Winterthur 195ao (31.0 overs) beat Cossonay 159ao (31.0 overs) by 36 runs
En Marche, 23rd April 2017
WCC's pre-season preparations continued on Sunday 23rd April when they traveled to the Suisse-Romande to play Cossonay at En Marche.
by Selva G. Ganesh
The weekend's friendly game against Cossonay CC turned in favour of WCC during a 20 over passage of play split across the two innings.
First of the phase was the spirited ninth wicket partnership between Abhishek and Pradeep. When Abhishek walked into bat at No.10, to join Pradeep in the middle, WCC were in danger of being
bowled out for a meagre total. Pradeep, by then, was seeing the ball well and was running out of partners. After anxious few balls, (for the teammates and definitely not for Abhishek) and having
get rid of his helmet, Abhishek proceeded to play a free spirited, entertaining, street-smart innings. He compensated his limitations with footwork by staying deep inside the crease, playing late
and playing beside the ball all the time. He broke down his batting to a simple 'see the ball and hit the ball'. He repeatedly lofted over extra cover, cut, pulled and flicked to score
boundaries. Standout shots were a six over the point and a flick that he helped on its way to fine leg. Pradeep guided most of the lower order and opened up as soon Abhishek joined him. Pradeep
played some elegant strokes with precise footwork. He focussed on playing straight and drove the balls nicely. Some of the drives to mid-on and mid-wicket were pleasing. He also showed his power
game when he muscled the ball to clear the mid-wicket boundary. Pradeep was left stranded of a well-deserved half century, as WCC were all-out with four overs to play. The pair, though, almost
doubled the WCC score to give their bowlers a decent target to have a crack and gave momentum for the team.
Second phase of the 20 over passage was the disciplined opening spell of impressive medium pace bowling that lasted 11 overs. Dipi and Sahan kept the momentum with WCC as they bowled excellent
line and length to an attacking 7-2 field with just one fielder outside the 30-yard circle. Both were unlucky as they missed the outside edge a zillion times and there were numerous 'play and
miss'. There were hardly any extras and were no freebies. Cossonay openers had to take chances to clear the field or manufacture shots to score runs, which they did couple of times but the
control was clearly with WCC opening bowlers. The breakthrough, though, came at the seventh over of the spell when the opener edged one, to the strengthened WCC slip cordon, where Selva took a
good low catch at the first slip. That opened the gates as Sahan castled Kishore, the other opener, who had chanced his arm couple of times, in the next over, to press WCC advantage. Dipi then
executed a well-planned yorker (which, I felt, was lucky! ;) ) from around the wicket to trap Andrew plumb in from of the wicket. When both ended their opening spell, the game had
decisively turned and WCC were no more chasing the game.
Suhash bowled a good follow-up spell. He struck twice to trap Cossonay skipper Sriniketh LBW and to bowl an impressive Ruwan. Pradeep was trying to make the play and went for wickets. In the
process, WCC leaked a few boundaries and went to drinks break at 90 for 5. As a partnership was building, Sahan was brought back for a one over spell with clear instruction to go all out for one
wicket. He struck immediately to send back Hitesh who looked solid and set for a long innings. Kasun started his spell with couple of half trackers, which were duly put away for boundaries.
Thileepan and Cameroon scored some quick runs taking advantage of the drop in intensity from WCC fielders as the field was spread out for the first time. Just as the scoring rate was becoming a
concern, Cameroon called for non-existing quick single as he nudged the ball towards Selva at short mid-wicket who caught Dileepan short at the keepers end. Kasun came back strongly to bowl a
tidy spell of off-spin to finish at 1/31 as he had Cameroon stumped who played lone hand for an useful 30. Pradeep finished the game as he bowled Fred for 15 and Cossonay CC were all-out for
159.
Earlier the day had started perfectly. WCC assembled on time at En Marche after the morning drive from Zurich. Sriniketh, as nice gesture for the visiting team, forfeited and offered the toss to
WCC. WCC started their innings strongly though they lost Kasun early. Young Ruwan, from Cossonay, found swing with new ball and had the away swingers going. One of those found the left handed
Kasun's pad as he missed the incoming delivery and was given out LBW for six. Though Ruwan erred in length by bowling too full, possibly looking for the swing, as Selva found his groove quickly
and drove him repeatedly through the covers, one of which took Dipi's (who was fielding for Cossonay) hand with it to the boundary. This Dipi was a different fielder who was diving around to the
other Dipi that would not bend his back, but try playing football while fielding for WCC later in the day. Selva, in company of Ayush promoted up the order, were coasting along at five an over
without taking any risks.
Selva looked settled for a long innings before he gave it away to play across the line to Andrew's gentle medium pace to be bowled for 19. Ayush, soon, was caught at deep for 16. Anoop
stuck into Fred to hit him for consecutive four and six in free hits before being judged LBW for 13 off Andrew. Mohammed got a tickle down the leg side for four off Fred. Suhash hit a simplest of
return catch to Hitesh off a low full toss for three. Sahan had a brain fade moment when he took off for a run after the fielder had collected the ball at point and ran himself out for three.
Sahan would get a second crack at batting at no.11, which was equally disastrous as he gets bowled for nought! Dipi followed his usual pattern (though he faced 8 balls this time!) of getting
bowled after hitting a six, his only scoring shot. WCC had slumped from 48/1 of 10 overs to 100/8 of 20 overs, only to be bailed out by impressive Pradeep and Abhishek with the bat.