A busy weekend in the league

We were set for a busy weekend with our debut in the 2024 Northeastern League, with four matches spread equally over the Saturday and Sunday. 

Pak Barcelona
We started with a game against Pak Barcelona at 9am. Shriram Bhosale lost the toss and we were put in the field. Only Shriram himself in his one over could really stem the flow of runs, with the best figures going to Vrishab Kandral (2/34), with the other wicket taken by Burhan Ejaz (1/41). Pak Barcelona finished with 219/3 after an unbeaten 135-run fourth wicket partnership. 
Starting our innings with something of an uphill task, we made a reasonable start and were in with a shout before a typical BICC collapse took us from 86/2 to 119/8, including the retirement of top-scorer Umer Razi (32). The ninth wicket put on another 13 to take us to a chastening 75-run loss. 

Catalunya Coalesce
After an extended lunch break, we were back for our second game of the day at 5pm. This time we won the toss but again we fielded first. Things weren’t going too badly when we got them 87/3 (albeit with a good runrate), but just like the morning the fourth-wicket partnership took the game away, this time combining for 158 runs before it finally ended off the last ball of the innings as Vishesh Gajjar claimed his third wicket (3/48), having already dismissed both openers. Tom Coulthard got the other wicket (1/39) to end with the only figures going at under 10 an over. They finished on a hefty 245/4.
Starting our innings with something of an uphill task (I feel like I’ve written that before!), we started well with a 57-run partnership between Maroof Shaikh and Vrishab. There was another 50+ run partnership between Vrishab and Tom before the collapse came, and we went from 114/2 to 115/5 in the blink of an eye. “Scoreboard pressure” and all that, but we’d got ourselves into a reasonable position. A quick 50 for Suraj Jha wasn’t enough to save the innings, but we finished on a very respectable 215/6.

Men in Blue
Sunday morning’s game saw us play Men in Blue, with us desperate to avenge the recent trend of defeats against them. They won the toss and put us into bat. 
Again, there was a decent enough start thanks again to Maroof, this time accompanied by Ujjwal Anand. They got some runs on the board but, Ujjwal especially, were both struggling to get the ball away. I wish I was getting paid every time I write the word “collapse”, because there are two more to come. 51/1 became 70/5. A cameo from the captain (17) saw something of a partnership form before he was caught. 92/5 became 112 all out off the penultimate ball. The lowest score of the four games so far, and not one likely to be defended. 
And so it was. We took two of them with us, with a wicket apiece for Shriram and Vishesh, but they chased it down in just the twelfth over. Still, it meant a bit of a breather before our next game…

Magic Badalona
Our fourth and final game was against Magic. The shortened first game had allowed a break and time for a dance in the dressing room (it’s how all top teams relax after three defeats in a row). We lost the toss and were put in the field. 
The top order got them off to a good start but the game changed on the wicket of their number 3 Shakeel, caught by Shriram off the bowling of Maxi Hoeck. With the middle and lower order less able to hit out, the runrate fell and wickets fell consistently. They were eventually all out off the last ball for 195. Burhan finished with the best figures of 3/45, Vishesh 2/39 and Wills Camfield 2/22, with a wicket each for Maxi and Anton. 
We envisioned the unsuccessful chase against Coalesce from the evening before, when we had scored more than this batting second. Maroof opened again, this time with Anton. Disaster struck first ball though, as Anton was run out backing up. Vrishab came in at 3 and scored a valuable (and quick) 19 in a 58-run partnership. When he was caught it brought Maxi to the crease alongside Maroof, and the two of them batted brilliantly bringing the runs required down along with the runrate. 90 runs later and Maroof was finally dismissed for 67 but the fear of another collapse was also dismissed by Suraj (confusingly listed as Caspar on the live scorecard!). Suraj (30*) and Maxi (56*) saw us home with four balls to spare and we finally had our first win of this long and hot weekend! A great win, and we hope for more in our next league game on the 19th August against Catalunya Jaguars. 

​Sam Phillipps