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On a windy and drizzly Thursday, against one of our frequent foes, Green Sox, Captain Barry
set an apparent record by winning the toss and choosing to bat for a second consecutive game! This was an eminently
sensible choice with a number of the Superstars, your author included, running late...... |
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With the help of a few wind-assisted wides, the Superstars made a solid start with a stand
of 26 inside 5 overs; with Conway (23) anchoring the innings while Warren (18) attacked at the other end before he lobbed
a catch to cover. This brought Gibbs (27*) to the crease, who played fluently throughout his innings, retiring with a
straight six off a gentle full toss. The very next ball, perhaps looking to be generous to Furst on his debut, served up
another full toss. Unfortunately, in the spirit of generous reciprocity, Furst hit the ball straight back to the
bowler who completed a sharp return catch. |
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Conway fell LBW shortly afterwards two short of retiring having accelerated strongly
in the second half of his innings, bringing Gigg (15) and Mountain (8; batting in a raincoat) together. Gigg and Mountain
scrambled quick runs, before Gigg was run out coming back for two, having been dropped at fine leg. Mountain holed out in
the final over, before Meyler (5*) hit some crucial runs of the final balls to leave the Superstars with a respectable
120-6. |
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The Green Sox openers, clearly not enjoying the weather, looked to play and run
aggressively from the off. This soon backfired, as Plahe (4-0-2-17) took two wickets in his first over. The first
was a tortuous clean bowled via pad, helmet and bat before the ball (or the wind) took the bails off; the second a
short ball slapped to Gibbs at cover. Not perturbed by the loss of wickets, the other opener looked to drive
Chodzko-Zajko (4-0-1-21) in the next over and lost his off stump. Mountain (4-0-0-22; bowling in a raincoat)
and Duggan (4-0-24-1) kept the pressure up with some tight bowling, with Duggan bowling off-spin "for the first
time in 45 years" and being rewarded by clean bowling the dangerous number 4. |
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Green Sox looked to claw their way back into their game as their 5 and 6 put
together a good partnership, both retiring not out, but tight bowling and fielding kept the run-rate under control.
In a moment of inspired captaincy, Gigg then brought on Conway (2-0-15-2), and proceeded to drop a catch at cover
on the fifth attempt, meaning the fired up Conway then yorked the batsman next ball. The same pattern was repeated
in Conway's next over, with Gibbs dropping the catch followed by an LBW next ball. To further dampen Conway's mood,
he was called back by the scorers to bowl the final ball of an over that the umpire had called one ball short,
and was promptly hit for four. |
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The game came down to the final over with Green Sox needing 12 to win.
Plahe bowled tight lines, and Chodzko-Zajko produced a stunning Alok-esque direct hit from deep midwicket to leave
Green Sox with 8 needed off the final ball. Sensibly, no extras were conceded, and Superstars ended up
winning by 7 runs. |
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Barry Gigg (c), Matt Conway, George Warren, Gary Plahe,
Konrad Chodzko-Zajko, Steve Meyler, Mike Kamellard, Sam Gibbs, Chris Mountain, Ed Furst, Michael Duggan. |
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