Match Report vs Rhiwbina 24 May 2016 @ Blackweir (Skipper Kim, report Shakey)

The sun poked defiantly from beneath the scattering of clouds as the faint stirrings of summer succumbed to a gentle evening chill. So there was some sun but it was a bit paarky like. That may explain why there were three tosses of the coin but I confess I haven’t a clue why. Anyway Kim won that encounter 2-1 and we had a bat.

Let’s be honest Kim has been rubbish this year. He barely gets past the first over before hitting it straight to a fielder. Hopefully young Ollie would show him how it should be done. Against some reasonable Rhiwbina bowling Ollie showed his desire to walk determinedly down the pitch to the bowler and hit from inside to out which he did to great effect. At the other end Kim struggled and was fortunate to survive a pretty adjacent lbw. But the strike was steadily shared and the ferocity of the hitting grew as the momentum of the attack moved from Ollie to Kim. The skipper smashed 6,6,6,4,1 before allowing Ollie to negotiate the final ball of the 8th over, a dot, to leave us on 73. The pace didn’t slacken – 87 from 10, 101 from 12 with Kim continuing to dominate. At some stage Ollie, like the rest of us, became a mere spectator. We watched as Kim took Rhiwbina apart with eight 6s and eight 4s – a mere 20 runs short of a century in boundaries alone. The hitting was brutal and merciless, more bludgeon than rapier. Every ounce of effort went in to hitting the ball as hard as he could, often with eyes expectantly shut and often out of the middle.

Records fell aplenty. When Ollie was bowled for a very good 33 the score stood at 131 in the 14th over – a 20 over record first wicket stand for the club. When Kim was run out chasing a suicidal second run for 127 it completed the highest individual score by a Casual in 20 over cricket. We finished on 196-4 due in no part whatsoever to a resolute 0* from Stevo.

Rhiwbina had an impossible task. One of their openers seemed up for joining the frenzy but he smashed it hard to cover off Luke – the fielder was Kim. After something of a recovery to 51-1 Shakes snuffed any thoughts of a close run chase out with 3 quick wickets (one courtesy of a smart running catch from Luke). Rhiwbina finally settled on 114-7 with Stevo picking up two wickets and Pete T one as we rushed through the overs in the gathering gloom of a still, padlocked and deserted park.

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