Match Scoreline:
Haverford College: 121/9
Malgudi Cricket Club: 122/8
Malgudi Cricket Club win by 2 wickets

HAVERFORD, Pa. - In a rematch of last Sunday's game, the Haverford College cricket team lost a nailbiter of a game to the Malgudi Cricket Club.

Haverford won the toss and elected to bat first; the innings found itself rattled with both openers being dismissed. The innings stabilized with the arrival of junior captain David White and sophomore Raghav Bali to the crease. The duo reignited the batting order as White unleashed three powerful pull shots that sent the ball to the leg-side boundary, while Bali similarly drove a ball through the leg-side for four. Both tempered their innings with a mixture of powerful hitting and maneuvering the ball between fielders to exchange the strike. White top scored for the Fords with 30 runs of 49 balls, while Bali finished with 13 runs from 27 balls.

Some of the best hitting was found later down the order. Freshman Andrew Cornell anchored the lower order's efforts to extend Haverford's score. In innings that tempered good judgement to block the ball with aggressive hitting, Cornell marshaled the batting tail; a vicious sweep shot careened the ball to the square leg boundary for four and proved adept at exchanging the strike. Sophomore Miguel Wise engaged in a fruitful partnership with Cornell, with a lush cover drive bringing Wise a four of his own.

Haverford's bowling was anchored by an incredible performance by senior captain Ty Joplin, who bowled an incredible 11 over spell that brought him four wickets. Joplin employed the moving ball to great effect, and coupled this with an aggressive line and length to dominate stretches of the innings.

Bali delivered one of the finest performances with the ball of this season as his economy rate was the lowest of Haverford's bowlers, only conceding an average of 4.8 per over. Bali was accurate in his bowling, which saw him through to two wickets. Joplin and Bali were ably supported by White and sophomore Darshan Suryavanshi Magar, who took one wicket a piece in the action.

Cornell once again found himself in the action in the field. He took one sliding catch at long-off from the bowling of White, which he followed up with an even more spectacular catch at the long-on boundary off Magar's bowling. This catch saw Cornell run and tumble right on the edge of the boundary, falling but managing to cling onto the ball in breathtaking fashion. White similarly took a brilliant catch at point, leaping in the air to fish out a powerfully struck ball for the wicket. However, a good batting performance by Malgudi saw Haverford fall just short of victory.

In by far the best performance of the season, the cricket team provided very able competition to a vastly more experienced Malgudi Cricket Club. The performance was made even more distinctive by the sheer lack of cricketing experience on the Fords. Nine of the 11 players had never played cricket before coming to Haverford, making this near-win all the more memorable.