Double-header with true cricket weather

We were delighted to welcome Dunfermline & Carnegie Comets to Gilvenbank Park this morning for some double-header cricket, with the softball players playing Kwik cricket on the Bell Oval and the older players playing intermediate hardball cricket on the artificial pitch on the Ramsay Oval.

Both groups of players and adults were kept entirely separate and appropriate social distancing maintained throughout, plenty of cones put out to give designated spaces for everyone!

It was one win apiece for the softball cricketers with a number of excellent performances across both teams. First game saw the Gladiators bat well to post 81 for 3 wickets with most batters contributing well, followed up by a good bowling performance to restrict the Comets to 33 for 4. With 5 bonus runs gained for each wicket taken, final scores were Gladiators 101 for 3 against Comets 48 for 4.

The second game saw an immediate turnaround in the field for the Gladiators to continue bowling and this time the Comets were able to bat more positively to score 86 for 3 wickets. Mirroring the first game, it was the Gladiators turn to struggle in the run chase and despite a great start by Joe, they were only able to post 68 for 5. Counting bonus runs, final scores were Comets 111 for 3 against Gladiators 68 for 5.

Honours even and great to see lots of great cricket played!

Up on the Ramsay Oval, a very close game was played out by the intermediate hardball players as effectively 10-a-side, with 5 batting pairs facing 4 overs each. Comets skipper Freddie lost the toss, so it was Anas who choose to bowl first.

The Gladiators bowlers generally struggled throughout the innings though, providing around 50 runs in no balls and wides, and a number of overthrows also - but when they were able to knuckle down the Comets batters struggled and it was just Charlie (13) and Freddie (21) who made significant contributions. But the Comets will have been very pleased in posting 108 for the loss of 11 wickets from their 20 overs.

In response, the Gladiators batters continued their slightly subdued day and struggled to get going. After a solid start, the unlucky Amy was caught three times trying to up the tempo and saw Israq run out also - Gladiators 22 for 4 wickets from 8 overs. Amol (16 not out) struck three good boundary shots to get the scoreboard moving, then in the fourth batting pair it was Karthik (19 not out) who kept things going - Gladiators 76 for 4 after 16 overs at this stage, and just 4 runs behind the Comets effectively.

All to play for with the final pair, but it was to be the Comets who thought hardest, with Sukhpal and Johsua unfortunately forgetting how to bat - 14 runs gained (10 in extras) but more importantly six wickets lost! Gladiators finished on 90 for 10 wickets. And this time with 4 bonus runs given for each wicket lost, final scores were Comets 148 for 11 against Gladiators 134 for 10 - a win by 14 runs for the Comets.

Great to see so many kids out playing cricket still, and many congratulations to all of them that took part!