Hi Guys:

Under overcast conditions I won the toss and invited Pioneer to bat.  I did 
remember that in 1995 we lost both games to this team.  The team was unchanged 
from the line up at Inland Empire.

Venu opening the attack set the pace with a maiden over.  The breakthrough came 
in the 6th over when I induced the left-handed Rafeek into playing on to his 
wicket.  Pioneer 12/1.  In the 8th over Brown of Pioneer "took me to town" 
taking 18 runs off me in the 8th over.  Venu, bowling with a lot of fire was 
richly rewarded when he yorked the right handed Kaysho in the 9th over. Armed 
with some solid advice from Mervyn Fernando, I had Brown caught by Ashwin off a 
skier in the 12th over.  After 14 overs of pace by Venu and myself, Pioneer were 
43/3.  Venu at that time had amazing figures of 1 for 8 in 7 overs!  Swami and 
Mervyn tamed the batsmen to follow.  Swami mesmerized them with his trademark in 
swinging full tosses while Mervyn cunningly trapped them.  

Pioneer folded at 112 in 40.2 overs; Mervyn bowling unchanged had 4 for 26 off 
10 overs with 3 maidens.  Venu celebrated his return to form with the ball by 
recording amazing figures of 2 for 11 off 10 overs with 6 maidens!  
Wijeyachandran had 2 for 17 in 6.2 overs and I ended with 2 for 35 in 7 overs.  
The fileding was good and excellent catches were taken by Atul Raj, Ashwin Rao, 
Venu and Arvin Varma.  Atul's catch was at long-off and taken at waist level.  
Ashwin Rao's catch went almost a mile high and hard to judge.  The beauty of 
that catch was that Ryan from mid-wicket had covered a lot of distance to get to 
the catch and was almost ready to help Ashwin!  Venu's catch was another skier 
and well held.  Arvin Varma held a very well judged catch covering a lot of 
ground too, to get rid of Dennis Stuart who top scored with 24 for Pioneer.

Ashwin's chicken, Mumta's dhal, Shaguna's "rhaita," and Venu's tomato rice 
accompanied by hot tea made up an excellent lunch.

Atul and I opened the innings and I ran out myself when batting comfortably to 
have Colts at 12/1.  Atul got 18 and Arvin Varma celebrated a return to form 
with a breezy 24, Pioneer contributed with 28 extras and Mr. Reliable - Ashwin 
Rao had an unbeaten 40!!!

Colts scored the runs in 29 overs for the loss of 3 wickets.

Regards

Ranesh