Northern Boom 127/10, D Croft 5-16, M Fairless 2-19, W Herbert 2-18
Karori Wildcats 129/3, Ollie 54* (39), H Cameron 25 (24)
Author: Rupert Rouch (RAR)
OK let's just get this out of the way, because it's been bothering me all weekend.
On an artificial pitch, after rain all morning, on a day where I've gone into the forest looking for balls more often than your dad in the 80s, and with a ball that is ESSENTIALLY now a ball of soap swollen to the size of a grapefruit, so on THIS day Nando decides that what our attack needs is some spin. A decision that would be wrong even if we were fielding Warne, and we sure as hell aren't fielding any Warne. We're fielding Dan "Sunday-Spinner" Croft, and what's the plan here, Einstein? We're going to tempt the Boom to put up some catches? Because the first five we put down weren't enough? (And the Boom were on about 100-1 after 10 overs).
Well, if Pete's plan was to embarrass us into going to practice more often (and I have to assume it was), then the joke's on him because HOLY CRAP WOULD YOU LOOK AT THIS:
AND THEN OH MY GOD LOOK AT THIS TOO YOU HAVE TO SEE THIS:
So, the Boom scorers obviously gave up counting, but I've done the maths, and Northern Boom lost their last 8 wickets for 25 runs. And Dan Croft took 5 of them. For 16 runs. In fact, during a spell of 21 balls Dan Croft actually took 5 wickets for 8 runs.
Five wickets for eight runs.
And a bunch of other stuff happened too: we ended up taking some catches, Croft's one where he had to jump was probably the best, although there may have been some others, I forget. Will took a couple of good wickets as well (2-18). Ollie hit some runs (54 from 39), and I wrote them down in the scorebook. Tom (12 from 15) looked like he was getting ready to walk before Crofty finally lifted the finger LBW, and Hamish (25 from 24) spent the first half of our chase scoring the runs at one end while Ollie at the other figured out which way the bat went up. Final result: Wildcats by 7 wickets with 4 overs to spare; Wildcats still top of the table.
In other news, apparently that bar-tab we walked out on was for a dozen or more, and so the whole "stay undefeated and we'll wipe it" deal just got a bit more real for some of us. Also, Ollie got fifty and we didn't clap him—sorry about that mate, in the first 3/4 of your innings you were scoring so slowly there didn't seem any point counting, and then in the last 1/4 you were scoring so quickly we couldn’t keep up—so the next time Ollie scores a run we gotta do a standing ovation.
