Report by Daniel Mortlock:
We began the week looking forward to an even tussle between Remnants and TK's imposing Centaurs, as we had an eleven with both batting and bowling strength - and three wicket-keepers. Unfortunately, our nicely balanced team was hit by a broadside of withdrawals ("I'm really sorry but forgot I had something on Tuesday"; "I cannot play Tuesday as I have pulled my hamstring.", etc.) that left us listing fatefully in the direction of being an all-bowling outfit.
We thus agreed to let the Centaurs bat first, although TK's assertion about the strength of his batting line-up seemed a bit overblown as just 10 runs came from the first 3 (six-ball) overs, as the batters missed more often than they hit, particularly off Joe White (1/24). Sadly, one-fer's were the order of the day, something all six of our bowlers managed (no not a record - we had eight wicket-takers against something called CAT back in 1999). While Dian Weerakonda (1/20) was understandably delighted to get his first Remnants wicket, Faruk Kara (1/20) was the stand-out, being the only bowler to have conceded less than a run a ball - and he would have had a second wicket if a straightforward catch had been held in the deep. That drop notwithstanding, our fielding was actually pretty good: Naveen Chouksey, John Young and Dian all stopped some fantastically hard-hit drives; Marcus Baker, having ceded the gloves and insisted he "doesn't like running", ran tirelessly around the pavilion boundary; Joe took a nice running catch (help out by his inner monologue telling him that it was just difficult enough for it to be okay to drop); and Daniel Mortlock predeemed himself for the drop off Faruk with a near direct-hit run out (which Faruk aided with a delicate deflection) in which the too-casual batter was caught short ambling a single despite having hit the ball most of the way to the boundary.
The result of all this was a target of 144/4 to chase down, which felt a bit too much given the make-up of our side - and the fact that the old ball started to keep increasingly low as the shadows stretched out across the ground. Still, we were given hope in the form of the Marcus Baker show: he basically smashed every ball as hard - and high - as he could, and (thanks in part to the ineffective ball-tracking of the Centaur out-fielders) he made to retirement score of 40 with a huge six that took him to 45* off 35 balls, easily the best batting performance of the game.
Unfortunately, things at the other end weren't going so well, as both John Young (4 off 16 balls) and Andy Owen (12* off 37 balls at one point, before a brief acceleration to 19 off 44 balls) found it just about impossible to score. The win had long since gone, but we finished up flirting with humiliation as we lost 4 wickets for 6 runs, our final four batters ended up with scores of 0 off 5 balls, 0 off 1 ball, 0* off 4 balls and 0* off 0 balls.
That such information can be provided was down in part the new double-accounting two-factor scoring procedure we trialled today. On the one hand we had TK with his "my first tablet" and the whizz-bang PlayCricket app that does everything but record the bowlers' speeds; and on the other we had a glimpse of Remnants life in the '80s, as Sally Hales made her first appearance behind the scorers' desk in several years. One could almost imagine a shimmering avatar of Geoff looking over her shoulder concerned that the fourth ball of the last over was actually a leg-bye . . .
