Bowlers run riot as batsmen self-destruct

King’s College 115 all out in 33.3 overs

MAGS 74 all out in 35.2 overs

After two bizarre losses to MAGS in 2019, King’s was geared up to reverse this trend and drew first blood by winning the toss. This gave them the opportunity to bat first on an under-prepared pitch which was tailored to suit the MAGS spin-dominant attack.

At 8 for 2 in the 5^th over, both openers Muhammad Abbas and Nathan Robinson had departed. No need to panic as King’s recovered from a similar situation against AGS and posted a competitive total. The stage was set for Dimithri Gallage and the middle-order to regroup out in the middle. Regroup they did, back in the changing room as King’s floundered to 51/5 in the 19^th over. The two Averill boys Achindra Molamure who was showing more fight than his highly experienced colleagues and the skipper Cory Dickson batted together for just over ten overs and built a promising partnership of 54 runs before the former was bowled by the opposition pace-spearhead. This was a valuable contribution by Molamure which in hindsight ended up being a match-winner. Dickson batted with supreme maturity, responsibility and craft to shepherd the capable tail that failed to fire this week and King’s ended up on a depressing 115 all out in the 34^th over, their worst batting performance this year. 

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With not just pride at stake but an unbeaten 2020 and a highly probable third loss in a row to the same opposition, King’s came out with purpose. It seemed like most of the team believed that they could defend this small total and when MAGS were in a bit of disarray at 41/4 in the 17^th over, every single player knew that they could win this match. The opening attack of Muhammad Abbas and Louis Anderson bowled well but as a pair they conceded too many wides and allowed the top order to settle. At 26/1 at the end of the 9^th over they were replaced by Nick Tapper and Seb Macdonald who together bowled a brilliant 11 over spell for a mere 19 runs whilst picking up 5 wickets. At 45/6 in the 20^th over it was still anyone’s game but King’s was in a frenzy and gave nothing away. The bowling reached a new level this year and the fielding was impeccable. MAGS were induced into making mistakes and they could not stop the rot that had begun to spread.

Dickson and Toby Irvine resumed the attack and bowled in tandem for the next 14 overs, including a spell of 18 successive dot balls that led to the 8^th wicket. At 50/8 MAGS went into full survival mode with Aditya Ashok (NZ U19) batting with immense maturity and awareness. A small partnership began to threaten. Ashok joined the battle in the 17^th over and knew that he was the key to victory. As long as he picked up the genuine single and defended with high alertness he could take his troops home. He found an able ally in the #10 who was capable enough to make King’s rethink their plans. The partnership had grown to 21 runs in 9 overs, tension was high and something had to give. 

Top scorer Achindra Molamure as he walks off

Dickson, realised that these set batsmen, who had been together for 49 balls had grown accustomed to the bowling and were beginning to get comfortable. He produced a master stroke by bringing back, not his pace spearheads Abbas and Anderson, but the most successful combo of the innings, Macdonald and Tapper. Eight balls later the game was over as MAGS were all out for 74 runs in 36.2 overs, handing King’s a relatively huge 41 run victory. Tapper was magnificent but not much gets said about Macdonald’s bowling. Not this time though, as he relished the fact that his haul of three wickets included two of the opposition’s most dangerous batsmen.  Patrick Maher had an unusually quiet day but still got into the limelight with his valuable contributions in the field with two catches and one run-out. Tom Paranthoiene who was involved in four dismissals, had a few blemishes but they are getting fewer and fewer as he grows into a major contributor in this campaign.

King’s win by 41 runs