July 13, 2013, by ICCSR
Business School Staff vs MScs cricket match report
The Business School staff team continued their run of industrious defeats on Wednesday 26th June against a squad of talented MSc players in a fine day of cricket at Grove Farm. The match ended in dramatic fashion, with the final outcome of the game in the balance up until the last ball of the game (well, kind of). The MSc team were put into bat first and rapidly set an intimidating pattern, with the opening four batsmen notching up some quick scores before retiring. Following the innings of Yashodhan (21), Patil (12) Dola (23) and Prateek (22) it looked like being a long afternoon for the staff team. Simon Mosey, Tim Bailey and Mike Byrne all put in some sterling work with the ball in the early overs, but it was a straight delivery by Adrian Mateo that finally broke the MSc’s stride by finding Shukla’s stumps for 9. Two further wickets were taken, with Shivendra dismissed for 7 by a fine catch by Phil Bonstow from his own bowling and Vivek out for 9 after advancing down the wicket to attack a short ball from Simon Bishop, only to miss and see his stumps taken courtesy of some instinctive wicket keeping by Rob Lambert. After twenty overs the MSc team posted a final score of 157 – a good total but one that allowed just a glimmer of hope among the staff team.
During the break, talk of a possible steward’s inquiry into the non-Business School status of a couple of the MSc players was quickly forgotten following the arrival of sandwiches and chocolate cake. After tea the staff team got off to a flying start with Tim Bailey and Simon Mosey knocking the ball to all corners of the field and keeping to the required run rate. At this stage it looked as though the tea-break optimism may have been justified, but the tide began to turn when Mosey was caught by Dola from Pravin for 19. At this point the pace of the bowling appeared to increase significantly and the wickets of Adrian Mateo (2), Vicky Story (1), James Jarrett (3) and Mal Desai (4) fell in quick succession. Rob Lambert looked as though he had played himself in before winding up for a big hit and getting himself caught by Pranav for 6. Despite having previously retired injured, Tim Bailey gamely came back to the crease to shore things up for the staff, and batting together with Dave Paton it looked like the staff team would at least make it through to the end of the 20 overs. Although by now there was no chance of getting anywhere near the MSc’s total, it was decided that taking the game to the end of the overs would count as a ‘moral draw’. Even when Bailey fell for 22, this still looked likely after some desperate defensive stuff from Bishop together with first Bonstow and then Paton, the latter returning to the centre after having retired earlier in the innings. With one wicket remaining though the last ball of the game was an absolute belter from Pranev. Keeping low and straightening on the bounce it left Paton, the highest scoring batsman of the match with 29, with his bat swinging wildly and his stumps distributed across NG9. All out for 116, the staff team were happy to have been part of a fantastic game of cricket and spirits are high for the season’s upcoming finale against the MBAs.
By Simon Bishop
Lecturer in Organisational Behaviour, Nottingham University Business School.
Photograph taken by Britanglishman and reproduced under creative commons CC BY 2.0 Source: http://www.flickr.com/photos/britanglishman/4591053777/
Nice post – makes the Ashes seem like a sideshow!