On the road to Mandalong

Although I had been led to believe that Australia is one of the hottest continents on Earth, it certainly wasn’t very dry as we drove north of Sydney on the road to Mandalong, where Mosman CC was waiting to welcome us at their fairly remote but picturesque cricket ground. The monsoon-like rain seriously threatened to scupper our first game of the tour. Luckily our host used a tarpaulin cover on the square and after a couple more showers, the sun finally came out and we agreed to play a 35-over game.

The pavillion at Mandalong

Reuben and André went out to bat first to a constant cacophony of screeching coming from the local cicada population. It sounded worse than a Berlin ambulance siren – Reuben was hoping that if he nicked one, it wouldn’t be heard above the din. The openers gave us a decent platform although it was difficult to bat on the drying track. The ball seemed to get stuck in the pitch and we managed only a modest run rate of 4 an over. After André lobbed one to gully and Reuben had hit a huge six, our ringer, Anthony, went about bludgeoning the Reader’s ball to all parts. With contributions from Ashwin, Siva and me, we got the score up to 146 for 5.

The opposition had the better of the conditions as the sun came out later and dried up the pitch. They started well and, despite losing one opener as he skied one to me off Reuben, looked to be cruising. However, BCC came back and after Mosman’s opener retired on 50 (as agreed before the game) took a spree of wickets. In the end it came down to a last over thriller. They needed 15 off 5 overs with only one wicket in hand - but finally got home with 3 balls to spare.

BCC's openers take the field as the rain stops

It was a great experience to play cricket in the ‘bush’ with cicada’s screeching in the background and wallabies among the spectators. Unfortunately, there were no redbacks in the makeshift toilets, but no one seemed too bothered as they tucked in to their ‘snags’ at lunch!