The bowlers on both teams had a day to enjoy. The artificial seamed & bounced & the outfield was as thick & heavy as it has been for many a year.
Not only was this Indian Tigers’ 1st year in the competition it was also their 1st match of the season. Luckily for Pacific they had already clocked up one month of activity, because the Tigers were slick in the field & had an enviable depth in bowling. However, it was their frailty in batting depth that saw them bowled out for a meagre 122 with slightly less than 10 overs remaining. Chris Atkin lead the attack and took an impressive five-fer, Sheldon Greenland was hostile & accurate & Faidal & Gleadow troubled the lower order consistently. The Pacific fielding could have been better, not matching their counterparts, particularly chances that were not taken but there were no complaints with the target.
Joe Bennett
Home team feel tension
Sheldon Greenland
In reply, Tigers had to take quick wickets to have a hope & 4-2 after 2 overs they bouncing & yelling with glee suggested they felt they were in with a shout.
Need less to say, Captain Jon Webley played easily the most assured innings of the game but when he was caught & bowled by left armer Jay , the game quickly tilted back into the balance. Tigers smelt blood 3 runs later when Faisal skied to cover & when Prirtchard holed out to midwicket & Korgaonkar was smartly run out by Raj, Tigers backed themselves to finish it off with the score at 99-8.
Luckily for Pacific, the coolest heads belonged to Chris Atkin & Sheldon Greenland, who edged their way into form before the latter smote a high full toss to the boundary with 5.2 overs to spare & 2 wickets in hand.
Captain Webley was delighted with the win, the 2 sides bowling attacks had dominated throughout & a very sporting contest could have gone either way.
Chris Atkin; Jim Davies; Lucius Faisal; James Gleadow; Pete
Hollman; Aroon Korgaonkar; Alistair Pritchard+; Sheldon Greenland; Kurt Rademaker; Jon Webley* & Joe Bennett.
