The Bottle-O Eagles continued the T20 competition on Thursday night up again UG at Tonga Park. After winning the toss skipper Taylor Cumberland decided we would have a bat. Dylan Fletcher and Jack Soal opened up for the Eagles, but both found themselves out early on. This had Connor Macleod and Taylor needing to rebuild and they did this nicely, on what was a difficult track to bat on, moving the score to 86 in the 11th over when Connor was out for 40 (off 36 balls). Another quick wicket saw Matt Bacon join the skipper and they acerated the scoring as Matt struck a quickfire 30 (off just 13 balls) to have the score at 129 at the end of 16 overs. Taylor then fell for a very nice 41 (off 39 balls) as the Eagles reached 148/7 off their 20 overs.
In reply Matt struck an early blow and he was well supported by both James Brown and Dylan who both took two wickets each to have UG reeling at 27/5 and continued tight bowling had the game almost over at 39/5 after 10 overs. UG did then manage to hit out a bit but Ollie Ritchie came into the attack in the 17th over and bowled 2 nice over claiming a wick in each as UG moved to 115/7 when their 20 overs was completed. So, a good win for the Eagles – but it came at quite a cost with Dylan and Tommy Clout colliding in the outfield and Tommy off to hospital with a nasty cut above his eye and suspected concussion. Dylan received a deep nick to his face. Also in the wars Larry Vimukthi also received a knee injury fielding and Matt’s troublesome Achillies was not 100% - upshot those four would be unavailable for Saturday.
So, it was a reel struggle getting 11 players for the Saturday fixture against top of the table Taieri. In true Albion fashion the lads from Albion Kilda put the Club ahead of themselves and agreed to default their morning T20 match so three players (Mark Sommerville, Chris Morris & Shaun Wheeler) could play for the Eagles and a further two (Devin Stapley & Andy Arnold) turned out for the Turkeys. Also, for the Eagles we had two further players who were carrying injuries put on the kit – Paddy Arnold with a side strain and Assistant Coach Kurt Johnstone with a bad back (amongst other issues!!). We also managed to talk Josh Cuttance into playing his first match of the season - so many thanks to these players that then allowed both the Eagles & Turkey’s to get teams on the park.
After winning the toss skipper Taylor Cumberland decided the Eagles would have a bat with Chris Morris joining Jack Soal at the top of the order – Morrie looked good until he momentarily overbalanced and the keeper whipped the bails off for a stumping. Jack made a patient 15 but we were struggling at 38/4 at the end of 9 overs. Mark came to the crease and was joined by Josh – Somers looked good as he moved to 17, but was undone as he smashed one back at the bowler who somehow hung onto it. Josh made a solid 12 and then at the end Ollie Ritche made 20 as we moved to a below par final score of 100/9 off our 20 overs.
Just after Taieri started their innings the rain came and we were off for about 40 minutes before conditions allows the game to resume and Taieri had an adjusted score of 52 off 9 overs. Whilst josh took a wicket with Shaun taking a catch behind the wicket, we had no answer to the other opener as he smashed 35 off 17 balls to give Taieri a pretty comfortable victory.
The Turkeys came up against CDK Tuskers out at Sunnyvale of all places. After losing the toss the Turkey’s found themselves having a bat and after losing an early wicket Binu Antony and Jeremy Smallridge had moved the score to 58 when Jeremy was out for 11. Nathan Sims joined Binu as they tried to get things moving and at 86 Binu was dismissed for a run a ball 46. Unfortunately 5 runs later Nathan was out for 19 (off just 13 balls). Devin Stapley tried to keep things going as he reached 12 at better than a run a ball, but the lads could not really get things moving fast enough and at the end of their 20 overs the score sat at 120/8.
In reply CDK got off to a solid start before Luke Ritchie claimed the first wicket with the score at 32 and it was another 40 runs before Navi Singh claimed the second. With the CDK score at 100 Binu continued his good match claiming two quick wickets. But it was not enough as CDK cruised to a six wicket victory in the 15th over.
The Turkey’s afternoon game against GI was abandoned without a ball being bowled.
The Kilda had been defaulted to by Taieri for their afternoon game and as mentioned above they defaulted their morning game to GI to help out the other teams.
Well believe it or not that is the first half of the season finished – the Eagles resume playing declaration cricket on the 18th. The Turkeys resume with a Thursday T20 on the 23rd of January & Kilda are back into their competition on 25th. However, The Kilda boys will be taking a trip up the motorway to Glenavy on the 18th to play the “pre-season” game which was abandoned back in October.
I hope everyone has a merry Christmas and a good New Years – stay safe.