Dodgers v Superstars

TWO-ONE! TWO-ONE! TWO-ONE! TWO-ONE! TWO-ONE! TWO-ONE!

8 August 2000

Dodgers beat Superstars by two runs

A famous victory was nearly the-game-that-never-was due to the succession of heavy showers that had fallen during the afternoon. Fortunately Chiswick had been largely spared but the hard wicket carried a little surface water, which lead it to cut up as the match progressed. But was batting really this difficult......?

A hard, tense match was always in the offing, but no one quite envisaged what was to come, especially as Dodgers – inserted correctly by Barry Gigg – collapsed to 24-5 after nine overs. Bultitude had gloved a short lifter from Mike Taylor to slip; McBarron had tried to turn another leg side ball from Mike and only succeeded in chipping it to square leg; Priest became the first of four caught and bowled victims as Marchant got one to stop on him; Benn attempted an ambitious cut from the same bowler to be bowled; and Cooper chipped one back to Richard Abigail – all for single figures.

Facing humiliation, our strengthened batting line-up came into play as John Carr and Kevin Roper began the fight-back with a succession of ones and twos. Kevin eventually perished at mid-wicket off Abigail at 47-5 in the 13th before John's knock ended on 20 – the match's top score – when he was caught behind. In the same over, Crawford, who had been scratching around before hitting Abigail for a rare boundary, was run out by a direct hit from the boundary. Andy subsequently claimed that because of his slight injury the second run wasn't there, but his partner Paterson had watched the incident in his ground at the other end, leaning on his bat. Without being too hard on Andy, the lesson is that too many Dodgers don't run the first one hard and turn blind when there is no danger of an immediate run out – on a day like this when misfields were frequent, this could have been extremely costly.

At 58-8 after 15 we needed to dig in again. Paterson (11no), Adey (8) and Leach (2no) – all on rare batting excursions – did extremely well in the circumstances to guide us to 81-9 at the end.

Could it be defended? Old hands reckoned we needed quick wickets and Paterson and Roper tried to oblige with attacking fields. Rod was particularly fired up, playing some extremely loud and frequent "chin music" to Gigg. The wickets didn't fall though until Kevin finally removed Craig Perera in his final over, and it was almost the last throw of the dice at 30-1 after eight when Crawford and Benn were introduced. Together they got us back in the game with some tight bowling: Neil picked up Steve Carter and Barry Gigg in successive maidens and Andy bowled Steve Lomas whuilst going at less than two runs per over. Their eight overs had yielded 3-17, and ended with the vital run out of Tony Whitrod. Pressed by Matt Conway for a third, he twice said no then inexplicably left his ground and seemingly didn't try to get back as the first of several excellent throws from Rod flew in.

As many as 33 were needed off four with the capable pair of Conway and Abigail at the crease. Adey's first over cost 10, and might have cost a lot more. 23 off three and mounting tension. Bultitude was then called from behind the stumps and bowled well. 17 off two and mounting unhelpful abuse from certain Dodgers over misfields. The next over from John was decisive and he might have had two catches whilst conceding just six. 11 off the last needed. The first of Darren's over was a dot and that just about sealed it as try as they might, the Superstars pair couldn't hit the boundary, eventually falling two runs short.

No one seriously believed we would get out from 24-5 to win – especially without bowling Superstars out. The toss was helpful for them and their bowlers judged the right length to bowl quickly as our top order disintegrated. We fought hard and their failure to hit any boundaries in 20 overs added to the pressure. With four overs left singles and twos might still have worked, but panicky fruitless swings were too often the result.

Dodgers clearly look the stronger of the two DETR social sides at the moment (copyright M.Leach: May 2000) and DOETRA must seriously be questioning their sponsorship of such a ramshackle outfit (only joking lads). A fabulous game - 20-over cricket doesn't come a lot better than this. And we won.

YYYYYYYYYYYYYYYEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEESSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSSS!

Dodgers

Bultitude (w) c Marchant b Taylor 6
McBarron c Perera b Taylor 4
Priest c & b Marchant 1
Benn (w) b Marchant 4
Carr (c) c Carter T b Abigail 20
Cooper c & b Abigail 2
Roper c Gigg b Abigail 10
Crawford run out 8
Paterson not out 11
Adey b Patten 8
Leach not out 2
Extras (w4, lb1) 5
Total 81 for 9

FOW: 6, 12, 14, 21, 24, 47, 56, 57, 76


Bowling

Taylor 4-0-14-2
Patten 4-0-12-1
Marchant 4-0-14-2
Abigail 4-0-20-3
Conway 4-0-20-0


Superstars

Gigg (c) c & b Benn 18
Perera c & b Roper 8
Carter S c Carr b Benn 0
Lomas b Crawford 5
Whitrod run out 5
Conway not out 16
Abigail not out 16
Extras (w9, lb1, b2) 12
Total 79 for 5

dnb: Carter T (w), Taylor, Marchant, Patten

FOW: 30, 33, 36, 42, 46

Bowling

Paterson 4-1-13-0
Roper 4-0-16-1
Crawford 4-0-7-1
Benn 4-2-10-2
Adey 2-0-17-0
Bultitude 2-0-15-0



Man-of-the-match: John Carr

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