RCC vs PACC on Sunday 10th August 2008 at Hobson Cricket Ground in Climax, NC

When RCC left from raleigh it was pouring like crazy and we thought its gonna be a wash out game. 
But we called and confirmed with PACC captain that there was no rain there and there was no chance 
of it as well during the course of the day. 

RCC won the toss and elected to bat. In went Manish and Shekhar and both of them were totally in 
form and showed that from the very first ball. Manish was looking strong in his technique as usual and 
shekhar was the usual watchful initially. Both of them were going strong and playing each ball on its 
merit and not hitting any lose shots and breaking the PACC strong and accurate attack. Unfortunately 
just when things were going great Shekhar got a ball that hit him on his pads and was appealed for 
by PACC and in this confusion Manish thought of stealing a single and shekhar quickly responded but 
without looking at where the ball had gone and made yet another mistake of not grounding his bat 
early enough and PACC fielders were smart to not get confused in the midst of the huge appeal and 
hit the stumps at the end where shekhar was running and got him run out. Like shekhar himself said, 
that was a very basic mistake that he made. But never mind...he scored a good 29 runs and helped 
RCC to  get off to a great and solid start. In went Paaji who has kind of been on a scoring low except 
for the first couple of games this season and this was the perfect setting for him to get himself in and 
play a long one....but unfortunately he was the victim of the great MACC umpiring saga of wrong LBW's 
and was adjudged LBW to a delivery going down the legside. Replacing him was Faraz who also has 
had probably the worst season of his career but he was feeling good and was feeling like his old self 
that he was until last year. all this while manish was doing great at the other end but he kind of got 
itchy and tried to go for a huge drive of a fast bowler and the rule of u miss and the bowler hits came 
true....off went his sticks flyin between his bat and pads and he was walking back to the pavilion with 
a well scored 41. In went RCC captain Snehal once again the perfect setting for him to play a big one 
and salvage RCC. Faraz did hit a couple of great shots but again tried to push at a delivery of the 
spinner and once again got way too much under the ball and it took the edge and flew to short point 
area where the PACC fielder took a well judged diving catch. Replacing faraz was Keyur P who has 
hardly had any games this season and was wanting to make the most ofit. he did hit a few good hits 
but got caught in the deep. in came Taresh who also has had a very very low first season and this was 
probably his last chance to save his face in the team and he was looking to grab it with both hands full!!! 
Snehal and Taresh were just about to build a partnership when they had a mix up on the wickets and 
Taresh called for a cheeky single and then backed out without saying no and unfortunately Snehal 
couldn't get back to his crease on time and was run out. There were talks that Taresh shud have 
sacrificed his wicket as he wudn't have been able to score as rapidly as snehal and we needed snehal 
at the crease till the end and so Taresh had to make sure that he did score enough runs to get RCC to a 
fighting total and make good the mix up that he caused. Taresh was joined by Miraj and both of them 
looked really good. Miraj played a good cameo before he hauled out a skier in the last over. in went 
Sam to pair up with Taresh, who was going great guns and scoring in boundaries and double's, with 
three balls remaining....Taresh was on strike and they managed to pick 2 double's of two balls and a 
last ball single to get RCC to a total of 163 runs....which was good enough to defend and make a game 
out of it. 

RCC was pumped up and went in the field with full force and started charging the PACC opening batsmen. 
Faraz and brother Bhu opened the proceedings for RCC and immediately got the ball swinging. soon enuf 
Bhu got the outside edge of Mansoor and Arvind took a brilliant catch going towards first slip. I guess 
arvind's girlfriend should come to every game that he plays!!! anyways Faraz was bowling just brilliantly 
and insppite of giving the occassional boundary he still kept the pressure on and got two wickets in one 
over and broke half of the top order of PACC. in came the first bowling change of Miraj who has been 
great since the past three games and he continued his great line and length in this game as well and soon 
tasted success and got a quick two wickets in the same over as well. PACC were down 5 wickets for a 
mere 70 runs. at the crease were the PACC captain murtuza and the devastating nasir....they were just 
building a partnership when he went for a ambitious shot off of miraj and got a inside edge that hit his 
stumps and was bowled. in came Sham to partner with nasir and again Miraj came in and bowled a good 
rising delivery which caught the glove of Sham and gave a easy catch to arvind. Sham was unhappy with 
the umpire's call as he thought the ball hit his left elbow....which is kind of stupid to say because a right 
handers left elbow hit wud never go strait to the keeper in the same line...it would probably lob up and 
go to the keeper if at all. anyways the umpire stuck to his decision and declared him out. PACC were 
down to 7 for a mere 100 runs. The last few batsmen did show some resistance but it was a matter of time 
as none of them were good enuf to support nasir who eventually ran out of options and had to start hitting 
which is what he is great at. he skied one off of Snehal's bowling to the long on boundary where 
brother bhu was a little bit slow in reacting but eventually made it in time to get underneath the ball but 
couldn't hold onto the catch and gave a second life to nasir. After that nasir scored another 15 runs and 
PACC had just 40 runs to make with tons of overs to spare....and if nasir had kept going the way he was 
it wasn't far before PACC wud've made it....but unfortunately nasir skied another one to mid wicket 
boundary and faraz was so determined to take the catch that he even took the help of his....errrmmm....
mmmm....little faraz and his two balls to make sure that the ball wasn't going anywhere....and he held 
on to a slipping ball to make sure he did get nasir out and the end of PACC innings at 126....39 short of 
RCC's total.  

Everyone was elated at the win and it was one of the best display's of all round performance and 
responsibility by the team members and if this same team and team work goes into the playoff's...
we don't see a reason why we can't possibly lift the trophy....guys lets keep this going and i am sure 
eveyrone will remember this game!!! keep this going and lets just get better!!! Good going RCC....
have a good month off before the play off's start and then get ready to go all guns blazing in the play off's....