25/3/06
Last game of the season
has come upon us and it
is with some sadness that
we must disband for the
winter but not before
completing a very close
game that was concluded in the final over of the
day. We lost the toss and were sent in.
My instructions to the opening pair of Amit Dhadwal
and Munsarim Ahmed were, “We’ve beaten them
before so just go and have some
fun.” They began
as they usually do, quick running between the
wickets and after 3 overs they
had 10 on the board
but Munsy swung too early
at a ball in the very
next and had his stumps rattled. What followed was
quite humorous for me to watch as Amit was caught
out with the score at 23 then 9 runs later in the
eighth with the score at 32 we lost first; Shreyas
Mishra and then Brett Randell in consecutive balls.
It seemed that 9 runs
was to be the average
partnership at that point
because Shyam Mehta
was stumped with the score at 41. That brought
Mitch Cooper to join Aditya Dhadwal and the pair
set about a much-needed 34 run partnership
Aditya went when he was bowled and the score
read 77 for 6. Joshua Curran joined Mitch who
was retired not long after reaching 21 from only
29 balls with the score at 90. Chris Khouri joined
Joshua and together they moved the score on to
100 at the end of the 24th
over. We then retired
Joshua and Pranil Ranchhod
ran 5 more runs
from Chris’ batting
to complete
the innings at
105 for 6 from 25 overs.
The Parnell Styris innings
began with amazing
bowling from our front
liners, first Brett and then
Munsy bowled 2 overs each
for 3 runs, then
Shyam and Jay Vaddagiri shared a wonderful
partnership also when they went for just 12 runs
from their 4 overs. This was a coach’s dream come
true. They were followed by Pranil who went for
only 5 off his 2 overs but, as sometimes happens,
a couple of bowlers in the middle spell were carted
around the ground but Mitch got the first
batsman’s wicket
with his last ball, not bad when
you consider he hasn’t
bowled a ball in a match for
about a year. The remaining bowlers bowled really
well also but it was that middle spell that cost us
and when they had just 11 to win from 12 balls
their number 7 and 9 batsmen smashed 8 runs off
Munsy’s last over
to leave 3 for the last. A close
finish and while we went out to have fun primarily
we played as a team and learned some valuable
lessons. In the coach’s opinion cricket won on the
day and we can beat anyone if we discipline
ourselves and stick to a game plan.
Player of the day was
undoubtedly Mitch Cooper
with his 21 runs and 1
wicket. Guys who need to be
mentioned are: Amit Dhadwal,
2 wickets for 8 runs;
Shreyas Mishra, 2 wickets
for 9 runs;
Aditya Dhadwal, 2 brilliant
catches;
Joshua Curran, 1 caught
and bowled for 10;
Pranil Ranchhod, 0 for
5;
Shyam Mehta, 0 for 5,
1 catch;
Jay Vaddagiri, 0 for 7;
Chris Khouri, 0 for 10,
11 from 17;
Munsarim Ahmed, 0 for
13 from 4; and
Brett Randell, 0 for 6
from 2.2 and great captaincy.
