Doctors open the account with a win
- Shamsul Kazi
- May 14, 2018
- 3 min read
Graybridge XI 114 (38.0) def by PDCC 136 (41.0)
H Shahid 49, A Panju 5/21(9.0), S. Kazi 3/20
http://mycricket.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/match.aspx?locx=MATCH&matchID=2864981
Welcome back to another winter of the weekly match review. A column known to be exhilarating and nail-biting read to the very end.
In this week’s edition we’ve got the first game of the PDCC season, with the Doctors coming up against Graybridge XI.
Swapping to the Sunday comp for the first time this winter, there were a lot of unknowns going in to the game, but one thing that remained the same was the Marchant deck. Somewhat truer than what Marchant is known for the pitch offered a bit more bounce and life. Though a nice soft patch a couple of metres from the popping crease on the off-stump line was bound to provide a few stories.
Fresh off a flight from his intellectual expedition to Scandinavia, Rob Corrigan once again took captain duties. Stalwarts like yours truly, were back again, but with the omissions of the likes of M Boys, M Boyd and G Douglas, a few spots opened up in the squad, leading to the debuts of A Arora and MS Tahir.
Captain Corrigan would go on to lose the toss on a fresh Brisbane morning, a temperate 16 degrees on the ground making it feel more like an English summer than a Brisbane winter, with the Doctors being sent in to bat.
J Sharma and A Panju opened the innings and played with ease before Panju lost focus and let a quicker ball through. Arora came in at one down and showed flair, with some classical strokeplay, but he was the first of many victims to the Murphy, the wily left armer coming from the Hill end. Murphy would go on to take another three, ending with figures of 4/18 from his nine overs.
The Doctors kept losing wickets at regular intervals and even the minor fightback from Shahid and Corrigan wasn’t enough to save the innings from falling short of a par score. Shahid the only resistance with 49, before the Doctors were rolled for 136.
The bowling effort got off to just as shaky a start, with a dropped catch off Jain, followed by a controversial not out call from the square leg umpire. The shakes even got to the captain who dropped one right after he’d been moved to where the ball was hit. He made up for it the next over though. The ball somehow tracking him to cover from a miscued slash, after he’d swapped himself out of mid-wicket.
Graybridge seemed to be making use of their luck as they accumulated runs before eventually getting the hang of Jain’s pace and taking him to the boundary.
Now, this may sound like I’m tooting my own horn, but the next wicket came from a nice bit of planned bowling by this writer brought about the next wicket. Having bowled full the first few balls, a couple of quicker well directed short bowls pushed the opposition batsman back and with the final ball of the over being a slower off cutter on the stumps, and as all C grade batsman do, he swung and swung too early, leaving his stumps a mess.
This wasn’t enough to stop Graybridge though, at 2/62 at drinks, they were well and truly in control before the spin king made his entrance. Soon they were 3/63 and then 4/64 before the pressure of two quick wickets lead to an irrational call for a second run off the hand of the debutant, Tahir, who fired one in from mid-on for Chaudhary to take the bails.
Again Graybridge, settled the ship and again it was Panju to break the deadlock. Jain would then follow up with a brilliant piece of fielding from square leg, taking out the stumps with a direct hit, having had one stump to aim at.
Panju would take his five-wicket haul not with his usual ripping leggie or with that devious wrong’un but with a loopy excuse of delivery that floated above the eyeline before it quickly dipped hitting the stumps before the ground.
The last wicket proved elusive though, with the tailenders putting on 17, before the innings was wrapped up on 114.
The Doctors winning by 22 runs to open their season with a W.
Tune in in two weeks’ time when PDCC come up against The Brisbane Legends at Kianawah Park.