University of Cincinnati Cricket Club Match Report.

Practice Match 1 against Ohio State University Cricket Club.

It was a beautiful sunday afternoon. OSUCC won the toss and elected to bat. UCCC entered the field with all vigor and enthusiasm. This was clearly displayed by both bowlers and fielders.

Rahul and Chandan opened the bowling and immediately started beating the batsmen out side the off. Chandan got UCCC the first breakthrough in the 5th ball of the 4th over with a beatiful caught behind. He again instrumented a second breakthrough in the successive ball with a caught and bowled. Chandan again got his third wicket in the 7th over with another caught behind.

Kaustabh and Ram succeeded with some beatiful bowling and quick wickets. Before long, UCCC was cruising along with OSUCC at 67/6 in 15 overs.

It was here when Vignesh took over. His tidy off-spinners mixed with spot-on medium pace balls quickly restricted the run flow. UCCC got a big blow when Vignesh going for a good caught and bowled chance got injured badly on his left index finger and had to leave the field.

UCCC bowlers in all the enthusiasm and with only 10 players on the field battled to restrict OSUCC. Helped by a ridiculously large number of wides from UCCC bowlers, the 7th wicket partnership went for around 42 runs in 5 overs.

Ketan stepped in to get some much needed breakthroughs with some beautiful yorkers and some highly animated celebrations! Before long OSUCC was reduced to 123/9 in 23 overs.

Then again helped by some wayward bowling and some ridiculously large number of wides from UCCC bowlers, the last wicket for OSUCC posted 40 runs before getting run-out. OSUCC had posted 163 in 26 overs.

UCCC determined to chase to the total valiantly got a big blow when Vignesh was bowled in the second ball of the innings.

Bijoy along with Vijay steadied the innings for the next 11 overs and posted 37 run. Bijoy was caught in 12th over while attempting a hook over square leg.

Ranga stepped in and together with Vijay steadied the innings and UCCC was cruising along with 57/2 in 15 overs. Ranga was then bowled in the 18th over. Vijay and Pranjil picked up the scoring and with some good shots from Vijay, the score was 98/3 in 21 overs. Pranjil got out leg-before-wicket and was immediately followed by Vijay in the following over. UCCC was now at 99/5 in 22 overs.

Then the usual UCCC collapse occured and UCCC was packed for 142 in 28 overs.

UCCC fought well with some excellent bowling and some steady batting from a few players. But, controlling the wides by bowlers and building partnership by batsmen has to be worked on.