Kai Tak Vs HKU

Saturday 16th December the Tak took on HKU at Sandy Bay in an attempt to erase the memory of the past two performances. A solid side took the park and all eyes were on the ever important toss. Campbell, not shy of a few words, giving the Captain hell on his past two losses. A practice session of coin tossing took place and it was to the immense relief of the Skipper that the coin came down in favour of the Tak. The boys could pack away thier home made gallows and concentrate on batting first.

Ellis and Doubleday opened up and got the Tak off to a great start, Ellis in particular returning to supreme confidence bashing anything loose. Both batsmen took to the attack and with excellent running the run rate climbed hitting the 6 an over mark at the ten over point. Sadly just as Doubleday was about to let loose he pushed at one leaving a gap to be bowled for a very good 31 runs. Patidar joined Ellis and both continued to keep the runs flowing until Patidar was caught in the gully for 43 runs. It was the 21st over with the score on 139. With only 11 overs left due to a reduced over game of 32 overs a piece, there was still a bit of work to do. Campbell, stiff neck, bad back, same verbals, entered and it wasn't long before his trademark pull shot appeared launching anything short over the fence. Ellis eventually fell,stumped, at the other end for a very good 55 runs off only 70 balls. Haskett entered at 5 and after hitting the first ball for 6 was soon out. Naqvi returning to the Kai Tak fold then helped Campbell in a very good partnership of 57 runs, rotating the strike. Naqvi was dismissed for 19 off 17 balls and shortly after Campbell fell for a solid 46 runs. Bester and Fitzhardinge added to the score each hitting a six in their cameo efforts to take the Tak to a very hefty 238 for 6 off 32 overs.

The idea at the start of the defence of 238 runs was to keep it tight put some pressure and be in command of the game by the 10th over. If that was achieved then a multitude of other bowlers could then be bowled. Parker and Belcastro started us off and it was early in the 3rd over when a little piece of magic was witnessed by all. Parker bowling to their very threatening opener sent a delivery on leg stump which was promptly picked up by the middle of the bat behind square, a boundary bound ball surely!! Naqvi diving to his right from square leg and airborne snatched the catch for one of the best catches we've seen in a long time. HKU continued very cautiously and never looked to match the run rate required taking thier score to 61 for 1 in the 13th over. A change of bowling saw H.P Odendaal brought into the attack and almost immediately he made an impact. Haskett was brought on at the other end and in tandem both bowled beautifully, only the odd bad ball being dispatched to the boundary. HP in his second over clean bowled the no 3 bat with 31 runs to his name and Haskett had the other opener out caught magnificently by Belcastro at deep long off. Odendaal continued his dominance of the batters clean bowling another 2 batsmen and his other wicket coming by way of another fantastic piece of catching. The ball had been drilled low and hard dipping down as it approached the long off boundary only for Ellis to take the catch on, which once commited was never in doubt. Fitzhardinge was given a run with the ball and was immediately rewarded with 2 catches, one hit down to long on staring down Andy Bester, never in doubt, until Belcastro running all the way from long off at full pelt, decided that the catch was his taking a great catch all of one foot in front of Bester's face. The other catch was taken by Haskett, the ball going long behind him only for him to turn,run and dive snatching the ball going away from him, certainly one of the harder catches you'll get on a cricket field. It was all great stuff, the opposition not believing what they were seeing. Belcastro was recalled to take the last wicket, bowling the no 10 bat with his 5th delivery back.