13th August 2007 vs Bright Sparks

We lost the toss for this game and fielded first. We made a good start with their first pair losing wickets regularly. Philbert (-1) bowled the first over and took two runouts. Raddis (-9) bowled the second over and got a wicket bowled, caught and runout with the Don taking the catch and runout. Mahstar (7) bowled the third over and had a runout first ball, but the rest of the over had a couple wide and bad balls. King (9) was unluckly to not get a wicket. The pair made 6 runs.

The second pair had the score upto 17 but wickets in 3 of the 4 overs meant the exited the nets with a total of zero. Thorpe (3), Bob (8), Mahstar (-7), and Pax (-4) had the ball. Bob bowled a tight over but couldn't get a wicket. Mahstar's over was unexpected, the first ball moved a little bit and clean bowled the batter. There were just 3 runs off the bat. Pax's over also saw two wickets fall, with Bob taking a catch.

The third pair came in and immediately doubled the teams total with six runs from the jackpot ball. King took a great close catch to keep the runs down in the Don's (5) over. Raddis (13) took the next over and bowled a couple of wides and conceeded a seven. The King's (11) over brought three wickets with The Don taking a catch and getting a runout. Pax (8) got hit for a seven but also got a stumping. The pair ended up making 15 runs.

They only had seven players so we got one of them to bat again, and they struggled to keep the score going up, ending up with a partnership of seven. Thorpe (0) bowled a good over getting two wickets bowled. Bob's first ball bowled the batter which was enough to net -1 in the over. Philbert was unlucky to have a five from his bowling as he conceeded 12. The Don bowled a very tight final over with just a single from the batter and a runout for a net -4.

This match saw 5 of the wickets bowled which has been a rarity for our team. We were set 29 runs for victory which is a easily acheivable total.

Our batting order remains pretty consistent with the regulars batting in the same positions. Pbilbert and the King opened needing just 7 or 8 runs per pair. They made a good start with 15 runs from the first over including a five by Phil. Consisntency with the bat saw them reach 40 quite comfortably with just one wicket falling and scoring from almost every ball faced. The wicket in the second over meant they only had 5 for the over and that included a four from Phil. They scored 11 and 9 from their final two overs scoring mostly with 2s. In the partnership of 40, Philbert made 19 from 10 legal and faced a wide and 2 noballs, while The King made 12 from 8 legal but was caught once and faced 2 wides and a noball.

With the game already won, there was no pressure to score with the bat. Cap'n Bob and Mahstar made a terrible start with Bob getting caught from the first two balls of the over which netted -15 runs. The next ball he faced he hit for 7 which started our road to victory. We had the score upto 43 after Bob hit a five, but was bowled on the final ball of their second over. After that the wickets remained in tact for the rest of the pair. They scored 9 and 12 which included another 7 hit by Bob. The partnership ended up being 19 runs, with Cap'n Bob making 25 from 10 legal including two 7s and a five, but was caught twice and bowled once, while Mahstar made 12 from 13 legal deliveries and faced a wide.

The Don and Raddis batted third and scored quite freely until their final over when Raddis was bowled. They scored 9 from their first over which included a couple of wides, 19 from the next over which included a 7 from the Don and a four from each of them. The third over saw the first four balls called wide, which hindered their progress as they only got 11 from the over. Their final over only netted 2 runs which included the wicket and a couple of 2s. The partnership was 41, but could have been 50 until the wicket fell. The Don making 21 from 8 legal deliveries and faced 5 wides, while Raddis made 11 from 10 legal deliveries, but was bowled once and faced a wide.

For a change Thorpe faced the jackpot ball and with Pax they scored easily, with just one wicket in the final over preventing them from making 50 runs. They made 25 from their first two overs which included a seven from Pax along with several extras. The third over saw another 7 runs as one of the bowlers bowled a third over due to them having only seven players. The final over saw 16 runs and included a wicket and two wides. Pax decided to have the wides rebowled as the score was nearly 140. Thorpe hit a seven from his last ball and Pax hit a five to end the innings. The partnership was 48 runs, with Thorpe madking 20 from 10 legal deliveries, while Pax made 21 from 9 legal deliveries, but was caught once and faced 5 wides and a noball.

The final score was 28 to 148.

All in all we played quite well batted well, missed a few catches but got several runouts bowled well with several wickets clean bowled. They weren't the best batting team, but did have some good bowlers. The balls were swinging a bit in the air, which helped us when bowling.