By Latief Bazaz

Even before the game started, we knew that we were going up against a very strong opposition. To make things worse, on the morning of the game, the team got the bad news that our tiger…..and strike bowler, Saami was injured and unable to play. Not only did we lose Saami but now we were one player short. We desperately tried to call our team buddies but as expected, calls to cell phones did not get answered. Our captain did suggest that maybe we need to get the cell phone numbers of our players wives! ……..just in case we really need to get hold of our players in crunch time:)

Anyways, the game had to be played and play we did…..hard. We did come into this game with one ‘wild card’…..Showkat Jan. After ‘retiring’ from cricket for the last so many months, Showki decided to come back. We were all very skeptical, not because we doubt his bowling abilities but just because of the long break. We were expecting rustiness, wides, no balls and full tosses on the leg stump! Imran decided to open the bowling with Showkat and I was thinking….Mr. Captain, what the heck is wrong with you? But Showkat bowled as if he had never left! He was accurate from the word go….great line and length. Gave away just 1 run in his first over.

Latief took charge of the bowling from the other end and as always the captain asked him to bowl his full 4 overs in one go. Latief kept a tidy line and length and did not give the Challengers openers any room to play their shots. Showkat came back for his second over and bowled a great delivery outside the off stump which the batsman edged and Aizaz, who was standing up to the stumps (almost breathing down the batsmen’s neck and making them uncomfortable) took a great catch. Showki was back with a bang.
Latief’s second over gave away 1 run and got 2 more wickets. Latief’s bowling stats, 4 overs, 7 runs and 2 wickets.

BayCC Reds seemed to be on fire. Amazing catches were held. Ali took a one handed, diving catch. It was easily the catch of the day. To make things worse for the Challengers, Showkat, who is not know for his catching abilities, took 2 catches, one of them a great one! It was at that point that Fayyaz suggested that Showki should be ‘dope’ tested to see if he is taking any ‘performance enhancing drugs’. He was just outplaying and out performing himself!

Imran brought in Ali to bowl. Ali did what he always does. Kept a tidy line and length and took wickets….3 of them. The Challengers could not figure out whether to try to steady their sinking ship by defending or to try to hit their way out of trouble. Their number 2 ranking in the league was weighing them down as well. What was killing them even more was that BayCC Reds was doing this to them. They had woken up that morning thinking that they would walk all over us.

Aizaz came in to bowl and living up to his reputation, bowled a miserly and eventful spell. Very little runs given and wicets taken. He took 3 wickets. Amazing cricketing brain! Before delivering the ball, this guy places a fielder and the batsman plays the ball directly into that fielders hands. Awesome control. Almost like a ‘dictator’!

We were short of bowlers, since Saami and Adnan were missing in action. But this was the perfect opportunity for Zarak Afridi to SHINE! He came, he saw and he conquered. The Challengers could not read him at all. They kept on swinging and beating the hell out of the ‘San Ramon air’ ……the ball was no where near their bats! Zarak bowled 4 overs, gave away 4 runs and took 3 wickets! Yesterday, Zarak Afridi was really bowling like Shahid Afridi!

A lot of credit has to go to Imran for his captaincy. He used his limited bowling resources really well and trusted his bowlers to deliver….and deliver they did.

With the great bowling and amazing fielding, the “Number 2 team” was bundled out for a humilating 37!

Now, it was time for our batsmen to do bring the match home. Our openers, Imran Rizvi and Fayyaz gave us a steady start. Fayyaz hit a handsome boundary, ran a ‘2′ with Imran! (Shakir was watching!) and then got caught at the boundary while attempting to hit a six. Fayyaz scored 7, Imran Rizvi scored 5, Tanvir 2, Imran Shah 6, Zarak 3. The pick of the batting was Ali. He scored 10, not out and was deservingly judged Man of the Match. Imran Shah played his normal elegant and useful inings, scoring 6 not out.
Even though the bowling and fielding impressed, BayCC Reds batting did show some cracks and did leave a lot of room for improvement.

The spiciest part of the game was when Ali was batting and we were 10 runs from victory, Challengers appealed for a run out against Ali, which the umpire turned down. Challengers went beserk. Their frustrations had been piling up inside and now, they vented, big time. They umpire was smoking when he turned down the appeal. They started screaming at the umpire and demanded why he was smoking. The umpire responded with “I have been somking for the last 10 overs. Why the hell did you not complain beofore”! At one point, Challengers started to walk out of the game. Some of the Challenger players made the mistake of yelling at BayCC Reds batsmen. As soon as that happened, we sent in Fayyaz into the ground to ‘talk’ to them with a bat in hand! When the Challengers saw Fayyaz (waving a bat), they decided to back off and calm down!

At the end of the day, BayCC Reds proved what BayCC Blues had done a week before….that we might be down ….but we are not out. We are still a force to reckon with. Challengers looked devastated. After the game, their strike bowler came to me and said “Finally you guys managed to win a game”. I shot back “Well, we did. You guys were ranked Number 2 before this game started. Now, we beat you big time. That makes you Number 3 now…..Live with that!”

Go BayCC…..REDS AND BLUES!