Scorecard

Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Taverners v Shooting Stars on Mon 16 May 2016 at 6pm
Glenmore Cricket Club Won By 1 wicket

Match report (Game dedicated to the memory of Gary)



It was a most uncharacteristic start for the Tavs. Hindsight might record it as auspicious. Dave “The” Hope-Johnston started off the season with a Golden Duck…..that he bowled!! The most important point is, however, that the Fines Committee ™ has noted it and he has been fined since it raised exponentially the expectations of the Tavs. Gone are the good old days…..well not quite. Dave started out with some fine overs broken up with Ganesh’s bowling.

At one point, I looked over to see 4 overs gone and 9 on the board. It could have been a mirage. The next stage was battling the wind and the sun. Capt Iain “Go fer it” Chapman lead the way with thinly veiled “attempts” to catch the ball before getting a stinger in an over. The haphazard attempts continued with Shea not content on letting a semi-sitter slip through his hands once but having to top it near the boundary later too. BJ heroically tried to chase one down dodging gopher holes only to have it slap the palm and roll lethargically over the boundary. These instances have also been noted and subsequently fined.

But the stars were building quietly with one main batsman staying in while the other fell away like bowling balls to Sprog’s supple catching hands in wicket. Supple?! I know what you’re saying, “luck, surely?”. Aye. It would have been had it been once. Or twice. Or maybe even three times. But for taking 3 caught behinds and the most awful looking stumping, luck can’t be blamed. Perhaps I overstepped by using the word supple. They were brought slowly down to the bowling of Ammar and Bijju only to be buoyed again by the wides served up by windswept bowling of Bijju, to be brought even lower by his last spells. But they would intersperse their wickets with a decent batting performance betrayed by some terrible shot selection or sometimes, none at all.

Rich came on for a spell and would have been more effective had BJ and Shea been capable of collecting what bounced into their hands. All said and done, they put up a total of 124 all out.

The Tavs batting was typical Tavs. Iain and BJ were off to an early start with Iain falling off early to a catch that Iain himself had been practicing in the first innings. Tim and BJ started to build something before BJ saw himself out the door being caught and bowled. The silver lining here was that his total of 19 surpassed his last year’s total already. This, too, has been noted and the appropriate fine has been apportioned. Shea made his way out and started making his characteristic shots. Very cross batty for an Australian. Tim, the ever steady man in the partnership started fading. It was most likely the running that BJ and Shea made him do but you could see it in his eyes that he was looking for a way out, which he found. Shea found it too. And soon enough Tavs found themselves in the usual position of about 6 overs gone and 35-40 runs on the board. Good enough to keep plucking away but not good enough to rest easy.

Ammar came out and easily had the best batting performances of the night. Shots that certainly would have been boundaries at Martindale or Inland seemed to die just before the boundary. For good measure, or to show the boys who came before him how things were done he threw in a 6 or two for good measure but ultimately was undone going for his not out. A spectacular catch by the fielder at the boundary running south while the wind took the ball south and once he realized it, tried to correct his approach only to slip and throw out, in desperation, a hail mary hand only to find it answering with the ball. Ammar having a very nice bat for 27.

Cometh the hour. Cometh the Sprog. Hooped up on drugs to relieve some pain in the hamstrings, Sprog pulled himself out for the game in all agony that comes with age, hamstring injuries, disappointment, etc. etc. or so he would have us believe. But there’s something more to it. As he was talking to himself and anyone who would listen or hear him, a few images popped into my head that I couldn’t quite shake. He was either a rooster staking out his ground, clucking around and telling everyone in tones more than words that it was his yard; an old British pensioner on a beach with some sort of metal detector making sweeps with his device and talking loudly over the headset about how great it was the one time he could an Octavian minted coin in the Medway estuary after tide. Or he was Al Pacino’s character in Scent of A Woman when you think he’s clumsy and swinging his walking stick all over the place but then you realize that he’s drunk and blind. No, not the part where he drives the Ferrari. That’s later. Anyway, Sprog is out there from the middle overs and seems more content in letting his batting partners make up the runs then he himself. Slowly building himself a roost or a towel with metal finds inside or whatever it is that the Colonel builds.

Jon came and went disappointingly since the score was tightening and we could have used a few booming hits from him but the ball whimperingly nicked the stumps and sent Jon to the sides. Bijju came up and left almost as briefly after hitting some skying shots and soon there were four left: Sprog, the “Hope”, Rich and Ganesh. There might have been 4 overs left. There was around 25 runs to go. Dave hit some nice shots pushing the Tavs over the century mark and looked good to stay until he was unceremoniously bowled, leaving Sprog, Rich and Ganesh looking to score 15 or so. Rich started off his batting career with style walking away from an approach, letting the ball sail on through because of some uncricket like talking from the other team. Sure they probably thought that they had the tail beat. They walked a bit taller it seemed. That is until Rich flicked them for 4 in a beautiful Tavs’ style shot bring the total to about 12 runs left from 12 balls. Sprog and Rich built it until Rich left the final over to Ganesh and Sprog and 5 to win with Ganesh facing. Swing and a miss. Nerve wracking times. And then Ganesh got bat to ball and then some hitting a hard shot bring up a single. 4 balls to go. 4 runs to score. And this whole time you think that Sprog is out there all Colonel like, you think he’s lost the plot as he’s been wandering around for the better part of 40 minutes. It doesn’t look like he’s done much and then he walks into the auditorium and goes all Colonel on the place and threatening to burn it down and by doing so hits a smart hook shot to the boundary bringing the Tavs over the finish line without so much as a sweat. It’s almost like he had done it before.

This would be DJH’s first ever Glenmore win he told us: the rest of you should be ashamed!

Man of the match: Sprog without question. Honourable mention: Ammar.

Shooting Stars Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 8 wickets
0
124 (20.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Taverners Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

Glenmore Cricket Club Glenmore Taverners Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
8nb 11w  
for 9 wickets
19
125		        
Iain Chapman Caught  2
BJ Wolstenholme Caught  19
Thimal (Tim) Jayawardhena Caught  8
Shea Pletz Caught  10
Ammar Maqsud Caught  27
Andrew Wakefield Not Out  21
Brijesh (Bijju) Mohankumar Caught  2
Jonathan Smith Bowled  5
Dave Hope-Johnstone Bowled  3
Richard Harvey Caught  8
Ganesh Subramaniam Not Out  1

Shooting Stars Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.

  • Umpire :
    Sunshine
  • Scorer :