Scorecard

Greenies Too bounced back from a string of defeats last weekend with a comfortable win over the Lions. McGrath, taking the coin tossing duties, guessed right and crucially choose to bat first on a blisteringly hot afternoon - almost a Man of the Match shout right there. With Watto again late due to wife being at yoga (oh yes, there were fines), Sammy Dawson and Dickie Thomas suited up to face the best the Lions had to offer, which frankly wasn't too much. Unfortunately, with both batsmen looking reasonably set having completed a comfortable 32 run partnership, Thomas played over a decent yorker that rattled off stump, crucially avoiding the fine bottle with 11. Tex next in, closely followed by Watto as Dawson decided he'd had enough of the sun and also departed for 11. Tex and Watto tucked into some juicy bowling to keep things ticking along nicely until, just after smashing a huge straight six, Tex nibbled a gift wrapped volley to the keeper. Trying to curb his natural instinct to walk, he strode about 5 steps back to the pavilion before realising that the umpire might not be giving it, and tried to then turn this into some kind of bizarre stretching manoeuvre. Unfortunately not good enough to convince the umpire, who raised his finger about 10 seconds later. The partnership was worth 39, and took us to 78 off 16 overs.

Dogga Dean came in in aggressive mode, smashing a tracer of a square cut to the rope to open his account. His aggression however got the best of him as, two fours later he was cleaned up the the looping Pieterse. 97-4 soon turned to 97-5 as the luckless Jamie Ware was adjudged to have nicked one to the keeper, and a Greenies Too wobble looked like a distinct possibility. However Geoff and Watto steadied the ship magnificently with a welcome 39 partnership. Looking to accelerate the score, Geoff was run out in a tight call, but had looked very comfortable in scoring his 12. Simon "The Axe Man" Wetherell, came next to the crease having promised to belt Faisal back over his head first ball. True to his word, the first ball fizzed over the boundary behind the bowlers arm to huge cheers from the gallery. Watto, who had been quietly accumulating runs, also sprang to life with some big shots, passing 50 for the first time this season before finally holing out, more through tiredness than anything else, for a fantastic 64 off 74 balls with the score on 170. One run later and Simon was also victim to a great catch by the keeper for an abrasive 17. John King soon joined them back in the hutch after missing with a kitchen-sink heave off the stumps that would have landed somewhere in the North Sound has it connected. 178-9, which was probably about 20 runs short of a good score, with McGrath and Troskie in bat. 20 minutes and 30 balls later, McGrath and Troskie were STILL in bat, having added a priceless 31 runs for the last wicket, taking us to 209-9 at the break with some great running and powerful hitting. This was a great position to be in, and was a superb batting effort all round, with only 2 players scoring the dreaded under 10...

Dogga and Chris opened up with the new balls, bowling good, tight lines. Troskie, as last week, moved the ball prodigiously without an ounce of luck, but we were able to put enough pressure to force a run out after 7 overs, with Tex throwing down the one stump on offer from point to send the disbelieving Asad back to the dressing room with the score on 26. A useful 2nd wicket partnership was undone more through the fitness levels of the Lions batsmen than any Greenies master plan. Bizarrely at one point, both batsmen were calling for runners due to cramp, and Iqbal was inevitably caught by Geoff on the boundary off Watto, having given up trying to run about an over before. Watto got the next a few overs later, but with Lions keeping more or less with the run rate, it was anyone's game after 20 overs. Faisal came in to some pretty healthy sledging, and did well to keep his side in it, but with some solid bowling and very tight fielding, things were beginning to slip. Watto, Geoff and Sammy all turned the screw very well, forcing some increasingly desperate running from the Lions. Faisal's eventual run out for a useful 27 heralded the end of the Lions' resistance, as Dave McGrath and John King were able to mop up the tail quite comfortably, 51 short of the required target.

An extremely satisfactory win, with almost everyone chipping in with bat or ball, and some excellent ground fielding to sniff out any resistance.

MOTM - Watto for his 64 and 2 wickets
POTD - Tex's runout 
COTD - Wareo for being largely inconspicuous. A lengthy fine session ensued. Apologies to Mrs Troskie for holding her husband hostage at JPO...