Now that life is returning to the new normal, the Pattaya-RST Indoor Cricket League has been able to recommence. The timing is fortuitous as it gives vital wet season training prior to the opening of the new Bangkok Cricket League season which will open in late December 2022 or early January 2023. There are new faces in the Indoor league this year as SRF, a plastics manufacturing company from Rayong, have joined whilst The Asian Stars have declined to participate.
Rumour has it that because the organiser did not wish to use the Asian Stars’ outdoor facility off Siam Polo Club Road, they threw their teddy out of the cot and took their bat and ball home. Thus, the teams for this season are Pattaya CC (PCC) Rugby School Thailand (RST), Alibaba (formerly The Lords of the Beers) and SRF.
As a reminder of the way these matches will be played: Each team will have 6 players. Batsmen operate in pairs for 3 overs irrespective of how many times they might be out. Bowlers bowl am maximum of 2 overs each although 1 may bowl 3 overs. There are nine overs in the innings. Scoring is 2 runs per length of the wicket.
Wides and No balls attract 2 penalties. A ball off the ceiling or wall gets 1 extra run. 3 for the short boundary behind the keeper, 4 and 6’s in the normal way off the far wall. The loss of a wicket results in 5 runs being deducted. The teams score 10 points for a win with 1 point for every whole 10 runs scored and 1 per wicket taken.
The first match played on 5th Sep was between Alibaba and PCC. Alibaba won the toss and decided to bowl. PCC’s opening pair was Andy Emery and Amit Sain facing Aman. Despite accurate bowling from Aman, both batsmen scored freely for 18 in the over and things looked good for a high scoring game, then the wheels fell off, big-time.
Andy lost the first of his 3 wickets to Sagn whilst Amit recovered the situation to 22 but Ricky had other ideas in the 3rd over. With prodigious amounts of swing and turn, he bowled Amit first ball, then Any on the third ball, had Andy caught on the 5th ball and Amit ran himself out on the last ball for a 4-wicket maiden and a reduction in the score to 2.
PCC never recovered and Habby fell to Ricky and Sagn for a score of -6 and Animal gave Rajan a straight forward caught and bowled for a score of 1 from 3 overs. At this point PCC had lost 8 wickets for – 1 run. Luckily this was not the Beach Tournament at Koh Chang or the duck pond would be beckoning the team. Luckily Jainish was able to preserve positive numbers to save some of the blushes of the team, but even Jainish could not disassociate himself from the circus.
Having scored 9 he gets a No Ball from Rajan which he hit onto the wall and unwisely went for a second run. He never made it and lost 5 runs. His wife, Ishita, came along to help out and although she did her best to protect her wicket she was dismissed twice by Molin and PCC ended their visit to purgatory with a score of 6 for 11
Alibaba thought all their festive seasons had come at once and they overtook PCC after the second ball with Ricky and Gary facing Habby. However, PCC were determined to make a fight of it and Andy bowled Gary and Habby bowled Ricky, but by this time the score was 28 for 2. Molin and Rajan retained their wickets and gave Jainish a hammering for 20, which meant the pair added 43 runs in 3 overs without loss – Molin 22 and Rajan 15 and the score on 71. Ishita managed to get some revenge when she dismissed Aman, who was also bowled by Andy in the penultimate over. Nonetheless, Sagn added a useful 15 to bring the final score to 89 for 4 and a win by 83 runs. More importantly a point score of 29.
In the other match of the evening RST scored 74 for 4 to defeat SRF, 32 for 7 by 42 runs.
Remember dear readers, you heard it here first, off the record, on the Q.T. and very hush hush.
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