Senior A Report (Day 2 vs HBHS)

Star Varsity vs Hamilton Boys High School (day 2)

The day started with Star in a very precarious (look it up in a dictionary) situation with the boys needing another 9 runs with 3 wickets in hand to make the follow on. Tight bowling from the school boys ensured that progress was slow with the not out batsmen Stu and Paul being exceedingly watchful.

Stu was the first batsman to be dismissed via a mis-judged full toss that briefly threatening the nether regions before dipping to shatter the stumps. Dave Gunn joined Paul at the crease and immediately set about his work with a nick through the slips for the first boundary of the day and in turn the follow on was saved.

Dave soon got trapped in front and last man Andrew Stirling came to the crease and looked solid in all his work. Paul decided at this stage it time to take to the bowling hitting a number of crisp boundaries before being the last man out for a fine 34.

Star all out for 134.

This gave the schoolkids a lead of around 65 on first innings which looked a tad shaky when their opening batman was bowled by a fine Rowlands delivery for 1. The "curse of Star" then struck as a number of catches, some hard, some not so hard, were spilled. Tack alongside this a couple of lacklustre efforts at fielding and the cards looked on the wall.

Things turned around after about 15 overs with the introduction of Charles 'Chuck" Johnson into the attack and an element of aggression was soon around the park. 3 relatively quick wickets and a couple of fantastic catches put the brakes on the schoolboys charge at setting a total and the declaration came. Star were set 200 to win off 55 overs.

Game on.

Zeb and John Blair set about the new ball with skill and determination woith a partnership of 30 in 14 overs which effectively had taken the shine off the new ball. A change of bowler saw John castled and Zeb, now officially the barnacle of Star Varsity (which believe me is a good thing), was joined by Andy Stirling who carried on his solid form from the morning.

Having proceeded along at around 2.5 an over for the nearly half of the overs the time came to up the tempo. Andy went first having shown good intent in an innings of 22. Enter captain Mike Rowlands who put together a fine 33 with some inventive shots as well as some crisp, clean hitting. Rowlands was soon trapped in front to a 13 year old spinner who was showing maturity beyond his years.

Chuck came and went first ball attempting to clear the long on fielder and with Zeb following soon after, Old timers Dave Gunn and Pom were left to carry the attack. 120 - 5, 12 overs remaining. Some fine shots by Dave kept the pressure on the school boys but a soft dismissal brought Rohit Bawa to the crease. With the run rate climbing it was left to Pom to lift the scoring rate. A couple of 'out of character' boundaries kept the Prems cheering on the side line, the finest of which was the short arm straight pull a la Martin Crowe (or so the author was informed). Pom was dismissed trying to go for one shot too many when a run a ball was all that was needed.

Ring in T (some bloke that specialises in 7pm Friday Night call ups) came and went and it was left to Paul McGill, in need of a runner following a battle with the sun unto which he came off second best, and Rohit to see off the final 4 overs. The innings ended when Rohit forgot that he was meant to be defending and was bowled with only 6 balls remaining in the days play.

A gutsy run chase was the final result and the win was there for the taking. Alas it was not to be. Lessons need to be taken away about how crucial good fielding, whether it be catching, fielding, backing up or encouraging the bowlers is to the success of a side. Onto St Pauls where the application required to play 2 day cricket will hopefully be on show.