SCC Pirates vs SCA State XI Match Report

On a bright sunny afternoon, 5 bashers, 2 doggies and 3 devils rolled out of bed and found themselves waiting to play a game against the SCA XI at TongJi University. Despite severe reservations on the pitch, I mean football ground, the lack of bounce in the outfield and a rather dangerous seaming warm up delivery from Channa (the 2nd most dangerous delivery he bowled), the pitch played relatively well.

To make up the 11 for the pirates, we recruited Pudong’s star player, Mei Hua. Somebody won the toss, and SCA batted first. Their openers were struggling to make contact with the ball, and barely got the ball off the square. However, they showed that it wasn’t necessary to hit the ball as Prerak dropped nearly everything that went in his general direction. Big fine for dropping a catch too. Mei dropped a catch too, but it was probably because she had fallen asleep fielding at deep point with nothing to do… except catch one. Otherwise, fielding was of an excellent standard, especially from Navim who showed that jeans are the more appropriate cricket wear for the outfield.

Performances of note from the field include 2 casual catches from one of the devils, 3 wickets for bugger all for William and Bhasker. The Pirates also resorted to accidental brutality including a quality beamer hitting its target from Channa and Sam maiming a batsmen with a wild throw. Capt Ainslie also bowled magnificently at the end by inflating the SCA’s target by 20 odd in the last few overs to give us a challenging total of 90 to chase.

The target of 90 was not too difficult. However there were several incidents of entertainment throughout the chase. Prerak got bowled by a delivery that seamed twice, and then Nevin running Mei out. Nevin and Desmond then provided the crowd with a brilliant display of running between the wickets. The sheer number of times they crossed was evident in the bone dry pads that they had once they retired. Two more wickets fell to lbw decisions, and the rest of the batsmen were retired. Channa tried extremely hard to give them catching practice, but they didn’t seem to interested in catching.

Special kudos to Nevin for going to get beers for the team. Your Hello Kitty bag is still at the Boo, and you should take it back.

A big thanks to the SCA for organizing the match and having beautiful water girls at the start of the match (even though they buggered off because it was damn hot). The team has improved significantly from the last time we saw them play, and they have more natural bowling actions. The next time these two teams meet, it should be more challenging for the pirates.