Match Reviews for the Spring 2005 Season |
The ∞ Nukes vs. Bloukaas: 25 Oct 2005 (written by Martin Sage) |
The Team: Martin, Turbo, Erik, Steve, Michael, Wimpie, Pieter, Frank |
A second shot at the bronze medal was awarded due to some form of dedication deficiency on the opposing team's behalf. A late game was arranged and The Infinites pulled in some extra resources from The Atomics (Erik and Steve) and Kywalkers teams (Martin and Turbo). Nukes went in to bat first with Martin and Turbo struggling slightly after a couple of X-Rays beamed the bails off to yield a slow Reactor Start-up of 15. Erik and Steve stepped in to bat and reached criticality very quickly, smacking up a record breaking 72! (42 and 30 respectively), leaving the Wolfies howling like abused squirrels. Afraid to approach the pitch again, they were stamped down for another solid 44 runs in the third skin by Wimpie and Michael. Piet and Frank could only add another 2 runs in the fourth skin as the X-ray machines buzzed back into operation with a number of tight run-outs.
It seemed the X-rays could see pretty well through the Nukes' bowling in the first skin, putting on a healthy 26. They'd have to seriously break some more bones though, to beat our total of 133. The radiation therapy was dished out to the X-rayers a little better in the second skin, limiting runs to only 18. Looking really grim at this point, they brought on their third skin. Tight bowling from Steve and Wimpie (each taking 1 for 3 in their overs), with the skin totalling 23. Great bowling in the fourth by Erik (2/-2) and Wimpie (3/-6) only permitted another 2 runs, final score 69, Nukes winning by 64 runs. Phenomenal batting by Erik with 42 runs. |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Soupaheroes: 23 Oct 2005 (written by Steve Aaron) |
The Team: Steve, Michael, Wimpie, Sarel, Heinrich, Philip, Gerhard, Dirk |
The Atomics faced arch rivals the Soupaheroes in the D1 League Gold Finals. With the Soupas having lost only 1 game this season (to us!) they were always going to be strong but not invincible. We went in to bat first. Michael and Steve started well with 13 after only 4 balls and then a couple of hits by Steve fell victim to the Soupas incredible catching abilities and the skin was cut short on 19. Wim and Sarel had a similar knock with a few superhuman catches limiting them to only 18. The Soupas turned on the heat in the third skin and we could only Marvel at some brilliant backhanded runouts which vaporised the usually solid Phillip and Heinrich. They added 7. Despite another 4 catches, Dirk and Gerhard offered a glimmer of hope with a tidy 26. The Atomics put up a Smallville total of only 70 and started asking around for some Kryptonite. There was little action in the Atomics fielding session with the Soupaheroes looking Unbreakable, ticking over the score and hitting the odd big 6, taking all the skins and passing our score after only 10 overs. They opened up in the last skin to finish on 121 and the Atomics had to settle for the Silver medal. The best Batman was Gerhard, the only batsman over 10 with a tidy 16, and best bowling figures belonged to Steve with 3 wickets for a Fantastic 4 runs. The Man of the Match on Contribution was Steve with 5 being the only positive net score. Without sour grapes we have to congratulate some Superheroes including Captain Ringer on backstop and his sidekicks, the SuperLeague of Extraordinary Gentlemen, for their performances. It seems the only Superhero missing was the Spiderman… |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Smiffs: 23 Oct 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Team: Martin, Ryan, Michael, Carel, Rob, Turbo, Steve, Stefan |
Sunday saw the finals of the Spring 2005 action cricket season at the Centurion Bull Ring. Our well known enemies of late, Mufassa's Pride, had won their E5 Green Gold Final in the morning and at 13h00 it was our turn against the Smiffs in a fight for the Bronze. We won the toss and decided to let the Smiffs set the target that we would respond to. We were well motivated and started well, taking 4 wickets in the first two overs. Always welcome to unsettle the opponents. They did recover, ending their skin on 28, but the tone was set. We had some very solid fielding in the back by Steve and Michael, helping to frustrate the batters. None of their shots reached the back net, they only managed a lot of singles. They ended on 23 runs for their second skin, but then our bowling and fielding really kicked in. The first over in the third skin was bowled by Steve and his second, third and fourth balls all resulted in run-outs, taking 5 runs back from their score. Carel also stepped in, taking another 2 wickets and a further run from their score. Ryan and Martin kept it tight and the third skin resulted in zero additional runs. That put a lot of pressure on their final skin, who managed to keep the board ticking, but didn't add more than 29 against Steve, Ryan, Michael and Stefan. Their innings ended on 80, which should be an easily reachable target for our batters. Ryan and Martin stepped in and were initially also strugling, just as the Smiffs did. They also recovered well, taking 15 runs in their last over and ended on a well batted 26. Michael and Carel took over, progressing steadily and keeping track of the Smiffs score, ending on 24. The total score a single run behind on 50. Now Rob and Turbo needed to keep their heads together and capitalise on the runless Smiffs skin. They obviously learned from their lapse of communication in the previous game because they only lost 1 wicket and steadily accumulated a further 28 runs. That took all the pressure off Steve and Stefan who only needed 2 runs to win. Well, you know Steve and Stefan, and although this time they never displayed any spectacular fireworks, the runs came flooding in and with overs of 5, 10, 10 and 15 runs they made sure that that bronze medal would be ours, winning with 38 runs!! Thanks to all who played for the Nukes Kywalkers for a glorious end to this sometimes difficult season. Do you guys realise that this is the first time that a new Nukes team takes a medal in their first season? Well done guys!!! Man of the Match goes to Carel with a solid 16 runs batting and a brilliant 4/-2 bowling. |
The ∞ Nukes vs. Bloukaas: 18 Oct 2005 (written by XXX) |
The Team: Warren, Reshendren, Pieter, Frank, Dugald, Chris, Schalk , Wimpie |
Under Construction... |
The ∞ Nukes vs. Wolfram X-Rays: 11 Oct 2005 (written by Pieter Viljoen) |
The Team: Warren, Reshendren, Pieter, Michael, Schalk, Dugald, Stefan, Frank |
Under Construction... |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Soupaheroes: 11 Oct 2005 (written by Sarel Coetzee) |
The Team: Erik, Steve, Carel, Sarel, Philip, Heinrich, Gerhard, Dirk |
The Atomic Nukes squared off against Soupaheroes in the D1 semi-finals. The Atomic Nukes were the first to bat and Erik and Steve faced the first skin. After a slow start they punished the bowling in the fourth over with 19 runs ending the skin on 28. Sarel and Carel were the second pair and added 15 runs mostly through 1s and 2s. Philip and Heinrich kept the scoreboard ticking to add another 22 runs while only losing 1 wicket. With some aggressive batting, Dirk ensured that he and Gerhard added 28 runs to end the Nukes scorecard on 93. While changing sides, the Nukes realised that this score is defendable, but not comfortable. After a good talk by Cappy, the bowling and fielding got off to a disciplined start. After the second skin the Soupaheroes were still very much in with a shot at the game, trailing the Nukes score by only 6 runs. The third skin made all the difference, with the batsmen losing a total of 6 wickets and adding only 13 runs to the total. This left the final skin with the formidable task of hitting 43 runs for the win. They did their best, but accurate bowling and tight fielding proved to be the fly in their soup. The Nukes managed to win by 9 runs and secured a place in the D1 final. Man of the match goes to Dirk with 21 runs and bowling figures of 2/7, a run contribution of 14. |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Mufassa's Pride: 11 Oct 2005 (written by Ryan Froude) |
The Team: Martin, Ryan, Carel, Johan, Rob, Turbo, Steve, Stefan |
Mufassa went out to bat first and began terribly with 14 in the first skin with good overs by Turbo and Johan V. The next skin struggled initially, but came back with a good last over to take the score up to 48. The third skin was smashed for 45 and the last for 56, finishing their innings on 149. Pick of the bowlers were Steve and Ryan with 2/8 and 2/12 respectively. In much the same way as Mufassa, the Skywalkers got off to an awful start with -5 in the first over. Martin and Ryan then pulled themselves together and took the first skin with 23. Carel and Johan were consistent with 20, leaving us 5 runs behind at the end of 8 overs. Rob and Johan scored well in their skin with 25, but because Mufassa's 3rd partnership had gone ballistic we ended up 25 runs behind at the end of 12 overs. Steve and Stefan had no chance of catching up and the Skywalkers ended with 104. 104 is a defendable total, we are giving away way too much in the field and bowling (44 extras!). Boys, lets practice next week and focus on fielding and bowling. Man of the Match was Steve with a net contribution of +14. |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Soupaheroes: 4 Oct 2005 (written by Philip le Roux) |
The Team: Erik, Steve, Heinrich, Philip, Michael, Martin, Dirk, Frank |
So it goes…. One of our star players sacrificing himself to the limit by playing three games in a row and the getting hit for a six by a girl... This was a fair reflection of a bit of an off-beat performance by The Atomic Nukes. Batting first, Erik smacked a hefty 31 and with Steve, made 44 for the first skin creating momentum that was maintained as Sage scored an impressive 21 as a stand-in player. Despite our regular captain's absence, doing what he thinks he does best on honeymoon, the last skin also ended strong, putting the Nukes on 125. Soupaheroes however took it in the first skin… 50 runs. The second skin pulled it back a bit by adding only 19 runs, but 40 and 32 for the final two skins sealed the game. Nothing spectacular to report from our fielding or bowling, except maybe Erik who got 3 wickets for 2 runs. Net run contribution of 29, duh, of course he was Man of the Match! But the evening will be remembered for a story resembling very much to the goat lover story. A young man goes and scores 32 runs in the previous game, takes many wickets and does some fine keeping, but do they call him the magnificent batter…? No. Maybe the great wicket keeper…? No. But let just one girl smack him for a six... |
The Atomic Nukes vs. CSA: 4 Oct 2005 (written by Heinrich Stander) |
The Team: Erik, Steve, Heinrich, Philip, Pieter, Wimpie, Dirk, Schalk |
Under Construction... |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Mufassa's Pride: 4 Oct 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Team: Johan L, Rob, Cobus, Thinus, Steve, Stefan, Ryan, Martin |
This is the return match from our previous encounter with Mufassa's Pride, a game that we won without too many hassles so we were quite confident. Mufassa and his gang opened the batting and we were prepared, or so we thought... When Mufassa's first batters showed up, they weren't the killers of last match that were sent in, but rather the elders. They could also hit a ball, so we still had to be on the lookout. Thinus took the first over bowling, but things didn't work out well for him as he immediately hurt his knee again. Not withstanding the pain he had, his bowling remained accurate as ever. Turbo, Steve and Rob finished the skin, with only an opposing score of 25. If the second and third skins would have their weaker batters again, we would be in the pounding seats! Well, unluckily for us, the cubs grew up and our bowlers were torn apart with skin totals of 34 and 46 respectively! The final skin with the dangerous batters again (but everything is relative now) added another 38 runs against our best bowlers. That meant a total of 143 runs, meaning that the chance would be good that our bowling and fielding wouldn't have been good enough to face the pride of a lion looking for revenge. Rob and Turbo stepped in to bat and were able to score 22 runs. Thinus and Cobus batted the second skin and Thinus had to learn quickly how to bat with a runner and not run himself after hitting the ball. There were quite some amusing misunderstandings but the most hilarious reactions came from the confused pride, not being able to take real advantage of some obvious run-out possibilities (the thought springs to mind that it might be a good idea to use a runner every now and again, just for strategic reasons, but no... that wouldn't be cricket ;-) It didn't matter anyway. The total after the second skin was on 39 and even sending Steve and Stefan in for the third skin, so that they could perhaps whack us back in the game didn't help. They did whack, 46 runs even, but that still put a required total from Ryan and Martin of 62 runs, which would be impossible to achieve under pressure. They tried hard but the Pride's bowlers had the upper hand and in the end we were 46 runs short. Ah well, there will be a next time... Mufassa and Pride, be on your lookout! Man of the match: Steve with a massive 27 runs batted and 17 / 1 bowled. |
The ∞ Nukes vs. CRH: 4 Oct 2005 (written by Dugald Smith) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Reshendren, Philip, Schalk, Michael, Frank, Piet |
The ∞ Nukes took on the challenge of bowling first against the CRH team, after losing an earlier game that night by 27 runs. With the expertise of Phillip for this game, Phillip, Michael and Schalk bowled exceptionally well, eventually restricting CRH to a total of 100 runs. The ∞ Nukes started off well, having accumulated 65 runs after 8 overs , but then the CRH's bowling tactics changed leaving The ∞ Nukes with 39 runs for a win. Piet and Frank lived up to the challenge, requiring 3 runs from the last 3 balls. First a run-out, then adding 3 to the score again... still on 98 runs... 2 runs for a tie and 3 runs for a win... had to go for the runs and unfortunately got a run-out. Still had a good game – maybe next time! Man of the Match: Michael, batting score of 28 and bowling figures of 5 for 0. Net run contribution +28. |
The ∞ Nukes vs. Bloukaas: 4 Oct 2005 (written by Chris Marais) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Reshendren, Stefan, Schalk, Michael, Frank, Piet |
In the absence of dad Warren and with the help of Stefan the Infinites took on the tasteless Bloukaas team . They went in to bat and came out storming with 60 in the first skin . Tight bowling in the second from Skalla and the rest saw them out with only 8. Helped by a few extras their innings were held to a stinking 129 . We needed firm batting throughout .The 1st skin gave us 37 for the loss of only 1 wicket . The scene was set but their smelly bowling and fielding kept us at 35 for the next 2 skins. The last one offered us 30, but 102 was not what we wanted…not this time around. We really hope to see these suckers again …. We need to spread them all over the pitch! Chris again the Man of the Match in a losing game with a net run contribution of 9. (23 and 1 /14) |
The ∞ Nukes vs. Wolfram X-Rays: 29 Sept 2005 (written by Warren King) |
The Team: Chris, Dugald, Reshendren, Warren, Heinrich, Johan L, Pieter, Frank |
Piet had a bad toss (probably used the wrong hand) and so the Wolfram X-Rays were the first to bat. We whipped the first skin with Johan (aka Turbo) getting three wickets for minus six in the first over and the skin ending on 9 runs. We kept the pressure on and managed to restrict the second Wolfram batting pair to 20 runs. At this point spirits were high and we were clearly dominating the game. The third Wolfram skin, with some solid batting on their side and less than good fielding on ours, took the total to 79 runs. Wolfram ended with 116 on the board - which seemed to be an obtainable goal.
The ∞ Nukes fell apart in the batting - we were solidly whipped and ended with a total of 59 - barely half of score of the opposition. Man of the Match goes to Johan Liebenberg with a net contribution of 16 (with special mention of his exceptional bowling figures, of five wickets for minus 3). |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. KWV: 27 Sept 2005 (written by Johan Visagie) |
The Team: Dirk, Johan V, Rob, Ryan, Pieter, Johan L, Carel, Warren |
KWV won the toss and sent us in to bat. Ryan and Carel started off good but could not seem to get going due to some impressive bowling by KWV. After their contribution of 10 runs we knew that we needed to focus. Next up was Warren and Johan V, but the excellent bowling continued and they lost 3 wickets in their first over, in the end contributing the most runs for our team, a useful 21 runs. Johan L and Rob went in shouldering a big responsibility for lifting our score as well as our spirits. After their second over it looked a little better but then KWV's bowling stepped up again and they finished with a 15 run contribution. With our score looking hopeless we urged Piet and Dirk to reach deep for much needed runs. They batted steadily in the first 3 overs and reaching 80 runs seemed feasible, but KWV wasn't going to let us off that easy and raked in 4 wickets in their last over. We finished the innings on a dismal 65 runs.
The Kywalkers went in to field facing a confident KWV. Carel opened the bowling and looked good with 1 wicket for 5 runs. In the next two overs we got a some more wickets, but then the batsmen got hold of Warren's bowling and took the first skin easily with 42 runs. The second skin was even more ferocious than the first and added 47 runs, we were really down as they had already surpassed our score and were looking unstoppable. Wickets were few and KWV kept on smashing runs. The last 4 overs was demoralising as KWV opened up and ended with a score of 189 ! We lost by 124 runs. Pick of our bowlers were Dirk with 2 wickets for 7 runs and Rob with 2 wickets for 22 runs. Best Batsmen were Warren, Rob and Dirk with 20, 10 and 10 runs each. Man of the Match was Dirk with the only positive net contribution of 3. |
The ∞ Nukes vs.Saxons: 21 Sept 2005 (written by Schalk Albertyn) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Warren , Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Schalk, Pieter |
Another graveyard session, luckily Piet had a “good toss” and we started batting first. The first 2 up was Steve and Chris who put up a very good 42. Steve and Chris both hit a 7 followed by a couple of 4's. One over even went for 24. Next was the “runners”, Michael and Schalk. They could not really contribute very much with Michael scoring 4 and Schalk 9. Their running ability didn't work very well! Johan and Warren followed and kept the scoreboard ticking. They struggled with the first over but got back pretty well to end their skin on 22, Warren scored 13 and Johan 9. After the third skin the scoreboard was on 77. Piet and Frank had to at least take us to 100 to get a defendable score. They had a solid batting performance and ended on 103, both scoring 13 runs. The score was defendable but only if we were to bowl really tight and not let go of too many extras. In the first skin the bowling went very well with Schalk scoring a hat trick (bowling figures of 4/-7) in the last over which sent the first batting pair back with only 14 runs on the board. The second pair come on the make up some ground and hit two 7's but luckily Warren's over (2/-1) helped to bring their runs down. Steve and Michael had great overs in the third skin, Steve (3/-4) and Michael (3/-5), with Michael scoring a hat trick as well. The third pair only got 11 runs and had to go off with a total of 53 on the scoreboard. The fourth pair had to make 50 runs which is quite a difficult target. Frank and Piet's bowling went for a ride when they started hitting 7's and 4's all over the show… With a well deserving batting performance they ended on 108 and marginally beat us with 5 runs. Steve's batting of 26 and bowling spell of 4/6 wins him the MAN OF THE MATCH. This was probably our strongest competition but we will make sure to take up our swords and shields next time we play the Saxons. |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Rawalpindi Express: 20 Sept 2005 (written by Gerhard vd Merwe) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Steve, Sarel, Michael, Gerhard, Dirk |
Our opponents won the toss and elected to bat first. They got off to a flying start and scored 39 runs in the first skin. The second skin kicked off at an even more alarming rate when they smashed 22 runs from the first over, something rarely seen from Warne's bowling. The skin never lost momentum and ended up on 54, total on 93, with the thought of chasing more than 150 becoming frighteningly realistic. Then all of a sudden we were back on the court and a good comeback from Warney and Dirk restricted the skin to 24. Apparently on this night The Atomic Nukes left everything they had for the last skin, and boy did we blow them over. Heinrich started the assault with 1/4, but then Spidervan switched to destructive mode. He started off with a dot ball and followed it up with a brilliant hat-trick, and ended the over with shattering wickets, 4/-10 in the over. Oubaas Dirk followed Spidey's example and knocked over 2/-3. Then Gerhard finished them of with a tight 2/1, derailing the train from 117 at the end of the third skin to only 109 after the fourth. Impressive bowling figures by Dirk (3/-2) and Erik (5/-2). Erik and Steve opened the innings for the Atomics and put up a decent 35, with Erik scoring 25, but unfortunately not enough to clinch the skin. Philip and Heinrich added another 25 runs, but again short of the target for the skin. In stepped Sarel and Michael, and it was indeed a welcome return to form for Sarel. He smashed a roaring 28, top score for the evening and together with Michael put up 38 to secure our first skin. Gerhard and Dirk then posted a steady 27 to take another skin and the game, with the total on 125, victory by 16 runs for The Atomic Nukes. Man of the Match was Erik with a huge net run contribution of 27 runs (25 and 5/-2). |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Qmuzik.com: 20 Sept 2005 (written by Ryan Froude) |
The Team: Steve, Johan V, Martin, Ryan, Stefan, Johan L, Carel, Warren |
The Kywalkers won the toss and elected to bat first. Ryan & Martin started tentatively and then got things rolling with a healthy 38 opening partnership. Bringing on the welcomed return of Stefan, along with Carel putting on 24 with some consistant play. The two Johans formed a new 3rd wicket partnership pushing the total to 82 and a nice 19 for the partnership. Johan Visagie showing some slogger potential in their 1st over, just being denied a 7 by a good catch on the boundary. In walked Warren and Steve who launched some ferocious hits, with Warren smacking two 7s in the first over and Steve knocking a 7 in the 2nd , we were on 108 after 14 overs. But the runs stopped dead and only 2 runs were added in the last two overs, finishing the innings on 110. Qmuzik could not keep pace in the first two skins, ending up 12 runs behind after 8 overs on 51. Great bowling from Warren, 2 runs for 1 wickets, and Martin: -4 for 2 wickets. Qmuzik picked up the pace slightly in the 3rd partnership with 23, taking the 3rd skin, but were still 8 runs behind when the last batting pair entered. Good consistency brought them right up to 105 at the end of the 15 th over. With Martin bowling the last over, the first ball was caught – the Kywalkers were back in the mix! Just 5 off the next 3 balls then a dot ball and we thought we had it. The last ball needed to go for 4 and that it did, a grand finale by the Qmuzik boys. Pick of the batsmen were Steve and Martin with 19 and 20 respectively. Best bowling by Martin 2 runs for 3 wickets and Warren 10 runs for 2 wickets. Man of the Match… Martin with an excellent overall contribution of 18. |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Quad Squad: 13 Sept 2005 (written by Dirk Swart) |
| The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Steve, Sarel, Dugald, Gerhard, Dirk |
The Atomics won the toss and elected to bat first. Erik and Steve opened conservatively until their last over which produced 22 runs to set the first skin target at 37. Phillip and Heinrich kept the pace and put up a score of 30 without getting out once. Thirty runs seems to be the going rate for a skin, therefore Dugald and Sarel produced exactly that. Our last pair also must have scored over 30 runs but fell victims to losing their wickets six times. The last skin was set on a mere 10 runs and the total on 107. The opponents came out with the same game plan and also scored big in their fourth over to take the first skin with 43 runs. Some steady bowling kept their second pair at bay and gave us the skin compared to their 20 runs. The comperative score at this stage was exactly the same but we knew their last pair would probably do better than ours, and we needed to tighten things up. We did just that with some great bowling from Phillip in the 11th over at 3/-5. The skin was ours when they scored only 14 runs. Their big guns needed 26 runs of 24 balls and did pretty well up to the last over, needing 4 runs to win off 6 balls. Cappo did his magic and was unplayable! They scored –2 wich gave us the game and two skins. Well guys that was a bit too close for comfort, but we showed them we have BMT !! Man of the Match: Phillip with 19 runs off the bat & bowling of 5/-3. |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Purple Rain: 13 Sept 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Team: Cobus, Johan V, Martin, Ryan, Rob, Johan L, Michael, Warren |
Straight from the Smiffs game, relaxed from an hour's rest at the bar, we were looking forward to the next game of the evening, against Purple Rain. We felt that if we would keep up the performance levels we had against the Smiffs that we would do well against Purple Rain.
Unfortunately, we couldn't test that theory as the performance we put down was to be ashamed of… We started by batting but didn't manage to put more than 82 on the board, with 18 lost wickets in total. That would become hard to defend! Well, after 2 skins it was impossible to defend, because they already surpassed us, one of their best batsmen being Extra's, who was already over 30. Our motivation dropped, we couldn't take catches or effect run-outs and in the end, the Purple Rain poured to 159, meaning a loss by 77 runs! Although the ump gave us his excuses for some doubtfull decisions afterwards, that wouldn't have had any influence on the outcome of the game. A game to forget as quickly as possible :-(( Man of the Match was the only man with a positive net contribution: Warren, with 12 (batting 21 and 3 / 9) |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Smiffs: 13 Sept 2005 (written by Martin Sage) |
The Team: Cobus, Johan V, Martin, Ryan, Rob, Johan L, Steve, Warren |
Smiffs? What's up with the name? I'm not sure if they've got some form of runny nose, or whether they think they are a mutation of that small community of blue people from our childhood. Anyhow, I guess it could be anything... including some abbreviation for an addiction to a particular brand of vodka.
Nevertheless, the Smiffs' first skin came in to put on a healthy 34, losing only 2 wickets. The next partnership continued the momentum with a heavy 36. Some decent run-outs by Steve and Warren in the next skin limited the 3rd skin to a simple 29. Unfortunately the Smiffs found their true selves as "black"smiffs in the 4th skin, hammering down another 38. Nukes took 4 catches, 2 stumpings and 7 run-outs, with special mention to Johan L (Turbo) bowling 3/10. Nukes in to bat, with Cobus/Visagie falling subject to the Smiffs heckling. This led to a few pandemonium-induced and highly below-the-belt run-outs, giving Nukes a gentle reactor start-up of 16 runs. The next two skins, Martin/Ryan and Turbo/Rob pulled out their light-sabres, radiating scores of 35 and 37 respectively. Last skin Steve/Warren popped on 26 to bring the total to 114, resulting in a loss by 23 runs... smiff smiff :( Steve was our Man-of-the Match, with a net contribution of 10 (batting 26 and 2 / 16). |
The ∞ Nukes vs.CRH: 6 Sept 2005 (written by Reshendren Naidoo) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Warren , Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Schalk, Pieter |
It was long evening for The Infinite Nukes, with us playing two tough games. Our cappy won the toss and we batted first and our first skin went well with Chris and Dugald scoring 36 runs. It must be said that this was some of the fastest bowling we saw this season and CRH started putting on the brakes. Our subsequent innings yielded 21 , 18 an 24 runs respectively. Eventually we managed a respectable score of 92 runs. Our opponents scored well in their first two skins scoring 30 and 36 runs. We fought back well keeping their third skin down to just 7 runs. Unfortunately their last pairing knew what they were doing and consistently hit the 2's and 3's and comfortably racked up a total of 111. Hence the Infinites saw only their second defeat of this season. Man of Match was Chris with 24 runs with bat and 3/3 with the ball. Great stuff Chris!!! |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Gonads: 6 Sept 2005 (written by Steve Aaron) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Steve, Sarel, Dugald, Gerhard, Dirk |
The late session saw The Atomic Nukes come up against old rivals Gonads. Gonads went in to bat first and cruised along comfortably to 55 off the first two skins. Some solid bowling in the third saw them reeling with only 10 runs added and they finished the innings on 91 which seemed a few runs short. There was generally consistent bowling from the Atomics all round with only a couple of extras and some great wickets. The pick of the bowling however was Phillip with exceptional figures of 5 for -7. The new pinch hitting partnership batted first for The Atomic Nukes with Erik again adding the bulk of the runs and Steve supporting, taking the score to 39 after 3. A slight lapse in the 4th over ended the skin on 37. Heinrich and Phillip added a useful 24 and Sarel and newcomer to the Atomics, Carel, had their ups and downs to finish their skin on 15 although the boys came out of their shells and wacked a couple of big shots. With 15 required the game was on but everyone was a little nervous until Gerhard and Dirk punished their third over for a whopping 20 runs. The final score of 115 ensured a straightforward victory by 24 runs. The batting king was Erik with 27 but Man of the Match had to be Phillip with a massive net of 23. Well done guys on another solid Atomics teamwork driven game! |
The ∞ Nukes vs.Castle: 6 Sept 2005 (written by Michael Correia) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Warren , Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Schalk, Pieter |
Under Construction... |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Rawalpindi Express: 30 August 2005 (written by Sarel Coetzee) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Steve, Sarel, Dugald, Gerhard, Dirk |
The Atomic Nukes managed to reach criticality and end their 3-match losing streak by stopping the Rawlpindi Express dead in its tracks. The vibe between the Atomic Nukes players was very well and this contributed to a good all-round performance by everyone. The Atomic Nukes batted first and set a respectable 102-run target, with the scoreboard ticking steadily between skins. The Rawlpindi Express started off quite well and managed to stay within reach up to the third skin, where they were lagging the Atomic Nukes by only 4 runs. The tables were about to turn in the last skin with the Atomic Nukes taking 6 wickets to limit the final score to 81 and securing the victory. In this spell Gerhard managed to put another hat-trick behind his name. During the match, the Atomic Nukes lost 9 wickets compared to taking 17. This proved to be the deciding factor. Man of the Match was a tie between Dirk and Philip with both guys ending with a net contribution of 14 runs. Philip's figures were 12 runs and 2/-2, while Dirk got 14 runs and 3/0. Well done guys! |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs. Mufassa's Pride: 30 August 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Team: Heinrich, Cobus, Warren, Michael, Johan, Rob, Steve, Pieter |
The Nukes Kywalkers took on Mufassa's Pride tonight. The toss was won and we decided to face their batting first. A bit of jungle espionage had already indicated that Mufassa would send in his strongest strikers first to scare his opposition, but they would be followed by some of his cubs, while the elders in the pride would try to get to a respectable score again. The Kywalkers were prepared! We had our strongest bowlers lined up in the first skin, but unfortunately, our fielding wasn't on the same level. The strong strikers did their job for Mufassa and managed to slog to a total of 61. OUCH! Sorry Warren, Heinrich, Steve and Piet, for messing up your bowling statistics... Well, that may not have been according to plan but the following two skins definitely did! Due to some correct line-and-length bowling and brilliant fielding (a straight silly-point catch by Johan, two stumpings and a couple of catches by Michael as wicky and some accurate throws from Heinrich to effect run-outs spring to mind), the cubs only managed to add 9 runs and the elders had to face our strong bowlers again. Well, they did reasonable, adding another 25 to end on a reachable target of 95. Again, don't let the bowling figures lure you into concluding who were our best bowlers! Heinrich and Cobus stepped in to open our batting and they had a good and steady progress to 23 runs, evenly distributed between them. Warren and Michael decided to have some fun with Mufassa's bowlers and slugged 29 and 25 respectively, leaving us a mere one run behind after two skins. Johan and Rob didn't manage a huge contribution to the score, but against a Pride skin of -8, the skin was still easily taken, leaving just 14 runs to be scored in the final skin. We had Steve and Piet as our final sloggers, but for the night, they decided to keep it quiet and steadily progressed to a final score of 101, which meant victory by 6 runs! Man of the Match goes to Michael with 25 runs, bowling figures of 1/6 and some very good catches and stumpings as wicket keeper. |
The ∞ Nukes vs.Blou Kaas: 23 August 2005 (written by Frank Pike) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Warren , Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Schalk, Pieter |
The Infinite Nukes went in to field first. Bloukaas sent in their big guns to open and seriously slapped us around, taking 50 runs off the first skin. For a while there I thought this E3 league we've been moved up to was going to be heavy stuff. However, we recovered well during the second skin, conceding a mere 7 runs. Great work by Schalk, who took 5 wickets (5/-10) in one over, and good support bowling by Michael and Dugald. Some more good bowling and fielding support limited the third batting pair to only 9 runs. Some fine keeping by Michael, who made 3 stumpings during that skin. The last batting pair nailed us again, however, taking 45 runs (23 in extras) off our bowlers, and bringing their tally to 111.
Our turn to bat, and the openers Dugald and Chris made a solid start of 32 runs. The middle order went along steadily, winning both the second and third skins comfortably, at 25 runs apiece. Piet and myself faced the final skin, needing 30 for victory. We had reached 100 by the second last over, needing 12 off the last, but the bowling was too good. 2 lost wickets during the final over kept our score on 100, and we lost by 11. A tight, exciting game that could have gone either way. Better luck next time, guys. Thanks for helping out, Phillip. Man of the match - Dugald Smith for his 23 run nett contribution. |
The Atomic Nukes vs. SARB Men: 23 August 2005 (written by Philip le Roux) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Sarel ,Steve, Gerhard, Dirk |
Ouch, much more is there to say. The new opening pair of Erik and Steve proved to be somewhat successful again, adding a +30 for the opening skin of the game. The usual steady partnership of Philip and Heinrich proved less successful, with Philip for once struggling to make any impression, only scoring 4 runs. Heinrich however proved himself steady as always and kept the board rolling. With Wim out of action for a while with back problems (must be age setting in here!) Schalk and Sarel found that it is not always easy batting with a new partner. Not their most successful outing. By the time Gerhard and Dirk came off we only had 75 on the board.
The Nukes fielding was up and down, up and down and then up and down some more. Simple catches went down with the occasional brilliant catch taken at the back. Their was times that SARB Men could definitely feel the pressure, but defending 75 at this level will usually lose you more games than winning it. Erik, Gerhard and Heinrich all contributed high positive scores to the game, but Heinrich's sheer presence and desire to be Man of the Match gave him the lustrous award. The Atomic Nukes left the game knowing they have to charge their batteries and start performing the way they can again... |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs.KWV: 23 August 2005 (written by Ryan Froude) |
The Team: Ryan, Steve, Carel, Schalk, Johan, Pieter, Warren , Michael |
The Kywalkers opened the batting with Steve in blistering form knocking 30 to take the total to 34 in the 1 st skin. Ryan and Johan added 21, enough to take the 2nd skin. Warren and Michael battled a bit in the 3rd leaving the Kywalkers at 68 after 12 overs. Piet showed his intentions knocking a 7 off his first ball faced and together with Carel finished the innings with 28, leaving KWV to chase 96. KWV got off to a nice start, knocking 40 off the 1st skin, but slowed in the 2nd with good bowling from Michael and Steve to land them just 3 runs ahead. They picked themselves up again in the 3rd and were set for the win. Their last pair tied the game at the end of the 14 th over, but great bowling from Steve and Piet and fielding from the rest saw their victory snatched away in the last 2 overs as they went backwards to end on 91. Steve and Piet stood out as the Men of the Match both with 29 net contributions. |
The ∞ Nukes vs.Greenacre Boys: 16 August 2005 (written by Dugald Smith) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Warren , Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Schalk, Pieter |
The ∞ Nukes had their third game of the season against the Greenacres Boys. Once again we've managed to pull through with another win, thus the third consecutive win for this season... keep it up guys! The ∞ Nukes opened the batting once again with Chris and Dugald, who battled to score runs, but eventually came off with 23 runs. Reshen and Warren battled even more due to even better bowling by the Greenacres Boys – by this time The ∞ Nukes were extremely tensed by the umpire's 5-ball overs during the first two skins and Chris took the initiative in helping the umpire to count, ensuring that we receive 6 balls per over for the remainder of the game. Michael and Schalk quickly rectified matters with very consistent batting, scoring a good 33 runs in their skin. Piet and Frank also faced some severe bowling, but still managed a good 25 runs, therefore ending our score on 80 runs. Not really the defendable score we were hoping for, but we decided to fight back. The first Greenacres Boys batting pair still managed 23 runs, even with good bowling from The ∞ Nukes. With all cylinders firing during the second skin, we managed to reduce their total score to 15 runs (-8 for the skin) with tight bowling from Reshen (3/-7) , Dugald (3/-6) and Schalk (2/-2)... and we knew the game was on! We managed to restrict the Greenacres Boys to 27 runs in their third skin, leaving 38 runs to be scored for a win, but took on the challenge and only allowed them 23 runs, totalling a score of 65. From a mere 80 runs to defend, what a comeback! Well done guys! A 26 run net run contribution gives Man of the Match to Dugald ( 20 runs and bowling 5/–6 ). |
The Atomic Nukes vs. CSA: 16 August 2005 (written by Heinrich Stander) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Michael ,Steve, Gerhard, Dirk |
The Atomic Nukes batted first and had the youngsters under pressure after the two big hitters from The Nukes fired on all cylinders and put up a great first skin with Erik contributing 27. Philip and Heinrich continued their legendary partnership with a steady and solid second skin and Philip contributing 23. Wimpie and Sarel kept the ball rolling in the third skin and Gerhard and Dirk made sure that The Atomic Nukes end on a strong 118 runs with a good and well fought last skin. The skins were as follows: CSA started off well with losing very few wickets in the first skin and added 32 runs to the scoreboard. The Atomic Nukes had a much better day in the field and enforced big pressure on CSA with an energetic and enthusiastic fielding performance. All the bowlers gave that little extra and after the second skin CSA was still 68 runs behind. Wim and Gerhard had the youngsters in a corner after the first two overs of the last skin with very tight bowling and good support from the fielders. CSA required a massive 38 runs with two overs left in the game and The Nukes had the game in the bag. Then lady luck arrived for CSA and everything they touched turned to gold. Three successive sixes in the last over were all they needed and strolled home for a 4 run win. Bowling figures as follows: The Atomic Nukes might have lost the game, but they took a lot of confidence from it with a bit of fire back into the team's performance. Man of the match: Erik for his 27 runs and 1/13 giving him a net run contribution of 14. |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs.Yellow Star Properties: 16 August 2005 (written by Ryan Froude) |
The Team: Ryan, Martin, Wimpie, Thinus, Johan, Rob, Pieter, Michael |
The Kywalkers opened the batting with Warren & Frank battling to keep their wickets and ending up on 16. The CFD boys Carel & Cobus consistently kept the runs ticking over to score 27, pushing the total to 43. A better showing by the 3 rd partnership of Rob & Piet got us to 70. Slogger Steve knocked it around a bit with Ryan rotating the strike to finish-up with an overall target of 101. Unfortunately yellow star's opening partnership got them off to a good start with 32. Their next pair were equally as good with 33 and the total on 65. With the pressure off yellow star cruised to 95 after the 3rd skin and finished up on 117. At least the Kywalkers took the 4th skin. Pick of the bowlers were Rob (only conceding 7) and Frank and Piet (knocked for 10 a piece). Man of the Match goes to Steve with a +10 contribution (22 off the bat and 2/12 with the ball). |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs.Spoon Doctors: 9 August 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Team: Ryan, Martin, Wimpie, Thinus, Johan, Rob, Pieter, Michael |
| The second game of the season was against a new team, the Spoon Doctors. Although we lost the toss, we still we sent in to bat first. As in the first game, Martin and Ryan laid a good platform, scoring 34 runs. Thinus and Wimpie also did well, adding another 23 to get to 57 runs. Again, the third skin didn't have a good scoring rate and trying to push things taking risks didn't help much either. A mere 11 runs were added. Piet and Michael decided that the big hits were called for from the word go but the opposit fielders didn't fall for that, resulting in one run-out, two catches and no addition to the score in the first over. They then decided that a more cautious approach was called for (perhaps playing in their third game for the night also played a role, thanks for the commitment guys!) and in a lower level of intensity, they added another 24 runs to the score, bringing the total to 92. Again, the fielding would be crutial. We started the innings well, restricting the Doctors to 21. First skin in the bag! The second skin brought an even better result, bringing the total to 35. 22 Runs in our advantage! Would something be possible? Again, the third skin proved to be hard, the Spooneys adding 40 runs to their total. Still, we were a mere 7 runs behind on aggregate, so we had to stay sharp in the final skin. Although they drew level with us at the end of the second over of the final skin, Wimpie managed to give away only a single run. With Piet to come, could we do it? First ball...caught, we were one up again!! Unfortunately, the batsmen had their nerves under control and with some safely played singles and side-net balls they took the score to 99, meaning defeat to us by 7 runs. A game with a lot of similarities to our first game, but with a much tighter result. The game could easily have gone either way until the final 2 or 3 balls. To match the similarities, Thinus with a batting score of 19 and bowling figures of 3 wickets for 4 runs was Man of the Match again. Nice going, Thinus! |
The Atomic Nukes vs. Rum Pappa: 9 August 2005 (written by Gerhard vd Merwe) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Sarel, Michael ,Piet, Gerhard, Dirk |
We won the toss and not surprisingly decided to bat first. Philip and Heinrich got us of to a reasonable start by posting 27 for the first skin, with Heinrich contributing a useful 19. Erik and Sarel then stepped up to the crease, but were strangled by a flurry of wickets. The second skin added 7 runs. Piet and Michael did their best to try and get us within striking distance of a respectable score, but only managed to add 21 runs to the total. It was then up to Gerhard and Dirk to secure a defendable score. They managed to add another 30 runs in the last skin to set our opponents a target a 86 for victory. With confidence in our bowling attack The Atomic Nukes set out to defend a below average score. Our hopes were smashed all over the court after the first skin piled up 53 runs. The second and third skins did not go any better, with each skin contributing 45 runs. In the fourth skin Erik, Dirk and Gerhard at last got the better of the batsmen by knocking over seven wickets and securing our only skin (with some help from Philip and the Good Luck Fairy!). Rum Pappa ended their batting campaign on 163, defeating The Atomic Nukes by a huge 78 runs. Some good bowling by Erik (2/7) and Gerhard (3/9) and 19 runs with the bat by Heinrich were some of the rare highlights of the evening. Man of the match went to Erik with a net run contribution of 7, one of only two positive net contributions. |
The ∞ Nukes vs.Vikings: 9 August 2005 (written by Pieter Viljoen) |
The Team: Dugald, Chris, Warren , Reshendren, Michael, Erik, Gerhard, Pieter |
First and foremost it has to be mentioned that we moved up two leagues and are now playing in E4. The Infinite Nukes won the toss (possibly because the captain is single and still pretty quick in the draw) and elected to bat, their first match in the new league. As per usual Dugald and Chris went out with the purpose to build a solid foundation for the rest of the team to build on. Dugald and Chris came off with a 33 run partnership and things could only go forward from here. Warren and Reshen took to the crease and kept the score board ticking by adding another 32 runs to the total. We were now on 65 half way through the innings and were looking to double the score which will give us a very defendable total. Michael and Erik came in for the third skin. They picked up the pace a bit and added another 43 runs to the total. With the total standing at 111, Gerhard and Piet came in to bat only looking to pick up two's to keep the score ticking. The bowling was fairly mediocre and they added another 53 to the total which gave the Infinite Nukes a total of 164. We went in to field feeling pretty confident that we will win this game. Chris opened and finished the bowling in the first skin with Reshen and Dugald to bowl the other two overs. The first pair proved to be the dangerous pair and put 32 on the board. We won the skin by one run with a wicket falling off the last ball of the skin! The second skin was bowled by Warren (2), Michael and Erik. The Vikings only managed to add another 19 to their total and we won another skin. The third skin was bowled by Dugald, Michael, Reshen and Erik. This time they only managed to add another 16 runs to the total and we won the third skin as well. Piet and Gerhard bowled the last skin and the Vikings only managed to add another 7 runs bringing their total to 74. We walked away with full marks in this match and we would like to thank Erik and Gerhard, standing in for Frank and Schalk, for helping us out on short notice. Gerhard is also awarded man of the match for a huge net contribution of 35 runs (28 & 5 / -7). |
The Nukes Kywalkers vs.Tonkers: 2 August 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Team: Ryan, Martin, Carel, Thinus, Johan, Rob, Warren, Michael |
The new season of the Nukes Kywalkers started against old enemies: The Tonkers. We won the toss and to release the pressure from the batsmen, we decided to bat first. Martin and Ryan put down a solid foundation, hitting 36 in the first skin. Thinus and Carel didn't want look as if they wouldn't be able to repeat that, so they did. 36 runs from the second skin and things looked healthy. Rob and Johan struggled a bit in the third skin, but still added another 15. Steve and Warren started cautious in their first over with 4 singles, a 2 and a run-out, but then decided that that didn't suit them and they would rather go for the big stuff. That's taking a bit of a risk, but even with 2 catches they added another 6 runs. Their 3rd over resulted in 18 runs, but the bowler of the 4th over decided to bowl very cautiously and in a flurry of wide and no-balls managed to get 2 wickets costing the Tonkers a mere 8 runs, leaving the Kywalkers on a defendable 116 runs. We knew we would have to be tops in the fielding. The first skin went for 30 and we were not helped by the umpire who had decided that leg-side balls that were hit by the batsmen still added an additional 2 runs to the score. One can say that if only the umpire is consistent it doesn't matter, but evenso it hurts some bowlers more than others. Anyway, she was consistent so we didn't have too much to complain and we had the first skin in the bag. The second skin cost us 32 runs and we had that one in the bag as well. The third skin went for 42 and that was a bit of a contrast with our third skin, leaving us with a mere 12 runs to defend in the final skin of the match. Unfortunately, the fourth Tonker batting pair was not impressed an added another 50 runs to their total, meaning defeat to the Nukes by 37 runs. Man of the match goes to Thinus with excellent bowling figures of 4 wickets for 6 runs and a batting total of 18. Well done Thinus! |
The
∞ Nukes vs.Mobile Ballistic: 2 August 2005 (written by Chris Marais) |
The Team: Chris, Dugald, Reshendren, Warren, Michael, Schalk, Pieter, Frank |
“To ∞ and beyond!” The ∞ Nukes took the bat up and had their first game on 2nd of Aug in the E5 Blue league . With a solid and constant batting performance by all pairs, Mobile Ballistic struggled to find even infinitely small cracks in our batting . We ran them down at an average of 30 per skin (max deviation +6) thanks to Michael and Schalk in the 3rd . The game was on after we lost the first skin by 18 runs . The bowling had to be raised to a higher level. It was a matter of preventing a serious melt down!. The Aces were bowled and the next two skins went for a slow 20 and theBallistics were Nuked with 15 wickets. WOW! In the end we won easily by 34 runs. We applaud man of the match Scalla (NRC 17) as well as a solid team performance! |
The Atomic Nukes vs. That Team: 2 August 2005 (written by Dirk Swart) |
The Team: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Michael ,Steve, Gerhard, Dirk |
This was the first outing of The Atomic Nukes and nogal in D1 League. We were sent in to bat first with Philip and Heinrich opening. They managed a respectable score of 24 for the first skin (a bit below their regular 30+). Erik and Schalk were up next but due to forced circumstances the batting order were cleverly adjusted to set the scene for Steve and Michael. They put the foot down on the accelerator and scored a smashing 37 runs for the second skin. Erik and Schalk followed suit and contributed 33 runs for the next skin. Gerhard and Dirk came in to bat with the score on 94. The opponents replied with some fierce bowling but our boys are used to atoms flying and scored 21 runs for the final skin. A total of 115 runs to defend. That Team's first batting pair came out blasting and scored what was needed to keep their hopes alive, 33, thereby also taking the first skin. The Atomic Nukes displayed some BMT (big match temperament) and pinned the next two pairs down for a mere 16 and 13 runs. The last batting pair came out with a lot of attitude, requiring 53 runs. I guess the attitude was all they had. They ended up way short with a tally of 15 runs and total score of 77. That gave The Atomic Nukes the match and three skins. An outstanding feature of the evening were the disciplined bowling of The Atomic guys with seven of the eight bowlers conceding less than a run a ball. Man of the match was Erik with a net contribution of 19 runs (bat 21, bowling 2/2). |