Batting Records Smashed

We interrupt the collection of "2010 summary" posts to bring you this breaking news... Last night saw Popped Collars annihilate Take That and set all manner of batting records along the way.

Take That were sent into bat by Brad who pondered the best way to counter the usual all-out attacking style of the opposition batters. Judicious choice of bowlers and some solid fielding (including a collection of good catches from Chris) saw the Collars succeed. Not only at restricting the dangerous batters, but also knocking off the weaker pairs at the end. Take That made just 57.

Brad took 7/-20 with the ball, the 5th best ever figures for the team. [Andy may well also have a fielding record for stumpings and run-outs, I'll check that when I get the scorecard]. But this was the least of the records to be seen for the night... Popped Collars were yet to bat...

Number of individual 50s
The closest we've ever come to having two 50s in one game was the final match last year when Xavier scored 54 and Rian 45. Last night however, there were three! Xavier, Steve and Andy all made individual half-centuries in the game.

Number of century partnerships
Xavier and Julian broke their curse of never quite being able to get to 100. The two have played innings together, for all manner of different teams, and many times been within sight of the triple figures only to totally stuff it up at the end. Last night it was a few extras in the final over and a safe push for two off the final ball that got them to exactly 100. One run short of the team record partnership, but still the milestone they wanted.

And then, with the game well and truly over, Andy and Steve batted the final skin in what I can only assume was a barrage of back-net shots. They both scored 50s, for a record-shattering 111 run partnership.

Highest partnership
I didn't get to see the Andy/Steve carnage at the end of the game, but it was 10 runs better than Xavier and Brad's former record of 101.

Highest team score
I thought we had come close to 300 before, but I must have been thinking of the ol' 6-a-side team, GG. The previous team best was 237. Then in the final game of 2010, we broke that record with a 260 performance. Now, just 2 games later, a total of 329. Looks like we're collectively in some good batting form at the moment.

Highest individual score
Once again, this is a record that has progressed quickly over the last few games. In one of the early Popped Collars matches, Josh scored 52; a performance that would be equalled, but not bettered, for over a year. In the final game of 2010, Xavier finally cracked it with a 54.

Two games later, he cracked it again, making 57 of the century partnership with Julian. But... his glorious reign atop the record table (holding 1st, 2nd, and equal 3rd) was to be short-lived. About 20 minutes. In the final pair of the game, Andy racked up 58.

With Steve also making 53, the team's top 4 batting scores now all come from the last three matches. And 3-out-of-4 come from last night's game alone.

Most runs in a day/match
Andy's record score was actually in his second bat for the match, since Popped Collars were a player short. His first innings was also worth 46, giving him a match total of 104.

The old record for most runs in a game belonged to Rian, with 85 (35 & 50) in a match last year.

The next best records when looking at multiple matches in a day were both set on 5th April 2010, when Popped Collars played a double header. On that day, Xavier made 82 (52 & 30), while Brad batted three times that day for 80 runs (49, 16 & 15).