Bashers Social Sixes Lumberjack, 12 Jan

Bashers Social Sixes 87 vs Pudong Power 64

Batting 1: Shitshoes (22) & Post-Op (18): 40 runs
Batting 2: Long Dong (10) & Satchel (14): 24 runs
Batting 3: Dags (5) & Shitshoes (18): 23 runs

Bowling 1: Post-Op (0/21 off 2 overs), Satchel (0/21 off 1), & Long Dong (1/4 off 1): 46 runs
Bowling 2: Dags (0/7 off 1), Shitshoes (2/-1 off 1), Satchel (1/3 off 1), & Pope (1/2 off 1): 11 runs
Bowling 3: Dags (1/4 off 1), Pope (2/-2 off 1), Shitshoes (1/0 off 1), & Long Dong (0/5 off 1): 7 runs

MVP: Shitshoes

Five brave Bashers assembled at the Arena on a wintry Shanghai day: Shitshoes, Post-Op, Long Dong, Dags, and Satchel. Pope was rumored to be on his way, but Smithy was a no-show-not-even-answering-his-phone-deserves-to-be-fined-a-full-vessel-at-next-fine-session punk. The Pudong captain won the toss, but let Shitshoes decide to bat first as we were men short. The first partnership went off well without even a single wicket, and was followed by two more solid partnerships. Shitshoes had to bat twice to fill in for the missing Pope, who was still on his way. The bowling started out fairly flat, with hardly any pressure put on the batsmen. And then Pope arrived, and finally in the last over of the first partnership Long Dong picked up a runout. From there the Bashers Social side grabbed the momentum, and Pope in particular bowled and fielded well (almost taking a hat trick). Some would say his dive for a caught and bowled was excessive, but he did pull off the catch. Dags also put in a good performance with the ball, which should give the Leisure a bit of confidence for the coming season. By the time Shitshoes strangled the batsmen in the second to last over, the game was in the bag, and Long Dong closed it out to put the Bashers back on the top of the table with a 23 run win.

NCA Academy 71 vs Bashers Social Sixes 57

Bowling 1: Satchel (1/4 off 1 over), Shitshoes (4/5 off 2), & Post-Op (0/7 off 1): 16 runs
Bowling 2: Pope (0/16 off 2), Dags (2/1 off 1), & Post-Op (0/8): 25 runs
Bowling 3: Dags (0/5 off 1), Long Dong (1/14 off 2), & Satchel (1/11 off 1): 30 runs

Batting 1: Long Dong (24) & Satchel (16): 40 runs
Batting 2: Shitshoes (8) & Dags (6): 14 runs
Batting 3: Pope (-2) & Post-Op (5): 3 runs

MVP: Long Dong

The Bashers Social Sixes were on a high after toppling the Pudong side from the top of the league table, and didn’t consider the NCA Academy side much of a threat. It was a mistake as the game would tell. Bowling first after Dags won or lost the toss, the use of bowlers and strategy was ill-considered, although the score didn’t really go up until the Anti-Basher came out to bat in the final partnership. It was similar in the batting, with the first partnership of Long Dong and Satchel setting the side up well. But then things started to go badly for the team, as Dags and Shitshoes suffered from some poor running to lose 2 wickets in the first over. It didn’t get any better as Shitshoes edged into his face and had a mouthful of blood to distract him, and the scoring fell away. The final partnership, needing a mere 17 runs, or about 4 runs an over, was still in a reasonable position. Unfortunately, it turned into a disaster. Pope couldn’t hit the ball, and swung his way through no fewer than 8 dot-balls to register the first negative batting score for the Bashers this season. Post-Op couldn’t get on strike, was run out when trying, and couldn’t do enough to get the partnership back on track. The final blows fell as first Post-Op was runout, and then Pope was bowled, to end the innings with 2 wickets – not to mention -6 runs – and the game was lost by 14 runs. So a pathetic choke by the Bashers Social Sixes gave the NCA Academy their first win of the winter season, and the team will need to “insert whatever Cook said after the final Ashes test” before the next match.

On the positive side: Shitshoes, Dags, Satchel, Long Dong, and Post-Op have now played enough matches to qualify for the finals (4 minimum) on March 9th.