Toss: CCC won and elected to bat.

Result: HPCC won bye 4 wkts.

Report:

What could be a better end of the season than play it in our brand new ground and topping it with the 2004 Championship For and HPCC Cricketer the answer is absolutely nothing! I would like to take a small space in this final report to extend our thanks to Mark Hobson and his family, (Especially Christy, you are the best!) for building a magnificent Cricket Ground. All of the HPCC members are thrilled and excited beyond words, to have the opportunity to play in such a nice facility. The HPCC guys did their best to give the Hobson family a nice gift, their own Champion trophy in the first year of the new ground’s life.

Once again, Mother Nature almost spoiled all the preparations for the Big MACC Final. The poring rain started a day before the final. Still, the passion for Cricket prevailed, both teams waited until we saw “clearly that the rain was gone”. Both teams, if I may add, played a world level game (no exaggeration). This was the fourth consecutive time for CCC to reach the final and, they were thriving to win the Championship, unfortunately destiny had a different plan.

Qaiser Mahmood and Bilal Mahmood Sealed the HPCC win in style. An accomplished all-round performance by both, and 70 runs of faultless grace. If we add the measured intent by Qaiser Mahmood, his 4 wickets and three brilliant catches by Bilal mahmood, the formula yields HPCC’s third victory in the MACC League. A victory that by no means came easy against the Carolina Cricket Club who has had the edge over HPCC in recent times!
The CCC team and the officials reached the ground early, only in this occasion punctuality did not matter much, since it was raining and for a while the rain threatened to jeopardize the game. After a discussion between the two team Captains and the officials, it was agreed that the game was to be played. After wining the toss CCC decided to bat first. The CCC decision took HPCC by surprise because the ground was wet and, in such conditions runs do not come easy. CCC started their inning with two of their best, Ahmed and Fabian. The members of the HPCC bowling lineup were ready to test their muscles against a very experienced play off team. Manzoor as always started his bowling with incredible pace and due to the cloudy weather there was great possibility that the bowl would swing. The CCC batsmen were very careful and knew of the possibility of the ball swinging. They started their strokes carefully and elegantly. Ahmed was very confident but Fabian seemed to be struggling against the HPCC bowlers. HPCC took its first wicket when Ghias delivered an off pitch delivery and Fabian tried to swing over the mid off area, but the ball went straight to Akber’s safe hands. That was an early break for HPCC in the forth over. Fabian made only 2 runs. HPCC bowlers could not be more excited because they knew they could prevent the CCC batting line from scoring any big total. HPCC goal was to get them out as quickly as possible to avoid the struggle against their bowling, especially Arun’s in-swinging Yorkers. Bejoy was the next man on crease; he tried to build a partnership with Ahmed. Runs were not coming easily, due to the ground being so wet and because of the great line and length of HPCC bowlers. At last, Ahmed ran out of patient and tried to hit one of Manzor’s quick deliveries and gave an easy catch to Bilal. Two wickets were down by the 8th. Over and CCC had only 30 some runs on the board. The next batsman was Arun who has proven a several times that he is one of the best all rounder. He can play and hit any of the bowlers in the league. The HPCC Captain changed the bowling and brought Qaiser on board, he struck soon enough and got the wicket of Bejoy, who tried to pull him and once gain the ball ended up in the safe hands of Bilal, in what would be his second catch.

Sanjay was the next man in. Sanjay and Arun, both, are well-seasoned players and they have the ability to build a partnership that could be very dangerous for HPCC. The HPCC Captain was well aware of the damage the two CCC batsmen could do to his team, so he brought two of his best spinners on board, and gave precise instructions to his bowlers, they were not to give any plays that might benefit partnership building between Arun and Sanjay. Arun is a dangerous batsman he started playing his strokes with great confidence and tried to build a reasonable total. Sanjay is also very dangerous; he proved it in the last league game when he made 57 runs against HPCC. This time, Bilal knew how to tackle Sanjay and bowled him out when he had just made his 13th run. The Sun started to play hide and seek and the ground slowly started getting dry. CCC continued to look for a good partnership but Hafeez and Bilal did not let it happen. Hafeez struck and brought a very valuable wicket down when Arun tried to pull him at square leg and again the ball ended up in the safe hands of Bilal; this was his third catch. At this point CCC seemed to be in trouble now that they had lost their last hope to score a big total. CCC had almost 70 plus runs and they had lost their 5 best batsmen. Parabhu tried his best to make something happen and lift his team’s spirits but found himself right in front of wicket at the bowling of Ghias, still, he managed to make 16 valuable runs. CCC tail-under put a very good fight since HPCC’s goal was to get them out before their 125th or 130th run. Pranav hit some very good stokes and made 16 runs in the last over which brought CCC’s total to 151 runs.

At the inning break HPCC Captain talked to his team and warned them about Arun, and instructed them to just play him straight and not to try to hit him early in the inning. Hafeez was due to open, though he was unable to do so due to the pain caused by an injured hand (acquired the previous game) The HPCC Captain sent Qaiser Bhaia accompanied by Manzoor to open the inning. Somehow Murphy’s Law made its way to the Cricket ground and early, in the first over Manzoor did hit Arun early. Arun served a re-knowned in-swinging Yorker and took Manzoor off stump when he tried to hit him over the fence. That was the first wicket down for HPCC in the very first over. It was Shami’s turn; he had very good experience against Arun so he started playing sensibly. When the CCC Captain saw that Arun was no longer putting any pressure on the batsmen he decided to change him and brought Vijay on board to attack full force, after playing confidently against Arun, Shami tried to hit Vijay and got caught by Sanjay in slip. Akber was the Next man in, captain has great confidence on him, on the other end, Qaiser lost his patience and tried to hit Vijay again. Needless to say Qaiser lost his wicket when Parabhu took his easy catch. It was then when HPCC started feeling the heat; they had lost three players and only 30 runs showed on the board. Hafeez steps in, regardless of pain, he knows HPCC’s need of partnership. CCC was succeeding; they were putting lots of pressure on HPCC, such pressure was more than apparent when Akber was given LBW at the bowling of Pranav. This was HPCC’s fourth wicket down. It was Qaiser’s turn at the bat; the whole team had all its hopes put on him. All he needed was a good partner to lift the pressure from rest of the team. Hafeez seemed to be the right man to do it but in the pages of destiny it was written otherwise. Hafeez was caught bye Fabian at the bowling of an inspiring young man, Pranav. HPCC was definitely in trouble, 5 wick!
ets had been taken by the 15th over and there were not even 60 runs on the board. Bilal was the next player to be called to bat but he did not stay longer and was given LBW at the bowling of Bejoy. Qaiser, on the other end, tried to keep the score ticking but so far he had not being able to find a partner to take this responsibility all the way to the victory stand. It was Ghias’ turn to bat and cooperate to build a solid partnership with Qaiser. The CCC Captain tried out several strategies to bring this partnership down, at one point he almost succeeded, but one of his fielders dropped a catch. Qaiser was on a roll! He hit beautiful sixes on the bowling of Arun. Soon the target that had being like reaching the tip of Mount Everest became reachable again. Qaiser and Ghias played their shots and took no pressure from any one. Qaiser once again, proved to be a very good player when he finished the task with a huge six. HPCC won their third championship. HPCC players were delighted and honored to embrace a MACC Championship once again.

Shashi, the MACC president was there for the award ceremony. Awards were given trophies were raised and food was served in our new ground, what a delightful and memorable event! Although it was captured technologically bye camcorders and digital cameras, the emotions and especial excitement were only palpable if you were there, at the Hobson Cricket Ground the morning and afternoon of October 3rd. 2004.

What a day!

I’ll give permission to myself to thank each and every member of the team before wrapping up the final report. Thank you guys for all your hard work and patience! This year was a very interesting year for all us. A brand new dream ground, a perfect pitch, an impeccable season record; we won almost every game (one hiccup) up to the final and the addition of two great players (Bilal & Qaiser) to sum a total of 14 awesome players. A “Dream Team” This year also brought challenges because it is hard to decide the line up for each game and at the same time keep the decisions fair. I just would like to tell all of you that there might have been times when I may have not select or decide the right team for a game, but definitely I did try my best to give everyone a chance to play. Let me end this by saying that I appreciate all of you guys for trusting me to make decisions and understanding that every call and move I have made has been for the benefit of the team. I am honored to be a part of your team. HPCC would also like to extend its most sincere thanks to Ron Knight & Dave Kumar for umpiring the game in a very professional fashion. Every play on the game was judged with consistency and fairness.

Ghias-ur-Rehman
HPCC Captain

Picture of HPCC