Saturday 1 May, LCF Division 1
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Confronted with a stiff target, Heritage CC paced their chase perfectly to cross the line in the final over, for the loss of only two wickets. The Walferdange Optimists nevertheless take the Division title on net run rate.
If someone had bet
Mohit Dixit
he couldn’t win seven tosses in a row, odds of 100-1 wouldn’t really have been generous enough. Yet this is what the WOCC skipper achieved as he again called correctly and elected to bat first. With a cold and dewy morning start, it looked like a handy prerogative and the Heritage fielders felt the sting as an early chance from a
James Barker
edge went down in the slips. Not for the first time this season, James would go on to play the anchor role for a fine 38, while opening partner
Willi Cope
looked to score boundaries. The bowling from Heritage openers Hari Chockalingam and
Ankush Nanda
was tight, and when Will fell for a busy 27 from 18 balls in the seventh over, the game was well balanced at 41-1.
Joost Mees
added a rapid 29 from 16 before he and then
Scott Browne
(11) fell to
Amit Dhingra
. Ed Packard joined James in the 13th over and picked up the attacking baton, bludgeoning the bowlers to all corners before holing out on the boundary. Wickets continued to fall but the lower order maintained momentum to close on 171-8.
WOCC believed that with a solid bowling and fielding performance, even the dangerous Heritage batting line-up would do very well to chase down the total. Opening quicks
Atif Kamal
(4-1-18-1) and
William Cope
(3-0-24-1) bowled well and economically, with Will picking up an early wicket and Atif chalking off a maiden in the third over. But batsmen
Aanand Pandey
and
Tony Whiteman
didn’t panic, and steadily increased the scoring rate. The bowling became less solid, lacking penetration, and a slippery handful of difficult catches were spilled. Whiteman’s powerful cuts and line-drives were allowed to persist until he was removed by Atif and a sharp take at extra-cover from Phil Burleigh for 65 from 39 balls. Vijh (32*) joined Pandey to service the 10 per over required rate and the target was comfortably reached with five balls to spare, Pandey carrying his bat for an impressive 59 not out.
Congratulations go to Heritage for an outstanding performance. The result means that WOCC, Heritage and Star all finish this LCF Division 1 competition on ten points, with WOCC taking the league title thanks to a superior net run rate. Warriors finished fourth and TCS Star fifth.
Sincere thanks are extended to umpires
Ben Lougheed
and
Madhu Ramachandran
, as well as the LCF for managing this game and the competition so well in these challenging circumstances.