Northwestern U vs UChicago- getting ready for the national Championship !

Some members of the Northwestern team

15-over match Northwestern University CC vs. University of Chicago CC. Report by Greg Uzelac of Northwestern.

The official NUCC season has started with quite the bang! Our first match was against a new foe…a very new foe: The University of Chicago. Their captains, Shoaib and NUCC stand-in captain, Greg Uzelac , shook hands the Greg won the toss and decided to bowl first on the home grounds.

UChicago made a decent start with their openers standing up to the pace of Bilal and Karthik, only barely. The opening stand was broken with a runout from Sankar and Northwestern keeper, Naz. The first two overs of pace were followed by a period of spin. With Greg knowing the turn and bounce of the pitch, he decided to use his seamers in three intervals in the match while spinners would make up the rest. Greg brought himself on to bowl finding the right movement on the ball, but taking no wicket and conceding the first boundary of the match. Sankar followed with a spell resulting in a brilliant stumping.

The UChicago boys dug themselves in again, only to be rattled once again by debutant, Anagh, who bowled batsman, Ahsan with his last ball. In attempts to ignore the regular wickets falling, Club leader Raghav, and Captain Shoaib stayed in for a quick partnership. After two more tight overs from Bilal and Karthik, Greg made the breakthrough in his final over. After one ball was put away for 4, he replied with two wickets, his third time being on hattrick on this pitch. Sankar came in for his last over, cleaning up the rest of the tail with two wickets in the over, including his second stumping of the innings.

Karthik was the most economical of the bowlers, but his exact econ rate is unknown because of poor scoring by UChicago. We can estimate it was somewhere around 2.50 or 3.00 off his two overs. Sankar took 3 wickets, Greg 2, and Anagh 1. UChicago’s Captain, Shoaib top scored for his side with 16.

Batting Scorecard:

Ashesh – runout (Sankar/Naz) – 10

Hassh – stumped (Naz) b. Sankar – 5

Raghav – c. Karthik b. Greg – 12

Ahsan – b. Anagh – 13

Shoaib* – c. Bala b. Greg – 16

Syed – not out – 1*

Feroze – stumped (Naz) b. Sankar – 2

Vikram – c. Bilal b. Sankar – 0

extras: 6

Total: 65 all out after 12.5 overs.

If Northwestern’s bowling did not assert their control over the match, their batting certainly did. Openers Paul and Naz made their way out only to face Syed, a deadly seamer who only conceded 2 runs in his 2 overs. While Naz was reading the opening bowlers, Paul struggled against the pace and was out for 1, bowled by Raghav. Naz and Sankar then stabilized the innings, each making 19 runs. Both batsmen were out in spectacular fashion, with Naz being run out by the best throw the NUCC ground has ever seen and then an amazing boundary catch dismissing Sankar. The culprit, of course, was captain Shoaib.

Karthik came in with Sankar and finished with Bilal who made a 4-ball 6. Karthik played the most entertaining innings, hitting two sixes in his 10-ball 16. His second six finished the match with 32 balls to spare.