Captain lead Griffins to second win

 Hoodoo or deja vu what is the correct acronym of this match? This time the difference was 54 runs, the margin of victory has changed but the team.  The action packed match had everything to remember some great menacing fast and swing bowling performances, a top order collapse, middle order resurgence with gutsy powerful batting display, poor shot selections, dropped catches and electric fielding at the other end.
The match started with a wonderful display of pace bowling from both the end which raised eyebrow on the decision of the winning team captain Manunath whereas the skipper wrote the script himself once he started the rearguard actions with a fine all-round display. A stunning innings of counter attacking 73 runs at first in support of 4 wickets, in four overs, with the old ball was the back bone of Griffins third victory over MCC in as many matches.
The score Griffins CC: 194(34.3), Manunath 73, Jimmi 43, Rajneesh 5/13, Denin 3/25 beat MCC 140(26.3) Aghilan 51*, Sanju 17, Manunath 4/11 and Dillep 4/26 by 54 runs. 
The match saw some wonderful piece of swing and pace bowling but a combined and disciplined team effort from Griffins saw them off the challenge made by Aghilan to register second win in UKMCL. The innings of MCC got off a flying start as the opening pair scored 35 from the first 5 overs. Yet again it was the last match hero Dileep who the early inroads for the Griffins. Such was the adrenaline provided his bowling to the team from one end by ripping through the MCC top order. He bowled seven consecutive unplayable overs ended with a figure of 4 wickets for 26 runs and the influence of those overs was beyond the statistics shows at the end. Likewise, in the previous match he did not get much support from Jimmi as he failed to control the free run flow that kept the match balnced.
Yet again it was the captain’s tactical moves that dented the glimmer of hope for any late revival by MCC as he stepped himself to bowl after the drinks break and bagged a figure of 4/11 that cleaned up lower order by not allowing to wag the MCC tail enders. The captain used the lateral movement of the ball under fading light and swung the ball on both ways that left MCC batsmen stranded at crease.  Manu got excellent support from north end as the left-arm Ramees made vital breakthroughs by getting rid of opposition captain Praveen, trapped in front, and Roshan succumbed a stunner at the square to Sudheesh. 
At the morning Dileep called the coin correctly for Griffins choose to bat first expecting drizzle later part of the innings as it may make life difficult for the batters. The initial burst by the opening bowlers Rejneesh and Denin proved it was a good toss to loose when they reduced the innings 4-29 after 10 destructive overs. Such was the impact they made with new ball under the heavy cloud and freezing breeze. It was Anooj to start the parade back to the dugout as he was clueless to Rejeneesh when the team score was two out for a naught. Shaan followed his fellow open soon when the score was at 13 the second wicket to Rejeneesh. He could see only a rattled stump behind him when the well-directed in swinger broke the opener defense. Rejenseeh continued to keep the batsmen on the toe which paid the wicket of Dileep for a duck caught at cover by Praveen. At the other end Denin bowled with heart not allowing batsmen to free their arms finally rewarded with wicket of Stanlee for 14 when he caught at the crease.
This brought the new pair  Manunath and Kannan and duo faced a daunting task since the innings was stuttering at 4/22 after 8 overs. The pair progressed with caution and survived the initial spell. The duo negated the shining of new ball and concentrated on occupying at the crease rather than scoring runs. The score was crippling slowly and it was 41 after the end of 14 overs. It was the second ball of the next over from Zaibak that brought the momentum back to the Griffins’ innings as the skipper belted massive hit over the cover for the first of his five sixes. The next over from Vinod turned out to be the most expensive the over of the match as Manu made the fielders mere spectators and ball crossed the rope five times. This forced MCC captain to toss the ball to Aghilan but Kannan wanted to join the party and accelerated the scored by hitting the first ball from Aghilan for a boundary followed by a six over the long on. The duo continued to milk the bowlers as they made the MCC bowling a mockery and at drink break the score was 4/81.
The bowling change after the drink break worked in favor of MCC as the recalled Denin broke the defense of resolute Kannan when he cartwheeled the off stump. Kannan made a hard fought 15 from 25 balls with two fours and a six and the partnership of 60 with Manunath prevented a batting collapse. But the captain found good company from Jimmy who was in good touch from the very first delivery and showed great attacking instinct. Jimmi’s onslaught rocketed the run rate while at the end Manu continued to scoring runs freely. Manu was aiming the arial routes as the wet outfield sucked the pace off the ball quite often.  At this point Griffins was eyeing for a total beyond 200 with five wickets in hand as the score was 181 with four wickets and 24 deliveries to be bowled
The wicket of Manunath against the run of play led to a batting collapse at the as the lower over could not resist the full quota over 35 overs. The captain played a gem of the innings that ignited the whole team and got a standing applauds on the way back to the pavilion with a stunning innings of 73 from 68 deliveries. The score constituted five hits down the grown and equal number of hits over the fields one of them could easily sail over any ground in the world. Jimmy followed the skipper in the net over after scoring a 43 from 37 ball with the assistance five elegance fours.
A late surge by the Denin and Rejeneesh was once against stuttered the innings under 200 by cleaning up tail as they got rid of the last four wickets for just 6 runs. Rejeneeshed finished with an impressive figure of 5/13 form 7 overs including 2 maidens whereas Denin pocketed 3 for 25. The combined bowling figure of 8/38 by pace spearhead that they got little support from other members of the bowling unit an area MCC need to resurrect immediately to keep the title hope alive along with the butter finger of fielders as they dropped as many as eight catches while the opposition was sharp on the same day that also witnessed a blinder from Zaibak by Anooj off Manu.

Report by Gafoor.