A brilliant Iain Taylor century was not enough to steer the OTP Chargers to victory against Papatoetoe yesterday, with a combination of poor bowling and catching, outstanding batting and some fairly insidious umpiring tactics conspiring against the popular Auckland one day side.
The Chargers turned up bright and early at Cornwall, relishing one of their rare opportunities to play on the hallowed turf of #2. Papatoetoe turned up in a variety of multi-coloured attire, but no problem – their whites were probably stashed neatly away in their gear bags.
Well, no, as it turned out.
Their opening bowler was a gorgeous sight in a fetching black wife-beater singlet and black pants, their second change bowler set the fashion world on its ear with an avant garde combination of jeans and a plaid polo, some other guy roamed the field in an eye-catching red hoodie, Ravi elected to go with the random shorts and t-shirt motif for the day and not even the captain could be bothered donning full whites for the match. By my count, there were just three Papatoetoe players in full whites. It was a uniform crime of epic proportions and a justifiably disgusted Cornwall Chairman wasted no time in lodging a complaint with the ACA.
Jim Dawson, with the captaincy axe, as usual, looming inexorably over his head, lost the toss and the Chargers were sent in. Bede Haliburton and Dawson opened up and negotiated some accurate bowling from Sonu and Jordan, with both bowlers keeping tight lines and extracting considerable seam movement early on.
Having seen off the opening bowlers, Dawson, who has clearly not been a good boy this year, was crossed off Santa’s present list when the jolly bearded fellow nicked him out. Haliburton, who took a record 26 balls to get off the mark, and Steve Martin saw the Chargers through to drinks with the score at 69-1. A score of 180+ was targeted, with the pitch expected to get lower and slower as the afternoon progressed.
Haliburton departed in the second over after drinks for a gritty 39 and was followed two balls later by Steve Martin.
Papatoetoe probably thought they were about to get right amongst it with those two quick wickets, and they were right. They were about to get amongst the lovely scenery surrounding the picturesque Cornwall ground.
Iain Taylor played arguably the innings of the season, starting slowly (at just a run-a-ball for his first thirty balls), before moving into second gear. His fifty came in 38 balls and he surmised that the time was right to kick it up into the gear known as ‘Bruiser gear’. Dan Chambers and Sean McWilliams provided valuable support as Taylor, who was last week labelled a ‘fat ogre’ by an opposition player, started to sink his fangs into a wilting Papatoetoe attack.
Watching Taylor bat when he is playing well is one of the most enjoyable sights you could hope to see on a cricket field. And he was playing well too, boundary after boundary coming through proper cricket shots, the ball kept on the ground much of the time (except when he decided to hit sixes, of which there were three). Poor old Ravi even had to embark on a 3km jog to retrieve a ball Taylor had nonchalantly dispatched through square leg and everyone at the ground nodded approvingly at his clever choice of attire. Chalk one up for the shorts and t-shirt.
Seventeen balls after he reached fifty, Taylor reached a hundred. Yes, that’s right. Seventeen balls. Want to know how it went? Like this: • 4 1 4 4 6 1 2 4 1 1 4 2 4 4 3 6. And no, the scorer didn’t forget to write in the other dot balls. There was just the one. It was a blistering onslaught that rocketed the OTP score through to an impressive 264-7, with a staggering 133 runs coming in the last ten overs, 106 of those coming in the last six.
After looking at one stage that they might barely break 200, it was a brilliant effort to get up to 264 and the team was in a confident mood at the break.
This confidence seemed justified after Graham McCartain cleaned out Rubel and Pardeep in the same over to have Papatoetoe reeling at 11-2, 265 looking a long, long way off.
And that was the end of the good news for the Chargers.
Ravi and Iftikhar feasted on some impotent OTP bowling and fielding in the next 27 overs, easily overhauling the OTP total with a mammoth ten overs still remaining in the game. The Chargers didn’t help themselves in a number of ways, most notably bowling, catching and keeping their composure, but nothing can be taken away from the Papatoetoe batsmen. They batted superbly and their devastating aggression simply could not be contained by anything the Chargers tried.
Sadly, the game soured at around the tenth over mark as the little chap umpiring at square leg got into Laurie McIntosh’s ear as they both watched a ball soar over their heads to the boundary. The insidious provocation got exactly the reaction the umpire was looking for, with McIntosh losing his cool in the most uncoolest of ways. Dawson intervened and banished McIntosh to the aptly-named ‘naughty hill’ to think about his behaviour, before the insidious little umpire again inflamed the situation by yelling out to McIntosh, now out of earshot anyway, that he ‘did not want to be his friend’. This spiteful suggestion was met with fire from the assistant to the Club Captain’s secretary, McWilliams, who proffered the thought that maybe the umpire should ‘play nice’ and offer to hold hands with McIntosh at the end of the game to make up for getting him in trouble. McWilliams was instantly banished to the ‘naughty net’ for the remainder of the game to think about how he might more effectively approach his next confrontation with evil.
The whole incident was a total disgrace and it was downright embarrassing that the Premier game on number one was halted while these unsightly proceedings were going on. Papatoetoe is not the most unpopular side in the grade for nothing and, quite frankly, it was smurfing annoying that the Chargers were not a bit smarter when dealing with their insidious tactics. (I know, I know, it’s about the fifth time I’ve used the word ‘insidious’, but a) I really like it and b) it totally summed up that particular umpire’s perfidious approach to the game.)
The heads dropped after the ‘incident’ and, combined with Taylor injuring himself and being rendered unable to bowl after 1.1 rapid overs, the result of the match was a foregone conclusion a long way from the finish.
Papatoetoe still had time to not give a clear run out, but it didn’t really matter by then. Dawson had already been informed by the opposition captain partway through the Papatoetoe innings that there were now ‘no lbws’, so the avenues of dismissal were becoming scarcer by the minute anyway. At one point, a half-hearted appeal went up for ‘being a fleshy beef oven’, but it was quickly withdrawn when a quick glance at the rule book indicated that it was not, in fact, a mode of dismissal. It was merely a way of being.
It was a sombre Chargers outfit that gathered at the end of the day’s play, knowing that they had not only been outplayed, but also outsmarted by the opposition. Thinking hats will need to be planted firmly on heads for the next month if the Chargers are to devise a way of climbing out of the hole of ill form they now find themselves in.
Oh, and can someone tell Laurie he can come off the naughty hill now? _________________
Last edited by Mr_Booze on Mon Feb 22, 2010 7:12 am; edited 1 time in total
Joined: Oct 31, 2006 Posts: 283 Location: Waihi Beach, NZ
Posted: Mon Feb 22, 2010 6:38 pm Post subject:
Hard luck lads, sounds like a typical game against those pack of meat massagers. Just keep in mind the feeling of saturday and let it strengthen the resolve for next time. They may have won a small battle , but as we all know , the war is yet to be decided.
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