Glenmore Cricket Club News story


GCC Winter Program Kicks Off With First Indoor Match

05 Nov 2012


Steady batting by Jonathan Smith’s T-12 indoor side of seven, followed by destructive bowling from Richard Harvey, Bobby Gajendra and Nitin Kapur took Team Smith to an improbable 123 run swacking of Team Robertson at the Burns Stadium Soccer Dome last Sunday.

In the opening salvo of what promises to be an entertaining winter series, Alex Storey, Wasim Naqshbandi and Tony Pasternak all played high strike-rate, sharp-running, not-out hands after captain Robbo won a disputed toss in the dimmish light and inserted Smithy’s seven.

With able partnering by Kapur, Gajendra and Smith, the first 3 pairings left Harvey to protect a healthy 87-3 scoreline. In his 1.3 over cameo, Richie then nonchalantly plopped a series of educated lobs to whichever parts of the short midwicket field Nathan Parr had vacated, delicately flighting his shots a bit like Richie the bowler, and bringing Team Smith to an interesting total of 103-4.

Having advantage of observing what batting worked and what didn’t, Robbo’s crew could easily have set themselves on a smooth chasing course.

But when Boobs Gajendra took the new ball, all the boobs belonged to openers’ Tadvalkar and Ahuja, Bobby grabbing 4 into-the-ceiling wickets for a minus 34 run first-over scoreline, and leaving Robbo, but not Smithy’s articulate Cornish keeper, speechless.

Zander’s batters could be forgiven a pair of those owing to some uncertainty over the Out-hit-the-ceiling rule, though the compact Ntini had earlier provided fine demonstrations of Out and Not-Out airshots with the aire of a man enjoying his chance to impress the GCC braintrust.

With their impeccable line and length, Ntini the bowler and Richie took it in turns to continue the carnage, rendering the outdoor-style scoreboard, unable to register underwater totals, unusable for most of the Team Robertson innings. A forest of timber continued to fall, at least 9 further wickets lost in the ensuing 9.3 overs.

In a Wajahat-like display of simultaneous scoring, captaincy and square-leg umpiring, and with his pique well-tweaked by a batting collapse of black hole proportions, Robbo resorted to retaliatory sledging, missing a run-out and a stumping from his dugout vantage point along the square leg popping crease.

When Asad skied Bobby to bring up a fine five-for, the jig was up. Robbo and BJ batted for pride, of which the ragged remnants were removed by a series of run-outs and stumpings.

With the sounds of sharpening cutlery currently louder than the din from 3 or 4 Sheffield Stainless Steel factories, Robertson could be forgiven for losing his single-malt bottle along with the dummy and calling it a captaincy day.

But with that bright smile and shining, boyish face preserved by decades of dipping into the George’s Cream, Robbo is truly a beacon for the indoor game.

SCORECARD

Team Robertson won the toss and chose to field.

TEAM SMITH

Pair 1 - Alex Storey / Nitin Kapur. Partnership of 20.
Storey 20 runs off 9 balls, not out
Nitin 6 runs off
8 balls, out twice

Pair 2 - Bobby Gajendra / Wasim Naqshbandi. Partnership of 41.
Bobby 12 runs off 7 balls. Not out.
Wasim 14 runs off 5 balls. Not out.

Pair 3 - Jon Smith / Tony Pasternak. Partnership of 33.
Smith 11 runs off 9 balls. Out once.
Tony 18 runs off 7 balls. Not out.

Last man - Rich Harvey (runner A.Storey). Partnership of 9.
Rich 10 runs off 9 balls. Out once.

TOTAL: 103 (lost 4 wickets)

Nathan 2.3 overs - 27 runs - 1 wicket
Asad 3 overs - 12 runs - 2 wickets
Reinhardt 3 overs - 28 runs - 1 wicket
Gurvinder 2 overs - 37 runs - 0 wickets

TEAM ROBERTSON

Pair 1 - Darshan Tadvalkar / Gurvinder Ahuja. Partnership of -10. Out 5 times.
Pair 2 - Reinhardt Malan / Nathan Parr. Partnership of 7. Out twice.
Pair 3 – BJ Wolstenholme / Asad Gul. Partnership of -2. Out 4 times.
Last man - Alex Robertson (runner BJ). Partnership -15. Out 3 times.

TOTAL: -20 (lost 14 wickets)

Bobby 3 overs, minus 4 runs - 5 wickets
Rich 3 overs, minus 3 runs - 4 wickets

Nitin 3 overs, minus 6 runs - 3 wickets
Smith 1.3 overs, minus 8 runs - 1 wicket

TEAM SMITH WON BY 123 RUNS!