Wombats Block Out Sano in Sun

by Himanshu Bugalia

On a perfect Sunny day (Sun felt much closer) Wommies travelled to Tochigi (not so sure it can be Gunma or Saitama depends on how much you drank last night) to take on Sano in their home ground. Frankie joining after a long time only realised 30 min later that he was chatting to Himan and  not Naren. The confusion went on until the final teckitony that happened in a random bar near Shimbashi station around midnight. Bottom line – we had Himan, Naren and AJ as three different person in the match. To which he replied by buying the last round of beer that night.

The team splitted from Tatebayashi station, where the lucky one rode along Laids. Ritchie initiating the chatters, recalling “a friend of my friend” (Frankie noted, “As they always are”) gave some info about, not so common professions in Japan. While the interesting chatting was going on, Laid missed the right turn and then all decided to take a U-turn. Fiesty as he doesn’t look like, Laids pressed (pissed) the gas pedal hard, someone shouted “Nooooo”, Laids ignored the call and suddenly Car misbalanced. Every one got off the car to see what happened, as he almost bashed the neighborhood wall, but failed as one of the wheel went off. “Oh! did you shout coz of it”. Gents decided to pull off the car and put it on Road. I would count this a major Golden Thong nomination.

After that all reached to ground safely and indulged in the routine drills for catches. Sano after winning the toss decided to bat first and came on to face the Nigel AJ duo. Nigel started off with fine pace and sharp bounce at one end while AJ holded the other end with tight line and length.

With some edges flying here and there, luck could not hold Nigel away from his first breakthrough. The wicket came in the form of Khan who had been struggling to find runs off Nigel from couple of overs, went plumb and was given LBW. Striking first wicket early, Nigel tried to use the bounce of the pitch which went over the batsmen head couple of times. On one side all the banters were going on in the field and suddenly an outside edge went to Himan who jumped too early but managed to get his hands on the ball, it bounced couple to times at different occasions before it finally touched the ground. AJ in despair had nothing to say. This catch could or would have avoided the 50+ partnership that went in between Bijaya and Takahashi.

Bijaya and Takahashi built a steady partnership from there on and went to taking sigles and doubles with occasional boundaries. Milinda and Naren brought in attack one by one to take the partnership down. The battle of patience had started and wommies banter went on all high time high. When finally Naren managed to hit the pads of Bijaya, a huge appeal from everyone (even the one in square boundaries) and umpire gladly raised the finger.  This was the demise of Bijaya who put on a decent total of 31. Naren didn’t stop at just one and then just after one delivery he struck the new batsman Roshan. Played at square was nicely caught by the safe hands of Mili. Sankalpa joined in make the much needed partnership with Takahashi. As the partnership became a bit steady, there came a masterpiece move from Laids. Takahashi played it in the cover drive, which was stopped by Liads, diving down to his right side. He then picked up the bowl and pass to Patmore. Patmore expecting to receive the ball realised the inaccuracy and moved on quickly to collect the ball couple of meters away from stumps. Without any second thoughts, he decided to throw the ball at stumps blindly.  Blind hit to stumps made Takahashi to go back in dug out after scoring 40.

Wombats looking in full control then got struck by Nawaaz boom boom Khan. Battled really well with quick 62 and hitting some long sixes in the bushes of Sano 1. Wommies on search mission were led by Ritchie the Ball magnet, who could pin point the needle in hay sack. Sort of his expertise. With AJ and Nigel taking wickets on other hand, Sano fell short of wickets. At the same time, Naren making note of his transfer fee to the highest bidder got the Boom boom down with the help of Frankie. AJ and Nigel quickly summed up the wickets and sano went all out at the score of 205.

Chasing 200+ score was one thing but wommies had something else in mind for today.

Patmore and AJ opened the bat of Wombats. Slow and steady, they provided the first 50 runs stand of opening partnership for wombats. Patmore playing aggressive scored some quick boundaries while AJ on other hand hold the innings and play steadily. After scoring some boundaries, he lost his “stump” on a quick one from Nawaz. Sano went all up in joy which was a bit short after they saw Bracefield the Puller over square taking the crease. Hungry for runs in this season Ritchie began with his natural out paced innings. The joy of wicket went dimmer and dimmer with boundary after boundary. Now instead of a win, Wombats were looking for the bonus point.

“Noooooo BaaaalllL”, the umpire screamed. This left opponents in a very delicate position as Ritchie took the strike. Anxiety ran into the dug out as well. I think- its gonna be over the square boundary, said the scorer. With Ritchie taking the stance of a wolf and bowler looked like a mere calf, bowled a short ‘enough’ to Ritchie. Ritchie  went a bit short to adjust the height and the next moment, the ball was out of ground. It went like a bullet and crossed the bushes and the street and what not. For there, wommies did not look back. Sano tried their best could not find a crack in the partnership. The partnership, went on to 50+ and then 100+. Hardly 50 runs away from the win in 17 over, Ritchie and Patmore kept on hitting boundaries and moved wommies closer to the win. Suddenly, Frank passed his suncream to Luke, to which Luke replied “Mate, this is not a sunscreen. This is a hair cream” Louder the laughs of wommies as they realised that the shit was not a sunscreen. And no wonders, Frankie was more Red than a tomato by now. Even Nawaz wasn’t that red when Frankie caught him in point after his quick 62.

Patmore acting as the corner stone for the Wombats innings crossed his 50 which was chased quickly by Ritchie, who then mis-judged a slow? one from Nawaz and lost his wicket. This certainly gave a hit to wombats who were very to chase down the score with a bonus point. Patmore left as the only hope for the dug out. Luke joined Patmore for third wicket and started steady, giving strike to Patmore who was moving wombats closer to victory inches by inches. This could not continue long and Luke lost his wicket to Sankalpa on a quick one.  This left wombats to 188 in 29th over. Naren joined and crease and continued doing the same as what would be expected of him. Giving crease to Alex who has mounted his innings to 90+. With each delivery the intensity was getting higher and higher.  Naren and Patmore moving the wommies closer to bonus point on each delivery.

Well, the nerves got the final call when it came to Naren to face the last delivery of 32nd over. Patmore who could do it easily was now at the non-striker end. Naren, new to crease took his stance. Everyone in dug out was now looking close to Naren.

“Well, not sure if he would actually go for it but he should”, said Nigel with 4 runs needed in 1 delivery.

Nawaz bowling to Naren decided to bowl a short one. Naren quickly analyzing the length, put his weight on backfoot. Now it all depends on how better he times the ball. The ball approached, Naren pulled it over deep Fine leg. Not so clean, the deep fine leg tried to adjust to take the catch, nerves getting slow. The fielder then moved back ward and back ward but could not reach the ball until he crossed the boundary. A clean hit for a clean 6. 4 required but wombats scored a six to take the match in their favor. With wombats wining the match with a bonus point, Alex came back to pavilion 97* not out off 96 balls.

Catches

• Mili taking one at square leg to break a troubling sano partnership. Straight to him but never looked like dropping it.
• Frankie snapping up a lofty mishit at point to dismiss boom-boom Nawaz.

Dropped Catches

• Frankie – couldn’t hold on to one smashed at him at short cover. Stopped a definite boundary. Frank had no idea that later that day 60% of his body would be just as red as his throbbing hands.
• Laids with a couple of tough chances at slip. Both chances ended with Laids and the ball on the ground.
• Himan dropping one at gully to AJ after having a couple of cracks at it before it unfortunately hit the deck.

Quotes

• Frankie: “I’m a lobster.” Gav: “How much per kilo?”
• AJ: “Either my balls have grown big or this box is a smaller one.”
• Richie conversing with a “Friend of a friend” about working as a Male host, and the name of the bar was “Club Alibi”
• Milli. “A brown person getting skin cancer is like a virgin getting aids”
• Frankie: Millie, “your pants looks so shiny, white and new” , He-man: “probably it’s because of the background”
• Laids over the radio to the umpires, “Mayday Mayday mayday, what ball are we on?”
• Jamie from mid-on to the touchline: “It’s in the white designer bag!” Never a manlier sentence shouted on a cricket field!

Great Moments in Sport

• Naren hitting a six to secure a bonus point win with one ball to do it.
• Patmore seeing the Wommies through by batting the full 32 overs, anchoring the innings with 97 not out from 96 balls.
• Moment of brilliance by Patmore and Laids to run out (Takahashi on 40 odd?). Laids diving at short cover to cutoff a single, gathers and throws it in to Patmore. Patmore takes a few strides to collect the throw and attempts a no-look backwards flick throw to execute a direct hit, catching the batsman inches short of his ground.
• Nigel bowling with good pace and bounce.
• Opening batting partnership of 59 Runs (AJ and Alex).
• Second wicket partnership between Alex and Richie.
• Richie’s massive six earning Himanshu’s hilarious commentary – “That’s maaaassssiiiiivvveee!”

Dummy Spits

• Nigel – unleashing some pent up rage at a Sano batsman (anyone hear exactly what Nige said??)
• “How about you watch the f”””king ball next time” Nige to Boom Boom Nawaz after another swing and miss off the big Kiwi

Golden Thong Nominations

• Frankie – mistaking hairspray for sunscreen and getting plenty red by the end of day’s play.
• Laids reversing his car off a driveway and getting stuck, wheels high and dry off the tarmac, everyone had to get out of the car to push it back on the road again.
• Ok, not technically a nomination but a real pleasure to finally meet Boom Boom. Smashes 60 off 30 balls, takes 2 wickets but an absolute fruit loop.