Coton got back to winning ways with a victory over Newport
that kept an enthralled crowd of approximately 4 people on tenterhooks to the
end. After a stutter against Balsham
this makes it 4 wins out of 5. My
anonymous source in the team would like to think that this was because he
missed the Balsham game. He is deluded.
We welcomed Roger Harding – a Footpath resident – for his
first game, and Rob was back, “fresh” from Heathrow and 35 degree Texan
weather.
From this reporter’s perspective, the match pivoted on an
incident in the 31st over of the Newport, Essex innings. Cruising along at 131-2 chasing a target of
180, their opening batsman faced up to Matt Chandler back on for a 2nd
spell. At this point the aforesaid
batsman was 73 and looking very comfortable.
He was coming out to his crease to get to the pitch of the ball but on
this occasion overreached and the ball went through to John Bason behind the
stumps. Turning quickly the opener lost
his footing, and John – standing back – threw down the stumps. I know what that batsman will want for
Fathers’ Day: new spikes on his shoes.
Meanwhile we sensed that it might be game on. Still, Stumped Bason Bowled Chandler looks
good in the books.
But how did we get to that point? 4 hours earlier, Dan lost the toss upholding
the Coton tradition of our Captains being useless tossers and we were inserted
by Newsex (Esport). Gabriel took first
ball while Richard watched the birds skimming the outfield. The opening bowling was steady and the ball
moving around under the cloud cover. The
skittish Coton pitch was creating the occasional low bounce and it was a
combination of this and the movement that caused Richard to play on. Gabriel lasted a little longer but we weren’t
too far into the game before former Royston colleagues Safwan and John Bason
were batting together.
Safwan was soon into his stride smiting both the persisting
opener and the change bowlers high and handsome over the straight
boundaries. John was a little less
confident to start and got some early runs off the edge. There were several midwicket discussions on
the conventions and protocols of calling for runs, it looked like umpiring
intervention may be needed at one point but the two batsmen sorted out their
differences and applied themselves to the task.
In Safwan’s case, application included 4 x 6s, the last of which sailed
over long off from a seemingly effortless drive. John’s approach was more classical but just
as effective and the score had reached 83 when Saftwan played over a straight
one that (he says) kept a bit low.
Captain Dan now joined John at the wicket and the scoreboard
kept ticking over as Newer, Sexpots ran through an array of bowling. Another promising partnership was broken
when Dan became another Coton player that could have done with a longer bat and
succumbed to a low bounce. Prior to this
there had been an incident where the Neesox, Twerps bowled broke the wicket in
his delivery. Richard – knowing the rule
change precipitated by Steven Finn – called no-ball and Dan cantered for a
run. There was then a debate, a reversal
and Dan’s run was taken away as the no-ball became a dead ball. The rule change only applies to international
cricket until October 1st.
Whilst Essex is a different county (in so many ways) it doesn’t count as
international.
Matt replaced Dan whilst John continued to accumulate
steadily. Having overcome what looked
like some early nerves, Mr Bason was playing strokes all around the
wicket. He wasn’t helped by the long
grass in the outfield which turned several boundary bound strokes into singles
and doubles.
Matt perished to Western, Expos teenage spinner giving Roger
a chance to show us what he could do. It
turns out that this was (a) hit sixes and (b) get injured. We managed to avoid all the comedy possibilities
that having a runner brings. But it did
give Richard a chance to get some more exercise after his early dismissal. John farmed the strike expertly in the last
few overs and together with Roger – bravely hanging in despite the injury –
they brought the innings to a close on 179-5.
John finished with an accomplished 72 not out and along with Safwan (42)
provided the backbone to the innings.
Dan, Matt and Roger all made useful runs but as so often happens were
outscored by Mr Extras who provided 17.
Rob made some more jokes about his virgin bat which fell on
deaf ears. Again. Time to give that particular topic a rest I
think.
After tea provided by Janet Scotcher and featuring egg rolls
(Scotcher Eggs?) we resumed the battle. Some very accurate opening bowling –
not a phrase used very often in these reports – started to bring the required
run rate up to 5 an over. Matt and Rob kept
the runs down but couldn’t take a wicket so Scotch was brought into the
attack. He immediately struck by finding
the dead spot on the wicket and pinning one of the Spewer, Sexton openers
palpably leg before wicket. It was so
obvious even his team mate had to give it.
The other opener was having no such problems though and
although the required run rate was creeping up he started to find the boundary with
increasing regularity. Scotch was
dispatched several times, as were Matt, Dan and Safwan from the other end. Dan did manage to bowl the number 3 with a
corker and then remove the number 4 with a beamer. It wasn’t as if the batsman tried to get out
of the way, but he took a nasty crack on the forearm and retired hurt.
Dan juggled his bowlers, with Matt returning for a second
spell to replace Safwan and Richard replaced Scotch. Saf’s tactic had been to get the opener to
play one in the air to long off or mid wicket but despite adding more and more
fielders in that area the ball didn’t go to hand. By this time, Gabriel had left the field and Patrick Butterfield substituted. Young Patrick gave us a lesson in fielding and he was afforded every opportunity as the opposition hit every other shot in his direction.
It was, therefore, something of a relief when Matt made the
breakthrough described earlier. Needing
49 to win off 8 overs with 7 wickets remaining still put Western, Sexop in a
good position but we had forced open a small breech in the defences.
And into that breech we now piled. Accurate bowling, some alert fielding and a
series of increasingly panicky strokes raised the pressure on our
opponents. Richard rattled the woodwork
twice and Matt struck again before ending his spell. The other bowlers having done the hard work,
Scotch returned to grab 2 more wickets and Richard struck twice more. In the midst of the carnage the batsman that
Dan had winged earlier returned and played a one handed slog that steepled to
mid wicket. The bowler, 8 fielders and
the wicketkeeper all ran away from the ball, leaving Roger, still hobbling from
his injury and unable to take evasive action with the responsibility for making
the catch.
143-3 had turned into 148-9 in a little over 5 overs. There was a late flurry but Richard found the
stumps one more time to bring proceedings to a halt. Worst, Expense ended up 23 runs short of the
target, Richard leading the way with 4-29, ably supported by Scotch (3-21) and
Matt (2-34).
That puts us 4th in the league. There are still 3 unbeaten teams ahead of us,
two of which meet on Saturday while we play the winless Babraham.
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1 comment:
Babraham may be winless, but they have only played the top 3 teams!
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