Wednesday, January 20, 2010

The Man of Steel.

It has been a long while since this writer expressed himself on the pages of the Star times, but this past weekend, in a successful cricket game, a feat of shear bravery has left him fumbling for his pencil to share a remarkable story with other cricket lovers.


The biggest game of the season so far started steadily with Star's All Stars getting off to a good start thanks to the skipper and and one of the many Saffers in the team. Runs came at just more than a trickle, but the ball quickly lost its shine for very few wickets. After the top order added their bit, a few quick wickets caused a moment of panic in fear of the dreaded Star collapse! At this point, the man in question got to the pitch and promptly made his presence felt with a lovely four that raced to the boundary. He went on to score another less-than-a-run-a-ball-fifty to help set up the innings, which on its own is nothing new for him seeing as he has done it on around 50% of the occasions the has taken the crease for Star. But considering the multitude of barriers he faced, this fifty was unbelievable - more about this later.

A wonderful cameo from Jared helped the innings back on its legs so the lower order could really have a go. And they did just that. The Geldenhuis brothers added around 60 runs in the last 7 overs to set Suburbs an imposing 215 for the win.

An inspirational slap on the ass from the skipper apparently didn't help the openings bowlers, as Suburbs started in the best possible way by smashing 17 runs of the first over from Eben! It didn't go much better at the other end as one Suburbs opener connected with pretty much everything short of a yorker! The openers finally got their length right as Eben removed the main threat after trapping him plumb, his replacement was sent packing 2 balls later and suddenly the field felt like a happy place again. When JB lobbed in a perfect throw to run out the remaining opener, the game seemed all but won. It wasn't, as the skipper duly reminded everyone. At this point the wickets dried up and it looked like the affair could go all the way to the 35th over, even after some resilient middle order wickets were cleaned up by some very entertaining bowling from Pieter.

Tharik, (aka: the man of steel) grabbed the ball and didn't let go till the game was over several wickets later with a table topping win for Star. What makes his bunch of wickets and his 50 so impressive, is the fact that he had a scar the size of a good handbag's zip on his shoulder that wasn't there 5 weeks earlier!!!!! Tharik played for Star on the 5th of December and scored a fifty, on the 7th he had his collarbone realigned by getting a titanium rod put in his shoulder, and less than a month later he was training in the nets like nothing ever happened! On the 16th of January he scored a fifty and took 4 wickets. Ladies and gentleman, please applaud that man.

And Brett Lee, if you are reading this: If you play for the love of the game, and not the money then you wont need 6 months to recover from an ingrown toenail!

JAMP

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