After the highs of the opening weekend victory against Langford, Metchosin Cougars came crashing back to earth with a thud (and a few bruises, mainly to egos) with a crushing loss to Incogs on Saturday afternoon in our first home game of the season.
The day started well - a beautifully prepared field by head groundsman, Mike Smith, a boundary rope put in place with help from the opposition, plenty of tea, and a winning toss meant the setting was perfect to pile on a decent first innings total. Unfortunately it wasn't to be and Incogs had other plans.
KP was joined by Ross this week and scoring proved difficult, although having an opportunity to score was also difficult - 12 of the first 16 runs coming in wides. When they got it right it surprised for our top order. Opening the attack for Incogs were two former Cougars, Viquar Zia and JK Dabhi, who picked up a wicket each - Ross LBW to a straight one from Viq and Dukey clean bowled trying to take JK on early.
Cole and KP went about calming things down and did so well enough for a period of time, seeing off the openers before Jamieson and Harsh came on and tightened things up even further. Runs were difficult to come by with Cole particularly unlucky with how many crisply struck drives were hit to fielders. Cole eventually departed, bowled Jamieson. Skip was next in and was out nicking to slip before Tanzil worked his way into the game, finding his timing, and just as another special innings looked like it might be on the cards he was out chipping to midwicket.
Rob was in next and KP had a partner to rebuild the innings with. Again, just as their partnership seemed to be blossoming, Kieren's patient and classy-looking knock of 36 came to an end as he chipped a catch to mid-off. Ben Savage was looking comfortable and hitting almost everything off the middle before skying a low full toss to the boundary rider, Will ignored all his own advice and that of Ben's to get forward to the spinner and was bowled 2nd ball, Amit tried to take on the same boundary Dukey went for early in his innings and holed out, before Tushar showed some mettle and batted nicely with Rob for a few overs before skying one, Rob stranded and finishing unbeaten on a typically well-compiled 23.
Incogs should be commended for their effort in the field, catching everything that came their way and never letting Metchosin have any momentum in their innings.
120 was always going to be difficult to defend but when Incogs came out with an agressive mindset there was hope we could pick up a few top order wickets quickly and put pressure on the lower order to finish it off. This hope went up a notch with Tanzil bowling himself into some rhythm, calling his own keg-ball and nicking off the opener. The other opener wasn't about to shit up shop, continuing to attack and ending unbeaten on 62 from 53. Tushar briefly sent hearts aflutter when he came back from getting hit over his head, by clean bowling Jamieson for 10. That, however, was the end of the excitement as Incogs powered home to finish the game off in 17 overs. A humbling loss for the Cougars who never really got a toehold in the game.
The positive takeaways from this game were seeing Tanzil back at the bowling crease after a year-long absence, Tushar showing how threatening he can be with the new ball, and in KP and Rob's innings, seeing perfect examples of the mental application required to be patient and bat for long periods to build an innings of substance. We don't need to all be like Rob or Kieren, but we'd do well to note their contentment to defend a good ball and score runs when it's in their areas.
Onwards and upwards! No game this week but training will still be at the usual time, 6pm Thursday. Hope to see y'all there.
Scorecard: Found Here
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