Match Report vs Miskin 3 June 2009

As with all my university essays, the last of which was handed in about this time last year (and yes, I do find letting go of student life hard), I have been staring at a blank page for too long and playing on Facebook. Having not done one of these before I decided to peruse the scorebook for some inspiration. Not finding much I decided to work out some figures (see below), but this turned out to be fairly tedious…

So we went out to bat, with Smitts and Ash striding confidently to the square like our very own Laurel and Hardy. 8 off the first over was the result of this dream partnership and the scoreboard continued to tick over nicely against a good bowling attack, including a few that ‘got up a bit’ – a first for the season? Ash however succumbed to a good delivery that was edged and taken neatly by the wicketkeeper. A. Akbari adding 8 to the score in boundaries – it was a warm evening after all.

Pikey made his way to the middle to join Smitts who soon decided to go aerial and almost instantly regretted it, but was fortunate to be dropped at square leg (apologies for any factual inaccuracies in this passage of play, I would like to check the video replay but none of this was caught on film as Dan was making full use of the 60x zoom to photograph the local (ahem) wildlife). The batsmen were unnerved and continued to score well, with Pikey expertly finding the tree and reaping the four-run reward. Enthusiasm for lofted shots finally getting the better of him with J. Pike out for 11 – caught at mid-wicket. J. Roach to take his place….

Smitts’ excellent innings, which was quick to get going and included several boundaries, came to an abrupt end following a decent catch at short cover. Warwick was next up, and whilst not able to find the middle of the bat, managed to put on a few early runs. Roachy continuing to find not only well placed (and well ran) one’s and two’s but boundaries to boot. In an attempt to get some more distance on his shots, Warwick took a big stride down the wicket with an attempted drive to the rope but horsing it up – the ball taken by the wicketkeeper and the bails following soon after. Big appeal shouts followed by “not out” – lucky, maybe a tip toe inside the crease… maybe. Now planted firmly in his crease, luck soon ran out as Warwick tried to force one through the on-side, finding only: inside edge, pad then stumps… bugger.

R. Holliday got off to a cracking start with a four and both he and J. Roach continued to bat with controlled aggression adding 31 in the last three overs, punishing anything that strayed onto the wicket as Williams struggled with his line. So 120 on the board and Miskin into bat.

Batting Figures:

Smith: 27
Akbari: 8
Pike: 11
Roach: 26 not out
Warwick: 9
Holliday: 17 not out

J. Hancock and A. Jones (first team batsmen) opened the batting for Miskin and after an excellent opening over from A. Hood that went for just two; they opened the taps – adding 23 in the next two overs, including two massive sixes and a four. But Lewis struck in his second over, catching Jones out with a quick ball that fell, with snow on it, into the bowler’s grateful hands. G. Twitarne (?) replacing Jones, out for 23. Twitarne picked up where Jones had left off and regardless how good the bowling, the batsmen dispatched the ball to all corners of the ground…usually without touching the floor and soon the runs began to pile on.

Rather too rapidly, Miskin needed just a couple to win, Hancock drilled it to long-on where Pikey decided against using his hands to catch it, bravely shinned it away from the boundary, but the damage was done and Miskin had won a well-contested and good-natured match, with Hancock 39 not out and Twitarne 56 not out.

An excellent batting side had quickly got the 120 required but there were some bowling highlights: Dan’s second over took the only Miskin scalp and went for just a single run. A. Hood and I. Warwick had an economic two-run over each but I’m afraid the rest makes for fairly grim reading.

Bowling figures:

A. Hood 3-0-33-0
D. Lewis 2.2-0-16-1
M. Foote 2-0-13-0
P. Stephens 2-0-23-0
S. Hand 2-0-17-0
I. Warwick 2-0-10-0

As this is the first match report that I have written, I hope you will forgive any factual errors, offence caused or gross scorecard misconduct.

[Milestones]
The following Milestones were reached in this game. Congratulations to:
James Roath - 50 Appearances

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