JCL1 Sharks vs Wombats, Fuji 1
By Kris Bayne 13.04.14
Another season, another capitulation against our nemesis, The Wombats. The Sharks 1st XI came back to Earth with a big thud against the marsupials AGAIN at Fuji. A woeful batting performance, if you could call it batting, gave us very little chance. The only constant bright spots were the magnificence of still snow-capped Fuji looking on and a spirited bowling attempt in defending a pitiful total.
Our Firsts for today’s game was quite a cross-section of the club and even included a couple of debuts. Of established ones we had Vicky (capt), Aditya, Dave, Prashant, Takady, Sagar and Sumon (WK). 2nd XI draftees included Kris and Mairaj, with My-Ys contributing rising junior star Rui and also Zain for his first game as a Chiba Shark. Our debutants also included Manish as our second Nepali player who came as 12th man.
It was a beautiful day in Fuji and the sacred mount was in her full glory, still veiled in white, majestic and a presence the whole day. We won the toss and batted.
Batting
Vicky led a team chat and urged us to play ourselves in, build partnerships and take full advantage of ones and twos…. (go and get a strong drink).
We were missing a few players so an innovative opening pair of Kris and Adit walked out to open proceedings. Bowler James got swing, bounce and movement straight off. Thanks a lot! KB faced and his fourth ball required serious attention. The well-placed knick was headed nicely between ‘keeper and first but a bit of Patmore glove parried it to returned Wombat, Shearer, who bobbled it between right and left hand a couple of times before the ball lodging between his ample thighs. They even apologized as I left. Enter Dave. Aditya lived quite dangerously at the start, flashing at a few before he settled down.
With Dave they set about compiling our biggest partnership of the innings. A highlight of Adit’s innings was a polished drive up the ground for 4. At the other end, Dave was dealing with the unpredictable James. With some slices of luck they pushed the score up to 25 before Adit was the next to fall for 12. Then the wheels really started to wobble. Prashant poked around and survived a couple that whizzed off the pitch past his nose. He was undone by the gentle but nagging line of Beath. At 3-33, Takady, pristling with potential joined the settling Dave. Takady presented a brick wall-like defense and we were hoping it could be his day. Dave was starting to open up and launched one enormous 6 into the undergrowth. We and probably many Wombats remember his 120 odd and we certainly needed a similar effort. The two added another 21 until the ball was tossed to Rony, a leggie – got that? a leggie. Means they turn AWAY from a right-hander. His third ball to Dave, a right-hander, landed, maybe on off and the Ginger Typhoon thrust the big pad well down to see it off. Up goes an appeal and it managed to drag the umpire’s finger up with it… WTF moment No. 1.
At 4-53 we quickly moved to 8-60…. Vicky swiped at the first ball and was dropped but managed to find a more competent fielder with a similar shot two balls later. Sumon got WTF decision No. 2 when he knicked one into the pads while advancing down and was confidently given LBW. Takady also became another Rony victim, gone for an elegant 5. Mairaj hit a nice 2 and Sagar 1 before Rony gather them up, too. Batsmen 6, 7, 8 and 9 lasted a combined total of 10 balls. I don’t think this is what Captain Sancheti had in mind before the start of our innings.
Our last two wickets were the My-Wys, Rui and Zain. They looked as solid as bloody rocks and quite a few older players were feeling a bit ashamed, I think. Rui played out several dots before helping the ball find the boundary a couple of times. At 11, Zain was Ashton Agar-like and while he only made 2 it was a damn sight more memorable and competent than… well, you know what I mean. It took the return of James to fix him up and Rui was 9 not out. Why do we DO this against this team???? Sharks, all out 76.
Here’s the scorebook. (Get another strong drink.)
| Batsman | How Out | 4/6 | Runs |
| Kris | Dropped, caught, dropped, caught, dropped, caught etc. | 0 | |
| Adit | Caught | 2 | 12 |
| Dave | LBW, sort of | 2/1 | 18 |
| Prashant | Caught | 4 | |
| Takady | Caught | 5 | |
| Vicky | Caught | 1 | |
| Sumon | LBW, sort of | 0 | |
| Mairaj | Caught | 2 | |
| Sagar | Bowled | 1 | |
| Rui | NOT OUT | 2 | 9 |
| Zain | Bowled | 2 |
Bowling
Wombats had on this day the best top 3 in Japan in Beath, Patmore and the returning Shearer. A few others are no mugs. We would have to bowl and field out of our Shark skins to pull this off. We do have some people who can bowl rather well in Aditya, Takady, Vicky, Dave and young Rui so it was not beyond us.
Beath was probably lucky to survive early on as a sky toward the most reliable pair of hands in the Sharks, if not Japan, belonging to Dave, just fell agonizingly safe. Another also fell clear. He monopolized the strike for a couple of careful overs – they had 50 overs to get 76, right. Patmore put through two fours in the air behind the wicket in Adit’s first over. One of those days? But he lasted three balls against a fired up Takady who clean up his stumps with a honey badger of a ball. Enter Shearer. Batting out of his crease and advancing a bit more he got WTF LBW No. 3. Hit is line, but, Hell, we’ll take it! I duly apologized. Suddenly it was 2-35, and who knows??!!
The experienced Beath was joined by Khan and they proceeded to steady the Wombat ship. On came Vicky who bowled with venom and no luck. A monstrously high catch went begging. WTF No. 4 came and went when all, and I do mean ALL, the behind the wicket fielders simultaneously went skyward believing Beath had got a very fine piece of the ball. No dice. Takady finally got our 3rd wicket of Khan at 71 when Adit held on to one in the deep. With just six to get our joy was restrained. Dave and Rui were introduced to the attack as Kris departed the field to allow Manish to be introduced to cricket in Japan. This also signaled that were we not quite ready to roll over and die.
Rui again showed he is ready for the big time by teasing the new batsman and then trapping him LBW. Dave pegged down the well-set Beath. Back with Rui, the batsman pushed for a single only to have Vicky swoop on the ball and deliver effectively to Sumon for the run out. But claiming 6 for 1 was beyond even us and the match went to the Wombats by 5 wickets.
| Bowler | Ov | Mdn | w/nb | Runs | Wkts |
| Takady | 6 | – | 6 | 32 | 3 |
| Aditya | 2 | – | 1 | 16 | 0 |
| Vicky | 3 | – | 2 | 9 | 0 |
| Sagar | 1 | – | 0 | 8 | 0 |
| Rui | 1.2 | – | 2 | 5 | 1 |
| Dave | 1 | – | 0 | 1 | 0 |
Our batting sucked. A couple of players could be satisfied with some of their shots, but… we overall sucked. The only bright light I could see was the two boys at the end. Our bowling was not bad at all. IF we had gotten Beath early who knows what would have happened? All bowlers had their moments and the new pitch is as difficult as the old one, only the reasons, and the colour, have changed.
So, the 1sts are 1-1 but let’s hope this game is the one to forget and galvanise us for 2014. If we can get the full power of our possible batting in the team – we were missing Crease, Molloy and Beddingfield – we can take any team with our bowling attack. Anybody.
