Spirits vs ANZA Champs

On a nice cool Saturday afternoon Guarav did what all captains should do – win the toss and bat, first fine avoided so Sprits to bat. At the toss 10 Spirits were there, waiting for Amar and Graeme, Amar lives 500mts away so traffic must have been bad along Holland Road!

Retirement at 35, 12 on the field at all times and 5 overs per bowler were agreed but ANZA champs wanted a 35 over game, not sure if Spirits could bat that long! ANZA champs forgot that they brought a league umpire so the normal social rules would not apply – 33 wides and 4 no balls latter it turned into a 40+ over game! The Dempsey ground was in immaculate condition with the grass cut short ensuring a high score despite 12 fielders per side. After a few too many drinks on Thursday nights function Graeme convinced Guarav that he should open the batting. Good idea but at the start of the game Graeme hadn’t arrived! Luckily before a ball was bowled Graeme arrived and took the opening spot. After the first two overs Graeme mention to his batting partner John that the ball was swinging a lot, strange that with a new ball, isn’t Graeme an opening bowler! Spirits started quickly with 43 off the first 5 overs then John told Graeme to slow down as we shouldn’t demoralise ANZA too quickly. After 10 overs we were 0/65 then Graeme hit himself to retirement with 37 off 32. John retired two overs latter with 37 off 40 balls with the score at 0/101. John Dick brought himself onto bowl with immediate success with wickets of Nick Power (18 off 20), Abhi 14 off 8 and Gaurav 13 off 8. Gaurav wicket was the most impressive with Guarav letting a straight ball go that had his off stump cartwheeling. After 20 overs we were 3/163 with ANZA’a part timers coming on to bowl. Paul Mclean was loving it with a six over cover but that went to Pauls head and he was caught a few balls latter with 18 off 15 balls. In the meantime Akash had his bat shaved down over the Christmas break and boundaries were a plenty when he retired with 36 off 25 balls. Rammy stayed to the end with 35 off 30 balls and even Amar was able to make 12 off 17 including a four off Chiro, who was playing for Anza. Retiree’s came back with Graeme going out for 38 off 35. John got 50 off 51 before Rammy inflicted his second run out of the match. Logu could have been every one of the 4 balls he faced for a duck and Ramakant went lbw first ball off his glove. Final score was a creditable 282 for 10 off 35 overs.

ANZA started on fire with 1/51 off 5 overs but were pegged back when wickets started falling. ANZA lost 7/33 with all bowlers getting wickets during this time Abhi 3 overs 1/7, new men Rob Bradshaw 3/13, Ramant Maggon 1/2, Rammy 1/20. ANZA’s Eshan Ponnadurai (also a spirit) said to Paul McLean (1/9) “show me what you got” and to everyone surprise, even Paul’s, Eshan was bowled. Amar was back to his best with 3/13 when ANZA slumped to 9/94 off 17 overs. One of funnier moments was when Amar was bowling to Chiro and tossed one up in which Chiro played from his crease. Amar then sledged to Chiro “I forgot you don’t use your feet” a few balls latter Amar got Chiro caught by Paul Mclean on the boundary. The last three wickets were very hard to get after Captain Gaurav said we didn’t need a drinks break. Spirits were low on liquids at this stage and the ANZA batsmen, who were out, were drinking all the beer. ANZA kept us out there for another 15 overs and ended up with 166 all out off 31.1 overs. Guarav did set the record books with using all 12 players as bowlers. Nick Power took two good catches and John Sist two stumpings and a catch. Of course there were a few missed catches and some interesting fielding by Ramakant on the boundary but every bowler helped ANZA by bowling a wide or no ball. As ANZA’s captain Geoffrey Forday said “That was an excellent game played in the right spirit. Always an enjoyable day with you chaps” and lots of laughing around the ground. Fines were not done until latter at Harry’s with the six Spirits and all had to pay a bit!