May the four be with you

It’s no exaggeration that Bipin, captaining the Pilgrims’ first game on turf on the Australia tour, seemed to be getting the help of extra powers. Maybe for him, an absolute gun with ball and bat in hand, it was just another day of the week.

To be fair, it was a glorious Tuesday. After a trip the day before to Rottnest Island, with temperatures in the high 30s, the weather was a tad kinder. At the UWA Sports Park, in Perth’s western suburbs, 31 degrees with a light sea breeze felt like a relief. The Pilgrims, clad today in warm gold tour shirts, met in the late morning with their opponents, a University CC XI, who ranged from young and talented to slightly older and talented.

The 30-over match began with the Pilgrims fielding. They all looked a bit sluggish, still recovering from Sunday’s epic win in epic heat against Swanbourne, capped by an epic thunderstorm. But Bipin had a spring in his step and glue on his hands. He held four sparkling catches at different points of the massive field. And this set the standard for a collective fielding effort that was close to the Pilgrims’ best. Su took a good catch in the outfield, Stewart clutched one in his massive left mitt at short cover, Cam juggled a hot one behind the stumps and Jasveer had a timely direct hit runout of Damien, who was threatening to hit every second ball into the next suburb.

But if Bipin’s catching force wasn’t enough, he came back for a magical second spell and nabbed four wickets. This impressive return helped to restrict the University CC XI to 143 all out, off 27.2 overs. Young talents Vivaan (36) and Harry (35) lead the batting, while Damien tonked 26, barely breaking a sweat.

It seemed a gettable target, at a little under five-an-over. Abhik started well, including a lovely clip over deep-square for six, but was caught at short fine leg. David nicked one to slip. Su was tidily caught and bowled. Runs were hard to score on the sticky wicket, and all the spinners were proving a handful on the tricky pitch. For a while, Jasveer and Cam steadied to the ship, as they ran hard and started to find the boundary. This was undone by a rash shot from Cam (24), spooning a ball to cover.

Jasveer (28) soldiered on, but wickets continued to fall, including his, while the required-run-rate rose. An entertaining cameo from Mithun (23*) boosted the score, with the Pilgrims ending 25 runs short, nine wickets down. Moritz (0*) was undefeated again, for the third time in a row. Will, Soham and Damien all took two wickets. For his all-round performance, Damien received a copy of Quintus Huntley: Botany (the latest book from your scribe). Harry earned himself a Pilgrims baggy cap.

The hard stuff done, the players sat in the shade and enjoyed various ERDINGER refreshments. The Pilgrims spent little time rueing missed opportunities and instead toasted the wonderful “four and four” performance from their sticky-fingers captain, Bipin.

The Pilgrims extend their gratitude to University CC for hosting this match in such an expansive location, which happens to have four (!) playing fields, including one where the local professional rugby team was training (those guys looked like behemoths, even from a hundred metres away). Thanks also to scorer Paul, and to all the umpires and other scorers. The Pilgrims wish University CC (the reigning WA Cricket 1st grade champions) all the best for the rest of the season.

Heligoland Pilgrims: Bipin (c), Abhik (vc), Ankit, Cam (wk II), David, Devadas, Jasveer, Mithun (wk I), Moritz, Stewart, Su, Johann (12th)

University CC XI: Damien (c), Harry, Hennie, Nick, Soham, Vivaan, Will,

Scorer: Paul

Report: Royce Leville

Photography: