Extreme cricket

On Sunday, the temperature in Sydney hit 42 degrees.  The last place you wanted to be was on a suburban cricket oval.  Nonetheless, BotF members, Mick and Patrick played in the 5th unofficial Ashes one day game at Boronia Park.  The wind blew constantly and by the end of the game the boys felt like two well done chooks that had spent three hours longer than necessary in a fan forced oven.

What made the whole experience worse was that despite two whole-hearted efforts from the BotF boys, the Aussies fell 6 runs short after 5 hours of conflict.  Mick was last bloke out, but really shouldn’t have been in that position as the Aussies only needed 16 runs of the last 24 deliveries with 3 wickets in hand.  The Aussies chased 227 runs from 35 overs and after a slow start had reeled the target within reach.  Unfortunately, heatstroke struck and the last 5  batsmen who’d returned after retiring for reaching 25 runs – threw their wickets away when a conservative approach would have seen them home and hosed. 

Plenty of big sixes. Darce, Seamus and Patrick got in on the act – but we’d trade ’em all in for the win.

Aah well – BotF got to try James Squire Sundown for the first time and that brew will be frequented often.

Still – looking forward to the next installment of the Ashes – Aussies 3 – Poms 2, but please let the weather be more benign.