Reinier Poort captaining the 3rds Door ingrid

Reinier Poort captaining the 3rds....

Door ingrid op do, 2016-06-30 13:18

So there I was, captaining the magical thirds of Kampong. Big shoes to fill!!! After a tactical meeting with the captain Friday night I was left with a headache about the batting line up on the Saturday morning (at least that was the most logical explanation).

Sunday morning came. One of our players thought he wasn’t playing and the Captain was live from Croatia making sure all 11 turned up on time. Scorebook - check, match balls - check, training balls - check, extra set of whites - check, ready for our trip to(wards) Germany.I took control of the music in the car and found out that Pieter is a massive fan of Dutch après ski hits!!! Very entertaining trip ;-)

Arriving in Hengelo, looking at the outfield, I had to win the toss so we could field first. No lucky coin, a loss, and to my surprise Hengelo decided to bowl first. A wise choice because the outfield was slow. Balls that normally go for four stopped well in front of the boundary. But back to the opening pair at the start of our innings... That was a very short stay at the crease, two ducks for Nick and Guido. Tush came in at number 3 and after a few overs he was trapped well in front of the wicket (blue too to prove it), complaining about not getting any half volleys. At the other end File, batting very sensibly, was not able to turn very quickly for the second run. Our number 5, Oupa, doesn’t mind a slow jog and not running jogging the 2nd one. Oupa finally (hours later, but only 10 runs to speak of - Captain Slow has a competitor) played one off his legs straight into the hands of the fielder. Gijs, at 6, came in and played proper cricket shots right from the start, making it look very easy. First boundary of the day, a straight six from File. As mentioned before, the four shots stopped well in front of the boundary. When Deepak came in to bat I thought it was a nice idea to let Tush umpire, especially because the two made a bet last Friday who would score the most runs. Tush had the opportunity to win this bet, but the thought of not getting any pocket money for the rest of the year made him decide otherwise. Deepak came out winning that bet, shouting who is your Daddy boy!!! Worth mentioning in our batting innings are: Gijs, Pieter’s defence, and the late cameo from Tamin at 11 (practicing some ramp shots before he got out) that got us to 114 ao.

Time for our fielding innings, opening the bowling were Yousuf and Varun. Yousuf was complaining about the swing, something I thought bowlers like when bowling. Over number one was expensive, time for Varun to tighten things up at the other end. Yousuf got two wickets (caught Guido and Tamin) but was a bit on the expensive side. Time for a change, Gijs to take over. Bowling well but not able to get a wicket. At the other end, Varun was still bowling and got a wicket, caught by Oupa, whose feet didn't move an inch, he likes the easy ones (catches, not ladies). Time for a change because the runs were coming at a steady pace and the batsman seemed pretty confident playing the seamers. Having two leg spinners in your team is really nice especially to let them bowl in tandem. Runs came but also wickets, a quick stumping from Nick, followed by a drop (sorry Nick). A sharp catch for Daddy at first slip, a running catch for Oupa, or was it jogging? Guido, probably still with his mind on the gig from last night, was unlucky not to hold onto another catch. File in The Deep held onto his textbook catch. 7 wickets down and the Hengelo fort was very shaky and ready to tumble. Unfortunately, we were probably 30 runs short. Let’s blame the slow outfield in the first innings.

Our next game is against Hilversum and we might have a surprise selection coming up. See you next game!!! 

R. Poort