First Victory of Season ‘17

The start to colorful cricket season of 2017 was a bit cloudy. Köln CC began their campaign of 2017’s Regional Liga under overcast conditions in Düsseldorf. In an away game Köln CC had fairly easy game against a home team Altendorf Essen-2 (Blue Tigers). In the morning Blue Tigers, won the toss and elected to bat first. This was a brave decision owing to cloudy cold weather and heavy outfield. Also, the game was played in colored kit and with white ball. This made things more interesting. The game began with a delay of 30 minutes due to wet outfield. However, everyone was keen to see on which side does the match swing!

As soon as the match began, it was clear that batting first was not a wise decision. The openers of Blue Tigers were cheaply dismissed. Rishi Pillai, captain of Köln CC introduced a left arm spinner in the first over itself. This move by Rishi proved tough for Blue Tigers to deal with. Jimit, the left arm spinner not only opened the bowling for Köln CC but also opened the gates of wickets. Blue Tigers’ batsmen found him extremely difficult to play on a skidding track. Jimit ended up taking 4 wickets. While spin had already worked from one end, the other end was for pace. Zadran kept bowling pacey deliveries. The swing and pace kept beating the bat for the entire match.

Later, captain Rishi himself chipped in with couple of wickets. He was well supported by a disciplined bowling by another speedster Appu. The pace of battery of Köln CC shared the rest of the wickets while Jimit stood tall by being highest wicket taker in the match. No batsmen from Blue Tigers reached double figures and they set a rather modest target of 45 runs for Köln CC to win the match.

Köln CC began their chase steadily. Captain Rishi opened the innings with Shrishail. However, the partnership didn’t last long and Rishi was dismissed cheaply thanks to a brilliant catch by Khial in the covers. Tigers sensed a blood when one down batsmen was given out caught behind in the very next over. But a partnership between the other opener Shrishail and incoming batsmen Dhruv steadied the chase for Köln CC. The low target did not favor the Tigers’ blowers who tried bring the twist by taking two quick wickets of set batsmen, later in the innings. Dhruv, a reliable batsman once again came up as the highest scorer in a low scoring match. His partner Shrishail played excellent supporting role. But it was too late for Blue Tigers. The formality of reaching the target was completed by Jagdish and Gaurav.