Lumberjack: Pleasure vs. Leopards, April 29th

Bashers Pleasure had their third win of the season in a low-scoring match against the previously unbeaten Leopards.

The morning was dreary and drizzly when the team assembled at the Camel. The captain was a notable absentee, calling to put Swoop in charge as he was running late. Importantly though, there was an abundance of pies and sausage rolls.

At the ground, Swoop performed his VC duties well by winning the toss and inserting the Leopards. The Bashers took the field and waited as Korean made his way onto the ground in the nick of time. Not that the game could have got underway without him, as he had the match balls in his bag.

• Sunday 29 April 2012 SRFC Far
  Leopards CC 122/10 ()
  Bashers Pleasure 125/8 (4)

Swahili and Swoop opened up. Swoop was his usual niggardly self, and Swahili was on fire: four overs in the spell, with a wicket in each over. The only thing which derailed him was his raw hatred of traitors leading him to bowl a barrage of bouncers at a former Basher. His wickets included two clean bowled, and catches to Hog, and the nonchalant Long Dong.

First change was Basher newcomer Chitty, who bowled fast and straight, claiming his debut wicket by bowling the aforementioned traitor. Long Dong and Tiny also had brief spells for no reward, and Sinbad came on to claim a wicket with a ‘yorker’. The fielding was good throughout, the highlight being when Tiny and Hog combined for a run out as the batsmen tried to take on Tiny’s arm from the boundary. There was also time for another new Basher to come on the field as Postman Pat relieved Swahili for an over, although his only touch of the ball was over the boundary.

At drinks, the Leopards were seven down for 99: slightly more runs than we would have liked, but a few good pieces of cricket would finish them off. Soon after the break, Chitty was brought back to try and end the innings, and he did so in spectacular fashion, claiming the last three wickets in one over (bowled, LBW, caught and bowled), while also bowling one of the most horrific hat-trick balls in cricket history. Unfortunately, this denied Swahili the chance at a fifth wicket, and with Filthy present as scorer (thanks) and Business selector, may also mark the end of Chitty’s Pleasure career.

The upshot was that the Leopards were bowled out for 122 in only 17.5 overs. Surely the Bashers would cruise home, erasing memories of the previous game’s collapse. We did end up getting the runs with 5 overs to spare, but it was another nervous finish with only two wickets in hand.

Pothole started well and looked to be back in form, middling every ball he faced, and Tiny scored a 5 early on to boost the run rate. Unfortunately, both openers soon perished, bringing relative newcomer Hog, and debutant Genghis together. They looked in control, particularly Hog who had a sweep for six and a number of classical cover drives in a good innings of 33. Wickets kept falling, however. Genghis fell LBW to one which kept low, Swoop managed to get stumped first ball, Hog hit one back to the bowler, Badabing wasted some good form by running himself out, and Chitty smashed one boundary before being bowled.

Seven wickets had fallen with 36 runs still required when Korean joined Swahili in the middle. Korean started accumulating dots and ones while Swahili swatted his way to 18 before being given out LBW. Enter Sinbad, with only 13 needed and plenty of overs in hand. The Leisure had completed their win by then and made their way to the far ground to be treated to some textbook forward defence from both Korean and Sinbad. Korean stonewalled his way to 7 (all singles) off 23 thrilling deliveries, while Sinbad batted maturely to score 9 not out, guiding the ball to the third man boundary to bring up the victory.

With two victorious teams on the bus, we got to see where Long Dong’s loyalties really lie as he defected from our fine session to join the Leisure team in the back of the bus. Then most of our team went AWOL as they hung around outside the Camel to finish the Leisure chilly bin before joining a mellow afternoon session in the back bar, where Swahili was awarded Cock-of-the-walk, but managed to escape with his language faculties almost intact.

All in all, it was a pleasing win. Great bowling and fielding left a low total to chase. We made much harder work of it than we needed to, but got the runs in the end without even needing Long Dong to come in for one of his legendary finishes.

2012 Division Two

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Monday 30 April 2012	P	W	D	L	F	A	P
Bashers Pleasure	4	3	0	1	604	659	12
Pudong Power	4	2	0	2	693	701	8
Leopards CC	3	2	0	1	592	483	8
Digital Devils	3	2	0	1	574	563	8
Dynamite Devils	4	1	0	3	527	580	4
DPR Hot Dogs	2	0	0	2	332	336	0

Leopards 122 all out (17.5 overs)

Swahili 4-0-33-4

Chitty 3.5-0-15-4

Bashers 125 for 8 (24.3 overs)

Hog 33 (37 balls, 3 fours, 1 six)

Swahili 18 (22 balls, 2 fours)

Pothole 15 (20 balls, 3 fours)