WSL Final

Saturday marked the day of our cricket league final. Our league, the WSL or World Series League has been running since 2001, named by a prior captain with a sense of humour. Our opponent on the day was our arch-enemy, Columbia University. We have had a history of some chippy games with them over the years, this year's fixture where they beat us on their field was no different, so we were all well motivated to put a beating on them. The Mad Dogs have had a good record in the WSL, winning it two of the last 3 years but wanted to get the trophy back in our keeping. Columbia have made 4 straight finals...would it be 4 straight losses???

We lost the toss and were sent in...we know they liked to chase so this was no surprise. We started OK, they bowled well but were a little erratic with a lot of wides as well...but after about 9 overs we were 3/35, with our three biggest hitters back in the shed. I was still there, scratching around but it seemed that just when we were getting a partnership going, we would lose another one. I ended up being the 5th wicket to fall in about the 20th over but by then, I knew we had enough batting to get us to a decent score. However, we did leave it quite late to make a run - Anand (#6) and Woody (#8) put on a nice partnership, Woody cashing in with a few big hits. He eneded up getting a quick 38, Anand a more patient 35 but this was enough...with some further scrambling to get us to 185 from our overs. I was quite happy with this. 180 was my target score aand I think we could defend anything over 140 if we bowled well, so now it was over the the bowlers...

Things started well for us. We had Prasanna bowling spin from one end and Bert, our West Indian "nasty fasty" coming down the hill. This really put them onto the back foot. Both picking up early wickets and Bert hitting one of their players in the helmet, sending him to the hospital for a scan. Despite going very well, the plan was to bowl Prasanna for 4 overs only, then save him until the end. We then had Anand and Neil to both bowl spin from that end and rotate the quicks from the top end. Well...Anand bowled his 7 overs, finishing with figures of 6/10! And the game was all but over. A final wicket to Woody finished things up and we had rolled them for 40! Bert was bowling very quickly, probably the best I have seen him actually. He demolished them in the final two years ago as well...seems to save his best for the big games.

We really had all things covered in this match...Prasanna - leggie; Anand - left arm finger spinner; Neil - right arm finger spinner; Bert - pace; Woody and Nick - medium pace seamers...and more options as well. It was so nice to smash them and shut their mouths. Their injured player returned after the match. I made my "you got a brain scan and they didn't find anything" joke...but he didn't get it of course.

So, then to the celebrations. First, a group shot in front of the scoreboard - wanted that to stick in the memory. Then a few beers and some pizza at the ground before we all departed. Nothing too crazy, I guess that is the problem having players from such a large area. In the end, a perfect afternoon of cricket...and a better result.

Mindy can now see the light at the end of the cricket tunnel. One more game in two weeks, our intra-club challenge: "Old Dogs v Young Pups" match. Loosely an Over 40 v Under 40 match, but normally the dividing line is a couple of years younger than that. I think this year I have crossed the median line to be an Old Dog, we will see how things work out once all of the availabilities are in. Having seen Bert bowl on Saturday, not really looking forward to facing him actually!