Johor Tour Report

Spirits Tour Johor

A 8.45 call time was always gonna be a deadline that was going to be missed by the Spirits boys. As Captain Ranga and I pulled in to the Dempsey car park by 9 am, an excited Madhukar popped out .. early man gets the girl.., probably Madhukar thought Dempsey will have a spillover of Orchard Towers or something. Soon, boys started trickling in. 

Ofcourse, everyone had an excuse for being late but Patrick and his girlfriend Pam had the best one - "Oh, there was this garbage truck ahead of us". A pre-cricket innings at home would be more like it. Now, just as Sandeep gave his account of how he had to go to his office early morning to pick his passport, Madhukar realised his early arrival counted for nothing - the first one to get in apparently forgot his passport ! Sandeep was kind enough to drive him home ( as long as he could drive along Joo Chiat to go to Ang Mo Kio) and Rajesh "Scoopaswamy" wandered off for a dump !!! Yes, you read it right - the good ole South Indian boy walked around the bushes of Dempsey car park looking for a quiet corner for a morning dump. Incredible.

So by half past, we were off and Madhu was already down 50 bucks as fine. A good start for the fine kitty, and as they say in cricket, a good start always helps for a big total. As it turned out, Madhu's contribution to the kitty was much more significant than his performance on the field.

We crossed the Singapore side of the checkpoint without any major incident and as we walked out of Malaysian immig, Scoopaswamy was missing. He went looking for a money changer at the Checkpoint building - this in spite of assurance from our driver that he will take us to one on the way to the ground. Scoopaswamy, in his own characteristic style, wandered off. The story now gets better. We wait, wait and wait...after about half hour, and after many calls from us, Scoopaswamy finally returns a call. He says, "am stuck outside, will take about ten minutes to get back". BY this time, everyone is out of the bus, lost their patience waiting, cursing him a fair bit for being a cock or for being Rajesh. A few minutes later, across the bus bay and from the far side of the building, we see Scoopaswamy walking along with a cop. They go up and down, round and round and finally he shows up. The story goes, he changed his money, wandered off to some restricted area of the checkpoint building after taking directions from a lady security guard and was promptly nabbed by the cops. Scoopaswamy opens his wallet and asks the cop to take whatever. Scoopa down 100 bucks (fortunately in ringgits, tho the immig officer was eyeing his Sing Dolls) and another 100 to fine kitty. As he narrates the story in the bus, everyone else is laughing of course. Which angers Scoops and he says, " i didn't do anything wrong, i only walked on the wrong side". Even more laughter.

Anyway, we call up Jolly Wallabies and cook up a story for being late. Eventually, we reach this spectacular ground, (should play there more often, i'd say) the visitors change room was a delight...Captain Ranga won the toss and needless to say, chose to bat. Scoopa, given an opportunity to redeem, opened the batting with Paul. Scoopa played out a maiden first over, clearly the Malaysian cop still in the back of his mind. Paul believed in stand-and-deliver and after scoring 21 good runs, was caught at covers.

Probably the effect of that Dempsey dump finally kicked in...Scoopsawamy stepped out and hit a hat-trick of fours and then went for a fourth and was stumped. Bird brain !

Sandeep got the dreaded (middle) finger from the umpire, adjudged leg before, blaady hell...Sivam was in a hurry to get back to the Aircon in the change room and holed out to mid-off. Patrick, playing very uncharacteristically (guess we need to have a chat with Pam), put his head down (talking about batting here) and built a partnership with Jim. Just as the innings seemed to take a shape, Patrick was out...bowled by a beauty...something reflect the same way in cricket as well as in life. A pleased Patrick walked off. Confident that he could score more in the second innings later in the day !

Captain Ranga joined Jim and seemed to have the captain's luck. Ranga had his stumps shattered, but it was a no-ball. He was given out stumped by the leg umpire, but the rival captain re-called him. Probably Ranga spoke to the rival captain with an Ian Bell accent...whatever that is..it worked and he was reinstated.

Ranga flourished from then on...two smart cover drives followed..and the two put on a 64 run partnership to take Spirits to a decent score. Once the partnership was broken, Spirits batting fell cheaply...Yi Qi's batting in the the final over being the only other highlight. All six balls read the same - swing and a miss. But 159 was a reasonable total on a wicket that offered a bit to the bowlers - at least that was the consensus.

Rain intervened just JW started their innings. A two hour break followed and then play resumed, with the match reduced to 22 overs and the revised target was 112. It certainly made it easier for JW, though Spirits were in a confident mood.

Wickets fell regularly and Spirits kept a firm grip on the game. Sandeep ran sideways, backwards and spun around...but took a brilliant catch to dismiss the most dangerous JW batsman. The Malaysian kid at the other end showed excellent temperament but Shivam got the better of him with a full delivery. Rest of the bowlers chipped in, and eventually Spirits were victorious by 14 runs.

A word for the JW captain Rolston...a gentleman..lovely batsman..unhurried style of play, remained not out and was their top scorer.

Afterwards, JW boys put up a barby and everyone had plentiful to eat and drink. Overall, a lovely day of cricket in spectacular settings - couldn't have got better.

Man of the Match - Scoopaswamy
Wooden spoon - Scoopaswamy

Regards,
Raj