A two day game that really was a tale of a game of two days. A rain soaked first day saw wickets tumble before a long sun baked windswept Sunday saw a run fest. Pacific lost the toss and were made to field on an overcast drizzly Saturday morning.
Gleadow struck in the first over before a rain break after six overs. On resumption Gleadow and Smith keep bowled tightly without making great inroads. Hess came on and his extra pace was able to generate some real bounce on an increasingly soaked and inconsistent wicket. Korgaonkar bowled well in very difficult conditions for a spinner. At lunch the score was about 70/6. Rain at lunch delayed matters for two hours and necessitated a change of wicket. On resumption and inbetween further rain breaks Hess was far too fiery for the Crossbats tail although Fraser hit a couple of sixes of Korgaonkar.
There was talk of an innings victory at this point but as the poor weather continued Pacific folded to 77/7 at the close. Only Parkinson showed the needed resolve although Lay was seemingly unlucky to be out to a bump ball.
The evening was spent in disparate locations although a core went to a dodgy Chinese and then ten pin bowling apparently.
There was an early restart at 10am on a very windy morning. Pacific's tail was quickly wrapped up although Gleadow and Korgaonkar did show some resistance on a still lively freshly rolled wicket in their last wicket partnership. Crossbats led by 19 runs.
There was still some life in the wicket at the start of Crossbats 2nd innings and Hess bagged a couple more wickets in a good opening spell. Holliday bagged a second super stumping of the game off Gleadow to remove the big hitter Dunbar and at lunch the score was effectively 95/4. The wind ensured the wicket was dry and a road by the time the match resumed after lunch. Winch and Fraser assumed command as the game seemed to drift with the skipper rotating the bowling and strangely reluctant to call on Smith to bowl whilst Crossbats did not seem to show much urgency. Eventually Winch opened his shoulders and Gleadow went for 40 off 3 overs (including a couple of sixes into the road over deep midwicket from balls a foot outside off) before Smith returned to take a wicket and force a run out and the declaration.
Croft was bowled before tea was taken and Pacific thoughts seemed to focus on a draw. However, Webley and Shamsuddin got off to a fluent start and managed to lose the new ball in the ball magnet vacuum that was the hedge. Their running did not inspire confidence though and eventually Saif was the victim. Webley survived an early drop at cover and was superb on the back foot in pulling sixes to the short boundary and was at his fluent best. Once Parkinson joined him the chase always looked achievable (130 off the last 20). Crossbats heads dropped and they had basically given up the ghost by the time the score got to 220. Webley powered on to 151 not out and Parkinson, fortunate to survive a run out appeal, made a thumping 65.
