The following day again we were greeted with positive
weather, two in two days, who would have thought! Today was a new challenge all
together, with a T20 game against the Taita second team. The result yesterday
had the guys in good spirits, but it was hugely disappointing that a number of
the team turned up late, this may have set the tone for what was to come.
Again I lost the toss and we were put in, again on an
artificial with a slow outfield, again runs would be hard to come by. We got
off to a solid start with Nelly and Vinnie putting on 25 before Nelly was
dismissed for 19, Vinnie was looking good, until he also was dismissed for a
start of 20. We then had a collapse of sorts in the middle order, meaning we
were battling at 87 for 6 from 13 overs, plenty of time left just not the
wickets in hand. Enter Stefan Allan to the crease, and once again Fletcher Te
Aika, these two went about their business very professionally, summing up the
situation, rotating the strike, and getting us through the remaining overs
without losing a wicket. Stefan looked the goods working the ball all around
the field, a top knock under pressure. At the end of our innings we had made
124-6, Stefan not out on 32 and Fletch not out 15. Not a huge total, but runs
on the board.
Once again our fielding innings couldn’t have stated better,
this time with High Tower getting a wicket with the first ball! However the
next 10 overs didn’t go our way, and the two Taita batsmen were hitting us all
around the park. After 11 overs they were 77-2, and the game was theirs to
lose.
I have to give the guys credit in the situation we found
ourselves in. Taita were all over us, they had the momentum, they had wickets
in hand, and they only needed 50 runs from 9 overs, but our lads showed some
true character. All the guys started to talk, and started to try and swing the
momentum our way, putting pressure on the Taita batsmen, and it started to
show. Taita needed only 17 runs from 4 overs with 7 wickets in hand, Si Kent then
got 2 wickets in the 18th over, and we were back in with a sniff.
Unfortunately it wasn’t to be, needing 8 of the last over they got it with 2
balls to spare.
Again a lot to learn from today’s performance. As I said it
was disappointing to have guys turning up late, and quite simply we didn’t have
enough runs on the board, another 10 runs was all we needed. Positive to see
the teams character showing through when we were right up against it, was
pleasing to see that no one gave Taita an inch and we nearly got a win we
didn’t really deserve.
Cheers Matty A