By Ankit Raj Mathur & Gulshan Hamrapurkar Date: 14/05/06 Played at: Isle de Noé

Maverick XI, you would be wondering, what on earth made us pick that name. It is a simple abbreviation for Midi-pyrenees Association of Valorous Eastern cRICKeters; a group of young Indian and Pakistani cricket players playing together as the Maverick XI. It was also our first official cricket match, after spending months playing, what we call “tape ball cricket”. The match was scheduled for a 1:00 pm start and we were at the ground by 10:30 am. Both, due to the excitement and limited means of travel. Thanks to Clive and Jan who received us at the Auch Railway station and drove us to the ground. We spent 2 hours admiring the beautiful ground and using the practice pitch while Allan,Pete and Sonia were preparing the ground.

The match finally started at 1:00pm. With a green pitch and heavy overnight rain, Noé–Gascogne gladly choose to bowl first on winning the toss. Arun and Mujtaba opened the innings for the Maverick XI. To start off, Mujtaba was the more aggressive of the two. His six off Allan over the fine leg was impressive. He got out, playing down the wrong line to a ball that pitched on middle and moved away. Anbu walked into the middle and immediately set the ball rolling. Carving out a few classic cuts and drives. His partnership with Arun set the pace for the Mavericks. They both added 55 runs for the second wicket. It was in the 13th over that NGCC managed to break their partnership. Clive managed to move the ball into the batsmen and was immediately rewarded as Anbu inner-edged a drive onto his stumps. In walked the Vice – Captain, Prem; saw a short ball begging to be hit and obliged by hitting it straight in the air. A double break through for NGCC just before the drinks break slowed things down for the Mavericks. NGCC managed to pull things back in the second half, with a combination good bowling and excellent fielding. Captain Gulshan walked in to a thunderous applause from the crowd and played a few wonderful shots before holing out at Mid – wicket. Meanwhile Arun was playing the anchor role and reached his fifty in style driving through the covers. Peter decided to bring on David Hill and the results were immediately visible. He was moving the ball at quite some pace and was causing a lot of trouble for the batsmen. Jayashankar received a beauty of a ball from David and was bowled out. Soon after Bilal drove the ball straight into the hands of short Mid–on who spilled the chance and gave up his wicket to save Arun, who backed out too far at the non–stikers end. All this while, Arun was well settled and was looking good to reach a century. Ankit walked in to face the music from David. A text book cover drive on second ball he faced from David landed in the neat hands of Pete and his debut in cricket came to a premature halt. All this time Arun was doing a good job of keeping the scoreboard ticking. He was joined by Ali who played a couple of good slog shots before he too departed to a good catch by David and bowled by Pete. Rameez stepped into the middle and immediately saw Arun slash at a wide ball and was caught by Peter off the bowling of none other than David, the man of the moment. Gigi came in with 7 more overs to go and the last pair did a commendable job to bat out the overs. Rameez protected Gigi from facing most of the bowling. He played his shots on the first 3 balls of the over and then concentrated on retaining the strike for the next over. Mavericks ended up scoring 173 in their allotted 30 overs. 30 runs short of what looked very likely at the half way stage.

After enjoying the wonderful tea break, celebrating Allan and Mujtaba’s Birthday we proceeded for the second innings. Peter and Gil walked into the middle. Not knowing the temperament of the NGCC openers, the captain Gulshan and Rameez took the onus on themselves, to open the bowling. They maintained a fantastic line and length at a steamy pace. The openers had little opportunity to score. In the 4th over at score of 6 Peter was foxed with a slower one from Gulshan and he gave a tame catch to Bilal at short midwicket. After finishing a wonderful spell of six overs Mujtaba and Prem started their work. They continued the good work with a steady line and length. In the 10th over Mujtaba bowled a fantastic leg cutter which unfortunately hit Gil’s hand and the ball just popped into waiting hands of Arun at short midwicket. It was now upto Pete and Clive to hold the fort for NGCC club. Clive, who was already at the wicket after Peter and was trying to steady the ship leaving all outside the off stump. On other end Pete was looking at ease with his game. After finishing a good spell, Anbu the lone off spinner from our team came into bowl. Introduction of Anbu changed the pace of the game, trying something with his off spin. There were some shots played here and there and the runrate started picking up. With the score on 36, Arun took a sharp catch to dismiss Clive. A drink followed Clive’s dismissal. David walked into the middle and Gulshan opted to bring on his faster bowlers. Pete drove straight to mid off and Ankit spilled a regulation catch, but compensated by running Pete out, when he was looking dangerous. This was a big wicket for the Mavericks. David followed soon, nicking a beautiful out swinger from Prem. Yogi and Jack tried to salvage the innings, unfortunately they followed the rest. Allan and Sonia were dismissed cheaply too. Hari joined Rex in the middle, unfortunately didn’t get to face a ball, as Rex attempted a wild swing and the ball crashed into the middle stumps, giving Gulshan his third wicket for the match.

Arun received a Noe gascogne Cap for his valorous 73 and David received a bottle off Champagne for his 3 wickets in 4 good overs.

The Maverciks thanked NGCC for this wonderful opportunity and look forward to visiting again.

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