GCA Bowl, 05/06/2011
Irregulars: 136/9 Jones 5/16, Narayanan 2/30
Saints: 137/3, Romeril 47*, Brock 37

Saints followed up their first match win with another convincing victory over group leaders Irregulars at the KGV. A constant drizzle always threatened to curtail the game, but fortunately it never got strong enough to lose any cricket. Bowling first, Saints experienced a peculiar from a two-paced two-bounce pitch, which was recovering from a weekend of GPL action. Doddy at the top end struggled to extract any sort of pace or bounce, whereas Fezzle from the bottom end was unplayable, with good wheels and plenty of carry. Saints battled through the conditions as the ball quickly lost any shine and absorbed several gallons of water. Frequent rag work didn’t relieve it of a sponge like consistency. The conditions eventually allayed slightly, and as the pitch dried ever so slightly, the bowlers found a bit of action.

Playing in his first game of the season, Dave Jones was the pick of the Saints bowlers, finding a nagging line and length and creating chance after chance. The 5fer he managed was well deserved, although had a couple of other decisions, stumpings and catches gone to plan, it could have been more. Sean Romeril also found some unplayable turn, ripping the ball off the tops of the mud deposited on the track. Saints took regular wickets, whose bowlers were backed up by some quality fielding from Chris Hurley and Ron Weasley. At 90/9, Irregulars looked down and out. But a last wicket partnership of 40, as half the Saints side succumbed to the previous night’s beers, saw them bat out their overs. But 136 never looked enough. And it wasn’t.

Sean and Brocky opened up and despite the rain having increased and turned the pitch into a veritable chocolate filled mud bath, were rarely troubled by some average bowling and fielding. Saints kept well ahead of the 3 and a smidge run rate, as Brocky rattled up a quick 37 before a heave went wrong. Young Luke Pattimore was undone quickly, but DJ joined Sean and they got Saints within sniffing distance. An ugly attempted moo saw DJ1 bowled allowing DJ2 to take Saints to the glory, seeing it home with Sean. Sean ended on a superb 47* – the man is literally a run machine at the moment.

Saints will be disappointed to have not secured a full 20 points, but with this sort of team and form, a spot in the semi finals looks very likely.