Mike throws his front foot out, as Zafar Khan looks on.

Oregon Cricket Club Eugene tasted defeat for the first time this season, on May 8, 2010, at the Lord’s of Oregon, John Deere Field, Gresham. Two social matches were played on that beautiful day against arch-buddies MCC, and the hosts underlined the absense of captain Kamal Thangarasa with comprehensive victories.

MATCH 1, 35 overs a side.

Put in to bat first, OCCE was straightaway in the pressure cooker, with Oregon Cricket League star bowler Burt Swanepoel yet again doing the honours with his left-arm inswingers, rearranging the stumps of stand-in captain Daniel Mundra and coach Mike Partridge in successive balls. Before long, the top and upper-middle order were back at the pavilion and the second half of the line-up were left to do some serious damage control; MCC offered to let the batsmen play a second time in OCCE’s innings. This, however, was not to be, as Nirmal Raj took full advantage of the lack of swing from the change bowlers and kept the scoresheet ticking, with Matt Smith and Gentle Anderson joining in to build valuable partnerships. They took the team’s tally to 128, out of which 49 came by way of extras. Nirmal ended up with 50 off 40 balls, seven boundaries included.

In spite of not having Ephrim Bruno in their ranks, MCC scored at a good clip. Although their partnerships were not massive, they were enough to keep victory within sight at all times. This enabled them to overcome their guests’ competent bowling and high-octane fielding to achieve their target with plenty of overs to spare. They played our their innings and finished with 11 runs more than OCCE.

MATCH 2, 15 overs a side.

In the abbreviated format, MCC elected to bat first, and sent in Burt Swanepoel to open their innings. He responded by hammering away at the bowlers with strokes that flew all over the wagon-wheel. Zafar Khan showed why he is still the best cricketer in Oregon by converting perfectly good deliveries into effortless sixers. Despite choking at the death, MCC had done enough and set OCCE a stiff target of 140.

The reply never looked threatening at any stage, with wickets tumbling at regular intervals and the batsmen simply unable to find the boundaries as frequently as they would have desired. Sohan Akolkar’s 21 and Gentle Anderson’s quickfire 18 lent some respectability, but in the end, OCCE fell short by 41 runs and went home with mixed memories.

- Nirmal Raj.

Nirmal, Sohan, Titu enjoying the ride back home

Jon and Sohan start the day for OCCE

A hat-trick by Sohan Akolkar and a firm knock by Kamal Thangarasa embodied the domination of OCCE over MCC on a perfect day for cricket in a 35-a-side social game at the scenic John Deere Field, Gresham, Oregon. The margin of victory says it all: 90 runs, which is five more than the hosts’ total.

Winning the toss and electing to bat first, OCCE started steady, until Bert Swanepoel, bowling his full quota of seven overs in a single spell, ripped through the top order with deadly accuracy in line, length and angle, using the wind to swing the cherry at will. Of his three wickets, two were clean-bowled and one was trapped in front. He finished with figures of 7-0-3-23.

Bert’s mayhem ushered in the in-form captain of Oregon Cricket Club Eugene, Kamal Thangarasa, who began to anchor the innings at one end while losing partners at the other. The delectable drives, solid blocks and clean, powerful hits that usually make up his innings were all present today. Late cameos by Nirmal Raj, Matt Smith and Gentle Anderson kept OCCE afloat until the 34th over and helped their side put a defendable tally on the board. MCC’s wayward bowling (with the exception of Bert* and Vann Melick) rendered Extras the highest run-getter for their opponents, gifting them 93 bonus runs. The side, it may be remembered, lost by 90 runs.

In MCC’s reply, opener Ephrim Bruno provided the impetus in typical blazing fashion, but the rest of the line-up failed to catch on to it. Gentle and Madhu bowled an impeccable line to strip out the upper middle-order, before Kamal brought on himself and removed the dangerous Ephrim with an off-stump yorker off his first delivery. The decline was accelerated by Sohan’s neat medium pace, bagging him four scalps. A sharp return catch was followed later by a hat-trick: Sanjoy first lobbed a full-toss to Madhu at short cover, while the second to go was Cam Thomas who drove uppishly to point, where Gentle made no mistake. George Mukalel departed the next ball off a peach of a delivery. When the bails flew, OCCE celebrated as though they had won the match already. Harsha Gangadharbatla and Mohammad Abbasi then came on to pick up useful wickets to mop up the tail. Throughout the MCC’s innings, the visitors maintained tight fielding, and tighter bowling.

MCC captain Chris Jones provided good resistance with some fine batting, as did Vann in the closing stages. However, it was a case of too little, too late, as OCCE wrapped up the proceedings in the 18th over.

Pictures: open

- Nirmal Raj

Gentle,Kamal,Madhu,Harsha,Ali,Brandon enjoying the days cricket