Asbestos Surveys Bloomfield Vs Dannevirke Black .
PLATE SEMI-FINAL
This season the top 8 was split and we were placed at the top of the plate section. This meant we were to play 8th placed Dannevirke Black for a spot in the plate final.
Clifford won the toss and chose to bat. It soon became clear that this was going to be very difficult pitch to bat on with the ball rearing off a good length at the MCA end and occasionally staying low at the Lido end. Aaron and Gaz decided to take a week of from giving us a solid opening platform with Big Doggs going for a duck in the 2nd over followed by Gaz, caught on 3, 2 overs later. With Ants and Kurtis now at the crease progress was still slow with us only of 12 runs after 7 overs. Awake to the difficult conditions both batsmen managed to pounce on the occasional bad ball and get us through to a very tidy 93/2 at drinks.
The chat at this stage was that anything over 200 was going to be a very tough get and Kurtis and Ants set out to make it happen. The other thing that was making batting difficult was that the pitch was taking a lot of spin and it was that spin that was eventually Ants’ undoing. Paul Chapman threw down a straight one and Ants had set for the spin. The ball went through the gate and Ants was walking off with hard grafted 42 to his name. Lazer came to the crease and got stuck into his aggressive game but the bowling was very tight and the big shots were still hard to come by. The strike kept rotating though and in the 34th over Jack Allomes made the breakthrough removing Lazerjet for 21.
It was an over or 2 later that Kurtis got his 2nd century in as many games. He didn’t last much longer though with Jack Allomes removing him an over later for 108. Jake, Damian and Craig Trim tried to add a few last-minute runs to the tally but the bowlers were finishing very strongly with only 10 runs coming off the last 3 overs.
Bloomfield 203/6 of 40 overs.
Kurts 100
Ben and Gaz opened the bowling with some very tight lines. With a target of 204 the pressure was on and a leg glance from Matty Greig for a quick 2nd should have, perhaps, been a slow single as Jake the Russ swooped on in and ran Matt out for 6. That brought Graeme Harris to the crease who lost his leg pin to an in-swinging yorker. Gaz Continued to bowl very tight while Ben forgot how to bowl. With all the assistance the deck was offering he decided to bowl full tosses and wides mixed in with the occasional good ball. Captain Clifford, clearly mad on roid rage, decided to give him another over with which he got the wicket of Paul Chapman LBW
203 was a good score but not good enough for Ben to continue bowling. He was replaced by Dawson and Gaz was replaced by Craig Trim. Shaun Baxter was looking dangerous and along with Kaiden Ball they started to put together a nice partnership. Craig Trim wasn’t having a bar of it though and a good length ball stayed low and cannoned into Shaun Baxters middle stump. Out for 24. Ben took the next 2 overs telling Craig Dawson how he’s not the bowler he used to be. Long gone is the bowler that had Kane Williamson (from Dunedin) shaking in his boots. Ben told him he just doesn’t look dangerous. Well as if a switch was flicked, anger flashed through his eyes and Kaiden Ball saw a ball more dangerous than himself. As the bails hit the ground Creaky was rambling something about being the destroyer or somesuch. I can’t remember. It seemed to be directed at Ben.
Craig Trim managed to get the wicket of Cohen Boustead before he was replaced with Kurtis at the MCA end. Kurt immediately got the ball to turn. 5 balls into his first over Jack Allomes hit the ball straight to Ben at mid-on, who had just finished schooling David Hamo on how to field like a pro. The catch was taken but Big Doggs was quick to point out the look of terror on his face. Ben had to leave the field (to both teams’ relief) an over later after injuring himself cleaning up David’s bad fielding. Damian David Schilling (Hamo) came on for a bowl and together with Kurtis they cleaned up the tail with Kurt catching Ben Allomes off David’s bowling and then took two more wickets with the ball in hand. Dannevirke all out for 103.
Another great game with Kurt leading the way with both ball and bat. A big thanks to Dannevirke for the game. Always an enjoyable club to play. It looks like we are now playing Marist next week in the Plate Final.
Not A Very Awkward Semi.
Semi-finals time and who better to face off against then our mates at Freyberg. Looking at the pitch and hearing a few of the yarns in the lead up to the game, it was certain we needed to bat first. We lost the toss and were put in to bat, perfect.
We had our main man Rowan back this week so we sent him in with Chris to open up. Rowan didn't feel like batting today, so after he got his second run, he got out LBW by fierce pace man Logan Amey in the 4th over. Trout came out and soaked up a lot of balls for a horrendous 12 runs, before Dan Murphy tangled him up and had him bowled. From there not a lot happened with the bat other than Sukh working his way to 27 off 52 and Greg earning himself 18 runs off 34 balls and trying to run out as many batsmen as he could. Unfortunately, this week Randy fell victim to Gregs antics.
Somehow, we weaselled our way to 122 all out, with extras being the second top scorer on 24.
Into the bowling and we opened up with Corey and Randy. Trout struck early, after some questions were politely asked why the LBW was not given, turns out the ball clipped off pin on the way past anyway, Usman out bowled on the second ball off their innings. Randy then picked up the wicket of Jamie in the 6th and from there most of it went our way, but mostly Rowans. A couple of early dropped catches off Josh before George took a screamer of a catch fielding in close dismissed him for 37 runs.
Rowan and Chris kept things tight and kept taking wickets. Chris ending with 2 but the man of hour, Rowan (Roooadhouse) picking up 5 wickets for 30 runs off his 8. Wickets were shared around Corey, Randy, and Sukh taking 1 each, 2 for Chris but most importantly 5 for Rowan. Next up we have the final against our brothers at Palmy, playing for that top spot in the bottom 8
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