30th July 2007 vs Beemerz

The start of a new season and we have some fresh opponents. Tonight we had Raddis and Daints as fillins for The Don and Bruce. We won the toss and elected to bat first which is a good way to start the season.

Philbert and The King opened the batting and made a great start with Phil reaching the back net on the first ball for 8 runs. The over ended with another 5 from Phil with King contributing 2. They had the score upto 23 during the next over before Phil was caught, but hit a four from the final ball. With 22 on the board they were looking at setting a good total. The third over saw two 3s and a four with King hitting the four which gained 15 more runs. Their final over brought another 19 runs including a five and a seven. The partnership ended on 56 with just one wicket lost. Phil made 29 from 11 legal but got out once and faced a wide and a noball. King made 24 from 9 legal and faced 2 noballs.

Cap'n Bob and Mahstar made a slow start with 5 from their first over, which almost resulted in a jackpot runout. After Mahstar hit a two, it started to go downhill with Bob runout, then Mahstar Stumped and runout in consecutive balls which took our score back below 50. Mahstar was runout again in the next over after failing to make clean contact with the bat on ball. The last over saw Bob hit a four and a seven, but also getting bowled. The partership ended with a total of two runs. Bob made 17 from 10 legal deliveries, but got out twice and faced one wide. Mahstar made 8 from 13 legal deliveries, but got out three times. Normally we get atleast one wide or noball call, but apparently (according to Tim Sands) the final ball landed on the pitch, which I don't agree with.

Daints and Raddis also started slowly going backwards in their first over with Raddis runout. After that they didn't lose another wicket and consistently scored in singles and 2s. Daints faced a hattrick of legside wides which gave them the momentum they needed to keep the scoreboard ticking over. The stole another single following the wides. Daints hit a seven in the third over and Raddis hit a seven in their last over. The partnership was 35 which took the team total to 93. Daints made 18 from 12 legal delivieries, and faced three wides. Raddis made 14 from 8 legal deliveries, but got out once and faced a wide.

Pax and Thorpe just had to take it easy for a good total, however they both had the confidence following winning the pairs race to take it to the opposition. They made 16 from their first over. Pax was caught at the start of the next over, before Thorpe hit the first over four 5s for the pair. They netted 5 runs in the second over, and then hit 18 from the next one. They were looking to past 150 for the team before Pax was caught in the deep. They still scored another 12 runs for a partnership of 51 runs. Pax made 22 from 13 legal deliveries, but got out twices and faced two wides and a noball. Thorpe made 27 from 9 legal delivieries and faced a wide and noball.

So we set a very good total of 144 runs which should be easily defendable.

Their first pair came in and made 37. King (2), Mahstar (14), Pax (9) and Raddis (12). Thorpe got a runout in King's over. They reached the back net three times with two 5s and a four.

The second pair also made 37. Thorpe (9), Pax (15), Philbert (7) and Raddis (6). We only got two wickets, one runout by Pax in Philbert's and a stumping in Raddis'. Raddis kept the runs to 2s and a three. They hit one seven from Phil.

The third pair started badly when Bob took jackpot catch hit from his own bowling. Mahstar conceeded 10 runs after bowling a few wides. The over ended with Bob taking a catch after they had hit a seven. Daints bowled the best over of the innings taking 3 wickets for -11. He took two stumpings and Phil took a catch. King's over kept them down to 1 run after Raddis took a catch at the end. The pair made -3 runs.

The last pair came in needing 74 to win, which is nearly impossible to achieve in four overs. Philbert started with two bouncers that were called noballs, with the second one bouncing up into the corner of the roof. The next ball got a wicket clean bowled. Daints next over also took three wickets with Phil and then Bob taking catches and the other wicket was a stumping. Bob conceeded 8 runs including a four. Thorpe took a wicket with a stumping. The pair made 10 runs.

We won by 63 runs.

Fielding Summary
Runouts Thorpe, Pax
Catches Raddis, Bob (x3), Phil (x2)

Bowling Summary
Daints 6 for -21
King 1 for 3 (+ 1 runout)