Scorecard

Played one, won one.  Greenies Too edged out JJs with a last gasp victory at JPO in the inaugural game of the Division 2 20Twenty competition. With a slow pitch and a strong crosswind, conditions for batting were treacherous throughout the match, and the low scoring reflected this.  After winning the toss, JJs elected to bat first and made steady progress early on, with Williams looking settled from the outset.  Sammy Dawson, bowling with the breeze to his back put the ball on the spot, and made life difficult for the batsmen, helping tie them down to 23 off the first 5 overs.

 

Opener Ebanks finally lost patience and was bowled by Watto for the first wicket of the Greenies 2009 campaign.  This brought in the big hitting Farquarson, who took Watto to task with back to back sixes carted way over midwicket.  Unfortunately for JJs, the next delivery saw Farquarson hole out to a magnificent catch by Matthew ‘Tex’ Walker, who would have seen snow on the ball by the time it finally came back to earth.  With their main striker out, JJs were back to scratching around for runs on a field that offered nothing to them.  With the metronomic Hugh Thompson and Andrew “Dogga’ Dean working in tandem to dry up the runs, an increasingly desperate JJs started to throw their wickets away, the main benefactor being Hugh, who ended with 4 wickets for 15 runs.  He will rue the dolly put down by Dogga to bag his fist five-for for the club, almost as much as Dogga would later rue the fine bottle.  The final over saw Chris Troskie clean up the tail, with 3 wickets in 4 balls, leaving JJs all out for 98.

 

Watto and Ian Rotsey, making his Greenies debut, would have thought this an easy total to knock off, but it proved anything but.  In a phenomenal opening spell, Legore and Shirley put the pressure right back onto the Greenies.  Watto was run out early attempting a second run, and with Tex departing cheaply also, Rotsey was out to anchor the Greenies batting effort.  At 13 for 2 after 6 overs, things were starting to swing in favour of JJs.  As in the previous innings, runs provided very hard to come by, and Legore in particular had our batsmen tearing their hair out, finishing with 4 overs for 6 runs.  As the asking rate began to climb, Greenies looked to be running out of ideas.  Simon Wetherell provided some much needed impetus with a quickfire 10, but with 4 overs to go, and a run rate of 8 per over, JJs still looked in the box seat.  A loose over from Farquarson however turned the tide, with Rotsey and Thompson plundering 13 from his 6 deliveries, and bringing the equation back to a run a ball.  The final over saw some frenetic action, involving wickets and misfields, and with 2 runs needed off the final 2 deliveries, David McGrath managed to scamper home after a JJs fielding error.

 

Ian carried his bat with an unbeaten 42, but was edged out by Hugh for Man of the Match, for his 4-15, and a rapid 12 runs to bring us back from the brink.  Play of the day was given to Tex or his catch, and Watto somehow beat Dogga for COTD, despite protests from Hugh, after shelling a sitter and then throwing the ball over the boundary for 4 over throws.  Classic Greenies Too stuff!