PATTAYA, Thailand – PCC had some soul searching to do after 2 avoidable losses and Indorama bore the brunt of a refocused PCC on a cloudy afternoon at HSP on 15 Dec 2024. This match took several unusual turns, as well as outstanding performances with the bat and the ball, but it was not all perfume and roses as errors were still evident. PCC made a very slow start with only 17 runs from 5 overs due to very good bowling from Indorama, a record low, yet finished with 256 for 4, a Club record! The converse was true for Indorama who made an impressive start due to sloppy PCC bowling, but once the leading batsmen were dismissed, they fell like dominoes.
PCC won the toss and elected to bat. They opened with Luke Stokes and Morgan Prior as Roshan Perera was absent due to illness. Runs were extremely hard to acquire as Vishnu Moorthy and Bilaji Mohan bowled extremely well with good line and length. Umpire Sam Razaw continued to show his inability to count to six as 5 and 7 ball overs confused the scorer (me). Despite the very slow start, a steady run rate of 7 was achieved by the 10th over. Morgan was the first batsman to fall in the 12th over for 24 to a fine catch from Bilaji above his head at cover-point off Nisanth PS with the score on 83.
This brought Mike Gerits to the crease and the run rate started to rise again. In the 14th over, Abishek couldn’t hold onto a caught & bowled chance as the dropped ball bounced off Luke and nearly hit the stumps for a run out. Drinks were taken at the 15th over when PCC were at 101 for 1 and a tad behind par, but the batsmen had their eyes in and were about to let loose. Mike hit some really massive 6s whilst Luke hit more but slightly shorter. All of the Indorama bowling figures, except Vishnu, suffered a thrashing at some point as their economy figures hovered around 12. The extras total was doing nicely due to 16 from Sujith and 7 from Vishnu.
Both Luke and Mike peppered the boundaries until Mike was dropped by Bilaji at long on in the 19th. However, it was of no consequence as Mike damaged a calf muscle in the 20th over and retired out at 51 with the score on 169 for 2. The remaining 5 overs saw another 87 added to the scoreboard as Luke passed his 100 and continued to plunder 6s. In the final overs, Andre Human, Jainish Parikh and Karan Mehta made brief appearances to push along the run rate. At the close of the innings, PCC had achieved a club record of 256 for 4 with Luke 122 not out (six 4s and nine 6s), the help of 34 extras, where have we heard that woeful tale before? Indorama had a monumental mountain to assail.
PCC had to show that they could reduce the extras and bowl accurately enough to contain the run rate, but Rahul Marikannan and Vishnu had other ideas. Habby bowled a No Ball to Rahul in the second over and then removed his middle stump on the free hit, unlucky. However, the 4th over saw Rahul depart for 2 with the score on 14. Despite this, PCC were not getting everything their own way as Karan Mehta bowled far too short and was punished for 32 runs from just 2 overs. Terry Pavia also bowled too short and then changed to leg spin and provided better results.
The scoreboard was ticking over briskly with Vishnu taking most of the strike until the 12th over when he was bowled by Andy Emery for a superb 70, 96 for 2. From there on, wickets fell fairly regularly with Marcus taking 2 in the 13th over. His first ball bowled Subash Diwedi for 13 who had hit two 6s in his 4 balls faced, and two balls later her bowled Nisanth for 15 and Indorama were 110 for 4 in the 13th. Indorama were comfortably ahead at this point. Ajay Thakur was bowled by Marcus for 3 in his last over Balaji Mohan had capitalised and provided some resistance until he fell for 24, superbly caught by Andre on the boundary one handed, bowled by Andy Emery (The Mop), 138 for 6 in the 17th over.
Nilabdhad Pattanaik fell for 3 in the same over to Andy who rushed to catch the skier that was heading towards a grateful Animal Slater, but Andy stole it – Animal was very unimpressed, 141 for 7. An early finish looked likely as Indorama’s tail end was not wagging and Indorama were now behind PCC in the run-chase. Habby returned to the attack and made short work of Bhupinder Solanki’s stumps, 145 for 8. Sree Kuttan joined the attack with an expensive and wayward over (3 wides), but once he got his line, he bowled Sujith for 4, 164 for 9. Terry returned with leg spin and took the final wicket of Vaibhav Upadhyay, 18, to close Indorama’s innings on 172 all out and PCC won by 84 runs. This was much better performance by PCC with extras reduced to 18, some good bowling figures from Andy, 3 for 19, Marcus 3 for 24 and Habby 2 for 23 and no dropped catches.
The MotM award was present to Luke Stokes for his 122 with honorable mentions to Vishnu, Andy Emery, Marcus Chalkley and Habby Singh.
PCC currently lie 4th in the Division A table with a match with 2nd place Bangkok Blues yet to come, but, depending on other results, PCC might be able to sneak a 3rd place.
PCC would like to thank their sponsors, the Outback Bar, the Magic Bar, and the Pattaya Sports Club for their support and assistance.
