Thanks to everyone who made it week 1. We’re not in what you’d call a very strong position, but we’re a damn sight better off than if we’d only had 8 or 9 players.
Victorious Secret were a little short of numbers early, so we elected to bat on what would prove to be an at times very warm morning. Despite a couple gaps in the field, the Secret’s bowled and fielded fairly well, with only Gus really able to score freely. He racked up a brutal 46 before falling to Oshanka, who bowled a Bilkey-esque spell of 12 overs straight, bowling 5 maidens and taking 6-19.
By the time he came off we were in a spot of bother, but at no point did we give up batting sensibly to reach 117, and importantly batting enough time to make sure the Secret’s had very little chance to get the runs on day one. They batted pretty well off the 10 overs they had to face though, and are already 50 runs on the way to our total. That said, they may have even fewer players on deck next week it seems, which means the game will be far from over even if they manage to secure first innings points.
We started a bit sloppy against Victorious Secret week 2, and they needed just 11 overs to score the 70 odd required to pass our first innings score of 117, without loss. But they decided we should all attempt to get our money’s worth, and so batted on for a bit. At which point we obviously sensed their vulnerability, and took 3/14 to at least show a bit of fight, with debutant Liam picking up a brace.
They then made an incredibly sporting declaration just 37 runs ahead. Dan and Tim went in to make sure we got those runs to avoid outright, and batted well in unpleasantly hot conditions and with quality bowlers making life difficult. But got there they did, and at the seconds drinks break, we all agreed we’d had enough for 2019 and called it quits. So not a win, but at least we played some good cricket after an ordinary start, and some beers were had at the Southern Cross afterwards.
