Optimists Cricket Club

The Optimists entertained a touring English side, Salix CC from around the West London area, this past weekend. Two 40-over games were played over the Saturday and Sunday with the Optimists coming out on top on both days.
On the Saturday, following a heavy nights drinking the previous night, Salix decided to bat first. A decent batting side, they managed to post 179 off of 38 overs (reduced as a result of a short rain break). A special mention for Aanand Pandey, who bowled beautifully and took four wickets. Some poor fielding, and a top edge off of the loosener by West (the unlucky batsman unaware of the bounce that can be achieved on the Walfer track) and two of the of the opposition batsman narrowly missing out on 50’s proved to be some of the more entertaining moments of the innings. The Optimists set out in chase of the target with some early big hits. Amazingly, no OCC batsman made a hugely significant but all made it into double figures helping the side cross the line in a close run game.
Sunday’s game proved to be a little more one sided. After another nights drinking Salix, again, decided to bat first. Salix’s innings was helped along by a nice innings by Kulasingham, who made 74. Although he was dropped several times along the way including a rather comical moment when Deepak was bowling, encouraged the batman to sky the ball straight upwards, called to take the catch only to be out-shout by wicketkeeper Andrews who failed to make it to the ball (oh dear;-).Salix were eventually bowled out in the final over, setting the Optimists 190 for victory. OCC set about their target with the Opening partnership of Andrews and Arvind Pandey. The two of them made an opening partnership of 100 off of the first 20 overs. Pandey was eventually dismissed for 34 but, Andrews went on to retire after completing a swashbuckling century. The remaining batsman knocked off the final runs with some more big-hitting allowing OCC to win by 8 wickets and with 10 overs to spare.
The whole weekend was played in a tremendous spirit and was thoroughly enjoyed by all. We look forward to welcoming back Salix or maybe visiting them in the near future.