The following report was written by our team captain; Tapojoy Mandal.
A mere run separated us from Sendai in the first game, played over 10 overs. The highlights when bowling included a spectacular tumbling catch by Julie, who, by allowing the ball to bounce off her arms, shoulders and hands before she finally grabbed it with a face-forward dive, outdid David Thompson's similar effort (he only let it bounce once and so wasn't as spectacular). The catch gave Wil a wicket in his debut over. Julie followed that up with a wicket in her first-ever over as well, while Abby dismissed their wicket-keeper again. When batting, Paul played a spectacular debut innings - before being forced to retire on 22, he had spanked the ball all over the ground, losing the ball at least twice. Owen matched him with a good innings at the top of the order, but with both retired, the job to take us over the line, at the required rate of a run a ball, fell to debutants Robin and Todd. Very tight bowling by an experienced Sendai bowler made the task very difficult. It came down to us needing 2 runs to win off the last ball, and although Robin made a brave dive and looked to have made his crease, he was declared run out and we were denied even a tie.
Much as that loss irritated us, we now knew we had to cut out the small mistakes in the field. The next game was a longer, 12-over contest, and we bowled and fielded brilliantly to restrict Sendai to a paltry 67 runs. We had the harder job of bowling and fielding in pouring rain, but Robin and Todd picked up their maiden wickets, and Julie and both Davids chipped in with important breakthroughs. Owen showed Sendai that wicketkeeping gloves were for sissys, with two stumpings and a catch with his bare hands. Tapo got into the act with the final two balls of the innings, getting two bowleds including the opposition captain for a golden duck (out without scoring first ball), completing 3 overs conceding only 6 runs. The fielding was effective throughout, with Austin and Julie particularly sharp.
The rain receded but Akita's ballistic batting made Sendai wish it was still raining so that they could go home. Although Austin's foray as an opener ended with the first ball, he ran bravely for Wil, who had managed to tweak a muscle within a few minutes of taking the field. Wil followed Paul's lead in playing a debut innings of bravado, although he often forgot he had a runner and would set off at a hobble every time he connected. After he was dismissed for 23, we had a brief hiccup with some quick wickets, including Tapo when his foot brushed the base of the stumps and a bail dropped - quite unfortunate, considering in real cricket there is no base that sticks out half a foot either side - but then we unleashed Owen and he all but finished things off with a manic 25, retiring with just a run to get. Cue Abby to be in the middle during the winning moment as she has often done before, although it was left to Julie to clout the winning run. We had beaten them comfortably with several balls to spare and shown that the first game was just an aberration.
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