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| v KAI DRAGONS, TUES 10 JUNE 2012 |
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Dragons 112-1 (Denzier 1-13) beat Superstars 103-6 (Gaught 27ret) by 9 runs |
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Regardless of the result the ground staff were always going to get man of the match after some fantastic
work with random bits of lost property got the pitch in to a "playable" state on an evening when all of the other teams due to play at Chiswick decided the
incessant rain would not be condusive to good cricket. |
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Much like every other game of the season, Barry lost the toss and the opposition chose to bat first, in
a game reduced to 15 overs due to the rain. Sandeep (3-0-27-0) was finally able to make his first performance of the season and more resembled "old" Sandeep than
"new" but with the conditions surely to blame. At the other end Vijay (2-0-18-0) had to resort to bowling round the wicket and his lack of spikes had him resembling
Bambi on ice. Dragons' openers roared off to a scorching start but were reined in a bit by Mr Scarecrow (3-0-26-0) and Chris' mate Chris (3-0-13-1) on debut. Despite
another brief downpour making fielding and bowling very difficult, Harish and Raj (both 2-0-12-0) were also able to keep a lid on the scoring and tame the Dragons a
little, limiting them to 112-1 off their 15 overs, when a score in excess of 130 had looked possible. |
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Knowing they had to score quickly to keep up with the rate, Adam and Chris got off to a promising start before
Adam middled a full toss to square leg for 5. Chris then picked out the same fielder, at mid on this time, for 8. This put a lot of pressure on Paul "Boom Boom" Gaught,
who showed he can adapt to the match situation by scoring a 27 retired at more than a run a ball (I think, balls faced weren't recorded in the book) that could not have
been a bigger contrast with last week's innings against Green Sox. James N made 4 before being the third Superstar to be caught in the field and, with Paul having retired,
this brought Barry to the crease to partner Sandeep. A Sandeep run out when batting with Barry is almost becoming an inevitability and Sandeep's shot selection had already
displayed an aversion to running between the slippery wickets. Therefore it came as no surprise when he slapped one straight to the bowler, Barry called for the single,
Sandeep screamed (not yes or no, just a scream), and was run out for 16. Barry was dismissed shortly afterwards for a hard fought 2, leaving Superstars' hopes in the hands
of Vijay and Raj. 34 were needed off the last 3 but the 13th and 14th overs only yielded 12 runs. Raj aimed a meaty drive over long-on from the first ball of the last over
but it fell just short of the boundary and he was caught for 3. 22 now needed off 5 but the batsmen had crossed so Vijay was on strike. The next ball disappeared to the
boundary and built the hope in the Superstars dressing room. Unfortunately Vijay, now batting 3 feet out of his crease to try and find some grip, couldn't replicate the
shot and ended 15 not out, with Superstars 9 short on 103-6.
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Althought the scorebook will say it was Dragons who won, cricket was the real winner, triumphing over the weather as a
close, hard fought game was played out despite the difficult conditions |
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