The Rats travelled to Hagley park number 4 for a game against the Saints, previous games had seen a few ties between them and some great battles. Heathcote skipper Sean Coster called correctly and chose to insert saints on a nice looking deck and lush outfield still a bit damp.
Heathcote playing with Scott James Mcewan in his first game back after a long spell off for surgery on his ankle he broke last year and two debuts of Ian and Mark. I choose to start off the long run as my surgery date is locked in so nothing to loose . Got Gibbs with one that did something strange for me, apparently it's called swing. Runs were hard to come by initially and hampo then pulled up lame with a bad Achilles. The initial call for a quick single was declined and we didn't bother trying to run out a cast man. Early drinks taken . Play resumed with hampo having a runner but he couldn't push on, hope it heals fast mate. Scott got a beauty to hit the stumps and should have had another but butter fingers skip decided to plough the field instead. Not sure of the score but iggo (45) and Smith(30) calmed the shop for a long spell taking the total to 86 at second drinks after 30 overs 5 down.Skip taking 3 wickets shouldered the workload. Scott put on the gloves and Jason Smith came to bowl a few getting two good wickets for 18 , vasu cleaned up in the last over getting two wickets and Potty managed to smash a nice one for four off the last ball leaving the Rats with a chase of 141. To be fair I think given the way the track played and the field acting as an extra fielder it wasn't bad total maybe 20 short. Out to bat we went and some tight bowling from them had a similar scorecard as we duly followed suit from their batting to try our best to replicate. Flav not conceding much if anything and Norm bowled a very good length to tie up an end. Potty and Eagle again the nagging length with runs a premium. Ian in his first bat in a loooong time looked solid until just before drinks holing out. Jeremy(36) only playing in his third game after hip surgery recovery out to bat and not exactly excited to run the quick singles and twos back in after holding the middle overs together . Vasu (36*) only started playing with a leather ball once he got to NZ and had hardly played on a grass area if at all, he had never hit a six till getting to NZ and he just keeps getting better. Joined by Mark (34*) in his first game in nearly a year with the game in the balance with the 30 over scores being very close to each other then took the game and pushed the tempo smashing some great shots around the ground with a big six nearly getting the skipper. The weather had just turned on us in the last few overs so unfortunately not much chat after the game but an enjoyable game for the teams in the sun while it lasted. Thanks Saints you're a great bunch of men. Hampo I hope it's not too serious mate. Not long now to the split but the top group looks already set. Good luck all for the remainder, cheers Cam
