Wombats Toppled by KKR

by Joe Lewis

The wommies took to the field at Sano 3 and soon discovered most of the field quickly took to them, grass all over the place. The JCA groundsman had cut the grass but had neglected to rake the field. Nigel Mckay was able to make a 12th man out of hay in no time. Morning warm up was both teams raking the field and putting mounds of hay into a cart, drawing curious looks from passing locals who no doubt had their perceptions of what happens in the sport of cricket to now be laced with incorrect assumptions. The weather was defiant to the cloudy forecast, with the last of the summer sun hitting the field at a balmy 33 Celsius.

The wombats opted to bat first and played with a goal to tire out the opposition in tricky conditions. The ball was in danger of getting lost on the pitch itself with all the cut grass, and certain fours were often only a single as the ball would stop dead. The wombat top order was patient and with the lost pf only skipper Ali the wombats ended the session on 72-1 with Masaki in particular showing good fitness and cricketing intelligence as he started to stake his spot at the top of the order.

However it started to go awry in the second session, with Alex losing his wicket caught at slip first ball after the break, Masaki’s vigil soon followed to leave wombat 83-3. Nigel and Tanzeem also fell, Nigel debatedly unlucky in his LBW and Tanzeem who was looking good played one loft too many. Hassan and the comebacking Rasika enjoyed some nice shots in their mini partnership (although very few of Hassan’s shots connected with the ball it has to be said.) They both fell to catches to leave an exposed tail that soon capitulated to leave Wombats 125 all out.

A low score but the tricky pitch conditions still gave Wombats a sniff but they needed some magic. Cue Archit who produced a magic spell of opening bowling supported by a fiery spell by Ashfaq to take 3 wickets at the top of the order that made the KKR dugout go a bit quiet and maybe inclined to send a messenger to their skipper Vinay who had (rather cheekily) gone to manage the U/19 game on the ground under the assumption his team would have no trouble.

Ashfaq was rewarded with a wicket to leave the KKR 57-4 and despite some close calls through excellent bowling by Arron, Archit, Rasika and Ashfaq. The KKR remaining batsmen were able to get through it until the ball went soft before lofting their way to the win.

The wombats remain winless this season but hopefully they will be able to capitalize on some of the excellent performances by individuals such as Archit and Masaki in the next season.

Until next time, big up the Wommies!