Scorecard

Barnes Common v Phoenix Cricket Club Phoenix on Sun 28 Sep 2008 at 12pm
Phoenix Cricket Club Won 5 wickets

Match report Phoenicia was an ancient civilization centred in the north of ancient Canaan, with its heartland along the coastal regions of modern day Lebanon, Syria and Israel. Pharaoh Necho II, who reigned c. 615-595 B.C., was determined to see if Africa could be circumnavigated. Accordingly, he commissioned a number of ships manned by Phoenicians for the task. In the third year they sailed through the Pillars of Hercules and back to Egypt again.

In Jason's third year in reign nothing of the sort is envisaged but could Jason's Argonauts continue their amazing voyage through the Four Pillars of Cranford (The White Hart, The Queens Head, Jolly Waggoners and Rios) in to their fourth year.

In modern Cranford, today's Phoenicians set of to the common land of Barnes for the final hurrah to the season. Could Paul Westerberg, the former lead singer and songwriter of The Replacements, song titled 'Final Hurrah' be sung in joyous mood by the Phoenicians at the end of the day.

From the book Articulated Motion and Deformable Objects, published by Springer Berlin / Heidelberg, there is a chapter called Kinetic Pseudo-energy History for Human Dynamic Gestures Recognition. Here a new approach, based on the kinetic status history, to automatically determine the starting and ending instants of human dynamic gestures. This method opens up the possibility to distinguish static or quasi-static poses from dynamic actions, during a real-time human motion capture.

Regardless of the science, Fabain made two gestures that were much appreciated by the opposition captain.

The first gesture was when on winning the toss, Fabian showed the Phoenix spirit of the game as he allowed Barnes Common to bat first, on what was a lovely batting track, since not all of their players had turned up to the match on time. The second gesture was then made as Johnny was given out by the Barnes Common umpire for five, but Fabian called him back to the crease knowing the nick to the keeper was of the pads and not the bat.

The Phoenix bowlers took some stick as the loose deliveries were put away to the boundary with ease. The outstanding bowlers of the day were Zufi who along with pace had the ability to move the ball both in & out and Kashif who bowled with a tidy length restricted the Barnes Common from scoring. Kashif bowled impressively as his seven overs cost only seventeen runs as the run rate when he came on to bowl was near eight runs per over.

Barnes Common took full advantage of these gestures as Johnny went on to make an excellent sixty three taking their final score off the allotted thirty five overs to one hundred and eighty seven.

At tea, Phoenix didn’t believe they had a chance of winning. Their fears came true as Phoenix slumped to sixty four for four off just the fifteenth over with the four players who were out scoring a combined total of thirteen and extras on twenty two.

In came Zufi to join Tushar at the crease and the festivals of faith for Hindus (Diwali), Muslims (Eid), Christians (Christmas) and Parsees (Gahambars) all came at once as they lit up sky with boundaries upon boundaries, to the joyous cries of the United Colours of Phoenix players.

Together Tushar & Zufi broke the highest fourth wicket partnership as they scored an incredible one hundred and twenty two runs in just sixty five balls; in which one hundred and eight runs came in boundaries. Zufi smashed his way to a brilliantly made seventy five which included seven fours and seven sixes and Tushar found his form as he carried his bat after making an excellent sixty nine which included twelve fours and a six.

Zufi fell with only two runs needed for victory and out walked a patient Vishal who was eager to take his chance. He faced the final two balls of the over from the opening quick with ease and with that Tushar hit the winnings runs of the very first ball of the next over.

So as Phoenix walked of the field of play victorious, the following words were immortalised by a certain cricketer "Youre my latest last chance, My final hurrah; This day went so fast, My final hurrah; In your black satin pants, My final hurrah". In reference to black pants, the following needs to be mentioned.

Cat scratching is when you shit in a little hole you've dug. While this is common for many camping trips, it is not appropriate for cricket. Please can the person who was influenced by the book, 'How to Shit in the Woods: An Environmentally Sound Approach to a Lost Art' by author Kathleen Meyer, refrain from such techniques.

The Final Hurrah was thus laid down, be it more as a trespassing warning than a gauntlet but this action will forever be etched into the memories of Phoenix.

Yazdan came from his sick bed to help the team as numbers were short & gave it his all and for this reason he is named Man of the Match. Also a special mention to Tushar for passing four hundred runs and Fabian for passing twenty wickets for the season.

Also mentions to the following people who broke records this season:

Phoenix broke the highest team score with 279 runs
Fabian & Noman broke the highest ever partnership off 188 runs
Fabian broke the most runs in a season record with 884 runs
Tushar broke the highest individual score with 115 runs
Sanj broke the most wickets in a season record with 41 wickets
Fabian broke the most catches in a season record with 16 catches
Imran entered with the most dismissals in an inning with 4 dismissals

Well done to Barnes Common for an afternoon of joyous cricket. As for Phoenix, the season ends with a victory but the victory was also in the way the members of the team showed true spirit in terms of sportsmanship and generosity.

The Olympics desire is quoted as "You are all Champions in your own way. That doesn't mean you have to be number one or be the best. Just do your best. If you aren't first, then make those people ahead of you break records by pushing them with your personal best. Consider for a moment what we achieve from sports - the sheer fun of competing - the building of a healthy and alert mind and body - stamina, courage, perseverance, dedication, commitment, selflessness and most importantly, the will to excel."

This is Phoenix, as Imran once stated 'We make the standards for others to follow'. So to quote Chriswell Freeman “Quotations help us remember the simple yet profound truths that give life perspective and meaning. When it comes to life's most important lessons, we can all use gentle reminders.”

Barnes Common Batting
Player name RunsMB4s6sSR
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 9 wickets
0
187 (0.0 overs)		     
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   
   

Phoenix Cricket Club Phoenix Bowling

Player NameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
Farhan 'Rowdy' Nabeel4.0030215.007.50
Sofian Mohammed7.0127127.003.86
Kashif Ihsan7.011728.502.43
Sanjeev Kumar7.0048148.006.86
Fabian Saverimuttu7.0141220.505.86
Tushar Ilwahdi1.00515.005.00

Phoenix Cricket Club Phoenix Batting
Player Name RMB4s6sSRCatchesStumpingsRun outs
extras
TOTAL :
 
for 5 wickets
0
188		        
Fabian Saverimuttu Caught  4
Tushar Ilwahdi Not Out  69
Richard Parker Bowled  1
Imran Khursheed Caught  5 1
Inderjit 'Indi' Jassal Bowled  3
Sofian Mohammed Caught  75 1
Vishal-Karna Kumar Not Out  0
Yazdan 'Jazz' Karbhari  
Sanjeev Kumar   1
Kashif Ihsan  
Farhan 'Rowdy' Nabeel   1

Barnes Common Bowling

Player nameOversMaidensRunsWicketsAverageEconomy
No records to display.