When I called my inside contact to get some insight into
events at Coton Rec last weekend he wasn’t his usual talkative self. Rumours spread of a gagging order imposed by
the captain after Coton lost to Burrough Green by 6 wickets off the penultimate
ball of the match. But eventually I was
able to inveigle out some words, so here we go.
On Friday evening the Deputy Assistant Stand-in Vice Captain
received an email to the effect that there was about 5% chance of the match
going ahead as the rain of the previous days had made access to prepare the
pitch impossible. Not one to be easily
deterred – and with a positive weather forecast – he turned up on Saturday
morning to see what could be done. As it
turned out, the pitch (rated "good" on the match card) was very playable. The game produced a smidge under 400
runs with only 10 wickets which bares testament.
With Dan nursing a bad back and Gabriel nursing a Long
Island Iced Tea, Rob had inherited the Captaincy when, due to his advancing
years, he wasn’t able to dodge fast enough.
He still just as bad as tosser as he ever was and we were asked to bat
first.
Dave Simmons and Alastair opened. Dave scratched around for a few runs but Alastair
was looking back in form, hitting the Burrough Green opener out of the attack
in his first over. After the first boundary the bowler complained
of a sore calf. After a second later in
the over he limped off to find some pain relief. He did come back later, bowled effectively
and took two catches. He was replaces by
another teenage left arm quickie, who Alastair greeted with a couple of
imperious hooks. It was not such a good
picture at the other end. Dave’s
travails were ended when he chipped one to cover off the leading edge and later
in the same over Richard was defeated by a ball that cut away and clipped the
top of off. 22-2 was not what we
wanted.
Safwan, and his newly discovered defensive shot, now joined
Alastair for the first of several productive partnerships. The teenage quick bowlers were tiring and
our two experienced batsman picking them off.
It was somewhat ironic that Safwan now got himself to the first of the
replacements chipping to midwicket. Don’t
listen to the voices in your head, Safwan, attack is definitely the way to go!
Bobby Elmes now joined Alastair. Bobby seems to get bigger each match he plays
and he was soon cutting and glancing the Burrough Green bowlers to
distraction. At first they were giving
Alastair a single to get Bobby on strike but soon realised that he was going to
score runs just as effectively as his partner. The runs piled up until Alastair eventually
succumbed for a career best 85.
Bobby continued to accumulate, now in the company of Matt
Chandler, who scored 18 without ever once finding the middle of the bat. Bobby comfortably outscored him their partnership,
looking ever more comfortable and confident as he progressed.
Cameron – having waited padded up for twenty or so overs –
was unlucky to get a snorter at the start of his innings and it was left to
Paul Bradbury to see out the innings.
His 0 not out was a finely crafted innings despite the comedy attempt to
run either himself or Bobby out. It’s
worth noting that by the time Paul went in to bat we had a crowd of over 10
people watching. This included Helen
Bradbury and Oli Bradbury: our exhortations to persuade one or other of them to
take the field while we locked Paul in the officials room were passed over as
jokes: they weren’t.
Bobby finished on 45 not out and it can’t be long before he
is required to buy his first jug of beer so note to the senior Elmeses: please make sure he brings £20 to the next
match.
We were always going to be a bit light on the bowling front
(not literally, given that Rob and Dave bowled, but in terms of numbers). Matt
and Rob opened, while Safwan complained about the inequities of only using one
ball per game and invented ever more complicated schemes to allow us a 2nd
new ball.
The opening bowling was steady but we didn’t look too much
like taking a wicket despite pegging the required run rate back up to 5½ per
over. Scotch replaced Rob and Richard
took over from Matt. Still we couldn’t
get out the opening batsmen. The
fielding got sloppier. Twice in the
course of one Scotcher over chances went to Matt on the cow corner
boundary. The second was a difficult
running chance where Matt, in an effort to stop himself carrying the ball over
the line, only succeeded in parrying the ball for 6. The other was less difficult but also yielded
4.
We needed a breakthrough and Rob called first on Safwan and
then on Cameron to bowl. We had one blatantly obvious stumping turned
down of Richard’s bowling. Yes, the bat
was in the crease but shouldn’t the batsman actually be holding it at the
time? Anyway, the same batsman then
advanced down the track to Safwan and missed.
The ball appeared to lodge in Alastair’s armpit, precipitating a
convention of the wicket keeper’s union (the Burrough Green batsman was their
keeper). Alastair seemed to take an age
in getting the ball to the stumps as if to allow his fellow keeper a chance to
get back. Meanwhile the batsman/keeper
was taking equally long to get back as if to say, “go one mate, have a stumping
on me”. Rob checked his watch: if this
went on much longer maybe we would have to abandon the game for bad light. Eventually the reverie was broken, as was the
opening partnership, by now worth 154 runs.
We were into the tail!
In successive overs Cameron, showing no nerves and bowling
straight, removed three opponents and we got to the last over with Burrough
Green needing 6 to win. I should mention
the fine diving catch by the Scotch for the third of these. The ball was entrusted to Safwan who had been
keeping the runs in check.
The first 3 balls were tight and only yielded 2 runs. 4 needed off 3. The 4th ball was hit hard but close
to Rob at mid on. As the aging bones
creaked - almost drowning out the shouts from Alastair (“keeper’s end”) and
Safwan (“bowler’s end”) - a player who should be experienced enough to know
better let the ball squirm through for 2 runs.
The next ball was almost an action replay but this time it was Dave
Simmons that allowed the ball to escape, this time for 3.
The Burrough Green opener was left stranded on 99 Not Out,
having been out for 96 the previous week.
As he also took 3-26 in our innings he was definitely the man of the
match. Cameron came out with credit for
holding his nerve and bowling well to take 3-24 as the more experienced
colleagues failed to take a wicket. Rob only
conceded 15 runs in a tight spell at the start and perhaps missed a trick by
not bringing himself back on. Who would
be a captain? Apparently the answer is the other 10 members of the team.
We lost, but it was a well played game against friendly
opposition. One of the drawbacks of the
league format this year is that we don’t get a return game and a chance to
renew acquaintances at what is a very picturesque village ground. The last two unbeaten teams lost so it’s very
tight at the top with just 2 points difference between 1st and 5th
(us). See you next Saturday!
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment