The Spirits, as is now customary, lost the toss on a day when the sky was slightly overcast and the field damp. Our opposition of the day, Overeasy, sent us in to bat and our skipper ducked a fine. Leading us bravely from the front was Captain (Akash) Mohan (not to be confused with Captain Morgan). Overeasy are constituted by a pleasant bunch of guys whose members look as if they will not be eligible for the Dennis Meyer 6's at least for the next 10 years. They confessed that their club is modeled on the Spirits, ie. alcoholics with a cricketing problem.
In the absence of the score sheet, here's how I recall the match.
Spirits Innings
Dave Lee (30+ ) and Mahesh (4 of 31 balls) and got us off to a ummm... sedate start. Having brought up about 30 by the 10th over, Dave Lee suddenly produced a flurry of shots and manufactured a 6 and a 4 from the same over. Mahesh departed first and Sivam replaced him looking positive as ever. A few crisp shots culminated in one moment of indecision which saw him glide a ball into the expectant hands of the gully fieldsman. Sivam shook his head a few times and consoled himself with Rajan caterers fish curry. Laksh was in next and looked to middle every single ball he faced. He was undone in the cruelest of fashions when a scorching Dave Lee straight drive ricocheted of the bowlers hand onto the stumps. At the half way mark we had about 60+ runs on the board. Dave lee perished, stumped, immediately after the drinks break and a small collapse ensued that accounted for Captain Mohan, Patrick, James Trewin and yours truly. They say a good batsman knows exactly where his off stump is. I knew where mine was - flat on the ground half way between where the middle and leg stumps still stood and the wicket keeper. The first ball I faced had put it there. $10 fine. Sticking resolutely to one end was Richard "the crocodile" Kohler (a quick fire 25 including one tremendous 6) who along with Dan (~12) engaged in some entertaining stroke play and ensured that Spirits finished with 132 of the alloted 30 overs. El Presidente ran a few runs without facing a ball at the end and we did not need the services of Yiqi's power hitting.
Overeasy Innings.
The overcast sky made way to a windless afternoon where the Sun beat down upon us with a vengeance. Laksh began proceedings from the Balestier road end and delivered a tight maiden over. Madhu shared from the new ball and the second over too resulted in no runs off the bat, though the score board read 5-0. Which brings me to my pet peeve, that sometimes brings a frown to my ever smiling face.
No bowler, be it a lowly pie-chucker playing street cricket or a test match player wants to bowl wides (spot fixers aside). So do you not hate it when 10 other blokes go up in unison and holler "no wides". What do you think I was trying? Here are a few other gems - "Do not bowl on the leg side", "no full toss", "do not bowl short (this invariably happens after you have been creamed past square leg)", the wicketkeeper flailing his right hand just as you start you run in to bowl, to indicate where the "off" side is. Long story short, I confess I bowled 10 wides (another $10 fine). And no, I am not proud of it.
Back to the story - after 8 overs and many dropped catches Overeasy were 28-1. Laksh and I had conceded 14 runs apiece for entirely different reasons. The one wicket to fall was that of the Overeasy opener whose skier to mid on disappeared into the bucket sized hands of Crocodile Kohler (so named for his unique catching style - funny but safe). Amar was then pressed into service and immediately got the ball to grip and turn. While the batsmen were often at sea against such bowling, unfortunately for us, so were our fielders. Catches were dropped as if there was a religious edict against catching. Along with or inept catching we also served some leg side, knee high tosses ("no full toss") and imminently hittable short balls on the leg side ("do not bowl short"). Patrick made repeated trips to the IA ground to retrieve many of the aforementioned full tosses and short balls. A smart stumping by Croc K (who kept wickets for the second half, taking over from Captain Mohan who tried to style himself after Dhoni) off the bowling of Sivam was not sufficient to stem the rot and Overeasy won with about 4 overs to spare.
Funny moment - At one point, two of the Overeasy batsmen sensed a single and took off for the opposite end with great vigor. Half way through, when they were abreast of one another, they decided it was a bad idea and returned to their original ends and our fielder had not even picked the ball up.
By 5:15pm, bottles of beer were being downed (a welcome respite from hot hot sun). A minute of silence was observed in memory of our friend Brian Hammond. Young Gardiner , who did not play, came by to ensure that Spirits donated a cricket kit to charity. A new scorer relieved some of us of scoring responsibilities but this guy is no Cherie (bring her back!) and so the scoreboard was not updated with alarming regularity.
In the absence of the score sheet, here's how I recall the match.
Spirits Innings
Dave Lee (30+ ) and Mahesh (4 of 31 balls) and got us off to a ummm... sedate start. Having brought up about 30 by the 10th over, Dave Lee suddenly produced a flurry of shots and manufactured a 6 and a 4 from the same over. Mahesh departed first and Sivam replaced him looking positive as ever. A few crisp shots culminated in one moment of indecision which saw him glide a ball into the expectant hands of the gully fieldsman. Sivam shook his head a few times and consoled himself with Rajan caterers fish curry. Laksh was in next and looked to middle every single ball he faced. He was undone in the cruelest of fashions when a scorching Dave Lee straight drive ricocheted of the bowlers hand onto the stumps. At the half way mark we had about 60+ runs on the board. Dave lee perished, stumped, immediately after the drinks break and a small collapse ensued that accounted for Captain Mohan, Patrick, James Trewin and yours truly. They say a good batsman knows exactly where his off stump is. I knew where mine was - flat on the ground half way between where the middle and leg stumps still stood and the wicket keeper. The first ball I faced had put it there. $10 fine. Sticking resolutely to one end was Richard "the crocodile" Kohler (a quick fire 25 including one tremendous 6) who along with Dan (~12) engaged in some entertaining stroke play and ensured that Spirits finished with 132 of the alloted 30 overs. El Presidente ran a few runs without facing a ball at the end and we did not need the services of Yiqi's power hitting.
Overeasy Innings.
The overcast sky made way to a windless afternoon where the Sun beat down upon us with a vengeance. Laksh began proceedings from the Balestier road end and delivered a tight maiden over. Madhu shared from the new ball and the second over too resulted in no runs off the bat, though the score board read 5-0. Which brings me to my pet peeve, that sometimes brings a frown to my ever smiling face.
No bowler, be it a lowly pie-chucker playing street cricket or a test match player wants to bowl wides (spot fixers aside). So do you not hate it when 10 other blokes go up in unison and holler "no wides". What do you think I was trying? Here are a few other gems - "Do not bowl on the leg side", "no full toss", "do not bowl short (this invariably happens after you have been creamed past square leg)", the wicketkeeper flailing his right hand just as you start you run in to bowl, to indicate where the "off" side is. Long story short, I confess I bowled 10 wides (another $10 fine). And no, I am not proud of it.
Back to the story - after 8 overs and many dropped catches Overeasy were 28-1. Laksh and I had conceded 14 runs apiece for entirely different reasons. The one wicket to fall was that of the Overeasy opener whose skier to mid on disappeared into the bucket sized hands of Crocodile Kohler (so named for his unique catching style - funny but safe). Amar was then pressed into service and immediately got the ball to grip and turn. While the batsmen were often at sea against such bowling, unfortunately for us, so were our fielders. Catches were dropped as if there was a religious edict against catching. Along with or inept catching we also served some leg side, knee high tosses ("no full toss") and imminently hittable short balls on the leg side ("do not bowl short"). Patrick made repeated trips to the IA ground to retrieve many of the aforementioned full tosses and short balls. A smart stumping by Croc K (who kept wickets for the second half, taking over from Captain Mohan who tried to style himself after Dhoni) off the bowling of Sivam was not sufficient to stem the rot and Overeasy won with about 4 overs to spare.
Funny moment - At one point, two of the Overeasy batsmen sensed a single and took off for the opposite end with great vigor. Half way through, when they were abreast of one another, they decided it was a bad idea and returned to their original ends and our fielder had not even picked the ball up.
By 5:15pm, bottles of beer were being downed (a welcome respite from hot hot sun). A minute of silence was observed in memory of our friend Brian Hammond. Young Gardiner , who did not play, came by to ensure that Spirits donated a cricket kit to charity. A new scorer relieved some of us of scoring responsibilities but this guy is no Cherie (bring her back!) and so the scoreboard was not updated with alarming regularity.
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