Mad Dogs Vs BOCC 10/21 By JPM

A bright cold day in Philadelphia saw Quirk lose his 13th consecutive toss, a 1:8192 against probability, prompting speculation about parallel universes in which Quirk won 13 consecutive tosses, and also scored some runs - but the odds on the latter were considered just too astronomical to calculate. The Dogs were therefore inserted.

Bhuiyan and Lawrence put on a steady 46 against good swing bowling, Bhuiyan riding some early luck but eventually settling in, and Lawrence looking as formidably solid as ever. The first wicket fell to a run-out, Bhuiyan failing to beat a nice throw from fine leg to be out for 11 (38 balls).

Quirk scored a decent-enough 9 from 18 balls before unaccountably driving one straight to deep mid-off. Kimberley then joined the gradually accelerating Lawrence to add 40 in sprightly style, with a few meaty blows, before he too drove a catch to the deep, this time off the veteran Griffiths to leave with 17 (24 balls, 1 x 4).

Banerjee then promptly ran out Lawrence, never a good idea, soon after the man had reached yet ANOTHER 50, a typical innings of care and power when needed (54, 83 balls, 5 x 4). Moore emulated Kimberley by driving the same bowler to a deep straight fielder (2, 6 balls). Then, as the overs ran out, wickets tumbled: Satish slogged a full toss vertically to be caught and bowled for 8 (14 balls); Ike's first ball for the club knocked his middle stump out; and then in the last over, Santosh was stumped for 3 (5 balls) and Simon caught behind for 0 (4 balls), leaving Banerjee not out on 14 (21 balls, 1 x 4), a useful knock in the closing stages of the innings. The final total of 147 for 9 from 35 overs didn't look to be enough.

Simon took an early wicket, bowling Satish for 2 with a beauty that nipped back nicely. But Hasan and Vikri batted solidly against Simon, Satish and Santosh, scoring steadily to take the score to 60. Moore, on for Simon, made the breakthrough, persuading Hasan to drive in the air to deep mid-off where Bhuiyan judged the catch well, out for 30.

Moore took a second wicket soon after, Turner getting a thick edge to cover, where Harrison held an excellent one-handed catch. The slow bowler was a little unlucky not to take a couple more wickets, as catches were dropped or didn't quite go to hand. Quirk bowled well without luck, and Harrison was responsible for the next wicket, fielding a drive off his own bowling and shying down the stumps at the bowler's end, with Khan out of his ground - sharp work!

But the steady Vikri and the highly aggressive Sri whittled away at the total pretty quickly, Sri in particular taking a liking for whatever was bowled his way. Harrison was unlucky to have Sri dropped in the deep twice in an over off big hits, as the batsman decided the long-handle was the thing to use. The end came soon after Vikri reached a well-deserved 50, with Sri also unbeaten on 38 and the total on 151 for 4 in 30.5 overs. The Dogs were a bit outgunned today.

Simon 6.5-1-24-1
Satish 4-0-16-0
Santosh 3-0-20-0
Moore 7-0-31-2
Quirk 5-0-19-0
Harrison 4-0-26-0
Ike 1-0-4-0