roshan was steadily grinding away until Mohnish returned to the attack. A no ball 6 and a boundary 4 resulted which pushed the score along. Ajay Tak was brought on to bowl his very slow dibbley dobblers in the 12 over, and his 2nd over brought rewards as Roshan danced down the wicket and was stumped by Adnan Michael for a respectable 33, 88 for 2 from 14 overs.
Drinks were taken early and Jainish Parikh replaced Roshan. Ajay continued with spin but Kamlesh was replaced by pace from Mohammed Umar. Jainish had reached 2 when he was dropped on the long-on boundary off Ajay and this proved to be a seriously costly mistake. Ryan had reached an ambulatory 28 from 37 balls when a ball didn’t quite reach the boundary and found Rakesh Yadav’s safe hands, 115 for 3 at 17 overs. At this point Jainish got into his stride and assaulted most bowlers with boundary 6s whilst getting brief support from Andre Human (13), Habby Singh (6), Preet Singh (5) and Andy (2).
The wickets were all taken by catches in the deep and shared by Mohammed, Pradeep, Kamlesh and Shantanu. With only 2 overs remaining and the score on 168, Andy departed on the first ball of the over which brought Ben Walter to the crease. With 3 boundary 4s and a 6 along with Jainish’s 6, the last 2 overs yielded 32 runs from Pradeep and Shantanu. PCC finished with 200 for 7 in 25 overs with Jainish 51 not out and Ben 22 not out. This was a defendable score and would present a challenge even to the Bangkok Blues.
As usual, BBCC opened their batting with Vidit Mishra and Abdul Rehman who faced Ryan Driver and Andre Human. Vidit started well with a boundary 4 but his luck evaporated on the next ball when Ryan moved the ball away for an edge and was well caught by Ben at slip. Rakesh Yadav’s first ball was adjudged LBW and he was out for a golden duck, 2 for 6 and a dream start for PCC. Ryan’s second over contained more misery for BBCC as his 4th ball had Shantanu caught by Luke at mid-off for 11, 19 for 3 in the 3rd over.
BBCC had a short revival in terms of not shedding wickets but the required run rate was slowly rising as the overs progressed. Abdul was lucky to survive as long as he did as he was dropped twice by Jainish. Andre, Preet and Ryan continued to stifle Abdul and Kamlesh until a breakthrough occurred in the 11th over, Ben’s first, when Kamlesh was caught on the deep mid-wicket boundary by Habby Singh for 14, 58 for 4. This triggered a catastrophic collapse and the poor scorer (me) found it hard to keep up. First to go was Pradeep for 1 caught by Roshan off Ben and 2 balls later, Abdul was finally caught on the boundary by an excellent catch from Luke for 21, but Ben was not done with BBCC and bowled Adnan for a golden duck for an outstanding over of 3 for 1.
BBCC had gone very quiet and very blue around the gills at 64 for 7 in the 13th over. Mohnish took the crease with his bandaged finger and provided his personal level of resistance but he could not keep any friends. To insult to injury and inflict more pain, Steve Christie took Vivek’s wicket for 1 run, via an amazing catch by Luke on the boundary, diving one handed, 65 for 8. Monish continued to resist, but Mohammed Umar soon departed for 3, caught by Ryan driver off Terry Paiva’s bowling. Ajay Tax was the last man in and blocked everything he could whilst Monish did the scoring.
Eventually Mohnish’s luck ran out and he was bowled in the 22nd over by Steve for a solid 38, but it was not enough and BBCC were all out for 108 and defeated by 92 runs. Ben was Man of The Match with 3 overs 4 for 10, 22 not out and 1 catch. PCC has been superb all day with bowling at 5 runs per over, excellent work in the field and superb catching. Revenge had been obtained and PCC were deserving Champions of the BCL Division A for the second time in three years.
PCC would like to thank their sponsors, the Outback Bar, the Magic Bar, and the Pattaya Sports Club for their support and assistance.
