Pattaya Cricket Club entertained the Southerners of Bangkok in the Eastern Seaboard Cricket League last weekend, a repeat of the recent cup final, and a fixture PCC were looking for some revenge after their last ball one wicket defeat.
Winning the toss and bowling first on a very warm and sultry morning, the PCC bowlers, without their reliable opening pair, found line and length elusive as the Southerners batsman capitalised on anything short or wide.
Peter Gangur’s wily off spin made the much needed breakthrough as he clean bowled Dibdish (25) with his arm ball. However, too many loose deliveries enabled the scoring rate to be maintained and the Southerners reached 103/3 at drinks after 15 overs. Arjun (59) and Henderson (88) finished with a flurry of boundaries as the bowlers toiled in the heat and a huge total of 191/3 was posted. Peter was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 22/2 from his allotted 5 overs.
Manik and Tiz opened for PCC and after an early chance went down both started scoring freely. The fifty arrived in the 7th over and excellent running and stroke play pushed the score to 97 without loss at the drinks break. Tiz finally succumbed more to the heat than the bowling for a wonderful 50 runs. Andy Emery, Venky and Simon Philbrook, the PCC captain, soon followed trying to increase the momentum. But Manik valiantly fought on before he eventually was run out for a tremendous 68. Further wickets tumbled as the bowlers slowly restricted the scoring and PCC finally closed their innings on 172/7. It was a valiant attempt that would win almost any other match but once again the Southerners prevailed.
PCC’s next fixture is Sunday 11th March at the Thai Polo Ground starting at 1pm in the ESCL against Kerala CC.
PCC would like encourage anyone with a passion for the game to join the club by visiting the club website www.pattayacricketclub.com or the Facebook page.
