[Draft 2] The Playoffs -- Season Two

[eugene]

I was clearly robbed by some questionable umpiring decisions.

[foreignfield]

Not unlikely, with hhm officiating at one end and doing his best for 'the cause', and anusha gamage employed at the other end as a cost-cutting measure.

[Jemisi]

[eugene]

Not unlikely, with hhm officiating at one end and doing his best for 'the cause', and anusha gamage employed at the other end as a cost-cutting measure.

I took Anusha's advice and bowled first as s/he always said. Didn't turn out to be a winning decision.

[rusty17]

*Nrl post game speech*

Full credit to the boys. We really dug in and got the job done today. We’ll reset and come back next week but yeah full credit to the boys

[foreignfield]

*Nrl post game speech*

Full credit to the boys. We really dug in and got the job done today. We’ll reset and come back next week but yeah full credit to the boys

[foreignfield]

Quarterfinal 3

Holders brmtaylor.com crash to massive defeat

jaybro 253/9 beats brmtaylor.com 186 all out (42.2 overs) by 67 runs

In an all Australian encounter at the picturesque ZCF Academy Ground (formerly known as ZCF Country Club) the all-conquering Oz brigade of forum instigator and administrator brmtaylor.com today met their master in jaybro’s less patriotically composed outfit. A change of venues had been necessary after the forum’s man on the ground, Googly, had taken his role as groundsman a bit too literally, digging a grave in the outfield for the corpse of Zimbabwe cricket.

The opening pair of Watson (53) and Sharma (79), mixing caution with aggression, put on a hundred runs for the first wicket, brmtaylor.com’s quicks striving in vain for the breakthrough. It needed an inspired bowling change in the guise of young Wes Madhevere (1/38) to break the stand. Now the pacers were brought back, and when Sangakkara (2), woefully short of runs in this format, was cleaned up by Cummins (3/49), and Jayawardene (14) nicked Hazelwood (3/54) behind, a collapse looked imminent. But JP Duminy and Brendon McCullum (31 off 27) had other ideas. Instead of consolidating they went on the counterattack. Mitch Johnson (2/62 off 9 overs) came in for some heavy punishment, especially at the hands of a rampant JP Duminy (40 off 15 balls). Jadeja (1/37 off 7) and Steve Smith (1/41 off 7) managed to pull things back somewhat, and with Raza (2) and Steyn (6) hardly troubling the scorers, it was left to the duo of Rabada (9 off 17) and Yadaw (14 off 30) to make sure that jaybro for once batted the full fifty overs. A batting score of 250 was evenly matched by brmtaylor.com’s 281/11, i.e. 256 runs conceded, the resulting total of 253 a more than competitive score in this competition.

And so it proved. In reply only the duo of Brendan Taylor (50) and Wes Madhevere (52), keeping the Zim flag flowing proudly, managed to cross 50 against an attack that mixed hostility and discipline to devastating effect. Once Dale Steyn (3/28 off 5.3 overs) had broken the opening stand by removing Finch for a run-a-ball 36, the middle order collapsed to Rabada (4/54) and Mohammad Amir, continuing his good form with 3/50. Kallis went for a duck, his all-round contribution also zero as a bad knee had earlier kept him from bowling. This surely must be the end of the line for big Jacques in this form of simulation cricket. The Aussie duo of Smith and Clarke who had taken their side to victory in last season’s final, only managed ten runs between them, Smith (1) tamely chipping Shane Watson (1/31 off 8) to mid-wicket, while Clarke struggled to 9 runs off 18 balls before falling to Yadav (2/41). JP Duminy capped his first innings’ fireworks with a miserly spell of six overs for 16 runs that included the prized wicket of MS Dhoni (11). There was even time for Raza to bowl a complimentary over for two runs. All in all, jaybro’s bowlers took 14/222 and thus conceded a paltry 167 runs. Brmtaylor.com’s tailenders did their bit to reduce the margin of defeat, Jadeja (19), Johnson (16) and Hazelwood (11) all getting into double figures and pushing the batting score to 205, but when Dale Steyn bowled Cummins for a first-ball duck, it was all over and last season’s whipping-boy jaybro had sealed a memorable win.

MOM
JP Duminy

[jaybro]

I feel now vindicated, many doubted my side but they’re showing their class now

Onto the next round

[CrimsonAvenger]

A change of venues had been necessary after the forum’s man on the ground, Googly, had taken his role as groundsman a bit too literally, digging a grave in the outfield for the corpse of Zimbabwe cricket.

These are great reads! Congrats jaybro! That is a massive scalp!

[jaybro]

These are great reads! Congrats jaybro! That is a massive scalp!

Thanks CA

The guys were really disappointed after the way they bowed out against Eugene’s overhyped pretenders, they went away worked on the basics and had a look at where it all went wrong.

The boys made a committed effort to put away the reverse sweep & play straight, whilst the fielders backed up the bowlers who concentrated on Yorkers instead of slower balls