The lovely setting of
St Fagans welcomed the Casz on Bank Holiday Monday and all
was well right up until the coin toss. (Skipper on
the Day - J Furnham)
Their captain informed me that their batting line-up was
pretty strong - quite an understatement, especially considering
that one of their openers, Merilat, had scored 56 against
Surrey earlier in the season!
So, after continuing the Casz tradition of losing the toss
(I always was a useless tosser), we were faced with the prospect
of a long 40 overs in the field, and so it turned out.
Dan and Justin opened with pretty decent spells of bowling,
however. Dan conceded only 12 runs in his 5 overs and they
were about 44 off 10 but without losing a wicket. Andy F bowled
an intelligent 8 over spell, conceding a miserly 24 runs and
picking up one wicket (a skyer caught by Paul who made a difficult
catch look very easy). 89 - 1.
Their number 3 departed for 8 thanks to another pretty good
catch (if you'll permit me to say so) by the skipper of the
day off Paul's bowling. And that was all the wickets we got
up until the very last over.
Fitz and Goughy chipped in with good spells but with no luck,
Dan and Justin came back and saw their figures suffer a bit
as the batsmen went for their shots, as did Paul in his last
over.
Shaky held up his hand to bowl the final over of the innings
and finally got Merilat out bowled (anything Martin Bicknell
can do) for 134. Mind you, he did edge one behind on about
15, but it was only a half chance and didn't quite carry through
to Will who did well to get a finger tip to it.
Ah ... what might have been ...
Total 258 for 3.
Casz Bowling figures: all the bowlers will bowl a lot worse
and return better figures.
Dan 8-2-37-0
Justin 8-0-60-0
Andy F 8-1-24-1
Goughy 5-0-30-0
Paul 6-0-59-1
Fitz 4-0-31-0
Shakes 1-0-8-1
Very nice tea.
And so to bat.
Mark and JF opened the batting, but the bemused councillor
was dismissed for 2 in the very first over, bowled round his
legs by a ball that pitched outside leg and hit the off stump.
Much head shaking from Shaky. 2-1.
Out came Goughy who looked in fine touch and displayed a
great range of shots before smacking one to point and getting
caught for an excellent 38 out of a 54 partnership with JF.
56-2.
That brought Will to the crease and he took over where Goughy
left off, scoring on both sides of the wicket while I scratched
around at the other end. When I was eventually bowled for
a slow and painful 33 it ended an 81 partnership with the
score on 137-3.
About 20 minutes later, we had added 4 runs and lost another
6 wickets: Steve O b 2 (not playing straight); Will ct behind
47 (deserved 50); CD run out 0 (unlucky - direct hit), Fitz
b 0; Paul c+b 0; Dan b 0 (golden duck - ball hit pad and onto
stumps). 137-2 had suddenly become 141-9.
A spirited 10th wicket partnership of 22 then followed between
Justin and Andy F, ending when JT flat-batted one to midwicket
for 12, leaving Andy 10 not out.
Final score 163 all out and defeat by 95 runs.
We were well beaten on the day, but we were not disgraced.
Apart from holding on to a couple of catches, there was not
a lot more that we could have done, so we should not be too
dispirited by this defeat. After the game their skipper was
full of praise for our bowlers and acknowledged that we had
been unlucky to come up against a particularly strong batting
line-up. They would be more than happy to invite us up again
for a similar fixture at the same time next year.
Casz man-of-the-match: Will Goad. A superb 47 against a good
bowling attack and an excellent display behind the stumps.
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