Baking hot is probably the best way to sum up the weather conditions at The Pierre Werner Cricket Ground in Walferdange over the week-end, where Optimists hosted Basel CC.
Saturday, the team was skippered by James Barker and also saw quite a few debutants in Oscar Whiteman, Scott Fedderson, Deepu Lingaiah and Prashanth Chandrakekhar.
Optimists won the toss and decided to bat first. Openers were Romil Prasad and Pankaj Malav. Prasad was caught behind early on which brought Deepak Gianchandani to the crease. Pankaj and Deepak started to score runs off some very tight bowling from Basel and both looked in good form and getting good starts. Unfortunately, Pankaj was eventually stumped which brought skipper, Barker to the crease. Having scored a 100 in his previous innings and in fine form, Barker and the rest of the team/supporters were stunned when he nicked one to slip first ball. Debutant, Oscar Whiteman strode out to accompany Deepak as the Optimists were now 58-3 off 11 overs. Deepak was well bowled for a fine 29 and Lingaiah didn’t trouble the scorers with a second golden duck of the Optimists innings and suddenly the Optimists were in trouble at 83-5 off 15.
Vishy Deshpande and Oscar Whiteman set about turning the tables back in our favour and both batted brilliantly. Cautious and defensive to the tight bowling but equally aggressive and dismissive of anything short or loose. Whiteman was the first of the pair to reach 50 (on debut too!) and quickly followed by Vishy. Eventually Whiteman was out caught as he was trying to accelerate the scoring in the latter overs and he batted tremendously for 55. Vishy departed soon after – run out for 57. Chris Fry was unleashing a flurry of cuts and pulls in the final few overs to eventually take Optimists to 238-7 at the end of their 40 overs.
In reply, spirits were high as Basel CC danger man – Zaheer was out third ball of the innings for 4. However, Julian and other opening batsman Rajesh both gave the Optimists a master-class in batting. Skipper, Barker doing everything he could to break the partnership and even bowled every single player apart from Prasad who was keeping but to no avail. Rajesh finished up with a well-deserved century and Julian not out on 66 and they chased down the total in the 35th over.
Sunday was a chance for revenge in the T20 match. Skipper, Mike West went for the same tactic and after winning the toss decided to bat first. Opening the batting was Robert Deed and Richard Grundy. Deed got a good Yorker early on from Basel paceman, Jack and when Ankit was bowled a few balls later, the Optimists were in trouble at 7-2 off 2 overs. However, the experienced Vikram Vijh joined Grundy at the crease and both set about building the Optimists innings. Grundy was eventually caught for 21 after some scintillating pull shots and cover drives. Wickets were coming and going at fairly regular intervals, but Vikram was getting his eye in at the other end and scoring freely. In the end he was out for a brilliant 88, caught as he tried to increase the scoring rate. Atif Kamal was blasting from the other end and was not out on 13 after 20 overs and the Optimists had set a target of 148.
In baking conditions, a paddling pool was erected on the boundary and a bbq cooking, life could not be better and the Optimists were looking to level the series with a good bowling and fielding performance. However, it was a similar story to the day before. Julian, promoted to open the batting following his innings the day before was still in excellent touch and together with Rajesh, got Basel CC off to an excellent start. The Optimists bowled well, Atif particulary looked to be bowling quite quickly and Vikram was impressing with his leg spin but the Basel batsman were relentless and it took a good run out to dismiss Julian for 60 and Rajesh was caught for Aanand Pandey for 30 off the bowling of Sambhav. At 118-3 off 14 overs, it was looking a bit tight but Jack and Zaheer from Basel hit some swash-buckling shots to take Basel over the line in the 18th over.
It was a good game of cricket, on both days but Optimists were out-batted by Basel CC who were the deserved winners.
Next week-end, sees the resumption of the Optimists 1st XI quest to become the BCF Division 2 champions again with a home game against Antwerp Indians on Sunday. Please come down to watch!