Scorecards: Greenies Innings   ByRite Innings


Greenies 1 were beaten by Byrite last Sunday by a solitary heart breaking wicket. Byrite's new captain, Conroy won the toss & took approximately 1 nano second to elect to bowl on a pitch that was given a generous amount of water by the grounds man overnight. It was a new look Greenies 1 side & a new look opening partnership. Rotsey & Ledge went out to face to music & batted extremely well. Keeping in mind the strategy to avoid early wickets, they showed great judgment leaving most of the offerings outside off & turning the strike over well. Ledge even managed to play a couple of hook shots to a vacant fine leg. His finest shot was a lovely pulled 4 to the airport side of the ground from the Byrite 1st change. After pushing into the wind for 3 overs, Conroy switched ends & proceeded to bowl probably the most hostile 3 overs I have seen in Cayman. Somehow the boys got through it unscathed, just! One particularly nasty delivery directed at the throat, flew off the shoulder of Ledge's bat all the way to fine leg were Conroy's brother, dropped one of the easiest catches you will see.

Eventually the boys departed for a 59 run opening stand, probably the best start we have had since the days when Blacks used to get us off to fliers. Tommy & Jonty then took up the attack. Tommy was very rusty but managed to tick the strike over in ones. Jonty on the other hand had only one thing in mind, the boundary & further. And this he did. One ball was smoted straight down the ground & fortunately missed the umpire, bowler & non-striker who had no chance to evade. Next delivery, from off spinner Teddy was hit a mile. To be honest, I lost sight of it but the retrieving fieldsman was a long was past the intersection. Once we were both out, we lost our way with the middle & lower order having great trouble with Michael Wight who finished with 6 wickets.

We ended up setting a target of 160 from 40 overs, probably 40 less than what we dreamed for but a good effort considering the number of regulars missing & defiantly a winnable total against a hot & cold Byrite batting line up. We got a perfect start, with Redise getting LBWs in the 2nd & 4th over. He bowled at a serious pace, clearly unsettling the batsman, who were also not used to the left arm over. Ledge then clean bowling the number 4 bat & 3 balls later got the key wicket of Wight, LWB for a duck. Byrite 4-31. Jonty, unsettled Conroy's younger brother with a searing bouncer & then cleverly followed up next ball with a led side wide, which drew young Wright out of his crease long enough for Rotsey to skillfully whip the bails off.

Matty Jeffers in his Greenies debut, bowled extremely well keeping it tight & clean bowling the well set Zitroy for 22. As always seems to be the way with Byrite, there bottom 5 batsman always seem to be harder to get out than the top 6. Conroy & Hudson combined for 43 runs. Randall & Tommy keeping it tight but not exactly threatening with Jonty eventually bowling a threatening Conroy. At last drinks break, there were 10 overs remaining, 37 runs, 3 wickets required. Byrite on top. With 26 runs to go, Hudon chipped a ball straight back to Randall. C&B. Next over, Watson, stepped too far across his stumps & somehow missed a very slow & juicy offering from me. Clean bowled. Byrite, 1 wicket, 26 runs. Unfortunately, Byrites last batsman was Teddy Gray who looked in complete control & in partnership with Tulloch, they whittled the runs down. With 5 runs to get, Tulloch hit a ball straight down the ground. In a reflex action, I dived to my right, out stretched the hand. One of those cases where the ball either sticks or it doesn't. Unfortunately it didn't & that was the last chance we got. It was a very hard loss to take after we had got ourselves into such a strong position & the dressing room was very quiet.

Many thanks to all the guys who stepped up to Ones & also to those who played both games of the weekend.

MOM - Rotsey for a fine 37 & a leg side stumping. To be fair, Rotsey, Ledge (30 & 2-30 off 8) & Jonty (38 & 2-35 off 8) were easily our best 3 players.
POTD - Jonty's enormous 6. Jeffers breaking the stump when he clean bowled Zitroy was a close 2nd.
COTD - Tommy - got out at a crucial time, dropped 2 tough chances, both would have won the match. Thats what you get when you don't make it to training. I apologize for this. Blame UBS.

There were many other awards / fines:
Greenies debuts - Jonny Pang, Jeffers.
J Michael - Abali with some pants that he surely stole from Chrissie Tomlinson??
Son of Ledge award - Jonny Pang, sporting some very metro sexual sunnies, which Ledge was very impressed by.
Passion award - Jonty for this theatrical celebrations following the leg side stumping. The first person he high fived was Redsie at fine leg!
Spectators of the day - Chloe, Cat & CA enjoying there best & most romantic Valentines Day of all time.