JCL Div. 1 – Chiba Sharks vs Tokyo Wombats
Sano 3, 21 July 2013. By Aditya Tallapragada
After a huge win in their first match of the season and losing their winning ways in all other matches, Sharks took on their intense rivals Tokyo Wombats to end up on the losing side once again. The weather was perfect for the day with clouds, but a touch humid however the sun did eventually reappear in the latter part of the day.
Sharks 1st XI has been unchanged for most of the matches this season maintaining a balance with bat and ball. Led by Captain Sancheti (Vicky), our team of established players turned out Chris Molly, Navin, Dave L, Prashant, Alwin, Takada, Adit, Scott, Murad and Chris Thurgate, playing his first match for the 1st XI as he just couldn’t miss a match with Tokyo Wombats. And a special mention to Sumon,the busiest player all day, who was 12th man for both Sharks and Wombats.
After his previous experience of fielding first in the humidity of Sano, Vicky decided to bat first after winning the toss.
Batting
Chiba Sharks 8 for 190 in 40 overs
Having been promoted to bat at the Top, the in form Chris Molloy is perfecting a way of opening – this time as a top scorer of the match with 82 runs batting out 37 overs and facing 105 balls. Along with him was a steady and classical looking Navin who is yet to fire with bat this season. Molloy scored his maiden half century ever with the support of rest of the batsmen at other end. Molloy looked to continue his good form with the bat cutting the balls at will to see them on the other side of the boundary. On the other hand Navin was not able to capitalize on the steady start that he got and gave up a simple catch. Prashant, the top scorer of the season for Sharks went in with very positive intent to making the full use of his form. Unfortunately he didn’t trouble the scorers and got out on his third ball trying to hook the loose ball and finding the fielder at mid-wicket.
With a half century in the last match, Dave Lollback did not take much time to get his eye in and enjoyed the pace of the Wombats attack. Anything fuller saw the straight line and anything short was pulled across the boundary and the score graph, sluggish till then, slowly started to point up. Dave quickly amassed his 2nd consecutive 50 of the season supported by Chris M at the other end but was unfortunately given out stumped by our very own Navin (leg umpire) who thought the Lollback willow was in the air.
After good partnerships for the 1st and 3rd wickets, the time had come for the rest of the team to pad up for the occasion. Everyone seemed just want to congratulate Molloy on his maiden 50 and then immediately leave the crease to give the other batsmen a chance. There were very few 4s in the innings and a failiure to cleanly clear the boundary even once left a modest total for the Wombat’s strong top order to chase down.
Overall a steadily paced innings which lost steam at the end giving up quick wickets in attempting to reach 200 but ultimately ending 10 runs short of it.
| Batsman | How Out | 4/6 | Balls | Runs |
| C. Molloy | Caught | 7/0 | 105 | 82 |
| N. Jinasena | Caught | 1/0 | 36 | 13 |
| P. Kale | Caught | 0/0 | 3 | 0 |
| D. Lollback | Stumped | 8/1 | 51 | 61 |
| V. Sancheti | Caught | 0/0 | 5 | 4 |
| C. Thurgate | Caught | 0/0 | 6 | 2 |
| T. Takada | Bowled | 1/0 | 6 | 10 |
| A. Kansakar | Caught | 0/0 | 3 | 0 |
| K. Murad | Not Out | 0/0 | 0 | 0 |
| S. Musgrave | Not Out | 1/0 | 2 | 4 |
| A. Tallapragada | DNB |
Bowling
Tokyo Wombats 6 for 191 in 34 overs
Sharks had all the chances to win and level the rivalry with a defendable score on the board thanks to a quick half century from Dave and a well forged 82 by Chris Molloy. Vicky chose to open with the young, strong and fast Takady, who reached his expectations by quickly disturbing the opener’s furniture and providing the initial break for the Sharks.
However, their other opener, the inimitable G. Beath, was not disturbed by anything at all at the other end, launching the good length balls across the fence with ease. Struggling with his length in the initial over Adit fought back to get a couple of wickets putting Sharks at an advantage. However, the experienced captain of the Wombats guided the other batsmen to hold on to the other end while taking all the risk himself. Vicky then bought in the ever consistent Dave who almost provided a break through with two catches in 2 overs, despite an unfortunate miss from our most senior campaigner Chris T.
With two lives in two overs, The Wombats’ captain tried to capitalize on the miss – launching both Alwin and Scott in their first overs and never giving them an option to settle in. However, Vicky changed the end for Scott which provided the break through that the Sharks were looking for. Scott dismissed the ever dangerous Beath with a simple catch to Murad at short mid-wicket. Vicky then quickly brought in our premium Japan National team bowler to go all in at the stumps. However, Wombats were flying high and with a very low required run rate decided to completely block the spell offered by Takady. Prashant who was quietly watching for the weaknessws of the batsmen from one end decided to go at them with his intelligent medium pacers to dismiss the well settled batsmen and expose the tail. Molloy was looking good with his spell until his tank ran dry. He bowled 6 wides in an over and decided to go with leg spinners. With 45 extras given by sharks as compared to 10 extras by Wombats the inconsistency of our bowling line up was also exposed. Wombats cruised past the score with 6 overs left.
| Bowler | Ov | Mdn | w/nb | Runs | Wkts |
| Takada | 8 | 0 | 7/0 | 32 | 1 |
| Adit | 6 | 0 | 5/0 | 43 | 2 |
| Vicky | 6 | 0 | 5/0 | 24 | 0 |
| Dave | 3 | 0 | 2/0 | 18 | 0 |
| Alwin | 2 | 0 | 3/3 | 28 | 0 |
| Scott | 2 | 0 | 1/0 | 19 | 1 |
| Chris M | 4 | 0 | 9/0 | 18 | 0 |
| Prashant | 3 | 0 | 7/0 | 10 | 2 |
Fielding
Sharks fielders were not given an opportunity to show off as most balls either found the fielders direct or raced through the gaps all the way to the boundaries. Murad showed that he is working out these days and used his stunning chest to block the ball and catch it and again was in the way catching a well settled opener. There were ups and downs for Chris T who took an excellent catch in the fourth over and then dove to his left to reach a leg glance. However, it was unfortunate for his standards to miss a sitter which slipped from his gloves which proved costly as he was the main contributor for the Wombats batting line up (Ed’s note – let’s not dwell too much on that shall we Adit!! No one’s perfect. Anyway, it can’t be as bad as the dolly he missed last term against… <cue fade out>)
| Catcher | How | Bowler |
| Chris T | Sharp catch diving to his right off the bottom edge of the bat | Adit |
| Murad | Chest level catch blocked by burly chest to grab safely | Adit |
| Murad | Simple catch and nice – quick off the bat grabbed with both hands | Scott |
Overall, it was a well contested match with good individual performances from Molloy, putting himself up as a contender for the best batsman this season after being promoted from tail ender to opener. Dave, yet again showed his strength in the middle order with his glorious innings and with his tight bowling. The Wombats graciuosly held their traditional Man of the Match Award at game’s end. For the Wombats, veteran campaigner Alex Koolhof picked up the Hardy’s while Molloy deservedly stepped up for the Sharks. We finished the first leg of the season playing with all the teams in the group and with only win in the season it will be a tough task ahead if we want to finish near the top of the pile.
Just to emphasise what a glorious spirit the game was played in, Sumon, the Sharks 12th man, gamely offered to step into the field for the Wombats when they went a man down due a bizarre arm injury. He also fielded the whole Sharks innings whentheir own StatNav twisted his shoulder warming himself up. A credit to the Sharks and a credit to the Spirit of Cricket, Sumon, we salute you.
Equal thanks goes to the omnipresent Kris Bayne scoring / support / ambulance service for his scoring, support and ambulancing injured players from both camps to the finest hospitals anywhere in Tatebayashi. Forget the result. Today was a reminder that it is a great thing for the club to be able to count players such as these amongst its ranks.
