2nd April vs Bright Sparks

We last played these guys in January we were set a victory target of 41 which we had made after the first pair. That game was our record score of 200.

This game had a slightly different lineup to that other match. Bruce was out on private business which allowed Raddis to make a return to the lineup.

We had to field first again, and made a reasonable start with the ball having conceeded 8 runs from the first two overs and 26 for the pair. The overs were bowled by Thorpe (9), Mahstar (-1), King (20), Bob (-3). Their second pair played some solid shots as they took the score upto 61. Raddis (12), Mahstar (18), The Don (-7) and Philbert (12) were on the recieving end. The Don was on a hattrick after a catch and a bowled wickets.

The third pair tried some big hits but were caught a few times. Pax (0) bowled a good over taking two wickets, King (9) bowled one guy after being hit about a bit, Raddis (14) took a bit of stick and Pax (-6) made an attempt at the best bowling figures for the team with another three wickets including a runout. The fourth pair made 20 runs with Thorpe (13) keeping the shots to 2 or less, Bob (-5) got a couple more wickets including a runout, but also conceeded a six after they stole two runs. Philbert (11) was pretty tight with his line, and The Don (1) proved why he bowls the final over with two more wickets. They made a total of 98.

With that in mind we needed about 25 for each pair, which shouldn't be that hard to acheive. Philbert and Raddis (aka The Rabbi) opened the batting and had 15 from the first over which included three wides, two 3s and a single. The second over saw another three wides, one of which they stole a run, and Phil hit a four. They got -4 from the next two overs with three runouts. The partnership was 22 with Phil scoring 15 from his bat, but was runout twice, and faced nine balls plus two wides. Raddis made 6 from his bat, but was runout once and faced 8 balls plus five wides.

Cap'n Bob and Mahstar had in mind to score another 22 runs to take the score to 44, and could have made it except Mahstar was bowled once and given out for interference after hitting the ball with the back of the bat. That was a silly move. Bob hit two 4s and the rest were scored in singles and 2s. The partnership was 21 with Bob making 18 from his bat from 9 balls and faced 1 wide. Mahstar hit 9 from the bat from 13 balls, but lost two wickets and faced 1 wide. Usually there are more legside wides faced, and there was one legside delivery which we think should have been called a wide.

The Don and King wanted to reduce the number of runouts after a couple of lean weeks with the bat, and they started well with the King hitting a seven after Don was runout. They kept their wickets intact until the last ball when King was caught. They both managed to reach the back net with a four. The partnership was 34 with Don making 16 from his bat off of 11 balls, but lost one wicket and faced another 3 wides. King made 20 from his bat off of 9 balls, but lost one wicket and faced a no ball.

Pax and Thorpe played well and kept their wickets in tact. They played some great shots, and stole a few runs along the way. The overs were 12, 12, 16 and 5. for a total of 45 runs. Pax made 16 from his bat from 9 balls plus a wide and a no ball. Thorpe made 15 from his bat from 8 balls plus faced 5 wides. We made 122 which was a 24 run victory.

I've decided this time to not include the wides and noballs in the number of balls faced for the batsmen.

Thorpe, Mahstar, Bob were amongst the runout getters, Phil took atleast three catches at the back net, there were a few missed runout chances and we allowed some stolen runs, but we had a good all round match.