2007philadelphiacricketfestival

A beautiful morning at Merion saw a team of stiff Dogs, or Dogs’ stiffs, turn up for game 2 of the PICF. Quirk, to universal amazement, won the toss, breaking a monstrous losing streak. The Dogs fielded, Boyke and Santosh opened up against Niv and Parnell, who batted in very different styles in an opening stand of 77, Niu batting powerfully, Parnell nudging and nurdling. Santosh had some wides’ trouble, and Niv struck a few fours. Boyke was extremely steady, but luckless against both openers. Harrison and Quirk replaced the seamers, and also bowled well, Quirk taking the first wicket by going for the old Merion-roof ploy, lobbing as nice juicy full bung at Niu who, somehow, failed to connect fully and succeeded only in lobbing a catch to Harrison on the deep midwicket boundary, where the fielder judged a tough catch with aplomb to dismiss the key batsman for 32. Parnell fell soon after, advancing to Quirk and missing to be stumped by Bannerjee for 31. Connell and Joss put on another 26 before Moore replaced Quirk and saw his first ball struck hard and high by Joss, but right down Prasanna’s throat at deep mid-wicket to leave for 15. Harrison had bowled cannily but without luck and was replaced by Prasanna, who bowled Connell for a hard-hit 23, and then persuaded Khan (6) to slog him into the pavilion, to be out under ground rules (caught “Roof”) and with a 10-run penalty to boot. Moore then got rid of Hounsell, caught and bowled off a high-skied top-edge for 3. Nuttal and Witchell then batted through the closing overs carefully and steadily against some tight bowling by Prasanna and Moore, before Moore had Nuttal stumped on the charge off the last ball of the innings. The final total of 148 for 7 off 25 overs was a lot better for the Dogs than it might have been.

Boyke 3-2-2-0

Santosh 2-0-23-0

Harrison 5-0-31-0

Quirk 5-0-38-2

Prasanna 5-0-32-2

Moore 5-0-24-3

Still, that kind of total would take some getting, and a good start was important. Lawrence and Trappler put on 24 in the first 5 wickets before Lawrence unaccountably mowed a catch off Parnell to midwicket to leave for only 6 (12 balls). Santosh joined Trappler, and an excellent partnership of 34 was assembled in the next 5 overs, as Trappler pulled and pushed his way to a Dogs highest score of 30 in great style (well, maybe not great style, but with great effect!). Santosh too batted very well, driving and chipping runs with good skill, in an important stand that was ended when Trappler was marginally stumped off Long (30, 38 balls, 1 x 4). Prasanna came in at 58 for 2 to play what looked to be a critical anchor innings as he took the trouble to settle in. But for some strange reason, Prasanna chipped a comfortable catch to mid-off off Joss, to depart for 6 (9 balls). Quirk was the last front-line batsmen, but he too fell cheaply, run out for 5 (10 balls) off a sharp single, with the score on 91 in the 16^th over. Santosh then fell, bowled on the drive for a thoroughly good 27 (32 balls). Moore joined Harrison at 103 for 5 off 18.3 overs, 46 wanted from 6.3 overs, achievable, but not if many mistakes were made. The two batsmen were, fortunately, pretty experienced in this kind of run chase and were also used to batting with each other, which helps when the chips are down. Mostly ignoring all sorts of rather dubious advice from their watching team-mates, and from each other, they whittled away at the total, steadily and consistently, and without too many scares. Singles were pushed, wides claimed, a few 2’s were scampered, the opening bowlers rebuffed. Moore drove a powerful 4 to relieve some late pressure, Harrison ran some ultra-sharp singles, to bring the requirement down to 4 from the last over. A push from Moore to gully, a wide, but a couple of dot balls, left the Dogs still needing 2 from 3 balls. But with field brought in, Harrrison smashed a low full toss back past the bowler for 4 to take the Dogs home with 2 balls to spare. 151 for 5 from 24.4 overs, with Harrison 20 not out (30 balls, 1 x 4), Moore 19 not out (19 balls, 1 x 4). A nice, deserved win.

Maddogs vs Haverford (5/4/07)

The Dogs took on the students by fielding 6 PhDs or MDs plus a couple of Bachelor degree recipients against a team yet to achieve such august levels of scholarship. Unfortunately, 5 of the Dogs were over 50…….. whereas most of the students definitely weren’t., and athleticism can count sometimes. On a roll now, Quirk won his second toss of the day, putting Haverford in. Shesthra, a young Nepali, showed he was a terrific young batsman, playing some glittering shots against Boyke and Quirk. Boyke, however, immediately bowled Newman for 0, and Quirk settled into a good spell, getting his leggies to bounce nicely and forcing even Shesthra to play him with care. Kamran Khan hit lustily but was well caught in the deep by Quirk off Harrison, who was bowling well in relief of Boyke. But there was no stopping Shesthra who brutalized Lawrence unmercifully for a couple of overs. Lawrence did remove McVaugh for 5, expertly caught by Harrison in the deep. Shesthra then retired on 54 not out, but Khan took over, slogging an obviously stiff Moore out of the attack. Harrison then forced the aggressive Khan to retire hurt for 35, a bottom edge landing on an already damaged toe. Davies (1) was then nicely caught by Kanoff off Harrison, running backwards to pouch a top-edged sweep. Another tremendous catch, this time by Trappler off Prasanna, the fielder jumping and toppling backwards to hold a high drive, removed Zegeye for 3, and Harrison took an outstanding return catch off a hard drive to get rid of Lundquist for 1. With the overs running down, concern arose that, by taking too many wickets, we might allow Shesthra to return, a situation exacerbated when Prasanna bowled Collett for 0. Indeed, in the last over, Harrison was forced into the unusual, heretical cry of “drop it when a ball was lifted to the normally safe hands of Prasanna, who obliged….. The Haverford total of 141 for 8 off 25 overs was formidable but less than Merion had taken off us.

Boyke 5-0-27-1

Quirk 5-0-22-0

Prasanna 5-0-13-2

Lawrence 3-0-32-1

Harrison 5-0-26-3

Moore 2-0-22-0

Again, a good start was needed, but Lawrence was bowled first ball by Kamran Khan. Moore, interrupted in the midst of urinating, raced to the crease to replace him (if such a thing is possible), and batted steadily while watching Banerjee, slice to gully off Shesthra (2, 6 balls), then Prasanna, snick to the keeper off Manny (1, 4 balls) to leave the Dogs in the mire at 10 for 3 off 5 overs. Quirk and Moore then put on 30 in the next 5 overs via sensible batting before Moore somehow missed a straight one to depart for 14 (28 balls, 1 x 4). Boyke played some cavalier, never say die shots on his way to a rapid 18 (10 balls; 4 x 4) before lofting the inevitable catch, off left-arm spinner Sultan. Quirk then fell for a good 17 (31 balls), nicking to slip off the returning Shesthra’s first ball. The quicky then ran amok among the Dogs’ lower order, bowling Taiwo (0, 3 balls), Kanoff (0, 4 balls) and Trappler (3, 5 balls) on his way to splendid figures of 5-2-8-5. Santosh was the last to go, top edging a catch off Sultan for 1 (5 balls), leaving Harrison on 3 not out (4 balls) as the Dogs’ innings closed on 74 all out from 17 overs, a defeat by 67 runs.

Maddogs vs Littleton (5/5/07)

The weary Dogs were energized by the youthful vigor of Wilson (not a sentence one writes very often, but in the context of the Festival squad, all is relative….). Quirk’s run of toss wins came to an end at 2, so the Dogs fielded on a scorching morning at Merion. The Littleton openers went off like the proverbial rockets, scoring at over 10 an over for the first 6 or so overs, smashing boundaries to all parts of the ground and prompting a re-shuffling of the bowling attack. Boyke, who had turned an ankle, and Santosh being replaced by Wilson and Quirk. Wilson was smashed for 3 fours, and Quirk was also attacked as the slog-fest continued. Eventually, Das retired for 53 scored out of 75 in about 8 overs, which reduced the run rate a little, helped By Quirk and Wilson settling into a groove of sorts. Quirk took the first wicket with the score on 102, Fernando being nicely stumped by Bannerjee for 10 as the batsman advanced and missed. The next wicket fell to a strange run out, Kulkarni driving Quirk into the covers where Boyke made a half stop, deflecting the ball out to Moore in the deep, who flicked the ball up to Wilson, who fired a return to Quirk, who beat the rather confused batsman to the stumps in a foot race to be run out for 35 (1/4 run-out credits to each contributor). But still the Littleton batsmen poured on the runs. Wolf bowled a couple of decent overs at a bad time to be bowling, Quirk ended a very useful spell, and Prasanna and Harrison did all they could to stem the tide. Prasanna bowled Dwaram for 46 and Aprat for 12, while Harrison’s excellent spell was rewarded when Bannerjee stumped Kolaraja for 21. The last wicket fell to a sacrificial run out off the last ball of the innings, Bannerjee doing what was necessary. The final total of 201 for 6 was less than it looked like at one stage, more than it might have been had the fielding been sharper and the catching better, with Wilson and Harrison being the unluckiest bowlers from that perspective. But this was an understandably tired, and old, Dogs side.

Boyke 2-0-16-0

Santosh 2-0-17-0

Wilson 5-0-46-0

Quirk 5-0-34-1

Wolf 2-0-17-0

Harrison 5-0-37-1

Prasanna 4-0-36-2

Obviously, we needed a fast start, and to some extent Lawrence and Quirk provided it by putting on 23 in the first 2.3 overs, before Quirk was run out for 5 (6 balls) attempting a tight single. Prasanna hit hard but not for long enough, being bowled for 10 (7 balls, 1 x 4), attempting a rather lavish pull-drive (OK, a slog to most of us…). Boyke was caught in two minds, never a good idea for a “natural” and snicked a catch to the keeper for 5 (5 balls), Wilson was very harshly adjudged LBW far down the track for 1 (4 balls), and the same fate, albeit a lot closer to his stumps awaited Taiwo (2, 3 balls), leaving the innings in an official mess at 75 for 5 in the 11^th over. Lawrence had contributed the lion’s share of those runs, the old war-horse resuming normal service in yet another classic, and classy knock, going through all his range of shots and batting chancelessly until he was forced to retire on 51 (36 balls, 5 x 4) soon after being joined by Moore. Accompanied now by Wolf, Moore played much his usual game, lacking the power to score at over 8 an over against well spread fields on a large ground. Wolf's game was much the same, scoring at 5 or 6 an over with no problem but the required rate of over 8 being that bit beyond him too. Both players batted sensibly, hitting what they could and generally running well, in a stand of around 65 in about 11 or so overs, before Wolf pulled across the line and was blatantly LBW for a good 23 (30 balls, 1 x 4). Moore ground it out to the bitter end, receiving 45 balls and remarkably failing to hit any of them for 4 on his way to 40 not out. Harrison contributed 4 not out from 5 balls at the end as the Dogs’ innings closed on 155 for 6 from 25 overs, leading to a loss by 44 runs.

OK, the record shows we had a 1-3 record, the same as last year, but we had a very old squad shorn of some leading lights and very thin on class batting. The bowling was stronger, the fielding average considering the toughness of the schedule and the fitness levels of the players. But everyone enjoyed themselves, and Quirk did a great job of getting everyone involved to the greatest extent possible, commensurate with trying to win all the games (and with a 2-2 toss record, he turned an important corner…….).