WL – 25.01.14 Action Sports Stadium (ASS),
Kashiwa,
By Anton Lloyd-Williams & Scott Musgrave
What a season for cricket was 1908! Jack Hobbs (debut) and George Gunn opened for England in the 4th Ashes Test in Melbourne – during which the game was invaded by a dog. An American, John Barton “Bart” King (not to be confused with Bartholomew JoJo “Bart” Simpson), topped the English bowling averages as a member of the touring Philadelphian cricket team. Cowabunga! Donald Bradman, who was born in 1908, described King as “America’s greatest cricketing son.” Obviously The Don had not met Charles. Also in 1908 what was probably the first indoor cricket match was played on stage at the Coliseum Theatre of Varieties in London’s famous ‘West End’. Presented by Sir Oswald Stoll and running over six evening ‘shows’, Surry played Middlesex in front of a paying (and occasionally fielding!) audience. Middlesex triumphed but apparently it was still close in the end.
Fast-forward 106 calendar years, several light-years of talent and 9,555 kilometres – we are still playing indoor cricket… there was ‘theatre’ and definitely ‘varieties’, but it wasn’t even vaguely close on January 25th, 2014. In fact, South Club and Boso 3rd Team might have thought they were in a different Coliseum, different epoch, with lions, not Sharks. Definitely no dogs or Dons. (KB)
Bull Sharks vs South Club (by Anton)
Both Shark sides were in action again this evening and first on the card were top of the table Bull Sharks versus a somewhat understaffed South Club. They only expected 3 players to show up (including erstwhile Shark Ruman) and forfeited the game. It was actually a rather gracious offer as only 3 Bull Sharks had surfaced by 4 p.m.; Dave L, Mairaj and Anton. Pave appeared soon, a slightly bedraggled Vicky then crawled in from a New Year’s party and Awal called to say he would be late. Dave L won the toss and given our player shortage, thought it wise to bat first.
Batting
South Club called in a few subs (including My-Ys Atharva & Takuma) and it was game on. Anton and Mairaj offered to go first and lay a solid foundation. Atharva and Ruman bowled straight and proved tricky to punish. However, astute nudging into the nets and good calling meant that run outs were avoided and the scoreboard ticked over. As the batsmen got their eyes in, so the score began to bolt forward as the rear wall and nets came into play. Anton and Mairaj did their job well, finishing on a very tidy 39 with no wickets lost.
Dave and Vicky formed the middle order and took a bit of time to get used to some wayward bowling. Again though, good clear calling from….wait for it…Vicky!!! (that’s not a typo) gave the opposition no chances for run outs. Booming drives from both blades and opportunist running soon put the fielders into a panic and overthrows were converted to runs without mercy. Vicky inside edged a decent ball onto his stumps for the only blot on the book for this pair who added a further 40 runs to the total.
Pavethy and Awal’s rear guard action got off to a shaky start when Awal went for a stroll and was run out. He was still ruing that when Pave was caught brilliantly at the back by Takuma. However, they soon turned it around with some trademark big shots back up the track, Pave in particular showed what a good eye he has and barely missed a shot. 35 more tacked on and the Bull Sharks set South Club 115 to win.
Bowling
Opening South Club’s reply were the familiar faces of Ruman and Minami. Pave, Mairaj and Anton mixed up the opening salvos and sent a few past the bat and the leg side stump. The dot balls and wides were littered with ones and twos as neither batsman could really get going. A deft piece of work from the 2013 Best Fielder Dave L gave Mairaj a run-out in the fourth over which finished with the score at 24.
Skipper Dave brought the Bulls into the huddle to remind them the game was not won and outdoors we had lost a ton of games from position like this. It was time for ruthlessness and the bells soon tolled for the batsmen as they endured a torrid middle session. A good catch from Awal and a stumping from Vicky off Anton put the scoreboard into reverse. Awal and Pave then bowled miserly lines that gave the batsmen very little before Dave polished them off with an aggressive line and length that caused another confused run out. Only 4 added to the total.
Atharva joined Minami for the final pairing and salvaged the South Club’s evening a bit by confidently straight batting the bowlers into the side netting and manically running on the wides which were becoming a bit too frequent. Dave managed to get one through Minami’s gate in the penultimate over and Vicky repeated the dose to leave South Club well short on 51. It was a pretty good effort though from the young bats who looked to take the game to the bowlers.
Bull Sharks picked up another bonus point and can be happy with the general way they went about dispatching the opposition. It was calm, focused and ruthless; 3 adjectives that stayed in the box last season but look like getting an airing come April. Dave Lollback was given Vaam of the Match yet again.
Figures:
Anton 20 & 2/10 Mairaj 19 & 1/6 Dave 25 & 2/7 MOM Vicky 15 & 2/8 Pavethy 18 & 1/7 Awal 17 & 0/13.
Hammerheads Sharks vs Boso 3rd Team (by Scott Musgrave)
The beats were popping when newly appointed Supreme Commander Takada won/lost the toss and were sent in/elected to field. The Boso batsmen were brought to the crease with a great battle on their hands. The triumphant echo of a famous and uplifting movie tune seemed to raise the tension in the air. The Hammerheads were looking for a dominant win to send a clear signal to other likely competitors that they are not a team to be trifled with!
Bowling
T. Takada, showing leadership skills well beyond his tender years, sent the experienced Moto Shimizu and the not as experienced Scott Musgrave to bowl in tandem for the first set of batsmen. It was a cunning tactic to unsettle our foes as the unpredictable ballistic attack from Scott was well foiled with Moto’s accurate drifting medium pacers. Scott went for a few runs but the irrepressible Moto had three wickets fall in his three overs with superb second ball delivery collecting the stumps. 19 runs were squeezed out of the Sharks attack which would prove to be the highest pair total for the Boso crew.
The second bracket proved to be a very fruitful one for our bowlers as Sumon and Alwin kept tight lines. Alwin bowled particularly well to the left-handers and was unfortunate to be called wide as many times as he did, but it was the indomitable Sumon with his bamboozling off-spinners that claimed a team-hattrick; run-out, bowled, run-out. A gallant fight-back however saw a hat-trick of boundaries immediately after; 7, 7, 5. The boys from Boso left it too late however as the second pair ended with only 5 runs on the board.
Up stepped the captain, Takady and our left-armed seamer, Karthik to take on the final pair. Our skipper led from the front with some superb deliveries that, not to be outdone by Sumon, delivered 4 wickets in a row with a proper bowler’s hat-trick plus a run-out; bowled, caught, stumped, run-out. Ending with 5/-17, Takady took to his new responsibility with great aplomb. Karthik provided great support to his captain whilst taking a wicket in the process. Credit must go to My-Ys player Zane, filling in for Boso, who played some superb cricketing shots against two of our best bowlers.
Batting
Set a target of 24, Takady opted to open up with Sumon and Moto after much discussion as to who would go where. The tactical gambit paid off as the pair put on 43 runs in their opening stand with Sumon playing some sumptuous cover drives. The combination of stroke-maker and nurdler showed yet another example of the yin and yang philosophy that young Takada had already instilled in the team.
The second pair of Scott and Alwin played largely within themselves until the final over where both started backing away to hit the leather off the ball. Scott was very lucky to survive two chances at mid-off that both went to the boundary despite being caught there earlier in the game. The culprit, Zane, got his body behind each catch but such was the violence inflicted upon the yellow sphere that he was unable to divert its trajectory. Finishing with a modest 40 and bringing the overall total to 83, Takady and Karthik looked to take the score beyond 100.
Set the target of 114 by Messer Lollback (the score the Bull Sharks ended with the game previous) the pair went to town. Now comfortably in front, shots freely flowed with some good stroke play and cheeky running. In no time the total was brought to 134 with captain Takada top-scoring with 28. Needless to say, it was The Dear Leader who claimed VAMMF MVP honours thanks to the power of the bananas he scoffed during the game. A well-earned win over a weakened team; surely a title warning to any would-be rivals!
Figures:
Scott 0/24 21 Moto 3/-5 22 Alwin 2/2 19 Sumon 4/3 21 Takady 5/-17 28 MOM Karthik 1/17 23
And there you have it. Both Shark teams keep the pedal to the metal on the road to a three-peat and the foot to the throat of any opposition. The Romans would be pleased! I expect Sir Oswald, too. Next up – Feb 8. On the programme for the Bulls is My-Ys and for the Hammerheads it is South Team.
