Match Report - ANZA1 v IA1

ANZA1 v IA1 at IA, Sunday 06 April 08

Scorecard

Another game, another lost toss... This time though I was more than happy to hear that for once we had been put in to bat as we had a strong batting line up on paper.

The wicket turned out to be exceptionally slow, however, and with a typically heavy Turf City outfield this made scoring quite difficult. Opening the batting Dave Jacquier and Kevin Robertson made slow progress until Dave was given out LBW and subsequently walked off more quietly than I have ever seen him do! Unfortunately Kevin followed not too long afterwards to a tame dismissal, and Rags Thuraisingham earned himself a golden duck to a questionable decision following a very loud and convincing appeal. And with ANZA being in their usual state of having lost half of their top order for not many runs (16-3) it was left to debutant Ben Burgess and Gavin Hitzeroth to make repairs. They were doing a good job until there was a mix up and Gavin ended up being run out for 17. Again a middle order collapse and 70-3 became 74-6 in no time at all, one of these being Ben who holed out on the long on boundary for a well made 33. The target by this stage was just to bat through to the 50 over mark with every run counting - Renato Rainone and Phil Davies scored some vital runs and hung around at the crease well to frustrate the opposition, but once the opening bowler switched to bowling off-spin Renato ended up gloving one to the keeper. The last 3 wickets earned us 14 runs, one of which was unfortunately another mix up which saw Matthew Murphy being run out after just one ball with both batsman standing practically at the same end. Phil eventually brought the innings to a close in the 44th over after making a much-needed 20. Final score: 111 all out.

During a quick pre-lunch session out in the field we managed to get ourselves back in the game. First ball of the innings Matt bowled a full-toss to the Malaysian captain who ended up spooning the ball to Kevin in the covers. Looking for the same result again Matt bowled a second full toss next ball... This time no wicket, but he himself earned a warning for it being above waist height. First ball of the third over of the innings and out came another full toss, though whether or not it was above waist height is certainly debatable. The umpires were not to be swayed though and promptly brought an early end to Matt's spell. Venkat completed the over, and between him and Dave managed to restrict the flow of runs. Impatience soon told on the batting team though and the second wicket (another catch in covers by Kevin, this time off Dave) took us to lunch. 23-2. After lunch was much the same, with Venkat inducing a good catch by Phil at mid on and Dave picking up his second wicket of the game, bowled off the pads. At 55-2 in 14 overs (including 12 from no balls/wides), lightning and thunder drove the players off the field to wait it out. It wasn't long though before the rain was pelting down and the outfield became unplayable, putting an abrupt end to the game with both teams sharing the points.

As was the case a few weeks ago a result either way could have been attained if the game had gone it's full course.

Brief scores: ANZA1 111 all out in 43.4 overs (B Burgess 33, P Davies 20, G Hitzeroth 17) IA1 55-4 in 14 overs (D Jacquier 2-27, V Mandadi 1-21, M Murphy 1-4)

Result: Match abandoned, 5 points each

- Kevin Robertson