Kai Tak Vs Witherers, HKCC
Witherers 7 / 226 C.Williams 10-5-43
Kai Tak 197 N.Hawke 66, C.Williams 46*, D.Grobler 20*
Well once again we fall short with our batting. What was a great start for the Tak, having Witherers reeling at 5-63 with all the big names gone, we then let them off the hook and then failed to capitalise in the batting department.
Winning the toss i felt it was a chance to send them in as we had the twins Chris Williams and Brett Morley to take the new ball. Their big player Phil Pemberton who gets in the runs every week without trouble started to look like trouble but Willow was bowling a beautiful line and length making it very difficult for the big fella to get him away. We got a fortunate(?) decision with their captain "Shandy" going for a caught behind for 0. Then their next big name Mark Fuzes came out and 2 Hong Kong 6s players were at the crease. No probs for the Tak!! Willow then put in a slower ball and had Pembo looking to drive and then pulling out, not enough, straight to the skipper at mid off..big wicket!!!! Willow was on fire now an keen to have a go at Fuzzy, setting an unusual field to tempt Fuzzy into driving leaving covers vacant. First ball he goes for it and edges just wide of 2nd slip, close one!!! He soon went after some plodding around, again to Willow and taken well at point by Duncs. The fielding was once again at a very high standard and well and truly keeping us in the game. A couple more wickets and we had them 5-70 at drinks. Unfortunately thats where the party stopped. The next couple of guys went to town on our part timers, one of the batters scoring about 40 runs from the edge of his bat!! We pulled them back a bit at the end but we really let them out of jail!! Chris Williams bagging his first Michelle Pfiefer for the season, a great effort and some very good line and length bowling. Nick Hawke chipped in with a few good overs but with us bowling 29 extras, we did help them out a bit.
Ok then, chasing 227, no probs at the hallowed turf of the HKCC. It was time for some new innovations and i looked to Nick Hawke to go out with Morls to open the bat. Before i had finished my sentence he was padded up and raring to go, ok i will take that as a yes!!! Well Nick went out and did exactly what was needed and then some. He held his nerve and punished the short stuff, even hitting a cover drive 6!!!!! Morls then went in one of the worst decisions this season, even the other team were sympathetic, not that that stopped them appealing for the lbw!! Anyway, Mal Brown came in and looked like he was ready to get back in for, sweetly timing a couple to the boundary early on. Just as Browny was getting going there was a running mix up, well, actually not really a mix up just Nick running and Mal not!! I really think i saw Mal thinking about swearing!! Oh well thats cricket.
The middle order really struggled, Phil Pemberton was bowling very well and proving very hard to get away. The run rate starting to get up to over 10+ an over required. With that, we lost 5 batsmen cheaply, Andy Bester falling over himself walking out to the pitch really didnt fill us with confidence either. Then thankfully the tail wagged and it was that man again Chris Williams. Chris took to their bowlers and did what the rest of us were trying to do. 46 runs off very few balls and he was more than ably assisted by Dirk Grobler who also hit a nice 20.
Once again it was a good loss, but we really let this one slip. Our bowling and fielding was great, we would have loved to had Fidel or Tiks to throw the ball to but hey. Was great to see Nick amongst the runs and Mal Browns touch seems to be back. But thats about all the positives out of our batting at the moment. I dont think this seasons fixtures are helping out, this stop start season really isnt ideal but hey, no excuses!!!
Without a doubt it was Chris' day, both with bat and ball and great to see him get a well deserved 5 for!!!! I will be getting batting lessons next week from Nick (our nationality confused Zim), which i cant begin to say how much that is going to hurt!!
We have 3 games left now boys, we are only outside chances of making the top 8 but if we win them all we could be in for a chance, strange i know, as we have only won 2 games this season....but we lose very well!!!! Playing the bottom side next week and the availability is appalling, if anyone can make it please let me know, this will be a great shame if we cant put 11 guys on the park for this one!!!!
Anyway:
Man of the match: Chris Williams
Mug of the Day: Nick Hawke (running out Mal and losing the game for us!! Hee hee, well its either him or me again!!)
Go the Tak!!!