Bondi Bar Bashers impress with victory over Village

PHUKET: In the second round of the Outrigger T20 competition, the Village played Bondi Beach Bashers in what promised to be an exciting game with The Village welcoming back a few of their previous stars.

The Village won the toss and elected to bat, however, they got off to a shaky start, losing both their opening batsmen in the first two overs. Foster was spectacularly caught by Richard Desmond at mid-wicket off just the fourth ball of the opening over. Desmond seemed to glide towards the ball in slow motion to snatch the opening wicket with a fantastic catch.

Camden Dupreez soon followed his fellow batsman to the clubhouse after he was trapped LBW off the bowling of Mushtaq for just one run. Whetton stepped to the crease and got off to a solid start, but some technical bowling from Suttiprapha (Pao) saw Whetton caught behind by Anthony Van Blerk. The Bondi Beach Bashers bowlers piled on the pressure with some intense and accurate bowling.

The wickets continued to fall and The Village soon found themselves in trouble at 5 for 17 after just 6 overs. Ali stepped in for The Village and ushered the team through a tricky period for the batting side. He was definitely the pick of the batsmen, scoring 31 runs off 30 balls, including 4 fours. He was eventually dismissed by Pir Sami, who bowled a stinging delivery to knock down the stumps and send Ali on his way. A great display of bowling backed up by sharp fielding restricted The Village to a total of 80 runs in 15.6 overs.

After missing the opening game last week due to injury, Mushtaq opened the batting for the Bondi Beach Bashers alongside Raju. After a sterling performance with the ball (3 for 14 from 3 overs), Mushtaq continued his good form with the bat. He controlled the innings from start to finish with some powerful and elegant batting. Raju supported him superbly, but allowed his partner to obtain the majority of the strike. Mushtaq scored 66 runs off just 40 balls, including 10 fours, and with a strike-rate of 165.

The opening batters steered their team to an impressive victory, needing just 9.4 overs. A man-of-the-match performance by Mushtaq secured a second win in succession for the Bondi Beach Bashers, getting their T20 season off to the perfect start and look like the team to beat in this year’s competition.

The next fixture is on Sunday 20th with Laguna playing Thalang in the morning game and ICC plays Bondi Bar Bashers in the afternoon. Start times are 10am and 2pm respectively.

If you are interested in getting involved with cricket in Phuket, email the Phuket Cricket Group Chairman at chairman@phuketcricketgroup.com, or visit www.phuketcricketgroup.com for more information.