Japan Cup. Sharks vs Keio Knights, YC&AC
15 June, 2014 – By Kris Bayne
The second Shark game of the weekend was our J-Cup fixture against Keio Knights at YCAC. There is a feeling that after an indifferent start the club is stringing together some good form and solid performances. Keio did not stand in our way towards another victory.
It was a great day for cricket and family atmosphere as the Sharks showed up in massive generational force. The all-boys Thurgate and Creece clans provided perhaps a long-term glimpse of the Shark future and several players updated us on their families-on-the-way. Besides the team, Dave and Vicky showed up with their better halves, Karthik came for a quick hello and Prashant was a visitor to his old haunt. But, to do battle today was a fine cross-section of the club:
Chris T., Dhugal, Moto, Rui, Takuma, Mairaj, Sankar, Nick, Adit, Alwin and Kris B. Chris lost the toss and we batted.
Batting
Alwin, who had showed a good ability to rotate the strike and make runs in the J-Cup finals, opened with Dhugal. The flat YCAC track takes getting used to and the first 5 overs passed cautiously. Ominously for Keio, however, Dhugal had started to find his range through square as the pair took 17 off the 6th over. A very ambitious call from Alwin, however, saw the Japan National Coach back in the tent for 23. 1-40. A top-edge by Alwin (10) was then snapped up at 3rd man with no further addition to the scoreboard.
When Chris joined Nick neither had faced a ball. First scoring shot 4 – what else? When he had his chance, Nick, his first game since the final, then played all over it to be bowled leg stump, wringing an intonation-perfect, “You are JOKING!!” summary from young Jack Creece on the sidelines. 3-44 after 9 and we were not exactly flexing our muscles. Sankar, recovered from his ankle injury, joined Chris. The two then rattled on 40 runs off the next 6 overs. Both moved into gear after slow starts and soon Keio were chasing leather to various parts of the ground. Sankar went chancy and aerial while Chris pummeled anything on his legs.
At 85 in the 15th Sankar went uppish a bit too often and was caught for 19. Takuma joined Chris, paired again after a fine rearguard action a few weeks ago. In this case, however, it was quick runs that were required. And with the second-string Keio bowlers on, Mr. T put down the big foot! A 4 followed by a 6 disappeared to fine leg. A few singles were knocked around by the pair then again Chris launched into the night, soon followed by another 4 as he raced toward yet another half century.
Takuma was doing a great supporting role and the penultimate over had him facing. He first whipped one off his legs to beat a desperate fine leg and just to show it was no fluke he calmly and stylishly lifted the next ball over the same fielder for his first ever 6!! Chris’ fifty was not to be but he definitely enjoyed being a spectator to Takuma’s cameo, the pair adding 46 invaluable runs.
| How Out | 4/6 | Balls | Runs | |
| Dhugal | Run Out | 3/0 | 27 | 23 |
| Alwin | Caught | 0/0 | 20 | 10 |
| Nick | Bowled | 0/0 | 1 | 0 |
| Chris T | NOT OUT | 6/2 | 30 | 48 |
| Sankar | Caught | 3/0 | 28 | 19 |
| Takuma | NOT OUT | 1/1 | 12 | 13 |
| Mairaj, Rui, Moto, Aditya, Kris | DID NOT BAT | |||
| W15 NB3 B0 LB0 | ||||
| Extras | 18 | |||
| 20 overs | 4 | for | 131 | |
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After looking a bit behind the pace after three quick wickets we posted a very defendable score. Sharks 4-131 off 20 overs.
Bowling
Chris opted to run through the bowlers in one-over spells. We opened with the ‘odd couple’: the metronomic, swing-king, Rui, followed by Kris’ geriatric pop-spin. True to form Rui sent down a right-on-the-spot maiden. Kris backed it up with a solid over that had the batsman second guessing. Aditya proved relatively expensive before Dhugal made the first incision with his first ball, demolishing the pegs.
Mairaj followed up with a classic maiden and the Sharks were bowling and fielding as a unit to have Keio 1-14 off 5 overs. Alwin’s over should have yielded a runout which in the end was 4 overthrowns but at least we were hunting! Takuma ended the run of new bowlers by sending down an over of growing promise and probing the batsmen. We still only had one wicket, however this was about to change. Mairaj sent down another great pressure over for a couple of runs. Fast becoming our ‘go-to’ man Chris tossed the ball to Rui. He soon enough smashed one into the stumps, should have then had a plumb LBW, but then decided to cut out the doubt, bowling the batsman off his pads for a double wicket maiden.
Again a miserly Bayne over followed. Dhugal was back in the action with another wicket bowled as the runs dried up and the wickets tumbled. Takuma got reward for his great line – his first Shark wicket – a beautiful ball which hit middle dead-centre two-thirds the way up. Keio hung around surviving against overs from Mairaj, Rui and Takuma, eking out scratchy singles here and there.
Kris’ return and faithful line yielded the fielding highlight of the evening. Restricted to hitting in the same area the batsman hit low and hard through mid-wicket where Nick took a superb, low catch. As reward for his great ‘you-shall-not-pass-(especially my mighty boot)’ fielding all night, Moto got his chance with ball in hand. After a loose one he sent down two tidy overs. Kris then nailed a second with a gently lofted ball finding Dhugal’s safe hands at mid on. Takuma closed off the strangle hold to leave Keio well short, 7-81 off their 20 overs.
| Bowler | Overs | Maidens | wd/nb | Runs | Wickets |
| Rui | 3 | 2 | 1/0 | 3 | 2 |
| Kris | 4 | 0 | 2/0 | 18 | 2 |
| Adit | 1 | 0 | 0/0 | 8 | 0 |
| Dhugal | 2 | 0 | 0/0 | 5 | 2 |
| Mairaj | 3 | 1 | 1/0 | 7 | 0 |
| Alwin | 1 | 0 | 1/2 | 11 | 0 |
| Takuma | 4 | 0 | 0/0 | 15 | 1 |
| Moto | 2 | 0 | 2/0 | 11 | 0 |
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We had a good day in the field. A couple of run outs went begging but we were tight all innings, backing up and supporting each other. There were some great chase downs by Sankar, Rui and Takuma. There was pressure on the runners at all times.
That makes it two from two in the Japan Cup. After a slowish start it was relatively easy in the end. The pleasing thing was the continued progress of the youngsters and signs of life in the old guys. Everyone got into the game in some way. It was really pleasing to have so many Sharks, wives and kids around to show we are the top cricket club in Japan! It was a good day’s cricket and nice to have a quiet beer at the end. Next up in J-Cup, YCAC at YCAC.
