V Johnsonville Saturday 26 January
The game started with the Karori 2B side missing some regulars (Wade Robertson - opening batsman, Tony DeLorenzo - opening batsman/first change bowler - seconded to 2A, Mitchell Jack - opening bowler - seconded to 2A) but gaining our third wicket keeper, Andy French. Not for the first time this season, Iain Smith lost the toss, and K-Town were told to have a bat. We knew the field from the weekend before, and with some calculations at hand knew that a score of 260 to 280 would be competitive. We weren't prepared for what was actually going to happen. Rajat Sharma and Hayden Warren would open the batting for K-Town. The spectators were concerned; these two are not renown for their great running between the wickets. Rajat batted admirably to see off Johnsonville's opening attack and the shine off the ball. The change in umpiring saw that jinx Broadfoot to stand in the middle at 12 overs and poor Rajat was back in the hut (well sleeping behind the deck chairs in truth). This saw Iain Smith and Muppet then share a brilliant stand together with Muppet bringing up his 50 and taking it through to drinks. J'Vegas (hey their name, not mine) had the part time bowlers on who were being carved up (with the square leg fielder inquiring to his Golf Handicap as well with some of the shots being that handsome). Mup was cruelly cut short (by a rush of blood and the only ball on the stumps of the entire innings) and was dismissed for a solid 69. This bought the Steve Fleming (Sam Nowland) to crease with in a particularly dangerous mood rollicking along to a brilliant 92 including 6 sixes. AGAIN not to make the ton, Hogg was dutifully blamed again for the jinx. Smithy and Dave Hogg then went into an interesting partnership. Let's just say that Hoggy must have some feline in him because the lad definitely had 9 lives and was lucky not to be cleft in twain from a raring ball that got him ribs/midrift. A quick conversation between batsmen agreed that 300 was to be the target so they squared there shoulders and set to the task with the application that only Engineers can deliver – resulting in a commanding 308 for 3 off K'Town's 45 overs. BATTING:Hayden Warren (Muppet): 69Rajat Sharma: 10Sam Nowland: 92Iain Smith: 74 Not OutExtras: 33David Hogg: 22 Not Out
The bowling attack, as mentioned, was shy Jack and DeLorenzo, but with J'Vegas needing a run rate of roughly 6.8 per over K'Town were in a strong position. But we knew how fast the out field was... Sam opened the attack into the wind and from Gully looked commanding with his away swing again troubling the batsmen. Smithy came with the wind and must have had a bit of Scotch beforehand being an absolute stooge with 3 maidens first up. This built immense pressure and with Sam attacking into the wind, J'Vegas was looking deciding on the back foot. One of the openers, in truth, was playing the game, but there were suspicions that the other may have been batting for his average (Hoggy - a relative???). Sammy was unlucky not to dislodge one of the openers when Frenchy's timing was slightly out with an edge clipping the back of his gloves. Smithy knew he had 27 overs covered with big Tom Abbott back in the attack, Sam and himself to call on. However, there were concerns (and this can be spoken of openly fellas) over what would happen with Sujay Prabhakar's first spell at the crease this season and if Jeremy Burns would actually hold together long enough for a stint of 9 overs. Smithy could see that one of the opener's was opening the shoulders and aware of the run rate. The first wicket came from a Broadfoot-Hogg-Burns rendition of a Keystone Cops moment where the opening batsmen who, to be frank would have been more useful to us had he stayed in (he was batting that slow), had a larrap between Broadfoot at a Ridiculously Deep Point and Hoggy at mid-off. Broadfoot then went into a sprint (or a Nowland jog) for the ball, slid/fell to the ground to collect the ball. Meantime, Hoggy had also been coming around to cut the ball off. The ball proceeded to bounce off Broadfoot's motor (gut), causing Hogg to have to do a pirouette, and collect the ball one handed firing it in to the bowler. Meantime the batsmen were attempting their second run on the gut based relay throw. The throw from Hogg to Burns can only be described as average with Jez having to leap in the air, land, turn and throw down the stumps (allegedly in one motion, but if Jez did this we all know he would snap) ending with the slower of the batsmen run out, Smithy decided on the tactical gamble that was bought about with respect for Suj's bowling (they may have had a launch at him) in which case we would have been overs shy (or needed to resort to Hogg never to hear the end of it) – so in an inspired piece of captaincy, the express slowness and prodigious uncontrollable away swing of Broadfoot was called on. This saw the centurion opener crumble under the onslaught and be clean bowled. The next poor J'Villian then had to put up with a very worthwhile shout for LBW. Little did he (and the umpire) know that all Broadfoot wanted was a chance for a hat trick. When questioned, the umpire said it was going down leg and laughed at the comment of prodigious swing :-) A major difference from the week earlier with some of the players from J'Ville having a good sense of humour. Sujay then repaid the faith shown in him with the Lucky LBW recipient being removed by a great catch by Sam Nowland at regulation point. Then in Keystone Cops II, Return of the Strike Bowler, a bizarre over took place. Broadfoot sent the ball to the midrift of the batsman, apologised while the ball was still in flight, only to see the ball dispatched over the square leg boundary. The next two balls were unplayable, with the swing again taking the ball away from the batsman. Then it came down, the lightening bolt delivery (if lightening actually went at the speed of a Mini running on one-cylinder with square wheels rather than the speed of light) and for the second time, Broadfoot had another J'Vegan bowled. With the tail exposed, Abbott then came back on and lit up the party some more taking wickets in quick succession, including a brilliant diving one-handed catch from Frenchy to more than make up for his earlier drop. Unfortunately the fielding saw the retired hurt of Jono Crehan in another Keystone Cops moment where Broadfoot was (and these are the captain's words) 'charging at him roaring like a pamplona bull in heat’... resulting in a drop and incurring a split webbing for Jono - but by now the game was well and truly sown up. There were a few blemishes in the field (dropsies to Hoggy but a tough chance, Frenchy, Jez and Jono) but the stand out was quite possibly the sight of Rajat flying around the boundary to keep the line safe - outstanding and notable fielding from the young man. Ultimately, and unluckily for Hoggy as he was going to bowl the last over, J'Ville were all out after 42.4 overs for 177.
BOWLING: Abbott: 4 for 28 off 8.4 oversNowland: 1 for 24 off 8 oversSmith: 0 for 14 from 5 oversSujay: 2 for 42 off 8 oversBurns: 0 for 39 from 9 oversBroadfoot: 2 for 22 from 4 overs Catches to Nowland off Sujay, Broadfoot off Abbott, Frenchy off Abbott Player off the day: Tied - Sam Nowland (92, 1 for 24 off 8, and a catch) followed closely by Burns & Sujay.
Did I mention 2B's first win of the season? 2B'S FIRST WIN OF THE SEASON!!!
V Norths Saturday 19 January 2008 Monday January 21
Karori lost the toss and was sent into bat.Hayden Warren signalled his intention carting the first ball for four. Wade Robertson and Warren then compiled a well fought partnership of 292 at the end of 55 overs.At times, the batsmen appeared to be bogged down, but with some sage advice from the sidelines and over drinks the boys put us in a very promising position and the best total so far this season.Norths openers did not initially provide much opposition and they were two down very early on in their chase with good catches taken by Robertson (parried from keeper to slip) and Iain Smith (one handed over head in the deep). Some dubious umpiring (3 edges that were not given out - two off Sam Nowland and one off Jake Rance) handed them the advantage at the end of their innings of 55 overs were 347 for 3.Karori ended up chasing down the first innings lead of 55 but were unfortunately 3 down with Warren (13), Tony DeLorenzo (1) and Nowland (1) back on the deck chairs. 'Molloy' then came to the crease and while batting with Hogg (at 7) steadied the ship and started to put Norths on the back foot.However with Hogg (14) and Molloy (31) out, it was then up to the captain (Smith) to continue the fight and he batted for time nicely with Rance. When Smith was out it was back to the old partnering of Rance and Broadfoot to once more bat time. Unfortunately for one of the first times in their collective careers they failed to last more than two overs and Broadfoot was stranded on 0 Not Out.Norths then went about chasing 89 runs off 27 overs. They managed the target in 15 overs for the loss of one wicket with Hogg taking a nice towering top edge catch off Nowland's bowling.From Karori's point of view there were some lapses in the field, and with the bat. Having been in the situation of having to bat time in the past we should have known and batted slightly better than we did giving Norths wickets to easily.
2006-2007 2CA Season Summary. So Close! How close to winning the grade? 1 Ball! One more wicket in the final over in the final game would have seen us win and take the entire grade. But it was not to be so we look back on a year of missed chances and a lot of laughs.With the loss of our star opener Muppet to higher honours we were off to a bad start. Then along came the levelheaded Welshman Dave Shuff to save us from our opening woes. Dave managed the only century for the team and fell agonisingly short of a second in the last game going for 99.Batting overall this year was a vast improvement. The top order, while never completely firing, almost always managed to put on a respectable score with at least one of the top 5 getting runs. Opener DeLorenzo dragged his failing body to the game and managed to assist where he could before the likes of Smith, and Nowland plundered runs and should these batters fail you could always count on Hogg to prop up the score with some elegant stroke making or Rajat to grind a innings out. Bowling was spearheaded by Smith and Nowland, with Nowland finding some real form over the season. Abbot when given a chance bowled with real venom and almost snatched the grade in the last game with one of the best spells I’ve ever seen at this level.Keepers this year included DeLorenzo, Smith, Warren, Nowland, Niraj but none could beat Broadfoot Bart. Throwing his body about with no thought to personal safety or to the earthquakes created in
Next year? Bigger and better!