PATTAYA, Thailand – Pattaya CC were on a roll having peaked at the right time and inflicted tumultuous trouncings of top teams on the way to the final. Kerala Strikers had defeated PCC earlier in the year, but since then PCC had melded into a seriously efficient team with a superb balance of batsmen, varied pace in the bowling attack and excellent fielding skills. KTCC would have to be on their mettle to take home the big trophy.
Andy Emery conducted the toss with Prashant Yadav, as witnessed by umpires Robin John and Sanjeev Jeyasuriya, at 0845. Prashant won and asked PCC to bat which is exactly what Andy wanted. As usual Luke Stokes and Mike Gerits walked to the wicket to face Mohammed Faheem and Ratheesh Koyadan. The batsmen were soon into their rhythm with several boundaries in the first few overs. Mohammed struck in the 3rd over when Mike mistimed a ball and chipped it to Prashant at midwicket for 15. 29 for 1. Ben Walter strode out and immediately started hitting boundaries. Luke had some luck as he was dropped at slip by Sreekanth Bhavadaran – a mistake which would cost KTCC dearly.
Runs at 8 per over continued and Rajesh Nair was brought into bowl in the 6th. The runs continued to flow, mainly from Luke who was hitting really big 6s, one of which cleared the ablutions block. Sreyas Varghese and Prashant were unable to stem the flow of runs until the 11th over when Sreyas had Ben caught for 19 by Rajesh Nair at cover 92 for 2. Andre was next to bat. He took a little time to get going but building a partnership with Luke was more important and Luke continued to batter the KTCC bowlers. Prashant changed bowlers regularly but to no avail and drinks were taken at 15 over on 136 for 2.
A commanding score. Rajesh and Sadish Sivaji managed to slow the run rate over the next 5 overs or so as PCC reached 164 for 2 off 20 over. Andre was dropped by Samal Devaj as Luke passed 100 in the same over. Andre was dropped again in the 21st over when on 27 and Sadish bowled Luke for 107 with a good yorker, 182 for 3 in the 22nd over. Andre took over the strike as Karan and Habby both made very brief appearances and sent the ball into the ditches on several occasions. PCC concluded their innings on 219 for 5 with Andre 58 not out. KTCC would rue the missed opportunities and would soon be given a lesson in catching.
KTCC opened with Rajesh and Sreekanth against Andre and Habby. The first 4 overs were a mixed bag with good and poor bowling but also a wicket. Habby’s 2nd over had Rajesh well caught by Luke at long off, low down for 20. 32 for 1 after 4 overs and a bowling change brought on Ben and Vishnu. Ben was rather expensive as Sreekanth was batting solidly. Irfan Memon was caught in Vishnu’s second over by Luke, another difficult catch well taken and Irfan had to go for 6. 48 for 2 from 7 overs. Some words were exchanged between Vishnu and Irfan and things got out of hand with Irfan being escorted off the field by umpire Robin. No further action was taken.
The bowling tightened up a bit and restricted the run rate with Vishnu striking again in the 9th by bowling Sreekanth for 20. 58 for 3. Marcus and Andy took over the bowling and quickly made progress into the KTCC batting order. Ratheesh was bowled for 6 by Marcus and KTCC were struggling. Kandeeban Balasubramanian and Sadish were keeping things ticking along, but Tezza struck just before drinks by having Sadish caught for 5 by Vishnu. 88 for 5 and drinks were taken early with PCC well ahead at this point. Prashant went out and had an immediate effect by hitting several boundaries. He and Kandeeban were doing well until Tezza had Kandeeban caught by Luke at long off, a slightly easier catch this time, for 20. 111 for 6 at the 17th. Marcus completed the medium pace attack as Habby and Vishnu returned. Prashant was the first to fall to an in-form Vishnu when he was bowled for a creditable 25. 124 for 7 in the 20th over but Vishnu was not finished.
The last ball of the over saw Samal caught and bowled for a duck as Vishnu claimed his 4th wicket and second catch. 126 for 8 and KTCC were looking fairly dejected. Ben bowled an expensive 21st over but he did manage to get Mohammed caught by Luke The-Catching-Machine Stokes for 1. 136 for 9. Vishnu bowled the final over and a single put Jijomon KC on strike. Jijomon LBW for a duck and KTCC were all out for 137 with Sreyas not out 13 and a loss by 82 runs. PCC had played extremely well and were deserved champions for the 3rd time in 4 years having been the runners up once. There had been some great performances from the team during the season, to name a few; Luke, Andre, Mike, Ben, Vishnu, Habby and Marcus. Unfortunately, PCC will be losing Ben as work takes him abroad. He is thanked for his contribution to the Club and we wish him well.
The MotM medal was awarded to Luke for his 107 and 4 catches. Vishnu got an honourable mention with 5 overs, 14 for 5 including 2 catches.
PCC would like to thank their sponsors, the Outback Bar, the Magic Bar, and the Pattaya Sports Club for their support and assistance.
