4th Grade Report vs Campbelltown-Camden - Round 14 |
Day 1: Mitch Sweeney makes the most of his promotion back to 4s Continuing his good from with the coin, Lin won the toss and sent Campbelltown into to the middle to swing the willow around. As 4s have shown before, we have played our best cricket when chasing totals. Timmy Fulton and Dan 'Mahaf' Mahaffey were in charge of getting early wickets; both bowled good lines ensuring runs were hard to come by. After the Ghosts moved there score 42, the ever reliable Timmy 'my sister is a minx' Fulton took two wickets in quick succession. Motivation for wickets were at an all time high after this point, due to Tjard Tait promising all wicket takers that after the game they would receive signed copies of the 1984 Miss South Africa Calendar, which his mum, 'Miss January', has personally signed. Shenal 'Smithy' Siriwardhene took the next wicket, spurred on by that promise, with a beauty that nipped back and took the top of middle stump; momentum was starting to swing the Stags way. Mitch Sweeney and 'Smithy' bowled well in tandem to create pressure on C'town, which ultimately rewarded us with 3 more wickets before the tea break. We were in a good position at this stage to wrap up the Ghosts in the final session of the day.
Shayne Lin takes a good catch, low down Special commendation goes to our captain Shayne for his efforts behind the stumps, with 5 catches under his belt for the day and one absolute specky, diving low to his left and taking it in front of the first slip. The 'Dog on ya' mates' award goes to Tait for never delivering the promised Calendars!! Day 2: The Stags were faced with the challenge of chasing 231 from 72 overs, but with the outfield being on the slow side was more like 250. Nevertheless, this was a total which was more than gettable with our batting order. Our innings didn't get off to the best start after losing 'Pic' Sherman and Mitch 'K'dog' Kleem early, but the newly promoted number 3 Tjard Tait and 'Captain Planet' Shayne Lin set out to resurrect the Gordon boys' innings. With the mix of power and precision the boys put on a partnership of over one hundred, again momentum was swinging our way. After bringing his 50 up with a massive six over the club house, Shayne tried to put the next ball into the Vodafone tower, only to have his castle re-arranged. As not to let the game get boring and predictable the middle order decided to build the drama and let the Ghosts take their wickets without bothering the scorers to a great extent; after all sport is about entertainment. Smithy, Cubbage and Bill Piccolo showed good intent but didn't spend much time in the middle. Thanks must go to Bill, though, for filling in for us for the game.
Skipper Lin leads from the front Needing 43 to win of 20 overs Mitch Sweeney came to the middle with instructions to tell Iqbal just to poke singles and twos around. After having a brief chat about this, we went about our business. But after running a quick single the senior member of the partnership pulled up a little lame, the following mid-pitch conversation followed Iqbal: 'Sweens, mate, mate, think I did something to my groin, mate, don't think will be running many more quick ones mate' mate'. Sweeney: 'Yeah sorry about that one. Probably was a little risky'. Iqbal: 'Mate, Think I will just keep on moving my feet, mate, if it's there, it's going for six, mate'. Sweeney: 'Yeah, good idea!' The next ball subsequently landed in the front yard of the house across the road.
Tait steers the side to within victory It's very re-assuring to have both aspects of the game firing especially coming into the semis. We look in good stead to be a force to be reckoned with come finals time. Hopefully we can continue our form next week against UNSW and take the minor premiership!!! Up the Stags!! Mitch Sweeney P.S. The author received many a kind word from his team mates for again denying Iqbal a half-century this season. Higgins was also quick to follow up with numerous text messages from Raby and wall posts on Facebook as soon as possible. Good bloke Higgins is. |
4th Grade have a good win over the Ghosts 
This was not to be, unfortunately wickets dried up and the fielding was starting to slip after a long day in the field. Spin was introduced; Cubbage and Tait (keen to get a copy of the calendar) both bowled tight and made the batsman work to maintain their wicket. Cubby was very unlucky not to have the ghosts number 7 stumped after the batsmen appeared still out his crease when we were appealing. Timmy took one more wicket to leave the Ghosts at 7-220 at the end of the day's play.
Things were starting to look shaky, then enter Iqbal Ahmed. Iqbal and Tait steadied the ship, with Iqbal taking the role of his skipper as the aggressor smashing sixes and fours to every part of the ground (well, actually mainly straight). on a number of occasions smacking the ball into the front yards of houses over the other side of the street; locals were seen to be scrambling for safety fearing that Kim Jong-il was bombing them. Tait continued on his way passing 50. On 74 Tait fell to the trap of the deadly spinners wicket ball (full toss) spooning a catch straight down the mouth of mid-off.
With 10 overs remaining we passed the total 7 down, Iqbal unbeaten on 48 and Sweeney not out 20. The run chase was by far our best batting performance this year, with Shayne making 54 and Tait 74.
