Hit & Run Win the Inaugural VHL Cricket Test Match [1/2]

[Berocka 2,263]

An amazing game of cricket has come to a close late on day five at Lords in England. The intense battle between two amazing teams, Hit & Run and Cunning Stunts went all the way to day five to finally get a winner. It was Frank Funk the man of the match that finished it up getting Mr. America caught out after a ball came off the bat and bounced off his pad. Quicksilver who was fielding in close at the time managed to take the catch and that was it for the first game.

 

Hit & Run after winning the toss elected to bat first on a green pitch, it seemed like it could have been a bad decision when they were 3/59 after losing opener R. Fripp 8 (14) followed closely by M. Hayden 16 (12) then R. Funk 23 (62). This brought together what was probably the best partnership of the game between Bat Man and A. Nahasapeemapetilon, the pair put on a partnership of 151 before A. Nahasapeemapetilon departed for 67 (145). Bat Man would continue the excellence though and be the first ever batsman to make a century he made an amazing stand making 138 (211). The tail of Hit & Run didn’t do to much work with all batsman failing to contribute except for fan favourite Big Chungus who made an impressive 23* (31) for a number 10 batsman. Cunning Stunts managing to bowl Hit & Run out for 307 in 98.2 overs. The number 3 batsman from Hit & Run said after getting out that “It is not too bad of a wicket to bat on I think there is plenty in it for both batsman and bowlers I do think that 300 would probably be a par score on this wicket.” With Hit & Run making the 307 I think they would have been quite happy in the dressing room. The wickets were spread out between all of the bowlers for Cunning Stunts with the best figures of 3/55 going to H. Hall. Hall had a slow start not producing much against the opening batsman. He started shining when he was the one to get the vital wicket of Bat Man. P. Datel also finished the innings with three wickets with figures of 3/83. M. Lanning picked up two wickets and both J. Brown and M. America bagged one each.

 

This then sent Cunning Stunts in to bat early on day 2 trailing by 307 runs. Cunning Stunts seemed to really get a good start with a 79-run opening partnership between E. Perrry and B. Dickus before E. Perry departed for 54 (55) after being bowled by Bowl Man. P. Ng and B. Donman both didn’t last very long to the great bowling of F. Funk, with the batsman scoring 15 (27) & 3 (20) respectively. This brought in the last of the known batsman H. Hogan who made a decent contribution of 26 (39) before he was trapped in front by Bowl Man. Cunning Stunts were 5-216 when J. Brown got to the crease B. Dickus and J. Brown then put on an impressive 6^th wicket partnership of 57 runs before B. Dickus was bowled by F. Funk after scoring 94 (127). This was when the massacre started as F. Funk cleaned up the last four wickets with Cunning Stunts only making an extra 50 runs, the final scores for the batsman were, J. Brown 42 (116), M. America 23 (54), H. Hall 3 (14), P. Datel 11 (55), M. Lanning 20 (39) and W. Keeper 1* (16). This had Cunning Stunts with a score of 323 and a 16 run lead at the end of their first innings. The bowling from Hit & Run was dominated by F. Funk getting amazing figures of 8/68 off 26 overs including 3 maidens. Bowl Man also contributed with 2/45, with B. Chungus, B. Lee & F. Quicksilver not getting any wickets and going for 68, 97 & 39 runs respectively.

 

Hit & Run coming out to bat trailing by 16 runs knew that 300 wouldn’t be enough and they would need to push for at least 350 to make sure that they could stay in the game. They came out to a great start with a 118-run partnership between R. Fripp & R. Funk. This ended when R. Fripp was caught behind off Datel’s bowling for 60 (106). Bat man who was the star of the first innings then entered and had a decent bat with R. Funk before he was trapped in front by M. Lanning, he had to depart for 68 (124). Bat Man ended up also making a half century getting 54 (98) before he was bowled by J. Brown. Brown and Datel then got the last of the wickets between the two of them but not before F. Quicksilver and B. Chungus made decent scores being 43 (74) & 44 (61) respectively. The rest of the batters didn’t do horribly scoring the following runs, Bowl Man 15 (22), F. Funk 16 (35), B. Lee 18 (46) & W. Keeper 17* (40). This gave Hit & Run a score of 395 which then meant that Cunning Stunts had a total of 380 to chase. J. Brown bagged himself a 5fa with figures of 5/88, P. Datel contributed heavily with 4/90, M/ Lanning managed to get one wicket with final figures of 1/92. H. Hall 0/82 and M. America 0/43 didn’t really do much with the ball in that innings.

 

So, it is close to the end of day 4 and Cunning Stunts need to chase 380 to win. This did not start off well with Cunning Stunts quickly dropping to 2/23 with both B. Chungus and B. Lee getting their first wickets. E. Perry was the first to go getting out to B. Chungus caught in slip for 6 (18), Closely followed by B. Dickus out to B. Lee caught behind, after a great first innings he got out for only 12 (16). B. Donman didn’t last long either when he was out to F. Funk caught behind for 12 (32). This left Cunning Stunts at only 3/52 Still needing 328 to win, it was an extremely tough challenge for Cunning Stunts from here and they needed a big partnership to save them. This is when P. Ng and H. Hogan put up a 78 run partnership together which helped Cunning Stunts before Hogan was caught in front by F. Funk for 48 (74), F. Funk then continued his amazing performance getting P. Ng caught behind for 57 (89). Then with the opening bowlers connected with B. Lee taking a catch of B. Chungus’ bowling to send J. Brown back to the pavilion with a score of 21 (35). This then left Cunning Stunts at 6/168 with the task of trying to get 212 runs. M. America looked like he could be the saviour creating partnerships with all the remaining batsman, but he had to watch from the other end as both H. Hall and P. Datel were caught behind of B. Lee’s bowling for 18 (37) and 18 (66) respectively. Then M. Lanning got to a respectable 20 (35) before F. Funk got the wicket caught behind which just left M. America and W. Keeper chasing 78 more runs for victory. It wasn’t long until M. America’s luck ran out when he tried to play a forward defensive shot which bounced off the bat, then his pad then his foot before being caught by short leg. This ended the dream of a comeback with M. America out for 80 (149) and W. Keeper making 8* (14). Hit & Run had done it, they won the game by 66 runs. With F. Funk taking 5/101 in that innings, B. Lee 3/75, B. Chungus 2/56 and F. Quicksilver with Bowl Man not getting any wickets. With F. Funk winning man of the match with his match figures of 13/169 and making a contribution of 22 with the bat.

So, with all that we saw a tremendous game between two brand new sides. It was an incredible test match that ended very close. I hope all who was involved enjoyed the game and hopefully we have some more great games to come.

 

Tagging all who played @GustavMattias, @Rayzor_7, @Nykonax, @Elmebeck, @Banana2311, @DoktorFunk, @diamond_ace, @JeffD & @HulkHogan

[Elmebeck 378]

Fantastic game with great streaming and live commentary. Big kudos for doing this!

[JeffD 648]

I can say I have now watched more virtual cricket than I have ever watched of real cricket. Very fun learning experience.

[ColeMrtz 574]

Excited for the VHL Cricket expansion draft

[Rayzor_7 741]

Some of the most fun I've had in a long time

I'm not usually a big fan of watching streaming but the interaction with all the members of the vhl was awesome

[DoktorFunk 810]

Truly an amazing experience. @berocka has made it a point to make the stream interesting every single time and also found a way to put up with our ignorance on the subject and our desire to meme the hell out of the stream. Please join this league. It's only going to get more fun.

[Renomitsu 934]

Review

 

I clearly can't say too much as to the content, as I've never watched cricket before - but it sounds like an awesome event to keep track of nonetheless. Main comments I'd have are to make sure you punctuate long quotes, e.g.:

 

Quote

It is not too bad of a wicket to bat on I think there is plenty in it for both batsman and bowlers I do think that 300 would probably be a par score on this wicket.

to

Quote

It is not too bad of a wicket to bat on. I think there is plenty in it for both batsman and bowlers; I do think that 300 would probably be a par score on this wicket.

 

Does any of this vocabulary actually make sense to me? Well, no, but it sounds like it could make sense for someone who knows about cricket haha.

[Elmebeck 378]

1 hour ago, Renomitsu said:

Does any of this vocabulary actually make sense to me? Well, no, but it sounds like it could make sense for someone who knows about cricket haha.

Join at least one of the live streams, and maybe join up with a player next "season". I knew just the bare minimum when I joined, but Berocka explains it well during commenting, and whenever I have a question I just put it into chat and it gets explained. It's a sport that has grown on me.

[Berocka 2,263]

As it is >1000 words I will claim for week ending 6/10 also