Dodgers v Superstars 05.07.2011

Chiswick
T20 reduced to 15 overs a side
6pm
Weather: wet wet wet

Dodgers 66 for 7 (Howe 14, Qureshi 11) lost to Superstars (Hilary 3-1-7-0, Raj 3-0-15-0, Howe 3-0-16-0) by 10 wickets

Match report by John Hilary

Opinions are divided among Dodgers as to exactly how enjoyable it was to play in driving rain against age-old rivals the Rats and lose by an entire innings. While most felt they had had better evenings, a dedicated hard core confessed to taking a perverse enjoyment from the experience. The fact that one of the latter was Neil Priest, and that he had been given out lbw by co-worker Steve Howe, shows the innate capacity of the human spirit to triumph over adversity.

Dodgers batted first under glowering skies. Facing a full toss first ball, Taylor swung courageously but succeeded in holing out straight to mid-off. Thus started a sorry procession of top order batsmen Dollin, Radcliffe, Priest, McBarron and Lee Snr, none of whom troubled the scorers long enough to register double figures. The mixture of boggy pitch and verdant outfield was enough to restrict scoring to ones and twos, and it was not until Howe came it at no 7 that we hit our first boundary. Spirited running between Howe and Qureshi hurried the score on a bit until Tawhid ran himself out in selfless fashion, while the second boundary of the game, this time from Hilary, pushed the total up to a woeful 66. Extras top scored with 16.

Superstars seemed to find the going equally heavy at first, Hilary's initial over going for a maiden and Raj bowling with similar control. All might have been different had our guest fielder, the sometime Superstars captain Barry Gigg, not dropped the straightforward chance that Gaught offered off Hilary while still on a duck. Barry's impeccable honesty absolves him of any suspicion of foul play, but the Dodgers fines committee will be meeting in closed session shortly to decide his fate. Tight bowling from Howe, McBarron and Taylor could not prevent the inevitable, and the two Superstars openers passed the Dodgers total with more than an over to spare.

No report would be complete without mention of the extraordinary conduct of Simon Cousins in deserting his fellow Dodgers from the vantage point of Victoria Station before the game had even started, on the spurious grounds that the weather looked iffy. Simon apologised profusely afterwards and, as penance, has taken on the job of coordinating team selections for the rest of the season. However, the misdemeanour has convinced Her Majesty's finest to uphold the sentence already handed down to him for previous offences, and he will indeed be transported to Australia for an undisclosed number of years' hard labour at the end of the season.

Man of the match votes: Howe 7, Qureshi 2, Hilary 1

Scorecard
Dodgers innings
 
Taylor      ct ?     b Keats      0
Dollin      ct ?     b Haresh     2
Radcliffe   lbw      b Plume      8
Priest      lbw      b Haresh     7
McBarron             b Plume      1
Lee Snr              b Kumar S    2
Howe        not out              14
Qureshi     run out              11
Hilary      not out               5
___________________________________
Sub-total                        50
Extras                           16
Total (7 wkts, 15 overs)         66
 
DNB: Raj
 
Bowling
 
Keats    3-0-13-1
Haresh   3-0-12-2
Plume    3-0-7-2
S Kumar  3-0-7-1
Mountain 1-0-9-0
Conway   2-0-10-0
 
Superstars innings
 
Gaught        not out        17
Spencer       not out        43
_______________________________ 
Sub-total                    60
Extras                        7
Total (0 wkts, 13.1 overs)   67
 
Bowling
 
Hilary   3-1-7-0
Raj      3-0-15-0
McBarron 3-0-22-0
Howe     3-0-16-0
Taylor   1.1-0-4-0

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