From the North Atlantic comes news of a remarkable match in the World Cricket League. Many thanks to Jack Waley-Cohen for sending it in. We’ve not been able to track down who wrote this – so if it’s you, let us know.
The best match of the week was not played in Manchester, Port-of-Spain, or Bulawayo, but in Pembroke, Bermuda, at the Western Stars Sports Club. The Bahamas were taking on Argentina in division one of the World Cricket League’s Americas region.
Argentina, without a win in their previous four games in the competition, won the toss and chose to bat. That decision was vindicated when 28-year-old Lucas Paterlini scored 138 at just over a run-a-ball, the key contribution to a formidable total of 333-5 from 50 overs. More like 54 overs actually, as the Bahamas bowled 23 wides. Things got better still for Argentina when their opening bowlers reduced Bahamas to 16-2.
And then No3 Rohan Parkes went berserk. He hit 133 from 59 balls (14 fours, 11 sixes), an innings of such startling ferocity that his partner’s 93 from 57 (six fours and eight sixes) “seemed sedate in comparison”, as one reporter put it. Parkes was particularly severe on the off-spin of the Argentina captain Esteban MacDermott, who wisely decided to withdraw himself from the attack with figures of 4-0-72-0.
Parkes was stumped in the 20th over, with Bahamas needing another 121 runs and with seven wickets in hand. They lost four of those in getting to 332-7 in the 32nd over. Two runs needed then, from 18 overs and with three wickets in hand. Two of those duly fell in the next two balls. No10 Jonathan Barry scraped a single to tie the scores, and then, with all of 105 balls to find the winning run, ran himself out off the next delivery. Rarely before in the field of human conflict can so many runs have been scored so quickly to such little effect.
Argentina 333-5 (50 overs); Bahamas 333 (33.3 overs). Match tied.
http://www.cricinfo.com/ci/engine/current/match/460053.html
Can you beat that? If you’ve witnessed – perhaps in village cricket – a finish like that, we’d love to hear about it.
Fantastic! Even better is the uber-Nelson of 333 in 33.3 overs. David Shepherd would be doing the Riverdance trying to manage that one.
I played in an under 15 game where we bowled the opposition out for 24 yet got bowled out for 16. What made it more remarkable was that one of our openers hit the first ball of our reply for 6!
Having played in this fixture only a couple of weeks ago, I have to say that this was one of possible the greatest games of cricket I have played in ever!!
read it at http://www.pitchero.com/rosthernecricketclub
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Andy Daniels
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