Today we had an afternoon game against Germantown cricket club. Jonty Rhodes was playing for them as a guest player so we were all looking forward to the challenge. I won the toss and we batted, Keith and I opening as usual. This time, he got run out early calling for a suicide single and getting sent back. Richard came and went, falling to a skidding ball that kept low. Then Richard (#2) and I shared in a long partnership.
Jonty Rhodes was a first change bowler for them and showed why he had only bowled 3 overs in his test career! He bowled medium pace outswingers but not menacing enough to cause too muhc trouble. One over I took him for 10 runs, including a pull over square leg and a seuare drive through point. After that shot he remarked "Where is my backward point? Oh yeah, he is bowling!". It was nice to watch him throw himself around in the field and you can certainly see why he was one of the best in this area. Certainly a really nice guy and a pleasure to play against.
In the game - Richard scored a 50 and then had to retire (festival rules) and I followed a few overs later bringing up my landmark with a 6 over mid-off. 54 from about 45 balls was my final tally. Our team then continued on quite well and we ended up with about 210 from our 25 overs.
With the ball, our guys did well, taking a couple of early wickets and bringing Jonty to the crease. Our two West Indian pacemen (Bert and Tony) were then summoned and while bowling well, were unable to get the breakthrough. Jonty eventually retired after hitting a nice 50, include a few very nice shots through square leg off Tony. He showed what a test player can do against mortals like us!
In the end, we won the match, getting them all out for about 120 or so. So now we are 2 wins from our 4 games and looking forward to playing the "NY Aussies" tommorrow, a team that has a few of the extra Mad Dogs among their ranks. They have been talking a big game and giving us a hard time about how badly they expect to beat us...but hopefully we get to put them in their place tomorrow.
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