Rangers Blue Vs Cavaliers
January 26th & February 2nd
Premiership
REPORTS
PAGE
Day two and some slight misfortune on our behalf as probably the number one batsman for Cav's strolled in to the crease, Errol Steinback, replacing another Cav's member... But I forgot, we have the number 2 spinner from Sri Lanka, Gihan Ratnayake (Not far from Murilie though)... Claiming Errol with another catch of the season, Caught and Bowled, which in turn gave Gihan his second 5 wicket haul. A big Congratulations to Gihan... We have certainly got some splended catches this season... We managed to knock over the tail and claim first innings, bowling out Cav's for an even 90.... Then the struggle really began... Paulie and His "soon to be" brother in law opened the innings as they did so well in the First innings, managed only 2 runs before Paulie fell early... That was good considering what happen next... for the next 6 overs we had lost 6 for only 9 runs!! Thats right, the biggest batting collapse you will ever see. Fortunately out strolled the ever reliable Pete 'P-Diddy' Dowden, as I was at the other end yet to touch the ball and just sadly watching the wickets tumble. Pete and myself made probably another first, we went from being 6/9 after 9 overs, to be 6/10 after 21 overs... and that extra run was from a bye... 11 overs straight with out scoring a run off the bat. Thats got to be some record, right! We had to consolidate the huge collapse, and we did so batting for almost 2 hours together, making it through two drinks break, unfortunately I fell the first over back from the second drinks break, we had managed to scrap us back to 46 as I fell for the top score of the innings with 21.. Some late fight in the tail put our overall score ahead by 105 runs. Pete was left not out on a very solid knock of 20 runs.
So the target was to score 106 off a minimum of 15 overs, and with there being more then an hour and a half left on the clock we knew it was going to be about 20 overs. The caliber of batting in the Cav's ranks we knew we were in for a show... Fortunately we took some early wickets, Michael McDonald taking a very nice catch running around from 'mid off' to 'mid on' diving forward to take the first wicket. Andy Sweet was completely all over Steinback as he had no clue what was going on, out swing, in swing, short ball that took his gloves and ballooned into the air and fell painfully short of our new recruit keeper Dallin, while Chad is away. The luck was certainly on his side as Andy showed why he is still a fast bowler who knows a thing or two, not just an old man with a pretty face. Soon another wicket fell and then the breaks slowed up.. Cav's looked like they had stopped the desire to chase down the runs... As Steinback and Cook set out to just consolidate... Then with about 30mins to go and about 60 runs needed, we had bowled our minimum amount of 15 overs but still had half and hour to play so out opened the flood gates, as they started to play their shots more freely... So we turned to our spearhead Gihan and speed star Ryan Orth (with no lie, still the fastest person I've faced when he is bowling fast, At least 10-15km/h quicker than me, which hasn't been happening since before his Mission) Ryan had instructions to bowl fast on off stump and full... He managed to find some of the speediness he is known by with his second over and on that final ball of the over, completely beat Cook for pace and bowled him. Gihan was trying to keep things tight as the batters managed to get one ball an over away to the boundary from him, but the prised scalp was yet to come... Knocking the Danger man, Steinback, 'off stump' out of the ground with some brilliant thinking and change of pace. Cav's were still going for the runs as Ryan claimed another wicket with his pace knocking stumps out of the ground again and in the same over, a suicide run taken from Cav's captain Josh Brandon and Dominic Window with Duna taking the ball at mid on and beating Window to the stumps, running him out... The next over was to be the last, Cav's had only 3 wickets in hand and needed 19 runs off the over. The ball came to myself 'Cameron' and Brandon tried to smash one out of the school, only falling a few hundred meters short, and landing safely into the ever safe hands of our number one fieldsman Michael McDonald. the second last ball I managed to sneak one between bat and pad and take middle stump. One ball to go, 18 runs needed or one wicket by us needed to win the match. Out came my Man of the Match Densley, with his magic spell of Off spin bowling in the first innings. I bowled a super yorker heading towards leg stump, but was well blocked out by Phil to save Cav's from being defeated outright... Unfortunately for him as he defended the ball into the ground, it came straight back up and hit him square in the 'cracks jackers' or the 'souravs' as we call it at training... he was left lying on the ground in pain as we all shook hands on a wonderful game of cricket and all shared a laugh and pats on the back for the way in which the game was played... Congratulations guys!!