Sat 8th Oct @ CSC vs "Misfits"

Hi all,

First day as captain and John turned up at 12.50, just in time, but there was another game still going on at the ground. Shankar, one of our players, was playing in the earlier game on the ground. His Stylish left hand batting was familiar plus his hatred of running between the wickets was also seen. The game still had a number of overs to go but Shankar was in vintage form and ended up with ~120 not out with ~10 sixes and 8 fours – well done.

Back to our match – 1.15pm start and they offered for us to bat first, which I gracefully accepted. I had 2 texts from Ankit (15 mins late) and Sandeep (30 mins late) so hastily put in the batting order into the book. Little did I notice that Ali Amjad and Shubham Gupta had not turned up! After watching the earlier game our target was set at 210 (7 runs an over) but Ravi complained it was too high, so 200 was the revised target. Retirement was 30, they wanted 50, so agreed on 40 with batting out the remainder of the over.

I opened with Saravana, my gloves still with Sandeep and my bat with the groundsman, it was borrowed gloves from Dan and bat from Rammy. The opening start was consistent with 7 an over off the first 6 overs when Saravana charged the bowler and was stumped for 18 (1/40 of 5.4). The keeper came up to the stumps for the first time that ball, fine for Saravana! Martyn joined John and the two old timers progressed the score to 74 off the 12^th over when John was nearing retirement. A four off the first ball got John to 40, then a single got Martyn on strike. Martyn got an edge to the keeper, who dropped it, and as the keeper was crying over the dropped catch a very sneaky single was taken. John then hit 6, 2 & 4 off the next 3 balls to retire at 57, oops scorers made a mistake, John was already 40 before the over was bowled (1/96 off 14 overs)! When John came off the captain had to hastily get 2 additional players, we had emergencies, Martyn’s Son Zak, Dave Lee and Paul McLean. I chased Amar for phone numbers but the time I tried the innings was half over so Shankar arranged for a few bowlers from the morning game to help out, Rahul and Ranjit. Back to the game, Dan came and went for 1 and too much surprise so did Sandeep for 6. Rammy was unluckily given LBW by Dan for 6 and Martyn went for 27 and we had lost 5 wickets for 22 runs in 6 overs. We were 5/121 of 21 overs when Ravi came in. I had him at no 11 in the order but with Ali Amjad not turning up he put him done as number 7.  Ravi (21) and Ankit (14) put in a quick 30 in 4 overs but both lost their wickets. Shankar came in and continued his morning form with a 6 the first ball, but the six beers he had between the matches affected his next slog, and he was out next ball. Rahul (4) and Ranjit (13) kept the score going and John came in the last over to add to his score by 10 runs and was the last man out for 67. Batting added up to 203, bowling added up to 205 but scoreboard/overs only said 197 so that was written in the book!

Misfits had a good bowling and fielding team and apparently a good batting team. I opened with Rahul, as quick as Abhishek, and Ankit bowled from the other end. Charles Cawood and Phil Childs from Misfit started on fire with 48 on the board off 6 overs before Ankit got the first wicket, caught by Ravi. Ankit could have one a wicket earlier but Rammy dropped Phil Childs at third man a bit earlier.  Shankar decided to pay Ankit back so he dropped Charles Cawood of Rammy’s first over, fines were getting bigger! Ravi came on at the other end and got 2 wickets in his second over. Ravi’s next over also got 2 wickets in the first two balls, 4/4 of 3 overs! Misfit’s were shattered after being 1/66 off 10 they were 6/69 off 13 with Rammy getting the other wicket. Dan Saunders came onto bowl and got a wicket in his first over and finished with 1/7 off 4 overs. Ravi finished his 6 overs 5/13 and Martin Towle also got a wicket in his first over. Lorraine Meyer came into bat and was bowled by Dan Saunders and Spirits decided not to appeal to give her a longer bat, but Martin wasn’t in the mood so the dismissed the batsman at the other end and Misfit’s were out for 91. Mr Extra’s top score with 28, including 23 wides, although a few were due to the keeper still thinking about his morning glory!

Man of the match was clearly Ravi with 21 runs, 5/13 and 3 crocodile snapping catches!

Worst player was again decided by the applause of teams. Contenders were

·         Dan with his 1 run, bad lbw decision on Rammy but offset good bowling

·         Sandeep 6 runs, took a catch

·         Shankar 6 runs, dropped a catch and untold wides but he did get two additional players from the Morning team.    

Shankar won easily.....