PCC continued their winning streak with an exemplary win away from home at the RBSC on Sunday 13 Feb 2022. PCC’s team sheet was missing Ryan Driver and Tom Fogden but it was superlative batting from Luke Stokes, 54 Not Out, and Trevor Moolman, 27 Not Out and excellent work in the field that won the match.
PCC won the toss and decided to bowl first, but their usual openers were absent, so Wez Masterton and Habby Singh tossed the cherry at Abhin and Anil. The batters, particularly Anil, were kept in check and only accrued 16 runs by the 5th over. Habby, bowling medium pace and then leg spin, managed to keep some of his front foot behind the popping crease for his 5 overs; so, a clean sheet for No Balls. Abhin was the more aggressive batsman and he clobbered Bernie Lamprecht for 15 in his first over, so Jainish Parikh and Andy Emery took over the bowling.
Abhin hit Jainish for 12 but fell to Andy’s second ball in a wicket maiden to a well-judged catch by Wez on the long -on boundary. Anil batted-on as if in a Test match and by drinks at the 15th over, RBSC were 79 for 1 which was about par for this ground as the outfield was very slow. Then there was a bit of a collapse. First to go was Rahul for 17, bowled by Andy and 2 balls later Kavi was run out for 1 – the old “Yes, no, wait, sorry” saga and two batsmen at one end, which never ends well.
The run rate slowed due to Andy’s accurate bowling and Habby’s leg spin and wickets fell regularly. Ittimond was skilfully drawn down the wicket by Habby and then stumped by Colin Clark for 5. Anil finally fell for 24 in the 21st over having skied a short ball from Bernie which was caught with nonchalant ease by Habby racing in from extra cover.
Wez took the last two wickets in his final two overs – Gaurav bowled for 13 and Varin caught on the long-on boundary by an excellent catch by Luke Stokes. That left Princy on 11 not out and Arvinder on 1 at the close. Tidy bowling and good fielding enabled PCC to restrict the home team to 133 for 7 in 25 overs.
Wez and Pete Reeh opened for PCC against the bowling of Kavi and Vicky. Wez batted in his usual style but was feeling a little under the weather, whilst Pete found it hard to pierce the ring of fielders against accurate bowling. Only 17 scored by the 5th over and there was little between the teams.
Wez was finding it more and more difficult to run 2’s and decided to go aerial against Gaurav with two 6’s, at which point Wez succumbed to the heat and Retired Out on 31. Luke Stokes took the crease only for Pete to depart in the 10th over, bowled by Princy. Again, absolutely nothing between the teams. Trevor Moolman replaced Pete and set about forming an unbeaten partnership with Luke.
They steadily accumulated runs at 5 or 6 per over and whenever they were pinned down, they managed to get a boundary. Rahul and Harminder Singh took over most of the bowling and the scores were almost even at the 15 and 20th overs. It was going to be a really close result – just like last year when PCC won with 2 balls to spare).
The 12st over from Chalan was a turning point as Luke clobbered him for 12 and provided a little breathing space. Trevor chipped away with a few boundaries from Rahul and for a ‘mature’ fellow, was remarkably quick between the wickets. The 23rd over effectively won the match as Rahul was hit for 9, thus leaving 5 runs required off the final two overs. Luke got them in 2 balls from Kavi and PCC won the match by 8 wickets with 10 balls to spare. Luke finished on 54 Not Out and Trevor on 27 Not Out.
An excellent game in beautiful surroundings and a great result for PCC. Luke Stokes was awarded MotM for his 54 Not Out.
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