Match report - away game vs. Old Colfeians CC - 6 June 2010

For a change, most players turned up on time and the match got off almost at the scheduled hour - good start for what turned out to be a very rewarding game.

OLCC won the toss and elected to bat first on a muggy afternoon. The pitch had been baked dry by the sunshine over the past week, but had some juice in it following overnight thunderstorms.

Malgudishire opened the attack with Vijay and Abhishek, as they did in the previous game. Vijay got appreciable movement and bounce from the early life in the pitch and ended the first spell with attractive figures of 5-3-5-2. Abhishek kept things tight at the other end and finished his first spell with a wicket and at about 3 runs an over. Overall, a very good start for MSCC in the first 10 overs.

Rajiv and Kunal took up the attack at first change. The Gujju pair kept things tight at both ends for 10 further overs, with 3-4 runs an over while picking up 3 wickets between them in the process.

Shyam and debutant Siddharth took up second change bowling, but were unable to keep the lid on runs. Two OLCC batsmen - B.Roy and R.Fraser - were part of very good partnerships at this stage. The latter, in particular, did well to finish on 73 runs, with able support from no.8 batsman M.Renshaw.

Raghu and Sudhakar, both debutants as well, bowled very well in tandem over the last 10 overs to keep the lid on OLCC's scoring. Sudhakar also picked up 3 wickets in the process. OLCC were all out for 181 runs in 38 overs.

MSCC opened with Kunal and Sandeep, who started with considerable aggression. But Sandeep was to fall bowled to the spinner, Butler, who opened the bowling for OLCC. Butler stuck to his strategy of looping deliveries to make the batsmen play and picked up two more wickets in the process - James caught at long-on and Siddharth caught and bowled. When Shankar, the fourth debutant for MSCC, went in to bat but quickly returned retired hurt, MSCC were staring at a score of 30-odd runs for the loss of 3 wickets and 1 retired hurt.

Kunal and Sudhakar then put on a handy 50-run partnership to steady the ship. When Sudhakar departed leg before to Pemment, the score was at a more reasonable 81 after 16 overs for the loss of 4 wickets. Meanwhile, Kunal continued to amass runs via regular singles and one boundar an over, and quickly reached 50 by this stage.

Raghu joined Kunal for a brief 20-run partnership, but departed to yet another catch at mid-on. Vijay put on another 30 runs with Kunal, including a well-hit six over mid-wicket, before departing trying to put the very next delivery past mid-wicket but failing to cross the line. The score was at a respectable 130 by this stage, with Rajiv, Abhishek, and Shyam to follow, and Kunal looking steady as a rock.

In the event, the last two batsmen did not have to bat at all, as Kunal and Rajiv took the score past the finishing line with the innings' second 50-run partnership to finish the game with overs to spare.

Kunal dominated this last stage, and finished on a historic 103 not out - only the second time a player has scored a century in Malgudishire's brief history! This was indeed a model innings, an exhibition of patience and perseverance that the other Malgudi top order batsmen will do well to follow this season.

MSCC plays OLCC in a back-to-back fixture next Sunday in Regent's Park. OLCC will be looking for revenge, but MSCC will show some confidence on the back of this utterly dominating display, particularly from one batsman, K.Thakkar, one that must bring a smile to his face for the rest of this season.