The Rollercoaster Season - Punjab Action Cricket - Autumn 2011
The Punjabs have always been a force to be reckoned with at the Silver Lakes Action Cricket Arena... even if it was in the lower echelons of the leagues. We started playing in 2007 and haven’t missed a season yet. A while back Wichard and I counted more than 60 players that have played for the Punjabs in the team’s illustrious history. We have also won a number of gold, silver and bronze medals in the past, admittedly none of these in the recent past. In the beginning of 2011 the Punjabs once again entered for a season that ran through the autumn of this year. This was another mildly successful, yet unsatisfying, season which saw us finish 4th in our league.
The season kicked off on low note with a loss against the DCC. I missed out on the game due to illness. The game was characterised by shocking fielding by the entire team but someone had to bear the brunt of the blame... a burden that fell square on the shoulders of Wichard. He received a tongue lashing that left him so traumatised he nearly drowned at the Midmar Mile that weekend. The following week saw us come up against Hillbrow Afval and things looked better from the word go. Our fielding improved dramatically and some level headed batting saw us pull this one through. Brannigan with figures of 4 /-1 and I, with 4/1, did some damage with the ball; restricting the opposition to a mere 83 runs in their allotted 16 overs. Kalla and Wichard spearheaded the batting attack with 31 and 29 respectively. The Punjabs finished with the total on 146.
The third game of the season was against “Next time” and saw another emphatic win by the Punjabs. After restricting the opposition to a mere 66 the Punjabs demolished their bowling attack and finished with 132 runs on the board. Great fielding and bowling being the order of the day while a good batting skin by Nick and Manoj saw the Punjabs getting the upper hand early in the innings.
This was the point during the season where I had the crash with my bike and had to miss out for two weeks due to the stitches in my knee. This week we played a double header which meant two opportunities to keep the season on track and jolt the Punjabs to the top of the log. Things didn’t go quite the way we had planned and some dismal performances in the field made for an uninspiring cricket week. Gerald was quoted as saying “With that bowling and fielding we could’ve lost the game against the paraplegic team in the ZZ17 category”. This was the same week where Erno took a blinder of a catch just to drop the ultimate sitter in the following over. The first game went the way of “Nog net enetjie” outscoring the Punjabs by 30 runs. The second game saw the Punjabs come up at the wrong end of a nail biter losing with two runs against The Cooks. The highlight of the night being the 50 partnership between Erno and Kalla.
In game 6 of the season the Punjabs took on “Nog net enetjie” again and returned to winning ways with an emphatic victory by 32 runs. A massive turn-around in the way the Punjabs fielded swung the game in their favour and some conservative, yet positive, batting sealed it for them. This gave the team some confidence for the remainder of the season. However, the confidence flailed and floundered the next week when we played against “Next time” once again. A team that was well beaten in the first round of matches came back to seize their revenge on the Punjab team. After an early loss of concentration with the bat we managed to scrape together 78 runs. It seemed as if the level headed batting of the previous weeks decided to take a leave of absence... again. Next time made early inroads scoring 42 of the first skin and 35 of the second leaving them only 1 run short at the halfway mark of their innings. Some sharp fielding and pin point bowling saw the Punjabs pull the game back by leaving Next time 3 runs short with one batting pair to come. Some sensible batting by the final batting pair of the opposition saw them pass the Punjab total and end up on 98 runs after their allotted 16 overs. Still, a decent performance by the Punjabs considering that 3 stand in players had to be used to fill the team.
Like any class outfit should, the Punjabs know how to pick themselves up after a bad run of form as was evident in game 7 against the Porn Flakes. We batted first scoring 174, made possible by half century partnerships by Erno and Kalla as well as Wichard and Anton. B00bs and I came close with a 46 run partnership. The Punjabs couldn’t have asked for a better start with the ball with Nick taking 2 wickets with the first 2 balls of the innings. Nick received great support from Manoj the following over as he kept a tight line to bog down the Porn Flakes opening pair. The game saw Nick, Kalla and Anton take two wickets in two balls, unfortunately none able to convert for the elusive hat-trick. The Punjabs restricted the Porn Flakes to a total of 98 runs; a 76 run victory being the order of the day.
The rollercoaster of a season continued with a slumping defeat at the hands of the Champions the next week. What made it worse was that the Champions did not even have a full complement of players. Some wayward bowling and sloppy fielding ultimately costing the team dearly. It was evident that we had not seen the end of the rollercoaster when the team returned to the action cricket arena after a well deserved break over Easter. The runs were flowing as the Punjabs took on the The Cooks. Partnerships by Manoj and Brannigan of 49, Anton and Quinton of 51 and Erno and Kalla of 66 muscled the Punjabs to a total of 183. The Cooks were restricted to 85 as the Punjabs powered to an emphatic win.
In keeping with the inconsistency that the team has shown throughout the season the following week was again nothing special with the Punjabs slumping to a 20 run defeat by the hands of Nog net enetjie. True to form the Punjabs again lifted their game the following week to beat Next time with 24 runs. Wichard and Gerald with a partnership of 47 runs put the game beyond reach for the opposition while Manoj’s stint of 3/2 with the ball earlier played a big part in restricting Next time to only 104 runs. The game was also characterised by some fiery pace bowling from Erno and Wichard in the final skin.
The round robin games of the league culminated with the Punjabs ending 3rd on the log behind the Champions and Nog net enetjie in second and first respectively. The team was now faced with a Prelim game against Next time, who ended 4th on the log, for a place in the Gold medal semi-final. We fielded first and almost let the game slip early on as Next time had already 60 runs on the board by the end of the 8th over. The Punjabs promptly applied the brakes and conceded less than 20 runs in the next 8 overs. Some good bowling by myself, with figures of 2/4, Brannigan, with 2/3, and Anton with some pin point swing bowling swung the tide in the Punjabs favour by restricting Next time to a total of 78. Brannigan and I opened the batting and laid a good foundation by scoring 48 runs in our allotted 4 overs. After a dismal season with the bat I had at last made some runs, 31 of them, even though lady luck seemed to be the main contributor. The Punjabs finished on a total of 124 runs which was more than enough to see us through to the Gold medal semi-final.
The Gold semi-final was a hard fought battle against the clinical outfit of Nog net enetjie. The Punjabs again fielded first in an attempt to repeat the recipe that worked so well in the prelim. Things didn’t go quite as smoothly as in the prelim and some solid batting by Nog net enetjie saw them tally up 124 runs. Again, Brannigan and I started off our batting attack and laid a decent foundation of 31 runs in the first 4 overs. Unfortunately that remained our best skin for the rest of the game as the Punjabs were relegated out of the gold medal running. It was a dejected Punjab team that came of the park but the dustbin next to the field emerged as the biggest loser. Luckily the team’s hopes of taking home some silverware were still alive as the Bronze medal final now loomed for the next week.
Hou by die Blou,
DnA
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