Saturday May 9th 2009

We flew into Sydney Airport with just five minutes to spare before the start of the match. Using Gardner Airlines may have been economical (and exciting) but not, perhaps, the speediest option.

I won the toss and elected to bat - setting a large target, which the opposition struggle to reach (and, incidentally, giving every player in our side a chance to bat) seems to have worked so far.

Mincat was caught and bowled when the score had reached 27-1.

Christopher was caught by their keeper: 36-2.

I brought Ad in higher up the order, as I know he's been working hard in the nets.

Annoyingly, I played a shot from Worde onto my pads, from where it gently rolled into my stumps: 45-3.

Carol was caught in the slips: 57-4.

Ad and ILTV took us past 100, Ad finally being caught just short of a maiden half-century: 106-5.

ILTV was run out: 121-6.

Ivy was caught and bowled by Worde: 154-7.

Rob was bowled: 155-8.

As was Phil: 158-9.

And Vicus: 163-10.Tea was a jolly affair, gathered round the glowing barbie. The taste of burnt plastic did, though, rather spoil the taste of the prawns.

After our return to the field, Vicus made a quick breakthrough with an LBW: 4-1.

Unfortunately this brought Ponting in - a player we have found it hard to dislodge in the past.

We did, however, manage to contain them to 2 or 3 an over - well below the rate they needed - until eventually they had to go for big shots - and Christopher was rewarded with a catch by Mincat: 47-2.

In his next over he tempted Ponting to do the same thing: 56-3.

Vicus was hit for three consecutive boundaries, before one fell slightly short and I was able to hang onto it: 80-4.

In his next over Rob tempted another drive to Mincat: 84-5.

And another to ILTV: 90-6.

With my final ball I got my revenge, clean bowling Worde: 94-7.

The final over of the match, from Christopher, saw just one run, and so they finished on 95-7. We win again.

Sadly I failed to photograph the scorebook before we left Australia. I can however confirm that our bowling figures were Vicus: 6 overs, 2 wickets for 41 runs, Rob: 6-2-14, Christopher: 5-2-9, me: 5-1-22, Ad: 2-0-9.

Mincat took 3 catches, and ILTV and I one each.

As the league table shows, New Zealand are going to be the team to beat.
Next week we're home against the West Indies.