Match Report - CPL Round 3

CPL Round 3 threatened to be another moist one but it never quite followed the forecast thankfully. The first match up was Bourne Stars v Grove Armada and the two teams vying for residency of the pirate ship. At Comms we've been rather dismissive of 2019 winners Grove Armada, but for this match they pulled out the big guns in the shape of a vintage CCC team comprising of Dan Shepherd, Jonathan Dodd, and fan favourite Ryan Ballerino, with some big current names to bolster proceedings. The Armada were so vintage they seemed to have bought their trousers from 1999 too, with more than one player having to customise their troosers to fit. The bowlers did their job, with moustach-ioed luxury player Barney Knights-Johnson removing a bemused Elliott Bloomfield 2nd ball - Cap'n Powlesland with a magnificent catch, and later in the innings Cameron Wakefield with a hat-trick, well we think it was a hat-trick, there was a no-ball in amongst it but we're calling it, its Umpire Alan verified. Bourne Stars were reduced to 114 all out. Liam Fisher dug in, and when his time came around Troy Bolger came out all guns blazing with an entertaining 34, the Armada gaining the sought-after bonus point for reaching 120 and the win. 

The second game of the day saw Gogmore Knights take on Meads Enforcers, the Knights camp batting first and insistent they needed 150 and their bonus point, knowing the strength in batting depth of the Enforcers. Mohammed Osman of Kempton made things much easier, repeating his heroics from Round 1, and proving his luxury value by top scoring on 63. When it came round to the last innings of the day, the Enforcers were coasting, but upon musing with wise Billy Coops on Old Gits bench, he mysteriously predicted there was a twist to be had before the game was up. No more than 5 minutes later the prediction started to ring true, with the loss of the 6th wicket. First Jake Taylor aggravated his existing hand injury, and from there on in there was a topple of jenga proportions, left to Boasty (who himself pulled a hammy in this carnage) and Skinny John Bailey to salvage a win. There must have been something in the air as Stuart Eagles also had to go off with a sore back, Colt Josh Fyfe taking his place in the field. Plenty of last-over drama, and we were still so adament the Enforcers could push through, but the loss of Boasty and the last wicket right at the death meant it was a shock 1-run win for the Knights. Such an accomplishment it was voted the Performance of the Round over on Instagram, with Cameron's hat-trick coming a very close second.

So what does this all mean for Finals Day? Well, Meads Enforcers get a free pass to the Final due to a higher net run rate (please don't ask us how that's calculated, our abacus blew up trying), and it'll be between Gogmore Knights and Grove Armada to see who joins them in the semi final, but the Pirate ship will definately have a pink flag this year in the shape of new residents Bourne Stars.

Here are the final standings:
 

4 points for a win
1 losing bonus point for scoring over 120 when losing
1 losing bonus point for getting 7 wickets when losing

We're currently putting the day together so we'll be back in touch with all the details.