WCC give Colts a lesson

Winterthur CC continued their recent legacy of doing well in the 20-20 championship by reaching the final of the swiss T20 championship final where they will face a charged up Berne CC for the title, bragging rights and a considerable sum of money! They easily crossed the hurdle in the form of a semifinal against the Swiss colts. A game against the kids is a loaded die. You win and you have only won against the kids and you lose, and you have lost even to the kids!! However, these colts have reached the semi-finals by beating the big teams consistently and WCC could have afforded to take them lightly.

Being put in to bat, WCC started out aggressively from the word go. Although the ball was swinging around prodigiously, Sanjeev tonked the bowling around at will and kept losing the balls into the thick tree cover around the ground. Reluctanct opener, Tom, meanwhile, supported Sanjeev ably, albeit not scoring much himself. After Sanjeev(40) and Tom(4) (figures within brackets are their scores and not the ages!) departed in quick succession, Gajan and Praful got together for an useful partnership milking the runs while also not afraid to take the aerial route. In hindsight, Gajan got out at the right time after laying the platform for the man in form and batsman of the season contender, Waqar to take over. He simply decimated the bowling with his cuts and pulls and took the last bit of spirit left in the young lads. With six 6s and 5 4s, Waqar ended up with 67 off 30-odd balls with able support from Nasir. After this, Jiten, Raj and Hasta scampered around for a bit to take the total to 176 which was going to be very difficult to chase, especially for the colts against the bowling might of WCC.

After the break, Sanjeev and Nasir opened the bowling for WCC and immediately struck telling blows. Sanjeev picked up a wicket in his first over. Nasir went one better and had the stumps uprooted for 2 balls in a row. With the captain opting to give a break early to his opening bowlers, Asghar and Hasta replaced them. While Asghar was accurate, fast and struck 2 blows in his spell, Hasta was not having a good bowling day again. Although he did not bowl his usual barrage of wides, he was taken off after 2 expensive overs. Mahmood and Waqar bowled their stingy military medium and by the time they were done, the required run rate had reached alarming levels. Credit must be given to the middle order batsmen, Marishque and Jai who persevered through some tough times to score 38 each. In the end, Jiten turned his golden arm over to get a wicket off his first delivery (to follow up from his edged boundary off the first ball he faced) and Gajan risked his injured shoulder for 2 wickets to finish the colts off at 102/9.

The hurdle was crossed with ease but a sterner test awaits the team in the final. Will WCC have 2 different streaks to defend in the final on the15th Sep 2013. We have never lost a final in our history and we have won at least one of the t20 championships for 2 years running. If you arent escaping to Prague with the retirees or almost retirees, do come down in large numbers to support the team for finals.

Reporter: Hasta