4th December vs Bartlett's

This a little bit later than expected, and there isn't really much excuse for the delay. I'd like to take this opportunity to thank the Cap'n for keeping us together last season and help taking out the pairs MVP title.

With the out of the way, it's to the game at hand now. We were set to face Bartlett's who we previously faced three months earlier in a game that we won 133 to 79. This match proved to be a much closer contest, with us batting first, our lineup was as follows: Cap'n & Mahstar, Jacko & Daints, Don & King, Bendy & Bruce.

We started reasonably well with a side net shot for a total of 4 runs from the first ball. After a dot ball for the second ball, the rest of the over were wides or noballs. So we had an easy 12 runs after the first over. The second over we had 9 runs from the first four balls before a runout and a catch. After that we rebuilt the score with the help of some more wides and noballs. The partnership was 25, with Bob scoring 7 from 7 balls after the wicket and facing one wide, while Mahstar made zero from 18 balls after the runout and faced 8 extras.

Jacko and Daints played it pretty easy on their way to 26 runs, with two wickets, a seven and four wides. Jacko made 12 from 12 while Daints made 6 from 12 with each losing a wicket and facing two wides.

Don King lost one wicket on their way to 34 runs, scoring mostly with 2s. Don scored 21 from 11 and facing a noball, while King made 9 from 13 after being runout and facing 1 wide. Bendy and Bruce made a poor start with the 3rd ball rule coming into play after a dot on the jackpot. Bendy managed to palm most of the strike just like the Mahstar which left Bruce to face 3 balls in the first two overs and just 7 balls in total. The partership was 13 with Bruce making 7 from 7, and Bendy zero after the two wickets and facing 3 extras. Thus we had 98 on the board.

We made a good start with the ball; King picked up a wicket on the last ball of his first over. Mahstar started well with a couple of dots but ended up conceeding 10 after a couple of extras. Bendy kept it online but was hit for a seven before bringing the score back a little with a runout on the last ball. Jacko had a resonable over conceeding 10 runs including a couple of wides. The pair made 27. However the scoreboard read 25 at the same stage.

The second pair started well with 9 runs from the first 5 balls before a catch off the last ball of Don's over. Mahstar took the sixth over which saw a superb catch in the slips by Cap'n and a total of 3 runs scored. Daints showed what spin can do taking 3 wickets in the 7th over with two stumpings for minus nine. Cap'n bowled the 8th over and conceeded 12 runs. The partnership was 10.

The third pair stumbled at the end of Bruce's over with a stumping and runout, but recovered when Daints bowled taking 10 runs. Bendy came on for the 11th over and took a hattrick for minus 9 runs. The twelvth over is where the scoreboard got stuffed up again, this time in their favor. Jacko bowled the 12th over and according to the scoresheet conceeded 15 after a seven on the last ball, but the scoreboard at the end of the over said 49 when it should be 48.

So needing 50 or 51 to win the game the last pair got runout on the first ball, but didn't lose anymore wickets after that. The overs were bowled by King (-2), Bruce (14), Bob (19) and Don (18) which meant a partnership of 49. That doubled their teams score, and meant the scoreboard showed 98 all at the end. They hit a seven from the second last ball of the match which meant they just had to get one run for the tie according to the scoreboard.

Anyway win or not it was a good contest, with them fighting back a few times during the game.