Wednesday was spent travelling. Having left Knysna at 9.00 we travelled along the Garden Route via the "Lake District" of South Africa centred on Wilderness. We broke the journey at Mossel Bay, one of the major ports along the south coast of Africa and then took lunch at Svellendam. We arrived at the Houw Hoek inn on the top of the Houw Hoek Pass ( 400 metres at its height ) at 4 pm. After settling inn the team played a variety of sports including crazy golf and volleyball, the obvious preparations for the next game of cricket!!! Dinner was taken as a team in the hotel dining room. Sadly the sun did not shine all day - we really have not struck it lucky in that department.
Thursday dawned and guess what - it was raining. At breakfast we considered what we might do 0n another rained off day, however during breakfast we had a phone call from our on the spot pitch expert, no not Sir Ian Botham and the Sky Sports team, but Sabu Jacob who was staying with his wife in Hermanus. He had been out the night before to the ground and reported that it was well covered and that at the time it was not raining in Hermanus! So we set off in a positive frame of mind!
Well we lost the toss, were inserted and were 1 for 1 at the end of the first over, Alex Stroud knicking the ball to the keeper! However a stand of 80 between Tom Hartington and Rishabh Shah steadied the side. Rishabh scored a fine 78 but his departure in the 26th over with the score at 125 marked a turning point. Inthujan Tankarajah struggled to push the score along, Matt Reid Evans tried to clip his 4th ball over mid wicket only to lose his off stump and Sachin Modi was "triggered" first ball by the opposition's umpire, however Dan Willoughby scored a good 25. We finally limped to 204 all out off 2 42 overs, probably about 20 or 30 short of a par score - however overall it was a better batting effort. The opposition batted sensibly but wickets fell and Matt Reid Evans 3 for 38 off 9 overs was the first time on tour that a bowler had given nus control of the game. However throughout we were being let down by some very poor fielding indeed with some players looking like u 12s rather than 1st team players. 3 dropped catches including the player who eventually scored 45 not out and steered them to victory, plus several singles that should have not been and twos that should have been ones slowly helped them increase the run rate. After 42 overs ( a 45 over match) they were 187 for 7 and really we should have won the game - Samraj Sadra bowled a particularly good final spell from one end - his final figures of 27 runs from 9 overs did him credit. However a couple of well judged hits including a 6 when there top scorer hit high to long on where Tyrone Behari took a good catch only to step back over the boundary saw them home with two balls to spare. It was an exciting match but one we should have won and in which one or two players showed that they still have a lot to learn and indeed to prove.
We move on in the morning to Cape Town, about two hours drive away for the final 5 nights - we cannot believe the trip has gone so fast and that Cape town beckons. We have three matches to play and plenty to prove - let's hope we can prove it
Blog posts may become a little infrequent as we do not think there is any Internet connection in our accommodation - we may have to rely on Internet Cafes - if anyone is reading please keep looking and we will do our best.
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