Japan Cup : Chiba Sharks vs Keio Knights
YCAC, 15 June 2013. By Kris Bayne
It is heartening to see Japanese cricketers’ growing self-belief. It is frustrating to see seasoned cricketers serially self-destruct! Chiba Sharks did our very best to lose to Keio Knights – we failed, winning an unnecessarily tight one at YCAC for our first T20 win in 2013. What perhaps should have been a thumping ended up a TKO.
We had a sodden week in Kanto this week with Typhoon No. 3 lurking around like an otaku in Akihabara. Thank goodness for drains! We were led today by Kris who smoothly won the toss and now can boast a 100% toss/win ratio. We were represented today by, in batting order:
Murad, Chris M, Adit, Prashant, Tommy, Rockey, Mairaj, Charles, Awal, Kris B and Moto. And we can say everyone had a chance to have an impact on the game.
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Bowling
Keio Knights 5 for 108 off 20 overs
We had a potent bowling side that should have challenged Keio. After a quick wicket we had to work for the next one as Keio eked out then lashed out to 85 before the next breakthrough. But we did very well to limit the scoring on the fast YCAC ground. We limited shots to singles and boundaries only started to come from some ‘agricultural’ but nonetheless effective hitting.
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Rockey got the breakthrough to start a lock down in the final overs. We were better with our wides (only 13) and there were many good efforts in the field, getting behind the ball and getting it back to limit runs. Moto was a highlight, cutting of a number of certain 4s at square leg and he celebrated his first ever cricket catch at an important time. Awal and Adit gave little away and Chris continued his fine form with the ball. Prashant did well in his first Shark overs of the season and Rockey bowled a good line.
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|
Bowler |
Overs |
Mdns |
wd/nb |
Runs |
Wkts |
How |
| Awal | 4 | 0 | 5 | 16 | 1 | caught behind |
| Adit | 4 | 0 | 2 | 12 | 1 | Bowled |
| Prashant | 4 | 0 | 2 | 21 | 2 | caught; bowled |
| Chris M | 4 | 0 | 3 | 26 | 0 | unlucky |
| Rockey | 3 | 0 | 0 | 20 | 1 | caught |
| Mairaj | 1 | 0 | 1 | 10 | 0 | settled after ball one went max |
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|
Catcher |
How |
Bowler |
| Charles | Regulation catch behind but nicely pouched. | Awal |
| Kris | Silkily positioned under & taken skied ball at deep cover. | Rockey |
| Moto | Nicely taken at deepish mid off. | Prashant |
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Batting
Chiba Sharks 7 for 112 off 17.5 overs
We started off slowly as the wicket warmed up but it looked like we would be on our way home quite early and with no casualties (except Murad’s purpling finger). Chris continued to grow in batting confidence and was exquisite square of the wicket through point. Murad also got stuck in patches, with both players launching sixes. They looked like brickwalls and racked up 58 before Murad fell.
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Prashant spanked it around as expected but the departure of a tiring Chris was the start of a classic Shark procession. We lost a brace of wickets on two occasions. We almost coughed up a hattrick twice on the same ball. Prashant departed with 3 to get and inexplicably we still gave Keio an unpleasant sniff (those drains perhaps?). It was settled when Awal creamed a 4 through square. A generous helping of wides (27) ensured we were not further embarrassed.
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|
Batsman |
How Out |
4/6 |
Balls |
Runs |
| Murad | Caught | 2/1 | 35 | 24 |
| Chris M | Caught Behind | 2/1 | 33 | 26 |
| Adit | Bowled | 1/0 | 8 | 6 |
| Prashant | Bowled | 4/0 | 18 | 21 |
| Tommy | Bowled | 0/0 | 4 | 0 |
| Rockey | Caught | 0/0 | 4 | 2 |
| Mairaj | LBW | 0/0 | 1 | 0 |
| Charles | NOT OUT | 0/0 | 3 | 1 |
| Awal | NOT OUT | 1/0 | 1 | 4 |
| Kris B | DNB | -/- | – | – |
| Moto | DNB | -/- | – | – |
| EXTRAS | 27 | |||
| 7 | for | 112 | ||
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We made it harder than we should have. We did well in the field. We bowled well. We had a good start in batting and almost stuffed it up. I would not say we were lucky to win, but we looked a bit desperate in the end. The wicket started to think for itself as the humidity and moisture rose. Anyway, a win is a win and we got one. Everyone had a chance to do something with either ball, in the field or with the bat. Nice to play at YCAC again.
