Breakdown

Finally! Something that I can blog about has occurred!

Recently the First XI Cricket coach approached me to stand in for a missing man in their team for a game on Saturday. I agreed, albeit slightly reluctantly. I'm a little out of practice...

As it happened, the grounds were too wet for Saturday play, so it was shifted to today, Sunday.

We bowled first, which turned out to be quite tricky due to the wet pitch and ground, however we managed to keep Counties Manukau run rate low (runs scored per over, for those who don't know).

I had one opportunity at a forward diving catch which I eagerly embraced. I took a few quick steps forward, then dove, the ball landing in my left hand just above the ground. The ball was wet. And it slipped through my hand, so I actually dropped it (I know... awwww, haha). There was also another opportunity at a catch later on, from their sides best batsman, unfortunately, I was too short and the ball just nicked the top of my fingers. Short is not particularly good in high catch fielding.

I did manage to cause a runout, which was good. The batsman hit it, the other batter thought he could make the run, but I got to the ball, threw it to the bowler, who managed to stump the batsman before he got back to his crease. Excellent indeed.

In the end we managed to get them all out for 189 runs. After some pretty good catches and bowling. Not too shabby.

So now we had 50 overs to reach 190 runs to win. Long story short: I ended up having to bat at around 150/7 after some good batting from the others. We had about 7 overs left to get 190. Now those of you who know about my batting history are probably laughing right now. Either at the thought of me actually batting, or at your idea of what my face looked like when I went out there. It's a long lonely walk, let me tell you.

It was me and Stephen in. That's right: Stephen. After several close calls and misses on my part, I finally got a touch on the ball and we ran a single! I could go on about each individual ball faced, but... no.

Shortly afterwards, a spin bowler came on. Stephen in all his mighty glory managed to knock about 25 runs off of this guy in a single over. It was fantastic. Good smacking!

We had pulled back to about 180 runs by now. I was facing the next over. Somewhere towards the end of the over, I got bat to ball, and Stephen calls for me to run, so I sprint to the opposite side, about to get run out so I dove over the crease. Stephens shouting again, I lift my head, and see that they over threw the ball - so I jump up, turn around and run back to the side of the pitch I'd just come from. I could see their wicket keeper preparing to take a catch, so to avoid being run out I dove again, and tumbled over the crease, and ended up sitting on my knees with my bat under my legs. Their keeper and slips were looking at me funny as I sat there. Not sure why...

We worked our way up to 189 runs. We needed 1 more run to win the game, when BAM! Stephen gets caught out. We are down to our last batsman, as Ronan couldn't bat due to injury. Out came Karlton.

To win we needed 1 run off 3 overs. They needed one Wicket.

The plan was simple, if the ball went anywhere beyond a fielder's immediate reach, we run.

Karlton's first two balls wizzed over the stumps. I was nervous. He was nervous. The team was nervous. The coach was nervous. My parents were nervous. The other parents - a lot of people were nervous.

Then, his third ball. He makes contact. It flies up, just over the fielders, and I'm already running, yelling for him to do the same. Eventually he starts. I celebrate, before the run is even complete, but we had done it! We won! Woo!

Haha, so moral of the story: Even if you haven't played cricket in nearly a year, you can still come back and have a good game!