Match Report

 

Hot Dogs vs Bashers

 

25 May 2008

From a neutral’s point of view, yesterday’s game was a cracker. The Bashers batted first and scored 251 all out, with their two new openers doing most of the damage, and then topped up by a Paul Turner 50 and some late swatting from Denzyl Alwright.  Chad Blewitt took 5 for us, and James Doleman picked up two important wickets again.
 
Our reply started terribly, with Peter Winchcomb out first ball and John Kett for 4 shortly afterwards.  Chad got the chase going with 39 (44 balls) with a partnership between Paul Turner 52 (65) and Mike Tsesmelis 29 (24) keeping us up with the run-rate.  Things slowed down for a while once they were out, before Deepak 36 (23) launched a brief assault to keep us in it. When he went the pressure mounted, and with 6 down and the asking rate at 10 an over for the last 8 overs it was not looking good. Jeremy Rom contributed 10 (11) before he was caught going for a big one to make the situation even worse. New keeper Josh Holloway and JJ Lim still believed though, and a combination of lusty blows, cultured drives and frantic running brought it down to the wire, with 7 needed off the last over, to be bowled by the other Paul Turner.
 
My memory of events is now somewhat hazy, but the over involved Josh being bowled for a priceless 33 off just 23 balls, and Mark Turner being run out first ball after receiving a wide. With JJ on strike and 4 needed off the last two, the Republic was staring its first ever league defeat by the Bashers in the face.  Calm and collected are not usually words you associate with JJ’s batting, but he certainly appeared that way as he struck the first ball for two and then the last ball drove between mid-on and midwicket to seal victory.

 

It was a heart-breaking defeat for the Bashers, who despite having improved dramatically through a questionable recruitment scheme, retain the Bashers spirit. Mindless sledging and cries of ‘too easy’ came back to bite them painfully in the arse. Haha.
 
Next Thursday 5th June will be the first team dinner/drinks at new sponsor, Vedas. www.vedascuisine.com   We’ll give you more on that soon and also on Van Hessen, our first ever sponsor, but for now mark next Thursday in your diaries. We’ll have an excellent deal there and the food is superb, and as part of the package we’re expecting to have a reasonable number of people there every second Thursday. 5th coincides with the start of the 3rd England vs NZ test for those interested in that too.
 
Mike