Titan

Catches, Catches, Catches…..

Walt H. Rambaransingh

Following a strong performance against West Indies CC the week before, the Titan’s captain warned of complacency & over-confidence against a solid Port St. Lucie squad at Girl Scout Friendship Park.  Several First XI players were unavailable for the game.  Titans CC won the toss & elected to bat first.

Chucky & Tiki opened the batting and started slowly with a 30 run partnership over the first 9 overs before Chucky lost his wicket in the 10th over by being bowled by Tony Reid.  Tiki lost his wicket quickly thereafter in the 11th over with an edge that was caught in the slips.  Sunil & Atul entered the fracas to stabilize the situation but Atul lost his wicket in the 15th over by being bowled by Tony Reid as well.  Prabhu then entered and brought his bat to the party by establishing a 65 run partnership with Sunil, scoring a quick 50 runs.  Prabhu lost his wicket directly after reaching his half-century in the 29th over.  Dalip came to the pitch & proceeded to one of the most flamboyant batting displays in Titans history.  Dalip faced 30 balls, 2 of which were dot balls, 11 of which went for 6, and finished with 96 runs.  That gave him a strike rate of 320 in his contribution to the total.  Sunil was unfortunately run-out after scoring a stable 36 runs on a horrible miscommunication with Dalip but was replaced by Krishna who kept on rotating the strike to the in-form Dalip.  Krishna ended up with 15 runs.  At the end of the innings, the Titans scored 237 runs for 7 wickets in 40 overs.

Paul & Krishna opened the bowling in defense of the 237 runs.  PSLCC began their chase quickly by scoring 14 runs in the first over.  The Titans team collectively dropped opening batsman Green 7 times during the innings which allowed PSLCC to successfully chase the 237 run total in 38.2 overs.  Green contributed 109 runs.  First change bowler Tanmay was brought on earlier than expected and ended taking 3 wickets by the end of the day.  The Titans did their best to restrict runs towards the tail-end of the inning but fell short after PSLCC scored the necessary runs with 10 balls remaining.  PSLCC won by 2 wickets. Bowling details are below:

Paul- 4 overs, 0 maiden, 46 runs, 1 wicket, 1 wides.
Krishna- 8 overs, 0 maidens, 30 runs, 0 wickets, 6 wides.
Tanmay- 7.2 overs, 0 maidens, 35 runs, 3 wickets, 4 wides.
Tiki- 5 overs, 0 maiden, 32 runs, 0 wickets, 3 wides.
Atul- 4 overs, 0 maiden, 29 runs, 1 wicket, 4 wides. 
Sahel- 8 overs, 0 maiden, 37 runs, 2 wickets, 4 wides. 
Walt- 2 overs, 0 maiden, 21 runs, 1 wicket, 2 wides. 

The highlights of the day were Prabhu’s half century, Dalip’s 96 runs scored with a 320 strike rate over 30 balls & Tanmay's 3 wicket haul.  The lack of our normal frontline bowlers ended up being the difference on the day along with the 7 dropped catches.  The old adage proves true again & again, “Catches win matches”.  With a bye week approaching, the Titans look to practice and get ready for a match against Miami CC in 2 weeks.