ANZACs vs GH
On Sunday, May 11, the ANZACs
returned to MACC league play to host our old
friends the Greenville Hurricanes on a warm overcast day. Greenville
won
the toss and elected to bat. They got off to a very quick start as the
ever
dangerous Kulwant hammered the first ball he saw for four, and took 14
off
Panda's first over. However, the decision to bat turned out to be the
wrong
one as the next 13 runs saw four wickets fall. Panda came back to
collect
Kulwant on a great catch in the gulley, and then picked up the next two
wickets with great balls which knocked over off stump. One of the
ANZACs
two new additions to the team, Gopal, contributed handily with the new
ball.
He bowled a very tight line and knocked back another off stump.
Gaurang, the Hurricanes captain, came in to settle the innings down and
played a very solid innings. But the introduction of Ronnie and Sunil
to
the attack precipitated the end of the holdout. Sunil played cat and
mouse
with Gaurang with some wonderfully varied flight of the ball. Just as
Gaurang thought it was time to take some runs off the tempting bowling
Sunil
got one to pop up and took a lovely low caught and bowled. Majid
contributed in his usual style with a swashbuckling 19 before a great
catch
by Shaluka at short extra cover off Ronnie. The rest of the innings
saw
some brilliant catches held by the ANZACs, who had obviously recovered
from
their Philadelphia Dropsies, though the captain did seem to have a
brief
relapse. The innings ended with young Sunil, at only 12 years of age
the
youngest player in the league, getting his first run thanks to some
graciously clumsy fielding before holing out for the final wicket and a
total of 69.
Sunil was the pick of the bowlers with figures of 5-2-9-4, but was
closely
followed by the rest of the attack: Panda 4-1-22-3, Ronnie, 5-1-31-2,
and
Gopal 4-0-7-1.
The ANZACs reply started rather shakily with Shekhar going in the first
over
without a run on the board, followed closely by Mark, the second ANZACs
newbie, for just one run. Sundar (16) got a bright 16 and looked to be
in
great confidence before his stumps were rattled. Gopal (10) also
looked to
be getting a handle on the bowling before the fourth ANZACs wicket fell
with
the score on 32. This flurry of flying bails gave the Hurricanes great
hope
and they played with tremendous energy for a while. But Shaluka joined
Simon in the middle and played a spectacular Boycott type innings.
After
facing 12 consecutive dot balls Shaluka's first run was greeted with a
tumultuous uproar from the Tholasingam-led peanut gallery. Gradually
the
score crept closer to the target and after finally reaching the half
century
mark, Simon (24* - his score, not his age) dispatched a few quick balls
to
the boundary to bring up the victory. Shaluka was able to leg out a
few
twos to get his final score up to a well earned 13 not out.
The game was played in great spirits as most Greenville-ANZACs games
are,
and the rest of the afternoon was spent enjoying the company of our
mates at
the hallowed halls of the Upper Deck.
Congrats to Mark and Gopal on mostly-successful contributions in their
first
game with the ANZACs, and on a solid victory for the team.
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