Amazing cricket match!

A good cricket score in Colorado is 160. We play 40 over games, with the grass not as short as I wish it was. Last year when we played them, we got them all out for 132. We thought we were doing great.

Then we got absolutely smashed and we got all out for 42, the worst in our teams 8 or 9 year history. That scorecard can be found here.

This year in our first match against them they beat us easily. We were bowled out for 123, and they chased that down with only the loss of 4 wickets. That scorecard can be found here.

Well this past Saturday some amazing things happened.

First of all, we were in a worse position for a time than last years 42! We were 6 for 28, our top order destroyed! I came in and for the next hour and watched my batting partner absolutely destroy these guys. My job was to stay there, not get out, not doing anything stupid (go for big hits or anything), just stay there for Kalpesh (the other guy). Well Kalpesh was so rampant that he himself scored 97 runs. When I came in our score was 6/28 (6 out, 28 runs). When Kalpesh got out we were 7/129 (7 out, 129 runs). So you can see we shared a 101 run partnership. Of that 101 runs, I contributed merely 9…

Ok, I know it doesn’t sound like I personally had a great weekend but here goes. When Kalpesh got out, we were still in danger. Remember, 160 is a good score. We were now in danger of being out for 130 or 140. Well something happened and I took off where Kalpesh left. For the next 61 runs, I scored 50 of them. I hit 2 SIXES (like home runs out of the park) and 5 FOURS (hits that go past the boundary on the bounce or roll). I went into devastation mode myself and scored my best score since joining the league. I ended up being 58* (58 runs and not out) at the end of our time limit.

Not only did I score 58, they never got me out, and I got us to a commanding score of 190. You just don’t score 190 when you are 6/28. You are usually very fortunate to pass 100. 80 is a better bet. 190 is ridiculous. 190 against the best team in the league is a miracle.

Well that all seemed a waste as they went about hammering us even worse than Kalpesh and I hammered them. They were 78 runs after 10 overs (only 1/4 of their limit up). At that rate they would have scored 312. They only needed 191…

Slowly but surely we crept back into the game. We’d get one of their guys out, so the new guy would take a little time to settle down and get his eye in. Then we’d get another one out. Then one of our fielders took an amazing catch. When half of their batters were out, the game was evenly poised. They were on about 140. Then we got another out. And another. Then I took a superb catch right at the boundary which got rid of one of their dangerous batsmen. I then came back to bowl and got their last 2 guys out. We won by 24 runs and had shocked the league.

From absolute dire straights we pulled off probably the biggest come back win the league has ever seen.

What’s more thrilling is, this is a highly competitive league with very good players. We play 12 league games, the game takes all day to play. This is not your run-of-the-mill amateur league. These are dedicated players who have played their whole lives, but just live in the USA now. It was amazing. Simply amazing 🙂

Oh, and on our way home the family spent some time at Boondocks, an awesome fun center with bumper cars, golf, bumper boats, video games, kids climbing things, basically all the fun a kid can have in one establishment. It caused the kids to actually sleep for about 4 hours in the car. We all won this weekend.

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0WQCTNxc7DU
Gallery: https://www.mike250.com/gallery/v/cricket/2005/