18_Charteredtrust

Another bright sunny day at Llanrumney and after a slight worry that they might not turn up I won the toss and put them in, they only had 8 players. After asking Dan if he wanted to bowl up or down the slope I opened the bowling uphill.

I bowled my spell going for 8 off 3 overs, there were a lot of swings and misses as the ball was moving around a bit. Meanwhile at the other end Dan was proving to be slightly more profligate. Dan went for 20 off his 3; a few short balls went to the boundary. It was a decent start though, 28 for 0 off 6 overs is ok, could have done with a wicket though.

Manish was next up and he was a bit wayward to start, but managed to get the 1st wicket with a half tracker that didn't bounce. Manish bowled ok until the last 3 balls of his spell, they all went for 6 to their star player who capitalized in some loose stuff for a well made 62. Manish finished with 3 overs for 28 with a wicket.

Doc Davies bowled a good spell, he eventually got their opener who by this stage had pulled a hamstring bowled for 25, he was hit for an excellent straight 6 through no fault of his own and ended up with 1 for 18 off his 3 overs.

Muff bowled a mixed bag of a spell going for 22 with a wicket, their left hander trapped LBW, the odd leg side ball and full toss was put away by the top scorer but there were quite a few close calls that could have ended up as wickets with some play and misses that could easily taken wickets.

Jaffa also went for a few runs, I remember a no ball going for 4 and a six I think, he did get 2 wickets though, the top scorer was bowled and their number 5 was caught by Doc at deep mid wicket, 2 for 22 off 3 overs.

We were ok, the fielding was fine, a bit too much loose bowling, 12 extras and only 1 leg bye isn't bad and out of the 62 their batsmen got he hit six 6's and I reckon only 2 of those were off decent balls. We probably gave away 10 to 15 runs and ended on 121 for 5 off 18 overs.

Gough and M Stephens opened for us, Simon was 1st out for 12 in the 4th over miss timing a leg side shot to the only player in front of the wicket on the leg side, out of the two 4's he hit the second was a great on drive past the bowler.

Dewbs and James came and went in quick succession both for ducks and Manish joined my brother at the crease. Mark now qualifies as the 2nd slowest casual behind DB Thomas between the wickets and the run rate suffered due to the lack of pace and lack of singles more than anything else. They only had 8 players it should have been a run a ball after the good opening bowlers had finished and even when they were on I think we could have squeezed a few more runs out of them. Mark was out next for 18 in the 9th over with the score on 42, you would think we were stuffed, but there were twists to come.

At this point they had on one decent bowler and one not as good, the not as good one ended with 1 for 17 off his 3, Dan was the victim and the reason for his demise was the reason for the bowlers figures, he was so slow we had to supply the power on the ball and we couldn't get the hang of him. Dan swivelled and missed a slog and was out bowled for 3, 48 for 5 off 10 overs.

The cavalry arrived in the shape of Sharif and to a lesser extent Manish. Manish had a new bat but couldn't quite get going but stuck in there for 19 ish. Sharif played very well despite jarring his leg for 32 not out including a six. He was the main reason we got anywhere near the total. The other reason was the aforementioned bowler who went for 25 off 2 overs; he did manage to get Manish out caught going for a big one.

The bloke who scored the runs for them was on at the other end, he bowled a good 1st over going for 4 and his second went for 6. I was in and out for 4 caught at midwicket bringing Jaffa to the crease with Sharif.

Just to recap after the 10th over we were on 48 for 5, the 11th went for 8, 12th for 9, 13th for 9, 14th for 4, 15th for 16, 16th for 6. We were on 100 for 6 after 16 overs.

Their keeper came on to replace the spinner and we got 9 off his over including a few wides and my wicket.

We needed 13 off the last over against their good bowler and best batsmen, Jaffa nudged a single but one of their fielders had a brainstorm and we got an overthrow, 11 off 5, Jaffa then came down the wicket next ball and hit a brilliant off drive along the floor for 4, 7 needed off 4. Jaffa was the bowled next ball for a vital 6. 7 required from 3, muff managed a single, 6 off 2, Sharif on strike, a play and miss and the substitute keeper missed it resulting in 3 byes. We needed 3 to win off the last ball, 2 to tie, as it was a shield game where a tie is a tie. Muff on strike, hit the last ball just out of reach of the bowler to mid on and just about managed to scramble through for the 2 we needed to tie the game.

It all seemed a bit hectic and unreal, at no stage did we look close, plaudits to Sharif, Jaffa and Muff at the end and Manish for keeping it going in the middle of the innings but we managed to scrape a tie.

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