Surveying a push to backward square leg.
“Striving for excellence motivates you; striving for perfection is demoralizing”
~ Harriet Beryl Braiker (1949-2004) - psychologist and author.
It was a blazing hot day as I made my way to our Como West ground, our opponents for this week are the high flying Coles Sharks. I arrived in time to learn that we would be bowling first which I was not altogether bothered about. As we made our way out to the middle, I took one look at the pitch and decided that it was an absolute belter being nice and yellow and almost devoid of any cracks. I thought to myself that this pitch will play true and will offer very little assistance to the bowlers.
That was the pitch. The outfield on the other hand was something else! The grass had been recently cut with small mounds of grass clippings left everywhere all over the oval. Also, the grass was not exactly “short” by any stretch of the imagination. So while the pitch was going to play truly, the outfield was going to curtail a lot of scoring opportunities as it would be unbelievably slow for shots played along the deck.
Our new ball bowlers this week were Roshan “Roshy” Peries a left arm fast medium bowler who has played as high as First Grade this season who possesses an occasionally wicked kicking out swinger that catches batsmen by surprise and Santosh “Toshy” Thuniki the hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas where he captured 4 for 19 including three of the top four batsman. So you could say that it was a reasonably solid new ball pairing.
A few overs into the Coles innings, I could already see that the pitch was offering both our new ball bowlers nothing by the way of bounce or sideways movement. The pitch was a road suited to the flat track whackers of which our middle order is composed of. “Going to be good for Tinker and Notty when we have a bat, but an absolute bowlers grave yard for our poor fast bowlers” was what went through mind as the Coles openers started to assert their authority with some lusty strikes bouncing over the boundary. The Coles openers were going aerial often to avoid the ball stopping in the grass once they ascertained that the outfield was treacle slow. This of course meant that there were seemingly abundant opportunities to test our outfield catching. Remarkably, the ball seemed to either just fly over the fieldsmen’s outstretched hands or just in front, or just to the side…you can picture the frustration building in our lads as the opening bowlers were unable to get the break through and the score was steadily rising at an alarming run rate.
~ Harriet Beryl Braiker (1949-2004) - psychologist and author.
It was a blazing hot day as I made my way to our Como West ground, our opponents for this week are the high flying Coles Sharks. I arrived in time to learn that we would be bowling first which I was not altogether bothered about. As we made our way out to the middle, I took one look at the pitch and decided that it was an absolute belter being nice and yellow and almost devoid of any cracks. I thought to myself that this pitch will play true and will offer very little assistance to the bowlers.
That was the pitch. The outfield on the other hand was something else! The grass had been recently cut with small mounds of grass clippings left everywhere all over the oval. Also, the grass was not exactly “short” by any stretch of the imagination. So while the pitch was going to play truly, the outfield was going to curtail a lot of scoring opportunities as it would be unbelievably slow for shots played along the deck.
Our new ball bowlers this week were Roshan “Roshy” Peries a left arm fast medium bowler who has played as high as First Grade this season who possesses an occasionally wicked kicking out swinger that catches batsmen by surprise and Santosh “Toshy” Thuniki the hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas where he captured 4 for 19 including three of the top four batsman. So you could say that it was a reasonably solid new ball pairing.
A few overs into the Coles innings, I could already see that the pitch was offering both our new ball bowlers nothing by the way of bounce or sideways movement. The pitch was a road suited to the flat track whackers of which our middle order is composed of. “Going to be good for Tinker and Notty when we have a bat, but an absolute bowlers grave yard for our poor fast bowlers” was what went through mind as the Coles openers started to assert their authority with some lusty strikes bouncing over the boundary. The Coles openers were going aerial often to avoid the ball stopping in the grass once they ascertained that the outfield was treacle slow. This of course meant that there were seemingly abundant opportunities to test our outfield catching. Remarkably, the ball seemed to either just fly over the fieldsmen’s outstretched hands or just in front, or just to the side…you can picture the frustration building in our lads as the opening bowlers were unable to get the break through and the score was steadily rising at an alarming run rate.
Kicking some clumps of dirt off the pitch.
Johnny Scurry was brought on in place of Roshy from the River End and with his slower brand of accurate medium pace I thought that perhaps it might slow the batsmen down somewhat.
I was very wrong.
“Scuzza” opened up with a loose over composed of full tosses and long hops and the Coles openers licked their lips and started depositing his deliveries express post to the long on boundary. Now that the Coles batsmen could smell blood in the water, they went after Scuzza like a pack of blood thirsty piranhas. Even when Scuzza started to pitch the ball on a good length, they were dancing down the pitch and smashing him to the boundary, and on a couple of occasions, clean out of the ground. It was a killing that was performed with calculated brutality. Craig Nott – one of our best outfield fieldsmen – was stationed right on the long on boundary when eventually the Coles batsmen had gorged themselves on Scuzza one time too many as Coles captain Sarianidis eventually holed out to Notty standing almost on the chalk on the boundary when he held an excellent catch. It was good to see that Scuzza had got the big wicket to help restore his confidence after the Coles batsmen had annihilated him.
Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda was also introduced into the attack at this time and he was also swept away in the slip stream to be mauled to the tune of fourteen runs off his two overs. Finally, it was Chippy Pringle’s introduction to the fray that finally stopped the haemorrhaging. It was a classy spell of bowling and with Strachany introducing himself belatedly, things turned full circle as wickets started to tumble to Strachany’s wicket to wicket line.
Coles innings finally came to a natural end at the forty five over compulsory innings closure with their score finishing on a rather respectable 8 for 189. It could have been so much worse for us, as at one stage Coles looked like they were cruising to 250. As it stood, 189 was still an excellent score considering the slow nature of the outfield. Strachany was the star with the ball taking 4 for 27 off his nine overs of economical medium pace and Chippy Pringle chimed in with 2 for 34 off nine overs of controlled off spin.
Strachany and Mr Natural Nat Williams strode out to start off our chase and I was confident that they would get us off to a rollicking start. However, before I could even get my pads on, Nat was out bowled for a duck and we were 1 for 1. Not the start I expected. This week Richie “The Dragon” Halpagoda was sent out to bat in my usual place at number three due to his willingness to “have a go”. The score had barely reached eighteen when Strachany himself was adjudged LBW nine.
A forward defensive stroke.
2 for 18 and I was walking to the crease in a scrambled head space. How were we going to turn things around and score at four and a half an over to overhaul Coles score? I batted in relative comfort as none of the bowling was particularly troubling me. What DID trouble me was the sight of the grass in the outfield stopping my strokes from going anywhere. It took me a while to get off the mark, but when it came, it was well worth savouring. A nicely timed glance off my toes that raced to fine leg for a single.
A study of my stance and backlift.
The bowling was tight, but not overly threatening. However, the tight line and the slow outfield was causing me to have nightmares as to how I was going to get the scoring moving. Soon after I had arrived at the crease, Richie The Dragon perished when he went for a half cocked drive that spooned straight to the mid off fieldsman for an innocuous dismissal that Richie must have been kicking himself over afterwards. 3 for 20 and sinking further into the mire.
Playing a splendid (though involuntary) late cut for a single down to third man.
In strode Alun “Tinker” Hume our very own genial Irishman and hero of the win over Thornbury in the last game before Christmas when he made a barnstorming sixty one. His first words of wisdom to me when he arrived at the wicket were “I feel like I am about to throw up…I am not going to last too long today”. Apparently, Tinker was watching at a pub until 6:30am watching his English Premier League team playing on pay TV while drinking a guiness or five. So old Tinker was feeling rather hung over and less than one hundred percent as the afternoon wore on. To his credit, he started batting in an aggressive manner picking up where he left off before Christmas. As for myself, I still had time to play a purposeful push to square leg for a single and a wonderful – but entirely involuntary – late cut also for a single. But for the outfield, it would have raced away for four on any other day.
A push to backward square leg. Fielding at gully is the sledger who gave me the send off.
Drinks were taken and I was very concerned as to how I was going to manufacture an innings that would be fast enough to give us a chance to win the game. With this thought embedded in my mind, I played the first ball from the new bowler Javed after drinks defensively. The second ball, I involuntarily charged down the pitch to the fast bowler and missed the ball in my swipe which proceeded to hit the top hat of my left pad, deflecting onto the top hat of my right pad before dropping enough to clip the top of my off stump to be bowled in the most ridiculous manner. It was totally out of character for me to be giving any bowler the charge, let alone a fast medium bowler. It was a brain explosion pure and simple.
I felt totally ashamed of myself as I walked off the field. As I was making my way off, one of the Coles fieldsman sledged me with the words “he’s got a new bat, but he doesn’t know how to f*@king use it”. It rubbed salt into the wound, more so that the offender lasted only two balls himself when he batted and to be diplomatic, he had a body shape that would see him as a candidate to be conscripted onto the Biggest Loser for his own good. Throw in a Merv Hughes moustache and he had the complete all round image of a philistine.
Alun "Tinker" Hume ready to pounce during his gutsy innings of 43.
Craig Nott joined Tinker at the crease and the two of them set about rebuilding our innings and restoring our fading hopes of winning the game. They played sensible aggressive cricket and took the score to ninety vive before Tinker departed for a streaky but important forty three. A remarkable innings considering Tinkers hung over condition. Sunil Mandalika joined Craig Nott at the crease and they continued scoring freely to give us the feeling that perhaps there was life in the game yet. Sunil smashed two glorious sixes before perishing trying to do it once too often and was bowled for seventeen and the score on 6 for 120 and our hopes fading fast as Craig Nott was the last of the recognized batsmen at the crease.
Notty was eventually second last man out for a courageous thirty five and by now the score 9 for 135. Soon after John Scurry was the last man out and our run chase terminated at 137 to lose the game by fifty two runs. A heavy defeat in the final wash up.
Trying to play a pull shot to a ball that subsequently kept low and cannoned into my thigh pad.
I was extremely disappointed with myself to get myself out in such a silly manner. My concentration is something I really need to work on as it is a shambles. It was no coincidence that todays dismissal was the FIFTH time I had been dismissed this season in the over before or the over after drinks. That is clearly a break in concentration and must be amended if I am going to play any useful roles for the team this summer.
Thinking about things dispassionately this week, I started playing club cricket as a ten year old and stopped playing at the end of under 16’s when I was barely sixteen years old. That in effect means that this is only my seventh season of club cricket which makes me in relative terms a novice. If I count my beginnings in the backyard as an eight year old – I still haven’t totaled ten years of cricket under my belt. I have a long way to go – but I am very confident that quantum leaps in improvement are not far away.
See you all soon!
Vic Nicholas
Melbourne
AUSTRALIA
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