As July ended with heat and cancelled cricket in Sano, so continued August with much of Japan experiencing record breaking heat throughout the month. The heat let off slightly mid month allowing some games to be played in Sano, but then the heat came back and the cricket stopped. According to the government this is the sign of things to come – could we soon be seeing the end of Summer cricket in Japan? The Sharks hope not, but more games in Chiba (our home prefecture which has a slightly cooler climate than Sano) would be a short term solution we would whole heartedly support.

After whipping the Titans in the JCL T20 in July, the team was well up for the August 2nd match against the Wombats, a shadow of their earlier selves and a guaranteed win for us. Much to the annoyance of the team the match was the first of the month’s cancelled matches, with the mercury exceeding 39 degrees. The Wombats avoided a thrashing, and the Shark`s T20 hopes were handed a blow with the loss of a potential 2 points.

The temperature at SIGC on the 2nd

August the 9th was the Libra Japan sponsors day, held at the Japan Cup match against the Rising Stars at Sammu. Libra Japan boss, Shark`s regular and all round nice guy Mairaj was also a member of the Sharks squad for this match. Being top of the table with a clean record the Sharks were not under pressure to win, and this lack of pressure could be one of the factors that lead to what happened next. Waiting in the sponsors area your author was a witness to the chaos a batting collapse can cause when the number 4 batsman had to rush to pad up and enter the field in the 3rd over with the score at 3 for 3. The cause of this collapse was the bowler Khan, who was shaping the new ball. After the nightmare start the Sharks were all hoping for a fight back, but although Abhi and Tim slowed down the game and dug in for a period they never regained the momentum. The Sharks did manage to play their 20 overs, but struggled to score runs and made only 108/9. Only one 6 was scored in the whole innings (Tim) and 6 players scored 0 or 1. As a small consolation at least one Sharks batsmen had their score helped considerably by the umpires failure to signal a single leg bye (to the umpires credit at least they did not give LBW, the scourge of the lower leagues). Defending 108 would always be a challenge, but today lady luck was not with the Sharks and wickets just would not come. Khan, who has been so devastating to our batsmen, patiently held one end for 10 overs whilst his batting partners dispensed punishment. Kabir at number 3 caused the most damage, hitting 44 from 33 balls (not out). The Stars overturned the Sharks in the 16th over with 7 wickets remaining. Post match talks focused on not playing like that again and learning from the defeat – imperative as the next match is the Semi Final.

The next Sharks JCL T20 match was scheduled for August 16th, with the Sharks facing KKR at SICG. Despite the fear of cancellation in the week leading up to the game (the forecast was for 34 degrees) the game proceeded and gameday saw the return on Ben from Singapore (where he had been touring with Japan), Jamie on his annual holiday from the UK and a late fill in from your author as Feddie had to pull out at the last minute. The Sharks lost the toss and fielded first. Bowling and fielding was good with 5 Sharks bowlers bowling 4 overs each and holding KKR to 131/8. Pick of the bowlers were Hammad (4/19) and Timmy (3/29), Bhuvith took the most catches (2) and Takady took possibly the highest catch of the season so far – the ball coming from directly in the sun after a few second wait for the descent. By the end of the innings the Sharks were cooked and dehydrated, but still confident the win was theirs. President Marcus opened with Ghufi and from the first ball both went on the attack. By the end of the 2nd over the score was 19 and the Sharks camp was starting to relax and enjoy the show. Unfortunately `danger comes the moment you relax` and Marcus was caught out in the 3rd over. Replacement Ben was then caught LBW in the forth over and Ghufi caught out in the 5th and all of a sudden things didn’t look so good. Timmy came on in the 6th over and started off solidly but as the game wore on he visibly wilted in the heat and struggled to score before he was removed in the 18th over on 32. Abhi and Muneeb had tried to get the run rate up, but were removed before they could impact the game. Jamie succeeded in rotating the strike often but couldn`t find a boundary. The Sharks kept fighting to the end but the required run rate crept ever higher until in the final over the Sharks needed 25 to win. In the end the Sharks lost by 21 runs and with this loss their hopes of a JCL T20 quarter finals place were also taken from them. You can watch the full game on YouTube here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1wXwkySKZfU

August 23rd was a much anticipated `double header` for the Sharks with the 1st XI and 2nd XI due to play on adjacent grounds at SIGC against AQCC and the Tigers respectively. Unfortunately there was another extreme heat warning and all games in Sano were cancelled. The 1st XI have not played a game since June and the prolonged break is creating the risk of a performance drop later in the season. A practice game was scheduled on August 30th to give the 1st and 2nd XI`s some needed game time, but extreme heat again cancelled all cricket in Sano on the weekend of 30/31 August….August was not a month to remember. Bring on September, bring on the cooler weather (bring on the Wombats?!?).

At the end of the month the Sharks were top of the table in the Japan Cup EK Div 1, 3rd in JCL Div 1, 7th in JCL Div 2, 3rd in JCL Div 4 and 5th (final position) in the JCL T20 Group B.