Karori Wildcats 203/8, P.Fernando 56* (21)
Onslow Stale Danes 115, T Buchan 3-6 off 2
After the disappointment of losing our first grading game and the early threats of a captaincy coup, the Wildcats were looking to bounce back and collect the first win of the season. After Nicholls won the toss (1 from 2) and elected to bat, the team got off to the worst possible start losing Ben early to their niggly opener. Despite the early loss the ‘Cats kept the scoreboard ticking along with contributions from Keaton, Alex, Dan N, Dan C and Tom, however wickets were tumbling and by the 14th over only two remained. The good news was that one of those two wickets belonged to Peter Fernando. It’s said that you don’t win lifetime achievement awards for sitting on the sidelines and, in holding that questionable proverb true, lusty blows were hit, boundaries were secured and Onslow heads dropped. With the help of Jono, the pair put on 73 and by the time they de-padded, Jono had caught his breath after trying and failing to turn down running threes, and Rupert had wiped up the mess left from the thought of having to face their openers, we had reached a highly defend-able total.
If batting was a tight run thing, bowling and fielding certainly wasn’t, Keaton and Tom opened the bowling and in Tom’s first over he had their opener caught behind. With Keaton bowling express from one end and Tom dishing out more swings and misses than an evening of amateur blind boxing, it wasn’t long before the Stale danes were starting to go off. Tom finished his second over with another two wickets, Nando got into the mix with a sharp snick to Alex, George bowled his normal difficult length balls and all was going well. Much like an off loaf, the danes’ middle order was slightly less stale than the ends, and it took and inspired over from Rupert to remove their prem reserve ring in at which point there was no going back. Jono and Keaton tidied up the stale tail with two wickets each and it was all over.
Chaahoo!
#three-peat #coup #notmycaptain
Wildcats – its a way of life