Seconds

Dev had no second thoughts when handing over the captaincy to Cam in the second match of the Pilgrims’ Australia tour. The idea paid off, not least because the visitors were facing Swanbourne CC. This is the family-friendly club in one of Perth’s residential suburbs, for whom Cam has been playing for the last 13 years during the winter months. He knew the opposition so well and made use of altogether 12 Pilgrim’s individual skills in such a competent manner that he led them to an unforgettable victory – by seven runs in the penultimate over.

It could easily have gone the other way. Two overs earlier the home team were only 38 runs away from winning, with 3 wickets in hand. After a fine run-out from Jasveer at deep mid-wicket and Abhik at the stumps, in comes Bipin (3/35) at full force despite 40 degrees Celsius under the scorching sun and mops up 2, the major part of the tail, reducing Swanbourne to their last man with 26 to win off 19 deliveries. Abhik with the ball again tries to smother the runs. Then Bipin bowls the 29th over, gets hit for four, and it looks like Swanbourne will reach their target. But his fourth ball comes off the bat of last man Chris Browne in an arch and Ankit dives at cover to take a fantastic catch, just above the ground. The Pilgrims can hardly believe their luck.

This result had not been on the cards at the beginning. Although the Pilgrims had won the toss and elected to bat, their initial progress was rather slow. After 8 overs they were only on 15/3, and after 15 of their allocated 30 overs, they had already fallen to 49/7, with Bipin’s 13 the highest individual score. Cam (59*) and Jasveer (47), however, had other ideas and together, with some cameo support by Mithun (16) and last man Moritz (0*), they shifted the score into a competitive range of 181/9. Swanbourne’s circumspect captain Paul (3/35) had created most of the damage; Chris B. (4-1-17-1), Shaz (4-0-5-1) and Ben (3-0-5-0) also left remarkably economic impacts, with Chris additionally holding a catch.

Still, the Pilgrims’ bowlers kept Swanbourne’s run-rate down right from the start of their innings. At scores of 68/4 after 15 overs and 77/6 after 16, a win by the visitors did not seem out of the question. Ankit had struck nicely with a catch off his own bowling. Jasveer (3/17) was the pick of the bowlers, with 4 tidy overs and a trio of crucial wickets. Captain Cam added a direct-hit run out from mid-off. At the end of the day, every fielder contributed effectively by saving many runs all over the sizzling field, up to a ball Moritz kept half an inch from the boundary by running over it.

Just after the surprising end of the game, a thunderstorm brought some cooler air onto the ground. The players retreated to the showers and refuelled with seemingly unlimited amounts of ERDINGER Alkoholfrei which their sponsors had kindly shipped around the world. Thanks were expressed, especially to Peter, Paul and Mary (locally aka Lois), the former for having umpired in the almost unbearable heat, the other two for scoring all the runs. The Pilgrims’ man of the match award went to Chris V. for his undefeated 63* – an impressive performance, but not enough on this day when Swanbourne came second.

Heligoland Pilgrims: Cam (c), Abhik, Ankit, Bipin, Cam, Devadas (vc), Jasveer, Johann, Mithun (wk II), Moritz, Stewart, Su (wk I)

Swanbourne: Paul (c), Andrew H., Andrew N., Ben, Chris B., Chris V., Gregory, Iain, Jamie, Lachlan, Shaz

Scorers: Paul, Lois

Umpires: Peter

Report: Max Minor, Cricket Correspondent

Photography: