ECS Day 4 - Catalunya Red, Sohal & Bengali

Our fourth day of action came quickly on the heels of the third day, with back-to-back days of action for the first time. We had three games on Day 12 of the tournament, against Catalunya Red, Sohal Hospitalet and old foes Bengali CC. After finally getting our first victory the day before against Badalona, we were keen to target at least two more against these three opponents. 

Catalunya Red - scorecard
Red were one of two new teams to us here, a club that was formed a couple of years ago to enter the Catalan over 40s franchise league but has since moved on to incorporate younger players. 
Umer Razi lost the toss and we were put in to bat. After a successful chase and our highest score of the tournament the day before we were confident of putting on another big score. Imran Fareed opened with Anton “Mr Vegetables” Kritzinger but the former didn’t last long. Umer walked in at 3 but was struggling to get bat on ball consistently, and despite a couple of late boundaries was eventually out for a run-a-ball 18. When Anton (27 off 20) followed him back to the dugout three balls later and James Bentley one ball after that we were in a bit of trouble. Fortunately Tom Coulthard (26 off 8) and Shriram Bhosale (19* off 9) saved us with some late big hitting in a 49-run partnership that only ended when Tom was run out off the last ball of the innings. They had dragged us up to a defendable 112/5.
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Despite Maxi Hoeck’s first over only conceding seven runs, and Vishesh Gajjar getting a wicket with his second ball, Red were well ahead of the rate by the end of the powerplay. James (claiming the second wicket in a rare moment of us actually catching one off his bowling), Vishesh and Maxi brought it back a bit in the middle overs but they were still on top and 21 runs coming off of Shriram in the 8th over basically sealed the game. They hit the winning runs next over to win by eight wickets with six balls to spare. Once again our batting had fallen 15-20 runs short, and there was some carelessness in the field that leaked more runs.

Batting against Catalunya Red

Sohal Hospitalet - scorecard
Umer again lost the toss and again we were put into bat first. Anton opened with Tom, promoted back up the order to where he was last week. Anton was dismissed off the final ball of a relatively quiet first over, meaning Tom was joined by Maroof Shaikh. Maroof played some glorious drives on his way to 15, showing that T10 isn’t all about slogging and whacking. He was out off the last ball of the powerplay, in which we had only accumulated 28/2. This brought Shriram to the crease, and he continued on from his morning cameo by dispatching the ball to all parts of the ground with eight 6s. He was ably partnered by Maxi for a 57-run partnership that lasted four overs before Maxi was bowled. Shriram (62 off 21) was eventually the first of three run outs of the final over, as all lost their heads failing to get the right person on strike. As a result, only four runs would come off that final over and it meant we finished on 119/7 when 130-135 was on the cards. 
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Maxi again opened the bowling and again had a great first over, conceding only six despite bowling three wides. Sadly the next two overs would help Sohal recover somewhat and they ended the powerplay on 39/2, Shriram had again been at the centre of all that’s good, as a great catch followed a brilliant run out from long on as we claimed two wickets in two balls in the second over. The third-wicket partnership was a damaging one for us but things looked more promising when Maxi bowled their opened Latif just short of his 50. Despite none of the middle order really shining, the top order had done enough to get on top, coupled with some wayward bowling costing us 14 runs in wides. Burhan had his best game with the ball in a while, finishing with 2/26 from his two overs but it was not enough as Sohal finished the chase with four balls remaining. We walked off cursing the final over of the first innings, and our generosity with the wides. 

Bengali - scorecard
We didn’t have long to get over the previous defeat before we were straight back out there. We had easily beaten Bengali earlier in the season, but they had recruited a number of players for this tournament, including internationals from Portugal and Sweden. 
Umer finally won a toss and we elected to bowl first. Maxi and Shriram got us off to a good start before a string of expensive overs had us in trouble. Sam Phillipps finally claimed the first wicket of the innings in the eighth over, and Umer joined that party in the ninth dismissing the other opener. We had been far more disciplined with the ball and our fielding was good despite it being the third game of the day, but the two Bengali openers (74 off 25 and 49 off 23) took the game away from us. They posted a score of 161/2.
Anton was joined by a third different opening partner of the day, Dev Mahadevan this time. Dev’s innings (30 off 18) was one of the few highlights as we struggled to get their quick, experienced, international bowlers away under lights. Only Imran Fareed and Shriram (19 off 5) reached double figures before both were run out. Bengali gifted us 13 wides and five penalty runs for completing their overs too slowly, which only helped us trickle into three figures. We finished on 103/9, a 58 run defeat. Umer and Maxi, in at 10 and 11 due to injuries, did at least avoid the embarrassment of us being bowled out by seeing out the last five balls. There would be a ball from our innings that would end up spreading around social media, after Tom hit one and the bat ended up snapping in two. Never one to miss out on a comedic opportunity, he grounded the bat handle after completing the single before requesting a new bat from the dugout. At least we'll remember this game for something!

The 12 players joined the bumper crowd that had been cheering us on from the stands for a drink. We now have a break over the weekend, before eight games in three back-to-back days starting on Tuesday. If we can get our act together and get through the group, those three days may well turn into four or even five days of consecutive action (although that’s not looking overly likely at the moment!). 

​Sam Phillipps