Well done lads a good victory finished in style.
Winning the toss has become a running joke and once again we had to bat 1st but after a bad start with Dave Watson back in the scorers hutch after the 1st over I thought not again. But to our rescue on a shinny house rode our 3rd team Aussie Tristan Mitsopoulis and with his flashing blade destoryed the Alphington bowling attack almost single handedly. Wickets tumbled at a regular rate at the other end and with time running out got himself out on 84 trying to up the run rate. The late order turbo boost came from Danuka Kurupu with a smashing, a bashing and with a bit of a crashing innings of 23 very entertaining 23 runs. We scratch together 159 runs.
The opening bowling pair of Jack Hughes and Danuka Kurupu made steady in roads into the top order but Al Stewart and Richard Gill bag 3 wickets a piece. Al's bowling while controlled most of the time still managed to be hit for 16 runs off his last over would have had a lot better figers. Fielding this week was a vast improvement and I think this is what won us the game this week and lost it last week, a good team performance but we really need to sort out batting out.
Next week we face the toughest test yet and we really need to put some runs on the board, team selection will be boosted with 4 returnees into the 2nd team so some people will have to play 4th team that were with me last week, what I would like to say is to those who feel that they should be playing in the same team as last week is that this is a successful club and we have more teams then other clubs so you should find a game each week, and that by dropping down a team you bring alot into that team. I fully welcome players from the 2nd team and try to get them back into that team by batting them high and bowling them, and players coming up from the 4ths get every opportunity and if your good enough to play in a higher team then take some wickets or score some runs and ask us on the selection committee the right questions, thats the only way you'll be getting back into the team. We all want the teams playing highest standard of cricket we can and we also want to build a club that will improve so we try to balance youth with experience I think we've done a good job so far.
We're getting better and better every year and when you think we have been fighting for survival for over a decade it's a miracle that we still going, not just hanging in there we getting better. In the youth teams we see the next generation of players and I'm getting excited by the quality of those players we will have more selection problems next year so if you want to keep your spot train harder, value your wicket and improve your game because next year there will be 3 or 4 players pushing for your spot.
It makes me proud to put on a shirt with our city name, it makes me prouder to be captain but most of all it makes me proud of the people in our club and to think of what they do for us. This weekend is one of the biggest the club has had so far 3 local derbies, a *censored*spur Cup, Sunday league and a Ladies League match, so lets do ourselves proud and make sure that at the end of the season we don't look back at this wekend and say that it was this game that cost us.
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