On what will probably turn out to be the hottest day of the summer, the
Kiama 3rd Grade Academy side travelled to the sweltering cavern of Keith
Irvine Oval to take on the Jamberoo team in the first match of 2011.
Though missing a couple of key players (batting, bowling and
wicket-keeping options) the Kiama side were cautious but optimistic
against their 10th placed opposition.
Skipper Joe Murphy again
managed to win the toss and bat, giving Kiama the upper hand
immediately. Gary Koks, facing the possibility of picking up the
nickname "Audi" if he managed to register a fourth successive duck, was
beaten by the first ball he faced (a pretty handy away swinger on a good
length) but then slogged into the gap to get off zero and put his mind
at ease. With this challenge completed, he moved on his merry way before
edging behind for a quickfire 25. Quickly to follow was Jan Haubruck,
who mistimed a sharply rising short ball to top-edge to square leg.
Another good partnership developed between opening bat Liam Case and Joe
Murphy. Joe played in his usual upbeat fashion before holing out to
deep mid-wicket for 29, and in the same over Liam's excellent innings
also ended when he played with hard hands to short mid-wicket. Liam had
played well on a difficult field to penetrate for runs, particularly
middling his pull shot with regularity.
At 4/76 the innings was
evenly poised. Enter Jake Ashley, who played what I consider to be one
of the smartest innings I have seen from the team this season. The slow
outfield meant that it wasn't easy to penetrate for more than singles,
but he played each ball on its merits, and took into account the fact
that if runs were flowing from one bowler, it wasn't necessary to take
risks at the other end. He dabbed the ball short when the field was
back, and called for quick singles as a result, without taking risks on
big extravagant shots. He played nice drives, some good cut shots, and
worked the ball off his pads excellently. His valuable efforts ensured a
fifth wicket partnership of 88, which got the team into a position of
strength before his dismissal for an excellent 24.
Closing off the
innings with style was Gavin Hartley's 40 off about 20 balls, including
four sixes and two fours. His clash with elder brother Merrick brought
the large crowd to its feet, especially when Mez's last ball was
deposited into the neighbouring house's front (not back) yard. Bickering
from the crowd over the huge six saw Mez reply "Hey! I kept him off strike for this over! I did my job!" (hard
to fault really). A bit of indoor cricket skills, where a three was
almost completed from a shot that went about six metres concluded
Kiama's innings at 9/219 off 50 overs.
With a good total to
defend, the reshuffled bowling attack set about getting into the
Jamberoo batsmen. Both wickets and runs were hard to come by. 2011 was
met with the first surprise - Maxy Fitzsimmons has developed a run up!
Of at least six paces too! After getting over this shock, we met with
pleasure his full delivery that rapped the opening batsmen on the foot,
and our shouts for LBW being rewarded with the umpire's finger being
raised.
After the opening pair's initial spell was extinguished they
were replaced by the Two Jakes (not the movie starring Jack Nicholson),
Lee and Ashley. Jake Ashley backed up his great batting with another
fine spell of medium pace bowling, swinging the ball both ways in a
manner that would have shamed the Australia bowling attack. Though he
went unrewarded with six overs costing just 14 runs, he beat the bat
often and put a real clamp on the Jamberoo batsmen. At the other end,
Jake Lee (not Jake E Lee who played guitar on two albums for Ozzy
Osbourne in the mid-1980's) tossed up his tempting off break floaters,
and caused mayhem early. Having had a look at the first ball pass him
by, Mr N Smith duly charged the second ball, gave a long groan as the
ball passed his bat and gave stand-in keeper Jan Haubruck about two
hours to take the bails off to complete the stumping. After a few lofted
shots, a couple of overs later Mr D Smith played almost the exact same
shot for the same result.
A partnership developed from this point,
and though not a particularly fast-paced one, it was an annoying one for
the Kiama lads who were hoping to wrap up a quick victory. Given the
miserable efforts from the over aged leg spinner who had replaced JA at
the northern end this probably was not surprising. Once Pig had
completed his great spell from the southern end (2/38 from 10 overs) he
was replaced by Josh Simpson, who proceeded to bowl the spell of the
day. Bowling at a good pace with an excellent line and length, Josh
finally put an end to Pat Hardman's innings and Kiama's agony by ripping
his off stump out of the ground. Josh proved to be almost impossible to
get away, and finished his six over stint with 1/11, and an impressed
audience.
Given Jamberoo's reluctance to push harder for a victory,
Liam Case came on to show off his own spinning wares. Though a nervous
first over was pinched for ten runs, he picked up a wicket with his
final ball in that over. With his nerves gone, he finished bowling three
overs for the fine figures of 2/15, and impressed with his own style of
spin bowling. There might be a drought of spin bowlers in the higher
grades at the moment, but in a few years we'll be like Sri Lanka picking
four in each team!
After the customary one over per season from Gary
Koks (including some dodgy leg spinners, may I say...), Jamberoo
finished at 7/158 off their fifty overs, leaving a tired but happy
Academy team as winners by 61 runs.
Once again, the kids did
themselves proud, and the elders managed to survive another 100 over
Saturday (though I haven't moved without pain for 48 hours).
