Fourth consecutive win for KölnCC

Just like, “Calm seas don’t make a good sailor” a song by Ben Galliers. I would say “easy wins doesn’t make good team, while the vice versa may be true.”

Sunday, the 28th May, KölnCC played its fourth match again Deutsche Welle CC (DWCC). In this fixture KölnCC defeated DWCC quite comforatably. But umpire had his share and brought some fun to pretty one way game.

The players experienced two completely different weather conditions while playing. The first inning was struck by rain and cloudy conditions while the chase began under the scorching sun. The humidity level was quite high.

KölnCC won the toss and decided to bat this time. But the start was not so good. Opener Satya fell cheaply in first over while miss timing a short delivery. Then soon a bad mix-up caused a run out for Avishek without conceeding a run. Number four batsmen Jacky also fell for short delivery. His full blooded hook shot unfortunately went straight to deep fine leg. Gaurav came into bat at no.5. The duo Shrishail and Gaurav tried to establish a partnership. Kept rotating a strike and were taking singles and doubles quite comfortably. But Shri soon fell for an inswinger and struck infront.

Irfan Ahmed, an experienced player walked in at 6 and marked his stamp. He took the attack to opposition. Hit two sixes and few boundaries. This not only increased the run rate but also forced the oppostion to change bowlers. The issue regarding ball shape brought frequent interruption in the game. A nice partnership was built between Gaurav and Irfan, where Irfan took the charge and scored most of the runs. But soon Irfan got out pulling a good length ball to deep square leg. In came Appu with an injured hand. He showed restraint. He hit a nice square cute for couple. When it felt that Appu and Gaurav will steer the ship, the later was judged LBW while he was batting a good meter outside his batting crease.

Then a show was put by the lower order batsmen. Appu, Kakajan, Bhavin they all tried best to keep the scoreboard ticking. But what mattered the most was the last wicket partnership between the spin pair Jaymin and Jimit. Both left handers batted extremely well. They not only formed which later proved to be match winning partnership but also they frustrated the opposing team. This was more than a handy contribution from those two.

DWCC began their chase under the scorching sun. The conditions were dry and humid. The DWCC batsmen had no answer for pace bowling of Kakajan and Irfan Ahmed. DWCC for 2 wickets down at lunch. Post lunch was more about a collapse of DWCC. Again the left arm spinner Jimit Patel showing his class took atleast one wicket in each of his first four overs. Soon DWCC were reduced to 8 wickets and the score was in 40s. Just like KölnCC, DWCC tried to repeat the partnership for 9th and 10th wicket but they fell well short of target. They did succeed in reducing the margin of losing though. Some sharp chances missed in slips and a sitter dropped at point delayed the win for KölnCC. Even though there was no panic in the feilding team but there was kind of nervousness.

Then a trump move by captain Irfan Ahmed by bringing Satya to bowl brought curtains on the DWCC innings. Satya who usually keeps the wickets was fielding this time handing over the responsibility to Jagdish. First ball bowled by Satya created a simple chance for Shrishail to catch at gully. But the umpire decided otherwise. After consulting with leg umpire whether a ball hit by batsmen well outside off stump was a bumped ball or not, he ruled the decision in favour of batsman. What looked a clean wicket was given not out. But it did not last long. The number 11 for DWCC, in an attempt of backfoot defence chopped a good length delivery of Satya on the stumps.

Brief Scores: KölnCC 112/10 (Irfan Ahmed 29 runs, Jaymin Patel 10 runs) DWCC 93/10 (Jimit Patel 4 wickets)