- Match Report
- Scorecard
- Highlights
- Photos 1
- Photos 2
Quashers quash Wombats despite much improved performance
by Nigel McKay
After more losses than we are used to at this stage of the season, we arrived at Fuji knowing we needed to beat Alpha Quashers to stay firmly in the hunt for the semi-finals come September. And there was added motivation for the team, being Dino’s 100th game for the Wombats!! He is one of only two original Wombat members still in Japan who played in the first Wombats match 15 years ago.
The game was against Alpha Quashers-Yokohama, a new team in the competition this season, but certainly no easy-beats. They won the toss and chose to bat. With little warm-up and three players late, the Wommies got off to a slow start in the field. Nigel and Koolhof opened the bowling without much success despite a few chances being put up by the Quashers’ opening batsmen, which was frustrating because we were three fielders short. The arrival of Rony, Mohinul, and Solaiman boosted our fielding and bowling stocks, but a couple of easy catches going to ground by Koolhof and Solaiman didn’t help our cause.
Mohibul replaced Nigel and found success after the opener missed a full-toss and lost his leg stump. Then a few overs later Nigel caught Pedada, who was looking dangerous, off Solaiman’s bowling, then took another straight-forward catch the next over off a Mohibul delivery. Mohibul and Solaiman bowled well in tandem and some good pressure was being applied by the Wommies. Dhaka and Rangasamy started to build a partnership after drinks and were looking comfortable at the crease. Runs began to flow even though the outfield was slow as hell. The Quashers’ batsmen chipped the ball over the in-field a lot, sometimes on purpose, sometimes very fortuitously, while the extras also started to mount. It was getting hot out at Fuji but the views were absolutely stunning. Some of the wombats started to get frustrated but Dino did his best to calm everyone down by yelling out like Frank the tank in the movie Old School “You gotta keep your composure!!! Stay Calm!! Keep your composure!!!
After 25 overs the Wombats had the Quashers five down but knew they needed to keep taking wickets to keep the score under 150. A few chances went just out of reach of fielders’ hands, while some sitters were dropped. Skipper Patmore was very agitated and let the team know it, but with some wise bowling changes and fielder placements, the pressure was applied back on to the Quashers, and just before drinks Nigel picked up two wickets in two balls to have the opposition wobbling at 125-7. While the hat-trick ball was an anti-climatic wide delivery, the Wommies went into the drinks break determined to finish them off.
After the break, Dhaka was still batting well and picking the gaps skilfully, all the while picking the right balls to go for. The Quashers ended up 168 all out with Rony and Nigel taking three wickets each, but all bowlers worked hard in an all-round, decent bowling display despite the absence of much luck. The Quashers’ total score was largely due to Dhaka who finished on 48 not out, while 40 extras from the TWCC bowlers was a welcome boost for the opposition.
The Wombats’ innings was kicked off by Patmore and Richie, who got off to a solid start before the latter fell caught behind. His partner, Patmore, was then dismissed by a stunning catch at deep square that looked uncatchable to most. The Wommies were now 35-2 and looking shaky. The middle order has been a bit of an issue this season, so a new combo of Nigel at 4, Jamie at 5, and Dean at 6 was experimented with. But this unfamiliar situation troubled the middle-order Wombat batsmen due to the swinging ball. Luckily though, Wombats stalwart Jarrad Dino Shearer was chugging along and picking up the slack. The batsman at the other end though couldn’t get things going and eventually found themselves back on the sidelines. Batsman 4, 5, and 6 scored only one run off 42 balls with the Quashers exerting their total dominance over the Wombats, which meant a win was looking very unlikely.
Still, Dino, in his 100th game, was not going to roll over that easy. He and Himanshu, at number 7, were building a nice partnership as the latter was starting to hit the ball well and get inventive with his strokeplay. Even after Patmore said “stick to what you know”, Himanshu still went ahead and tried a reverse pull shot, but failed to make connection with the ball (or his captain’s advice). At the 30-over drinks break, the run rate needed was over a run a ball, but there was still some hope. The big shots however didn’t really come and the outfield was super long and slow, so runs were hard to come by. Dino skied one to the keeper on 48 and Himanshu valiantly carried on but just couldn’t make the connections the Wombats needed to keep the RRR down. Needing 30 runs in the last three overs wasn’t impossible but a lot of swing-and-misses and dot balls meant the Wombats fell 20 runs short and were left with a lot of what-ifs. Himanshu batted well for 35 not out and did give the Wombats a sniff.
Mt. Fuji was a picture all day and the Wombats chilled out after the game with a special presentation given by Koolhof after the game to Dino for becoming the first Wombat to play 100 games for the club. Dino was also awarded the Wyndham Estate Man of the Match. Highlights were shared against the backdrop of a great sunset over Mt. Fuji. Somehow, one Wombat claimed he had a video of Jayasuria having sex and so naturally the Wombats wanted to have a geez at it, only to see if it was truly him. It was mainly just a close-up of a Sri-Lankan chick but when the camera showed the former international’s junk, Dino became rather excited. Actually, rather too excited, which prompted Nigel to query to Dino, “why are you cheering for the penis?” It was definitely a great quote and got a lot of laughs.
The team then went to the usual beer garden on the roof of the Green Hotel at Fuji station for some drinks and food before the boys got the shink back to Tokyo pretty late in a slightly worse-for-wear state. All up, it was great day for cricket out at Fuji despite the unlucky result and it will be tough to make the semis from here, but the performance was not all that bad and the guys will be looking forward to the next big challenge of taking on our rival, the Chiba Sharks, on June 10th.
On a side note, when the boys were taking a taxi from Fuji station across to Shin-Fuji station to catch the shink, some drunk Hiroshi nobsack got in a few of the Wommies’ faces with typical racist drunk bullshit, but the usually mild-mannered Jamie Payne released the beast within and like the incredible Hulk, slammed the jerk by the collar against the back of the taxi and told him to piss off, and piss off he did.
Once again, congratulations to Dino on the 100th game milestone for the club. Well done mate!!
Catches
- Patmore taking three clean catches behind the stumps – a good day with the gloves.
Dropped Catches
- Dolly dropped by Solaiman at square leg. Straight to him. Plopped out.
- Fairly easy one for Mohibul halway to the boundary – but he fluffled it and only managed to get one hand on it.
Quotes
- “I had Dino in my head all night” – Koolhof
- “I couldn’t sleep until I got it up” – Koolhof
- “Why are you cheering for the penis?” – asks Nigel to Dino, after the latter gets very excited upon the appearance of male genitalia in a video clip
- “Tin tin” – says Kiwi Nigel to Kiwi Richie when asked for the shinkansen time
- Koolhof: “You can get titty time for 6-7 thousand yen”
Great Moments in Sport
- Mohibul’s photos
- Kooly’s 8-over spell
- Dino running hard between the wickets after batting for more than an hour and giving the Wommies a sniff with his knock of 48
- Mohibul, Solaiman, and Rony playing 40-overs despite practising Ramadan
- Nigel’s almost hat-trick
- Himanshu stepping up with the bat at no. 7 during the middle/tail collapse
- Excellent bowling by Nige to take 2 consecutive wickets caught behind
- Nigel bowling a wide with his hat-trick ball.
Dummy Spits
- Nigel saying he would have had a hat-trick if he had a slip in like he wanted at the start of the over (lefty batsman got a decent edge to a vacant 1st slip).
Golden Thong Nominations
- Mohibul’s photos when umpiring from square leg
- After a bit of taxi rank verbals progressed into shoving with an angry Hiroshi trying to act tough with 4 foreigners in front of his missus, Jamie ‘The Paynemaker’ Payne grabs Hiroshi by the collar and dumps him in the back of the taxi. End of.
- Rony, Mohibul, and Solaiman for being asked to change in the car before coming on to the ground (after showing up late)
- Deano (the new youngest wombat) for getting a bit too drunk after the match and on the shink (nodding off in his chair), and once arriving at Shin-Yokohama, saying he’ll walk home as he knows the way. Ended up in Yokohama (not home)… Top work Deano.