Monday, October 23, 2006

Mad Dogs Vs Merion on 10/22/06 By JPM

The captain not being Quirk but Lawrence, the toss was won and the Dogs batted. Moore soon departed, yorked by Shaffikool for 4 (15 balls) with the score on 18 thanks mostly to wides from Prashant. Satish and Prasanna then put on a steady 32 against decent but not particularly threatening bowling before Satish sanjayed a horrible full toss from Ayaz to be caught by Parnell for 10 (28 balls).

A major stand of 79 in 14 overs then developed between Prasanna and Achal, neither batsman being troubled and both seeming content to roll the score along fairly steadily without too much fuss or drama. Soon after reaching 50, Prasanna appeared bored with proceedings, the bowling not being good enough to test his skills, and seemed to be attempting to hit catches. His skipper then asked him to retire to give some others a go, the doubly altruistic gesture crediting Prasanna with a not out that moved him to the top of the batting averages (60* from 60 balls, 3 x 4).

The next over, Achal was also asked to retire after a nice knock (41*, 54 balls, 2 x 4). Kimberley was then run out by the length of the pitch in a closing-overs muddle with Parag to leave with 8 (14 balls). Parag batted well in the final few overs to score 22 not out from 26 balls (1 x 4), helped by Simon (6 not out, 11 balls) as the Dogs' total meandered to 176 for 3 off 35 overs.

Simon and Santosh put in good opening spells, immediately putting the Merion run-rate behind the clock. Simon soon removed Charu for 0, who sliced a cut hard but straight to Lawrence at gully. Hounsell batted well, hitting some good shots in partnership with the adhesive Parnell before Santosh nipped one through his gate to bowl him for 18.

The next phase of the Merion innings was dominated by the highly aggressive Prashant, accompanied by a series of less talented partners, against an array of Dogs' slow bowling as Lawrence rang the changes (at one stage, five different bowlers bowled five consecutive overs from one end). One way or another the wickets were whittled away. David fell to Bhuiyan for 3, Kimberley juggling a catch at mid-wicket at least 3 times before wrapping the ball up in his fleece, then leg-spinner Parag removed Parnell after a long knock of 9, thanks to an easy catch to Prasanna off a mistimed shot. Ayaz was stumped by Banerjee, advancing to Parag and missing, and the critical wicket of Prashant (44) fell to the same bowler, a slog out to deep mid-wicket being well held by Kimberley (without any dubious use of the fleece.).

The remaining batsmen were pretty bunny-like, and Parag mowed two of them down in fine style, courtesy of a lobbed catch to Lawrence at short mid-wicket and an easy return catch to finish with excellent figures of 5 for 19. Kimberley took a wicket with a filthy full toss (totally planned - nk) that was top-edged by Martin straight to Simon at square leg, and Moore bowled Danish for 0, the batsman simply missing a straight one. Shafikool, a very decent player, came in at #10, way too low to make an impact. The final total was 111 all out from 29.5 overs, leaving the Dogs comfortable winners by 65 runs.

Simon 5-1-19-1
Santosh 6-1-14-1
Bhuiyan 5-0-25-1
Parag 6-0-19-5
Lawrence 2-0-12-0
Prasanna 1-1-0-0
Moore 3.5-1-6-1
Kimberley 1-0-4-1

1 Comments:

At 5:09 PM, Blogger The Maddogs said...

What John did not cover here was the fun we had at dinner on Saturday night, our appreciation for non-regular players who stepped in on both days to sub for our injured players - and to Boyke for umpiring. All in all a great trip

Thanks

Neil

 

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