Our first game on our home ground Stafford Park this season. We were expecting this game to be a cracker as has always been the case against HTCC II. Last season we played them twice and lost both the games which were very close. There is a lot of mutual respect and friendship amongst us off the field but believes you me there is no love lost between us in a cricket game.

Dhaval Patel the Tigers skipper won the toss and put us in to bat. Tigers started their bowling with Rohit who bowled exceptionally well for his first spell. Runs were coming at a comfortable pace from the other end with Amir Ali Sr dealing in boundaries and we were looking set for a decent total at 30 for no loss. Then the first twist in the game unfolded with Cougars loosing 4 wickets in 4 balls courtesy of a hat-trick by Rohit, and all of a sudden we were looking down the hole. It was a situation from which it's not easy to get out of, but we had a few more chips to play with, Shakir was sent for some rearguard action to ensure we did not loose any more wickets. Shakir did his job and did it well scoring a very patient 23.

Now it was time for the other twist in the game. Out in the middle were two blokes who I look for inspiration when the chips are down, Rafath Bari and Javed Panjwani. When the going gets tough we always look to Bari to get going and he delivered with an outstanding innings of 56 from just 57 balls. Javed produced a cameo of 24 from 36 balls. They delivered and delivered big making sure we played out the 40 overs and had a respectable total on the board. To get to 182/7 from 40 overs from being 6 down for 60 odd runs was a remarkable recovery.

We knew that with 182 on the board we were in with a chance. The bowling started off pretty well with Javed, Abbas and yours truly picking up wickets and we had Tigers down 4 wickets with 30 odd on the board. Our bowlers ensured by picking up regular wickets that Tigers were never in control of the run chase. Masood and Saad picked up three and two wickets respectively.We should have won with a bigger margin if not for a few dropped catches.

This was a sweet victory a very hard fought one and an apt farewell gift to Shakir who was playing his last game with us as he is moving out of Houston. 
 
 

Fahad Naveed

Captain HCSC II