This night our lineup included Cap’n Bob, King, Don, Daints, Pax, Philbert, Mahstar and the return of Raddis. Pax called in saying that he was held up by commitments at the whitehouse, but would still make the game. The Puppets allowed us to bat first so that we didn’t have to field with seven players.
Cap’n Bob and myself opened the batting, and with my usual not practicing before the game, Bob faced the jackpot ball. He played a glorious shot to the back net for 5 which made 10 on the board. I faced out the rest of the over with a wide, noball and a single on the last ball. The next over started and ended with more wides, with Bob getting bowled on the second ball he faced. The third over was going fine until I made a decision to leave my crease and was stumped on the last ball. Bob had already hit the back net the ball previous. The last over, we held our wickets in tact. Our understanding of running was better in this game, as we managed to steal a couple of runs, including when Bob hit a three then we got another run which allowed him to keep the strike. A couple of the singles that I got I didn’t hit the ball, and we only got the run as overthrows. Our partnership was 29, which I about 12 runs better than we have been averaging over the last few innings. Bob scored 25 (off 9 balls) from his bat and lost one wicket. I made four singles and got stumped once, as well as facing a few wides and noballs.
Philbert and Raddis took up the challenge of building on our good start, and made 14 from the first over they faced with a couple of cracking shots. Raddis got runout in the second over, and they scored a couple of twos which included a stolen run. I always thought that a full toss above the waist would be called a no ball, however Philbert face a delivery that hit him in the shoulder on the full that wasn’t called. I wonder if the umpires all know about that no ball rule. Anyway, back to the game and the third over they faced, they made four singles, before Philbert was bowled twice in a row. Another runout in the fourth over, after they had already got a couple runs, and some wayward bowling meant their final partnership was 10. Phil made 15 from his bat, but netted zero, while Raddis made 9 from the bat.
The Don and King were reunited as a batting pair in a bid to catch the Little Mahstar and Cap’n Bob in the pairs title. They made 15 in the first over faced, which saw the Don hit a five. Then some mediocre running and decisions on runs saw a hattrick of runouts with King failing to make his ground on the first three balls of the second over. After that they were a lot more sensible about their choice of runs, with some easy singles and twos before opening up with some more powerful shots in the last over. The last over they faced saw a 3, 4 and 5 in consecutive balls, but The Don was caught on the last ball which meant their final partnership was 21. The Don made 16 (off 13 balls) and lost the 1 wicket, while King made 17 (off 11 balls) and lost 3 wickets.
Pax and Daints batted together for just the 3rd time since taking the pairs title last season, and started with some side net and short singles, which got them 9 runs in the first over. From then on, Daints lost four wickets from the next six balls he faced which included 3 catches, a couple were really sharp takes also. Meanwhile Pax was hitting the ball really well which results in several 4s. The final partnership was 19 runs, with Pax making 28 (off 14 balls) from his bat, while Daints made 9 (off 11 balls) but lost the four wickets.
The score of 79 was going to be a challenging score which has on occasions won us the game, but tonight was a different story. It was their second and fourth pairs that did the damage.
Their first pair had a reasonable start with some off centre bowling by the King, but Raddis showed why he was given back his in close legside fielding position with a runout on the last ball of the over which netted 3 runs. Mahstar started off bowling reasonable straight and took wickets in consecutive balls, with Pax taking a catch and then Bob managed to take a difficult catch about a metre from the bat. Even though one ball was hit for a seven, the over netted 2 runs. Pax bowled a brilliant over which included a catch, runout and stumping and netted -6 runs. Mahstar was thrown the ball again for the fourth over and only bowled one extra down leg side. One ball was hit for five, but I should have been able to atleast block the ball with my chin guards. The over netted 12 runs, which saw the pair end on 11 runs.
At that stage it was looking good for us to be able to win the game, but the second pair put on 28 runs with the overs bowled by Raddis (5 runs), The Don (10 runs), Pax (10 runs) and Daints (3 runs). Raddis picked up one stumping, and Daints got two wickets, with a superb catch behind by Pax and another by Raddis. After 8 overs both teams had the same score in comparison.
Their third pair made 23 runs with the overs bowled by Cap’n (zero runs), Philbert (8 runs), Daints (8 runs) and King (7 runs). Each bowler picked up a wicket with catches to Pax, Don, Phil and Don.
The fourth pair didn’t lose a wicket in making 31 runs. The overs were bowled by Raddis (10 runs), Philbert (7 runs), Cap’n (7 runs) and The Don (7 runs). They hit just two 4s and the rest were with singles and 2s.
So the final score was 79 to 93. The result of this means that we will drop below Master of Puppets on the ladder as they were only 1 point behind us, despite us winning more games than them.
As a whole our fielding and bowling was good, we just didn’t have enough runs on the board. The last time we played these guys they made the same score, but we made 101 runs. Some highlights from my view point were Bob’s catch close in from my bowling, Pax taking a couple of tough catches behind the stumps, Raddis played like he never missed a match, with superb runouts and catches. A lowlight was the hattrick of runouts in the third pair. I also wonder why Pax keeps being called for front foot no balls, yet when we receive the full toss or high bounces they aren’t called no balls.
The Ladder before the game:
| Team | W | L | D | For | Agst | % | BP | TP |
| Towners | 8 | 0 | 1 | 826 | 607 | 136.08 | 40 | 91 |
| Yorkies | 7 | 2 | 0 | 616 | 589 | 104.58 | 33 | 75 |
| Master of Puppets | 5 | 4 | 0 | 963 | 849 | 113.43 | 44 | 74 |
| MP Extreme | 5 | 2 | 1 | 779 | 486 | 160.29 | 39 | 72 |
| Bulls | 4 | 5 | 0 | 869 | 905 | 96.02 | 44 | 64 |
| Black Hill Steve's | 5 | 4 | 0 | 579 | 911 | 63.56 | 39 | 63 |
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