20-20 Week 1 – Bashers vs Daredevils

Apologies for not knowing all of the details, I wrote this without scorebook or corrections from team-mates. Gist of the game was excellent team win, with some entertaining highs from all involved. Read on – there is space in the sledge area to add some more of the fine(r) details!

Having voted for Saturday fixture, the Bashers had an exciting Friday night / Saturday morning filling a team for the first match in the 20-20 league. Sharapova, Dot, LongDong and Sir Dick were late additions, Shandy confirmed through his illustrious presence at 8:55 am, and when uncontactable Scoop rolled up at 10 am, we had 12!

Stats won / lost the toss and we batted. The extended 1^st over saw Sir Dick sconned, and in the 2^nd over, Shandy moved to 20-20 mode (6 off 4 balls, he hit 1 of them). Sir Dick smashed 1 four in the 3^rd over, but then was bowled. Shandy continued in his vigorous vein – if he hit it, it went for 6, but lots of big swings did not connect. Shandy (the tease) was out in the 5^th over, following shot of the innings – an exquisite back foot force for 4 on the offside – by running past the next one to be bowled. Artois was looking like he would be dominant, but once he was gone, the stage was left to Shitshoes, who struck powerfully and often – sometimes straight behind him to the unguarded area behind the keeper – a on the way to top score of the innings. Stats was collecting runs at a good rate, so after xx overs the hundred was up, with power to add. Tiny helped Shitshoes to a well-deserved rest by running him out, added a couple more 6s to our tally and some hard run 2s with Swoop, and Bashers reached a commendable 161-7 after 20 overs.

Digitals lost first wicket to Tiny in their 1^st over (their opener was bowled round his legs looking for a wide). 2^nd wicket followed in Digitals 3^rd over – the edge through to Manoj was gratefully snaffled. LongDong was parsimonious in his opening spell (I can’t remember how many wickets he got), but Dot had an extended over. The Inquisition was effective with good support in the field, whilst Swoop was accurate and demanding at the other end. With 4 overs to go, Daredevils required 40 to win – if we kept our nerve, and eliminated wides and boundaries, it was in the bag. Sharapova stepped up, bowling 2 of the last 4 overs for combined total of 12 (?) runs, and we were home by 12 runs. Interestingly, over the first weekend of matches, the two highest scoring innings were both from this match.

This was a fantastic win, with all team members contributing. As captain Stats had predicted – the best 20-20 team from Bashers is different to the best team for the 40 over Business League. The Digital Daredevils have some very good players, and we were able to beat them because our fielding and running between wickets were better than them. Great start for 20-20 matches!