Kai Tak trounce CCC!

Saturday dawned fine and hot for our encounter with CCC at Mission Road. Most of the lineup arrived feeling a bit jaded, either from having just stepped off a long- haul flight or drinking to Beatts’ health the night before at Staunton’s. Chris’s parents, brother and sister were in attendance and black arm bands were donned in his memory.

This was a toss of the coin that had to be correct, and it was. With no hesitation we decided to bat first.

Barrington and Gunthorpe strode out in oppressive conditions with quick singles not being the order of the day but rather boundaries. They got off to a steady start with sensible shot selection and both looked comfortable. The tempo was lifted from about the 12 over mark with both openers displaying some lusty six hitting. JB was adjudged caught behind for a well compiled 38 just prior to drinks, with the total around the 100 mark. The foundation had been laid for a target of around 220 on the slow Mission Road outfield.

Gunny was asked to bat through but went mad first over after drinks and was stumped for a very fluent 44 – well done! Two quick wickets but still loads of batting to come. Campbell and Brown didn’t last long however and now 220 was starting to look like a challenge, but still no need to panic. Williams came in and blocked up an end while still keeping the scoreboard ticking but continued to lose partners, until Bob Ward arrived batting at 8. A fine partnership ensued with about 80 runs coming off the last 8 overs with some powerful hitting by both players, Chris finally out for 42 in the dying overs. Haskett and Belcastro grabbed a handful more with Ward finally out off the last ball of the innings for a game breaking 32.

With a very competitive total of 232 on the board, a win was in the offering provided we bowled and fielded to our usual high standards. Williams opened the bowling with a tight first over followed by Mohsin from the other end. Runs were hard to come by, the pressure resulting in Chris finding the edge of their left handed opener and Brown taking a superb one handed diving effort behind the stumps (Brownie obviously didn’t have much faith in Nick’s catching ability at 1^st slip). Just the start we wanted with Mohsin then chiming in and removing their other opener leg before. Their best bat arrived at number 3 and hung around for a bit before Williams produced a bottler and clean bowled him – the pendulum had swung and we were looking to wrap this up quickly. A bit of a lull ensued in the wicket taking department, but few runs were being scored and the pressure mounted as CCC fell behind the required run rate. Hawke and Belcastro came on as the change bowlers with Nick’s first ball seeing the batsman clean bowled from another great delivery. Drinks saw CCC 4 for 60 odd and well behind the eight ball. With conditions still being hot and oppressive Kai Tak were eager to roll through the remaining 6 wickets. Hawke picked up another and Belcastro a couple off 8 straight overs (couldn’t get the ball out of his hand!) and an early shower was beckoning. With Ward unavailable at the bowling crease due to a nasty head blow while batting, Ellis and Haskett provided spin from both ends with the last 3 wickets falling quickly, CCC bowled out for 100.

Bowling figures – Williams 4 overs 2 for 6, Naqvi 4 overs 1 for 17, Fidel 8 overs 2 for 26, Hawke 6 overs 2 for 29 and Ellis 3.2 overs 3 for 15.

A great effort fellas on a bloody hot day – a very convincing win! A couple of crucial games coming up in October with Steve in charge, so all correspondence to him please. Keep up the effort boys and let’s keep this momentum going. We have the makings of something very special this season………

 

Dave

 

Go the Tak!!