WL, Sharks vs Senshu Uni, Dec. 8 2012
By Kris Bayne
The Indoor Winter League is here again and the Chiba Sharks opened their title defense by baring their significant teeth at the eager Senshu University Cricket Club (SUCC) team. We also welcomed some new players to the indoor ranks who we hope may stay on as full members next year.
It must be quite daunting when we show up because we usually double the population of cricketers, of humans actually… Miyakawa-san’s eyes always light up when he finds several large foreign bodies coming up the stairs of his Action Sports Stadium! Nine Sharks showed their fins, and of those probably only four were regular players.
The squad was:
Kris B, Anton, Chris M, Taka, debuting indoor Adit and Imran, new players Ryan and Mairaj, and for his utter cricket debut, Eiro. Great to see so many new faces and players return to and starting the game of cricket. Moto was to debut also was called away on business.
Start up
After a decent warm-up we were able to play a full 12-over practice game against a mixed team of Senshu (3) and Go Go Ken gals (3). Anton, Adit and Taka cooled their jets and offered sage advice. It was a good chance to give the newer players, most of who had never played indoor, some experience, especially against the willow walloping womanly wiles of GGK. Though we ‘lost’ the game 131-109 (we allowed the ladies their 3-runs bonuses) we had a good work out and players picked up the nuances, frustrations and foibles of the indoor version quickly.
Mention must be made of Eiro, who in his first ever game did wonderfully well. In bowling he put some balls past the bat and was unlucky to drop his own first wicket. His batting was very sensible, getting bat on ball and even taking the ball on his body when in doubt (but also knocking up a few runs). He was only out once in unlucky fashion, wandering out of his crease (not the only one on the night… ryight?).But in the field he owned the close in off side position, pouncing on anything, getting the ball into the keeper and affecting a great run out in response to the keeper’s call. Tommy-esque! Rockey-ish! Very impressive debut!
Ryan and Mairaj also had had long breaks from the game but it didn’t take long for the old skills to come back. Ryan smashed the ball back at the field at great velocity while Mairaj found his range. Now, after a few days, I wonder if their bodies remember how to move again… But we were nicely warmed up for the Senshu lads.
vs Senshu University
Bowling
Kris captained and, winning the toss for the second time, repeat, second time in the evening (can we get a trophy going for that?), we put our quarry into bait, er bat. Chris M, Imran, Adit and Anton opening the first stanza of 4 overs. With 3 10-plus overs in there Senshu probably surprised themselves as much as us. Adit picked up a well-needed bowled but Senshu put on 32 for the first pair. Shark Fact File #1: a hungry shark will generally circle a target a bit before making it’s actual presence known, sort of like doing laps to find a parking space and then taking out the meter and a few pedestrians in the process.
In the final 8 overs we found our pace, allowing Senshu to add only another 12 runs to their score, zero in the last four overs. Taka and Kris B bowled their first overs, restricting the scoring with probing lines and picking up a wicket with a nice runout. Chris M and Adit were held back for the final two overs but before that Imran, Anton, Taka (0/18) and Kris took some more chunks out of Senshu, often quite spectacularly.
We enticed quite a few shots up into the net and as these are the hardest to take, we floored a few. Taka was waging his own personal battle with the side nets and Anton brought his Chiba Cup form indoor out of the cold. However, Imran (2/3) defied several of Newton’s Laws, aka, gravity, as well a number of rules of improbability to work his rather generous self under such shot to pull off an amazing caught & bowled (9.75 from the Russian judge). A somersaulting run-out by Kris as ‘keeper after an ‘assist’ (dropped dolly catch – true shocker!) by Anton in the over also helped. So inspired, Anton (1/12) got a bit of help from a super alert Molloy to grab a run-out.
Not to be upstaged by Imran (but, he was) Kris (3/2) also nailed another C&B in the exact same spot with somewhat less flair – more ice actually (and grace…). A neat and calm Chris M also grabbed another catch in the same over to further rock Senshu. No mercy was being shown but, one can never say the Sharks are unsportsman-like as Anton kindly pointed out to one baitman, er batsman, that he was using the back of the bat…
Having had their nibbles the medium-pacer-tweaters stepped aside for the big boys to have a feed as Chris M and Adit put a full stop to the Senshu innings. Chris (1/11) was barely hitable except for the one the met the stumps, and after flailing at yet another Adit (2/-1) thunderbolt the hapless batsman enquired of his mates, “What kind of ball was that?” The ‘keeper informed him – “It’s called Fast”. To illustrate this point, the final ball demolished the plastic. Not a bad effort over the last 4 overs! Senshu University 9 outs for 44. Target 45.
Batting
Anton and Taka had the honour of opening our 2012 Winter League account. As one might expect from level heads and experienced players they took it easy and sensibly. And they did! Anton picked up 10 runs in the 1st over without actually putting wood on leather. A big feature was great opportunist calling and running interspersed with intrepid shot-n-run to midwicket and some glorious driving from Anton, including 2×5. Despite three outs Anton (22) and Taka (2) got us 24 and well on our way in four overs!
Wheels fall off time? Not on your Nelly! Kris and Imran (21 inc. 7 wides!) kept it going with deft tap-and-run but in limited chances Kris (18 in 6 balls) also put a few shots back up the pitch for 7 and 5. Our cause was still helped always by the wayward bowling of Senshu (who are desperately in need of a bowling coach – some of them make Murali’s action look like Glenn McGrath’s…). The middle pair, added 39 with no outs, and pushed us around 20 runs clear of our target.
Enter Chris M and Adit. The former unleashed his full range of shots between backward point and mid-off while the latter unleashed moments of Hell. While Chris caressed the length of the side nets, saving up a 7 for later, Adit carted straight back up the pitch, mashing 17 off one over (inc. one 8). Only 2 balls were not scored off. By the end the pair had waded in for 46 runs to take us to 109, and the Senshu lads literally fell in a heap at the bowler’s end. An emphatic 65-run win. Sharks 4 outs for 109.
But we shouldn’t get too carried away. Our opposition were novices. Total up our years of experience of playing cricket to theirs and it would probably be around 250 to 20 or something. Things were not always perfect in the field as we need to remain a bit more level-headed with net catches and quite a number of 4s reached where they shouldn’t have. Batting we need to learn when to hold our ground at the runner’s end and to call loud and clear. Bat grounding would be nice. Wides were at a reasonable level.
AND Great work and thanks to Swarna for her very vocal support and media work!! All photos courteously of her quick timing!
Senshu University will improve and grow as future generations take up the cricketing challenge. As P. T. Barnum famously said, “There’s a SUCCer born every minute!” Well, not exactly every minute. Next week is Wyverns. A totally different kettle of fish. We will need our top game.
Here is the link to the full scoreboard:
http://www.indoorcricket.jp/images/pdfs/O_KAWARAvsCHIBA_SHARKS_2012-13.pdf
The practice game was not recorded unfortunately.
