18th December 2006 vs Master of Puppets

Back against our arch rivals the Puppets, we went into this game with the same lineup as last week.

We batted first as not everyone was there at the start of the game time.
Cap'n and Mahstar took up the usuall position at the top of the tree. We made a poor start with runouts form the last two balls of the first over. We did much better in the second over ending with a four to take the team total to 2 runs. The start of the third over Bob was caught, then on the 5th ball he hit a 5, we stole a run, then got runout trying to steal another run. It was a silly run, which took our total back to minus 5. The second ball of the third over Bob hit the ball behind himself and I called him through when i was nearly beside him, he still made his ground despite the keeper having the ball when he left his crease. The fourth over we brought the score back with 17 runs. Bob hit a three and a seven, Mahstar faced a noball and was called through for an extra one, faced a wide and a two. The partnership was 12 runs with Bob making 14 from 11 with one wicket. Mahstar made -6 from 12 balls after being runout three times, and faced a noball and a wide.

Daints and Thorpe put on a blinding innings, losing just one wicket on their way to 49 runs. Daints hit two 7s, a four, a few 2s and hit one catch. He made 23 from 11 balls. Thorpe faced four extras, hit one four and several 2s, for a total of 18 from 13 balls.

Don and King managed to not get runout tonight, they played it safe with alot of side net shots. King faced three wides in a row in the first over and another one in the next over. Don got bowled in the last over, but they still made 31 runs, with Don making 10 from 10 balls plus a noball, and King making 11 from 14 balls plus four wides.

Pax and Bendy scored alot of singes and 2s on their way to a total of 33. Pax hit one seven, and got stumped once. Bendy hit a four, scored several 2s, and faced a noball. The first ball he faced should have been a noball for above the waist full toss. Anyway, after the stumping Pax made 13 from 13 and faced a noball, while Bendy made 16 from 11 and faced a noball.

Our total score was 125 which happened to be the same as the pre lim final from last season in which we couldn't win. Some things of note from our batting innings was the last over for the first, third and fourth pairs only appeared to have five balls bowled. This may or may not have been better for us as potentially its three wickets or 21 runs. It seems the umpire (shaun) couldn't count properly or see when the batsmen were in their crease or the height of the full toss. Daints was lucky to be given in at one point at the bowlers end. The first ball Mahstar faced hit right on the toe and probably should have been lbw, but the bat moved about 1 cm.

Onto our bowling, and their first pair had a poor showing making just 7 runs. The overs were bowled by King (0), Mahstar (5, 6), and Pax (-4). They started with a stumping first ball. Mahstar's first over was all over the place on both sides but ended with King taking a catch. His second over saw a runout off of a wide, plus a couple of noballs. Pax's over saw two runouts and a couple down leg side.

The second pair played well making 28 runs with Thorpe (8), Bob (4), Bendy (3) and Pax (13) taking the ball. Bob took a superb catch that was juggled in one hand. The third pair went backwards making -2 runs. Don (3), Daints (-1), Bendy (-1) and King (-3) had the ball.

The last pair added some respectability to the score making 29 runs after losing four wickets in the first two overs they hit a few 2s and 3s to get the score up to 62. The ball was taken by Thorpe (6), Daints (-2), Bob (13) and Don (12). Bendy took a superb low down one handed catch from Daints bowling, there was a stumping and a runout in Daints over along with a seven and a five.

There were some great fielding moments by Bendy and Bob in this game. Daints took a great catch as keeper from a faint edge. Hitting the stumps was a huge difference in this game compared to the final last season.