Titan

Titans Bamboozle Southshore!

Paul Ramkissoon

It was a typical Lake Okeechobee summer Sunday, very hot and very humid.  The rain had left the Southshore wicket wet and soft.  Titans Skipper Tanmay upon losing the toss was graciously offered first strike.  Having being insert to bat, the low and slow pitch claimed two quick victims in opener Dalip and #3 Alastair.  Tiki strode to the crease with a big job ahead and quickly estabilshed that he meant to partner Chuck for a bit with some solid defense and safe rotating of the strike.  At the 13 over break the consolidation had only begun with Titans at 50 odd for 2, by the 26 over break it was complete and the platform set for a formidable total as the score stood at 140 odd for 2.  Tiki's (37)and Chuck's (67) dismissals though prompted a middle order collapse as Titans aiming for 200+ were all of a sudden 170 odd for 9 with only 4 overs remaining.  Luckily, a veteran partnership between DK (12*) and Paul (16*) saw the team through the alloted overs and to a score of 206.  It was clear to all present that this would be a very tough total for Southshore CC to overhaul, as evidenced by the struggles of the TCC batsmen.

Paul and Alastair shared the new cherry for this game.  That was all they shared though as Alastair quickly stole the show with 3 scalps in his 8 overs while only conceding 17 runs.  It was a devestating demonstration of what well directed cutters could do on a dicey wicket and in the end it blew the top order of SSCC away.  SSCC's tumble to defeat began with a surprisingly casual run out, followed by Alastairs three for.  First he trapped the other opener LBW with one the dipped and straightened, next he bowled Moxie behind his back with one that nipped in sharply from outside off and slammed into leg stump...and then broke any chance of an SSCC counterattack as he clipped the bails with a beautiful delivery that beat their skipper Desmond all ends up.  It was a spell of bowling to behold.  Funny enough he was almost shown up, as left arm spinner Deo was tossed the ball a short time after and went on to take 3 scalps himself in 7 overs for only 17 runs as well.  His spell was as mesmorizing as Alastair's was incisive.  He literally bamboozled the batsmen.  They had no idea what was going on as school was in and headmaster Deo was in full flight.  He got it all to go right...the flipper, back of the hand, chinaman, big turners, dipping yorkers, etc....it seemed magical at times.  It went so right in fact that some went way wide down leg-side and unfortunately that was the only blemish on an otherwise stupendous spell of bowling.  Of the 17 runs Deo conceded...9 were wides...meaning only 8 runs came off the bat in 7 overs...WOW.  In the end, poor Atif even tried to show everyone else up but was left too few batsmen to get at.  He wasted no time at all as he took 2 wickets of 3 balls for no runs in his first over...WOW again.  In the end SSCC managed a meagre 67 runs...with only 43 runs scored off the bat... the other 24 runs came from their top scorer, Titans bowlers AKA...extras.

This was a good old fashioned butt whipping.  In the end the batting got it right even if they got it really wrong in spots and the bowling was what Titans fans have grown used to over the years...simply put too damn good for the opposition.

Titans record now stands at 4-1.  TCC has the best batting run rate of all teams in Division One and far and away the best net run rate of the lot.  If not for the banana peel that was the loss to IU in game 2 things would be all roses, but all said being #3 in the league rankings will not sit well with this squad, so look out SFCA...it seems the Titans have landed and are hungry for their next clash!