Maddogs Vs Columbia Sept 16, 2006 By John Moore

Mad Dogs vs Columbia (League) September 16

The Mad Dogs won the final league game of the season, thereby
topping the table and gaining home-field advantage for next week's
final against the same opposition: Columbia. Quirk by tradition, lost
the toss, and the Dogs were inserted on a damp, slow pitch. Lawrence
and Palmer got the innings off to a slow but steady start against
testing bowling, neither batsman being at his most fluent, but both
hanging in there. Palmer extended his streak of dot-balls (over three
games) to 35 before getting off the mark with a rasping cut. He was,
however, the first to fall, with the score on 33, bowled for 11 (30
balls) by an excellent in-swinging yorker - no shame there! Quirk
attempted to add some vim to the innings, but found timing also hard
to achieve, and soon lofted a catch (2, 10 balls). Coates, however,
is batting at his very best right now, and set about the bowling in a
wonderful knock, hammering three 6's and a four in a cameo innings of
pure power but also considerable skill. Despite giving Lawrence a
dozen overs start, he passed his score in a mere 3 or 4 overs, on his
way to 34 from only 17 balls before an outstanding innings fell to a
good catch in the deep. Prasanna took over from Coates and also
played an aggressive knock while Lawrence kept the innings solid at
the other end. A four and a six were accrued by Prasanna, as he
dominated the bowling, but as so often, he played one lavish shot too
many, and was bowled for 16 (14 balls) by one that kept a little low.
Thornton and Haydon theoretically represented real power at numbers 6
and 7, but both suffered rare failures, Thornton adjudged to have
snicked a catch to the keeper of a spinner, in a flurry of bat and
pad, to leave for a second-ball duck, Haydon bowled for 1 (8 balls).
All the more reason for Lawrence to be keeping chugging along, which
he was doing, while gradually becoming adjusted to a new bat and
finding his timing as he passed yet another important 50. His solid
knock ended with a catch to long-on for 56 (80 balls, 8 x 4). Sood
played an excellent, sloggers-knock in the closing overs, trusting
his eye and chancing his arm very effectively to tally 27 not out
from 25 balls with 1 x 6, 2 x 4. Moore added 5 from 6 balls before
driving to cover, Kojima hit a catch first ball, and Boyke sliced a
catch in the last over (6, 7 balls, 1 x 4) as the innings ended on a
competitive 194 all out from 34.3 overs.

Boyke then took an early wicket, having Ratesh plumb LBW for 6, and
Haydon did much the same to Aptiva (0) at the other end, and then
doing a mini-Harrison as a rather better shout was turned down,
probably on the grounds that it's not just done for the first three
batsmen to all fall LBW...... But Haydon bowled well, as did Boyke.
Sarian and then put on the major stand of the Columbia innings, 69,
in fine style. Coates was hit out of the attack, his bowling not
helped by the recurrence of a shoulder strain. Fortunately, Quirk
made a critical breakthrough, bowling Sarian for 40 with his second
ball, and he and Prasanna then reined in the Columbia innings from a
winning position at 123 for 3 to a catastrophic collapse. Vishnu fell
to Quirk for 43, a rank full-bung being mis-hit straight at Thornton
on the mid-wicket fence - a bad ball, but a fair reward for a really
good spell, overall. Prasanna then rattled out 3 quick wickets, two
courtesy of really sharp, skillful stumpings by Palmer, the third a
jaffa of a leg-break that bowled Ajay all ends up. The Columbia
innings was now wrecked, but Quirk kept the pressure on, noting that
Harrison was not playing so bringing on another off-spinner,
Lawrence, to replace him on the bunny-hunt. Lawrence's first ball was
lobbed nicely back to him, and his second was another rank full-toss
swatted out to Thornton at mid-wicket. No hat-trick, but a third
wicket fell to Lawrence in his second over, when the last Columbia
batsmen flicked a catch to Sood at square-leg, who took it nicely,
one-handed. The score of 141 all out in 26.5 overs left the Mad Dogs
winners by 53 runs, the last 7 wickets crashing for only 18 runs.

Haydon 5-0-22-1
Boyke 5-0-31-1
Quirk 7-0-31-2
Coates 3-0-35-0
Prasanna 5-0-16-3
Lawrence 1.5-0-3-3