The Adventures of Sinbad (and his merry men???)- Lumberjack Pleasure vs Pudong April 15th 2012

On a very foggy day The Pleasure squad arrived at the early hour of 7.30 am (too early if u ask me) at EL Camel with only one goal in mind – Beat Last Yr’s Champions… There was some news that the Power had amped up their squad for this game by recruiting two Div 1 players. With that in mind Pleasure decided to add Div 1’s 11th deadliest weapon (Sinbad) to make it fairly even (this was to make a difference in the game). Sinbad had to make up for the thrashing he had got in the last week’s game…

The day was off to a bad start as there were no pies (Social Director took the blame- hence Lumberjacking!) and a lot of insults flying all over the place with several Pleasure players skipping breakfast expecting delicious pies… Nevertheless the bus was on time and we set off in style in the “BIG BUS”. The bus ride was fairly eventful with people suggesting the Formula one (which was going on in Jiading) be held on a street track in Shanghai instead- the infamous ‘Yanan Lu”. Pitstop also had a great suggestion that they have a Shanghai taxi company Formula one race as well- I vote the yellow one wins as those “shifus” (is that how u spell it?) got some crazy speed…

Anyways back to cricket… The Korean won the toss and with no hesitation put the opposition into bat (First battle won- as the Pleasure are known as a great chasing team!). With a little warm up (Sinbad ran around the ground twice) and some catching practice (where each player threw it to Sinbad miles up in the air- WTF!) the boyz set out onto the field.

The captain opened with the two S’s- Swahili and Swoop… Both bowlers kept it tight with the occasional boundary. Swahili finally got the batsman to nick at one (faintly I might add- as the batsman walked) and set the ball rolling. Swoop at the other end bowled brilliantly with the field up with his fastish off cutters causing the batsmen all sorts of problems. Finally he snapped one up- a short and wide one smashed straight into the waiting arms of Long Dong who seemed to “get real low” to snap it up! 2 down- easy as u like. Soon Tank was introduced where he peppered Bernie (Div 1 batsman) with some short stuff and had him ducking to save his life- gotta luv the aggression. Tank was unlucky to have some fours hit off him as there was some atrocious fielding on the fine leg boundary by Sinbad who would have looked better in a soccer field with all the kicking he was trying to do…

The Pleasure needed more breakthroughs and the Captain went to his deadliest pair- The D Silvas… Sinbad and Long Dong. Sinbad started off with a rubbish over where he bowled one of his rank full tosses that was easily helped to the boundary… (at this point Korean signalled to Badabing to “warm up”)… This made Sinbad dig real deep as he found his rhythm and started to burn and turn… There was the off cutter, the doosra, the teesra, the carrom ball. The batsmen were in disarray. Finally Bernie (Div 1) couldnt take it anymore and was foxed by an arm ball and Hog had a great stumping (Job done!). Another Div 1 batsman- R.Cool ( Wat a “Cool” name!) was sent back by Sinbad- bowled!!! It was a ripper- split seam and the batsman played all over it! At the other end LongDong was doing wat he does best- putting pressure as he chipped away at the batsmen piece by piece. This resulted in 2 LBWs- one of them being Captain James Gooding… Long Dong was unplayable!!! Both D Silvas were unlucky to not pick up more as balls were poppin’ in the air and landing into gaps!

Back to Swahili and Tank… Swahili had their main batsman pop one in the air and as the ball seemed to fall back to earth you could see Long Dong make a small sign of the cross before he scooped it up nonchalantly (no SINBAD drop award today he said!). Now fielding also played it’s part in 2 wickets- First Pitstop moving like a gazelle to unleash a rocket that was picked up by Hog who was practicing his “bowling” skills by knocking the stumps to get rid of The “BIG MAN” P. Kushalan (He scored 34 and was soon to haunt us further! On him a bit more later!). Second was Tank showing off his arm skills where he fired one in (clocked at 99mph) to run out good ‘ol Andy Baggot without facing a ball.

During this period Korean was leading by example and showing off his brilliant fielding skills where he spent more time rolling around on the ground then on his feet. He also won the SINBAD “drop” of the day award but I must admit it was not even close to being Sinbadesque as if he had pulled it off it would have been a blinder and “catch of the year” in my opinion! Nevertheless Korean redeemed himself by taking a brilliant catch looking into the sun off the bowling of Tank. Oh yeah Swahili was hit for a massive six by the number 9! (but he would get his revenge!!!) Final score 160… Great fielding all round (well…) and each bowler having a wicket to his name. Now for the batters to knock the score off- should be easy for this all star line up… hmmmm!

Opening the batting was the usual steady combination of Pithole and Potstop…. They played out a couple of maidens as the bowl was swinging all over the place. Pothole finally succumbed as was clean bowled by James Gooding (although I think he was blinded by Hog taking his shirt off on the sidelines- this was not to be the first time in the day!)- One bowled… No problem in comes Manoj “A Trois” to swing his club around… He had a quick 8 but was soon bowled by a bowler he didn’t even know which way he was turning it. Manoj was unlucky to have a inside edge onto pad (again this was not to be the first time this happened in the day)- 2 bowled! No worries in came the star of the show this season- “Swoop”… Surely the rest of the batting line up could sneak a couple of beers in. Unfortunately Swoop was beaten and was out for 1 as he was bowled by “BIGMAN” Khushalan (again this name was to haunt us !) that’s 3 bowled!

In came Tank to swing things Pleasure’s way… He swung a couple away before also hearing the knock of wood as his stumps were shattered by Khushalan! 4 BOWLED??? OMG!!! Up came a nervous SINBAD in his new batting position 6! Is KOREAN CRAZY??? Sinbad was told to play like a batsman and that’s what he did as he left a lot of bowls outside off before swinging aimlessly looking as if swatting flies. At the other end Pitstop was the anchor holding the innings together as well as constantly telling Sinbad to calm down and play straight. After Drinks Pitstop had finally had enough of people getting bowled and decided to snick one outside off to be caught behind bowled by none other than Khushalan. A good knock coming to a swift end. In came Captain Cool- Korean. Korean got off the mark with a crisp cover drive that sped away to the boundary in a flash- it looked like this was going to be his day. At the other end Sinbad was padding away deliveries on leg, middle and off and somehow getting away with lbw shouts. Korean trying to up the score was then deceived by one that hit his bat, pad and somehow snuck in to hit the stumps.. Another BOWLED!!! Thank God not by Khushalan. 5 BOWLED!

In came Badabing ready to save the day. He looked in fine touch as he swatted away balls to the boundary with ease. Sinbad soon followed suit as he handled the spinners the way K2 had handled him the last week- SMASHING the living crap outta them. Badabing told him to stay put but Khushalan was introduced again and got one to nip away and smash Sinbad’s stumps! 6 BOWLED!!! Sinbad walked away in disgust! Never mind Badabing was still there and was joined by Div 2 debutant Hog! Hog felt uncomfortable with his shirt on and sadly nicked one to the keeper for one off the bowling of Khushalan!!! NOT BOWLED!!!

In came Dongy with his usual one pad! Badabing at the other end was also BOWLED by James Gooding!!! OH NO!!! In comes Swahili with the score on 94 and 8 overs to go!!! Could this pair do it?? LongDong calmly played out a maiden… Swahili boiling from the six that was hit off him, smashed one as flat as a pancake out of the ground to take the Pleasure to 100! Pleasure hopes were up again and as the ball was almost lost- Sinbad inquired whether that would mean a tie??? In the end Swahili swung again off the next ball looking into the same spot he had hit it earlier only to find his bails flying all over the place! OH NO!!! BOWLED!!! Long Dong stayed not out on Zero….

• Sunday 15 April 2012 SRFC Far
  Bashers Pleasure 100/10 ()
  Pudong Power 160/10 (4)

DAMN!!! The Mighty Pleasure had been beaten by last years Champs by 60 runs! 8 Bowled and 2 caught behind! This stopped the unbeaten streak! Oh well – you can’t win em all! This was obviously a bad batting day by Pleasure (the root cause for the bad batting was found to be the lack of pies in the morning as the batsmen were hungry in the second innings! DAMN SOCIAL DIRECTOR!)

2012 Division Two

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Monday 16 April 2012	P	W	D	L	F	A	P
Bashers Pleasure	3	2	0	1	479	537	8
Digital Devils	3	2	0	1	574	563	8
Leopards CC	2	2	0	0	470	358	8
Pudong Power	3	1	0	2	558	616	4
Dynamite Devils	3	1	0	2	442	445	4
DPR Hot Dogs	2	0	0	2	332	336	0

Anyways as The BASHERS always do in good spirit- we shared a couple of Beers and banter at the SRFC with the opposition… Back on the bus on the way to THE CAMEL!!! Everyone on??? Captain says YESSS!!! but wait Manoj A Trois was left at the ground!!! Apparently Long Dong and Korean were supposed to wait for him!!!! HMMM – we had to do a turnaround as we never a man behind! DOUBLE FINES!!!

Fine session was led by Swahili as people mounted the fines onto Long Dong for being “Man of The Match”! Unfortunately Long Dong had already consumed so much beer that he kept up his trend of not thinking of a fine- having to drink more!!! Sinbad was also constantly fined was his NEON green undies….

With so much traffic it was looking like a good time to polish off some beers!!! Unfortunately the fine session was cut short by lack of beers on the bus (if only the Social Director has listened to the Club Captain and put in another case!! Damn Social Director! He shuda listened and known that this was a Div 2 fine session and not a Business one!!!). One man was happy though- PITSTOP!!! true to his name he stopped the bus in the middle of Xujahui as he proceeded to break the seal in the bushes by the bus. Girls passing by were not impressed!

Finally making it back to The Camel in one piece…. Jenny traded jerseys with The Cricket Coach dude who had rode the bus back with us… We also all took a picture with him showing The Bashers are friends with all clubs and discussing a future match with his club in Oz (Sorry at this point stuff got a lil blurry!).

Fines continued into the late hours of the night. “Swoop” was named Cock of The Walk for his performances over the past few weeks but didn’t take full advantage of it! The Hawks won ( I think) and Rosberg won the F1 (WTF!!!).

All in all a great day for Cricket but unfortunate day to lose… Let’s regroup these next couple of weeks and get em the next game like we know we can!

Special Thanks to Latex, Jenny (Inky), Tiny Tim and Tara for coming out to support and all those that scored and umpired! Let’s not forget to support Div3 this coming Sunday! Special mention to THE BEAST- Khushalan who completely decimated our batting with 5-12!!!

Also sorry for the pies! I’ll make it up this saturday when yall attend the Teppenyaki and Pub Crawl!!! DO IT!!! Details to come up soon… GO BASHERS!!

Stats:-

Bowling: LongDong 24-2 off 6 overs, Swalz 36-2 off 6 overs, Tank 39-1 off 6, Swoop 20-1 off 6, Sinbad 37-2 off 6.

Batting: Pitstop- 21, Sinbad-16, Badabing-9.

Fielding- Long Dong 2 catches, Korean 1 catch, Hog 1 catch, 1 stumping, 1 run out.