Off the legs for a couple
I fell in love with cricket while watching David Boon craft out a
solid 64 on 12th January 1993 in a one dayer against the Pakistan in
the Benson & Hedges one day series match.
Pretty much ever since this moment, cricket has been an obsession of
mine where I soon started dreaming of playing in England. Something to do with
the romantic notion of idyllic English village greens surrounded by white
picket fences, with the cricket being played in a truly gentlemanly fashion
always made the idea seem so alluring.
Well, after more than 20 years, the dream became a reality. I was
lucky to come across a colleague at work who invited me to play with his team.
I gratefully accepted the offer.
Unfortunately the first game of the season was washed out, and then
I was unavailable for the second, so I was forced to wait quite a while to
finally make my debut.
When the big day finally rolled around, I awoke to a very cold and
overcast morning. Upon making my way to the ground and inspecting the wicket, I
greeted by a very green, and very soft strip. The conditions were classically English.
Batting was not going to be easy.
Having only played one game in past three years, I was quite
surprised that after winning the toss and electing to bat, the captain pointed
to me and told me to pad up to open the batting, having no idea of my abilities
beyond my response to his question that ‘yes – I have played club cricket
before’.
I made my way out to the middle with the familiar old feeling of
butterflies in the stomach. I was certainly keen to get off the mark quickly so
that at the very least, I could claim to have made a run on English soil. Given
the state of the wicket, I wasn’t too confident that I would be able survive
too long.
Fortunately, I didn’t have to wait long. I gratefully accepted a
half volley on leg stump in the first over and managed to get solid on drive
away for two.
I was away.
After 35 overs, we ended up making 198. A fantastic result. I
managed to survive the demons in the pitch and made my way to 51 off about 15
overs before having to retire.
The defense of our imposing total started slowly, with the
opposition getting off to a brisk and wicket free start. Once we finally made
our first break through, we managed to pick up a flurry of wickets which put us
in a very comfortable position heading into the drinks break.
Over drinks the captain asked me if I bowl, to which I replied ‘not
really’.
Sure enough, first over after drinks, I found myself standing at the
top of my mark with the ball in my hand.
Having not bowled in a match for at least five years, I was
genuinely concerned about my ability to get it on the pitch. After a couple of
very gentle and tentative looseners, I managed to find a nice rhythm and hit a
good line a length.
Four overs later, I had managed to pick up 3 wickets for 8 runs and
finish the match. All that was left was to head to the pub for a quiet ale to
celebrate a great win.
It certainly was a nice way to debut on English soil, and the
cricketing gods were certainly smiling down on me.* Given that it’s an Ashes
year and Australia is certainly struggling for runs at the moment, the timing
couldn’t have been better to stake my claim for a national call up.
*This might have had something to do with the fact that the standard of play was incredibly 'social', and that if I'm honest, I was probably playing a higher standard of senior cricket when I was 12...but lets not let facts get in the way of a good story.
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