WL – 28.12.13 Action Sports Stadium (ASS), Kashiwa
By Kris Bayne
Quite an eventful day in world and local cricket on Jan 28, 2013! The Ashes were still well and truly ablaze at the MCG. South Africa at home slugged it out with India in the great Jacques Kallis’ final Test. We had a real international player grace the green carpet at Kashiwa in England T20, ODI and soon-to-be Test player, Natalie Sciver. But the biggest game on the planet saw the Hammerhead Sharks and Bull Sharks sink their significant teeth into each other in the ASS.
The Exhibitionists
Firstly, however, three Sharks, Vicky, Aditya and Chris Molloy (plus three Wyverns – Masubuchi, Hagino & Ueno) featured in an exhibition game against Natalie Sciver and a Japan Women’s selection. That was some serious firepower on the boys’ side, but Sciver is the owner of an international hat-trick! Batting first, the Sharkverns mowed a very aggressive 142, middle pair of Vicky (28) and Chris (12) added solid 40, and Adit 19 in his dig. In all the boys kept Sciver wicketless. The Shark duo of Vicky and Adit opened with ball against Sciver and Yanagida. The girls still had 1-gets-3 so in real terms it was a pasting. They kept the pair to 27, effectively pinning Yanagida on strike for most of the time. In the process Vicky bowled Sciver with one of many beauties. In his last over three Adit ‘classics’ fixed up Yanagida. The first two balls swung in, pitched and moved away, both clipping the outside of off stump. The third was just popped up straight to the close-in fielder for a hat-trick. In his two overs Chris was solid, beating the bat and only giving ‘singles’, and with the Wyverns boys holding up their hands – bar an 18 off Hagino by Mrs. Miyaji! – they kept the women to 120. Great cricket and really superb bowling and batting from Vicky (1/25), Adit (4/2) and Chris (0/24).
Hammerhead Sharks VS Bull Sharks
So! On to the main event! In the past, all-Shark practice games have been both very ‘hot’ and very close. This would be the first time Sharks have faced Sharks with points on the line. In the pre-game intro to the squad, Kris presented new players and welcomed back an ‘old’ player in the form of the all-conquering Koji. It was great to see a very busy Awal again after a long break, too. New Shark fan Andy was impressed and even Murad showed up to watch the game. Kris also made a point about SLEDGING – even in the absence of ‘chirp-meisters’, Lollback and Lloyd-Williams, purveyors of hard- and soft-centred put-downs, he expected to hear a lot of chat, with points for imagination and in as many languages as possible! The toss was ‘tossed’ in favour of Scott’s train schedule back to the steppes of Narita – Hammerheads bowled.
Bulls Bat, Hammerheads Bowl – Mairaj and Awal faced up to Alwin, Karthik, Kris and Scott in their four overs. All bowled very tightly with only ones or two coming for the loss of a couple of bowleds. Good effort by the ‘Heads to keep Bulls to 16. The same bowling combo then took a bit of stick from next pair, Pave and Koji. The pair did not lose a wicket on their way to adding a neat 50 runs. The Heads did not have much to talk about and hurt themselves with too many wides while Pave and Koji milked extras extremely well.
Key bowlers Sumon and Adit were held back for the final quattro of overs against red-hot Vicky, Sharks Batsman of the Year and Chris, Most Improved Player of the Year. Hammerheads started well with Kris getting a slick stumping after a dot, but that more or less open the floodgates as Vicky and Chris opened their shoulders. Only one more ball remained undamaged as the pair punched, caressed and slogged their way to push the score to 115. So after a slow start the Bulls put the hoof down. The Hammerheads were perhaps a little lax in the field to give up 17 ‘extra’ balls and allow some sneaky-smart runs on top, but the Bulls also put up plenty of their own earned runs with sensible and aggressive hitting. A few run-outs probably went begging, as well. Hammerheads had some work to do.
Hammerheads Bat, Bulls Bowl – The Bulls chose to bowl in tandem so Kris and Scott took on Koji and Mairaj. In a carbon copy (read ‘cut and paste’, youngsters) of the Bulls openers, both struggled to make an impact against tight bowling, with a couple of excellent run-outs to boot. Koji’s development as a bowler is amazing and his 4-fer in Australia was no fluke – good line and length with a bit a swing makes him a tempting but difficult customer. Mairaj likewise, and Kris and Scott went alternatively positive and negative to finally finish on 10. Mr. Sancheti relished to chance to pile on the bilingual verbals, not only to the batsmen but giving heaps to the spectators!
Next pair up, Alwin and Karthik had the joyful task of facing a deficit of 106 and Chris Molloy and Awal – Merry Christmas… Alwin opened up his first indoor-at-bat by being stumped – Happy New Year… But the pair settled and both played some great shots in the ‘V’ against some swift, tight and accurate bowling! Runs were scored off all but one ball but they could not find the punishing parts of the nets and they left Hammerheads at 36. A lot rested on the shoulders of next pair, Aditya and Sumon, namely the need for 80 runs to win… or 20 an over.
They had to explode against a very hyped up Vicky and canny Pave. Instead they IMploded. Wickets fell in each over as they strived for runs, but Vicky was on fire and cleaned up both with unplayable deliveries and overall he effected three direct hit run-outs. If he had a handle-bar ‘stache he might have been Mitchell Johnson. Pave was no slouch either and picked up three with two wickets caught. And just to show how ‘on’ the Bulls were in the field, both catches were double-juggle grabs on the back wall, one by Koji and one by Mairaj. Bulls could do no wrong as Vicky and Pave only sent down one wide between them in four over. Until the last ball it was make-some-runs-lose-some-runs so what did they do? Lose some more. They decided to take a run with the ball in Vicky’s hand about three metres dead in front. Suicidal to the tune of several reincarnations. Vicky gleefully sent it through the stumps for the pair to finish on –4 runs… ouch. It was a great bowling-fielding performance from the Bulls. Only 8 wides were bowled, hits to the back were usually cut off, and there were no sixes. Bulls picked up ten wickets to Hammerheads three. Hammerheads spluttered to 33 and Bulls won convincingly with a bonus point from each game so far.
Bulls Sharks 115 (3 outs) Hammerhead Sharks 33 (10 outs)
Awal 8 & 0/17 Kris B 0/21 & 3
Mairaj 8 & 1/8 Scott 1/18 & 7
Koji 14 & 2/2 Alwin 1/15 & 11
Pave 37 & 3/2 Karthik 0/14 & 15
Vicky 23 & 3/-5 Sumon 1/28 & -4
Chris M 25 & 1/9 Aditya 0/20 & 1
Batting Partnerships:
Awal-Mairaj 16, Koji-Pave 50, Vicky-Chris M 48 Kris-Scott 10, Alwin-Karthik 26, Sumon-Adit -3
While it did not turn out as close a contest as we had hoped (Heads anyway because Bull Vicky enjoyed it all immensely), it was fun cricket and the Chiba Sharks were the winners! Pave was awarded the MOM for his great all-round effort.
As for the sledging, I was STILL getting it from Vicky and Chris on the Joban Line at about 11:30pm!!
Last game for 2013 – enjoy the New Year break one and all! Sign up for games in 2014 because we have a big piece of gold plastic to defend. Who knows – we may be defending it from each other!
P.S. Koji bowled me. Merry Christmas, mate. Now nick off!
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Game 1 and 2 Scores & Player Figures
Games One and Two statistics were recovered and here they are.
Hammerhead Sharks
Game 1 vs My-Ys
Hammerheads 96 (3 outs) – My-Ys 50 (10 outs)
Kris B 1/17 & 17 runs Mahesh 1/13 & 9 Aayush 2/3 & 21 Karthik 2/3 & 13 Takady 1/14 & 12 Aditya 3/0 & 24 MOM
Batting Partnerships: Kris-Mahesh 26, Aayush-Karthik 34, Takady-Aditya 36
Game 2 vs Wyverns
Wyverns 50 (9 outs) – Hammerheads 120 (2 outs)
Sumon 1/9 & 33 runs Karthik 1/8 & 18 Mahesh 1/15 & 7 Scott 2/2 & 24 MOM Takady 1/12 & 19 Aditya 2/4 & 19
Batting Partnerships: Sumon-Karthik 51, Scott-Mahesh 31, Takady-Aditya 38
Bull Sharks
Game 1 vs Go Go Ken!
Go Go 60 (11 outs) – Bulls 162 (1 out)
Anton 0/23 & 21 Mairaj 4/-1 & 31 MOM Vicky 2/5 & 36 Pave 1/19 & 30 Dave L 2/4 & 17 Chris M 2/10 & 27
Batting Partnerships: Anton-Mairaj 52, Vicky-Pave 66, Dave-Chris 44
Game 2 vs Senshu
Bulls 112 (2 outs) – Senshu 58 (7 outs)
Anton 1/18 & 12 Mairaj 0/21 & 17 Vicky 1/2 & 15 Pave 1/13 & 23 Dave L 2/-2 & 31 MOM Aayushi (sub) M 2/6 & 14
Batting Partnerships: Anton-Mairaj 29, Vicky-Pave 38, Dave-Aayush 45
