Fast Times at Steele Park. All Stars 06/02/10

On the 6th of February the All-Stars faced up to Fraser Tech on Steel Park #1.

The word was that Tech were short and had a few ring ins - including one Ollie Davis who we knew was a handy cricketer (having taught him all he knows, but not all we know...).

We we bolstered ourselves with one of Star tuskiest stalwarts Rob Brown.

Dave helpfully took care of the toss, and lost (again) and we were inserted. We weren't too fussed either way.

Jimmy went early and we sent Rob out on the back of some excellent business-house form. We weren't disappointed as Duncan and Rob gave us good momentum. We got through to 50-odd before Duncan (32) got tangled up with a short ball and waltzed it onto his stumps.

Daryl joined Browny at the wicket and nostalgia was to the fore as they shared a 40 run partnership.

Daryl departed for 21, having sold his wicket to a very user-friendly bowler, long-hop (4), long-hop (4), 5 wides (over the keepers head on the full), long-hop, out. The worst part of it was that he holed out to a fielder he'd forgotten about, and that they had just spent a full minute positioning.

Dave Gunn joined Rob, and we continued on our way - together they saw us through to the 27th over, with 190 on the board. Rob departed for a well paced 55, replaced by Jared who played another one of his great little cameos to score a brisk 44, Dave eventually went for 61 and the tail worked with Jared to see us through to an impressive 264 off 35. (7.5/over.)

The innings break was spent getting Jimmys glove off the roof - and we were in a cheerful frame of mind as we headed into the field. We knew we'd win it if we bowled and fielded to our standards, although Tech had some handy batting.

Tech started slowly - DK picked up a wicket in his first over - and Eb (after a couple of range-finders) settled in nicely.

Techs #3 looked solid but a bit slow, and we had a lid on them for the first 10. Dave G picked up a wicket early in his spell and brought Ollie to the crease. Ollie looked ominously solid right from the start, but he checked a drive to Jared at Mid-off, who made no mistake.

The next man in had scored 170 against Diamonds and was certainly a threat! He was obviously keen to get started, swinging from ball one. On 8 though he slogged one high to mid-wicket. The skippier surprised everybody by making good ground from mid-on to take a neat catch running at full speed. (Yes, that was full speed.)

We were feeling good at this stage with the major threats removed and the run rate required climbing all the time.

The next 15 overs were tough going - their #3 (who turned out to be a ring-in, an ex junior rep cricketer and current NZ rep hockey play) woke up and was brutal on anything remotely short, hitting with great power square.

The skipper came into the attack and was poor - just a length thing as they say. Tech were still behind the run rate, but some power hitting and aggressive running had us stretched. Probably only for the second time this season we were battling to control the game.

Brown dog and the skipper tightened up a bit without getting total control, but the required run rate began to tell and the wickets started to come.

When the spinners turned it over to the medium pacers to close it out Tech needed 16s for the win, but they were in with a chance with their #3 still at the wicket, having scored a chanceless century.

The killer blow came with 3 overs to go when Eb had the centurion caught behind on an understandably tired shot. The remaining batsmen tried their best, but they didn't have the fire-power and Tech finished on a very good 224/6.

A fantastic days cricket with 488 runs scored in the day at 7 runs an over. A great batting effort and a superior fielding and catching effort saw us home in the end.

POD Points.

Dave G 3

Rob B 2

Jared 1

Next week, Melville on Steele 2.

By the way, updated points up to round 11 (30th Jan vs West Ham) are here:

http://www.hamiltoncricket.co.nz/index.asp?pageID=2145855393