June typically sees the start of the rainy season in the Kanto and the threat of match cancellations because of rain; after 3 wins in May the Sharks` players were hoping the weather would hold out…..

The first of the month brought the first game, a JCL 4 match between the Sharks 3rd XI and Keio University 1st XI. The weather was fine, but the unfortunate Keio were unable to field a team and had to forfeit the match. The Sharks got the points, but the players had to miss a match and the opportunity to play Keio, a good team with a friendly squad.

The next game was not until June 22nd, where 2 squads were playing on adjacent pitches at Sano riverside (1a and 1b); The Sharks 1st XI were taking on Men in Blue Tokyo 1st XI in a JCL1 game and the Sharks 3rd XI were taking on Tokyo Titans 3rd XI in a JCL4 game.

In the JCL 1 game against Men in Blue the Sharks finally bowled a team out for the first time this season. After the Sharks lost the toss and were asked to bowl, MIB put on 33 for the first wicket but after Muneeb’s breakthrough we took wickets in quick succession. Pick of the bowlers were Kento with the new ball 2/19 (8) and Nikhil through the middle 3/11 (5.3). MIB were all out for 158 in the 38th over after their tailenders frustrated us with some aggressive hitting for a few overs. An outstanding diving catch at long on by Muneeb was the highlight of our fielding performance. Nikhil anchored the chase and hit the winning runs, nervously bringing up his first Sharks 50. Ben Ito also batted beautifully for 46 off 41. A 5 wicket victory, never really in doubt. Nikhil was player of the match. Our best all-round performance of the year and a bonus point takes us to second on the table. Bring on Max and Tigers in July! 

The JCL 4 game against Tokyo Titans 3rd XI stood in stark contrast to the performance of the 1st XI over on ground 1a. The Sharks knew this game would be an almost impossible challenge, the Titans being top of the table and fielding some very strong players, so when the Sharks won the toss they took the decision to bowl first and give the players as much game experience as possible. In the team today were the new Sharks Taiga Hague and Shozaburo Yano. Shozaburo playing his first ever game of cricket! The Titans managed to bat for their full 40 overs and put up a massive score of 399, frustrating many of the Sharks less experienced bowlers. Solid bowling performances from Kris 3/58 from 8 overs and Hammad 0/32 from 8 overs could not be backed up by the rest of the players, but there were a number of small personal victories like Shozaburo getting his first ever catch, Taiga getting his first Sharks wicket and Will managing to run out the Titan`s Anas on the final ball of the innings and stopping the 400. As the Sharks expected the chase was a non contest with the Titans bowlers tearing through the team; 5 players were out for ducks and the highest scoring batsman – Anthony `the wall` Hague – managing only 15. Ouch!

On June 23rd the Japan Cup team were hoping to seal their first win of the season against the Tuskers in Sammu (Chiba), however the rainy season struck and the game was rained off. 

The rain then struck again the following weekend on June 29th where the Sharks 2nd XI were to play the Tigers 2nd XI in a JCL 2 game; the riverside ground at Sano being too waterlogged to allow play. Luckily for the Sharks JCL T20 team, who were playing the Tokyo Titans on the same day, the better draining of the SIGC pitches allowed the game to proceed. Having won the toss the Sharks chose to bat first and despite the regular fall of wickets they played the full 20 overs achieving a score of 123/9 in tough batting conditions. Stand out batting performances were Ashley (31 from 27 balls) and Mushashi (22 from 15 balls); Tailender Atiq was not out having scored 16 from 10 balls. In the Titans innings the Sharks bowled well, giving very few extras and not conceding an excessive number of runs, but getting wickets was a struggle with only 2 taken. In the end the Titans chased down the Sharks score in the 19th over to win by 8 wickets. Stand out bowling performances were Kento (1/14 from 2 overs), Mushashi (1/20 from 3 overs) and Muneed (0/20 off 3.5 overs).

At the end of the month the Sharks were in 2nd place in JCL1, 8th place in JCL2, 4th place in JCL4, 6th place in Group A of the JCL T20 and 7th place in Japan Cup East Kanto Division 1….and the rainy season is only half way through….