The British Club had a tortuous journey from Bangkok to Horseshoe Point and an even more forlorn cricket match on a bright and breezy Saturday afternoon at Horseshoe point on 25th Mar 2023. The BCCC were without their main run gatherer, Tyrone Bond, and so were always going to struggle against PCC whom are becoming a cricketing machine. BCCC barely survived their 25 overs with a score of 111 for 9 which was never going to trouble the home team who romped home in 9.4 overs for no loss.
Denzyl Allbright (BCCC) and Wez Masterton (PCC) conducted the toss, as witnessed by the umpires, Dave Samways and Bala, which BCCC lost and were asked to bat. Mak Khan and Sunil Kumar opened the batting, whilst Ryan Driver and El Dutchie opened the bowling. The second ball sent Mak’s leg stump cartwheeling across the field and Mak back to the tent for a duck. As always Ryan proved hard to score against, whilst El Dutch would have had excellent figures if it were not for several wides.
However, his second over saw Sunil get caught by Wez on the long-on boundary for 13 and BCCC were 25 for 2 after 4 overs. Ryan’s 3rd over produced another wicket when an in-swinger to Denzyl Allwright got an inside edge straight through to Luke Stokes and Denzyl finished on 11 and BCCC were on 31 for 3. Ryan was on a roll and giving the batsmen no respite as Dale Lamb was caught behind by Luke for 5 and BCC were looking decidedly shaky at 38 for 4 after 7 overs. At this juncture, BCCC staged a bit of a recovery as Ben Eastwell kept plugging away whilst his partner, Pramodh Kamalakannan was pinned down.
Eventually Pramodh let loose, but a slower ball from Habby Singh brought his downfall when he was caught by Animal at Short mid-wicket for 16. BCCC were at 72 for 5 by drinks and things were looking very dire indeed. Luke Stokes gave his keepers gloves to Reds Liddel and Ravi Anandani took the crease but did not last long, with 1 run from 6 balls, before a bowling change sent him for another cup of tea. It was Jainish Parikh’s first of 3 wickets for 13 runs. Steve Christie had previously bowled 3 very economical overs and returned for his final 2 with immediate success as Ben Eastwell was caught by a stupendous diving catch from Luke Stokes at backward point having run in from deep.
Ben was BCCC’s top scorer with 18, 84 for 7 after 17 overs and the question was, “Would BCCC last 25 overs?” Jainish’s 3rd over was a blinder when Yuvraj was well caught by Wez for 4 and Talil Sanoon lost most of his stumps for 2. BCCC managed to hang on for the final 2 overs and concluded their innings at 111 for 9 with Dilip Mishra on 9 and George Charian on 7, both Not Out. Ryan and Jainish had taken 3 wickets each and Luke had taken 4 catches, but there were too many wides – 20!!
This bit is going to be pretty short. Wez and Ryan opened the PCC run-chase against the bowling of Pramodh and Dilip, which was economical from Pramodh. However, Dilip was battered for 24 in 2 overs by Wez. Pramodh’s 3rd over got similar treatment with 18. Both openers were removed by the 5th over, but the score had raced along to 51 and BCCC were having an awful day in the field; well, Denyl Allwright was having an awful day. He allowed a very fierce drive from Wez to burst through his hands and a change went begging. Yuvraj and Ravi took over the attack with spin, but to no avail. Wez hit Yavraj for several boundaries and Ryan did the same to Ravi, but Ravi was rightly frustrated when Denzyl dropped Ryan when he was on 24 and the score on 76 and the end of the 7th over.
This match was not going to get to drinks. Wez smashed another 14 off Yuvraj who also suffered the indignity of having Ryan dropped again by Denzyl. The final over, the 9th from Yuvraj was more of the same from Wez, with a 6, 4, dot and 6 to finish off. Wez finished with 65 Not Out from 37 balls including 4 4’s and 6 6s. Ryan was 35 Not Out. This had been a commanding performance from the entire team with excellent bowling, fielding and batting. Yet again the MotM award was present to Ryan Driver for his 3 for 20 and 35 not out, but it could have easily gone to Wez for 65 and his 2 catches.
PCC remain 3rd in the BCL A Division, but have closed the gap on Pakistan CC to within one point and 3 points to Bangkok CC, but have 3 and 2 matches in hand. Asian Stars remain their only significant opponent.
PCC would like to thank their sponsors, the Outback Sports bar, the Magic Bar, the Ayen Bar and the Pattaya Sports Group their continued support.
