Optimists Cricket Club News story


Optimists 1st XI Back on track with two wins

28 Apr 2018

Last Saturday, the OCC 1st XI travelled to Gent to play the remaining 2 T20 games league games against Ostend Exiles and Gent XI. Having lost the first game against Liege the previous week, we needed to win both these games to stay in contention for the knock-out phase, and this was already made difficult due to captain Richard Neale’s unavailability, leaving Saransh Kulshrestha to lead for the first time in T20s. After a long 3 hour drive, the team arrived in Gent under grey skies and strong winds. Ostend Exiles were already finishing their first match where Exiles beat Gent and were all set to take us on in their second match, which was our first. OCC won the toss and decided to bat first, and an already tired Exiles team would have to field for another 20 overs with just a 15 minute break.

OCC knew that with a solid middle-order, a good start would go a long way in setting up a good total and Saransh and Girish did just that by rattling along to 58 in 6 overs. A brief collapse after that, including Reinhardt being timed-out for ambling on to the crease 5 seconds later than expected, left OCC at 79 for 4 after 10. While the good start meant that OCC was never behind on the run-rate, they needed a few overs of consolidation before the final push and Tony Whiteman and Vikram Vijh did just that, taking 4 overs trying to settle down and taking the score to 103 before the launching into their attack. Tony hit the shot of the match – a slog-sweep over mid-wicket that hit the top of the tree outside the park – while Vikram did what he does best, hitting sixes at will. Tony departed in the 17th over but Vikram continued till 3 balls were left before he was eventually out for 62, taking OCC to 182. The Exiles response was brutal in the first 6 overs and they raced to 67 for 1, with Abdul scoring 34. The skipper than brought himself on immediately after the powerplay and the move paid off as Abdul was stumped on the third ball of the over and the next 5 overs of spin from the same end – 2 from Saransh and 3 from Tony – brought 6 wickets for 33 runs, 4 of which were caught at deep mid-wicket by Pankaj and Reinhardt. Akhilesh Kumar then took his first wicket on debut before the end of a successful defence by restricting Exiles to 147 for 8. Tony and Saransh ended with 3-18 and 3-15 respectively and Pankaj and Akhilesh took a wicket apiece.

The next match against Gent began immediately and having lost the toss, OCC was asked to do the same thing as they had earlier asked Exiles, field for another 20 overs immediately. This effects were there for all to see as 6 catches were dropped, 2 each of their openers who eventually scored 74 and 21 respectively. However, Akhilesh did take a couple of blinders in the outfield to balance things a bit but Gent had by then raced to 124 for 2 after 14 overs. However, some smart and tight bowling from Saransh, Vikram, Aanand and Yatin resulted in 54 off the last 6 overs to set up a target of 179.

None of the OCC players had ever been part of a successful chase of such a big target and a big batting effort was required. Sensing the need for a rapid start, the skipper took a gamble of sending Reinhardt to open the innings with Girish and the move paid dividends and Reinhardt carted the bowlers from the first ball, peppering the field square of the wicket on either side. OCC reached 50 in just 4.2 overs but a good bowling for the next 10 balls, which also had an unfortunate run out of Girish, meant that OCC were 60 for 1 after 6. Reinhardt would go on to make exactly 50 off just 24 balls but the start that he gave would mean that the rest of the batsman had enough time to get settled before pushing on. And that is exactly what Tony Whiteman did by scoring 56 off 41 balls, an innings that carried OCC to within 4 runs of the target. However, Tony got out at a crucial moment with 4 required of 3 balls. The pressure was high but Anshuman, the next man in, was desperate to redeem himself after dropping two sitters in the field earlier. He swung his bat at the first ball thick edging it exactly between short fine-leg and deep square-leg for an easy two. The equation now was 2 off 2 and it still could be anybody’s game. Anshuman then connected again, this times middling ball as it flew towards the boundary line at long-off where a fielder was settling under it as well as trying to remain within the field of play. In the end, he only managed to palm it over the line for a 6, leaving the joyous OCC players to run over to the ground to congratulate the batsman.

The ride back was a lot more fun with the hope of making it to the knock-outs still intact, as we stopped for some beers and food on the way. The team will now face ICCB at home in Walferdange next week and try for their second 45 over game of the season.