30th April vs Bartlett's

Due to the absence of Philbert and Bruce Almighty, this match saw the debut of the Son of Don, aka The Lobster, it also meant that Jacko played back to back games.

The ladder has been put up on the board and it shows that the Bartlett's who was faced tonight were on top of the ladder with 3 wins with us 5th on 2 wins and seperated by 10 points on the ladder due to the bonus point situation.

Our last encounter with this team saw a tie on the scoreboard with a little bit of doubt over the accuracy of the runs on the board, you can read about that one here.

Onto the current match, The Don has been training his son up for quite some time in the junior leagues and this showed up in the performance that he gave with both bat and ball. We started off by winning the toss and electing to bat first which we did the last time we played this guys.

Jacko and The King opened the batting and made a solid start making 22 in the first two overs which included 7 wides or noballs and just four scoring shots off the bat with King facing just two in the first 12 balls, another two wides and a five from King got the score to 33, which was soon taken to 40 with a seven at the start of the fourth over. The only faulter was Jacko being caught once. The partnership was 42 with Jacko making 6 from the bat and faced 6 legal deliveries plus 5 wides and 5 noballs. King made 19 from his bat and faced 7 legal deliveries plus 1 wide.

The Don was paired with his son and they made a superb start with 16 from their first over, which included a seven from the Don which was a dropped catch. Their scoring rate slowed a bit when the Don was caught in the next over but their third over saw another seven hit by The Don in a total of 17 for the over. They got the score to 85 thanks to a few more wides before the Don was caught from his final ball. The partnership was 38, with The Don making 20 runs from his bat and faced 8 legal deliveries and 3 wides, whilst son of Don making 12 runs from his bat and also faced 8 legal deliveries, but also had 4 wides and a noball that went way over his head.

Cap'n and Mahstar stumbled in their first over with Bob getting stumped and Mahstar playing the ball onto the stumps which left a total of -6 from the over. The next over was going well with Bob hitting a 5 from the first ball but ended the over by getting stumped again. From that point their recovery process was slow and steady, with just 2s and singles and the score was upto 92 before Bob was bowled from the second last ball. The final ball was hit just behing the keeper and a very short quick single was taken to give the partnership of 8 runs. Bob made 17 off his bat from 12 legal balls, but lost three wickets, whilst Mahstar made 11 off his bat from 12 legal deliveries but lost one wicket.

Pax and Thorpe put in another performance which should help them lead the pairs race. They quickly took the score past 100 with 13 from their first over which included a wide. The start of the next over Pax was caught, after that they played some great strokes with several 3s, 2s and singles to take the score to 119 at the start of the last over. The last over started with a wide followed by a five, and ended with Pax being runout trying to steal a second run having successfully stolen runs earlier. Their partnership was 42 with Pax scoring 21 off his bat from 12 legal deliveries but losing two wickets, whilst Thorpe scored 27 from his bat from 11 legal deliveries and faced two wides.

The score to chase 130 which is a good score to defend. The first pair got away to a slow start with Jacko taking two wickets in the first over with a stumping and a bowled, they only made 2 runs thanks to a seven hit from the fourth ball. Thorpe bowled the second over and was hit around abit conceeding 16 runs which included a 5 and a wide. Mahstar's over started with the ball down legside that was hit down the ground and was caught by the Don. The next ball was hit for seven and following some other big shots, the over ended 15 runs. The Don bowled the fourth over and also conceeded a seven, but also picked up a wicket following a brilliant one handed catch by Cap'n Bob, after the ball bounced from the side net into the back net then moved away from him as he dived to his right and just got his hand under the ball. The total runs for the fourth over was 10 which took the total for the first pair to 43. Both of the first pair were left handed batsmen.

They were on target and about par with our score at the same stage. The King took the jackpot to the second pair and got a wicket from the last ball for a total of six runs. Lobstar bowled a couple down legside, but only conceeded 9 runs. Mahstar took the next over and conceeded 12 runs, but also bowled one delivery that landed in almost the perfect place at the batsmen's feet for a dot ball. A couple of the other deliveries were off target. Pax bowled the next over and picked up a stumping thanks to some great glove work by the King, and conceeded a total of 5 runs. The pair put on 32 runs to take their score to 75.

The third pair had a chance of making or breaking our chances, since our third pair only put on 8 runs. Cap'n Bob bowled first to them, and picked up a runout through his own fielding and a catch from the final ball for a total of -2. Lobstar bowled pretty tight and conceeded just 9 runs with just one four. King conceeded a four from the first ball but kept the over to 10 runs. Jacko picked up a wicket first ball when Thorpe took a lightning reflex catch after the ball was hit hard into the net behind him. The total runs for the 12th over was 4

The final pair needed 35 to win the game, and started well with hitting the jackpot ball to the back net for a total of 8 runs. The over was taken by Thorpe and conceeded just 12 runs including the 8 first ball. Pax copped a bit of stick having 13 taken from his over. They needed 10 runs from the last two overs. Bob put on a captains performance with three wickets in his over, including a runout, a stumping, and a catch. That was -9 runs leaving 19 needed in the final over. The Don was given the ball for the last over and they went after him, taking 9 from the first 4 balls. So Pax sent King to the line to try and stop the scores higher than 2. The second last ball was hit for 3 leaving 7 to get from the last ball. This was hit into the net behind the batter for a single which took the total score to 125.

That's a 5 run win for us.

Cap'n Bob took 3 for -11 and also had two runouts in the two overs.
Jacko took 3 for 6
They were the standout bowlers, with other bowlers taking a single wicket but conceeding over 15 runs.

The best batting strike rate came from King with 19 from 7 legal balls that is 271%.
The Don was second with 20 from 8 legal balls that is 250%
Thorpe was next best with 27 from 11 legal balls, that is 245%.

Jacko was the unluckiest batsmen having to face 10 extras, which prevented him from striking the ball hard.

The fielding highlights were Bob's and Thorpe's catches. We only got two runouts for the innings and both were taken by Bob.

We might possibly be on top of the ladder now depending on some of the other games, since it is so close on points.