Article--Stumped

C ricket took centre stage on Sunday at the Andheri Sport Com- plex as Television Cricket Club of India (TTCI) took on Television Cricket League (TCL) in a friendly day and night game. The match was organised by the Indian Tele- vision Academy (ITA) to cre- ate awareness for the girl child. The chief guest of the evening, fiery speedster Sreesanth set the ball rolling, literally. TCL padded up first, but on the field went down like nine pins. May be it was the uneven bounce or the pace of Abhijeet Sawant and Varun Badola, but Manav Gohil's boys - Karan Wahi Sharad Kelkar and Manish Raisinghani - disappointed with the bat. Even Aditya Narayan was run out cheap- ly. The Sa Re Ga Ma Pa anchor made his irritation plain by banging his bat all the way to the pavilion. Skirting the issue Only Bakhtiyaar Irani showed some spunk and his effort saw TCL reach 87 in 14 overs.. this despite having a team of 12 (one more the usu- al 11). Wonder if that'll be the next trend? In a bid to spice up the pro- ceeding, Barkha Bisht, and Priyanka Bassi Narayani Shastri turned up as mini-skirted cheer-leaders. Bassi rued the lack of pom- pom. "Otherwise we would have been dancing away on the field," she insisted. Win win situation Vikas Mankatla (TTCI) pre- tended not to look at the sexy actress, saying it would dis- tract him from the game. Obviously, a win was upper- most on his team's mind. And they did win, with seven wick- ets to spare. But eventually, it was an easy win for TTCI. A dis- heartened Gohil admitted that his team hadn't played well. Irani was adjudged best batsmen and Badola was the best bowler. Anand Surya- vanshi was voted the man of the match. Rupali Ganguly admitted that she preferred the fun commentary to the ball play. Vrajesh Hirjee and Archana Jain were at their witty best, taking pot shots at bechara Naved Jaffery's bald pate. Suresh Menon was a riot too.