Match Report vs Cardiff
Hockey 23 July 2009 @ Sudbrook (Skipper and Report
Jam)
A Miracle! It had rained at Wenvoe the previous day and yet
we were still able to play cricket! Yes, the pitch was soft,
damp and spongy with a green crust on it, but at least we
could play. Cricket in July – who’d have thought
it?
Unsurprisingly, the opposition elected to bat first and opened
with a cricketer, Egan, who could bat and their skipper, Shelton,
a hockey player who couldn’t bat. Now when I say ‘couldn’t
bat’, what I mean to say is ‘couldn’t play
cricket shots’ – that didn’t stop him playing
hockey shots to cow corner and so the innings got off to a
bit of a flyer, mostly at Mojam’s expense. If you’re
used to hitting a ball with a two-inch wide stick, I guess
a cricket bat must feel about the size of a barn door, but
there’s only so many times you can play across the line
to Andy Hood and he got his man bowled in the third over –
let’s just say it would have gone a long way if he’d
connected!
This brought in another ‘can’t bat’ hockey
player and it was more of the same: if it was outside off
stump, it went through mid/long off in a hurry; if it was
on off stump, it went through mid/long on in a hurry; if it
was on middle or leg, it flew to cow corner. How do you bowl
to it? One option is to tie him up by bowling at his legs
but when Andy did this, the batsman stepped inside it and
the umpire called a wide down the leg side!!!
After going for 18 in his first over, Mohamed came back very
well but after 6 overs, Hockey were 54-1.
The enforced change brought Dan & Iain in to the attack
and both bowled very well, Dion even managing to bowl a rare
maiden over! The only problem was that when the boundaries
were stopped, they ran superbly between the wickets, taking
quick singles and turning lots of ones into twos and so the
score kept mounting.
In Dan’s third over, ‘Can’t bat’
jumped out of the way of the ball and the umpire called wide
again. The next couple of deliveries were somewhat quicker,
and Can’t bat finally missed one and was bowled for
29. In the context of the game, Shagger’s figures of
1-16 were excellent.
Pablo handed the keeper’s gloves to Will in order
to take over the bowling from Dan, whilst Muff took over from
Dion. At this stage Hockey were flashing at everything and
running everything and it’s to the bowlers’ credit
that apart from two full tosses that cleared the short boundary
for 6, not many boundaries were scored in the final overs.
The batsmen continued with the excellent running, however,
although one quick single too many led to a run out, JF at
midwicket underarming the ball to Pablo who whipped the bails
off sharpish. Pabs followed up with another wicket bowled
by a quicker one, but that was all the wickets that fell,
Hockey finishing on a daunting 149-4, with Egan ‘the
cricketer’ carrying his bat for a solid 55. The total
was boosted by a massive 33 extras, including 22 wides.
A Hood 3-0-22-1
M Jamal 3-0-26-0
D Lewis 3-0-16-1
I Warwick 3-1-20-0
P Stephens 3-0-26-1
M Foote 3-0-28-0
Just as the second innings was about to get under way, we
had a short shower which was just enough to slow down the
pitch and outfield even more.
Will & Manish opened the Casz reply, a right-hand/left-hand
combination with JF & Kim ready to come in at 3 or 4 depending
on which wicket was to fall first, so that we could keep the
bowlers guessing with RH/LH mix. Unfortunately, the cunning
bastards bowled straight to all the batsmen!! Chasing almost
9 an over from ball one, we needed to get off to a good start,
but good bowling on a pitch that was getting more unpredictable
by the minute, made it almost impossible to get the flyer
we needed. At 9-0 after three overs, we really needed to up
the rate but Manish fell on his sword going for the big shot
and missing a straight one for 7. This brought the right-handed
skipper to the crease and he watched as Will (3) also perished
going for the big shot, followed two balls later by Kim whose
head appeared to be elsewhere. 18-3 after 6 overs and things
were already looking grim for the Casz.
The change of bowling brought a mini recovery of sorts as
Mahesh & the skipper took 9 off the 7th over and then
former Casual, Ben Cossins, came on to bowl the 8th. As JF
was taking guard, he asked umpire Manish what the action was.
Manish shook his head and said ‘I dunno’. The
keeper said right arm over and in ran Ben for his first delivery,
at which point Manish bellowed NO BALL! We all assumed he’d
overstepped but when asked why it was a no ball, Manish said
it was because he didn’t tell him what his bowling action
was! I couldn’t laugh out loud but I was chuckling away
inside. I suppose Mani has a point when he said that if you
play proper league players, you play and abide by proper league
rules. Nice one MV! A few more no balls (for height) and the
over went for 19 – more than the first 6 overs had cost
in total.
We couldn’t keep up that pace though as Mahesh (8)
was next to fall, caught at gully also going for the big shot.
Two overs later JF (28) was caught at cover also going for
the big shot. Mohamed joined Pablo but not for long as Paul
(2) was caught behind off what looked like an under edge …
yes, you guessed it, also going for the big shot.
Mojam kept playing his shots and Muff (1) did a lot of running
before getting a slow straight one which he couldn’t
decide whether to hit to off or leg and ending up missing!
Dan tried to smack everything but could only spoon one up
to cover for 2 and Winkie also managed 2 before losing his
stumps. This left Dion to join Mo who was still smacking the
ball to all parts although the slow outfield meant hardly
anything ran to the boundary. A couple of good shots from
Iain at the end left him unbeaten on 7 and Mojam was 39 not
out when the overs ran out with the Casz total 121-9, beaten
by 28 runs.
It was a valiant effort all round. We had no choice but to
go for the big shots and although a lot of us got out that
way, nobody should recriminate themselves for that. In fact,
we reached a very good total in our innings – if we
had been offered 121-9 batting first, I’d probably have
taken it. We just leaked too many runs in the field and their
opening bowler’s spell of 3-1-7-3 put us behind the
8-ball from the start. Another game where we came up short
but one in which everyone could be proud of our efforts.
Will Goad – bowled – 3
Manish Vyas – bowled -7
John Furnham – caught – 28
Kim Swain – bowled – 0
Mahesh Kannan – caught – 8
Paul Stephens – caught – 2
Mo Jamal – NOT OUT – 39
Matt Foote – bowled – 1
Dan Lewis – caught – 2
Andy Hood – bowled – 2
Iain Warwick – NOT OUT 7
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