Match Report - ANZA1 v CSC1

ANZA1 v CSC1 at CSC, Sunday 23 March 08

Scorecard

With a team light on bowling it wasn't ideal that we lost the toss and were put in to field.

The opening CSC batsman seemed intent to get on top by playing some wild slogs in the second over to get them off to a flier. However after one expensive over things settled down and the run rate returned to a more realistic figure. However it took until the 17th over for the first wicket to fall, this going to first team debutant Venkat Mandadi - the first of many for him it turned out. With Dhruv Soota containing the batsmen at the other end and taking a few wickets of his own, Venkat induced many a false shot which kept teasing the fielders and landing in empty gaps. He finally got his due with 3 wickets in 3 overs, including that of the opener who had scored 70 by this point (and had used up all of his 9 lives) - credit for this one also has to go to Glen Wright who took an absolute screamer behind the stumps, diving full stretch to his right to take an excellent one-handed catch. Venkat's 5-for was duly completed with a catch by fellow debutant Paul Meaker at third man. Gavin Hitzeroth had a go at being the fifth bowler but unfortunately ended up with an over he would probably rather forget! Kevin Robertson then managed to get away with 5 relatively uneventful overs which included one wicket, and the last wicket of the innings was a simple catch to Craig Richmond at mid-on off Tim May's bowling. Despite taking the catch, however, Craig ended up being the fourth 'finger' casualty of the season for ANZA (and third in three games for the ones!) - the ball 'smashing' the pinky on the way into the hands. Overall a good performance in the field as almost all catches - both easy and hard - were gobbled up comfortably.

Unfortunately there isn't much to say about the batting. The opening bowler was bowling to a field containing at least 4 slips, 2 gulleys and a point and rattled the top order with 4 wickets in his first four overs - fortunately though he wasn't fit enough to bowl more than 5 overs on the trot! After that only Gavin, Matthew Murphy and Adam Seabright showed any resistance, but in the end the innings was closed in the 23rd over with the fall of the 9th wicket - Craig by now having returned from hospital with confirmation of a finger broken in two places and thus preferring not to bat.

Man of the match goes to Venkat for his magnificent 5-wicket haul.

Brief scores: CSC1 247 all out in 44.5 overs (V Mendadi 5-50, D Soota 3-39, K Robertson 1-33, T May 1-39)
ANZA1 80 all out in 22.1 overs (G Hitzeroth 21)

- Kevin Robertson