Pattaya Cricket Club (PCC) played their penultimate match at Pattana Sports Resort on an overcast and thundery afternoon on 13 March against the Bangkok Blues Cricket Club (BBCC). A win was essential to maintain our 3rd place in the Top 4 and ideally a good win could steal 2nd from our local rivals, the Asian Stars CC.
Simon Philbrook won the toss for PCC and elected to bowl first. Ryan driver and Steve Christie opened the bowling from the Lake End against Masud Anwar and Manish Sexana. Both batsmen tried to move the run rate along but they showed their vulnerabilities and had a little luck. Ryan’s first over had Masud hoisting a skier above Jainish’s head at Mid-wicket. Jainish ran backwards and although he did an excellent impression of a flailing windmill, he missed the ball completely.
Manish had some good fortune as he drove a ball hard to Luke Stokes. It burst through Luke’s hand and gave him a black eye. Ouch! Luke soon got revenge as Manish fell in the third over to a good catch on the boundary for 6 runs and only 9 on the board. Ryan soon struck again as Bernie Lamprecht held another catch on the boundary, this time Masud for 12. Habby Singh joined Ryan in the attack and started with his usual No Ball front foot fault, but they both kept things really tight and only gave Vinay Rao and Captain Kamlesh Singh a lot of dot balls.
The 10th over saw 2 for 40 and a slowish run rate. Andy Emery and Jainish Parikh took over the bowling attack and also managed to restrict Kamlesh and Vinay to about 4 or 5 runs an over. It was Andy that struck first in the 15th over when Vinay was caught on the boundary for 25 by Wez Masterton. Time for drinks and then the PSR Lightening hooter sounded and everyone ran for cover under the tent. There was about 20 minutes of rain and more lightening before the match could be properly resumed.
Habby took a wicket in his last of 5 overs when Luke took his second catch of the day – Kamlesh for 17. Luke was right on the boundary and the ball high above his head and the umpire thought he had stepped over the line – but he hadn’t. It looked like PCC might restrict BBCC to less than 100 runs and earn additional bonus points, but Rohan Nayyar had other ideas. He handed some abuse to Bernie and Steve to the tune of 10 runs per over and remained unbeaten on 25 not out, but not before Bernie had Videt Mishra caught on the boundary by Jainish for 16 and Andy bowled Gautam Shahi for 16. BBCC concluded their 25 over innings on a sub-par 125 for 6.
PCC were feeling confident that they could wrap the match up by drinks. The usual openers, Wez and Ryan took the crease against Vivek and Vinay. Wez began in the usual fashion but he had not got his eye-in and missed a ball that clipped the bail. It is not often that Wez goes for a duck and Vivek was feeling rather pleased. Vivek managed a maiden as he restrained the batsmen but Vinay got hit for 6’s by Luke and he was withdrawn from the attack.
Gautam bowled well but Manish Shahi and Kamlesh were expensive as Luke and Ryan steadily added runs at 7 per over. Luke was the first to depart when Ajay Atak’s spin bowling had him caught at deep extra cover by Vinay for 37. PCC were 26 runs at drinks and with plenty of batting to follow. Colin Clark was dropped by Kamlesh but it was Ryan that departed next, being bowled by Kamlesh for 34. Pete Reeh arrived and kept the run rate ticking along with quick singles. Colin managed a 3 but somehow got lapped on the 3rd run by the much speedier Pete.
I think some sprint training is in order! The 100 was achieved in the 19th over and victory was not in doubt. Colin was LBW for 18 to Kamlesh and Jainish arrived for a quickfire 8 before being bowled by Vivek’s last ball with the scores level at 125. Simon Philbrook gave support to Pete, 18 not out, who took a cheeky single to win by 5 wickets and 10 balls to spare.
The win and bonus points allowed PCC to sneak ahead of Asian Stars and take 2nd place in the BCL table. Ryan was nominated as MotM with 34 runs and 2 for 19 from 5 overs.
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