Pre-Game
Wesleyan Cricket Club resumed its regular match schedule after a six month hiatus with a friendly fixture at Van Cortland Park in the Bronx. Two years after going down by 160 runs to Columbia and the bowlers being labeled "loopy" the guys were ready for some revenge. Four debutants gave the team a nice balance between youth and experience, and there were three players from the April 2000 game (Zaki, Swarna and Arnab) in the team.
Zaki won his second toss in as many matches as captain and promptly chose to bat first under cold and windy conditions, with the odd snow flurry adding an interesting twist to the atmosphere.
Wesleyan's approach was simple: a watchful start so that enough wickets remained in hand for a late charge. In short, the original one-day international approach.

Wesleyan Innings
Jacob and Swarna paired up for the first time at the top of the order, determined to see off Columbia's opening bowlers. Their captain, Madhura, had dismantled the Wesleyan top order with 3 quick wickets in the previous encounter, but this time, he was carefully negotiated by the openers, with Jacob getting more strike than Swarna. Propped by an initial flurry of wides, Jacob and Swarna took their partnership to 25 before Jacob was bowled by Vishal for 5 in the 9th over. Debutant Kushan came in and perished to a beautiful delivery from Farqan for 2 (32/2 after 12 overs).
Vuyani joined Swarna who was determined to hold one end up. Madhura introduced two new bowlers including a spinner Kishan who struggled to get his line and length, sending down several wides and deliveries which bounced two or three times. But it was the rare flighted delivery that accounted for Vuyani, who was bowled for 1 (41/3 in the 14th over).
Edwin came in and promptly dispatched Kishan for the first four of the innings but hit the next ball, another full toss, straight to mid-on. Wesleyan were now in deep trouble at 45/4 in 14 overs.
Skipper Zaki joined Swarna and the two added 22 runs before Swarna missed a sweep shot off Kishan and was hit on the front pad. He was gone for 14 (67/5 in the 18th over). Ashvin, returning to the team after two years, joined Zaki and the duo put on a record 55 runs in 8 overs, with runs coming all around the ground in spite of the frontline Columbia bowlers returning with the hope of wrapping up the innings. When Zaki was bowled by Madhura for a personal best of 32 off 36 balls, Wesleyan were 122/6 in the 16th over, but the tail failed to wag and the innings closed at 133 after 28.1 overs. Ashvin recorded his highest score (23 off 27 balls). Vishal, Farqan and Kishan took 3 wickets each.

Columbia Innings
The cold winds returned as Columbia began their run chase. An asking rate of 4.47 wasn't very stiff so the Wesleyan bowlers had to make early inroads. The whole team thought they had made the crucial breakthrough as Nabil gloved a good length ball from Swarna into Jacob's hands but the umpire claimed to have been "unsighted" by the bowler. The leg umpire said that he heard a noise but the batsman insisted that the ball had come off his shoulder. Nabil and Venu went onto punish anything that was short or full and in 10 overs they had raced to 69/0. Zaki replaced Kushan and after Venu had retired, Gokul fell in the 12th over to a sharp catch by Arnab at short third man (84/1). Zaki struck again in his next over when Jay was lbw for 7 (99/2 in the 14th over) and he made it three in a row as Nabil edged to Jacob for a valuable 49 (113/3 in the 16th over).
With just 21 runs to win in 14 overs, skipper Madhura came in, hoping to finish things off but Vuyani and Zaki had more aces up their sleeves. Vuyani got into the thick of the action in his first over, bowling Madhura for 1 (115/4 in the 17th over) and produced an encore in his next over, Dhruv being the victim (121/5 in the 19th over).
In the next over, Ghannan smashed an uppish cover drive and Swarna grabbed the chance at short cover (124/6 in the 20th over), but Vishal and Chris saw Columbia home in the next over without further mishaps.
A spirited fightback by Wesleyan, with Zaki leading admirably from the front made a near no-contest (when Venu and Nabil were going great guns) into a tight finish. Both Zaki (4/31) and Vuyani (2/11) registered career-best bowling figures. The fielding was sharp and no catches were dropped. Even the number of wides bowled by the Wesleyan bowlers was lower than normal. The team maintained a positive outlook throughout the game and managed to give their established opponents a scare.