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RBCC "Tigers" - Hear us roar !!!
RBCC - The 2009 Premier League Champions |
Just like the Deccan Chargers invoked the bull in their emblem to successfully defend a modest total in the IPL 2009 Final against the Royal Challengers, the RBCC "Tigers" roared and beat CSCC outright, winning the game, and thus the Premier League tournament they had ended up last in the previous season. They bowled with fire, fielded aggressively to victory in a game (that was more like the final) that twisted and turned and ended up being a one sided game in RBCC's favor.
The last of those turning points was the 24th over, bowled by Tahir Rana, that saw Vikas Chugh back in the pavilion, and then the CSCC captain Narayan Madabusi run out in the 31st over. Even though CSCC were 56 for 5, Vikas was looking good with Narayan getting the singles & doubles. Taking on Tahir and trying to place the ball in the vacant square leg boundary area, he found the fielder in the Mid wicket area.
Defending a total less than what they had expected, RBCC came out pumped, their energy reflecting in their behavior. RBCC put an admirable display in the field. Aware of what was at stake, Noman bowled aggressively and was successful in getting Kalpesh Bhakta LBW in his very first over, out for zero, and the CSCC score reading 1 for 1.
Kervyn Dimney looked to take the pressure off his Captain who was his new partner. In the next couple of overs, Kervyn & Narayan took a couple of runs to get the chase going. Altaf brought the balance back with some excellent tandem bowling with a maiden over. Noman was then able to beat Kervyn clipping the tip of his pad and then the ball clipping the tip of the off-stump bale. Beautiful in-cutting delivery and Kervyn was back in the pavilion with CSCC woefully at 15 for 2.
CSCC captain Narayan Madabusi and Vimal Bhakta's pyrotechnics kept RBCC at a distance for a while, but it did not last for long in terms of runs accumulated, and Vimal was caught brilliantly by Joseph Thevarajah with a stretched one handed catch to his left to a lazy shot.
The tension was palpable, and it sort of got to one of CSCC's calmer players Rohit Shah, who saw himself down the track to a Tahir Rana flighted delivery only to be stumped. CSCC with 4 down and with lot of batting to go, still felt that they held the slightest edge, with Vikas, Ray, Swadeep, Abhay to still be able to turn this around.
Vikas looked like taking CSCC home coolly, hitting a couple that were converted to doubles, until his patientce ran out and Tahir got him caught by substitute fielder Suresh Kalakrishnan at deep midwicket.
Raymond and Narayan were working the singles, and then Raymond played a wonderful shot providing CSCC with a long awaited boundary at the square leg boundary of Tahir with the score reading 62 for 5 after 26 overs. Ishan was brought back into the attack and was able to beat Ray on his first two deliveries and then rapped him in front of the wicket with an appeal that went in RBCC's favor. Abhay and Narayan had to push the envelop to keep up with the rising asking rate, and in the process, Narayan was run-out, victim of poor running between the wickets and presence of mind from the fielder.
With the runs piling on and drying up while the asking rate reaching nearly 7, Swadeep was going after the bowler, unfortunately playing one across to left hander Altaf only to be bowled leaving CSCC further away from its target. Things were very grim in the CSCC camp. Noman was brought in to clean up the CSCC tail to get RBCC to the finish line sooner, and he didn't disappoint.
Going after the bowler, Abhay was clean bowled to Noman. The very next ball, new batsman Michael Lennon was not given any chance to figure out Noman, and an excellent yorker length delivery saw him bowled too.
Jubiliation was in the air, and the CSCC camp saw the most excited, happy and content RBCC players. RBCC had won, and an amazing victory indeed. This was their first win against CSCC in 6 years, and this win ensured them the spot of the Premier League Champions too. Amazing achievement for this inspired RBCC team.
Earlier that morning with a delayed start due to the sprinklers, CSCC had won the toss but had decided to field. The third over found CSCC successful with Faiq caught at second slip brilliantly by Rohit Shah with 14 runs on the board. Misbah was not able to stick around and was caught behind on his second ball with no runs added to the board. Suvendu(7) and Joseph(25) stuck around for quite a while stabilizing the RBCC innings and bringing up some much needed boundaries.
With Suvendu back caught behind of Raymond, Aamer took on the bowlers and scored a couple of boundaries, being dropped by Kervyn at deep mid-on, but not able to capitalize on that, as he was stumped of Swadeep in the next few deliveries. The next few RBCC batsman could not keep the ante up and were back in their camp soon.
With 78 for 8 in 23 overs and with the RBCC end nearly there, CSCC players found it hard to get rid of the next two wickets. Ishan Rao and Tahir Rana played cautiously till the 31st over and added another 19 runs on the board. The last wicket partnership between Altaf Ahmed(20) and Ishan Rao(23) saw the pair determined to stick around till the 40th over, which they did successfully, and added 42 of the most valuable runs to the RBCC scorecard. This was one of the biggest turning points in the game that contributed to RBCC's success.
For that valiant effort and controlled bowling spell, Ishan Rao was declared the Player of the Match.
For CSCC, Swadeep Pagadala was the most successful bowler with 8-3-14-4, while for RBCC Noman Khan proved fruitful with 6.3-1-15-4.
If there was an award for "Most Improved Team/Club", that award would, without a doubt, go to RBCC this season. In the end the all round strength and combative spirit of RBCC proved to be the difference, and to rightfully claim ownership of the (glittering) CCL Premier League Trophy.
Congratulations RBCC. I'm personally very proud of you all, and I'm sure so is all of CCL. You have made everyone notice with your performances. Great job.
Scorecard for Game# 786
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