Scorecard

Fulmer v Phoenix Cricket Club Phoenix on Sat 30 Aug 2008 at 2pm
Phoenix Cricket Club Won 6 wickets

Match report In the third year of Hoshea, son AO of Elah, King of Israel, the men of Babylon made Succothbenoth (Goddess of Fertility), and the men of Cuth made Nergal (God of War and the Underworld). In Jason's third year in reign nothing of the sort is envisaged but could Jason's Argonauts grow from the seed's of battle in to a more stronger and positive force.

To digress, Roald Dahl's Tales of the Unexpected is a collection of sixteen short stories written by Dahl and first published in 1979. Also totally of tangent, Indian Dal is a preparation of pulses which have been stripped of their outer hulls and split. It also refers to the thick, spicy stew prepared therefrom. You may well ask has the writer lost his marbles with such useless and maybe unrequired knowledge but all your questions will be answered as you continue to read on.

A very hot day, maybe the hottest day of the summer, Fabian led the Red Caps to the shortish distance to Fulmer. With many of the guys already shattered before they got to the ground (with reasons or more like excuses of hangovers, late night parties, early morning shifts given) the worst possible outcome came to be as the opposition skipper on winning the toss elected to bat first.

With the sun shining high and the heat in top form, Phoenix needed all their energy and to have their wits about them to survive the day both physically and mentally.

Farhan and Anup opened the bowling and soon found swing that troubled the Fulmer batsman more often than not. Farhan made the early breakthrough but Fulmer kept calm and slowly but surely started to construct a foundation for a big assault at the end of their innings. The bad balls were put away to the boundaries and edges were converted to singles or two's.

Even though Phoenix felt that they were on top, the scoreboard suggested otherwise. Fabian rang in the changes and slowed the game down with the introduction of Sanj, Nad and himself. Sanj continued to bowl, as form and the statistics suggest, well and soon found that nagging line and length. His efforts were rewarded as he bowled the big hitting opener in just his second over and the runs soon began to dry up. Fabian, at the other end, supported Sanj showing his skills in the variance of pace as he never let the batsman settle. Fabian was too rewarded as he took two wickets in two balls with Rahul hanging onto a spectacular one handed catch in the extra cover region.

In a time game, time is the obvious critical point and with the run rate at just below four runs an over Fulmer needed to accelerate with just about an hour or so remaining before the declaration. Fabian bowling miserly continued at one end but he added a new twist to the tale as he gave Amrit a chance to roll his arm at the other end.

Amrit Sanskar is the Sikh ceremony of initiation or baptism with the words "Waheguru Ji Ka Khalsa, Waheguru Ji Ki Fateh" ("Khalsa (pure one) is of God and to God belongs the victory) being echoed. So with jaikara (an act or utterance in a symbolic show of strength and achievement) '"jo bole so nihaal, bolo ji sat sri akaal" (whoever utters 'eternal is the holy/great timeless Lord' shall be fulfilled) being called out, Amrit, with Waheguru in his heart, came into action.

Phoenix are a team of amalgamations and combinations with Dahls' off both the Roald and Indian varieties coming in to the Phoenix Mix as Amrit raised everyone's pulses up a level as he unexpectedly served everyone some hot toor (yellow pigeon peas) dal with a collection of six spicy wickets.

Amrit, with precision accuracy, bowled beautifully from stump to stump with the odd ball seaming in. The notation 'if the batsman miss I will hit' came to the fore as each of his six wickets were identical with the ball skipping of a length beating the batsman and hitting the leg stump. Each of Amrit's six wickets were received to a Bhangra (Punjabi Folk Music) salute of Balle Balle, Chak De, Bruya Bruya.

At the declaration. the rap from R.D.B, Snoop Dogg & Akshay Kumar could be heard:

Ferrari’s, buggatis and maseratis,
Snoop D O double G, the life of the party,
Lay back, stay back,
I am in the may back,
This ain’t James Brown,
But it’s the big playback,
Watch me zoom by,
Make it boom by,
Wat up to all the ladies,
Hanging out in Mumbai,
Cheese make dollars,
east west masala,
singh is the king,
so you all have to follow..

... so we all followed Amrit of the field singing 'Singh is King, Singh is King' (title of a bollywood movie) accompanied with rapturous applause and laughter. Amrit's initiation to the hall of fame was then finally completed as the Phoenix Sanskar took place with beers and j20 orange drinks flowing.

At tea, Fulmer had reached one hundred and seventy with ironically King making an excellent fifty four. Phoenix needed to bat well if they wanted to win this game and make it four in a row.

Fabian and Tushar opened the innings and once again shot selection got Tushar wickets as he cut a ball that bounced low and wide of him straight to point. Fabian blasted his way to thirty three which included four fours and one mighty six which made a dent in Amrit's car before hole-ing out in the deep. Phoenix at this stage were forty five for two off just eight overs.

Noman and Rahul continued what Fabian started and made a fifty four run partnership with Noman making a sublime thirty four (which included four fours) and Rahul making a splendid twenty eight (which included one six and one four). They both fell soon after each other and Phoenix were one hundred and eleven for four when the final twenty overs started.

Nad and Imran settled the Phoenix ship and made a match winning sixty two run partnership in the next ten overs. Imran played within himself thus allowing Nad most of the strike. Nad took full advantage of the situation and batted beautifully with his fifty and the winning runs coming with a hook shot over square leg for six.

Amrit bowled exceptionally well and halted Fulmer's dead in their tracks as they tried to accelerate the run scoring and for this reason he is named Man of the Match.

Also a special mention to Fabian for passing eight hundred runs & ten wickets, Nad for passing five hundred runs and Farhan for passing thirty wickets for the season thus far. Finally another milestone was achieved as Sanj reached one hundred wickets for Phoenix.

Well done to Fulmer for a fun day out, enjoying our brand of humour and for providing us excellent facilities in which the game of cricket can be enjoyed be it as a player or spectator.

As for Phoenix, continue to allow yourself to be inspired thus allowing yourself to succeed and finally daring yourself to excel. To quote Epictetus (Greek philosopher associated with the Stoics, AD 55-c.135) “One that desires to excel should endeavour in those things that are in themselves most excellent”.

But with excellence come humility, to quote Alexander The Great (Ancient Greek King of Macedon, 356 BC-323 BC) “I had rather excel others in the knowledge of what is excellent, than in the extent of my power and dominion”

Fulmer Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 10 wickets
0
170 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Phoenix Cricket Club Phoenix Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Farhan 'Rowdy' Nabeel8.0133133.004.13
Anup 'Snoop' Jhooti5.002600.005.20
Nadeem 'Nad' Rashid5.011700.003.40
Sanjeev Kumar8.0031131.003.87
Fabian Saverimuttu11.0034217.003.09
Amrit Toor7.302063.332.67

Phoenix Cricket Club Phoenix Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 4 wickets
0
173		        
Fabian Saverimuttu Caught  33
Tushar Ilwahdi Caught  3
Noman Sohail Bowled  34
Rahul Ghai Bowled  28 1
Nadeem 'Nad' Rashid Not Out  52
Imran Khursheed Not Out  9
Yazdan 'Jazz' Karbhari  
Anup 'Snoop' Jhooti  
Farhan 'Rowdy' Nabeel  
Amrit Toor  
Sanjeev Kumar  

Fulmer Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.