Milnerton Results

Sounds like a pretty pessimistic view on approaching a cricket match, but unfortunately we have pretty much perfected the art of losing games, rather than our opposition beating us.

Victoria won the toss and sent us in to bat.  A decision that had me in two minds as I would have batted first if I won the toss anyway, but, unknowing to some of my team mates, against what I believed we should have done…field first.

We started, again, like a house on fire with Groenewald and Kamfer putting on another great opening partnership of 70 plus.  If anything can be said about our batting this season, is that we have been very consistent in runs posted and also opening or top order partnerships.

Then a dubious decision followed.  With a “chunk” of daylight separating the bat from the ball the umpire raises his finger to once again inflict further damage to my own batting average…so what was once a wondrous average of 55 plummeted to 30 odd in the space of a few games…

Anyway, nuff bout me!  We managed to get to 175/8 in our allotted 40 overs and started making inroads into the Victorian batting lineup.  When we had them 80 odd for 7, some premature champagne corks started to pop and it was difficult to keep the players focused on the task at hand.  Some agricultural hoiks over midwicket and some viciously unorthodox slaps through the offside later and we are trying our all to get rid of these two seemingly hopeless batting cases that just does not want to fold under pressure!

In the end we lost with 1.1 overs remaining.  By one wicket!

I am still drinking my bathwater since Saturday night.  And it won’t stop soon either.  At least it’s leaving a better taste in my mouth than the almost sweet turned sour champagne taste that lingered earlier…

I am still smarting after last week’s loss against Peninsula .

Our side has had a tough time of late.  When not done in by substandard pitches, we were done in by the opposition not arriving or just the complete non-availability of a pitch!  Last mentioned costing our side a valuable 10 points.  Many accusations could be slung back and forth for the state our side is in at the moment, but in the long run I suppose the only people that can really do anything to turn our fortunes around is ourselves.

Face it boys…we were looking at last weeks’ game as if to say “win or lose, I am just glad to be on a field again”.  In many respects I fell prey to that exact mentality.  It is commendable, yes, but that attitude rarely ever delivers winning cricket.

As if exterior circumstances did not do enough to cripple our spirits over the last month or so, three of our regular players upped and left us in the proverbial lurch.

Wray, my friend, I and the team will miss you greatly in your sudden retirement!   Frans packed and moved to Potch and Jacques decided that the traveling into Millies every week is too much to handle after he moved to Bellville.

So, with a depleted side in many ways, and a strengthened one in others, we set off for the game against Peninsula .  We won the toss, chose to bat on a concrete slab (I never use the term “mat”, concrete slab sounds about as artificial as you need to describe the surface).

We had a good start with a solid 70 odd run partnership at 4.5 runs per over.  Then the wheels came off…losing 4 wickets for 20 runs, including our import from Namibia, Vernon that missed out on a spot in the 2^nd side.  Then Rick, Wayne and the Banker (Another Vernon, only 30 years older) steered us to a good total of 177/5 in our 40 overs.  Now let me please stress the fact that you should win more games than lose with that score.

Bowlers unite.  We ended up bowling the biggest load of doodoo you can imagine at their batsmen.  Yes, the track was like a runway for bowlers with balls inadvertently traveling very quickly in the opposite direction it’s been delivered from, but they still managed to bowl properly and restrict us to 177.  We HAD the bowlers to do the same.  Yet we handed them the game in 27.3 overs.

Lesson learned.  Now move on.

Some days retirement do not sound that bad, Wray…