SCC Cricket Section Bails "Version lucky 13_ 2015” 1/8 – Intro Massive congratulations first up to Riaz Hussien for his sensational, game-defining 108 from just 99 balls in the First XI’s important league fixture last weekend vs SCA. Be sure to check out 60 Seconds with this week (featuring Riaz), and also the Firxt XI match report to get more details on this inspirational dig, in furnace like conditions and with the team Jaguars vs Wanderers CC 2 ‘under the pump’ to begin with.. inspirational Cougars vs Marina Sat 16th May, Dempsey, 12.45pm Sun 17th May, Dempsey, 12.30pm stuff, and well done on the victory to all ! 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Tom Corrie Ritesh Dustin Yates (c) Jack Ledger Sukanti Sen George Williams Garth ‘Brooks’ Parminder Chris Thomson Roarke Nikhil In other news, the undefeated Jaguars, as well as the Cougars, are back in League season action this weekend (teams and fixtures details left and right, respectively). 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10. 11. Nick Dorney (c) Dene ‘Hipster’ Border Arit Dutta Duncan Bond Matt Ward Lawrence Gregory (+) Quentin Sear Phil Simmonds Ameen Bhadelia Brad Paterson Iishaan Shekhar Be sure to read on further this week for another full-on edition including an interesting piece on a certain possible “trend setter” in our section (below), a big wad of mid-season stats kindly provided by Deno, some further lessons* from ‘Tsavo Man-Eater’, and the Saturday XI report; penned by the ‘comeback kid’ himself, Hugh ‘Huge’ Darwell ! 2/8 – Do Hipsters really have beards? Perhaps as Grandma used to say “it’s good to learn something new every day”. Reading a highly intellectual* article in The Tele earlier in the week, all of us here at Bails were certainly excited to learn that our fearless Dear Leader, Dene Border, might well be a “hipster” !! Onya Eye of Mordor/ Stalin ! http://www.telegraph.co.uk/men/11501340/Science-explains-why-hipsters-grow-beards.html 3/8 – 60 Seconds With … Riaz ! 1. Riaz, first-up, congratulations on your brilliant century last weekend for the first XI in the league fixture vs SCA at Dempsey …. scored in very hot conditions and when your team was in a bit of strife when you came out to bat … can you tell us a bit about the innings, and how you managed to get to 3 figures? Had you been working on anything specific at training? Thank you for the wishes. I went out to bat with 4 wickets down but we had a healthy run rate, so it gave me a little bit of time to play out some overs and just build a strong partnership with James Muruthi and have some wickets in hand to go big in the last 10 overs and that’s where Praveen came in smashed it. I just played around those guys and that’s what helped me get through to 3 figures. Ricky has been working with me to try and rotate the strike better and also to figure which zones I should try and target to find boundaries. It also helps when the team is behind you and allows you to play your game freely. [Plenty more where that came from eh! For more details on this tremendous innings (especially perhaps for Cougars top-order reading?? Grr), please see the First XI match summary in a few pages time. Well done once again Riaz !! Ed.) 2. Year joined SCC? I joined SCC as a JSM in 2005. 3. Favorite Cricketer internationally? Mark Waugh / Ricky Ponting (2 Aussies?!!! Ed) 4. Can you run us through your cricket career at a high level? Any particular highlights that you could tell us about? I guess it would be playing in three days games for Singapore. That was the only time we had anything close to test match cricket. I was on a hat-trick twice in my first over in 2 separate games for Singapore during these three day games. Both against Malaysia. 5. Best bowling figures ? If I recall correctly I think it was 2 years ago against SRC at SRC playing for SCC. My figures were 4 for 21 in 7 overs. (I was 4 for 8 in 6 overs, to get fifer someone dropped a catch and I got hit for 15 runs in the 7th over) 6. Funniest or Strangest Moment Playing on a Cricket Field? Was a while back, when I was playing for Kallang Colts (Yeek, what was going on playing there !! Ed). My teammate who was fielding at point took a cut short off a spinner right in the forehead and the ball ricocheted back to the bowler for a caught a bowl … the guy at point was fine, but perhaps fair to say that he had a thick skull (err wow! Ed). 7. The First XI seem to be building some very good momentum in recent times… any particular reason(s) you think for this? How do you see the rest of the season playing out? (Any chat just yet about a potential premiership?) Don’t really want to jinx it so fingers crossed. But to be honest this momentum has come from a few seasons ago. Our previous skipper (Rob Hands, right. Ed) did a wonderful job in trying to put a strong system in place when it came to training, matches and team culture. So from there we have just improved and made that system better with the inclusion of a club coach that has introduced a structured training program, alongside with the new management has just made it possible for the team to get into a good momentum. I think the Lions will give it their best for the rest of the season and take one game at a time. 8. The First XI seem to be made up of some very interesting characters. Without breaking ‘team protocol’, would it be possible to give us Bails readers any insights into some of the characters within our premier team? Without saying names, we have all of the above that’s what makes the team so interesting and fun to be around. – I am sure most Bails readers already know which individuals are matched with which attributes above. - Boring answer but team comes first. (I think we’ll let you off just this once! Maybe one of our much-loved* Bails columnists could provide further comment in weeks to come? Sorry* I forgot* to ask you a question this week Chesty! Ed) 9. Can you tell us a little about your occupation, and what you like to get up to when not playing cricket? I am a Trader / Market Analyst in a commodities trading house, RCMA Commodity Group. If not busy with work, I enjoy a night of poker here and there. 10. If you were down to your last $10 how would you spend it? Visit Japan Home – everything there is $2. Would be able pick at least 5 things I needed if I were in that state. 4/8– 1st XI League Match Report SCC First XI vs SCA, at Dempsey by stand-in Captain, Michael “Mont” Burns The Lions arrived at Dempsey for their first fixture at the ground for a number of years and 3 losses in row to SCA to rectify. At 53-4 at the end of 11 overs, the Lions stand in captain was questioning his decision to bat first on a damp Dempsey outfield. He need not have worried as James Muruthi (54 off 88 balls) set about resurrecting the innings with Riaz Hussein. When Muruthi finally went 20 overs later to end an 84 run partnership, the two batsmen had built a solid foundation for the Lions to set a sizeable total. Matt Sazenis (19 off 39) came in to partner Hussein and the two put on a further 47 runs in another good partnership. Now with the platform set Praveen Vijay came to the crease and took the SCA attack apart with an impressive combination of hitting and superb timing to make 51 off 24 balls and dominate the partnership of 92 although Hussien was also beginning to accelerate. Riaz was batting beautifully and his innings featured a number of classical drives over and through cover for four or six, combined with deft clips through and over square leg. When Hussien finally departed for a brilliant 108 off 99 balls (right) in the 49th over the Lions looked on track for a score close to 300. Which is close to where the Lions ended up, walking off at 296-9 at the end of 50 overs. Any chance the SCA had of chasing the imposing total were immediately made harder when Arun Vijayan had a wicket with the first ball of the innings, Archit Goenka LBW. It was another impressive opening spell from Arun (7.4- 1- 29 – 3) who has found good rhythm of late. He was ably supported by good work from the whole fielding unit throughout the inning, highlighted with 2 direct hit run outs, firstly from James Muruthi and followed by Brigu Iyer. Iyer also continued his good form with the ball taking 2 crucial wickets (6- 0- 262). Praveen Vijay followed up his performance with the bat with a miserly display of left arm slow allowing only 4 runs to be scored off 6 tight overs (6- 2- 4- 1), giving the seamers opportunity to attack at the other end. When Michael Burns (6- 0- 17- 2) removed the annoying Nishant the score was 71 for 9. Only a niggly 29 run last wicket partnership allowed SCA to reach 100 before Vijayan was bought back to wrap up the innings. An excellent team performance, with a stand out performance from Riaz Hussien, showed a glimpse of what this team could be capable of in a complete performance. 3 games remain in the season and the Lions look to be building nicely as a unit. 5/8 – League Milestones – Part 1 of 2 RANK PLAYER BEST AV. (min 100 runs) BEST S/R (min 100 runs) MOST RUNS SCORED RUNS RANK PLAYER S/R RANK PLAYER AV. 1 Kilbee, J 298 1 Russell, C 139.33 1 Hussein, R 68.25 2 Hussein, R 273 2 Duffy, P 126.19 2 Kilbee, J 59.60 3 Watson, J 230 3 Goldsmith, A 120.61 3 Watson, J 57.50 4 King, B 211 4 Corrie, T 112.65 4 Duffy, P 53.00 5 Muruthi, J 198 5 Kilbee, J 106.43 5 Muruthi, J 49.50 MOST WICKETS TAKEN RANK PLAYER WKTS 1 Iyer, B 15 2 Vijay, P 13 3 Kalpathy, S 11 4 Murray, P 9 5 Vijayan, A 9 BEST E/R (min 120 balls) RANK PLAYER BEST S/R (min 6 wkts) RANK PLAYER S/R 1 Murray, P 8.22 2 Stones, H 11.00 3 Thomson, C 12.00 4 Kalpathy, S 13.27 5 Janik, C 15.00 BEST AV. (min 6 wkts) E/R RANK PLAYER AV. 1 Vijay, P 3.95 1 Murray, P 3.89 2 Immanuel, P 4.08 2 Stones, H 9.83 3 Hussein, R 4.31 3 Thomson, C 10.33 4 Prasad, K 4.58 4 Kalpathy, S 11.91 5 Windscheffel, J 4.59 5 Vijay, P 13.31 6/8– “Yay” or “Nay” to the Box-Skull moving into the future ?? By The Great* Tsavo Man-Eater & ‘AGENCIES’ Singapore, May 15th The Tsavo Man Eater (TME) was perturbed to hear recently that the timehonoured custom of drinking from an abdominal protector (or box), to celebrate a debut match, has come under threat. Word on the street suggested there was the risk of passing on germs or, according to some, the development of a hair lip. This is, of course, politically correct nonsense. Cricketers of all three sexes have honored this pleasantly-amusing convention since the invention of over-arm bowling and the consequent need for increased genital fortification. See *(i) Drinking from the new equipment can safely be assumed to have first occurred at more or less the same time. There is considerable history here. Long-serving England captain Baroness Heyhoe-Flint (below left), a regular visitor to the SCC and whose son Ben plays for the club when he’s not doing his hair, was once asked if women wear protective boxes and the answer was: “Oh yes. We call them manhole-covers.” It is not the habit of the TME to differentiate between the sexes, except in late night situations, but let’s stay with the distaff side for a moment. Former Saturday captain John Morgan’s wife to be, Alison, gleefully drank from a box while 12th man on a tour of Kuala Lumpur more than a decade ago, while current Saturday leggie, Anne-Marie Tanke, has also taken part in this ritual. If three such resolute characters -- presumably well aware of the potential for germs to be transmitted -- saw fit to participate then what does it say that some of the more macho male members of the club are reluctant? Some commentators have refused to take sides in this debate, but sitting on fences can potentially cause far more serious health problems than drinking from boxes. We tinker with tradition at our peril. Finally, the last word on the everevolving story of the abdominal protector comes from the BBC. *(ii) For the record, the TME does not recommend mixing beer from a box with a combination of hemp and plant-based resin. (hahah dear me! Ed.) *(i) https://alexbritten.wordpress.com/2013/02/11/changing-cricket-fashion-the-box/ *(ii) http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/uk_news/england/cornwall/6194467.stm 7/8– Sat XI Report Sat XI Lose A Close One by Sat XI Captain, Hugh “Huge” Darwell With the skipper back in the saddle after a 2 week sabbatical, the Saturday XI took on Spirits at Dempsey on Sunday morning. After winning the toss, the opposition were asked to bat, which paid immediate dividends with Streets (3-22 off 6) taking 2 wickets in his first 2 overs with some excellent in-swing bowling to have Spirits at 2-15 after 5 overs. Spirits then mounted a comeback to be 2-80 after 15 overs, before steadily losing wickets in the last 15 overs to be all out for 170. Birdy (3-32 off 6) and Bala (2-33 off 6) were the other main contributors with the ball. In response, the Sat XI got off to a slow start, with only 44 runs being scored off the first 10 overs. After Vijay went, Galaxy (left with JB) in his 2015 debut, accelerated the scoring to retire at 50 off 48 balls. Huge (26 off 27 balls) then continued the acceleration of the run rate till he was (again) run out by a direct hit (more sprint training needed?). Sat XI then proceeded at a run a ball for the next 5 overs until the game came down to the wire with 4 required off the last ball for a win. Saltie (18 n.o. off 15 balls) blocked away the last yorking delivery for a single for Sat XI to lose the game by 2 runs, finishing at 8-168. A far better performance than the previous week giving the team something to build on in future games, starting in Manila this coming weekend. 8/8 – Out ! Thanks to all who have made it to the end of this 13th edition of Bails for 2015, as well as those who contributed this week – in particular Riaz, Burnsy, Nathan Tinkler, Tsavo Man Eater and Huge. Whilst Kevin Pieterson (right, or is that Matt Streeton??), may not have much to do this coming weekend after the big decision by the ECB earlier this week, there’s certainly some action happening within our SCC Cricket Section; with both the Cougars and Jaguars right in the mix of things early in their league seasons. So, hope to see you all at Dempsey at some stage this weekend, and till we meet again, play on ! Bails
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