HCPPA NSW Vs HCPPA Vic Cricket Encounter – Australia Day 2018

HCPPA (Vic) cricket team along with their family and friends travelled up north to defend the title they won at the inaugural encounter in Melbourne last Australia day. Many of them drove overnight from Melbourne, but it did not stop their enthusiasm for the game on a typically hot Australia day in Sydney.

NSW team batted first and found the going tough against very accurate and fast bowling from the youngsters from Victoria. Thanks to a gutsy innings at the top from Kannan and a swashbuckling cameo from Sutha at the end NSW posted a respectable 138 for the loss of 9 wickets in their 40 overs. Thusithan with 2 wickets was the pick of the bowlers for Victoria.

After a nice rice and curries lunch with ‘Paayasam’, Victoria’s innings did not start well. They lost their first wicket in the second over of the innings and found the bowling from the ‘mature’ NSW bowlers hard to score off. And in the end they folded for 77 with Thusi top scoring with 21 to go along with his excellent bowling effort.

NSW Captain Ravi bowled very well, taking 4 wickets while Gopi and Rajaram chipped in with 2 wickets each.

Kannan and Ravi from NSW won the awards for the ‘Best Batsman’ and ‘Best Bowler’ respectively. Victorian Thusi won the ‘Man of the Match’ award and their wicket keeper got the ‘Best Fielder’ award.

HCPPA NSW hosted a dinner for the visitors after the match.