Wombats Edge Past Rakuten

by Corey Hunter-Park

On a day where the weather constantly threatened to call a halt to proceedings, the Wombats looked to build on their thrilling first round win. This match versus Rakuten would produce considerably less runs than the combined 353 runs between the Wombats and the British Embassy.

Both sides agreed to start as early as possible to maximise the chances that a full match could be played out, and so the famous Wombat’s warmup only consisted of a bit of catching practice, a handful of runups and taking turns leathering a recycled football someone found into the net on the boundary.

Choosing to bowl with favourable overhead conditions and a field wetter than an otter’s pocket, the first over couldn’t have started much worse for skipper Joe Lewis, two no-balls, a wide, a four and then a dropped catch from Corey Hunter-Park, channeling his inner Rachin Ravindra. The skipper would recover and finish the over with five dots.

Also opening the bowling was debutante Mohamed Hamjad, and between them (minus the few wides), they were able to break the back of the Rakuten batting lineup. Joe started the party in his second over with a wicket well caught by Robb Zloc, before Hamjad struck in the last ball of his second over, cleaning out the stumps of the Rakuten man.

Joe’s third over would see another four wides, but also his second wicket. Not to be outdone, Hamjad would also take a wicket in his third over, leaving Rakuten at 34/4 at the end of the powerplay.

If there was any fear that the Wombats batting would fall off now the opening bowlers were off, Ian Sinclair quickly put those to bed, with what he described as express pace being much too good for the Rakuten batsman as another fell, clean bowled. Joining him was Robb, who built pressure nicely and, after being hit for a six which led to Joe to shuffle the field around to ensure Corey was nowhere near a catchable ball, gave Alex Shirai-Patmore a chance for a sharp stumping.

Ian would continue, allowing only a few singles, and Robb would grab his second following a good catch from Ieuan Hames, who safely grabbed his catch after bobbling it. Ian finished up his spell with a second wicket, leaving Rakuten at 71/8 with another debutante Karan Manjunath being given a chance to roll his arm over, and roll he did. A plumb LBW followed quickly with a second wicket and Rakuten were all out 75 after only 13.4 overs. High score, Extras with 24.

The Wombats have never been a team to accept a straight forward victory, however, and in walked Hamza Arif and Corey Hunter-Park (high score of 1*) to open. Hamza got an early reprieve after seeing his first delivery dropped, only to be sent back to the shed after missing his third ball. A three hour trip to Yokohama to face three balls, cricket is a stupid sport.

After a slow start, Corey and Karan would build the matches second highest partnership at 20 (30), seeing both Karan and Corey hit their first boundaries for the club, though one of them took a few more years getting there. Karan played some nice cricket shots to show promise for the future, with Corey getting lucky squeezing a couple down through backward point.

Not wanting to make the game too boring, both Corey and Karan would be dismissed in quick succession, leaving Sunit Rajan and Ieuan Hames to come in and steady the ship. As the rain got progressively heavier, discussions at the scorer’s table turned to DLS, and if anyone understood how exactly it worked. No one did, but the Wombats were ahead of the target and so no one was really concerned.

Sunit and Ieuan both looked good value, both hitting the ball well for four, until Ieuan got what can charitably described as a questionable LBW decision, leaving the Wommies at 40/4 with 36 still to make, Hamjad as the next man up.

He would have to wait his time, however, as Sunit showed no signs of giving up the strike, batting through two full overs, adding a handy 14 to the total. Finally getting his chance, Hamjad quickly scored his first run for the club, only to be bowled the next delivery he faced.

With Patmore answering the call of nature, Evan Hitchman was forced into bat, before he saw Patmore returning from the toilets and giving up his wicket first ball to allow the Japan man more time in the middle. With four wickets in hand and still needing 18 runs, nerves started to spread. Sunit and Patmore knocked off a few more runs before Sunit gave up a catch, and in walked the skipper Joe Lewis.

With plenty of time in the match, the two batted slowly and sensibly, until Patmore sensibly decided to call for a quick run and saw Joe get run out once again, Wombats at 71/8, still five short of the win and club photographer Robb Zloc being forced to pad up. Luckily, his services would not be needed, as Patmore and Ian were able to see out the remaining runs without much drama. Despite hopes of a flashy boundary to see off the game, the final run would be knocked off with a wide.

Wombats the winners, weather be damned.