20-Twenty vs Dare Devils Match Report

After a long Saturday night and an even longer off season, the Bashers Twenty20 side finally headed into bat on Sunday and came away with an emphatic victory over the Dare Devils. After a first-rate tactical meeting and solid warm-up on the Big Bamboo Booze bus (pies and sav rolls courtesy of Kooka Pies), there was an air of expectation amongst the Bashers faithful that nothing short of a win would do justice to the team.

Winning the toss of Pete Cain’s 10 baht note and electing to field, Paul and Simon opened the bowling and were on form from the get go, bamboozling the opposition with their line and length. Basher’s debutante Tommy was having a field day behind the stumps and settled into the wickie/seamer role to perfection. Co-Captain Neal was on fire with the cherry, picking up a few wickets in a double wicket maiden which had the crowd going wild. On a sour note, Paul required medical assistance after trying to “mark” a catch instead of catching it with his hands, only to have the ball thud into his sternum which made a sound loud enough that half of Puxi heard it. He might have a few broken ribs too: “DOCTOR!” Geoff’s bowling was spot on apart from his last over of wides [which he claims was done to give the Devils a bit of a chance]. See….a true sportsman!

After piling on pressure, the Devils made 137 for the loss of all wickets but one after 20 overs, although this was never confirmed to be accurate as the ancient Sanskrit used to score was undecipherable. Top class fielding and bowling applied non stop pressure to the Devils who always looked shaky.

The run chase: Needing 6.85 runs per over Simon and Geoff got the Bashers off to a flyer scoring at around a run a ball, and had little respect for the bowling attack. Simon’s 20 odd knock was a high class display of shot placement, with Geoff belting the cover of the ball for 15 off as many managing to impart some impressive backspin on the ball, making it constantly stop just inside the boundary. Andre came in at first drop and considering it was his first game ever of cricket, he did a superb job. After smashing the ball back over the bowlers head, he was dubiously stumped (in two ways) on 2 by Devils ring-in and cricketing whore Sanjay. Tommy was on fire with the bat and had the crowd going wild, bashing the ball to ever corner of the park. Following Tom’s dismissal, Jeremy came in [with his virginal pink helmet] and knocked a solid 20 odd score to get the Bashers on track, always looking the goods. John was placing his shots with care and precision and kept the score ticking over with ease and breaking a run of ducks dating back to the Korean war. Deano and Hadleigh were in it at the death, chasing 20-odd off the last 2 overs. A wonderful 6 from Hadleigh and a few 4’s from Skip got the Bashers over the line with 2 balls remaining.

Bashers Man of the Match Hadleigh for his 6, solid bowling and A+ fielding display (2 Catches and a Run Out).
Special mention to Andre for adapting to the art of cricket with such ease! A++ for your drinking effort too!