KAI TAK VS KCC CRUSADERS, KCC

KAI TAK 260   T.Patidar 72, D.Johnson 48, A.Williams 33, S.Campbell 33
KCC Crusaders 4 / 175  N.Mohammed 6-3-31, D.Belcastro 5-1-30

Well what was built up as a big game for both teams and a game likely to have some controversy fizzled out in the end to give the TAK a very comfortable and valuable win!
It started very well with the skipper winning the toss and having no hesitation to bat first on a turf wicket that would inevitably fall apart towards the end. It was a glorious sunny day and Mohsin and Brad looked to have the eye of the tiger in them both!!
Unfortunately tigers can’t play cricket. Brad fell dubiously LBW in the 1st over and Mohsin lasted little longer shouldering arms only to see middle peg getting knocked out of the ground, oops!! So Campbell and Patidar were at the crease with the TAK struggling on only 30 but I didn’t look like I was going to hang around too long, going for the big ones early!! Patidar got an early bit of luck when he skied one to point, now if the fielder had just stayed in his original position he would have swallowed it, unfortunately for them, he ran circles around it and eventually didn’t get anywhere near it!!! The score was ticking over but my luck ran out, skying one to mid off in the deep, not what a Captain needed to do today but with the batting we had there was no point pushing for ones against this team. In came Al Williams who was licking his lips at an early entrance. Tiks and Al then went about playing very smart cricket, getting plenty of boundaries but pushing for the singles aswell. Soon we had the 100 up and still an over to go to drinks, a great recovery!! Tiks and Al put on a 114 run partnership until Al was given out bat before LBW, apparently a new rule in cricket??? Now talking about licking his lips, Dwight was heading out ready to take on whatever they had. Dwight then dispatched the ball to all ends of the ground with even some sneaky shots around his legs. It was the shot in the arm we needed, as a score around 230 was likely but not enough. His 48 coming off only 21 balls. Unfortunately we then had a bit of a hick up, losing regular wickets and slowing us down considerably. Tiku finally fell for a great 72 trying to lift the rate, Nihal who had just hit a great 6 over cow corner didn’t last too long and then the tail put up little resistance but managing to get us up to a very reasonable 260.
Once again a very good partnership got us to a very good position and once again Mr Cricket was involved. It was great to see Tiku finally get over the 50 mark and he could have been selfish to see himself to 100 but did what the team needed at the time. Overall a good batting effort, we let ourselves down towards the end but then again, that’s what having wickets in hands allows you to do, ie go for it!!!
So now on to the field in what was going to have to be a Grade A TAK effort. They were missing one or two big guns but they still had some very good batsmen. Chris and Mitch got us off to a great start, not allowing much room and not giving away too many free runs. After 10 overs they were struggling on 48, definitely not enough at this stage. So some change of bowling had the Captain a bit nervous but hopeful. Dom Dunn having only played one game this season replaced Chris and Fidel who hasn’t played in quite a while replacing Mitch. Fidel’s’ first over produced a couple of gems and finally was rewarded with a LBW against their opener. Dom came on the other end and was spot on straight away. The pitch had such variable bounce by this stage the bowlers didn’t need to do too much, just keep it simple. Dom showed this on his 9 over spell only going for 35 runs!! Great effort!! Fidel was replaced by the big man Nihal. By this stage Nihal was chomping at the bit to get into the action. The skipper holding him back for a bit worked as the big man come firing in from the first ball!! Nihal was his usual unlucky self with balls being skied into gaps but he was rewarded with the valuable wicket of Barney who had made 41 and then a great catch coming forward from cow corner by Al Williams gave Nihal his 3 for 31 off his 6 overs!!
With the runs drying up and the run chase over Haskett had a couple of over’s and then for the last 2 overs the skipper, admittedly feeling cocky by this stage brought Mr Cricket on for one and then HIMSELF on for the last. With jeers from the crowd and even more from his own players, the skipper fought bravely through the sledging to get through a very respectable last over. The umpire however had other ideas, calling 3 very dubious wides in the process, the TAK screaming at the skipper by this stage to stop giving away free runs!!! Some great turn and flight showed what I had left in me even at my ripe old age and it was great for the crowd to give me a standing ovation at the end of the over, although apparently some were saying it was in thanks to finally actually finishing the over, none the less, not a dry eye in the house!!!
So a very convincing win and thankfully a game played in the spirit, there was none of the old tricks by their main players and we were even comfortable to hang around for drinks at the end. A great way to finish the league season and we are still an outside chance to make the top 8 all be it at a stretch. We need Millenium to get up against LSW St Georges next weekend, a game St Georges also need to win to make the top 8 and unfortunately Millenium are not playing for anything. Oh well, we have done what we had to this week and with a bit of luck going our way we may be able to still take this league by storm!!!
Man of the Match: Tiks
Mug of the Day: Me…apparently some felt I deserved it for that last over????