Saturdays fixture against a visiting team under the name of the Ian Fleming XI (or was that Bob Fleming?) took place under the glare of a scorching hot afternoon sun.
In temperatures hot enough to even make Siva take cover under a parasol, Estonia skipper inserted the opposition and immediately brought on the opening bowlers of Gleb and Andres. This sofetening up approach reaped rich rewards as the opening batting pair struggled to hit anything of the mat for the first four overs. Andres however snatched the wicket of one of the unlucky batsman, making him yet again contender for newcoming bowler of the year.
There followed a share of the bowling duties around the field with wickets being picked up by numerous bowlers, but the bowler who created the most excitement was that of Muralee whose frighteningly quick spell of bowling resulted in a stiff reprimand from Umpire Scaramanga.
There followed a Shakoor Rana / Gatting-esque confrontation which resulted in the Skipper asking Muralee not to bowl fast, no short pitch balls, and no full tosses. Muralee responded with a full length Yorker and an invoice for a new middle stump from the ECA.
Champagne moment of the day was batsman TJ from the Fleming team, pointing to where he was going to hit his first ball off the Estonian Skipper, and then doing precisely that. (The git!)
With 89 runs to chase, another bold decision was made to send in, for the first time in ECA history (since the last time it was done), two Estonians to bat numbers one and two. DJ Tommy D (Mihkel) and Andres 'All-in' Burget opened like a pair of seasoned pros. Andres resolute style of defence was matched by Mihkels dismissive approach to the bowling, swinging and hitting in so many directions, that Robin Hazelhurst at last had some spokes to put around his famed wagonwheel.
However due to the lack of spokes on Andres wheel, it eventually fell off resulting in yet more local talent ending up at the crease. Gleb however capitulated to the catch of the day from Barry (must have been Jaws as he did talk rather a lot), after a bold but brief innings.
Then came the secret weapon of the day. Two young fillies turned up to watch the batting performance, which seemed to help raise the standard of showing off at the crease. Despite Venkats short innings, run out again (although most thought he just wanted to come back and sit with the girls), Muralee and Anil dispatched the Fleming teams bowling all round the ground, Anil finishing on 36 not out, 12 short of his waist measurement.
Muralee also showed why his not only a celebrated international male model, but also an accomplished all-rounder.
So victory was secured, and the most encouraging thing was that the usual suspects were out-shone by the new-comers to the ECA, which bodes well for the last games of the season and the forthcoming 2008 season.
As for the Fleming XI, a big thank you to James Fenton and Antony Way for arranging to visit Estonia and a massive thanks to their team for a fun and almost incident free game.
Skip
| Antony Way XI Vs ECA 1st VI |
| 1-Innings Match Played At Hippodrome, 11-Aug-2007, |
| Player / Match |
ECA:Puri, Anil |
| Antony Way XI 1st Innings 11/91 All Out (Overs 18) |
| Batsman |
Fieldsman |
Bowler |
Runs |
4s |
6s |
| 1 AW CC |
|
b Jason Barry |
21 |
0 |
0 |
| 2 AW CC |
c Murali Obili |
b Andres Burget |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| 3 AW CC |
|
b A Puri |
10 |
0 |
0 |
| 4 AW CC |
|
b A Puri |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 5 AW CC |
|
b Sanjiv Anand |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 6 AW CC |
|
b Murali Obili |
14 |
0 |
0 |
| 7 AW CC |
c Gleb Bihanovs |
b Jason Barry |
5 |
0 |
0 |
| 8 AW CC |
run out Andres Burget |
|
12 |
0 |
0 |
| 9 AW CC |
|
b Tim Heath |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| 10 AW CC |
|
c&b Murali Obili |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| 11 AW CC |
|
b Siva Arunachalam |
3 |
0 |
0 |
| extras |
|
(b6 lb0 w14 nb1) |
21 |
|
|
| TOTAL |
|
11 wickets for |
91 |
|
|
| Bowler |
O |
M |
R |
W |
wd |
nb |
| Gleb Bihanovs |
2 |
0 |
12 |
0 |
- |
- |
| Andres Burget |
2 |
0 |
25 |
1 |
- |
- |
| Jason Barry |
2 |
0 |
7 |
2 |
- |
- |
| A Puri |
2 |
0 |
3 |
2 |
- |
- |
| Sanjiv Anand |
2 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
- |
- |
| Raj |
2 |
0 |
19 |
0 |
- |
- |
| Tim Heath |
3 |
0 |
7 |
1 |
- |
- |
| Murali Obili |
2 |
1 |
5 |
2 |
- |
- |
| Siva Arunachalam |
1 |
0 |
3 |
1 |
- |
- |
| ECA 1st VI 1st Innings 5/92 (Overs 0) |
| Batsman |
Fieldsman |
Bowler |
Runs |
4s |
6s |
| Mihkel TommyD |
|
b 1 AW CC |
7 |
0 |
0 |
| Andres Burget |
lbw |
b 3 AW CC |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Gleb Bihanovs |
c |
b 1 AW CC |
2 |
0 |
0 |
| Venkatesh Endla |
run out |
|
0 |
0 |
0 |
| Murali Obili |
not out |
|
18 |
2 |
1 |
| Sanjiv Anand |
c |
b 4 AW CC |
0 |
0 |
0 |
| A Puri |
not out |
|
37 |
4 |
2 |
| Tim Heath |
dnb |
|
- |
|
|
| Jason Barry* |
dnb |
|
- |
|
|
| Martin Dungay+ |
dnb |
|
- |
|
|
| Siva Arunachalam |
dnb |
|
- |
|
|
| extras |
|
(b5 lb0 w27 nb1) |
33 |
|
|
| TOTAL |
|
5 wickets for |
92 |
|
|
|
