August 27th, Lions U19 vs AQCC U19
By
Following their morning defeat by Sano, could a very dejected and very hot Lions team overcome their disappointment and the 35 degree heat to win their afternoon match against the Alpha Quashers?
The Quashers won the toss and elected to bowl. For this game the Lions used Kaede and Stefan as the opening pair - the strategy worked well at first with no loss for the first 4 overs and a steady progression in the score until Stefan was bowled by A. Anil in the 5th over after scoring 10 runs. Stefan was followed by Taiga and when Kaede was then run out shortly after Timmy came on to recreate the opening pair of the mornings game - would the result be better this time? Over the next 3 overs 16 runs were scored off the bat, until Timmy was run out in the 9th over. Luke replaced Timmy and looked to build a partnership with Taiga, however after getting off to a good start he was bowled in the 15th over. Nitin then stepped up to the crease and managed to stay in with Taiga until the end of the innings - Taiga heartbreakingly reaching 49 not out on the last ball of the innings. The Lions had scored a total of 113 - would it be enough?
The first over of the second innings couldn`t have started better with Timmy bowling A. Ayoobi on the first ball. Timmy and Nitin bowled well for the first four overs, however the wicket on the first ball was the only one until the 7th over when Eric took the 2nd wicket. At this point AQCC only had 28 runs, but the lack of wickets was starting to frustrate the Lions and give the Quashers some confidence. The battle continued with few wickets falling and a nervous Lions starting to give away extras my trying too hard for wickets. As the game went into the 20th over AQCC needed 5 runs to win the game - could the Lions do it? Timmy was the bowler for the last over with R. Ayoobi and J. Kaswan at the crease....after a steady run of singles the match was tied on the 5th ball of the over...one ball to go, could the Lions force a draw? Alas, R. Ayoobi hit a brilliant 4 and the Lions were defeated for the second time in a day - however this defeat was after a spirited fight and the players took a big lesson from both the match and the day.
Stats: Highest scoring batsman : Taiga (49), best batting strike rate : Timmy (111), most wickets : Eric, Kaede, Nitin & Timmy (1 each), best bowling economy : Timmy (2.8).
Player of the Match: N/A
Team: Eric Harrison, Kaede Sommer, Luke Sloman, Nitin Chathrapathi Saravanakumar, Nived Namibar, Stefan Keet, Taiga Hague (Wicket Keeper), Timothy Moore (Captain), Vijay An.
