An unusually warm and sunny day set the scene for a good match against strong opposition on a decent looking batting track. The home captain and Black Rose's vice mutually agreed for Pacific to field first as the majority of the opposition was late and both wanted the same outcome anyhow.
Rees and Atkin did a reasonable job opening the bowling, beating the bat many times in between slogs that were missing fielders or going to and over the fence. Rees fought back from a monster six to have the dangerous Mishra caught by Webley, who took a great running catch after cleverly positioning himself in the outfield. With one opener settled and starting to look dangerous newcomer Jig came on and took two quick wickets to have the visiting side 3-87 with the match in the balance.
Enter Shah, Pacific's tormentor in recent years who cut his first ball to the boundary with effortless timing. As usual Shah took risks and when a chance went down early in his innings he capitalised with some help from the middle order, putting all bowlers to the sword apart from the reliable economiser Gleadow who managed to keep things in check. A wicket and sharp run out by Rees towards the end, along with a comical stumping off Tempany's bowling kept the total below 300 and gave Pacific hope.
If he hadn't done enough damage already Shah opened the bowling and removed Webley, Lahri, Bastin and the dangerous Tempany all cheaply to leave the home team 4-52 and facing an enormous task. However, where there is life there is hope. Atkin joined the in-form and fluent Roy at the crease and both batsman decided to enjoy themselves, take the singles and get themselves in, before putting pressure back on the bowling side and making the most of the great batting track.
With a combination of hard running, orthodox cricket shots and pure slogging, both batsman kept up to the soaring required run rate of 10-11 an over and got Pacific back in the game with a counter attacking 155 run partnership that seemed to crack the visitors as they turned on each other in the field. Just when Pacific looked to have the game in control the departures of Roy and Atkin in quick succession gave the momentum back to Black Rose, and the dismissal of the in-form Rees then put the target of 290 out of reach. Pacific ended the day with a competitive total of 251, which on any other day may have seemed a winning score.
All in all an entertaining day of cricket was had with 540 runs scored, many balls lost and great weather being the icing on the cake. As seems to be the trend, dropped catches and lack of batting partnerships hurt Pacific who were outplayed by a better team on the day.
Captain Chris Atkin said "It was a good day in the end as we made it competitive, but a shame we couldn't beat them. We missed a few chances in the field which hurt us, but it wasn't to be."
All rounder Shayne Rees "Real bummer about not winning yesterday. Kicking myself for causing Chris to be run out. Those early innings jitters getting the better of me."
Spin bowler Allan Roberts "Sunday's game ended up being pretty good thanks to Chris and JR's
batting - we got pretty ragged in the field under their 6-hitting assault
but did well to be in with an outside chance with only 5 overs to go. I
have never seen so many balls lost in one innings starting from over 1.
"
