Dodgers v Superstars - 2 August 2005

Match report by Neil Priest:

Last night a strong Dodgers side met an equally strong Superstars side looking to exact some revenge for their Sportsday semi-final defeat.

Inevitably we lost the toss and were put into bat and inevitably Superstars took the field with only ten as part time Dodgers player, this time turning out for Superstars, Rhys Thomas was late. The pitch was slightly green but surprisingly hard given the recent rain and we played on the edge of the square on the "A" pitch with a 40 yard boundary on one side and a ridiculous 140+ boundary on the other.

As John Hilary prepared for his usual top of the order role by putting on the umpires coat and striding out towards the middle he was called back by Captain Carr and told to pad up – Dodgers hoping to cash in on JH's good six-a-side form by using him as a pinch hitter. And boy did he deliver, ably supported by Nick Harrison in his last game of the season. Gundry was repeatedly charged by Nick and went for 18 off 4 and Taylor also suffered going for 31 off his allocation. Nick was finally stumped off Suggitt off the last ball of the 10th over with the score on about 70. Hilary and Priest then set about Superstars lesser bowling and we finished with an excellent 165/1, Priest 43* and Hilary finishing with a superb 76*, his highest score for Dodgers.

Superstars started well with Gigg looking in fine form turning Cousins off his hip for four in the first over and following it up with a lovely square cut for four and then a six over extra cover off Paterson. Rod came back well though and soon hit the top of a retreating Gigg's leg stump. Conway quickly followed, bowled trying to moo Cousins over the pavilion. This brought together Abigail and Lomas, with Walker and Gundry ominously padded up.

After 10 overs Superstars had 72 on the board. Good spells from Adey and Cooper kept the pressure on although Alex Luke, making a welcome return from injury and turning his arm over for the first time in nearly a year, had a few Dodgers hearts in mouths as he conceded 34 off 3 (very good second over though).

Some quick singles by Conway on running for the now injured Abigail and we started to feel the pressure until a good throw from the short boundary by Priest finally ran out Lomas. This brought in the dangerous Walker, also injured meaning that there were two runners on at the same time. Then Hero Hilary dropped Abigail on the long on boundary. No matter we thought as Richard had been scoring quite slowly. He then of course spanked two sixes and a four straight afterwards but some quick thinking by the Cat had him run out for 54 as runner Conway tried to steal a bye.

Harrison came on for one over before rushing off to meet "Ivan" at Hammersmith station (just what is this job in Moscow...?) but a good tight penultimate over from Paterson (Gundry of all people asking him to slow down because of the light!) left McBarron needing to concede less than 21 off the last over. When Walker skied Phil's second ball to Priest at long off the victory was effectively sealed, especially when Gundry came in and seemingly decided to play for his average off the last few balls. Superstars finished on 153/5.

So victory by 12 runs and 2-1 up with one to play. An excellent all round performance based on keeping our heads under pressure in the field and a great knock from Mr Hilary.

Dodgers bowling:

Cousins 4 0 26 1
Paterson 4 0 29 1
Adey 3 0 22 0
Luke 3 0 34 0
Cooper 4 0 19 0
Harrison 1 0 9 0
McBarron 1 0 9 1

M-O-M: Hilary 9, Cooper 2

Comments

cerysmatic said…
Neil forgot to mention that when tossing up at the start of the match the coin landed in JC's pint pot! He then proceeded to lose the respin.