At least we can't get any worse
James Zanotti, 28 July 2010 14:08
After losing the toss (again!), Staff were asked to
bat on a typical Carnegie pitch. The innings got off to the
worst possible start with Steve and James both out in the first
over. When Paul was out in the 3rd over, we were 3 down and yet
to put a run on the board. Vijay got us off the team duck, but
Sethu was also soon joining his team mates back in the pavilion
and we were 1-4. Vivek came in for his first league game for
Staff and got off the mark with a lovely pull shot. However his
stay was also a short one, so we sent in Kevin to try to hold
things up. This worked for a while and the run of wickets seemed
to have stopped. With Vijay quietly accumulating runs at the
other end, we soon passed the 30 mark. Yes thirty! Kev's
resistance finally came to an end and this triggered a
hat-trick. All this time, Vijay was standing horrified at the
non-striker's end. I think he was still suffering shock when he
spooned a catch to square leg to finally be out for a very
valuable 19. Srikanth tried to hit us to respectability, but was
caught on the boundary and our innings closed on 35.
Since tea still hadn't arrived at the ground, we went straight out
to field. Srikanth and James opened the bowling and enjoyed the
bounce in the pitch, getting the opening batsmen jumping about. We
didn't have much luck in the first few overs, with several aerial
shots just missing fielders. Srikanth got the first breakthrough
and we had our first bonus point. We soon had 2 wickets when the
"pensioner at gully" took a nice catch diving forward. We managed
to pick up a 3rd wicket and, more importantly, a second bonus
point, when the scores were level. However the game was over next
ball when we conceded an overthrow.
So overall, a game that is best forgotten about. The only
highlights being Vijay's stubborn resistance and Paul's nice
catch.
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