On Sunday 15 May, the Optimists Cricket Club started their title defence of the Belgium Cricket League Division 2 against Hasselt CC at the Optimists home ground in Walferdange.
Skipper William Heath lost the toss but was relieved when Hasselt captain decided to bowl first as this was his favoured choice anyway. The Optimists welcomed Atif Kamal who made his debut and was presented with the Club cap by William Heath.
Opening the innings were Saranch Kulshretha and William Heath who both started with confident stroke play and were rattling along at over 4 an over. After 10 overs, Optimists were 43 for no wicket. Kulshrestha was the first to fall, caught behind for 26 which led Richard Neale to the wicket for a short but galliant innings of 6. Swash-buckling Heath was the next to go when his swash buckled and was bowled for 27.
Suddenly the innings was turned on its head and after 15 overs, the Optimists were 68-3. Debutant Atif Kamal and Girish Venkateswaran set about rebuilding the innings and did so with maturity. Defending the good balls and attacking the bad, Kamal and Venkateswaran were steadily bringing the Optimists back into contention. When they were both caught in quick succession, each for 17, it brought Murali Ravichandam and opening bowler Nishith Gandhi to start the onslaught in the closing overs against the Hasselt attack.
Murali hit some powerful shots and Gandhi supported well with his trademark flick to leg shot. Murali was eventually caught having highest scored for the Optimists with 29. The Optimists were eventually bowled out for 194.
The Optimists knew 194 was an average score, so in the team talk before the second innings, the skipper emphasised the importance of a good start and opening bowlers, Nishith Gandhi and Mohit Dixit delivered just that. Both bowled with good pace and were able to move the ball both ways. Dixit made a breakthrough in his first over with Gandhi matching him two overs later dismissing the number 3 batsman thanks due to the catch of the day by Murali. Nobody likes the swirling, skier catches but Murali made it look easy. The real danger for the Optimists was the Hasselt captain, Shah but Dixit made light work of him with a great ball that Shah nicked behind to the snaffling hands of Heath at 1st slip.
The first change bowlers continued the pressure on the Hasselt batsman and Kamal and Venkateswaran also got in amongst the wickets. After 22 overs Hasselt were 83-7 with victory looking certain for the Optimists. However, Hasselt number 9 had other plans and launched a counter-attack. He hit a few big blows for 6 and continued on to take the Hasselt score to 128 off 29 overs. However, Ventakeswaran was brought back into the attack and immediately dismissed him by clean bowling him. After this the Hasselt batsman quickly lost hope and it was all over 3 overs later when they were bowled out for 132. The wickets were shared by all the bowlers and it was an excellent fielding performance by the team as well.
It was a great start to season for the Optimists and the next fixture is against the Arcadians CC on Sunday 29 May.
