Match Report vs Barry
West End 21 May 2009 @ Wenvoe (Skipper BA and Report
Smitts)
“Ah, summer, what power you have to make us suffer
and like it.”
Russel Baker
On a glorious Sunday afternoon, The Casuals arrived at Wenvoe
looking forward to a full day’s cricket. For once the
weather was not a concern and Pikey was not playing. Coincidence?
C-H-A-R-L-I-E, my main man.
I have no idea who won the toss, so let’s say they
did and decided to have a bat. Lewis and Mahesh opened the
bowling for the Casz and as always the Wenvoe pitch was slow
and low. It was obvious from the start that M. Williams and
R. Howell The West Enders opening pair, knew what they were
doing and weren’t going to give their wickets away.
This coupled with some excellent bowling meant that after
ten overs the score was 22/0 and Lewis and Mahesh had earned
a rest.
Andy F and Hand took over bowling responsibilities and continued
in the same vain. Andy F was finding a little bit of movement
through the air and with the quicker ball making an appearance
now and again the batsmen had to be on their toes. After one
of Andy F’s quicker balls that caught the batsman (and
the wicket keeper) unawares but failed to bother the timbers,
he commented, “That used to be my slower ball,”
and much hilarity was had by all. The Hand Shandy at the other
end, after a wayward first ball found his line and length.
He then proceeded to get quicker and quicker in the blistering
heat and started moving the ball back in to the batsman off
the pitch. The batsmen, although not hitting many boundaries
were not panicking and kept the score ticking over slowly
with ones and twos.
Twenty overs in the score was 50/0 and it was time for a
bowling change. Pablo and Mo were called upon and Pablo decided
to shake things up a bit by throwing the ball above the batsmen’s
eye line. Could the batsmen resist these tempting moon ball
deliveries? The answer was no and the ball raced to the rope
a couple of times. Pablo undeterred stuck like a limpet to
his moon ball strategy and got his reward. As Paul released
the ball the batsman’s eyes lit up, as he advanced down
the track the ball dipped and turned bamboozling him and clattered
in to the stumps. R. Howell bowled 39. With the new batsman
at the crease Pablo reverted to bowling medium pace. Mo at
the other end was bowling well without reward but keeping
the score to a minimum. In the last over of his spell Pablo
picked up the wicket of the other opener caught by Dan ‘safe
hands’ Lewis going for a big yahoo trying to get the
score moving. M Williams 31 Caught Lewis Bowled P Stephens.
After thirty four overs the score was 113/2. With The West
End looking to make use of the wickets in hand, Lewis and
Mahesh were bought back in to the attack. The batsmen were
willing to chance their arm in these last six overs and we
knew chances would present themselves. The next wicket fell
when a ball down the leg side from Mahesh was only partially
stopped by the bronzed Adonis Smith behind the stumps, who
had been cooking in his helmet all day and was by now suffering
from severe dehydration. The batsmen tried to run a quick
single but like a whippet from the slips Lewis pounced and
threw at the bowlers end. (As Smith dived for cover at the
strikers end given Dan’s reputation) The throw was good
and collected by Mahesh who whipped the bails off. The batsmen
continued to look for runs in the last couple of overs and
there was just enough time for Dan to pick up a wicket LBW
before the 40 overs were bowled.
Barry West End 156/4 off 40
D Lewis 8-1-32-1
M Kannan 8-0-28-0
A Furnham 6-0-23-0
S Hand 6-0-18-0
P Stephens (J Snape) 6-0-27-2
M Jamal 6-1-18-0
Tea was superb. Foxy is a legend.
Easy and The Bar opened for The Casuals but The West End
struck first over. Chris bowled with the score still on 0.
Out came Smith and struggled from the off with the bowler
adopting the cunning tactic of bowling at the wickets! Smith
and Bar had a quick chat about how there were loads of overs
and no need to do anything silly…so on and so forth.
Akbari was next to go, playing across a straight one. Many
a Casuals downfall. Smith was joined by Spider and the two
of them had the same chat about steadying the ship and getting
them in singles if we had to ….. and for a while this
plan seemed to be working.
The scoreboard wasn’t racing along but it was moving
despite the high number of dot balls. Smith was struggling
with his timing and struggling with the running in the heat.
(I was blowing out my ass at some points) Eventually he too
fell to the deadly straight delivery and was back in the club
house. Smith 13 Bowled. Dewbs joined him shortly after, mistiming
one and being caught and mid off. Dewbs 8 Caught. Richy and
Mo took up the reins keeping the score ticking along slowly
wittout giving it away. Eventually Richy was bowled for 7.
After twenty two overs the Casz were 62/5.
Hand joined Mo in the middle and the two of them pulled the
innings together. Playing sensibly, taking the singles when
they were available and not giving away their wickets. Eventually
Mo was bowled for a hard fought 21. Mahesh picked up right
where Mo left off and after a brief return to the club house
to empty his pockets of mobile phone and camera...really started
to get the score moving. With the total approaching three
figures and with less than 10 overs left it was clear that
caution had to be thrown to the wind. Scotty and Mahesh started
to up the run rate but both fell before either could release
the beast inside. Hand 23 LBW. Kannan 25 Bowled. It came down
to this. The score was 102/7 off 33 overs.
Pablo and Lewis were in the middle and needed 55 runs off
the last 7 overs. Lewis wasted no time hitting his first delivery
for 4. One of their players could be heard to say, “
Take a look at it then, and play yourself in” What followed
was the closest thing you’ll see to a public execution
this side of Saudi Arabia. Dan bludgeoning everything to the
boundary with his meaty wand. Pablo realising that Dan was
on fire made sure he rotated the strike as often as he could
to get the mighty cow banger on strike. The opposition captain
realised that they were in danger of losing the game and went
defensive with his field settings but too late. With four
needed off the last over and the field back they were easily
picked up in singles.
The Casz were victorious!
C Ryde 0 off 5
A Akbari 4 off 7
M Smith 13 off 33
D Dewberry 8 off 20
R Holliday 7 off 37
M Jamal 21 off 35
S Hand 23 off 32
M Kannan 25 off 37
P Stephens 13 off 15 (not out)
D Lewis 26 off 13 (not out)
A Furnham DNB
Bowling figures of note
T Miller 8-6-3-2
[Ed: Milestones reached - Dan Lewis 50 catches - the most
taken (so far) by a non keeper] [Milestones]
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