JCL2, Sharks vs Adore 27.08.14
At Sano 3 – By Nick Creece
It was hot, extremely hot when we all gathered at the ground and painted ourselves in sunscreen. Adore won the toss and elected to bat. They only had eight, so we were keen to roll them and get the runs then get out of the bloody heat.
Mairaj and Rui opened up and both bowled consistent lines, Rui beating the outside edge on many occasions with his outswingers. One of them was so close that Sumon and I at first slip were sure he had it hit. However, nobody else shared our enthusiasm.
Mairaj finally broke through and with Sakaguchi gone, we had them 1 for 20. That was about the time that we sort of dropped the bundle. Our bowling continued on decent lines, but our length was a little short. Both Kiminami and Uegaki were quite happy to wait for the bad ball and belt it away. They played a little riskily, but they rode their luck and put on a partnership of 72 at a decent clip before Murad enticed an errant cut from Kiminami from a ball that was not there to be cut. The result was a bottom edge onto the stumps. During that partnership both batsmen had been dropped to “ the simplest of chances”.
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In the oppressive heat the sharks fielding was wilting and at the second drinks break the thunder that sounded like the World War 1 front, was getting closer. Secretly, I think most of us were hoping that it would arrive quickly. After the second drinks break we put down a few more catchable chances. By the 26th over the thunder was almost upon us and with the wicket of Uegaki, out to a fine catch off Dave, we decided to pack up just in case the storm came.
And we were bloody lucky that the decision was made. When we had almost packed up the storm crashed on us with full force. Everyone scampered into the cars. For the next twenty minutes we were stuck in our cars as they were belted with rain and the thunder roared and the lightning crashed around us.
When the storm moved on the water on the ground and pitch prevented any more play.
Rui, finished with 0-21 off 7, was the pick of the bowlers and was very unlucky not to get a few wickets. He was well supported by Mairaj, 1-30 off 5, and Murad, 1-26 off 5.
Our fielding was substandard and failed to back up the bowling.
For Adore, Kiminami got 43, Uegaki 66 and Hashiba was on 31 not out when the storm came.
Who knows what glory could have flowed from the sharks bats if we had had a chance to wield them in the second innings!
