Quins cricket firsts pleased with away draw against Hillary-Malvern
The introduction of a solitary spinner relatively early proved successful, with right wrist spinner Dieter Liebenberg taking four wickets for 18 runs in 10 overs.
FOR almost six months, superb weather has prevailed, albeit overly dry and windy in September especially, with lawn on fields displaying some degree of drying.
However precisely as it was last season, the first round of official league cricket was met with dank, drizzly conditions, as the first of the real spring rains took place.
Quins Cricket Club’s first team met Hillary-Malvern’s firsts in a challenge league stream one encounter at Peace Park on Sunday, 21 September. All lawn on the park was under duress from the preceding drought conditions.
Peace Park’s wicket, usually quick with lots of bounce and carry, was grossly under-prepared like most other municipal facilities, due to inherent inadequacies of the local parks service utility, with dangerous large cracks over sections of the wicket surface. Hillary Malvern accrued a competitive tally of 233 runs in 42,1 of their 50-over allocation, with most of their seam bowlers taking a little tap on the quick outfield.
Opening bowler Abdur rehman was most economical of all the pace bowlers, not capturing a wicket, but conceding a tidy run rate of just 3,5 runs per over in his continuous spell of 10 overs. Fast bowler Kevin Kettle was wayward in his first spell but came back dynamically in his second to take four wickets for 60 runs in seven overs. All seamers struggled, even with full spikes on damp but not saturate bully, especially on the delivery stride.
The introduction of a solitary spinner relatively early proved successful, with right wrist spinner Dieter Liebenberg taking four wickets for 18 runs in 10 overs. Fielding conditions were trying and difficult, with an irregular surface due to rugby activities during the winter and a wet ball, which all cricketers know tends to have soapy characteritics after prolonged exposure to moisture. The opposition captain spitefully refused to allow Quins to change the ball for a dryer one. Ultimately weak umpiring by the allocated officials also did not assist Quins in their endeavour to change the wet ball.
Ultimately its the umpire’s decision to amend balls, but their decline seems to have been influenced by the opposition captain’s negative antics.
Nevertheless with a good ball velocity across the outfield looming, Quins players were aspirant of chasing down their set target, but the decision to place a middle order batsman and tail-ender in the top three in an attempt to bust up the gleam and integrity of the new ball, did not work in Quins’ favour. They lost three wickets in the first four overs with the score on 22 runs. However a sparking partnership of 56 runs in just nine overs by Tyrelle Smith and Sean Edward swung the momentum back into Quins’ favour while the bouts of drizzle became more regular and the clouds dropped even lower. Play was temporarily suspended with Quins way ahead of the run rate, needing just six more overs to constitute a match. Tyrelle scored 16 and Sean was one and a half strokes away from his half century at the time with 42 runs. Covers were placed over the wicket for rain protection, but were withdrawn after an intermission of half an hour. During the withdrawal process, some water spewed onto the outfield, which was soon absorbed beneath the surface soil. At this stage the officials reassessed the target and over allocations due to time lost and Quins needed to get onto the park to receive one delivery to win the encounter. However the opposition captain unsportingly objected and weak officiating by the umpires saw the match being abandoned.
Close scrutiny of the outfield 20 minutes after the covers were withdrawn revealed that the extra water had dissipated sufficiently to allow play to continue as it was not substantially worse than the bowlers’ run up area and the rest of the outfield. Quins will submit a report on the decline of the ball change request and the decision to abandone the match, which ultimately would not have seen any change in the outcome of the game, which in all fairness was a draw. Both teams accrue two points out of the game but for Quins it was quite a pleasing reward, as it was an away match.
The third side took on Silver Saints first team in a 30 over division one match at Harlequins one on Sunday afternoon. Brett Williams top scored with 18 undefeated runs, Darren Bonsor managed 11 and Warren Torguis achieved eight runs, when drizzle climaxed at 2.15pm, resulting in this long-awaited match being abandoned, with Quins on 43 for the loss of two wickets.
