PATTAYA, Thailand – A warm, airless, bright and sunny 25th of Jan saw PCC travel to AIT University to maintain their fourth spot in the league, but it was the polished and clinical manner in which they played that showed their determination and talent. The only concern remains the number of wides conceded, of note 5 from Andre and 4 from Vishnu. Good batting from Luke Stokes, 65, Ben Walter, 51, Roshan Perrera, 33 and Habby Singh 29 were followed by accurate and economical bowling from Marcus Chaukley 2 for 4 from 1 over, Vishnu BS 3 for 10 from 3 overs and Andre Human, 2 for 22 from 4 overs.
Umpire Tamim witnessed the toss which Andy won and decided to bat. Luke and Andre faced Aditya Metta and Chaitanya Baba for the opening overs. Chaitanya changed to round the wicket for Andre and immediately trapped him LBW for 5 for a ball that looked like it was going down leg. This brought Mike Gerits to the crease but he only faced 2 balls as he took a rash swing at a lifting ball and got a top edge to Haji Madi who made a superb running catch from long on towards deep midwicket. 12 for 2 off the 2nd over was a terrible start but Ben Walter changed all that.
Luke and Ben kept the run rate at a steady 6 per over with the help of wides until the eighth over when the pace began to rise. 69 for 2 off 10 overs. Aditya, Vivek Vinjamuri and Deepak Chowdary came in for punishment as the number of boundary balls increased. There was some luck involved as Ben was dropped at deep midwicket off Deepak and later by Deepak himself. That proved to be costly. Sagar Rangasawami only bowled one over where a no ball free hit went for 6.
Aardarsh Rijal took the 13th over and it proved unlucky for Ben as he missed a sweep-slog and was pinned LBW for 51 after a partnership of 96 with Luke. 111 for 3 from 14 overs with Roshan joining Luke. Bharghav Geni and Nikhil Raj joined the bowling attack as bowlers 7 and 8, but the changes did nothing to slow the run rate as Luke continued to assault the boundary. More 4s after the drinks break allowed Luke to reach 65 when a big hit to long off was well caught by Aardarsh in the 18th over. 149 for 4.
Habby joined Roshan and continued the same theme with big hits and sloppy fielding allowing 2 dropped catches which added insult to injury to Aditya’s and Vivek’s bowling figures. Aditya finally got a reward when Roshan swung and missed and lost his off stump for 33 at 202 for 5 in the 24th over. With so little time left the remaining batsmen went in swinging and walked out very quickly with Habby run out by Bharghav for 29 and Jainish caught for 1 by Bharghav. PCC completed their 25 overs on 208 for 8 with the help of 22 extras.
AIT were always going to struggle to chase 209 against the PCC bowling attack, but they started well and then wickets fell in very quick succession as the bowling and fielding gave them no quarter and the match concluded after only 13 overs. Neermal Pandit and Haji Madi opened the batting against Andre for 5 off the first over. Habby bowled a wayward over for 12 and Andre leached more wides. 21 for 0 off 3 overs. It appeared that these batsmen preferred pace as they reached 31 for 0 off 4 overs. PCC persisted with pace and perseverance proved profitable as Jainish Parikah purloined a top edge and Haji went for 13.
2 balls later Neermal gloved a ball down the leg side and Jainish poached another fine catch, 36 for 2 in the 5th over. Deepak Chowdary and Aadarsh now faced a refreshed PCC attack as Vishnu entered the fray. Deepak was bowled for 5 and Chaitanya Baba entered the killing ground. Aadarsh failed to trouble the scorers as he was run out by a direct hit from Luke and 47 for 4 from 7 overs and things were starting to go pear-shaped for AIT. They needed someone to keep their wicket and is just didn’t happen.
More wides from Vishnu but the wickets kept tumbling. Bharghav only faced 5 balls before Vishnu trapped him LBW from a ball that looked much too high, and he went for a duck. Aditya walked out and played the last ball of Vishnu’s over onto his stumps and out for a golden duck. 49 for 6 from 8 overs and the wheels had fallen off. There were a few overs of resistance from Chaitanya and Durgesh C which added a few runs from Ben Walter’s bowling, but it didn’t last long as Ben had Chaitanya caught by Andre at Long on for 17 runs. 64 for 7.
Marcus Chaukley was given the ball. His first bowled Durgesh for a duck and his last had Nikhil Raj bowled for 3 and the end was near. David Slater was hoping to get a bowl with his looping dibbly dobblers, but Captain Andy wanted a go. 1 run later and Vivek was caught by Andre at Mid on for another duck and AIT were all out for a paltry 69 in 13 overs.
This was a very sold effort by PCC with good batting, bowling and fielding. Let’s hope PCC can do the same against The British Club and Bangkok Blues in the coming weeks and hang onto a place in the top 4. The MotM was awarded to Ben Walter for his 51 and 1 wicket with honourable mentions to Luke Stokes and Andre Human.
PCC would like to thank their sponsors, the Outback Bar, the Magic Bar, and the Pattaya Sports Club for their support and assistance.
