After hosting Middlebury in April, the Wesleyan Cricket Club travelled to Vermont for a return game on a cold autumn day. Mercifully, an indoor game had been scheduled at the Fletcher Field House.
Even before they had hit the road, Wesleyan were hit with unfortunate injuries to Phudorji Sherpa and G.Ravishanker. Unable to find replacements Wesleyan conceded a two-player advantage to Middlebury, even before a ball had been bowled.
Swarna Basu, leading the side in the absence of Sanjai Kumar, won the toss and asked Middlebury to bat first. With the game being played on an artificial surface, it was best decided that the home team be given first strike since the ball was rising considerably and Wesleyan had the pace attack to exploit the conditions. Plus, the confidence acquired after the successful run-chase against Yale contributed to the decision to field first. Middlebury were also short-handed, by one player.
Swarna Basu (6-3-6-2 vs Yale) struck in his first over, sending Ahmad packing for a duck. Then Edwin took out opener Tim Hayden for 2 and in the 3rd over, the hosts were 16/3, and in big trouble. But sensible batting by captain Saad Kamal and Samita Gaje, aided by the fast outfield and intelligent running saw Middlebury recover to 58/3 after just 8 overs, the usually economical opening bowlers coming in for some stick. Inam Ahmed ended the 42 run stand (off 39 balls) when Saad was bowled for 15 (22 balls).
Inam and Zaki Choudhury bowled sensibly, stemming the flow of runs but Samita and Khurram (with runner Saad in tow) put on 46 runs off 56 balls. Middlebury had progressed from 64/4 in 10 overs to 107/4 in the 18th over, when Samita was bowled by an inswinging yorker from Swarna (5-0-28-2) after making 35 off 41 balls, with 4 fours.
Vishnu and Khurram added another 41 runs off 33 balls, with some mad running between the wickets but a rash of run-outs (Vishnu for 21 off 23, Buzz and Bilal in the last over) and a wicket to Zaki hastened the end of the innings at 155/9. Zaki took 1/23 off 5 overs, and Inam 1/22 off 5 overs. Edwin took 2/38 while Rajesh bowled well (3-0-22-0). He got the ball to turn but had a lot of wides called as a result. Arnab and Saleh made up the 5th bowler's quota, along with Rajesh.
Inam joined Edwin, who was getting ready to tear into the bowling and the two guided Wesleyan past the 50 mark before Inam was caught at point, once again off Vishnu for 4 and Wesleyan were 54/2 in the 11th over, still behind the asking rate.
Zaki and Edwin began the push for victory with well-run singles and Edwin used his power to hit several straight-driven fours. At 41, Edwin became the highest scorer for Wesleyan, eclipsing Michael Huber's 40* against Brown, and he cut loose in Sumit's over with 2 fours and a six, off successive balls, to bring up his 50 (off 41 balls). After that there was no turning back. The duo survived a few close calls. With 10 overs remaining, the asking-rate was 7.8, which was brought down to 6.6, with 5 overs remaining.
Middlebury tried hard to stem the flow of runs but there was no stopping this determined pair. Vishnu (2/24), Saad (0/26) and Ahmad (0/27) all bowled well. The 24th over ended with Edwin surviving a close run-out appeal as Zaki wanted him to retain the strike. With 7 runs needed off 6 balls, Edwin sent the first one to the ropes and took a single off the 2nd, with Samita bowling a wide in between. With 1 needed off 3 balls, the onus fell on Zaki to hit the winning run, and after a dot ball, he flicked Samita to mid-wicket, to see Wesleyan home by 8 wickets.
A victory well-deserved, thanks to good fielding and level-headed bowling in the middle overs, followed by great batting. This win was Wesleyan's 2nd in succession. Zaki took his run aggregate past the 100-mark. He made 31 not out off 44 balls. Edwin made 81 not out off 66 balls.