In the last few days some of our finest have been in action. In Mumbai, Nat helped herself to a couple of wickets, ran a couple out and then top scored in England’s run chase against India. (Scorecard : http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/8674/scorecard/1172160/india-women-vs-england-women-1st-odi-icc-womens-championship-2017-18-2021)

Hoppy got a recall for WPCC’s 1st XI, made a few runs down the order but with a low score to bowl at didn’t get a chance with the ball.

Scorecard : https://www.websports.co.za/livecricket.html?gid=213182&sportid=1 – note the middle of the Curran brothers was in the opposition.

However new – and back – on the scene is Greg Routley. Greg contacted us in the week to say the following:

“Hey. Have been keeping up with the news on the club via the site and congrats to all on a great year last year. Just to let you know I’m back playing cricket in the last year for Delacombe Park in Frankston.

We currently sit second on the ladder and will be playing finals this year. I’ll also be captaining my first every game on the weekend and very nervous about it. If anybody has any advice, etc, I will take all I can get!

Pass on all the best from the Routleys to everybody at the Club.

The boys are also doing well and Hayden is a bit of a gun at golf and looks like Lachlan is going to follow him into golf too.

I’ll keep you up to date on how are season pans out in the next couple of weeks. Miss you all.”

So, we did a bit of digging and found Greg’s player record here : http://mycricket.cricket.com.au/common/pages/public/rv/cricket/viewplayer.aspx?locx=PLY&playerID=1564205&eID=805&entityID=805&seasonID=148

An immediate observation is a low proportion of sixes in his count, (504 of the 1443 runs that he scored for Stoke were courtesy of 84 maximums but just the nine here), and he seems to appear quite a way up the batting order.

When quizzed he replied: “Opening the batting on synthetic pitches. Grounds a bit bigger over here too. Don’t seem to be able to hit them as much. Getting old maybe?”

So how did things go since that initial chat?

Well, overnight in a match that didn’t quote have the same pyrotechnics as the Afghanistan v Ireland T20 match, (look it up!), DPCC dismissed Baxter Park for 83 in 61.1 overs, (yes 61.1!), so only a few overs at the end of the first day, (second day next weekend), to negotiate. Sadly Greg didn’t see it through to the close, making just eight.

For the lazy ones who can’t be bothered to look up the Afghanistan match, click here : http://www.espncricinfo.com/series/19052/report/1168113/undefined

Elsewhere Anthony didn’t make it back into the Barbados side for the latest round of West Indies domestic 4-day matches, although his replacement, Rashidi Raimondo Bunny Boucher failed again. Shawn sat out WPCC’s match at the weekend.