Action Cricket Chronicles - fit the 7th and 8th

A double header. And as much as you may be groaning under the weight of this post, and the awful writing therein, imagine how much we were groaning under the double bill. The legs were jelly before we started. But at least we had generous quantities of Red Bull. It gives you wings …

The first game was a non-league game, against opponents in a higher league than us. Purely for grading purposes.

Ruaan, as is usual, won the toss and elected to field. Fred took up the bowling attack, and, steaming, sent down an over of fury – the first ball missing the stumps by a coat of varnish. However, as is usual – the faster the delivery, the sweeter the hit, and a straight four off the second last ball of the over spoiled his figures slightly. Ettiene, took up the reins and sent down a corker – setting up the bat nicely, before beating his defenses and bowling him neck and crop. Ruaan had less luck, and only a run out off the final ball restricted the scoring slightly; before JC, literally spitting flames, cleaned the bat up with the first ball of the over – a fast Yorker on middle stump.

The second pairing had demon Hicks bowling – and my medium pace was treated with the disdain it deserves off the third ball with a straight 4. However – the fourth produced a sitter, which dropped neatly through JC, bounced to me on my follow through, which I gathered awkwardly, fell over and demolished the stumps – batsman well short of his ground. Phew … When the next delivery was brilliantly caught by Ruaan at short square leg, the over had regained some semblance of order. Danie managed to draw the batsman out during his over and Colin gathered neatly to effect a simple stumping chance; while Kevin had a dream of an over, inducing two chances – one of which JC took brilliantly with his knees – erasing his earlier dropped sitter …

The third batter pair faired just as poorly, with poor running effecting 3 run outs, an excellently tight over from Colin conceding three runs and a runout, and a catch off Kevin’s first ball of his last over effectively keeping our opponents to 75 with just the last pair to go. Unfortunately, the last pair put on 47, 21 of which came off JC’s last over.

That meant we had a mammoth 123 to chase, and when the third ball took the shoulder of Fred’s bat, and leapt nastily into his eye – we were in trouble. Fred had to leave the field as he could barely see out of the eye, and a small blood clot had formed in the one corner. He’s at a specialist eye doc today just to be safe. Darren was substituted in for Fred, and immediately run out. The third over was the kicker. Catch off the first, then a hat-trick, three card trick – bowled off the third, run out off the fourth; and caught off the fifth. The final over rescued the innings slightly; producing 10, and steering the makeshift partnership to 16.

Ettiene and I came together, putting on 34 (the second highest stand) and for a change – I only lost my wicket once. Okay – so I scored just 8, but still … Ettiene was as usual, striking quickly and effectively to get 26.

The third partnership between Colin and Danie produced little fireworks, but some sensible cricket to put on a very credible 22. However, that left our final pairing of Ruaan and JC a mammoth 51 for victory. They tried, but ultimately ended their partnership on 21, and the innings on 93 – 30 runs short.

The second game was immediately afterwards; and despite panting like Jimmy Abbot after getting out of bed, Ruaan; JC and Kevin were all taking part a second time. This game was the business – a league game, and worth points. Ruaan once more won the toss, and this time – mainly because his breath was short – he chose to bat first.

Colin and Kevin opened, and produced sensible cricket, pushing the singles, pinging the nearby nets, and running smoothly to end unbeaten on 36. Yes – not a single wicket went down in the first four overs.

Darren and Jeff broke that trend, but only off the final over – racking up a formidable 46 before conceding that solitary wicket, and setting us up nicely at 84 after 8. The third pairing of robo-batter Wayne, and Ross the myopic, added a steady trickle of runs that not even 5 wickets could disrupt; and put us comfortably on just shy of 100 after 12.

The final pairing of Ruaan and JC started the slog, and after a huge over of 18, almost made the half century partnership; and steered the team to a brilliant 147!

With that target to chase the pressure would always be on the other side; and it showed. Colin got a run out off his third ball, and Darren produced an over that was tighter than a duck’s arse, conceding just 2 with a run out for a final analysis of -1/1. Jeff didn’t disappoint, with a sensible calm over, and Wayne chipped in with a wicket off his second last ball. 18 on the board, and 4 overs gone already. The second pairing made a better fist of it, but only managed 27 runs off the brilliant lines and lengths Jeff, Wayne Kevin and Ross bowled. After that, with still 102 to get off the remaining 8 overs, it was too much for the embattled enemy to bear. JC made mincemeat of the opponents, cleaning his up second ball; and inducing a suicidal run off his next delivery; while the remaining three bowlers kept the runs non-existant, and the wickets tumbling slowly. A mere 7 for the partnership, and the match wrapped up, a nearly impossible 96 needed by the final pair.

Darren made certain of victory pushing the batsman back so far he jumped on his stumps first ball, and gaining a brilliant runout off his second last; while Colin was air tight in the second, and half-way through produced a dolly of a catch. Ruaan sprayed it around a bit, with a no ball and two wides before JC finished the game, inducing a catch with the first ball of the final over; and, despite overstepping twice, conceding almost nothing. The other side finished on a measly 64, and the staggering margin of 83 runs for the VICTORY! It took some time, but the roll has started. Yesterday, the game, tomorrow, the league; and finally – the world!

The art of lunch

I was just reading a well written article on the state of pudgy cricketers, and I started thinking. That is always dangerous. The paragraph in questions was this:

For me - and this may just be a matter of age - the heyday of international weight gain was the 1980s, when such mighty lunchers as Mike Gatting and Ian Botham strode the world like colossuses (mainly because that's what they were). Gatting, of course, influenced the culinary policies of pavilions across the world, although I'm happy to say that rumours suggesting he used a funnel are entirely false. When Shane Warne bowled him with the Ball Of The Century at Old Trafford in 1993, his captain, GA Gooch, told waiting reporters, "he looked as though someone had just nicked his lunch". And a bit later, "if it had been a cheese roll, it would never have got past him".

Now what happened to that great institution - the long lunch? For myself, the answer is simple. Money, or rather the lack of it. But is that the truth for everyone? Surely the many masses still have enormous budgets and can encourage enormous bellies - feeding the habit so to speak. The world's restaurants have blossomed, but they are their busiest at dinner time.

I blame the fast food industry. That and the worlds employers. In our hurley burly world, the lunch hour is just that - an hour. I think I may start a revolution to get the lunch hour extended to what it was back in the early nineties ... when fast food would allow you to go to the bank, and do some shopping as well as eat; but if you didn't need to stand in the long queues, or feel the need to listen to terminally dreary music, then you could go out and enjoy lunch from around 11 to just after 2. Now if I could only get hold of the necessary cash.

Wow - what a day

Firstly, Eskom can just plain fuck off. The most important game in the season for Liverpool, the third tie between Liverpool and Arsenal in 6 days, and the return leg of the Champion's League, and Eskom load shed. I mean FUCK. Thankfully the reds won, but I missed out on watching an absolute crackerjack.

But on to today.

We had our appointment with the specialist today. He's got some damn expensive machinery there - probably why his rates are through the roof. But the news is good. Claudia and the twins are all perfectly fine. Twin 2, the smaller one, and the one with SUA is doing just great. All his organs are fine, his brain looks good, heart looks good, has two kidneys, all good; just a bit smaller. Currently estimated at 16g below his big brother (who it must be said is far from camera shy - he was opening his legs wide for the camera ... little porn star) but both are over 400g, and looking good. Just had to share.

Buying a stroller

This weekend was a very trying time. My wife and I needed to check out some items that we have to purchase. Cots, prams, car seats ... the list is endless. Now, we had done some research on the web (wonderful thing this Internet); and thought we had the perfect item. The Peg Aria Twin looked to be perfect, Claudia even liked the colours. So we trundled off to the new Peg shop near us, full of hope and, despite the potential black hole developing near my pocket, desire.

The shop was not a disappointment. In fact it was beautiful - the pram was right in our eye line as we walked in too. And it looked pretty good. We wandered around with it for a bit, up and down the aisles, testing the turning circle - as you do ...

Then - the ultimate test. Does it fold down small enough? After some in ital difficulty starting the fold, it all seemed ridiculously easy. One fold, one extra click .... hhhhmmmmm. Still a rather large, bulky rectangle shape. Oh, well - maybe I wasn't doing it right. After we found a shop attendant who was willing to help us - an almost impossible task considering we actually want to spend money - I discovered I wasn't doing anything wrong - that is indeed the extent of the fold. Damn. Maybe it'll fit ... So off we went to the car to check it out. Alas! Not in the wildest drug induced imaginings of L Ron Hubbard ...

So now we are in a dilemma. This was the best bet of twin prams sold in South Africa. There are literally no makes that fold smaller than the Peg. The only make we could find online was Combi - a states company that, as is depressingly normal, doesn't sell in South Africa. Now, how - pray tell - do I get this in the country? Grey importing may be a problem for the authorities; but it seems to be my ONLY resource. Unless I find someone who's travelling back from the States or some other first world country in the next few months.

After that, and a wee bit of an emotional cry, the rest of the weekend passed pretty well. Well that is until I managed to lock both of us out of the house. All because we had to test the dimensions of the Combi in the middle of the night. Okay, 8 pm, but still ... fortunately, we managed to break open the garage and retrieve the house keys. My hand is still aching, but it is better than spending the night outside.

Technicalities

I just read an excellent article on batting, and the technical aspects of it. From the Cricinfo article written by Suresh Menon:

There is more than one way to be successful. More than one way to be effective. All batsmanship can be reduced to the moment when the bat actually meets the ball, and then the only rule is: balance is all. Watch the great players - bats may come down from second slip, the ball might be met on the rise or away from the body, the wrong hand might lead the shot. Yet at the moment of contact, there is perfect balance.

Action Cricket Chronicles - fit the 6th

In a dramatic break with tradition, a scant 2 days rest was allowed before the team was called once more into the breach. And it was a stupid time to play, 10 at night is ridiculous. To top it off, the team was faced with table topping competition. Slaughter was on the cards.

Unsure of conditions, and full of fight, we took to the field first. Unsure, not only of conditions, but of the substitute player, one Ken by name. It was clear a herculean effort would be required. JC stood at the peak of his run up. The tension was thick. When the first ball was smote for a massive 4, the weak among you would have curled up and wept in fear of the beating that would surely follow. Not JC. Not this team. His second ball snuck through the defenses and cleaned the stumps up. The fielding turned electric, with only singles coming from the flashing blades of the opposition. And when Ruaan replicated the first over, by smashing the stumps down in the second – the team started to believe. That belief was well rewarded by a stunning catch in the third (bowled by Kevin), a beautiful piece of fielding bringing a run out in the fourth (Wayne’s first over); and to cap it off – the final ball of the first pair was caught superbly to send the opposition reeling out with just 15 on the board.

The second pair wobbled in, the surely unfamiliar figures of 15 flashing above them … Ross stood there, mean, glaring. And although no wickets fell during that first fiery over, only 6 runs resulted. Wayne took up the ball eagerly, hoping to replicate his first over, and placate the hounds baying for blood … He was so eager, he overstepped on the first, but more than made up for it when a low chance was taken brilliantly with the third. Just to mess with the minds of our opponents, after the pint sized menace that is robo-bowler, the giant Kevin scared the batters stupid forcing a runout from his fourth delivery and finishing the over with two dots to set up a thrilling final over for the pair. Colin bowled it, and the wickets tumbled, with an excellent catch off the second, and a runout off the penultimate ball. Two pairs down, and only 35 on the board.

The Bun started the third pair off, and forced another runout with the penultimate ball of his first over. Ross then brought it back spectacularly, with two wickets including a stumping off the final ball. Attila finished off his allotted overs with a catch off his second ball, before having the spell spoiled by a phenomenal smashed straight six off his final delivery. Colin then took up the attack, and despite gifting a few runs, managed to entice a catch to send the pair back with 38 to their names, and the opponents still shy of the hundred mark.

The final two walked in to face their fate, and the unknown element. Ken did alright starting us off, with no wickets, but a tidy line conceding just 7. JC then stormed in, and managed to induce two catches in two deliveries just before the end of the over. His hat-trick was denied unfortunately. Ruaan then took ball in hand and was immediately smashed straight down the ground for a sensational six. He brought it back manfully, and ended up only conceding 12 from the over. The final over fell to the unknown Ken, and he complied by gifting the opponents 4 extras, before managing a single wicket to save some value from the over. And that was it – a mere 106 on the board.

Alas, The heroics on the field did not help a tired team find the mettle to withstand an excellent attack. With a runout first ball, and a catch off the second, the scene was set. Ross and Attila attempted to up the tempo, but were beaten twice while advancing down and the opposing wicky was too good to miss out. Nevertheless, 10 runs from the first pair was healthy, and well in line with the 15 the opponents made, just not quite enough.

Colin and Wayne took up the mantle shortly afterwards, and despite a valiant effort, managed to add very little, advancing the score by a mere 7. Mostly due to Wayne having his circuits slightly frazzled, and being stumped 4 times. The final two balls of their partnership were also dots, just to rub in the pain.

Kevin, and Ken, took up their weapons and set about rebuilding the innings. Wickets tumbled in regular succession from the one end, whilst runs trickled off Kevin’s bat; and the game was pretty much up. JC and Ruaan walked in needing 73 runs to tie, that was simply a bridge too far. The two resurrected their partnership, and added 33 flawless runs, but ultimately, the challenge was just out of reach.

What a performance from the team though. Brilliant fielding, and superb bowling was let down by some ordinary batsmanship. Now, if only we could get the two elements to gel …