A & A Team Takes Napa Valley Cricket Club World Series Trophy

The Napa Valley Cricket Club season opener “World Series” was won in convincing style on Sunday thanks to a scintillating all round performance from Australian Alastair Martin. 

In front of a crowd of almost 200, Martin splayed the Rest of the World bowling all around the Calistoga Fairgrounds.

Having won the toss on a hot Calistoga day Rest of the World captain, New Zealander Martin Mackenzie opted to bowl first.

An early breakthrough saw the dismissal of Club President Phil Bourke but that brought Martin to the crease and he stuck around for most of the rest of the innings with various partners to score a huge personal total, and club record of 127, with twelve 4’s and nine 6’s.  

Dropped catches were the order of the day for the Rest of the World team with at least 6 clear cut chances going down and this left them with a target of 250 or over 8 runs an over to chase.

After the customary lunch break, the Rest of the World team came out of the blocks firing and were well ahead of the required run rate in their first few overs thanks to some rapid scoring from Indian pair Amritpal Bhatal and Abhijit Adhye.

Unfortunately, they couldn’t sustain this onslaught on the bowling attack and wickets fell at regular intervals, with 2 early ones to Alastair Martin.

Score-wise, the Rest of the World team were ahead on runs scored until the 17th over but by that stage had lost 7 wickets. Top score for the Rest of the World was a battling 28 runs of 48 balls from New Zealander Jeff Keene.

A late innings flurry from Irish father and son pair Andrew and Caen Healy racked up 23 runs but was not enough to get them close and the Rest of the World team ended up with a total of 139 all out.

Man of the Match Alastair Martin said  “since moving to the Napa Valley over the winter I’ve been impressed with the set up here at the Napa Valley Cricket Club. This was the first game of the season and was a great chance for everyone to get outside and play after a winter in the nets. I rode my luck a little thanks to some dropped catches and enjoyed every moment out in the middle.”

Club and American / Australia captain Tim Irwin paid tribute to the folks behind the scenes who made the day such a huge success.

“It’s very easy to think that us blokes in white just turn up and play, but there was a huge amount of work done behind the scenes to made the day so successful," Irwin saidl "So hats off to all of the volunteers, club members and their families for all of their efforts.

"To think that we fed and watered almost 200 people, entertained the kids with a bouncy house and provided commentary and music thanks to Dennis from Radio Calistoga is an amazing achievement,”he added.

The next game for the Napa Valley Cricket Club is this coming Saturday, May 4,  from 10.30 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Calistoga Fairgrounds, 1435 N Oak St., Calistoga, against the Sri Lankan members of Marin CC.

Sponsors

The Napa Valley Cricket Club wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following sponsors: Clos du Val, Tonnelerie Saint Martin, go vino, 3 rock marketing ,Duckhorn Vineyards, Grapeleaf Graphics, Queen of the Valley Hospital, Taltarni, Calistoga Roastery.

More details on the Napa Valley Cricket Club can be found on the website – http://www.napacricket.com

More details on the game of cricket can be found on the following websites:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Cricket

http://icc-cricket.yahoo.net/

http://www.espncricinfo.com/

Video series on “How to Play Cricket”:

http://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL66F1E5A61B2F5A6B

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