IECC captain Sanjeeb called the toss right this time and elected to bat first. Bobby was promoted to open with Santosh in the absence of regular openers. YCAC got 2 quick break throughs via runouts, Santosh on the 2nd over misjudged a direct through which unfortunately hit the stump and then on the 6th over Bobby sacrificed his wicket for Dinesh in a terrible mix up. Bobby's sacrifice did not go waste though as Dinesh went on to score a fantastic century.
Sanjeeb and Dinesh steadied the innings on the 3rd wicket and added about 70 runs, Dinesh doing bulk of the scoring.Then Vezly and Dinesh on the 5th wicket added 115 runs to put IECC on top. Towards the end a blistering 51 not-out, including a last ball 6 from Anurag, took IECC total past 300.
Chasing a mammoth total YCAC started in a steady fashion.Good pace bowling by Ashok and Mohan meant that they had to take risks to meet the asking rate.Ashok got through Nick difference on his 3rd over to give IECC the much needed quick break through.Steve and Mark batted well and put up 50 runs for the 2nd wicket.
The game was on balance at that point.But a brilliant fielding at point by Santosh ran Mark out and the momentum started swinging towards IECC. Then a good catch at Cover by Ashok got rid of Dangerous looking Steve to put IECC on top, Anurag being the bowler in this case.
Prshant(59) and Farhan(26) batted well for some time and gave IECC some anxious moments but the growing asking rate got the better of both batsmen. Anurag took a superb catch at long-on to get rid of Farhan and Vezley bowled a beautiful yorker to knock Prashant's middle stump out of the ground. Once Prashant was out it was just a matter of time before IECC became victorious.
Vezly bowling his 7th over got rid of the 9 and 10th wicket in 2 consecutive deliveries to get YCAC all out within the 40 over. He is on a hat trick now.
It was a disciplined effort at the field by IECC, we took some fantastic catches, caused run outs. Even though we dropped some catches too, still it was a far better performance than the last match. I must mention that Anurag and Sagar took two outstanding catches while yours truly dropped a simple one ;)
In the end we had a drink with YCAC and thanked them for inviting us to play in their fantastic facility, and wished well to Neil who was playing his penultimate game in Japan and the last one with IECC.
We then marched home with the satisfaction of beating YCAC which had remained as a dream for few years now.
Brief scorecard....
IECC 302/6 in 40 overs, Dinesh 114(14x4, 3X6), Anurag 51 in 26 balls(7X4, 2X6), Vezly(Hit-wicket) 43(5X4, 1X6), Prashant 3/49
YCAC 237/10 in 37 overs, Prahsnat 59,Cmitha 40*, Vezly 4/35
