JCL1 Sharks vs Wyverns 05/04/14 Tanuma
By Anton Lloyd-Williams
Nestling forgotten in the far north of Sano city is a sleepy rural backwater called Tanuma. From the forlorn looking station, made from a couple of pieces of corrugated tin and a Coke machine, a dusty main street winds its empty way past a few shops that sell old ladies clothes, an antique shrine and some vegetable plots. The ancient gardeners look up as our car trundles past. Over the crumbling little bridge we go and then turn into Tanuma High School. There are no students here, no baseball shouts, no brass bands; the school was closed last year. The cherry blossom drifts through the silent forecourt and falls like confetti onto the heads of the players, as if in subdued celebration of the return of youth and vigour…
Well rather than youth and vigour it would have to make do with your roving Chiba Sharks! The beatific vernal peace was soon rent asunder by the clamour and bustle of an unwrapping Camp Shark. With joints still creaking and groaning from last weekend’s Fuji action, the team clambered into their whites, hisashiburied some returning faces and over-applied sunblock as the weather was beautiful. The clack of the mallet against a new bat assaulted the ears along with yelps as catching practice exposed some still soft palms.
The Tanuma ground looked stunning; surrounded by glorious Spring nature on 3 sides and the imposing school building, still in perfect order, on the other; a wonderful location for the Sharks to open their account for the season against The Wyverns, a perennial thorn in the Sharks side over recent seasons.
For the Sharks; Vicky (C), Dhughal, Pave, Sankar, Anton, Takady, Molloy, Adit, Murad, Sumon (W) and Alwin. Mairaj very gamely turned out as 12th man and played a good part in the days match.
Sharks Bowling
Wyverns won the toss and elected to bat. This was an unfamiliar looking Wyverns side as a lot of the bedrock of their batting was missing; Chino had gone to the USA and wild man Ogawa (he of 200+* against Sharks 2nds fame) was not on the roster. There were still a few respected bats among them though so the bowlers would need to get out of the blocks in good order.
Vicky chose Takady to lead the attack; one of numerous inspired moves from Il Capitano throughout the day. Takady bowled a frankly unplayable spell, delivering the ball with genuine pace and weight on a good length and finding a squirt of extra bounce to beat the bat time after time. He bowled 14 dot balls before Hanada edged a single out through point, almost to his own disbelief. It was an awesome spectacle and got the whole team pumped.
Adit provided good support at the other end, taking a few balls to find his line, but getting good movement back into the batsmen, never allowing them to settle. He made the early breakthrough, catching a Hanada drive low down off his own bowling in the fourth over.
The new batsman, Yagita was thrown into the Takady tornado and could only watch as the ball went through him and struck the top of middle stump, ricocheting half way to the boundary thereafter. It took a while to find the bales which gave Tomita time to discuss tactics with his fellow Wyvern at the crease. The end of that chat had to wait till after the game though as Adit baffled him with an inswinger that hit him square on the toe. Plum LBW.
No prisoners! Cap’n Vicky brought himself into attack. New man Ito looked to take the fight to the bowlers and advanced up the pitch. He advanced all the way back to the sidelines as Vicky uprooted his woodwork with a Sancheti Special for a wicket maiden first over.
The Wyverns were reeling at 17 for 4 in the 7th over. Tight fielding from Mairaj (on for Adit) and Sankar left the scoreboard stagnant and with batsmen dropping like…Wyverns, a sense of panic took hold resulting in what has, until recently, been a Sharks speciality – the much loved Suicidal Single. The handy looking Matsuchika was the one left stranded and Takady comfortably returned the ball to Sumon over the stumps. It was a bit of a waste of a good batsman who had patiently survived the opening maelstrom with poise and a straight bat.
Wyverns skipper Uehara joined the apologetic Kubota in the middle, knowing that an unprecedented rout was on the cards. 20 for 5 in the 10th over. These two played anything onto them with dead bats and left everything else alone. Molloy bowled a superb line through the corridor of uncertainty and bullied the batsman and batswoman with some snorting extra bounce off the pitch, giving them a good sniff of the ball. The two bats hung around well though, defying Molloy and Dhugal’s teasing lines, looking to get to drinks at 18 overs where they could perhaps rally the troops.
With pace failing to open the door to the Wyverns tail, Takady used his cunning to send down a mesmerizing slower ball that Kubota played all over, leaving her furniture in tatters behind her. With that ball, Takady showed just how far he has come in the last year. A bowler of true maturity and quality.
After drinks, the Wyverns decided to go for broke and hit out at the bowlers. As the saying goes; if you are going to swing, then swing big, and this they did, sending numerous edges over the slips, through the gully and 3rd man. Nakano was really opening his shoulders and clobbering anything he could see. Always keen to give the opposition a fair go, the Sharks dropped a couple of catches but things started to unravel for them when Vicky trapped the unflappable Uehara LBW.
Dhugal then took a screamer of a catch, flying to his right at short mid wicket to give Alwin a deserved scalp, who followed that by cleaning up Ohara with a stock wicket to wicket ball.
Murad then donned the gloves to give Sumon a chance to send his spinners down and Pave bamboozled the flaying bats as the innings came to an end. Murad took a sharp catch behind off Dhugal to dispatch Wyverns for 95 all out in the 33rd over.
Considering the disastrous position in which they found themselves early on, it was a pretty good recovery from the Wyverns, lead in no small part by the dogged Uehara and Kubota. Nakano showed a lot of pluck finishing on an unbeaten 29 which gave the Wyverns final tally at least a speck of gloss.
The Sharks bowling ranged from very good to spectacular:
| O | M | W/N | W | R | |
| T. Takada | 6 | 4 | 0/0 | 2 | 3 |
| A. Tallapragada | 5 | 0 | 5/3 | 2 | 27 |
| V. Sancheti | 6 | 3 | 1/0 | 2 | 8 |
| C. Molloy | 3 | 0 | 1/0 | 0 | 9 |
| D. Bedingfield | 4 | 0 | 5/1 | 1 | 12 |
| P. Velusamy | 4 | 1 | 2/0 | 0 | 13 |
| A. Kansakar | 3 | 1 | 0/0 | 2 | 7 |
| M. Haque | 2 | 0 | 0/0 | 0 | 9 |
KKKKKK
Sharks Batting
96 to knock off. Shouldn’t take long. Put the kettle on, we’ll be back at home for high tea. Yeah, right. Sharks faithful are well aware of our ability to implode with the bat and we generally start our innings with the first seven batsmen padded up.
With several key batsmen missing from the Sharks line up as well, Il Capitano decided to open with Molloy and Sumon. Wyverns top bowlers, Nakano and Hanada would lead the fight back but it was felt that the batsmen, combining fluid strokeplay with solid defence, would be more than a match. This early promise lasted all of 3 balls though as Sumon caught an edge that went straight into the keepers gloves.
Molloy looked more comfortable after a good drive for 2 and then less comfortable as he came back to the hutch next ball falling in identical fashion to his opening partner. Well! 3 for 2 after 2 overs At least we were getting close to the required run rate.
Takady and Dhughal at the crease now and both looked to find the measure of the pitch. There was a suggestion from the batsmen already back that the ball seemed to stick in the pitch and it would be best to play as late as possible. (This is good news for some of our players more gifted in years, such as Anton, KB and Mairaj, as they play everything late regardless of conditions.) Both Sharks looked solid, meeting the ball with a straight bat and not worrying about accumulating dots.
Having got a fine pair of ducks at Fuji, Takady looked to play himself in and took eight dot balls to reach his third duck of the season, caught behind off the impressive Hanada.
Pave stepped up for his debut 40 over knock and looked to work the ball around with some wristy looking shots. Dhughal continued his quiet vigil, soaking up the quality and punishing the bad ball with low risk drives along the carpet, punctuating the dots with 4s.
After 10 overs, Sharks were 26 for 3. Hardly great stuff but in the context of a low scoring match, it was about enough. Pave looked to press the issue a little more and struck a great boundary through the covers. He tried to repeat the dose next ball and was lucky to see the ball loop over the man at point. It was proving to be a pitch for the patient player but Pave couldn’t wait to get forward to one that kept low and skittled him in the 11th over.
By now the wheels on the Sharks cart were making some unhealthy noises. Vicky was next in and this partnership would be the make or break one. If Dhughal got a jaffer and Vicky played an up and over and out innings then we could soon be in very big trouble. However the skipper knuckled down to a Captain’s innings and played securely along the deck, keeping the she-wolf inside him on a tight leash. Singles were also taken wherever possible but Camp Shark was given plenty to wince at as Vicky casually sauntered home with the ball flying in over the stumps.
Nevertheless, these two sealed the Wyverns fate with a solid, discerning array of strokes including a Dhugal pull over the shoulder for 4 which had the scorers desk purring.
It was a shame that Vicky could not bring the Sharks home when he played too early at an innocuous ball that dug in and was caught by Uehara at shortish mid off.
The task of accompanying the free hitting Dhugal across the finishing line was left to Murad and he looked very solid, playing some well-timed cuts for 2. Dhughal rounded off the match and his own unbeaten innings with a straight drive that also brought up his half century.
Sharks 99 for 5 from 29 overs.
| B | 4 | 6 | R | ||||
| M. Haque | c. Tomita | b. Nakano | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| C. Molloy | c. Tomita | b. Hanada | 6 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| D. Bedingfield | ggg | Not Out | 85 | 6 | 0 | 50 | |
| T. Takada | c. Tomita | b. Hanada | 8 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| P. Velusamy | ggg | b. Machida | 14 | 1 | 0 | 8 | |
| V. Sancheti | c. Uehara | b. Hanada | 27 | 1 | 0 | 15 | |
| K. Murad | ggg | Not Out | 28 | 0 | 0 | 9 | |
| A. Kansakar | c. Ohta | DNB | 9 | 0 | 0 | 3 | |
| A. Lloyd-Williams | c. Chino | DNB | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0 | |
| S. Prodhan | ggg | DNB | 3 | 0 | 0 | 1 | |
| A. Tallapragada | Not out | DNB | 2 | 0 | 0 | 2 | |
| Extras | W12 N1 B2 L0 | 15 | |||||
| Total | 99 | For 5 wkts | 29 0vers | ||||
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A win is a win. This wasn’t a demolition job by any means and indeed, the score line does not reflect the concern on Shark brows as the top order batsmen passed each other in the revolving door. Nonetheless, there were numerous plus points to be taken from the match; our attack is second to none, our fielding is fully committed rather than flawless and team spirit is bubbling. When Prashant, Dave L, Chris T and Creece rejoin the Sharks travelling circus then we’ll be holding all the cards.
Many thanks to Wyverns for the game, to umpire B. Miyaji, to Murad for acting as MO and of course to 12th man Mairaj who brought his charm and composure to the whole proceedings.
