Captains Report
Vs Aryans CC 17/06/2023
This week saw us pitted against the top of the league Aryans CC who have scored well most weeks. Arrived at MOCC with the sun shining, a smooth outfield, and a solid wicket.
I lost the toss and we were put in the field. I opened from one end and Sammy from the other, I struggled for rhythm from ball one but Sammy found some great areas and took their skipper early with a sharp caught and bowled. Sammy continued to impress with figures of 10 overs 4 wickets for 58 runs. A strong effort down the hill but jug avoidance with only 4 wickets!
After my poor spell up the hill, Joe P was brought into the attack and struggled to find a length and went for a few boundaries in a spell of 5 overs that saw figures of 1 for 31 runs.
Following Sammy’s spell, it was time to bring Richard Cooper, our front-line mystery spinner, into the attack and he did not disappoint with a fantastic spell of bowling returning figures of 4 overs and 3 wickets for 18 runs. This was well supported by alice band wearing Nathan Adams with figures of 3.4 overs 2 for 25,
We had some great moments some fielding but also at times we were very poor letting a number of unexpected boundaries through, but all in all a solid performance bowling out the top of the league for 160 off 27 overs. A target, after our previous success of chasing down 258 with a similar batting lineup, we felt was more than achievable.
Opening the batting were Callum Hull and the explosive Roy Baptiste who got us off to a solid start with 15 on the board before Callum missed the first straight ball of the day. This straight ball proved to be the trend by the end of the innings. This brought Sammy Linford to the crease who look good settling in before Roy, after a short spell of hit and run with no calling proceeding to hit one straight to a fielder and ran halfway down the pitch and did not make it back after Sammy shouted NO RUN in a very Marnus Labuschagne like fashion. This was much to the frustration of Roy who clearly thought Sammy had the pace of Usain Bolt between the wickets.
I then strolled out to the crease with a positive mindset that this total was achievable with some positive batting. Sammy and I started to steady the ship before he nicked one behind to a ball a bit too close to cut through point. Joe P then came out to the crease and in his usual way began positively with a cleanly struck 4 over cover followed by another boundary not long afterwards and the score began to tick along.
The opposition premier bowler then cleaned bowled Joe with his customer full-on off-stump ball. This preceded three 
in a row with Nathan, Mark M & Jack all falling to the same full and straight-on off-stump ball. I advised each batter when they arrived at the crease to watch for this ball but unfortunately, this did not help them and we found ourselves 47-7 when Will Hosford came to the crease. He to my surprise heeded my advised and play with a straight bat and didn’t get bowled by the same ball that cleaned up 5 other batters in the inning so far.
Next, it was my turn to go after I appeared to put bat and pad together down the leg stump, when the ball hit me in the middle of my pad, the customary Dale Howkins finger was raised as our stand-in volunteer umpire gave me out. I didn’t feel too impressed at the time but after the game, Richard Cooper told me I fell around the straight one and it was plumb so hey ho.
We were now 48-8 with Cooper and Elliott as our last line of defence, but our woes continued when Elliott was cleaned bowled by another full ball on the stumps.
MOCC was all out for 48. An impressive display in the field but a lacklustre performance with the bat which we must improve on moving forwards.
Cheers
1st Team Skipper
Maka