- Match Report
- Scorecard
- Highlights
- Photos 1
- Photos 2
Wombats Minimize Max
by Muhammad Ali
After an eventful outing last game and a win in the pocket, the Wommies returned to ye olde Sano river ground #3 after an absence of six years on a hot, humid day to meet a strong Max side.
Skipper stepped in the ground for toss with all confidence and momentum from the last win and looking forward to make it two in a row. Ali, despite losing the toss and put into bat by Max’s captain, was all confident for a big total on the board as he discussed in the team talk to aim 300.
The best batting partners in the league stepped up again to give Wommies a good start. Richie with his splendid pull shots for six and Alex’s classical drive were treat to watch as spectator. Couple of drop catches kept the openers on the crease and score kept ticking at a good rate till Richie got caught after making 39 of 37 balls. Skipper got out early and suddenly things got a bit agitated but then came the Man of the last match, Zubair Bappi. Who knew that Zubair had other plans. While Patmore kept the wicket on the other end, Zubair came and attacked all bowlers with some blistering shots with his heavy Grey Nicolls. One after another magnificent cover drives for six. It was an inning to watch, scoring 80 of 59 balls before he nicked behind of Hanif.
Till this time Alex was quietly keeping the other end and scoring slow and steady. Though he was struggling too but the strong guy overcame his struggle going in his mind. Re-grouped himself and came back strong and this time it was Patmore’s time to show his class. Boundary after another kept the score moving at an average of six an over. Luke Eyes returning after a long-time, supported Alex to reach to his yet another hundred. This innings of Alex Patmore had everything for new generation to learn; patience, struggle and endurance. Moving from 37 of 63 balls to ending up innings with his personal score of 118 of 114 balls is a perfect example of switching gears during the innings. Wombats ended up their allocated overs with a decent 274 runs on the board, quite close to what skipper planned in the morning.
The game was still not over as a fight back was expected from strong batting line up of Max. Wommies were all pumped up till Joe dropped Hanif on midwicket in the very first over. Lucky Joe, that Zubair got Hanif out the next over. Zubair was on fire in his opening spell. Batters were all over the place on his bowling. Next outgoing batter was the dangerous Supun who nicked behind to give Alex an easy catch.
Max never retained their momentum after that. Though Vinay showed some resistance with his 54 but that wasn’t enough as Wommies bowlers were at their top performance. Bilal got 4 for 32 in his 7 overs and Robb despite of so many dropped catches by fielders, managed to get 2 Max’s batters. Some resistance by tail-ender to save bonus point but eventually Max ended up with 194 all out giving Mighty Wommies a comprehensive victory by 80 runs.
This was probably the first win in eight years against Max thus worthy of a lot of post-match drinks which Wommies later had. Zubair with his absolutely brilliant performance with bat, bowl and field was named as Player of the Match.
| Tokyo Wombats CC vs Max CC |
| Japan Cricket League 2022 (Div. 1), Sano 3, Tochigi, June 18, 2022 |
| Toss | Max CC |
| Result | TWCC won by 80 runs |
| TWCC MoM | Z Bappi |
| Tokyo Wombats CC Innings: 274/5 (40.0 overs) |
Batsmen | | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR |
| A Patmore | not out | 118 | 114 | 10 | 5 | 103.51 |
| R Bracefield | c P Sankalpa b B Sara | 39 | 37 | 2 | 3 | 105.41 |
| M Ali* | c A Chandima b V Iyer | 1 | 6 | 0 | 0 | 16.67 |
| Z Bappi | c S Nawarathna† b H Niazi | 80 | 59 | 11 | 3 | 135.59 |
| L Eyes | c D Malinda b B Sara | 27 | 22 | 2 | 1 | 122.73 |
| M Walker | b B Sara | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| S Singh | not out | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| A Birss | dnb | |||||
| J Lewis | dnb | |||||
| B Bhinder | dnb | |||||
| R Zloc | dnb | |||||
| Extras | (b 1, lb 2, w 6, nb 0) | 8 | ||||
| TOTAL | (5 wickets) | 274 |
| Fall of wickets |
Bowling | O | M | R | W | wd | nb | Econ |
| D Malinda | 3.0 | 0 | 23 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 7.67 |
| T Tanveer | 5.0 | 0 | 37 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 7.40 |
| P Sankalpa | 7.0 | 0 | 44 | 0 | 2 | 0 | 6.29 |
| H Niazi | 5.0 | 1 | 18 | 1 | 2 | 0 | 3.60 |
| B Sara | 7.0 | 0 | 54 | 3 | 1 | 0 | 7.71 |
| V Iyer | 7.5 | 0 | 41 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 5.23 |
| P Liyanagunawardana | 2.0 | 0 | 20 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 10.00 |
| H Tissera | 1.0 | 0 | 11 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 11.00 |
| A Chandima | 1.0 | 0 | 15 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 15.00 |
| H Hasintha | 1.0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 0 | 0 | 9.00 |
| Max CC Innings: 194 (32.3 overs) |
Batsmen | | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR |
| H Niazi | lbw b Z Bappi | 4 | 5 | 1 | 0 | 80.00 |
| V Iyer | c L Eyes b R Zloc | 54 | 74 | 6 | 0 | 72.97 |
| S Nawarathna* | c A Patmore† b Z Bappi | 10 | 13 | 2 | 0 | 76.92 |
| P Liyanagunawardana | c R Bracefield b B Bhinder | 20 | 19 | 3 | 1 | 105.26 |
| H Hasintha | c Z Bappi b B Bhinder | 14 | 16 | 1 | 0 | 87.50 |
| H Tissera | c M Ali b B Bhinder | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| D Malinda | run out (M Ali) | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| B Sera | c Z Bappi b B Bhinder | 42 | 32 | 2 | 3 | 131.25 |
| P Sankalpa | c R Bracefield b R Zloc | 22 | 13 | 2 | 2 | 169.23 |
| A Chandima | c A Patmore† b Z Bappi | 13 | 15 | 1 | 1 | 86.67 |
| T Tanveer | not out | 2 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 40.00 |
| Extras | (b 0, lb 0, w 13, nb 0) | 13 | ||||
| TOTAL | (10 wickets) | 194 |
| Fall of wickets |
Bowling | O | M | R | W | wd | nb | Econ |
| Z Bappi | 6.0 | 0 | 23 | 3 | 2 | 0 | 3.83 |
| M Ali | 5.0 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 1 | 0 | 4.80 |
| J Lewis | 8.0 | 0 | 58 | 0 | 8 | 0 | 7.25 |
| B Bhinder | 7.0 | 0 | 32 | 4 | 2 | 0 | 4.57 |
| R Zloc | 6.3 | 0 | 57 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 8.77 |
Catches
- Luke diving forward and grabbing a smacker in deep midwicket
- Zubair: Down at long on. A high catch, running forward and then getting it an inch above the ground.
Dropped Catches
- Richie wanted to return the favor to the number 40 for giving him a send off. I told him I’ll give him his chance, sure enough the number 40 whacks the ball straight to Richie and he spills it!
- Spider Lewis dropping one at mid wicket on the first ball
- Muhammad Ali: Vinay, the most important player of the opposition team played direct to me at mid on. Should have been a simple catch, but was missed
Quotes
- ‘It’s for the f***ing family’ – Adam Birss channeling his inner Don
- “23!!!” Joe pointing to the number on his back when the scorers asked for the new bowler. He wears, and has always worn, 24…
Great Moments in Sport
- Zu’s force of nature display in batting bowling and fielding. One of the best ever performances in the JCL imo.
- Zubair smashing 80 off 58. Bill 4fer. First win against Max since 2014.
- Partnership between Zubair and Patmore of 102. Zubair blazing 80 runs with some stunning cricket strokes while Patmore took a brief back seat and supported, before going on a rampage of his own shortly after Zubair’s departure.
- Though there was a TON in the game, 80 runs from Zubair in some 50 odd balls with some classic cover drives for six just made the day as spectator and as a captain.
- Alex century, reverse sweeps for six off medium pacer.
Dummy Spits
- Richie having some verbals after being given a send off.
- Robb – Anytime there was a lbw chance, had his animated appeals at the umpire.
Golden Thong Nominations
- Satyam pulled a hammy in the first minute of the warm up. The youngest player on our team!
