Match Report - ANZA1 v Marina CC 1 (Div. 1 KO)

ANZA1 v Marina CC 1 at Turf City B, Saturday 27 September 08

Scorecard

It was a typically hot Saturday morning and as I stepped onto the Kallang cricket ground (around 5 minutes before the official 9am start time...) I found the captain still busy giving wake up calls to 3 of our players (which included myself).

By 9:05 the number of players that had reached the ground was now 10, which is how it stayed for the rest of the game. The captain went for the toss which he promptly lost, but the decision by the opposing captain was favorable to us as I reckon we had good mixture of bowling (swing, medium pace, and spin).

Kevin threw the ball to our swing bowlers and said 'mate you know what to do in T20'. Tim bowled his first over very well, while on the other end Matt started off with an expensive over. At the end of the 4th over Marina had scored 41 runs without losing a wicket. Venkat took over from Tim and started the 5th over of the innings by bowling his first ball into the batsman's pads, hitting him on middle and leg, and asked the question but the umpire turned it down (I thought it was close enough for him to raise the finger, at least in the Singapore style of umpiring). At that point one of the Marina openers struck some good cricketing shots to score boundaries on both sides of the park. Then the much awaited breakthrough came in Matt's 3rd over and the partnership was broken at 56 runs. Matt did well to bowl consistently outside the off stump, but the umpire was tough and signaled some of them as wide balls.

I was then expecting the captain to go for some spin bowling, but surprisingly he continued with two of our other medium pacers (Mike Gal and Jonno). Both showed everyone on the ground how to bowl in T20 with immediate success and were backed up excellently by some of our fielders, namely Corbon, Dhruv, Harmeet and Tim . Mike got immediate results with two wickets in his first over and one wicket by Jonno in his first over. Suddenly Marina was on the back foot by losing 3 wickets in the span of 15 runs. At the end of the 10th over they had scored 95/5.

Marina started taking singles and for the 6th wicket they scored 44 runs. To break the partnership Kevin changed the field positions and got success immediately. This was followed by a run out from an excellent direct hit by Tim May. By end of 16th over Marina scored 141/8, and Kevin called back Tim and Venkat to finish the innings. Both completed the last 4 overs without much damage and at the end of 20th over Marina scored 164/8.

Unfortunately we lost two overs from our batting though due to a slow over rate leaving us only 18 overs in which to chase down the target, and after having 10 minutes break and some sandwiches ANZA started batting with Corbon and Ashok. Corbon started cautiously, whereas Ashok started with a boundary, but soon Ashok got bowled. Then our blaster Dhruv, with his shiny new bat endorsed by T20 specialist Yuvraj, joined Corbon. Both tried to accelerate the score before Dhruv got out for 7 by a good juggling catch. Kevin joined Corbon and both put together the best partnership of the innings before Corbon fell with the score on 72 to a full toss - but Corbon wasn't happy with the decision as it was above waist height and should have been given as a no ball.

After a few more runs had been added Kevin got out for 30 runs. Then big hitter Jonno joined Harmeet, and the two of them started with singles and doubles until Harmeet was bowled by a ball that didn't get up. The team's only left handed batsmen Tim joined Jonno and both hit some good shots before Tim got out in the 18th over on the last ball of the innings with a score of 12 runs. Jonno was left not out on 23 runs and ANZA 124-6, losing the game by 40 runs.

Best performances of the day:
Bowling:
    Matt Murphy 4-0-38-2
    Mike Gal 4-0-27-2
    Jonno Seifman 4-0-29-3

Batting:
    Corbon Loughnan 29 (4's:4)
    Kevin Robertson 30 (4's:3)
    Jonno Seifman 23 (4's:3)

(written by Venkat Mandadi)