By Editor in Cricket on 3rd Feb 2010 8:50
On Tuesday 26th January after the ritual morning dip in the warm waters off Casey, the station partook in a BBQ lunch in preparation for the annual Twenty20 cricket match.
After some team juggling, where a few disappeared into the distance on skis, the two teams were sorted out. We had the Prime Minister's 13 (PM13) V the Anzacs. The day was shaping up to be a glorious feast of bowling and slogging. With the initial dramas of finding the correct pitch to bowl on (the groundsmen had forgotten to bring in the heavy roller on some of the pitch areas) the pitch was laid and the batting orders announced. After the toss of a coin, the PM13 took their positions in front of the fiery Anzacs.
|
The PM13 got off to a solid start and the opening pair put on a steady number of runs with the loss of minimal wickets. The innings was growing into a very respectable score until some tight bowling and poor batting saw the score plummet from 60 to 40 in the space of two overs. Credit had to be given to the PM13 though as they increased their score back to a respectable 69 runs at the end of their innings. I guess one of the telling features in the innings was the unruly and disgusting display of the "Streaker" (Capt Underpants), who thought it would be fun to come in and disrupt the high class match that was underway. Now I know that the streaker is a standard part of any cricket match, but hey, a bit of decorum could have been shown. He stormed in, disrupted the concentration of the batters and bowler and was then forcibly removed by our own Father Bob the Umpire.
|
|
The Anzacs got their team sorted into a strong batting line-up and took to the field in preparation for a decent run chase. The PM13 did however, have a plan in place to knock these gutsy Anzacs off their perches. The field was set and in a first, never-before-seen field placing, all but two fielders were placed on the onside of the field. The bowling was brought in to match the field placements and the first batting pair was restricted to a low score. The next Anzacs came in and had to face the "Chukka" Ken, who bought back memories of Muri and his infamous bowling antics.
|
|
The batters took advantage of this bowling technique and quickly lost a few wickets. Well ok - the batting team didn't take too much advantage of the situation. All credit to Chukka as he showed that you don't have to be a top class bowler to take wickets, and take them he did, four of them to be exact. We also saw the first hat trick of wickets for the day, with some brilliant bowling and fielding by Major Matt and Mr Hollywood himself.
After this slight hiccup the Anzacs, got themselves back on track to surpass the score by one run on the last ball of the day to win the match and then retire to the shed for a well-earned cold one and post-mortem (gloat). All in all the performances were commendable.
Man of the Match was a hard one to chose, but the lucky recipient was "chukka" Ken, with four wickets and a superb fielding display, which helped the team to a great win. A commendable mention to Vicki for her outfield antics, the fantastic desperation attempt at a catch by Lyn in the outfield was impressive considering she was sitting down and had to hop - and I mean hop up - to catch the ball, and some excellent work by Bundy Bear, who stopped some fours from being scored.
For More on the Australian Antarctic Division at Casey Station head to www.aad.gov.au
