Wombats Win World Championship

by Ken Dobson

A relatively cool(ish) September Sunday met our Wombats for their South Kanto Japan Cup final vs the mighty British Empire (Embassy) XI. First points to Embassy as I lose the toss and we are sent in.

Rex (who are you?) Kobayashi and Tanzeem (hisashiburi) Khedekar open up for the Wombats with Rex crunching the first ball of the day to the cover boundary. Rex and Tanzeem both look very comfortable and after a solid first 5 overs and we are 0/42. Rex (22 off 12) unfortunately holed out at the start of the 6th over and I come out to join Tanzeem. A streaky four where I just close my eyes and swing blindly gets us through to the end of the power play at 1/46.

Tanzeem and I accelerate the scoring, Tanzeem in particular looking very solid, lifting one of the key Embassy bowlers back over their heads for a 6 and 4 in the one over. Which was great because I was just swinging wildly with no technique and just punching the ball away with my gloves and trying to run Tanzeem out. Which I didn’t need to as Tanzeem departed for 39(off 45) leaving the Wombats well placed at the end of the 13th over at 2/117.

Andre (rig based selection) came in at 4 and immediately blasted two boundaries to mid wicket before being stumped for 12(7). Louis (team benefactor) Chan joined me in the middle. Louis maintained his form from the previous game and his continued to fulfill the key Michael Bevan role and get us to a strong total. Ultimately the Wombats end up our twenty overs 5/189 with Louis 28*(18) and my edge filled 59(44) being the main contributors.

Confidence was high after the innings break and all of our excellent warmup catching paid off with Tanzeem taking a great catch at mid on off the third ball of Joe (don’t bump me) Lewis’ first ball. Nigel (deep mid wicket please) opened up from the other end and between the two lanky seamers made scoring difficult for the Embassy top order. Ash (I’m bloody tired) Canning was his usual excellent stuff behind the wicket, saving numerous leg side extras.

The game was well placed at the 10 over mark with embassy 1/52 and two set batsman at the crease. Rig based selection Andre bowling his off spin at speeds quicker than Joe’s seam up brought us the second wicket, working hard to take a caught and bowled over his right shoulder moving backwards. From then on Wombats had full control. Sanira (Moon ball) Shimizu picked up the third wicket before Guy (I’m not much of a bowler bro) Dormer took 3 wickets to take home the MvP prize for the day with 3/9 and ensuring the British Empire XI’s innings came to a spluttering end.

A pleasing 100 run victory for the Wombats. I was pleased that everyone fulfilled their role, batters scored runs, bowlers took wickets, and everyone fielded exceptionally.

On to the Champions League in October where the Wombats will look to repeat their 2022 heroics.