Thailand-
Pattaya Cricket Club (PCC) was pitted against the Asian Institute of Technology (AIT CC) in the Elimination finals by virtue of the teams finishing first and second in BCL Division A. The match was played on Sunday 27th at Pattana Sports Resort (PSR) on a hot and humid afternoon, but no rain was forecast. The winner would go through to the finals and the loser would play Bangkok CC in the Semi-finals.
The start of the match was delayed due to an over-run on the previous match but the toss had been won by Simon who predictably decided to bowl first. AIT was without one of their star openers, Anucha Anirudh, so Captain Pratyush Kumar Dar opened with Farad Zulfiqar against Ryan Driver and Tom Fogden. Ryan struck in the first over by sending Farad’s off stump cartwheeling down the ground for 1 and a dream start for PCC. AIT seemed to be missing Anucha. T
Tom’s bowling seemed to suit Pratyush’s batting and he scored steadily against him, but Chaitanya Baba was not so fortunate and he fell to Ryan, bowled for 1 in the 5th over, thus AIT were on 22 for 2 and a poor start. Ryan bowled his 5 overs straight through to keep pressure on the batsman, but Pratyush and Deepak Chowdhary managed to keep the score slowly ticking along by scoring off Tom and Habby Singh.
At the 10 over mark, PCC had restricted AIT to 43 and was not allowing them to play the game they wanted. Steve Christie and Andy Emery attacked and Andy proved to be in a devastating mood. With just run one and a wicket from Andy’s first over, Deepak being caught by Habby Singh for 16, Andy started a mini-collapse that tore the heart out of the AIT middle order. Pratyush went for a creditable 32 in Andy’s next over, being stumped by Colin Clark, and Steve jumped on the bandwagon when he bowled Aditya Metta for 5. This left AIT at 59 for 5 at the 15th over drinks interval. PCC was well on top and AIT was struggling.
Aketi Krishna was trying to score and was nearly caught by Steve at the cover with a fiercely driven shot that was not quite held, but he lasted longer than Mishkat Ullah who scored 17, mainly against Tom, before being caught on the boundary by Bernie Lamprecht’s digger-bucket sized hands. 86 for 6. Andy got back into action and immediately has Aketi caught by a fine catch from Ryan right on the Mid-on boundary for 14. 92 for 5.
Things settled briefly before the final overs got very hectic. Janith Gallage took runs from Steve and Andy and remained 16 Not Out at the close, but his colleagues fell quickly to Andy and Steve. Kakshay Shah was bowled for 7 by Andy (105 for 8) and Sumit Jungi stepped back too far and hit his own wicket off Steve, 109 for 9. The last wicket to fall was a run out during Andy’s last over when Satendra Shakya thought he was Usain Bolt and ended up being well short of his ground due to an excellent throw from Tom Fogden. AIT was 114 all out with one ball to spare. A superb bowling effort by PCC, Andy 4 for 28, Ryan 2 for 12, Steve 2 for 15, all from 5 overs each, and excellent fielding from all. There was an air of reasonable assurance of victory.
Wez, who’d had a quiet day in the field, opened with Ryan against Aditya Metta and Janith Gallage in a slow but steady rain shower. 5 runs from Aditya off the first over and Ryan got a 6 against Janith for 9 before thunder lightning and heavier rain forced the players off the field at 1503. The rain tumbled down for 40 minutes and it was decided to wait until 1630 to see if the ground was playable for a minimum of 10 overs (to get a result) and a target of 46 runs (114/25 x10). The outfield was playable but the wicket was sodden and the match was abandoned. As per the BCL rules, the match was awarded to PCC by virtue of the PCC finishing higher in the league than AIT.
The semis will be on sat 2nd Apr at PSR at 0845 between AIT and Bangkok and the finals on 3 Apr at PSR at 0845 between the winners of the semis.
If you wish to become involved in PCC please contact Simon Philbrook on 0870395790.
