Kai Tak Vs Saracens

Just prior to the toss I was then informed by the opposing skipper that two players would be turning out to play thier first game of the season for Saracens, one being Dyutesh Chauduri and the other, the big man of Hong Kong cricket, Rahul Sharma. Both of these players come with the reputation of being destructive batsmen to say the least and so the Tak now found themselves with a serious match to play.

The Tak won the toss and elected to bat first, this meant that we were exposing ourselves to a potential problem in that only Patidar and Doubleday had scored meaningful runs over the last couple of weeks and so the batters were seriously going to have to get thier heads down and graft. A score of 250 was an absolute minimum at PKVR.

Out of sorts Dave Ellis opened up alongside promoted Brett Morley and both started off very cautiously with occasional boundaries coming off Morleys bat. The running between wickets was excellent and at the 10 over mark we had 49 runs on the board. The batsmen took advantage of very sloppy fielding and at drinks we 89 with no loss of wickets, a perfect platform to launch. The heat was intense and after drinks the onslaught started. Ellis was eventually out caught for a fine 53 runs but since drinks in only 7 overs both batsmen had added a further 65 runs to position us at 154 for 1. Patidar entered at No 3 all set for premeditated slogging with Morley but sadly the latters innings came to an end again caught with his score 82, a terrific innings of lovely drives and fantastic running. With Neil Morley watching his son it was a tearful moment reminiscent of Tiger and Earl.

I have often written that Malcolm Brown is a ticking timebomb, and we've seen glimpses of it over the past couple of years but yesterday he exploded. His main aim firstly was to get over 60 to knock Doubleday off his perch on the website and quite simply he did it with ease. There was no scratchy start or mistime, everything he hit went like a tracer bullet over the boundary, an unlucky bowler going for 5 fours and 1 six. While this was going on at one end Patidar,trying to emulate Brown and failing miserably,was finally put out his misery by a run out for 24. Enter Doubleday to bash the final few overs with Browny and the Tak ended up with a hefty 288 for 3, Doubleday on 19 not out and Brown a superb 85 not out off only 33 balls.

One of the Taks weaknesses in the past has been that we have allowed one or two individuals beat us when we were quite clearly the better team. Saracens were reliant on two men and there was no way we were going down today no matter how good they were.

Williams opened up with Scott Parker, Morley taking a well earned rest, and it was of no surprise that Chauduri and Sharma were there to face the first deliveries. Both started positively and brutally dispatched anything loose to the boundary. Williams unfortunately couldn't find the length that has been his hallmark and was soon replaced by Morley but it was the fourth over bowled by Scott Parker that fired everybody up. His second delivery to Sharma taking the outside edge caught behind by Brown. Everybody heard it and with the bat being so far away from his body it could only have been an outside edge. The umpire said not out and Sharma didn't walk. What an opportunity and what a decision! Usual words were exchanged before an angry Parker delivered his next ball...four. Sharma tried to play the next ball again down the open leg side but failed...dot ball and with a very similar delivery the next ball , tried the same shot again only to find the bats leading edge which popped up high going over Al Noble standing at mid wicket. Noble positioned himself well to take the once only chance and prize wicket. Parker 1 Sharma 0. It was a great over to watch.

Morley meanwhile was doing his thing impressing dad with the ball this time and got his just rewards by clean bowling Chauduri all ends up with his score on 58. Patidar came on to slow the pace a bit which seemed to work. Dirk Grobler and HP Odendaal were given the opportunity of a few overs, the latter taking a wicket by way of a superb reaction catch by Williams which went above his head, bounced out of his hands and within an instant while twirling had reclaimed the ball.

With the main threats delt with Saracens seemed content with playing out the overs well behind and out of the game. Patidar kept the runs down at one end while a recalled Morley destroyed the batting lineup eventually finishing with a well deserved 5 wicket haul. Kai Tak had them 9 down at the close of play with 191 on the board, Kai Tak winning by 97 runs.

This was a very good performance with the bat and ball. Ground fielding was exemplary with that man Simon Rattigan again leading the way with acrobatic stops. As an aside talking with Sharma afterwards at Staunton's he told me that that one of the big differences between the Tak and them was that we looked and played as a team. Guys that didn't bat or bowl were throwing themselves around saving 8, 10 , 12 runs in the field and taking superb catches.....high praise indeed. Even vision impaired One Eyed Jack Doubleday was diving around stopping boundary bound balls.

The only black mark of the day came from a five minute rant by Neil Morley on the merits of HB pencils verses HP3 or whatever.Poor little Will Brown had trouble scoring with them and errors are hard to erase, so Morls if you want to claim your five wickets you have to change your name to MALLY!!