The benefits of alcohol
Uyanwatta Stadium, Matara, Sri Lanka, 2/28/2016
Queensland & Sports Club won by 2 wickets
Strongroom: 156 [M.Nicholson 70]
Queensland & Sports Club: 157-8 [Shahain 42, J.Rahman 5-24]
View the Scorecard
As we gathered for breakfast in Katie’s Hideaway, it soon became apparent that a couple of our party were absent - suffering from a big night out on the Mirissa beach strip. Mitch and Tim were eventually scraped from their rooms and dragged onto the tour bus, and both fell asleep on the changing room floor once we arrived in Matara. It was difficult to look into Mitch’s bloodshot eyes at the breakfast table as he sat there giggling, and Tim seemed to have lost the ability to speak. Being two of our younger squad members, and two of the previous day’s better performers on the field (as well as the dance floor), there was some concern about how their state would affect team performance (without justification - they put in two of the tour’s greatest performances - see below). In addition, Dave P had to miss out, due to a recurring achilles injury (somewhat exacerbated by dancing to German techno for several hours), so Jon G was appointed skipper, and won the toss (after suggesting to Nafeez that it was in everyone’s interest that we bat first - as all of us were still in a blur from the roasting we received in Colombo 24 hours earlier). Although again very hot, thankfully a stiff breeze held up for most of the day that just about prevented any casualties.
Mitch, remarkably, converted his giggly, sleepless hangover into a stupendous innings (70), as he dispatched the bowlers all around the park. After battling early on against some quality bowling (spin, especially) his touch was sublime, his hands quick to deposit anything just short or too full in length to the boundary with ruthless precision. However, everyone else (bar Joe, 20), failed to cope with the high-quality spin, and we meekly succumbed to 155 all out (Tim picking up another not out). The finger and wrist spin skills of Shahain, Mohammed and Nafeez were simply too much for us, our batsmen mostly rooted to the crease - whereas Mitch took on the spinners through nimble footwork, fearlessly advanced down the track, or sweeping. Joe looked in good touch, and his innings featured a tremendous straight 6, which he heftily punted down the ground off the back foot.
Lunch was re-structured, and greatly simplified from the day before in Colombo - bananas, oranges and water. Lots of water.
Queensland & Sports Club featured five of the players from yesterday’s game in Colombo, and although there was no Bashith, we knew their line-up would be strong. We opened the bowling with Joe, which turned out to be a highly successful move (as well as allowing Tim even more time to recover). Joe (5-24) performed as well as he has ever bowled, slotting into a beautiful rhythm, and achieving some beguiling drift from the cross-wind. He was well supported in the field, including a Jimmy stumping, and two catches from Jon G at deep long-off. Queensland & Sports Club were aggressive but rash in their approach towards Joe’s slower pace (much slower than the opposition’s spinners), and as wickets tumbled we knew we were in the game as they seemed to get the jitters chasing. However, Joe needed a partner to maintain the pressure, and this came, surprisingly, from a deeply hungover Tim Moore, who produced a quite brilliant and heroic spell of swing bowling. If anything, Tim’s hangover aided him in achieving a Zen-like focus, as he bowled within himself for 8 consecutive overs, and in particular troubled the left-handers repeatedly.
At stages, we were really in this game, but Shahain (42) ultimately proved to be the thorn in our side, and was clearly a good batsman lurking in the lower order. Eventually he was well snaffled by Mitch right on the mid-wicket boundary, off a tempting Hutchcroft delivery - but it proved too late and Binara and Shilaka dug in to see the home side through to victory. We fielded as a team unit with great character throughout, and with another 50 runs or one more bowler to apply Joe- or Tim-like pressure we might have pinched this. Considering the battering we took in Colombo, this was a hugely enjoyable and mightily heartening performance (at least in the field).
The umpires were again excellent. Several of us learned that we should probably play ICC rules for limited overs - it’s a no ball if you have more than 5 fielders on the on side. Free hits for no balls were a feature of the tour that was new to many of us - one that several of us also liked. Our opponents generally wanted us to play with 30-yard fielding restrictions, but we managed to avoid that, saying it was too complicated for us to get our heat-addled minds around...
Written By: The Brothers Gower
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