
SWEET REVENGE!! (MARCH 18, 2001)
WASHUCC finally came up with a victory this Sunday - the first of its short history. After weeks of practice following the disappointing loss against SLU on February 10th, the two co-captains led WASHUCC to comprehensively beat SLU. The team consisted of Ali Muzaffar (Co-captain), Apoorva Patni (Co-captain), Kunal, Kiran, Aloka, Rutvik, Sam, Rishi, Sanjeeva, Bilal, and Shehzad.
The match took place at SLU on a bright and sunny morning. The WASHUCC team won the toss, and elected to field first. Ali Muzaffar and Sanjeeva opened the bowling with some close calls. The SLU openers were not getting any slack or loose balls from the two bowlers. Then finally, Ali broke thru to get the first opener bowled. Then the next over, Sanjeeva got the second opener out by a incredible reflex catch off his own bowling. From then on, the SLU run rate steadily fell. The second string bowlers consisting of Rutvik, Kunal, and Aloka continued with the pressure. They combined to get four wickets, without letting the SLU run machine start up. Then Ali came back for his second spell to destroy the lower order by taking three wickets in five balls. After 19 overs, SLU were struggling at 51 for 9. However, SLU's pinch-hitter, Mohammad, scored quick runs in the last over to take the final tally to 62. In the field, Rishi Misra came up with two great catches, while Bilal held on to a very low catch at silly point. Only two boundaries were allowed by the SLU batting lineup.
With a required run-rate of only 3.15 per over, the target looked very easy to reach considering the strong WASHUCC batting line up. However, things did not go as planned. Kunal was the first wicket to go after only three balls. He was bowled by the feared medium-pacer, Shariq. Suddenly, it was 19 for 4, when Kiran (run out), Ali (bowled), and Aloka (bowled) followed each other back to the pavillion in quick succession. However, Apoorva brought the WASHUCC innings back on track with some clean, crisp hitting. He hit SLU bowlers all around the ground, and hitting Mohammad for two towering sixes. The run rate had increased well above five per over. However, Apoorva was caught behind off Shariq bowling for 22 when the score was 47 for seven. With only three wickets remaining, and only the lower order to come, SLU looked liked they would come up with their fifth win in six games. However, Rishi and Bilal denied that by playing good defensive cricket to slowly tick WASHUCC's score towards the winning target. And then finally, Mohammad bowled a wide in the 16th over to give WASHUCC their first victory by three wickets. Rishi and Bilal stayed not out with scores of 7 and 6, respectively.
The Man of the Match award was given to co-captain Apoorva Patni for some great batting to stabilise the innings. WASHUCC have learnt some good lessons in the past two games, and are set to take on more teams for some more victories.