Plastics CC arrived in Ansiao for their inaugural tour with the memory of a significant defeat v Top Knockers just a week earlier. 73 all out was no way to build confidence for the tour, and as such Plastics CC made sweeping changes to their squad. We would like to highlight, that this was not due to the fact we only had 10 people willing to come on tour due to the likely chance of a 14 day quarantine on return. Honestly. Tour Squad: Alex Webster CA (Emperor & Social Secretary), Jerry Jamieson (Captain), Joey Anderson, Liam Killen, Robert Bishop, Charlie Bradbury, James Sandham, Jamie Doy, Iain Gordon and Carly Smart (Official #2 Fan and 12th Mom). Friday The series began with a 12-a-side T20. Plastics being topped up with 2 ringers, Adrian Golding and Sajith. Amigo’s CC 145-5 (Raja 46, Chris Redhead 3-12) beat Plastics CC 144-4 (Joey Anderson 52*, James Sandham 2-13) by 6 wickets Plastics opened the batting with attacking batsmen Joey and Alex and got off to an explosive, record breaking start. The score was 95 – 0 off of 9.2 overs largely thanks to an impressive, aggressive innings from big guns himself, Joey Anderson [52* from 32]. This was a record opening stand for Plastics, and as such it was concluded that the openers would retire if they got to 50. Joey trudged off, and the runs went with him. Ringer Adrian scored 2 from 12, before Alex [40 from 32] got caught in the 13th. Liam scored 2 from 9, Robert 11 from 25 – only some late impetus from ringer Sajith [20 from 12] brought Plastics CC back to par – ending the innings 144-4. During the quick turn around it was noted that the light faded dramatically in the innings making it difficult to bat under the newly installed floodlights. This gave Plastics every hope of defending the total. The small leg and off-side boundaries were known well by the local Amigo’s and they utilised this knowledge during the chase, scoring boundaries consistently. Raja scored 46 from 32 and Pramol [35 from 44] played a Dhoni-esc innings taking the match deep before accelerating. Saril [4-0-26-0], JEVS [2.3–0–13–2] and Charlie [3-0-16-1] bowled economically to keep the game tight and going into the final 3 overs Amigos need 28 runs. However a 27 run assault over the next two overs, meant Sandham had to bowl a maiden in the last over. With the field in tight, the first ball was a hot ball, the 2nd was a wicket. Could JEVS and Plastics CC pull off a miracle? No, Rakesh edged through slip next ball and Amigos had won with 3 balls to spare. Post-match, we had an outstanding spicy chilli with a few alcohols and excitingly looked forward to the matches ahead. Unfortunately, once back at the chic but haunted AirBnB, we forgot about the matches ahead and ploughed through a fair bit of alcohol. Saturday The second match of the series would be a 40 over encounter in 36 degree heat. Plastics CC would be batting with 13 players, including 3 ringers (Sajith, Kamal and Ahmad) but there would be only 11 players fielding at any point. Waking up at 9am after a 3am finish the night before was handled professionally by a group of seasoned drinkers. Getting 11 people successfully up and ready for their lift at 10am was an impressive feat. Unfortunately for Plastics CC, that was the most impressive feat of the day. Amigo’s CC 334-6 (Andrew Winter 100, Clive Worth 4-38) beat Plastics CC 223 a.o. (Sajith 55, Joey Anderson 2-56) by 111 runs. Jerry Jamieson, Plastics CC Captain, won the toss and chose to field. Amigos were to open with the unknown entity Andrew Winter and T20 opener Greg Bullock. The Amigos went about their business at breakneck speed – ominously reaching 73-0 off 5 overs – including towering sixes out of the ground. Jerry brought himself and legspinner Joey on which helped to steady the rate slightly, before Joey took 2 wickets in two balls and Iain a third in the next over. Unfortunately these wickets weren’t of the imperious Andrew Winter. Andrew continued the momentum of the innings until he retired in the 17th over for 100 off 45 balls, with the score at 169 – 3. Plastics knew they had an opening now and knew that with some good bowling that they could keep the score to 300. Potentially chaseable on a very flat pitch. The next 2 overs went for 2 runs, one of which being a wicket maiden for Charlie. However, 171-4 became 282-4 by the 32nd over thanks to impressive innings from Neeraj [67 from 52] who was eventually caught out off of Jamie’s bowling and Andrew Dudfield [77* from 56] who retired not-out. Relatively economical bowling continued for the last 8 overs from Iain Gordon and James Sandham so that at 40 overs, Amigos had reached 334. Joey’s bowling figures [7-0-56-2] do not give full justice to the outstanding leggies he bowled – largely due to the 17 he conceded in his first over. Charlie and Iain also bowled impressively to go at just 4rpo and 6.6rpo respectively. Lunch was taken which included an impressive array of sandwiches, cakes and plenty of water. Alex Webster [50 from 50] and Saril Last-Name [5 from 13] were to open the batting for Plastics but did not provide the required impetus. A similar issue followed for Robert Bishop [8 from 13] and Liam Killen [4 from 20]. Plastics reached just 95 - 4 from 18.3 overs and needed a miracle. But when we need a miracle, who do we call? Hopefully Joey Anderson and Sajith. Sajith [55 from 38] provided an attacking innings and Joey scored 4 boundaries in his first 4 balls to give the fans (ie. 12th Mom, Carly) something to cheer about. But when he was caught for 20 off 10, a Plastician collapse followed. Jerry did well to stop his 3 match run of golden ducks, eventually scoring 10 off 16, before Charlie, JEVS, Iain, Kamal and Jamie all finished with single fingers. Amas, batting at number 12, managed to score 23. Plastics were all out for 223, from 37 overs. The series was gone. It was noted, accurately, post-match that without Andrew Winter’s innings the match would have been an even encounter and so when Amigo’s captains Chris notified us he would not be playing on Sunday the relief was palpable. The two teams then enjoyed a post-match beverage, where – annoyingly – we found Andrew Winter was a lovely guy so we couldn’t even bitch about him being too good for us. Plastics then went to a nearby pizzeria. Did we all deserve XL Pizza’s? Probably not, but by dowel we needed them. The evening went by fast, including an incredible game of Scrawl (which 12th Mom gave 7 snorts). Will ‘Garlic Boobs’ ever be forgotten? Sunday The final match of the series was a 35 over fixture. Plastics continued with the same team, minus Saril but this time with ringers Neeraj, Pramol and Richard. Plastics CC 241 for 5 (Alex Webster 68*, Richard 2-28) beat Amigo’s CC 239-8 (Greg Bullock 55, Kamal 2-47) by 2 runs. Jerry Jamieson once again won the toss, but this time he decided to bat under the encouragement of opposition captain Chris. The new opening partnership was Charlie and Joey. Joey hit the first ball of the innings for 6, but the run rate soon settled to around 4 runs per over. Joey got out trying to push the score on, leaving the score at 47-1 from 11. With the score of 334 yesterday still weighing heavily on people’s minds, there were murmurings in the stands that Charlie’s innings of 5 from 36 was too slow. However, a ramp to third man kicked him into action resulting in his next 39 balls going for 55 runs. Robert [23 from 36] was caught on the boundary from a shot that would’ve gone for 6 and Charlie [60 from 75], with his highest ever score for Plastics, was eventually bowled. With the score at 136-3 from 24.1 overs, Alex walked in targeting 240 from the 35 overs. Neeraj and Alex scored 30 in a partnership from 4.4 overs before Liam Killen reached the crease and scored an imposing 20 from 14 in a partnership of 71 from 5.4 overs. Alex, thankful for Rakesh’s drop when he was on 25, ended with 68 from 42 – including 15 from the last over. Momentum, for the first time since the first 10 overs in the T20, was on Plastics side. Even if there was some tension internally within the Plastics during the innings break, the lunches provided helped to dissipate this somewhat. Plastics knew they had a chance in this game, and Jerry would do anything not be whitewashed. Jamie helped Plastics get off to a flyer taking 2 wickets before the 7th over, leaving the score at 32-2. This, however, brought Raja to the crease who attacked efficiently to score 40 from 25 before being caught from a skier by Richard of Jerry’s bowling. Greg Bullock, the opener remained, and Chris Redhead was new to the crease. These two played sensibly, struggling to hit 4’s on their favoured offside due to the 3 musketeers placed on the boundary. Then fast bowler Richard came on, who was too fast for Greg [55 from 63] to keep out. Jamie came back to take Clive’s wicket leaving the score at 169-5 from 27.2. It was going to be close. Robert bowled two economical overs before JEVS returned and conceded 14 from 3 balls off Andrew Dudfield. In response, Jerry bought himself and Richard back. This stifled the run rate somewhat so that after 32 overs, Amigo’s were 220-5. Jerry conceded just 4 from the 33rd over, and Richard the same from the 34th – which also included the wicket of Chris. Andrew Dudfield and Rakesh were therefore at the crease for the final over, needing to score 14 runs to win. Jerry conceded 4 from his first 2 balls (including 2wds) before Rakesh going for glory was caught miraculously by ringer Pramol on the boundary – easily the best catch for a Plastic. The next ball was hit for 4 by Andrew, and the next went for 1 but included a run out following a good stop from Robert allowing Andrew to keep the strike. A 6 would win it for Amigos, a 4 would result in a tie. Jerry ran up to bowl, plunged it in the blockhole and the best Andrew could do was hit it towards the off-side. Some wicked spin almost took it away from Charlie on the boundary, but he put in a dive to slap it away from the boundary and just 2 were conceded. Plastics had one, Jerry had avoided a whitewash. It was a quite brilliant end to the series, and one fitting of an incredible 3 days on tour. Emperor’s Note
Once more we would like to thank Amigo’s CC for their hospitality on tour, especially Chris. He made the organisation of the tour incredibly easy for me and was incredibly understanding of the difficulties in organising the tour during a pandemic. I would also like to thank Drew, Kevin and Chris for providing lifts from our Air BnB to the ground (and sometimes back) each of the days. The Tea’s provided by Sharon, Joanna and Kirstie were brilliant, and having Nel scoring allowed us to relax (as much as possible in that heat) while watching us bat. Thanks again for that. A further shout out goes to Kirstie for helping us with the taxi’s back from the ground and booking restaurants for us. And thanks to the Ringers Sajith, Richard, Adrian, Kamal, Primal, Ahmad, Neeraj, Pramol for filling in for us when we were short of players. We look forward to touring against Amigo’s CC again at some point in the future.
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THE TEAMFormed from a collection of players who met on the internet via social cricket at Archbishop's Park, Plastics XI represents the foolhardy members of that group who decided they wanted a bash at proper cricket instead of playing with plastic balls. The team's ability is best described as "weak-weak". Luckily, our social media game is much stronger. Find us on: Archives
October 2021
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