Dec. 18, 2010 – Chiba Sharks VS IIJS
Kris Bayne
Our opening match of the 2011 Indoor Season at Kashiwa had us matching up against the same team we played last in 2010 – Navin and his merry lads of IIJS (India International School of Japan). One may recall the absolute thrashing the schoolboys received – one ‘one’ that probably won’t want to is Navin, but the young cricketer has matured in the interim, becoming a full-fledged member of the Sharks bowling attack, cracking an unbeaten 100 in his school final and being selected in the Japan U/19 national team. Now it was time to face the nightmare on Kashiwa street, again…
No fewer than three Sharks debuted indoor, and they were probably thankful for the roof. Richard Dixon (washed out in two games), Dave Rear (washed out in one), and Rockey (one washout) who lined up with IIJS. With Navin that made 8 out of 12 players being Sharks. Keen, aren’t we?! Dave L captained the Chiba team of himself, Kris, Anshul, Vicky, Dave R and Richard.
Bowling
The toss had the Sharks bowling first. It was quite a mixed IIJS, featuring 3 IIJS, 2 canny indoor staff, and young Rockey (first game with anything harder than a tennis ball). The bowlers kept it extremely tight from the outset and were well supported by the field. Navin was given little room for his booming drives. Although there were not many wickets early on there were also very few runs. The ball rarely found net and when it did it was mostly square and runs had to be earned. The wickets started to come as Kris snapped up a caught behind off Richard and some great work by Anshul and others created some run-outs. The opening IIJS pair could only muster 16. Wildcard, Rockey, had his reputation (as a hitter of anything of speed on anything resembling a length) proceed him so Dave threw the ball to Kris, the only one to really survive Rockey’s practice session onslaught. Two quick stumpings by Vicky with the gloves vindicated the move and put the IIJS boys back a bit. The main scoring was self-inflicted wides as IIJS crept to 38. The final pair were then rocked by Dave Rear who ripped through the defence of the batsman for two bowled in two balls. Dave L and Vicky were virtually unplayable at times and with another bowled and a catch behind the wicket IIJS struggled to get to 45 runs in their 12 overs.
Bowling: Varun 1-10, Dave L 2-15; Richard 1-20. Anshul 0-18, Dave R 3-9; Kris 2-14
Batting
Indoor veterans Vicky and Anshul opened the batting and immediately started to find the scoring nets with ease and added to the score with great running. They got us up over the halfway mark with 26 runs. Dave L and Richard followed. Before the start of batting hostilities, Richard was quietly taken aside and initiated into and prepared for the ‘Lollback Method’ of running-between-wicket – we screamed ‘NNNNOOOOOOOOOO-UUUUUU’ at him ’til his eardrums bled. Dave made fools of us all, however, by getting out first ball and followed up with one more. A very quiet and inauspicious start after his great out-door season. But he and Richard settled down to get the score back ticking over. Richard had his moments in the unfamiliar format, but once the bleeding stopped he was fine, giving the strike to the Ginger Typhoon when he could and racking up some runs of his own. The schoolboy heads started to drop a bit as the score reached 44. But they were not out of the game completely as the final pair of Kris and Dave R entered the net requiring 2 runs… Anything can happen. What happened was that Kris and Dave took the game right away from IIJS with some very sensible, safe and smooth batting and running. Bat found ball, ball found net almost constantly. Wides were milked as they should be and despite some hairy moments, no wickets went down at all. In the end it was a comfortable win by 22 runs. Sharks 67 after 12 overs (only 4 outs).
Batting: Varun 18, Anshul 8, Dave 5, Richard 13, Kris 10, Dave R 13
Magnificent all-round performance by the Sharks with everyone contributing with bat, ball and in the field. The Player of the Match was awarded to Kris (I swear, I had nothing to do with it!).
Postscript
Kris and Rockey subbed for IIJS in their second game of the evening against Rest of the World. Kris continued his good form with the ball and Rockey was very lively in the field, pulling off a great catch that was destined for the back wall (Thanks, Rockey) for an 11-run play. IIJS then managed to dig themselves into a big hole which Kris (14) and Rockey (21) then got them out of. The last IIJS pair managed to blow it on the penultimate ball after being a couple of runs in front. Ahhhh-ah.
