Sat 17 the 1st XI headed off to Ohain to play PCCB in their Quarterfinal of the Belgian T20 League in the hope to win the cup this year after reaching the semi finals in 2011 and the final in 2012. Winning the toss, skipper Mees inserted the opposition in the hope of grabbing early wickets and chasing a low total. Arjun kept the first over tight and Charlie followed up with 2 wickets in the second over, the latter courtesy of an impressive catch of William Cope at cover point. Charlie unfortunately had to be taken off but Taral and later on Iqqi followed Arjun´s example in keeping the bowling tight, both picking up 2 wickets. In over 13 skip threw the ball to Anand Pattabiraman for some tight offspin bowling and he rose to the occasion by bowling the spell of the day and ending with figures of 4-22-4 which meant we didn´t even have to use the full quota of Arjun, ending with impressive T20 figures of 0-10-3. William Cope the pick of the fielders with 3 catches, but as a whole the ground fielding was an outstanding effort and made sure our chase was ‘only’ 129 to win.
Unfortunately the golden arm of Anand was limited to the first innings and after being caught behind of a free hit his innings ended in the 3rd over. T. Barker and William Cope made light work of the chase with a partnership of 79 in 8 overs, which ended with Timothy nicking behind for 48 of 40 balls. Joost fell himself in the trap he has set so often for visiting teams in Walfer and hit the first ball of the part time off spinner of PCCB straight in the hands of long on. William fell for a well-paced 29 of 30 balls in the 16th over with only 9 to get. All in all an excellent team performance by beating the 3rd League 1 club in a row in T20 and being the only club in Belgian cricket to have reached the semifinals for the 3rd year in a row. Most of us stayed to watch the outcome of Exiles vs RBCC so we could have a look at our opponents in the semifinal.
Part of the team decided to sleep over in Brussels and after a nice meal of moules-frites and an ice cream at the Grote Markt (courtesy of Roger Barker, thanks!) all went to bed early to prepare for Sunday´s match, starting at 1PM. Next morning a cultural trip to Waterloo and the Butte de Lion, with breakfast onsite ensured that we had an Ashes-like preparation but the weather was not on our side, so a long wait and multiple discussions with the umpires resulted in a 4.30 start for a T15 over match. Losing the toss and being asked to bat first, Arjun was sent in as a pinch hitter with the in-form Timothy Barker. Unfortunately the bowling of RBCC was of a different standard than PCCB and all batsmen had difficulties scoring at a healthy strike rate and following up on their start, showing the following scorecard of batsman with more than 10 runs. T. Barker 11 of 12, Mees 18 of 14, Whiteman 15 of 24, Desai 16 of 16 and Jain 11 of 9. Result, a slightly disappointing 94 for 6 after 15.
We needed to get quick wickets we knew if we would stand a chance and Arjun responded to that task by taking a wicket first ball, courtesy of catching practice at 3rd slip by Tony Whiteman. Euphoric, everybody got back to their mark and Arjun ran in to bowl the ball of the weekend, giving the new batsman no room to get his hands out of the way and a great catch of Kunal meant that the score read 0-2-0,2. Arjun bowled his full quota through and had both batsmen in all sorts of trouble, playing and missing more than they would have liked and ended with 2-13-3, giving him an amazing economy rate for the weekend of 3,8. Unfortunately our ploy of using our spinners early in the match and hoping for some chances in our quest for wickets backfired and RBCC made light weight of the chase helped by an impressive piece if hitting by one of their opening batsman who ended on 71 of 29 balls.
Again a successful campaign in the T20 Belgian league this year of which we can be proud. All teams present at the ground in Ohain were very impressed by our performance and the presence and performance of so much juniors especially!
Joost Mees
Optimists 1st XI captain