Napa Valley Cricket Club Sweeps Marin 3-0

.By Andrew Healey

Irishman Andrew Healy had the “game of his life” with both bat and ball as the NVCC wrapped up their three-game series against Marin Cricket Club with a victory. Having played Marin twice in Larkspur this season so far, Marin made the trip to Calistoga and brought with them a strong, competitive and fun team.

 Australian Rob Bolch, NVCC Captain for the day, set out his stand early by announcing both the batting and bowling order ahead of the game. Bolch surprisingly had listed eight NVCC players to bowl in pairs of only 4 overs per pair.

It was a strategy that was to pay off for Bolch and his team as Marin were never able to settle while facing such a varied NVCC attack. Just as they were getting settled Bolch changed the bowlers.

This helped keep the Marin score low and very chasable and shared the workload through the whole team. Bowling highlight for the NVCC was the 3 over spell from club Vice-President Healy, whose slow and loopy deliveries deceived 3 well-set Marin batsmen.

Having taken 2 wickets in his 2 overs Bolch bowled Healy one more before drinks and while it was an expensive over, runs wise, it brought the prized wicket of Marin captain Raj Thiagaraj, thank to a solid catch at deep mid-wicket by New Zealander, Martin Mackenzie.

The rest of the Marin wickets were shared throughout the bowling attack with a total of six bowlers picking up wickets while Healy’s son Caen, a sophomore at Napa High School, bowled a short spell of 2 economical overs of swing bowling for the loss of only 2 runs.

After lunch, Napa Valley started the chase with opening Australian pair Pete Carson and Scott Curwood both losing their wickets cheaply and quickly. Curwood lost his to the lightning fast fielding of Marin’s American born fielder, Joe Slater.

The NVCC’s woes with the bat continued as a series of wickets fell cheaply. Carson (2 off 20), Jared Thatcher (2 off 7), Jeff Keene (2 off 10), Clive Richardson (2 off 3) and Caen Healy (1 off 5) left NVCC in a perilous position with 6 wickets down for only 36 runs.

It was then that Healy and Inderjeet Singh, prolific all season with the bat, came together for NVCC to stanch the flow of wickets. The pair put on 31 runs for the 7th wicket with Healy playing a watchful innings that included 28 dot balls of the 33 that he faced.

The five balls that he did play went for 4,1,6,1,6 respectively while Singh notched up 24 off 20 balls at the other end. The loss of both of these wickets brought Bijoy Ojha and Mackenzie to the middle and while Marin thought they had the game in the bag, Ojha and Mackenzie had different ideas.

Their 9th wicket partnership of 103 (both not out) included 15 boundaries (13 fours and 2 sixes) and as in the previous game against Sonoma Ojha hit the winning runs, again a 4, with just 2 overs to spare. 

 “I know how much it means for our team to win games, so I laid out our plan early and everyone was on board with it," said NVCC Captain Bolch. "We had a couple of wobbles with both bat and ball but the team did a great job of sticking to their tasks and I think we thoroughly deserved our win both in this game and the season.

"It was great to have Bijoy to come in late in the batting order as he has developed a real talent for closing out games this season with his nerves of steel," Bolch added. "And as for our top bowler of the day today, Andrew Healy, well maybe the other captains need to consider him a secret weapon in our bowling attack for future games.”

Marin CC Captain Raj Thiagaraj said his team enjoyed the series.

“It was yet another great game of cricket against the Napa Valley boys and truthfully we thought we had it wrapped up when they were at 36 for 6," he said. "But credit to them for such a strong comeback.

"I think we may have sneaked home had we taken our late opportunities in the field with catches and as always that old cliché that “catches win matches” will haunt us for a time to come after this game,” Thiagaraj added.

 The traditional Clos du Val “Man of the Match” award was given to Marin CC’s Frank Gilmore for his all round performance with bat (37 off 40) , ball (18 off 7, including 1 maiden) and his greatly appreciated honesty in the field.

Score Summary

Napa Valley CC 171/8 beat Marin CC 169 all out by 4 wickets.  (35 over game / 12 batting)

NVCC Batting – Bijoy Ojha (not out) 52 runs off 51 balls (7 x 4, 1 x 6), Martin Mackenzie (not out) 47 off 36 (6 x 4, 1 x 6), Inderjeet Singh 24 off 20 (1 x 4, 3 x 6), Andrew Healy 18 off 33 (1 x 4, 2 x 6) 

NVCC Bowling – Andrew Healy 3 wickets for 31 runs off 3 overs, Martin Mackenzie 2 for 25 off 6.5, Inderjeet Singh 1 for 7 off 6.

Next Game Details – all at The Fairgrounds, Calistoga

Sunday 25th August 2013 versus Caribbean Old Boys 10.30am – 4.30pm

Sunday 8th September 2013 versus Philadelphia CC 10.30am – 4.30pm

Images Attached

Napa Valley CC Logo

Caen Healy (left) fields as Martin Mackenzie…..

Napa Valley CC batsman Inderjeet Singh (in blue helmet)….

The final scoreboard….

Sponsors

The Napa Valley Cricket Club wishes to acknowledge the assistance of the following sponsors

Clos du Val, GoVino, TricorBraun WinePak, Portocork, Duckhorn Vineyards, Treasury Wine Estates, 3 rock marketing, Grapeleaf Graphics.

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