Match Reviews for the Winter 2005 Season |
The Nukes vs.Vis & Chips: 24 July 2005 (written by Steve Aaron) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Wimpie ,Steve, Gerhard, Dirk |
The Nukes came off two losses in a row to make it to the Bronze finals against Vis&Chips. We batted first and put together a solid innings. Each of the skins put up around 30 to end of 98 after 3. Erik and Schalk contributed a tidy 40. Unfortunately the last skin got bogged down and we did not drive in the nails. But we came away with a very and defendable 115, a far better performance than the previous two games. From there things went a little pear-shaped with the first skin of Vis & C hips pounding out 42 runs. An attempt to stay the runs in the second skin was unsuccessful and they added another 38. By the end of the 3 rd skin they were just short of our total and although we won the last skin, it was not enough to win the game and we lost by 13 runs. Best batsman on the day was Erik with 25. Best bowler was Dirk with 3/7. Man of the Match was Erik with a contribution of 13. Unlucky game guys, but a respectable end to the season! |
The Nukes vs.Gonads: 19 July 2005 (written by Philip le Roux) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Michael ,Steve, Gerhard, Dirk |
Under Construction.... |
The Nukes II vs. The Scorpions: 19 July 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Nukes: Rob, Johan, Reshendren, Pieter, Michael, Warren, Dugald, Ryan |
The second game of the evening was played against the losers of the first play-off between the Scorpions and the Midway Plumbers. Who would have expected the plumbers to end on top of the league in the first place and then to draw the rabbit out of their hat and beat the Scorpions in a straight confrontation (see previous match report by Ryan!)? But indeed they did and they placed themselves straight as the first finalists in the Gold-final to be joined by the winner of this match. Rob won the toss for a change (probably due to letting the other captain call) and we decided to field first. The Scorpions started their batting very positively with 35 and 32 in the first two skins respectively. Their third skin only managed to add another 17, but their final batting pair had our bowlers for breakfast and added 54, bringing their total to a very challenging 134. The Nukes' turn and Dugald and Ryan stepped on the field determined to show that they were not impressed. They indeed clubbed 39, winning the skin. Reshen and Warren didn't want to stay behind and added another 38, also winning their skin. Although Rob and Johan tried to bat positively while preventing to lose wickets, accurate bowling ensured that the run rate dropped, losing the skin by 2 runs. This left another 42 required by Michael and Piet, something they have shown many times before is within their possibilities. They produced 9 runs from the first over despite one caught flyer to the back net by Michael. They then added another 10 by just playing the side nets. Would it be possible? 23 required from two overs! They decided that a big shot was called for but unfortunately, the Scorpion bowlers didn't share that vision. They lost 3 wickets and 5 runs in the third over, which placed the target beyond reach. The final over proceeded in the same way and in the end we were 31 runs short of the so desired victory (imagine a final against the plumbers!!!) Ah well, we did earn a place in the Bronze final on Sunday. Let's go for that one!! Man of the Match was Reshendren with a net contribution of 8. |
The Nukes vs.CSA: 19 July 2005 (written by Heinrich Stander) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Wimpie ,Steve, Gerhard, Dirk |
Under Construction... |
The Nukes II vs. The Incredibles: 19 July 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Nukes: Rob, Johan, Reshendren, Pieter, Michael, Warren, Dugald, Chris |
The evening started with a game against the youngsters in the league, The Incredibles. The Nukes II were sent in to bat, which didn't start very prosperous. After three skins we were on a mere 65, which even included some very dubious decisions on run-outs in our favour by umpire Tommie, who by times had more interest in his cell phone than in what was going on in the field. The Incredibles politely asked us what we had offered Tommie before the game. Pieter and Michael had their eyes well in during the fourth skin , fortunately, and added another 48 to get to a defendable 113 runs. Tommie still paid more attention to his phone and forgot to add quite a number of runs for no-balls and leg-sides though, p erhaps his way of compensation for the opposition? More probably a lack of concentration. The Incredibles started their batting showing that they are still very susceptible to slow bowling , providing The Nukes with a nice advantage in the run rate after three skins. We were lucky as well, because Tommie went through a quiet period with his phone. The final batting pair wanted to show that what Pieter and Michael could do, they could do better and wacked 52 to win their skin. From their point-of-view too little, too late and The Nukes II obtained their first goal of the night. We knew we had to improve for the second game though, as we bowled 44 extra's in no-balls, leg-sides and wides. Man of the Match was Dugald with an impressive net contribution of 23. |
The Nukes vs.Vis & Chips: 12 July 2005 (written by Gerhard vd Merwe) |
| The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Wimpie ,Steve, Gerhard,Michael |
Our opponents arrived late and in our great generosity we allowed them to start the batting. We started off in super slow motion and our opponents capitalized in the first over from Schalk. Unfortunately for them, that only managed to wake us up and Steve answered in the second over with 2/-1. Heinrich and Erik tidied up the rest of the skin and made sure that it ended on 28. In the second skin our own Warnie did his thing again and together with Michael and another good over from Steve restricted the skin to 20. The start of the third skin ”turned” the tables even more in our favour as Warnie again had the batsmen dancing down the track, only to be stranded in the middle of nowhere with stumps flying past their ears as Gerhard took off the bails. A tight over from Schalk, a slight slip from Heinrich and then a devastating over of 2/-4 by Wimpie kept the skin down to only 10. In the fourth skin Erik, Wimpie and Gerhard made sure wickets fell in each over and conceded only 20 runs for the skin. Good bowling from Gerhard (3/11), Erik (3/10), Wimpie (3/4) and Steve (4/2, season best!) kept the target down to 78, but the master of disaster with the ball was Philip (Warnie) with 5/-2. The Nukes's usual steady opening pair seemed to have taken the evening off and had a bit of trouble to make the score board tick. Philip and Heinrich ended the first skin on 11 and for a brief moment our opponents got some hope. But it soon disappeared as Erik and Schalk stepped onto the pitch. Erik knocked a useful 24, which ended up to be the highest score for the evening, but only just! With 36 between them the skin was in the bag. In the third skin Wimpie and Steve continued to promote their steady stature and put up 34 runs and another skin for the The Nukes. They also knocked off the required target of 78 when the total stood on 81 at the completion of their skin. This left Gerhard and Michael only with the task of not loosing a wicket, but what's the fun in that? Instead, they not only managed not to loose a single wicket, but also added another 40 runs while they were at it. Gerhard contributed 23 of these and left the total on 121 at the end of the game. Victory and three skins for The Nukes. A lot of useful contributions with the bat and even more with the ball, but Man of the Match goes to Steve with 18 of the bat and 4/2 with the ball for a net contribution of 16 runs. |
The Nukes vs. Gonads: 5 July 2005 (written by Dirk Swart) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Wimpie |
The Nukes started bowling for a change and it might be said we did a very good job. The Gonads first batting pair looked very strong but was restricted to only 25 runs. Their second pair got a “skrik” and barely made 15 runs – due to steady bowling and some brilliant fielding. The third pair struggled even more due to our commitment in the field and scored only 11 runs. Their last batting pair were very solid and managed to put up a skin of 30 with only one "three" being scored. Gonads set target = 81. Our relayable openers ( Philip & Hein) set us of to a good start with 28 runs and the first skin. The second pair (Erik & Schalk) started off with a good opening over only to get tricked in the second. They fought back slowly and managed to bring the total to 39 – almost halfway! Wim & Steve started their innings against Gonads' top bowler and lost a bit of self belief from then on. They contributed 14 and still managed to take the skin. We were left with 29 to get for a win. Gerhard and Dirk stuck to their plan and got to 74 with four balls left. – The big shot was on!! - Gerhard received a fullish delivery and went for the back net. Their back fielder took a most needed match saving catch. Our boys fell short of the target with a score of 21 for the last skin, meaning we lost by 7 runs. Overall, it was a great competitive match which was played in a good spirit. Man of the Match goes to “Steady Eddie” (Heinrich) with figures of 6/-10 bowling and batting +9. A net contribution of 19. WE WILL BE BACK ! |
The Nukes II vs. Midway Plumbing: 5 July 2005 (written by Ryan Froude) |
The Nukes: Rob, Johan, Steve, Pieter, Michael, Ryan, Dugald, Chris |
The Midway plumbers arrived looking eager to clean some radioactive pipes. Opening the batting they knocked a mediocre 18 in the first skin and then got nuked in the second skin, scoring a pathetic -4. After the second partnership was dragged off the pitch with serious radiation sickness from 4 run-outs and 5 catches (good fielding Nukes), the third pair added 29. The final skin contributed 27 to leave them with a gettable total of 70. Special mention should be made of the great catching upfront by Rob and Johan, aggressive wicket keeping by Michael and best bowling figures by Rob. Enter Steve Slogger Aaron!!! Steve broke some pipes, smashed toilets and was generally a plumbers nightmare as he went on to score 45 in the first skin which took The Nukes II to 66 with 12 overs to go. Rob and Johan fought hard for the second skin, leaving the plumbers a glimmer of hope of washing The Nukes II away. But, Dugald and Chris finished the job with 37, leaving Michael and Pieter to manage the fall-out finishing the innings with a 131 total.
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The Nukes II vs. AWOL Men: 1 July 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Nukes: Rob, Johan, Chris, Pieter, Michael, Ryan, Frank, Warren |
Friday night saw a strongly motivated Nukes II team pitch up against the AWOL Men. After losing the toss (what's new), we were sent in to bat. We started with a strong batting pair to lay a solid foundation and Warren and Ryan certainly made a good job of that!! 46 for the first skin provided us with a platform that enabled us to keep our tails high in the air for the rest of the match. Frank and Chris added another solid 32 in the second skin and at the end of the innings we had a very defendable 119 on the board.
In our fielding effort we had Michael as wicket keeper, spurring the whole team on to provide our best. All the bowlers did a decent job making it hard for the AWOL-ers to strike the ball, enabling Mike to get his first two stumpings as a wicket keeper. 34 Extra's indicate that a considerable improvement should still be on the cards given sufficient bowling practice, though. Pieter proved the point by bowling 2/4 without giving away any extra's. In the end, the AWOL guys were sent on extended leave, with a victory in all 4 skins to the Nukes. Man of the Match was Warren with a net contribution of 22, with special mentions to Chris and Ryan for contributions of 15 and 10 respectively. Man of the match goes to Warren for scoring 29 runs with the bat and getting 1/7 with the ball for a net contribution of 22 runs. |
The Nukes vs. Vis & Chips: 28 June 2005 (written by Wimpie van Rooyen) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Wimpie |
The Nukes batting set the stage for victory against Vis & Chips. In one of the highest scores the Nukes have made recently, contributions were made by all batting pairs in a total of 163. Philip and Heinrich started with their normal solid performance in the first skin and made 35. Philip contributed 24 and Heinrich 11. It must be said that this was after Philip changed the score card again, basically a weekly occurrance. This solid foundation (and some practise outside the nets) was the perfect oppertunity for Schalk and Erik to flourish. Erik pummeled four sevens and a five for the innings high score of 35. Schalk didn't just rotate the strike but added a well played 20 to give the pair a partnership of 55. Stepping up to the plate, Steve and Wim added 37, 23 and 14 respectively. Steve is quickly learning from some other players and has perfected the art of stealing the bowling each over. The last skin added 36 with Gerhard and Dirk really living up to the word partnership with each adding 18. Dirk surprised us all with his ability to steal quick runs with Gerhard - four in their skin. With the danger of being complacent with such a good score, the Nukes were fired up to keep the oppenents score below 80 - the captain made sure of this. Wickets fell regularly in the first skin, especially during Shane's bowling - the umpire was not sure if the batsmen were stumped or runout, so far had he advanced passed the ball. Some other good catches and runouts ensured that eight wickets fell and the skin ended on 22. In the next skin Shane really tweaked the ball and took 4/-7 to end with figures of 7/-3. Further good fielding and restrictive bowling kept the batsmen under pressure ensuring a low contribution of 18 for the skin. The batsmen in the third skin tried to hit out, but were restricted to singles and a good over from Wim taking 3/-6. The skin ended with a contribution of 16, leaving the opposition on 55. In the final skin the Nukes experienced a lack of concentration, maybe knowing the game was in the bag. The batsmen managed to hit a few big ones, helping to reach a score of 47 and a grand total of 102. Erik had a good performance in the field, taking some fast catches and ensuring runouts. Steve took a screamer of a catch as well, lucky otherwise he might have required dental procedures. A special mention must go to Schalk as well, who tried to take a very difficult catch low down at the base of the net, resulting in blood being spilt for the team. Man of the Match goes to Philip for a net contribution of 27 and his best bowling figures. |
The Nukes II vs. The Scorpions: 21 June 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Nukes: Rob, Johan, Chris, Pieter, Juan, Dugald, Frank, Warren |
The toss was customarily lost and we were sent in to bat. Scoring proceeded at a moderate pace, with 20, 19 and 18 from the first 3 skins respectively. This put a lot of pressure on the fourth skin, who tried to go for the big shots from the word go. That was not working on the night, resulting in 8 wickets falling and a mere addition of 3 runs to the score at the end of the skin.
60 Runs were always going to be very hard to defend, but it must be said that we started of with an excellent job there. Bowling and fielding were both outstanding and at the end of the 3rd Scorpions batting skin, we even had 8 runs in the bag. Would something be possible? Unfortunately, it was not going to happen as the final Scorpions pair came out blazing and already had 21 runs at the end of their first over, with the skin ending on 47, securing victory for the Scorpions by 31 runs. Although the end result doesn't reflect it, it was still a game that we all enjoyed a lot, providing a good reason to go into deep discussions at the bar afterward! Man of the Match went to Rob Bollen for a net contribution of 13 runs. |
The Nukes vs. SARB Men: 21 June 2005 (written by Steve Aaron) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Dugald |
A chilly winter's evening saw the Nukes win one of their best games of the season. The batting was consistent throughout with each skin putting up around 25 which was the agreed target. Gerhard and Dirk, thanks to the solid foundation set by the other 3 skins were able to open up a bit and knocked the opposition for 37 taking the required score to 116. The SARB guys were by not going to be put down and the first skin came out firing. They were caught first ball but continued to smash everything. The guys had the back had their hands full. Literally! However, our bowling did well to limit them and then it all came together. 4 great catches in the last 2 overs put that skin on the back foot with only 22. The second skin was more consistent and took the total to just ahead of ours at 51. Then came the great collapse. Thanks to some brilliant fielding by all, the third skin only came away with 20. The fielding pressure increased enough to form diamonds and some great bowling, particularly from Gerhard with figures of 5 for -6 in the last skin, saw that skin finish with only 13. Our fielding was extremely tight including Dirk making some
surface-to-air missile catches at 3 metres look easy! We gave away less |
The Nukes vs. Usual Suspects: 14 June 2005 (written by Philip le Roux) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Wimpie |
They came, the saw and they were conquered. A decent can of whoop ass was all the Usual Suspects had to show for their commitment and good fielding effort!
Batting first, The Nukes got off to a so-so start with the first skin finishing on 21. The next two skins proved to be more productive, adding 31 and 29, with Steve in the latter not scared to go for the back of the net. Not always succeeding, but providing entertainment for the spectators! At the end of the innings, 97 on the board did not seem too bad at all, but we knew we had to keep the pressure up from the first ball. Not bad bowling by the opponents, although they had some butter fingers at times. The game ended for the Suspects when they started batting. They felt the pressure immediately as -3 was on the board at the end of the first over. They recovered somewhat, but The Nukes never let the pressure slip. Scoring 20 for the first skin and 22 for the next, almost gave our opponents hope, but 16 runs added for the final 2 skins say it all. Great bowling by Gerhard, Dirk and Wim at the end killed all victory aspirations for the Suspects, who's batting was the only thing rather suspect on the evening. Couple of positive contributions with Dirk slotting +6, Philip +7, Erik a massive +19 (welcome back!) and Gerhard +7. Man of the match goes to Erik for a net contribution of 19 runs (22 runs with the bat and 2/3 with the ball). |
The Nukes II vs. Playas: 14 June 2005 (written by Juan le Roex) |
The Nukes: Rob, Arnold, Chris, Etienne, Juan, Dugald, Frank, Warren |
Under Construction... |
The Nukes II vs. The Incredibles: 10 June 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Nukes: Rob, Arnold, Chris, Thinus, Johan, Steve, Frank, Warren |
The Nukes II had their second game of the week on Friday night against the Incredibles. This is one of the bigger suppliers of this season’s Gauteng North-Under 17 action cricket team, so we were on our guard! The Nukes II saw the return of Arnold and the debut of Chris. Welcome (back) guys, we are looking forward to a whole lot more games with you! As usual, Rob lost the toss and we were sent in to bat first. Rob and Arnold opened. Although not losing too many wickets (one each), the scoring rate wasn’t something to write home about either and we ended on 18 runs for the first skin. Frank and Chris came in second, adding a very respectable 33 to the score. Thinus and Johan added another 15 runs, while Steve and Warren produced an impressive 49 in the final skin, which we really needed to get to a defendable total of 115. The game was on! The first Incredible batting pair came on the field and Chris opened the bowling, which he did quick and accurately, supported by a very good fielding job of the whole team and the first over ended on 1 wicket for 3 runs. Arnold took the second over and did an equally impressive job, taking 2 wickets and 2 runs back from the batsmen. That broke their spirit and Rob and Warren finished the job, leaving the Incredibles without any points after the first skin. Their second batting pair came in over-cautious, which didn’t make them too productive. The Nukes managed to keep the ball from the nets and especially Arnold was his lightning quick self in the field again. The batsmen were only able to get the score to 12 at the end of the skin. The third pair came in in a hopeless situation and they clearly had their minds on the sevens. That initially resulted in some big shots, but with the Nukes in the mood that they were in, also in a lot of catches and run-outs. In their last over, they resorted to stealing runs, in which, it must be said, they were quite successful. Steve suffered with 5 stolen runs in his over, 12 runs in total. The final batting pair really got their eye in and progressed with a solid batting performance against some of our best bowling from Thinus, Frank (2x) and Steve, adding 28 runs to get the final score of the Incredibles on 64, meaning victory to the Nukes by 51 runs. It was just like Steve said: “One can only dream of a fielding effort like this. Balls off the net, every catch taken, every run-out secured (except in my overs…)”
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The Nukes vs. Gonads: 7 June 2005 (written by Heinrich Stander) |
| The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Wimpie |
Gonads batted first and made a hard fought 91 runs. All the bowlers contributed with tight bowling with Dirk as the pick of the bowers. Bowling figures as follows: Philip and Heinrich started off well for The Nukes but the last over of the skin were very tight and unnecessary mistakes all contributed to zero runs being added in the last over. Erik and Schalk faced tough bowling but managed to keep the scoreboard ticking. Wimpie and Steve came in with still a long way to go but a solid 20 runs from steve's bat made things much easier for the last two. Thanks to a good 25 from Dirk the last skin pulled it threw to give The Nukes victory by 11 runs. The skins were as follows: Philip/Heinrich – 28 Erik/Schalk – 10 Wimpie/Steve – 26 Gerhard/Dirk – 38 Man of the match: Dirk for his 25 runs and 4/0 giving him a net run contribution of 25. |
The Nukes II vs. Gecko's: 7 June 2005 (written by Warren King) |
The Nukes: Rob, Warren, Dugald, Thinus, Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Pieter |
The Nukes II new batting strategy paid off with us posting a healthy score. Reshendren being the big hitter of the night with 24 runs including 2 sixes. The other batting pairs were consistent in getting runs. The runs were as follows:
Although we lost the match our performance was a big improvement. Reshendren was the man of the match with a net contrib of 9 runs. |
The Nukes vs. Dudes: 31 May 2005 (written by Gerhard van der Merwe) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Wimpie |
The Nukes initially won the toss, but our favorite umpire judged that the coin was disturbed, and therefore had to be re-spun. This time we lost the toss and we were sent in to bat…which we would have chosen anyway. The steady wets (Philip & Heinrich) gave us a solid start by putting up 45 runs for the first skin, with Philip posting the highest score of the evening of 29. Erik and Schalk faced some tight bowling and ended with an even tighter run out call…Erik given out at the non-strikers end moments after his octopus arm cleared the line. Wimpie and Steve drove the score past the 100 mark with Wimpie contributing a useful 21 of their 37 run partnership. The last skin, in the form of Gerhard and Dirk, added another 23, piling up a sizable total of 128 runs. Schalk got the bowling attack of to a good start with 1/3 in the first over. From there it slipped slightly to a total of 36 for the first skin, but thanks to our huge first partnership, the skin was in the bag. Steve, Philip, Schalk and Erik then turned on the screws and restricted the second skin to only 12 runs, with Erik claiming 3 wickets in the fourth over thanks to a good catch off the inside edge by Gerhard and two consecutive run outs two balls later. Another skin in the bag. The third skin hobbled along steadily, but with 29 runs, just fell short and The Nukes claimed another skin. In the fourth skin Wimpie, Dirk and Gerhard tied our opponents down and made sure they were never going to get close to the target. The Dudes ended up with 97 runs, giving The Nukes victory by 31 runs. Gerhard turned in some good figures of 3/5, but Erik was the peak of the bowlers with 3/2. Net run contributions of 8 by Erik and 9 by Gerhard, but man of the match went to Philip with a net run contribution of 10. Victory and all four skins to The Nukes, making it a clean sweep for the evening. |
The Nukes II vs. Tonkers: 31 May 2005 (written by Frank Pike) |
The Nukes: Rob, Warren, Dugald, Thinus, Reshendren, Michael, Frank, Pieter |
In my humble but honest opinion, a dismal performance against a team that we
really should have clobbered. Poor batting against some really mediocre bowling
left us with only 53 runs to defend, a difficult task under any circumstances. Only
two batters, Rob and Warren (17 each), were able to make any meaningful
contributions to our tally.
Tonkers then sent in their better batters first, getting their tally up to 29 off the
first four overs, leaving us to defend 24 off the remaining twelve. Our fielding
shifted into a higher gear for a while, and we held them back a bit, but inevitably
succumbed in the end. We just did not make enough runs to give ourselves a
fighting chance. Once our total was passed, it really became a matter of going Man of the Match - Rob Bollen, for his net contribution of +4. Well batted, Rob! |
The Nukes vs. Active 8: 24 May 2005 (written by Erik van der Linde) |
| The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Michael |
Active 8 won the toss and was adament about batting first. We kept the first skin under control by only conceding 24 runs. Gerhard took an easy stumping of Philip's bowling. They could not break loose in the second skin either, as we kept them to 26. In the third skin, Schalk almost got a hat trick. First Steve took a blinder of a catch (that ball travelled at Mach 2.759!), then Erik got another one high off the side net, but unfortunately the catch that would have completed the hat trick just would not stick in Michael's hand. The third skin left with the score on 77. We felt that we could keep them below 100 and that we achieved reasonably easy. Four solid overs from our side produced only 14 runs for the last skin. Gerhard took another stumping off Erik and Dirk completely fooled and bowled one batsmen with a slower ball. We had to chase down 91. The batting started off well with Philip and Heinrich just getting the skin with 25 runs. Erik and Schalk had a tough time of it though, only contributing 10 runs in four overs, which put the next two skins under pressure a bit. Steve however, felt he could do something about the pressure and duly smashed 27 runs, including two sixes and a four. That saved our bacon, as the last skin only required 19 for victory. Gerhard and Michael krept at an agonisingly slow pace towards the vistory target. We needed 7 off the last over, which we got in five balls, meaning that Gerhard only had to block the last ball. We try to learn from past experiences: Michael stood way back behind the non-striker's crease as Gerhard showed the full face of the bat to the ball, screamed at Michael not to move (which he didn't!) and we won the game by the smallest possible margin of victory! Man of the Match goes to Steve for scoring 27 with the bat and bowling figures of 3 / 17, which gives him a net contribution of 10 runs. Way to go Steve! |
The Nukes II vs. CSA A: 24 May 2005 (written by Dugald Smith) |
The Nukes: Rob, Johan, Dugald, Ettiene, Martin, Warren, Frank, Steve |
The Nukes II took on the challenge of batting first against the youngsters of the CSA Team A. Rob & Johan got off to a slow start with 11 runs from the first skin, but then some good batting by Warren (22 runs) to score 23 runs in the second skin with Juan. Although facing some tight bowling, Frank & Etienne managed to add another 20 runs to the score in the third skin. With only 54 on the board, Steve & Dugald hoped for some big scoring but could only manage to add 25 runs to the score due to the speed bowlers, totaling 79 on the scoreboard – just ask Steve… definitely the fastest bowling we've come across so far. Well, it appeared that the CSA Team A assessed the situation very wisely by playing simple shots against the nets all through the game and then also winning all four skins, scoring 117 runs. But by losing with 38 runs, is it essential to emphasize that we need to focus more on restricting the extras – we have conceded 18 extras, giving away 36 runs. Man of the Match: Dugald, batting score of 13 and bowling figures of 3 for 5. Net run contribution +8. |
The Nukes vs. The Replacements: 17 May 2005 (written by Schalk Albertyn) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Pieter, Schalk, Wimpie, Steve, Gerhard, Michael |
Unfortunately we lost the toss and were sent in to bat first. The first pair to bat was Heinrich and Phillip who got us off to a decent starting total. Wimpie and Steve were next. Steve hit two good 7's and they made a good 32 run partnership. Steve scored a VERY good 27 runs! Piet and Schalk followed with a solid 27 and after the third skin we had 83 runs on the board. We were hoping for a final score of 110, which at that stage looked quite comfortable to get. Next Gerhard and Michael had to come on. They scored consistent 1's and 2's but went out too many times and could only contribute with 12 runs and left us with a score of 95 to defend.
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The Nukes II vs. Tonkers: 17 May 2005 (written by Carel Viljoen) |
The Nukes II: Carel, Martin, Dugald, Juan, Thinus, Reshendren, Pieter, Steve |
The Nukes started quite well with a wicket off the first ball of the game. The first skin resulted in a total of 5 wickets for Tthe Nukes. Dugald's over of 2/-1 made a huge contribution. The Nukes gave a solid performance in the field by managing to limit the first three skins to less than 30 each with the score on 72 with the start of the last over. As usual the last skin came to the crease with only one goal! Runs! They eventually scored 40 runs setting a target of 112 runs. Jaun and Thinus started the batting for The Nukes. Although they are still fresh to the action cricket thing, they are definitely a partnership to watch. They scored a total of 35 runs that was much appreciated as the game progressed. Steve and Martin were in second and again Steve went for the big ones. Luck was not on his side this time partly due to excellent fielding from the opponents. They eventually scored a decent total of 28 runs. Carel and Reshendren were in third. It was definitely not Reshendren's day and everyting that could go wrong did. They eventually scored 13 runs. Piet and Dugald came to the crease with a total of 37 required of them. Solid batting and opportunistic running from them got the total to 117 with one ball to go. A wicket from the last ball took the total to 114 to win the game by only two runs! The game therefore started and ended with a wicket. What a night! Man of the match was Dugald with bowling figures of 4/0 and a total of 22 runs scored with the bat. |
The Nukes vs. EASP: 10 May 2005 (written by Steve Aaron) |
The Nukes: Philip, Heinrich, Erik, Schalk, Dirk, Steve, Gerhard, Michael |
The Nukes came out first and fielded solidly with few opportunities the whole innings. Some quick fielding from Schalk and Heinrich at the front, where most of the action was, kept them honest. A slight lack of disciplined bowling gave the oppostion a few free runs and EASP notched up 83 by the end of the third skin. We set ourselves a goal of keeping them under 100. Some excellent bowling in the last skin, especially Gerhard's 3 wickets for 4 runs, restricted them to 98. Requiring 25 runs per skin the Nukes were in with a good chance, but were quickly set on the back foot when EASP showed their fielding abilities, taking just about every possible catch and runout, leaving us on 12 after the first skin. Erik and Schalk also fell victim to the fileding but fought back with some solid shots to finish with 33 to steady the team. After deciding to take it easy Dirk smashed the first ball of the 3rd skin for 6 and proceded to rack up 30 runs with some help from Steve. This left 23 required from Gerhard and Michael who cruised along nicely requiring just 2 runs from the last over. However, some great catches at the death, which could just as easily been big runs, left us 8 short of the total at the close. The game was close enough that despite losing we picked up 3 skins. Best bowling figures belong to Gerhard with 3 wickets/4 runs. Schalk, Erik and Gerhard all had impressive positive contributions but the Man of the Match was Dirk with 1/11 and a high score of 22, a contribution of +11. |
The Nukes II vs. Beach Boys: 10 May 2005 (written by Johan Liebenberg) |
The Nukes II: Johan, Rob, Dugald, Ryan, Thinus, Reshendren, Pieter, Michael |
| Under Construction.... |
The Nukes II vs. SA Earthworks Scorpions: 3 May 2005 (written by Rob Bollen) |
The Nukes II: Johan, Rob, Steve, Martin, Thinus, Frank, Pieter, Michael |
After the previous season loosing all tosses by calling tails, Rob decided to change tossing strategy and call heads. And it actually worked, so the Nukes II decided to field first. Well, it appeared to be one of the few things that we would win on the night. All bowlers got hammered in a big way, everyone going for 20 runs or more except Frank, who under difficult circumstances contained the opponent's batsmen to 11 runs, taking 3 wickets. The SA Earthworks Scorpions batsmen ended up on 174 runs. The Nukes' batting didn't start bad at all with Rob and Johan on 20 after 2 overs. Unfortunately, the second pair of bowlers were much quicker and more accurate, so that we collapsed to a total of 10 at the end of the skin. Martin and Steve did a magnificent job and scored 41, just missing the skin by 3 runs. Frank and Thinus faced some very accurate bowling and fielding in their skin, but still managed to add another 17 runs. Pieter and Michael in the final skin went after the opposition bowlers and scored an impressive 43, winning the final skin by 3 runs. Well, that left us with a good enough reason to celebrate at the bar and look forward to the next game, extending that performance to the other skins as well... Man of the Match: Pieter, with bowling figures of 1 for 21, compensating with a batting score of 30! Net run contribution +9. |