ANZACs vs RICHMOND BARBARIANS
        On Saturday, March 30, the ANZACs set out on their first cricketing excursion of the 2002 season, a friendly match against our old friends the Barbarians from Richmond. Nine players from Raleighwere joined by three traveling down from DC for an enjoyable game.

The ANZACs Captain, the Honourable Simon Percival, correctly called the toss and going on the assumption that we'd have a longer day's cricket if batted first sent the opposition out to toil in the humid conditions. Satbir and Jonathan opened the batting, and proceeded to build a partnership. Satbir seemed to be seeing the ball well for his first time on the field in a while, while Jonathan held down the other end through sheer bulk. The score ticked along, though a little slowly, until the partnership ended one short of a half century in the 11th over, when Fergus, who was umpiring at the time, failed to live up to his part of the match fixing agreement and gave Jonathan out for 11.

The rest of the top order then proceeded to take the score on its merry way. Prasad came and went cheaply, but Sameer joined Satbir for a 28 run partnership before giving his wicket away for a quick fire 31. Hugh came to the middle and things were looking good at 133/3. Then came a collapse of South African proportions [Editor's note: I hereby raise my objection to this turn of phrase. When did South Africabecome the shining light in batting collapses of epic proportions?]. Satbir was caught off the worst bowler for a well earned 64 (4 fours, 3 sixes). Hugh went for 6, Vinod for 2, Gaurav for a duck, Stephen for a duck, Fergus for a duck, and finally Ketan for a paltry 9. From 133/3 we were all out for 146, with nine balls still remaining; certainly not the most impressive display.

Despite our feeble effort down the tail, we were still confident of a victory as we took the field. The first two wickets came at 21 and 34 and we looked to be making good inroads. But a few dropped catches and a solid batting performance by Henry Witz (who will be joining us in Philadelphia- save some of that form for the games that count Henry!) took the score to98/2 with ten overs left. Needing just five and over with plenty of wickets in hand the ANZACs had some cause for concern. But then Hugh Smyth came on and bowled a wonderful spell. A leg stump to end one over and a middle stump to start the next brought the fielders in close for a shot at a hattrick. In typical Hugh style in such occasions, he couldn't get the ball anywhere near the stumps and the batsman left it alone without concern. Of course the next ball Hugh promptly removed his middle stump for his fourth wicket to end his spell. Simon then brought himself on to bat and cleaned up the rest of the tail in a collapse that would have made the ANZACs proud.

Final bowling figures:
Smyth 6-0-21-4
Percival 3.2-0-24-4
Satbir 6-0-19-0
Sameer 2-0-11-0
Prasad 5-0-25-2
Vinod 5-0-28-0

Man of the match went to Satbir for his classy batting and controlled bowling. Hugh and Simon were awarded runner up accolades.

Thanks to all the chaps who went up, especially to the three friends (Sameer and Co.) who came down from DC to join us. A good time was had by all. We go into the season with a bit of cricket under our belts, but we know we have a lot of work to do.
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