Saturday 15th September Kai Tak

Saturday 15th September Kai Tak commenced the 2007/08 season against Mainlanders CC, a side made up of Hong Kong Under 15/16's. For Mainlanders this was to be their second outing, their first being a surprise win over Laguna Gully a week previous, Laguna Gully you may remember were the side to knock us out of the 20/20 competition last season.

New Tak Captain Steve Campbell was off in the clouds and so it was left for VC Patidar to take the reigns again. As usual the toss was lost and the Tak were sent out to field. A quick team chat followed with all the basics being discussed, the plan of attack was that apart from Chris Williams this would be an assault by slow bowling and frequent rotation of the bowlers.

Williams and Patidar opened up with the former finding his length immediately picking up where he left off last season. Patidar bowled his dobblers for two overs and then started the rotation policy( immediately after he had been smashed for four his last ball I might add). This actually was the point that it all came together, everyone who was thrown the ball did a superb job, nothing flashy, just line and length bowling accompanied by sparks of magic in the field. In all there were 8 bowlers used with the maximum runs conceded by any bowler being only 11. Wickets for a recalled Williams included the moment of the match where Sher Lama came to the crease. Lama, an old hand and good bat was the oppo's real threat, it was back to men against men and the main contest of the day was to get under way. Before Lama could even get started Williams bowled a wider line to tempt the batsmen, a temptation he couldn't resist by flashing hard. The ball caught the edge of the bat and flew through the gully region at pace where a big fella called Overton was ever ready to pounce. A huge lunge to his left and completely outstretched the ball had nowhere else to go but the middle of his palm, a fantastic left handed catch which will take some beating this season. With their main batsmen now in the hutch wickets fell regularly with not too much added to the score. I could go into more detail with the wickets but it would be much the same all around. I'll let the figures tell you the story.

A fantastic effort with the ball by all with really impressive ground fielding. Catches were out of the top drawer with Evan Summerfield taking 2 behind the stumps and all around great keeping, Mohsin taking one at point, Bruce Seymour taking 2, Al Noble with a great one at extra cover, Williams with 2, one at extra cover and the other blinding catch of the day at gully and finally Duncan Overton's one as described earlier, Duncan's little boy James was a spectator for the day and so to see his dad in action doing well was something special. The Kai Tak of old was also on show in the form of Alex Zervos who hasn't lost anything in the field, a great job on the hardest ground to field on.

Patidar opened up with Noble, the latter scoring 4 runs before he was undone by an inswinger to be clean bowled. Williams came in at 3 and a partnership got under way. The heat was intense and Patidar was in no mood to hang around or run for that matter so boundaries became the norm until a lazy shot brought about his downfall, caught at deep square leg for 48 runs. Williams followed shortly after being caught at mid off for 16 runs, and so it was left to Naqvi and Fitzhardinge to guide us home with minimal fuss, Naqvi ending up 5 not out and Fitzy on 7 not out.