Dipen and Amar started the proceedings and took their time to settle in as GGCC pacers maintained tight line and length. Soon enough, both Amar and Dipen started scoring comfortably and at 12 over break we were 60 odd for no loss. Amar holed out on square leg soon after as he tried to smash the spinner for a six for a well made 28 runs. Dipen got out soon after for 34 runs as he missed a ball on a tricky line that spun slightly which was enough to hit the leg stump. Both openers got a good start but neither of them were able to convert it into a bigger score and it will come back to bite us. Dharma and Sagar carefully started building a partnership but Dharma holed out on afull toss ball as he tried to clear the midwicket area which was the longest part of the ground. Amit  then joined Sagar and got of to his trademark quick start (15 runs) but succumbed to a slog towards midwicket. Parthav and Sagar built a partnership but soon after Sagar got out for 23 runs trying to accelerate at the end. Eventually, we were restricted to 162 in 35 overs as other batsmen could not accelerate at the end either. The slow middle overs plagued us again along with no batsmen able to convert their start into a bigger score. All 6 top order bastmen got a start with double digit scores but it would have helped if one of them had stayed longer on the crease. 

Knowing our strength in bowling, we knew that it wasnt going to be easy to chase down this score especially in the hot weather that we had going. Amar and Prashant started off for WGCC and kept it tight with Prashant striking twice quickly. ON the other end, their opener Bapat was scoring quickly and was hitting every bowler quite well, highlight being a smoking six over the covers off of usually invincible pace of Arpit. I guess we can say that it was his day. Prady was able to nab Hari and G Shetty but the scoring pace of Bapat made it difficult for WGCC to put pressur eon other bastmen as they stayed put on the other end. With 20 odd needed and 5-6 wickets in hand and 7-8 pvers to go, it looked like GGCC will cruise to victory here but couple of quick wickets from Sagar and Arpit along with Bapat getting lbw in Amar's bowling for a really good knock of 97 runs made things tricky for them. Our bowlers bowled really well in the death and we pulled it back to 2 runs needed in last over with 2 wickets in hand. Knowing that we needed to claim those wickets to win the match, Prashant started the over with a dot ball but the second ball stayed low and skid through the pitch and from under Dipen's gloves that awarded them 2 bye runs and we lost the game by 2 wickets. 

It was a hard fought game but we lost to a one man show put up by Bapat (97 runs) as their second highest score came through extras (17 runs). This is the point I was making about one batsmen converting a good start into a long innings. We made it extremely difficult for them at the end and we should be proud of how we never gave up the hope of winning until the end. 

GO WGCC. #playtowin