One Day Competition - President Cardinals vs OBC, Elmwood Park #3, Presidents, 28th February 2015
A children’s author once wrote a book called Where the Wild Things Are. After that whole round the rocks under the bridge shenanigans, it’s likely that subsequent editions will include Elmwood Park.
The theory behind this game against OBC was to win the toss, put them in, roll them for bugger all, deploy Laughts and Wildy for a rinse and repeat of earlier heroics, and home for tea and medals – and the Blackcaps pumping the Aussies.
Which was a grand plan, because even after Ralphie lost the toss, OBC decided to bat. What wasn’t in the plan was dropping at least eight catches. We shelled several before we took the first wicket, and things didn’t really improve throughout OBC’s 40 overs. At one stage, even the local talent was laughing at some efforts, and offered her dog as a replacement. And let’s be honest – chasing her tennis ball would have been about as productive.
It was pretty average by comparison to our stellar effort in the field last week and different opposition would have taken more advantage of the opportunities we provided. While we couldn’t quite do the damage we wanted with the ball. But to take a positive from our effort in the field, apart from trying to take sharp chance with his nuts, Joey proved himself a more than capable keeper.
Ultimately, with OBC anchored by an 89 not out from Hamish Anderson, they posted 209 for five – far more than they should have got, and which we were confident was absolutely nowhere near enough. Matt Loose was the best of the Cardinals bowlers with 3-27 on a dodgy calf muscle in two spells.
Enter Laughton and Wild. How completely sh*t it must be to see those two swaggering in, knowing they pumped you to all corners of the ground last time, and that, apart from former rep Andy Nuttall, you’d bought a second-string line-up to the gunfight. The dynamic duo started as they left off, but this time it was Wildy who got on with it. Laughts went for 25, and once Andy Nuttall was seen off, a very hairy Wildy went, well, wild.
Whispers were that the “once in a lifetime” 400 would have been on again as Wildy’s crash, bang, wallop, biff, bang, kapow gathered momentum. OBC’s body language said it all. Shoulders visibly slumped, the field spread and they resigned themselves to chasing it, or watching it go overhead, retrieving the ball with less and less enthusiasm. Which is fair enough when one of your sixes clears the boundary with ease and finds its way to the other side of the park. Wildy’s nine 6s, seventeen 4s and a rarity in Pressies cricket – a 3 – was again entertaining viewing. He’d knocked up a ton by drinks at 20 overs, and by the time it was all over he’d piled on 154 of the 210 needed, which we did three down.
There were a few ‘partnerships’ along the way, if you can call spectating in the front row at the non-strikers end a partnership. The other batsmen used – Laughton (25), Loose (5), Moore (10 on Saturday – but 50 not out on Sunday) and Phil Walker (4 not out) only contributed 44 of the total between them.
Maybe there was a reason 154 was the winning total in the New Zealand-Aussie game, but Wildy was just as entertaining – and more importantly, after some ‘doubt’ earlier in the week, his innings brings the top three batsmen for the season to within 10 runs of each other.
Man of the Match: Anthony Wild
Check out the scorecard from the game.