Cedar Rapids Festival - 1 - Leave it, leave it!!

Here's a complete guide to the cast of characters and their nicknames. The cast will be updated as players are added or dropped or nicknames changed as the season progresses.

First up the facts: NCC participated in the Freedom Festival CVB Cricket Classic. Yes, that is the full name of the tournament. Almost on par with another famous competition's name from The Office.

The tournament was held over two weekends, with the first weekend involving league matches on a semi round-robin format. Each team got to play two matches.

The first match of the tournament featured NCC versus Cedar Rapids A. The 300 mile trip to Cedar Rapids, IA, was completed Friday night. However, only about half the team got a full night's rest. Rumor has it that the other half was wandering the historic city in search of answers. The questions that were asked are left to your imagination. But these are probably just rumors since yours truly was fast asleep by curfew time and has no direct knowledge of any shenanigans.

Since Little Boy had left for India, Captain Ozone was forced to personally go for the toss. Five minutes later, he walked back with a smile on his face and sheepish acknowedgement that he had lost yet another toss (big surprise there). The opposition had no hesitation in asking the tourists to bat first.

Thin Man and Tasmanian Devil (now just a game or two removed from changing nicknames) began the proceedings. Well, let me rephrase it. TD watched while Thin Man began the proceedings. Bludgeoning the ball in his characteristic style, Thin Man spread the field to the edge of the 30-yard circle by the end of the first over and began to clear the fence with ease. TD, however, did not stick around long enough to see how well TM was batting, shuffling back in the crease to get out LBW.

In a surprise move, Bob Loblaw was sent in to steady the ship at #3. Instead he rocked the NCC boat by being beaten by the first ball he faced. Even as he turned back to look at the keeper he was shocked to find out that the umpire had adjudged him caught behind. Such are the vagaries of life.

The next few batsmen stayed around and watched TM pick apart the bowling but could not sustain themselves for long. Soon, Ozone was walking in with more than half the team back in the hut, with half the overs to go. A few minutes later, TM's long innings came to halt. Damage inflicted: 65 runs in 35 balls with 5 sixes and 3 fours.

Ozone shepherded the rest of the innings, routinely walking down to the Mamu, CRA's dangerous spinner, to negate the exaggerated flight and bounce. Along the way, Ozone made everyone sit up by pulling a six over square-leg. All across the world, everything stopped for a milli-second - in his 4-plus decades on this planet, Ozone had never intentionally hit a six until then! It was a monumental achievement and that may well have been the straw that broke CR-A's back.

Eventually, in 20 overs, NCC piled up 165 for 7, with everyone (almost) contributing a little bit here and there. Ozone finished with 35 runs in 31 balls including that solitary, earth-shattering, six.

With his mother watching from a distance, Energizer Bunny came bounding in determined to make an impression. And make an impression he did. Bowling off his long run-up, EB struck a rhythm right away, getting the ball to outswing appreciably. Predictably the first batsmen prodded tentatively, and the thick edge was taken in front of first slip by Bob Loblaw. The second wicket was an inspired piece of cricket. In order to negate the prodigious swing, the next batsman walked down the wicket and still managed to get beaten by the swing. In a blur of motion, Bob Loblaw threw the ball at the stumps and the wandering batsman was out - stumped off a fast bowler!

The CR-A batsmen swung away at anything but did not connect as often as they wanted. King Warney and TD made merry by targeting the stumps. TD, in particular, hit a fantastic rhythm and took 3 wickets in his 4 overs, all bowled, giving up just 15 runs. Warney, as befits a leg-spinner, was more profligate, giving up a lot more runs for his 3 wickets.

CR-A fell 30 runs short but not before being involved in the highlight of the day. JaiGanesh (who has not made it to the cast of characters just yet so he still goes by his given name) bowled a bouncer that was feebly lobbed up in the air by the batsman. When a ball is skied, it is good practice for the fielder interested in catching it to loudly call for the catch. As soon as the ball went up, JG screamed, "Leave it, leave it." Three fielders, the keeper and JG converged on the ball and stood around. A few seconds later everyone had heeded JG's call and left it. The ball dropped harmlessly to the turf while the rest of the bemused spectators looked on. Play was held up for 5 minutes as the entire NCC team was doubled up with laughter trying to figure out exactly what had happened. Needless to say, JG has yet to live it down and is teased endlessly about it!!

A victory is a victory, and the big margin was good as it provided NCC a buffer, in case they stuffed up the second match. As fate would have it, they did just that...