Sunday Fun at the old Ballpark

It was a beautiful Sunday to be in Washington Park, and with
the league getting Ground #1 back for the playoffs, it was
fun to have 4 meaningful games in progress at the same time
once again.

I was at Ground #3, umpiring Advancers and Evanston. Evanston
began well, but always lost too many wickets - they were 59/3
in 10 overs to start, and 83/5 in 20. Perrin was their main
performer again, hitting 64 or so out of 139 allout (he had
just hit 2 sixes and 16 off one over, carrying Evanston to
132/6 off 33 overs, when he was runout - and Evanston folded
for 139 soon after). Advancers bowling looked very solid -
Ram and Subashish formed a very effective opening pair, and
the 3 spinners bowled beautifully.

At breaktime we got updates from the other games too -
Milwaukee had collapsed against a rampant United pace attack
of Mehul and Yusuf, and were down to 47/6. CCI were being
held in check by IIT, reduced to 40/5 in 20 overs. And the
Wildcats were 90 odd for 4 in 20 overs. Eventually at lunch
we found that CCI had folded for 75, and the Wildcats got up
to 229 in their 45 overs. Milwaukee had folded for 54 - but
they reduced United to 18/4 in reply (so that was the game
some of us watched at lunch :-) Kabir had claimed 3 wickets
and Wade 1 - Wade was getting monstrous bounce (particularly
remember Mehul fending one off his throat!) However he also
had one go over the keepers head for 5 noballs, and then
Faisal hit him gorgeously for a massively long pulled six
over squareleg that effectively settled the issue.

Returned to umpire the Evanston/Advancers game - Evanston's
bowling is usually quite good, and it started well. They
induced a sitter of a catch second over that was put down,
then got the first wicket soon after. Shakir was dropped
behind soon after coming in as well. But then Shakir and
Khadri (both fasting all day) took over - the Hyderabadi duo
batted gorgeously, dispatching the bowling to all parts of
the field. By the time Shakir was dismissed for 50+, the
game was effectively over as a contest. Paul put the finishing
touches, Khadri remained unbeaten with a brilliant 60+, and
Advancers had looked awesomely good in winning by 8 wickets
with 20 overs to spare!

At the end of our game, we found that IIT had also won easily
in a handful of overs, and United had won their game by 5
wickets in the end. So it was down to one last game - the
first genuinely *good match* of the playoffs, Wildcats vs
Muslim.

When I got there (soon after hearing, with much joy, that
the Cubbies had won 8-0 and the hated Brewers had lost, now
giving the Cubs a 3.5 game lead), Muslim had just lost its
third wicket (Kamran caught at the boundary), and were 50/3
in 12 overs and it was game on. Mehmood and Afroze batted
brilliantly however - Mehmood in particular smacking 3 sixes
in a single over, and looking fantastic. A misunderstanding
(and a great piece of fielding) put paid to his innings
however - Romeen from the boundary to Satish the bowler, and
a direct hit at the batting end that found Mehmood short.
Afroze had things under control, however - it was only when
he holed out at the boundary (after a terrific knock) to
leave Muslim at 165/6 that the game appeared to be genuinely
up in the air again.

It was then that captain Farhat and Rizwan got together, for
a critical 35 run stand that pushed the game towards Muslim
again. The asking rate had crept up to 6/over, but Rizwan hit
2 *huge* sixes off Giri to get it under control again... before
a Giri slower ball clean-bowled him to end the over! It was
30 to win with 3 wickets in hand now (the runrate, after
Rizwan's pyrotechnics, down to less than 5/over however).
The game was now very evenly poised.

Once again, however, the skipper Farhat was involved in a
critical stand - this time with Arif. Once again Arif played
his natural game, playing the big shots, while Farhat kept one
end secure and made sure Satish (bowling beautifully and
searching for the elusive breakthrough) was played out
safely. Eventually Satish got his man, getting Arif to hole
out to Naren - but by then 25 vital runs had been added, only
5 were needed to win, and critically, Satish had run out of
overs.

With 5 runs needed in 2 overs (and 2 wickets in hand), Farhat
defended a ball or two, then dispatched a four over the
drawn-in field, a wide the next ball ended it. Farhat came
in with 70+ runs to win and the scoreboard will show he made
only 23 in the end - but that is where statistics can
sometimes lie, for that innings was worth as much as some
centuries. Entering with 70+ to win, securing one end,
sheparding the lower order, and eventually hitting the winning
runs - it was a Miandad-esque knock, and worth its weight in
gold.

The Wildcats are three-time champs for a reason, they are
probably the toughest team in the league - for a decade theyve
been the hardest team to beat once they put 200 on the board
in a playoff situation. They fought all the way as is their
wont, and came very very close to pulling it off again (but
for some missed catches they actually might have). But that
makes Muslim Gym's victory even more creditable - given the
situation and the opposition, this must surely be the best
win for their club in a decade, maybe ever.

With Purdue apparently beating Challengers (reports and
details from Hanover will be much appreciated!), a couple
of very intriguing semifinals are set - St Louis vs
Purdue, and Muslim vs United.

Overall, a very fun day at the old ballpark (except for the
fact that it had to be ruined by Rex and his gang's abysmal
show at night)!
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