2002 season champs Vijay carried on their winning start to the season claiming their second scalp as USAIM failed to repeat their opening match bowling fireworks.

In their first match the USAIM youngsters reduced Supercats to 80 all out, but on a Freedom Square crease that was playing straight, a lack of bowling inventiveness allowed the Vijay batsmen, batting first, to pass the three-figure mark.

Opening with the usually reliable partnership of Patrick Thomas and Kaushal Patel, Vijay were pushed onto the back foot when both openers were returned to the club house for 7 apiece, Thomas walking off a Sidesh delivery caught by Natwar and Patel suckered by a languid slower delivery by Girish. But before USAIM could pile on the pressure, Arvind Bhuva began to get the Vijay score-card ticking over.

Bhuva kept the runs flowing, despite losing partners at a worrying rate, and when he fell for 32, caught by Faique off Nirag, Vijay still had more runs to come as Jajith made 13, Naran 20 and Vasudev 10.

The USAIM bowlers had maintained a reliable pitch, enough to check any cavalier batting and none of the batsmen had dominated, but 36 extras were evidence of the students wayward line and helped Vijay to post 136 all out.

Girish had bowled hard at the top order to claim 3 for 35, while Siddesh and Natwar took 2 for 22 and 2 for 24 respectively.

Against Supercats, USAIM had shown that their main threat lay in their bowlers and even before opener Girish had tumbled for 3, 136 looked a tall order. Opening alongside him, Faique had showed the makings of a partnership with Sahil, before Arvind bowled him for 12 and Sahil for 10.

After a relatively uneventful day with the bat, the Vijay bowlers were looking fresh with the ball in hand and kept the lid on the rest of the USAIM line-up. Despite the low scores, USAIM skipper Athar Mujtaba will have been pleased that runs were made throughout the innings, but with the exception of Ajay's 11, nobody else hit double figures, and, when the final wicket fell on 75, USAIM were 62 runs short of a winning total.

The Vijay bowlers had enjoyed an economical 23 overs, Krishna with 3 for 17, Kaushal with 2 for 11 and Jajith's 1 for 14. But having taken 4 for 22 and hit the day's top score the man-of-the-match choice of Bhuva was an easy one for the match referee to make.

The next match in the Mike Holmes Memorial Tournament will be a contest between Supercats and Mahe Kings, this Sunday at Freedom Square.

M. H.