VVV out, but on our 3rd field and with a start time of 13:00. All the ingredients for an off day you might say, but nothing was further from the truth. After a won tos, we started batting. Bins opened strong with a strikerate of no less than 200 after which he gave the turn to Sander who, nav a critical family, had only set himself a little higher. This paid off in a partnership of 97 along with Dave for the 2nd wicket. Then it was the turn of us John who gave a master class in batting. Despite all the fielding changes, John continued to find the holes and even destroyed the vvv captain’s bowling average by knocking him out 2x for 4 in 1 over. Unfortunately, after a phenomenal 19 runs at a score of 171, this show came to an end. Pol and Wouter then made another small 46 runs for the 6th wicket including a class 26 off 25 for our leftie to end the innings. The day’s top scorer, however, was still Mr. Extra by a distance. Unlike us, Vvv did seem more upset by the special circumstances resulting in a paltry 59 extras including 54 wides. This, combined with an average of 8 field changes each over, allowed us to still go to lunch at the usual time with a total of 220 on the board.
During lunch we were proclaimed the fittest Zami team ever by former Zami veteran M. Nota and this was proved right away by openers Stefan and Richie who both picked up 7 overs in a row. Stefan recently started using some kind of new princess peach shower gel that seems to make sure you can give more swing to the ball because of the slippery hands. This theory was immediately confirmed by putting 2 wickets to his name through a catch by Chris and a spectacular catch by Kirk who was not even injured in the process!!! Richie and Dave also picked up a wicket with Dave sending off the dreaded opener just before his 50 and also had a stumping in addition. Richie bowled so hard that he accounted for one of the eventual 2 broken bails. Graham treated the crowd present in large numbers to one dive after another to keep our extras score within limits and in addition, along with Wouter, had 2 identical run outs. Pol showed some symptoms of dislegsie during his spell, a slight abnormality where you mix up the off side and leg side, resulting in a number of wides, well spotted by the umpire on duty. Wouter sensed the oncoming rain and noticed that the team was thirsty, so he decided to clean up the tail for a while after which a light alcoholic refreshment could be consumed on the victory. Even afterward, while enjoying a pizza, there were long conversations about princess peach and the ladies in particular were very interested. Sales seem to have suddenly doubled after this day. The Ponting MOTM went without question to John and it also became immediately clear this evening why we normally only award it….
