Match Report: Div I 2005: Finals: Pak Gymkhana vs Wildcats

On Sunday the 16th of October, at Community Park in Hanover Park, Pak Gymkhana and Wildcats Cricket Club played the last game of the 2005 season, for the Div I Championship.

Wildcats won the toss and elected to field. Pak Gymkhana was soon in trouble – 50 for 4 in 12 overs. The Wildcats team and their cheer-leaders were ecstatic and the Pak Gymkhana team and supporters were gloomy. Pak Gymkhana desperately needed some one to rise to the occasion and save them from imminent disaster. Shahid Munir and Hassan Shah did just that. At first, Shahid was content to defend and rotate the strike, while Hassan pushed the score with an occasional four. Later, Shahid accelerated and overtook Hassan Shah with a flurry of fours and sixes. He plundered 19 runs off an over of Balaji. With the score reading 281 in the 35th over, Shahid Munir was run out having scored a magnificent 133. Hassan Shah soon followed, after scoring 103 runs. The other Pak Gymkhana batsmen did not capitalize on the foundation laid by the 231 runs partnership of Shahid and Hassan. The Pak Gymkhana innings ended at 306 runs in 47.1 overs. Nikhil Javeri was the pick of the Wildcats bowlers with 4 for 46 off 9.1 overs. Satish Reddy and Sanjay Barreto chipped in with 2 wickets each and Krishna Kurup had one.

Facing a daunting total, Wildcats started cautiously. Eschewing risks, the batsmen kept the score-board ticking. Romeen Lavani was out early for 3. Satyapal Singh joined Sanjay Baretto to stabilize the innings, but did not last long, scoring only 16. Vikram Chakravarthy joined Sanjay and held the innings together. While Vikram rotated the strike, Sanjay pushed the score, till he was out after scoring 29 runs. Nikhil joined the steadfast Vikram and they pushed the score steadily. Nikhil was out after scoring 27 runs. Satish joined Vikram, who had opened up and started playing his shots. With the game tentatively poised at 260 for 5 in 45 overs, the game was called off due to bad light and was to be continued on Tuesday, October 18, 2005.
Needing 47 runs off 5 overs, with 5 wickets in hand, Vikram and Satish resumed their innings Tuesday, and continued merrily along. They scored 8 off Shahid’s first over, in singles and twos. In the next over of Farman Khan, who had bowled magnificently and had contained the Wildcats in his previous spell, they plundered 19 runs off him and cruised to victory in the remaining 2.1 overs without losing a wicket. Man of the Match, Vikram scored a magnificent 139 not out and Satish, an unbeaten 53.

This was certainly one of the best finals ever played in the history of Midwest Cricket Conference – 3 centuries, 613 runs scored, close, exciting match played in good spirits by both sides, with warm weather, drama, fireworks, cheer-leading, more than 300 spectators, community support, live running commentary and fund raising for Earthquake Relief. What else could one have asked for?

Written By: Zafer Hameed, Elgin CC (You may send your comments to zafer@midwestcricket.org)