FNCC has played few matches against Basel CC, including an away fixture for the Rhine cup and have thus far remained undefeated by the Basel CC since the loss to Pak CC. The only blip since last season has been a serious loss against the Pak CC. So when an opportunity came to play a match against the Pak. CC most of the FNCC players were interested in playing. However, it happened at such short notice that not everyone could become available.
The first surprise was that Purav, Rehan and Beau were not available, meaning that we were short of our regular openers and another player who could open. Some people were away like Sathish. Somehow we managed to bring together a good eleven. The morning started with taking our flix pitch to the new ground. Rain had left the ground very wet and there were even puddles at some places. With overcast skies at 1100hrs the match seemed impossible. But a big part of Cricket involves overcoming the weather conditions and in fact mastering them.
So we started out with a wet field and slippery flix. Fawad won the toss and invited us to bat in some very testing conditions. He thought that uneven bounce on an unsettled flix wicket would be an advantage. They did not have to wait too long. Raghav clipped the first ball of the match to a fielder and started off for a single which was not there. So we were zero for one. That eventful over ended with the fall of Lucky who handed an easy catch at extra-cover on the very first ball he faced. Pak CC was elated as they had claimed two wickets in the first over and I was kind of wondering how fast we will collapse. But Pandiyan was in different zone altogether. He welcomed the second over of the inning with a six, announcing that he was unfazed with the stupid losses. As he dominated the batting Saghir was very circumspect in the beginning but players like him do not take much time reading and adjusting their game. Both Pandiyan and Saghir prepared a very solid and intelligent partnership. There were aggressive blows from Pandiyan and careful precision drives from Saghir. Later when Vijay came in at the fall of Pandiyan, we were looking solid and this was the time Saghir swapped the roles. He went in attack mode and Vijay in the precision mode. Two huge sixes that came of Saghir's bat were a sight to watch -- first was a case of sweet timing and second was a pure power blow. Vijay, went after batting as a surgeon goes after a damaged tissue -- precise, calculated strokes that killed the bowlers' motivation. The pitch was slowly easing out but there was quality spin bowling from the Pak CC. It was the brilliance of Vijay and Saghir and later Waleed, that runs kept coming at ease. Waleed went after the fall of Saghir who got out attempting to smash a ball out of the ground. He accelerated the inning like there was no tomorrow. At one time Waleed had hit one of the bowlers for four consecutive sixes. Adnan who did not get many overs, also added a six to his score. Our middle order showed its depth (pandiyan ~29, Saghir ~36, Vijay ~46, Waleed ~48). There were not too many extras. We put together 174 in 25 overs. This was remarkable because when we took the break after 14 overs were cruising along at 76 i.e. last 11 overs brought nearly 100 runs.
The job was half done although done in style but still needed to be finished. I started off with Saghir. Having spent nearly a month off the field I was completely out of touch. Somehow I sent in three overs and was happy not to concede too many runs. Saghir was spot on and was ready exploit the wicket which by then was starting to respond to fast bowlers. But once again Arpit continued his love affair with Pakistanis' as he bowled 4 superb overs conceding only 6 runs and he should have got at least one wicket (I dropped an easy catch). As Arpit applied breaks on the scoring rate the batting became desperate. Both Fawad and Mansoor (who for the first time was looking dangerous against us) skied catchs to Arpit and me, respectively. After the departure of Mansoor things were looking easy for us. But still we had to finish it high. Raghav took the charge and almost erased the memory of his horrendous runout early on. In fact, every bowler responded and took at least one wicket (except for me but I was still happy to return to winning ways). Some smart bowling chages from Vijay were at the play and Pak CC knew that they were not going to get to the target. One key move was to bring Arpit to bowl very early one but even after that they way Vijay handled Nila, Waleed was a great sight.
I do not know how much Pak CC scored in the end but we romped home in style and victory margin was at least 60 runs. In a way it was a sweet revenge of the loss in the previous match. But there are no revenges in cricket, there are only new memories, sometimes the new memories are good sometime bad. But in this match, they way it was played I hope everyone returned with good memories. The changing order of players in the Pak CC is a very important factor in it. The younger players just want to play cricket and not create hurdles in the way of cricket.
It is a pity that I do not recall the names of many Pak CC players but some are very good players and deserve a mention in this blog. With such a young and motivated team I think despite the loss Pak CC had lot to take home and this would only improve the team.
Later Pandiyan wanted my opinion on who should be the man of the match. In my opinion this particular match was an illustration that Cricket can be a team game. From our side essentially everyone contributed either in batting or bowling (except for me). Vijay perhaps will be my pick but more for his dual role as a batsman and as a captain. This match was won by captaincy as much it was won by serious batting efforts of Saghir, Pandiyan, Waleed and Vijay himself, and bowling efforts of everyone. In the end 10 of our players were involved in the dismissal of the Pak CC.
This match was special for a reason -- Pak CC managed to access another soccer field in the city for one Sunday. Hopefully, for them this is a beginning of a more serious relationship with that sports club and they maybe able to have ground for the full season next year. So it was really important that we all showed up and played good clean cricket to set the tone for the possible new home for Pak CC. I have to congratulate Zeb Bhai and Rizwan for organizing it.
The ease with which this match was organized is a clear sign of improved relationship between the two teams. However, the echos of that dispute which led to the abandoning of a match are still audible, maybe feeble. The fabric of the FNCC has changed quite a bit and only few have that match in their memory. In the Pak CC club there are changes but not sufficient to burry the ghosts of that match. But more such more amicable encounters between two teams can indeed burry the past. I look forward to more matches with the Pak CC team. However, we must take caution and should not rush things and take every match at a time.
The first surprise was that Purav, Rehan and Beau were not available, meaning that we were short of our regular openers and another player who could open. Some people were away like Sathish. Somehow we managed to bring together a good eleven. The morning started with taking our flix pitch to the new ground. Rain had left the ground very wet and there were even puddles at some places. With overcast skies at 1100hrs the match seemed impossible. But a big part of Cricket involves overcoming the weather conditions and in fact mastering them.
So we started out with a wet field and slippery flix. Fawad won the toss and invited us to bat in some very testing conditions. He thought that uneven bounce on an unsettled flix wicket would be an advantage. They did not have to wait too long. Raghav clipped the first ball of the match to a fielder and started off for a single which was not there. So we were zero for one. That eventful over ended with the fall of Lucky who handed an easy catch at extra-cover on the very first ball he faced. Pak CC was elated as they had claimed two wickets in the first over and I was kind of wondering how fast we will collapse. But Pandiyan was in different zone altogether. He welcomed the second over of the inning with a six, announcing that he was unfazed with the stupid losses. As he dominated the batting Saghir was very circumspect in the beginning but players like him do not take much time reading and adjusting their game. Both Pandiyan and Saghir prepared a very solid and intelligent partnership. There were aggressive blows from Pandiyan and careful precision drives from Saghir. Later when Vijay came in at the fall of Pandiyan, we were looking solid and this was the time Saghir swapped the roles. He went in attack mode and Vijay in the precision mode. Two huge sixes that came of Saghir's bat were a sight to watch -- first was a case of sweet timing and second was a pure power blow. Vijay, went after batting as a surgeon goes after a damaged tissue -- precise, calculated strokes that killed the bowlers' motivation. The pitch was slowly easing out but there was quality spin bowling from the Pak CC. It was the brilliance of Vijay and Saghir and later Waleed, that runs kept coming at ease. Waleed went after the fall of Saghir who got out attempting to smash a ball out of the ground. He accelerated the inning like there was no tomorrow. At one time Waleed had hit one of the bowlers for four consecutive sixes. Adnan who did not get many overs, also added a six to his score. Our middle order showed its depth (pandiyan ~29, Saghir ~36, Vijay ~46, Waleed ~48). There were not too many extras. We put together 174 in 25 overs. This was remarkable because when we took the break after 14 overs were cruising along at 76 i.e. last 11 overs brought nearly 100 runs.
The job was half done although done in style but still needed to be finished. I started off with Saghir. Having spent nearly a month off the field I was completely out of touch. Somehow I sent in three overs and was happy not to concede too many runs. Saghir was spot on and was ready exploit the wicket which by then was starting to respond to fast bowlers. But once again Arpit continued his love affair with Pakistanis' as he bowled 4 superb overs conceding only 6 runs and he should have got at least one wicket (I dropped an easy catch). As Arpit applied breaks on the scoring rate the batting became desperate. Both Fawad and Mansoor (who for the first time was looking dangerous against us) skied catchs to Arpit and me, respectively. After the departure of Mansoor things were looking easy for us. But still we had to finish it high. Raghav took the charge and almost erased the memory of his horrendous runout early on. In fact, every bowler responded and took at least one wicket (except for me but I was still happy to return to winning ways). Some smart bowling chages from Vijay were at the play and Pak CC knew that they were not going to get to the target. One key move was to bring Arpit to bowl very early one but even after that they way Vijay handled Nila, Waleed was a great sight.
I do not know how much Pak CC scored in the end but we romped home in style and victory margin was at least 60 runs. In a way it was a sweet revenge of the loss in the previous match. But there are no revenges in cricket, there are only new memories, sometimes the new memories are good sometime bad. But in this match, they way it was played I hope everyone returned with good memories. The changing order of players in the Pak CC is a very important factor in it. The younger players just want to play cricket and not create hurdles in the way of cricket.
It is a pity that I do not recall the names of many Pak CC players but some are very good players and deserve a mention in this blog. With such a young and motivated team I think despite the loss Pak CC had lot to take home and this would only improve the team.
Later Pandiyan wanted my opinion on who should be the man of the match. In my opinion this particular match was an illustration that Cricket can be a team game. From our side essentially everyone contributed either in batting or bowling (except for me). Vijay perhaps will be my pick but more for his dual role as a batsman and as a captain. This match was won by captaincy as much it was won by serious batting efforts of Saghir, Pandiyan, Waleed and Vijay himself, and bowling efforts of everyone. In the end 10 of our players were involved in the dismissal of the Pak CC.
This match was special for a reason -- Pak CC managed to access another soccer field in the city for one Sunday. Hopefully, for them this is a beginning of a more serious relationship with that sports club and they maybe able to have ground for the full season next year. So it was really important that we all showed up and played good clean cricket to set the tone for the possible new home for Pak CC. I have to congratulate Zeb Bhai and Rizwan for organizing it.
The ease with which this match was organized is a clear sign of improved relationship between the two teams. However, the echos of that dispute which led to the abandoning of a match are still audible, maybe feeble. The fabric of the FNCC has changed quite a bit and only few have that match in their memory. In the Pak CC club there are changes but not sufficient to burry the ghosts of that match. But more such more amicable encounters between two teams can indeed burry the past. I look forward to more matches with the Pak CC team. However, we must take caution and should not rush things and take every match at a time.
