The time is 7.45 pm on Friday 22 November; location is Platform 5 Chennai Central Railway Station. A group of youngish men chat amongst themselves. They are not talking about THE cricket match which is now less than 18 hours away. Nerves perhaps? No, instead they are wondering why their skipper, Joshua Jesudason, is wearing a loud Hawaiian shirt, straight out of the TV series Magnum PI, in a built-up area. No sensible answers are given so they board the train and settle down for the long journey ahead.

Ten hours later, the train arrives in Mettuppalaiyam. Weary and looking like a bunch of drunken sailors rather than the lean, mean, fighting machine, they claim to be, they struggle onto the Hebron School bus and head up the long and winding road towards Ooty nestled somewhere high up in the clouds.

At 10.15 am, the two teams finally meet. The Hebron School are jumping around on the pitch like a herd of gazelles. In contrast, the Chennai team fall out of the bus totally breathless as they are now 7500 feet above sea level. And to make matters worse, they have forgotten their oxygen tanks.

With the formalities over, the all-important toss goes the home team's way. They put the Chennai team into bat on a wicket which will benefit any team that can bowl, bat and field. The away side is therefore put at an immediate disadvantage.

The school masters have allowed the kids to miss homework and they show their appreciation by providing vocal support. But undaunted, the Chennai team's two openers stride confidently out to the middle. Why they looked confident is a mystery or perhaps the pads were just on too tight.

Dinesh Kumar, who bears an uncanny resemblance to Inzamam Ul-Haq (but just not as good and certainly slower), and Kumara Velu who looks just like, well, Kumara Velu, kick off the match. A few overs pass and still no wickets down. This is unchartered territory for the away team. Normally by now their number 10 batsmen is padding up.

Some lofty blows see the ball despatched to various parts of the ground. Using a modified scoring system, the total races to, well, almost ten before the first wicket goes down (the team's highest opening stand for months).

Dinesh, now believing that he is in fact Inzamam, settles down and continues to score freely. But sadly at the other end wickets are tumbling. Tight Hebron bowling by eight of their players (come on fellas, that is just not fair) and some excellent fielding, expertly marshalled by the captain, Richard Graham, pin the BDHC team down. Desperation added to the team's general lack of skill, results in the Chennai team returning to the pavilion with a challenging 115 on the board off 29 overs. Sorry delete "challenging" and insert "pitiful".

Lunch is taken. A cunning plan by the home team to get the Chennai rabble totally stuffed full of rice, chicken and paratha, works to perfection. Several kilos heavier the away team return to the pitch. The home team are already limbering up in the nets. The Chennai skipper, now without his Hawaiian shirt, looks worried.

Hebron roll out their big guns - Messrs Mathews and Graham. Chennai don't have such weapons so instead unleash Jagan and Abbott. The crowd goes wild as the cricket ball is despatched to various parts of Tamil Nadu. An incoming Jet Airways flight into Coimbatore has to take evasive action as Mr Graham launches another one of his mighty sixes. The BDHC has no answer to this onslaught. Brief hopes are raised when Mr Mathews is caught and bowled by Kishore Kumar. But it's all too little and most definitely too late.

Mr Graham continues to punish loose bowling and ends up with an unbeaten 52. The game is over by the middle of the 18th over. A comprehensive and well-deserved nine-wicket victory for the Hebron team.

The gauntlet is thrown down by the visiting team (don't they ever learn??) with a request for a return match in Chennai in March 2003. The BDHC will be hoping that the steamy climate of Chennai will work in their favour. Sadly though judging by this performance, they will need a lot more than the weather to beat this team.....11 cricketers wouldn't go amiss.

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