Match Report - Warriors CC v Spirits (Yorker Ground)

The Day / Night T20 Spirits cricket match against the Warriors CC kicked off at around 6:30pm on Saturday evening with some natural light and clear skies still to be had. Half an hour earlier, Captain for the Day, Charl Maingard, surely set a new precedent but not too a far-fetched one for the Spirits, by sending in not one, but two nominees to act as tossers on his behalf. Sean Brown and Patrick Newlyn duly accepted and Sean Brown took advantage of a startled opposition captain to win the toss. Surprised by his early success, he nonetheless had the common sense to ask Patrick what to do next. In the end it all worked out quite superbly as the Spirits chose to bat first.

Spirits openers, Dave Lee and Patrick had a solid but relative sedated first over, which only gave away 1 bye and 1 leg bye. It seemed to be much of the same for the 2^nd over, until Dave realised he was actually playing in a T20 match and subsequently smashed which was probably one of the biggest sixes of the night, over the fence into the now growing crowd at the Cul-De-Sac end of the grounds. The runs started flowing nicely from this point onwards, with 9 runs per over in the following 3 overs being the norm. The 5^th over brought a bit of a stumble to the Spirits batting line-up with both openers falling in successive balls (Dave 20 of 17 balls and Patrick 7 of 13 – 34 run partnership). The Warriors must have thought their time has come, but they did not consider a master stroke of note by Captain for the Day Charl to send in Paul McLean at 3 and Akash at 4. Paul decided from ball one that he was not there to make any friends and subsequently hit 12 quick runs off 5 balls (2x4’s, SR 240) to very nicely set the mood for Akash to bat more sensibly, yet aggressive at the same time. Paul’s “I will not make friends today” attitude came to an end when he fell in the 7^th over, caught behind, to be replaced by James Trewin. James and Akash batted nicely together for a 20 run partnership until Akash was bowled for 19 off 13 balls (SR 135.7). Spirits’ virgin for the day player Simon Ibbotson stepped up to the plate and joined James in the middle with the score on 73/4. James hung around for a bit, but was caught out of his crease by keeper Vinod for 9 runs off 10 balls. At this stage the score was wobbling at 77/5 with 9.2 overs remaining and with two players still on their way to the venue, it could have gone pear shaped very quickly. Captain for the Day Charl, then joined Simon at the crease and the pair subsequently put together a 61 run partnership to take the score to a more acceptable 138 runs in the 16^th over, before Charl was also stonked out of his crease with his score on 18 off 16 balls. The two late comers eventually made it to the grounds at this stage and John “I’m still wondering where that first ball went” Sist replaced Charl at the crease. John and Simon took the score to 146/6 in the 17^th over before the heavens opened up to bring a premature end to the Spirits attack on the Warrior bowlers. John ended up with 5 off 3 balls and from all accounts that was approximately 500% more runs than his score in the afternoon match.

The match was called off after it seemed that the rain was not going to subside, but this caught the grounds man off guard as it seems he was unaware that the Spirits are actually a drinking team with a cricketing problem and there was a rush to supply a thirsty team with refreshments.

Man of the first half of the Match must go to the Spirits virgin Simon Ibbotson for his 34 runs of 26 balls to bring the Spirits back from the brink. Warriors bowler Ajith is also worthy of a mention with 4 for 20 off 3 overs.

The venue is actually not too bad to play cricket on, as the outfield is nice and hard and makes for easy scoring. The lights, which are bright enough, are a little bit too low and there are only 4 of them, which makes catching high balls on the boundary at night difficult at best and also only allows for play from one end of the pitch. The location also allows for decent crowds and I am almost 100% sure that the spectator numbers were THE biggest that this particular player has ever played in from of (doesn’t say much, I know). Pity that they don’t really have decent cloak rooms, but since these guys do not get any funding and everything is bought out of their own pockets, we’ll let this one slip. A nice enough bunch of guys and we should reciprocate by inviting them to a match at CSC soon enough.

Admin:

The $300 dollar game fee was reduced to $200 dollars since the game was rained out and including the snacks and tea fee was paid over directly to the manager. There was a very, very brief discussion about what to do with the extra $100, and in the end it and rightly so, succumbed to beer.