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Ultimate Ringer Pays Off for Sharks
by Nigel McKay
The Wombats arrived nice and early to the abandoned high school turned 500 million yen worth Sano International Cricket Ground. We were ready for a good fight with Chiba Sharks (especially Dino, who had travelled all the way from Fuji to Tanuma with an overnight stay at Evan’s place in Yokohama). Sano City put on an opening ceremony for the christening of the two new grounds with city officials all in attendance. After roasting in the sun waiting for the game to start, captain Luke Eyes did the toss with Dhugal, the latter winning the toss and choosing to bat first.
We needed to put pressure with opening bowlers at the start, and we did. AJ and Nigel opened the bowling with tight spells. AJ got the first wicket with a terrific C&B one-handed to his right off Dhugal and Dhugal was livid. As the new batsman was taking guard Mili said for some reason “great first ball of a hat-trick” and then AJ got Paveti out LBW sending Mili and Dino and the team into hysterics as AJ was on a hat-trick. The next ball was a downer but in the next over Nigel ripped through new batsman Takada and the Sharks were 18 for 3 and the Wombat’s confidence was rising.
It was a flippin hot day around 36-38 degrees and Wommies began to tire. Also the Sharks had a dirty trick up their sleeves and the other opening batsman Fleming who we had not go out yet, and hadn’t looked like getting out, was still there. The ringer had not done much yet but the new batsman Ueda hit a few lusty blows off Tony over cow corner. One shot went over the poorly designed fence at the cow corner boundary and lost our only new ball. From then on, the ball was old and pressure began to ease a bit. However, Mili, got another couple of wickets before drinks and Sharks were 72 for 5. Was hard yakka in the heat and the Sharks begun to build some partnerships. The energy levels dropped a bit and the runs began to flow for the ringer and Sharks players. By the next drinks break at 30 overs the sharks were nearing 200 and had wickets in hand.
Overs 15-30 had not gone well for the Wombats and the Sharks had the control. Fleming was in full swing and hit He-man for 4 sixes in a row in his over. Many bowlers were punished but kept working hard. With a few false shots and good run-out from Nigel’s bullet arm the Sharks lost its final few wickets and were all out for 246 off 36.1 overs. Fleming dominated the innings with 146 off 102 balls including 11 sixes!! Before the innings lunch break Mili dropped a sitter but injured his finger in the process somehow. Kris Byrne (the Wombats medic) escorted Mili to Sano hospital where he spent 10,000yen on a few bandages and was told to gaman and daijoubu desu.
Unfortunately the Wombats were down a man for the remainder of the game. Wombats went into bat with Dino and AJ opening the innings and Dino was nicked off early with a sendoff to boot. As you can imagine Dino did a wee dummy spit but took the high road and gave a good and civil lecture about cricket ethics and why “it’s not right to carry on like that”. On with batting and AJ was batting very cautiously and grinded his way to 18 runs but lost partners at the other end (of the pitch). Once he went out the wickets fell regularly and the Ringer came on to bowl at a good time and picked up 3 for 3. No wombats made it to double figures and the innings finished for 69 for 9 off 25.5 overs.
It was a hard day in the scorching heat and in the after-match presentation Luke congratulated Chiba and its ringer for his classy performance. Fleming won man of the match for his outstanding batting which anchored the innings and boosted the Chiba score so that the Wombats had a tough task in trying to get 247 runs to win. Fleming apparently plays 1st grade cricket in Brisbane and this was his first and only game in JCL this season. Ringer.
The bonus point win puts Chiba Sharks in pole position for the competition and Wombats playoffs hopes all but dashed. Even with Fleming’s dominant display it was a good contest and many positives out of the game took place. One being that every Wombat who played got a new record at Sano International Cricket Ground #2!! Put that in website stats asap Koolhoff!! Do it NOW!!! Luke did a great job as captain in the field and throughout the game. Respect must go out Dino who travelled all the way back to Fuji after the game. Little respect for the people who designed the SICG #2 boundary areas with tiny boundary at cow corner and small fence with inaccessible area behind it right on the small boundary. Was great playing on the nice turf and brand new pitch but spending 500million yen and not having a scoreboard, proper length ropes, or toilets. C’mon guys!
After the game the Wombats got on the train back to Tokyosville and after highlights and tekitonis the shenanigans began. Dino began to tell some stories such as “The Shaven Swimmer”. Sounded like some good yarns and people thought they should be written down as the “Dino Diaries”. Looking forward to when that comes out on paperback. Do we want pictures though? During these hilarious yarns on the train some Hiroshi douche tried to kill the fun but Ev pointed out other people were also having drinks and the Hiroshi went away I guess. Pretty standard occurrence for a Wommies train ride back from Sano.
Finally, a few days after the game Mili finally went to see a real doctor and got an x-ray. He actually ruptured or dislocated his finger joint and had to have surgery on it. 3 screws put in place. #prayforMili. It will be his last game for a while but hang in there buddy. It was also Naren’s last game #2 for the Wombats with him moving away from Japan. Naren will have a farewell party in couple of weeks. Get on it boys! Two more games in the season, let’s finish on a high!!
| Tokyo Wombats CC vs Chiba Sharks CC |
| Japan Cricket League 2018 (Div. 1), SICG 2, Tochigi, August 4, 2018 |
| Toss | Chiba Sharks CC |
| Umpires | Wyverns CC |
| Result | Chiba Sharks won by 177 runs |
| TWCC MoM | A Jacob |
| Chiba Sharks CC Innings: 246 (36.1 overs) |
Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
| D Bedingfield* | c & b A Jacob | 12 | 14 | 2 | 0 | 85.71 |
| K Fleming | c M Dharmadasa b N Madhavan | 146 | 102 | 11 | 11 | 143.14 |
| P Velusamy | lbw b A Jacob | 0 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| T Takada | b N McKay | 0 | 5 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| A Ueda | c N Madhavan b M Dharmadasa | 23 | 15 | 3 | 1 | 153.33 |
| A Arachchige | lbw b M Dharmadasa | 0 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| M Thurgate† | c A Jacob b N Madhavan | 14 | 11 | 2 | 0 | 127.27 |
| N Tomizawa | run out (N McKay / J Shearer) | 28 | 40 | 0 | 2 | 70.00 |
| M Siddique | c A Jacob b A Cronin | 8 | 24 | 0 | 0 | 33.33 |
| R Matsumura | b R Taluqdar | 2 | 3 | 0 | 0 | 66.67 |
| M Kumar | not out | 0 | 0 | 0 | 0 | - |
| Extras | (b 0, lb 0, w 13, nb 2) | 13 | ||||
| TOTAL | (10 wickets) | 246 |
| Fall of wickets |
| 17-1 D Bedingfield*, 17-2 P Velusamy, 18-3 T Takada, 71-4 A Ueda, 72-5 A Arachchige, 128-6 M Thurgate†, 211-7 K Fleming, 242-8 N Tomizawa, 246-9 R Matsumura, 246-10 M Siddique |
Bowling | O | M | R | W | wd | nb | Econ |
| A Jacob | 5.0 | 0 | 28 | 2 | 5.60 | ||
| N McKay | 7.0 | 0 | 25 | 1 | 3.57 | ||
| R Taluqdar | 8.0 | 1 | 40 | 1 | 5.00 | ||
| M Dharmadasa | 3.0 | 0 | 29 | 2 | 9.67 | ||
| N Madhavan | 8.0 | 0 | 60 | 2 | 7.50 | ||
| A Cronin | 4.1 | 0 | 40 | 1 | 9.60 | ||
| H Bugalia | 1.0 | 0 | 24 | 0 | 24.00 |
| Tokyo Wombats CC Innings: 69/9 (25.5 overs) |
Batsmen | R | B | 4s | 6s | SR | |
| J Shearer | c K Fleming b M Siddique | 5 | 11 | 1 | 0 | 45.45 |
| A Jacob | c T Takada b P Velusamy | 18 | 42 | 1 | 1 | 42.86 |
| E Hitchman | c A Arachchige b N Tomizawa | 5 | 7 | 0 | 0 | 71.43 |
| N Madhavan | lbw b M Kumar | 8 | 15 | 1 | 0 | 53.33 |
| L Eyes*† | c M Thurgate† b K Fleming | 9 | 25 | 0 | 1 | 36.00 |
| J Payne | c M Thurgate† b T Takada | 5 | 36 | 0 | 0 | 13.89 |
| H Bugalia | c M Thurgate† b K Fleming | 0 | 2 | 0 | 0 | 0.00 |
| N McKay | b K Fleming | 3 | 8 | 0 | 0 | 37.50 |
| A Cronin | b T Takada | 4 | 8 | 1 | 0 | 50.00 |
| R Taluqdar | not out | 1 | 1 | 0 | 0 | 100.00 |
| M Dharmadasa | dnb (retired hurt) | |||||
| Extras | (b 0, lb 2, w 8, nb 0) | 10 | ||||
| TOTAL | (9 wickets) | 69 |
| Fall of wickets |
| 10-1 J Shearer, 17-2 E Hitchman, 42-3 N Madhavan, 43-4 A Jacob, 55-5 L Eyes*†, 55-6 H Bugalia, 64-7 N McKay, 64-8 J Payne, 69-9 A Cronin |
Bowling | O | M | R | W | wd | nb | Econ |
| R Matsumura | 3.0 | 0 | 9 | 0 | 3.00 | ||
| M Siddique | 5.0 | 1 | 10 | 1 | 2.00 | ||
| N Tomizawa | 3.0 | 0 | 15 | 1 | 5.00 | ||
| M Kumar | 6.0 | 2 | 11 | 1 | 1.83 | ||
| P Velusamy | 3.0 | 1 | 8 | 1 | 2.67 | ||
| K Fleming | 3.0 | 1 | 3 | 3 | 1.00 | ||
| T Takada | 3.0 | 0 | 10 | 2 | 3.33 |
Catches
- AJ’s sharp caught-and-bowled to dismiss dhugal off a low full-toss
- AJ again at mid-off taking a low catch to finish the game
- Nazza’s snaffle at cow. Cool as a cucumber!
Dropped Catches
- Milli dropping a bit of a sitter and dislocating his finger to boot.
Quotes
- Ev – “500 million yen and ya cant even buy a scoreboard FFS!”
- “No. Japan. No” dickhead on the train unhappy with a group of gaijin enjoying a beer on the way home
- “The Dino Diaries. Chapter 3: The Shaven Swimmer” After a fairly entertaining story from Dino on the train home, Ev suggests he should write a book of memoirs.
Great Moments in Sport
- The sharks div 1 ring-in’s innings of 148, killing any chances the Wommies had of a victory (including four 6’s in a row off Himan and not just a few off most others)
- Kris Bayne from Chiba taking yet another Wombat to hospital in his annual visit during the sharks/Wommies games!
- Dino travelled from Fuji to Tanuma (with a pit stop in Yokohama) for this match! Legend!
Dummy Spits
- Dino repeatedly sharing his unhappiness at not being given the respect he deserves when dismissed (after being given a send-off by the sharks player who dismissed him).
- Hiroshi on the train, chucking a fit at the Wommies for being too loud and drinking on the train, and not taking kindly to Ev pointing out there were plenty of ojichans smacking chuhais in the same carriage! He also gets a shout out for taking Dino’s sunnies off and slapping him on the forehead!
Golden Thong Nominations
- JCA/Sano government for spending 500 mil on a field with so many clear faults – no loos, no scoreboard, not enough rope to go around the boundary, and a pitch/fence/forest combination designed to lose plenty of balls.
- Aforementioned dickhead on the train.
