So, GG wrap up the win. AXI's tail wagged very nicely to lift us up from 132-8 to 201ao, but it wasn't enough to ward off GG's powerful batting with a second-rate bowling lineup. Peter Sutherland scored 83* (77), the legend.
Babar Ijaz played a nice hand in GG vs Moo!
Many pops for the AX teams as well. Some highlights were John Ward of AX-W reaching 35 skill, despite being a 26 year old whose coaching has half been on pace (I don't want mediums on my slow low pitch), and Michael Winton, formerly of Moooo, now of AXI, reaching the target I set for him when I bought him: 37 batting skill. Now he needs to lift his average!
haha wtf happened in that game
Just more on my perspective on this (AX-W's woes aside for a moment), AXI have won all competitive T20 + CWC games this season, but have only nabbed one bonus point out of six; we've just nipped in there.
So earlier that Wednesday, we managed to sneak away with a win in the competitive T20 vs Kalinga Knights, despite fielding a Cup-weakened side. The previous day, scrolling through the CWC match vs Schmaltzberg commentary file, I sighed, in knowledge that my good luck would come to an end. After all, we were 37-5. The partnership between Murdoch and Chambers lifted my hopes, but it was excruciatingly slow. Definitely wasn't like
the previous encounter between the two sides.
Especially once the rest of AXI collapsed (there were five golden ducks in the innings!) to leave Chambers stranded on 42*, it was not looking good. 110, on a decent pitch, shouldn't win. But like with many T20 friendlies on Stumped, the 110 plays 110 game went down to the wire. But man, it didn't look that way. My good luck manifested itself in reducing Schmaltzberg to 37-7, 53-8, 77-9.
But then Armand Bernstein came into his own. 19 off 9 was needed, and he smashed the usually economical Chris Waters for three consecutive boundaries. 5 off 6 was required. Howell Brown, playing in one of his final games, had the ball for the last over. The number 11 scampered a single. Brown put everything he had into the next ball, but the batters got away with a couple. Then Howell bowled a long hop, which, inexplicably, soared high into the night sky. In one of the great redemption arcs, Chris Waters ran some miles to take an excellent catch.
What a game that was.