Laguna secure victory against the Village
In the 4th round of the Outrigger T20 league, Laguna took on the Village in the afternoon game on Sunday 27 July 2014 at the Alan Cooke Ground (AGC). With both teams looking to secure their first win, they had all to play for.
After winning the toss, the Village elected to field first due to the threat of impending rain which would give them a potential advantage in a shortened game. Laguna got off to a brisk start with openers Sameer Khan (11) and Iqbal Malik (31) until Craig Patterson got the early breakthrough in the 4th over, dismissing Khan with the score on 18. Big hitting Ali Khan then came to the crease looking to accelerate the run rate but also had an early exit and with 2-33, Laguna would need a steadying influence to get their innings back on track. Damian Clowes (38) provided just this as he went steadily about building the innings. He and Malik returned to the clubhouse with 69 runs on the board at the 10 over drinks break. However, not long after, Malik’s innings came to an end after a 37 run partnership. The rest of the Laguna batsmen failed to get a start due to some tight bowling but even better fielding by some of the Thai youngsters, notably Pan and Karn who demonstrated to their more experienced team-mates some great fielding skills, taking some great catches and executing some run outs, as Laguna lumbered along to be all out for 133 after 19.5 overs.
For the Village, the score was definitely an achievable target if they applied themselves to the task at hand. Laguna achieved a breakthrough in the 4th over when Sam Ali lofted a ball to deep backward point to be caught out with the score on 13. Meanwhile, fellow opener Kevin Quilty (25) played a lone hand until he was clean bowled by Malik in the 7th over and Village were 2-43. Nadeem Youseff was then introduced into the bowling attack in the next over and his accurate line and length paid dividends, picking up 2 wickets in his first over. Youseff continued to contain the Village, picking up a further two wickets and had Village reeling with 6-59 in the 14th over. His excellent bowling spell resulted with him taking 4 wickets for a miserly 6 runs from his 4 over spell. None of Village batsmen apart from Quilty managed to reach double figures, and the Village could only manage 9-77 after their 20 overs, 57 runs short of their target.
The next fixture is on Sunday 03 rd August with Laguna playing Bondi Bar Bashers in the morning and The Village playing Thalang in the afternoon. Start times are 10am and 2pm respectively.
