On a warm & sunny day Euratom arrived at the Villafranca ground near Verona which Scaligero share with the Azzurra C.C..  It turned out to be a nice-looking, oval with more grass than the usual baseball pitch, although the wicket was unplayable at one end & the mat had been cut short, leaving  the batsmen to change ends at the end of each over. As a warm breeze gently wafted the smell of burning rubber over the pitch from an unseen source, E.C.C. skipper Nadeem Iqbal won the toss & wisely elected to bowl first to shake off the effects of a rather cramped (sic) trip from Ispra.

He opened the Euratom attack himself with his usual venom on a lively pitch. Both he & Sumith Katunayakage, who seemed to had re-found his old spark, immediately had the Scaligero openers struggling. In the second over Katunayakage picked up a smart return from his own bowling to throw down the stumps & leave the highly-rated Kirti stranded for a duck.  Vikum was joined by Nado but neither of talented batsmen really got to grips with the bowling of Nadeem who soon bowled them for 5 & 3 runs respectively. Katunayakage then took advantage of the Sri Lankan habit of playing from a leg guard by taking out Tisara's unguarded off-stump with a beautiful in-swinging yorker.  His faster ball saw Sam snick one through to Shamith Mudalige behind the stumps & he also proved too hot for Jonathan Bentley who watched his stumps fly after facing only a few balls. Finally Katunayakage trapped the gangly Lester LBW as he took an awkward step across his stumps, ending up with figures of 4 for 9 off six overs. From the other end Nadeem Iqbal had quickly added the scalps of  Costa & Sanjeena to his tally, both for ducks. Nor was there to be any respite for the batsmen when the nippy Afzal Khan took over from his compatriot in the 13th over. His third ball swung past Antonio Butt's bat to take middle stump, leaving Rohan not out on 2.  With six of the batsmen failing to trouble the scorer, the Scaligero innings had limped to a miserable 33 all out.

The Euratom batsmen took the field looking to knock off the runs in record time, but it was to prove an uphill task. Despite a promising 6 runs off Rohan's first over, including a thick edge past the slips, Mudasar Aziz struggled to cope with Kirti's swing which soon found him LBW in front of middle & leg. Arfan, with unusually leaden footwork, was caught behind in Rohan's next over for 6 &, when Kirti dismissed the normally prolific Naeem Ullah, the unthinkable possibility of an embarrassing collapse starting flitting through the minds of some of the Ispresi.

Promoted big-hitter Gabriel Rowland then got his first opportunity to bat for his new club. Keen to impress, the Aussie showed a wide range of snicks & chinese cuts but could only add two runs before being caught off the lively Madhu. The highlight of Rowland's innings was actually the most bizarre appeal this scribe has ever witnessed. As the unsuspecting batsman, gloves off & chalk in hand, was deep in conversation with the umpire & busy re-marking his guard ready for the next delivery, the wicket-keeper whipped off the bails & his team-mates started dancing with joy.  The startled umpire had stern words & quickly restored order to the Italian sub-continent. In fairness the Scaligerans explained that one of their batsmen had been victim the previous week to a similar appeal in a game against an "Indian" team. That umpire was obviously a cowboy!!

Up to this point the Euratom score had edged towards the required total but with the brothers Iqbal at the crease the rate started to pick up. Naeem   batted in his usual powerful fashion to add another 8 before going L.B.W. to Kirti. Sumith Katunayakage then joined Nadeem in the middle under instructions to keep his head down. Typically the little Sri Lankan immediately pushed the ball straight to a fielder & scampered, his surprised captain only just surviving the quick single. Iqbal then waited patiently for Kirti's shorter ball which he put effortlessly out of the ground to give his team their first victory in the Serie B championship.

Match Awards:   With his four wickets & a run out Sumith Katunayakage narrowly pips Nadeem Iqbal to the Man of the Match award. The Golden Banana goes to Naeem Iqbal for dropping a sitter at square-leg off Scaligero's best batsman. Unusually Mario Mallard also heads for the Punjab to sojourn with Naeem Ullah for a while. Best Catch of the Match was undoubtedly taken by Euratom umpire Dai Berry who plucked the bails out of the air as they passed his right ear after a typical Sumith Katunayakage run-out attempt.