BayCC Reds played and won their first game of the SRCA tournament yesterday. The game was against the team ranked number 6 in the tournament, Challengers. Batting first, BayCC Reds scored 73 runs in 20 overs and then bowled the Challengers out for 62 runs in 19 overs.

Now the details:
BayCC Reds lost the toss….a bad toss to lose because the Challengers asked us to bat on a cold, foggy and wet morning. Kareem and Fayyaz opened for BayCC Reds. The Challenger bowling, as expected, was excellent. They kept the bowling tight and gave away only 4 runs in the first 4 overs, which were the power play overs.

BayCC Reds batting struggled to score runs against the Challenger bowling. After 10 overs, we had 21 runs on the board. To make things worse, we had 3 run outs in the game. Kareem, as usual, looked solid, and scored 7 runs.
ZK, going in at number 3 continued his good form and started taking ‘cheeky singles’ with Kareem. That unsettled the opposition and ended up scoring 9 runs.
Then Zarak Afridi came in and did a “ZARAK” on the Challengers. He is starting to look more like Umar Akmal and less like Shahid Afridi! Zarak scored 17 runs. Saami, playing his usual flamboyant innings, scored 10 runs. BayCC Reds batting showed a great depth and every batsman chipped in, taking the final score to 73.
Knowing very well that 73 is not a great score on this ground (Nawabs had scored 154 the day before), especially with the sun shining now, making the batting a whole lot easier, BayCC Reds decided to bowl and field like there was no tomorrow. Body language was great and the players believed that they could win. Ali Hussaini opened the bowling. The Challengers opener played a shot towards square leg area and decided to come back for a second run. Showkat, fielded the ball and threw it in a flash to Kareem, the wicket keeper, who took the bails off. BayCC Reds had tasted first blood! Challengers were 1 down for 1 run at the end of the first over.
Latief bowled the second over and gave away one run and took a wicket. The wicket came from a slower delivery that the batsman missed, and went on to hit the stumps. Over number 2, 2 out for 2 runs. Over number 3, Challengers started to hit out and scored 9 runs. Over number 4, another slower delivery from Latief, another batsman bowled over. For the record, the person promoting the ’slower deliveries’ is our own Parvinder Pelia. Three slower deliveries got 3 wickets for Latief.
Showkat and Ali bowled good spells and the fielders supported the bowlers. Saami, as usual, was too quick for the batsmen and all they could do was to try to block him and defend against him.
Then Fayyaz was brought into the attack and the Challengers had no answer to his bowling. He bowled a great spell and took 2 wickets while giving away a very few runs. When a tired Fayyaz was asked by the captain if he could bowl the 18th over, he said that ‘I can try’….the Captain came back with….”No, you don’t try….You do it!” And Fayyaz did it.
Aizaz, the magician pushed himself to bowl the full 4 overs and took wickets when they were needed them the most. He got Abhay the set batsman out when he had started to look dangerous.
BayCC Reds players showed up 30 minute early for this game to get warmed up and that paid off in the shape of catches being held and singles being choked. Zeeshan and Saami took some great catches. Showkat was looking like a Jonty Rhodes on square leg!
Challengers never looked in control. We had beaten them the last time we played against them. Before the game one of their palyers had asked Showkat if BayCC Reds was a “new” team since they had never heard of this team…..now they will remember BayCC Reds…..in their nightmares!
A well deserving Man of the Match award went to Saami. Credit goes to the BayCC Reds captain Imran for motivating the team and leading the team well on the field. Fact is that BayCC Red members show up ‘early’ because they do not want to deal with an upset Imran….what ever the case might be …..it is working
After this win, BayCC Reds need to keep doing what they are doing. Take every game as if it is the final game and give it all they have got!
Special thanks to our BayCC Blue buddies who came to support us…..Farhan, Bilal, Ali, Parvinder, Dusty, Anis and our President Sahib, Shahid! Thanks guys.
Latief