Our first game of the new season, and as usual its a grading game that does count to the ladder. We had faced them in the middle of last year and lost quite well. On that occasion we batted first and made just 18 runs, as their bowling attack was to potent for us, and we were unable to keep them under 100.
This time our lineup was Bruce, Philbert, Cap'n, Mahstar, Don, King, Pax, and Thorpe.
We lost the toss and they batted first.
Thorpe opened the bowling and was spanked a bit before a late wicket held the over to 9 runs. King bowled the second over which saw 10 runs. Mahstar was hit hard with a couple of 4s and a seven in an over that doubled their team total. Philbert conceeded a 3 and 4 with his first two balls but ended up having 12 runs taken from the over. This meant their first pair had made 50 runs.
The second pair continued the onslaught taking 12 from Pax, 10 from Cap'n, 11 from the Don and 17 from Mahstar. There was one good delivery from Mahstar's over which was slower and got a stumping. The pair also made 50 runs.
The third pair was the only time we really had much luck and picked up some wickets. They made 26 runs, with the overs being bowled by Bruce (6), King (11), Pax (11), Pbilbert (-2). Bruce got one wicket bowled, Pax's over saw the Don getting a runout, Philbert's over saw two runouts, with Phil almost taking the caught & bowled, but getting the runout, and with King hitting the stumps on the last ball.
The final pair had one of the same batters from the third pair batting again as they only had 7 players. We were unable to pick up anymore wickets in those four overs and our bowlers came in for some punishment with Thorpe (10), Bruce (16), Cap'n (16) and Don (15) on the receiving end. Their final score was 183 with the last pair making 57 runs.
Philbert had the best bowling figures for us conceeding just 10 runs in the two overs due to the two runouts. Everyone else conceeded 19 or more runs.
It's a massive task facing 183 runs on the board when we start the innings, and Philbert and Bruce started the chase. They started off well with 19 runs from the first two overs, but when Phil was bowled twice in a row and then was caught after facing two dot balls, the score had dropped to 8. They got the score back upto 14 before Phil was runout from the second last ball. The partnership was 9 with Phil hitting 8 from his bat from 16 balls, but with the loss of four wickets his net score was -12. He also faced two wides and two noballs. Bruce made 13 from 8 balls with five scoring shots, including two 4s. If Phil made more contact with the ball on some shots he could have severely injured some of their players, but it wasn't to be.
Cap'n Bob and Mahstar came in second pair with a massive task ahead of them. Bob reached the back net on the jackpot ball for 8 runs. A couple of dot balls later and Mahstar hit a two this was followed by Bob hitting a five. We had taken the team total to 26 after five overs. Cap'n faced a couple of dots at the start of the next over before hitting a four and a three. We had 39 on the board after seven overs but were still 44 runs behind on the comparison. The 8th over started with Bob being caught in deep, but that was the only wicket lost in the pair. A few times after Mahstar missed the ball and the keeper threw it to the bowler, he left the crease to make like he was trying to steal a run. When a wide was bowled on the third last ball, they tried it again, and the keeper decided to throw the ball back at the batting stumps. The ball deflected off the batters leg into the corner and they got the stolen run. The partnership was 32 runs with Bob netting 17 runs from 14 balls after 1 wicket, and facing 1 wide and 1 no ball. the no ball was a full toss head high which Bob hit over hand like a tennis shot for a single. Mahstar made 5 runs from 10 balls and faced three wides.
The Don and King came in with the score on 41 and after four runouts they left with the score on 51. The Don hit one three and several 2s. The partnership was 10 with Don netting 14 from 12 with one wicket and facing 1 wide, while King netting -8 from 12 with three wickets and one noball.
Pax and Thorpe had a huge task ahead needing 133 to win in four overs, which is pretty much impossible with a good bowling attack. They started the chase slowly with -6 from the first two overs they faced with Thorpe caught twice and Pax caught once. The final two overs were bowled by players that had already bowled two overs due to the one player short. The other team were allowed to choose who they wanted to bowl again, as we figured that it wouldn't make a whole lot of difference.
The 15th over saw Thorpe finally reach the back net with a four and a seven, and Pax also hit a five, for a total of 18 runs in the over. The last over started with two noballs, which helped our situation. We needed just another 50 noballs to win the game from that point, but got just two more. The innings ended with Pax hitting a four from the last ball to get our total to 82. This gives us four bonus points for the match. Pax netted 14 from 15 balls with one wicket, one wide and three noballs, while Thorpe netted 7 from 13 balls with two wickets and facing one noball.
It was looking like Cap'n and Mahstar easily had the high pair for our team until the last two overs when Pax and Thorpe fell one run short.
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