The Spirits gathered on a waterlogged pitch to greet Unilever on a sunny afternoon at CSC. Our kinsman, RIchard, playing for Unilever, came over to us with fear and trepidation when he realised Unilever would be facing the impenetrable bowling attack and Glen's batting. Captain Graeme, being the opportunist, thought he might as well give the bowlers 20 wickets to work with and suggested two innings of 16 overs each instead of our usual 30 overs. The game got underway shortly with Rammy and Trent working with malice from both ends. Rammy, with accurate bowling at the stumps, got 4 wickets for 10 runs off 6 overs, managing a wicket an over for the first 4 overs. While Rammy was taking wickets on one end, Trent (5-1-14-1), our newest recruit, was causing mayhem on the other. He bowled at a good length towards the off stump and should have gotten a wicket earlier with the slight movement off the pitch and variable bounce, but the batsmen for Unilever, despite changing every other over thanks to Rammy, were expert leavers of the ball. That's when Trent decided to give the batsman some food for thought with some vicious balls directed at the stumps and was rewarded with a wicket in his last over. Despite having not having much to do, the fielders were uncharacteristically sharp when they were required, stopping the cheap singles and fielding catches, with the most notable being a catch off Rammy by Ranga. Madhu should also be commended for some very enthusiastic fielding. When the top order fell, Dan (3-0-8-0) was brought to the attack to finish off the rest with some deceptive off spin and duly did so with several sneaking past or edging past the batsman. To up the ante, Dan asked Madhu to come on as silly point and Madhu duly got on to where silly point was and took 3-4 steps back every time the ball was bowled, developing the new deep silly point position as the over progressed. In the subsequent overs, Madhu also invented the deep short leg. Dan was unfortunate not to get a wicket despite some tight bowling. On the other end, Graeme (2-0-10-0) toiled with some delivery of great pace, decent length, but a slightly wrong line, resulting in some balls that missed everyone. All in all, the bowling and fielding was excellent, limiting the Unilever side to 44.
Graeme, during the break, suggested we bat for 25 overs so that everyone got to bat. This fudging of overs made the whole scoring situation a little messy and a tad confusing. Why 16 and not 15, why 25 and not 32? In the end, I was humbled by Graeme's excellent judgement of the weather conditions when it started pouring in the 24th over. Batting was brisk and everyone managed to get some decent runs on the board except for Madhu (0) and myself (0). Glen (41, 3 x 6s, 2 x 4s, retired), Trent (36, 1 x 4, 3 x 6s, not out), Ranga (17, 1 x 4) and Dan (8, 1 x 4) were notable for hitting boundaries on a very slow and wet outfield. None of the Unilever batsman (including Richard) managed anything close to a boundary. Glen Sledgeman also caused the game to pause for a drinks break in order to find the ball he hit over CSC for a 6. Dave (7), Rajesh (7), Sandeep (12, retired), Rammy (3, not out) all contributed the massive total that Richard was afraid of at the start. Before we could smash a few more balls, the rain spoiled the party and we headed back to CSC for drinks of the alcoholic variety.
All in all, it was a pity we didn't get a chance to get 20 wickets and Rammy didn't get a chance to try for his 5-for, but the game was good fun and we got a glimpse of what the Spirits are capable of when we are at a good strength.
Yiqi
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Captain's comment:
Man of match award:
Close race between Glen, Trent and Rammy.
To this day we thought Glen was a cricketing god with his sixes and he didn’t disappoint smashing 3 of them including one over the club house on to the median strip, only to find he lent his bat to Trent who did the exact same. 3 sixes. We figure this takes both performances out as its obviously the bat. Now waiting for it to be donated to club kit so we all can dent passing cars.
Leaving just the bowling then. Rammy, superb performance in tandem with Trent who bowled an excellent line and was way too good to be hit by any of the batsman. Final decision goes to Trent for his fast paced, well controlled spell. Rammy, despite his big haul of the 4 top batsmen, had two over’s to get the final wicket for a “5 for”, but failed to get “fellow Spirit” Richard out. His only blemish.
Wooden Spoon:
The optimist Madhu was caught saying “I was 10 short of a century”. Sorry, It was still a first ball duck 100
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